1806. THE FRANKFORT HEARING. 69 militia.* The law was to run for one year, and under it preparations were instantly made to seize the boats at Marietta. It was now the sixth of December. The second was a date memorable in the life of Burr, for it was on that day that he again appeared before the District Court at Frankfort to defend his injured honor; and it was on that day that the people of the Eastern cities read for the first time the proclamation of the President announcing the conspiracy, and the full and careful statement of Eaton describing the treason. † On the twenty-fifth of November Daveiss renewed his motion in the District Court, and the second of December was fixed for the hearing. A second time the Grand Jury was empanelled; a second time Burr and Clay appeared; a second time the witnesses fled; a second time judge and jury and spectators were for the culprit; and a second time he was acquitted with shouts of joy. He was more than acquitted. He was the hero of the hour. The jury signed a paper setting forth that, in their opinion, Aaron Burr had done nothing injurious to the welfare of the United States. The people of Frankfort gave him a fine ball. But his triumph was soon over. The jury might fail to see any evidence of guilt; but the President was in possession of much. From the tenth of January, when Daveiss wrote his first letter to Jefferson, hardly a month went by without bringing overwhelming testimony from some new source. From William Eaton, from the Postmaster-General Gideon Granger, from John Nicholson, from George Morgan, from General Neville, from the judges of the district in which Cannonsburg lay, came warnings which ought not to have been disregarded. But the evidence which weighed most with Jefferson, the evidence which at last roused that sluggish nature to feeble action, came from the American camp at Natchitoches. Crossing the Alleghanies in August, Ogden and Swartwout went westward as speedily as possible. They had expected to meet Wilkinson at St. Louis; but, hearing at Kaskaskia that he had gone south, they followed him down the Mississippi to Fort Adams, where they were told that he had gone into the * Laws of Ohio, Chap. iii, December 6, 1806. Aurora, December 2, 1806. Red river country. Thither Swartwout went in search of him, while Ogden pressed on to New Orleans. On the evening of October eighth Swartwout reached Natchitoches and delivered to Wilkinson in person Burr's lying letter of July twenty-ninth. The letter told him that all was in readiness; that troops had been enlisted; that England would furnish the naval force, and that Truxton was going to Jamaica to arrange with the British admiral at that station; that about November fifteenth five hundred men would start from the Falls of Ohio, and by December fifth reach Natchez; and bade Wilkinson be there. Having passed the night in deciphering the letter and reflecting on it, Wilkinson in the morning again took that dark and crooked course he so well loved. Drawing aside the colonel who commanded the troops, he read the letter, and declared he would send word of the plot to Jefferson and move the soldiers to New Orleans. Yet he did not write for twelve days. He well knew that the purpose of the expedition was to secure the independence of Orleans, and that Burr was in command. Yet in the letter he assured Jefferson that the expedition was against Vera Cruz, that he did not know who were the leaders, nor what were their intentions regarding Orleans.* He knew that the expedition was planned to leave Kentucky on November fifteenth. Yet he sent no word to Fort Adams, nor to Chickasaw Bluffs, nor to Fort Massac, nor to the authorities of Kentucky or Tennessee. On the twenty-fifth of November an officer bearing these despatches presented himself at the White House and delivered them to Jefferson. He had come from the Red river country; but such had been his haste that not quite thirtyfive days had been passed on the journey. Without a moment's delay the Secretaries were summoned, a council held, and the course to be taken decided. Orders were to be sent to the commanding officers at Pittsburg, at Fort Massac, at Chickasaw Bluffs, and to Wilkinson, to stop every boat and "It is unknown under what authority this enterprise has been projected, from whence the means of its support are derived, or what may be the intentions of its leaders in relation to the Territory of Orleans."—Wilkinson to Jefferson, October 21, 1806. Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. ii, Appendix xcv. 1806. BURR AND YRUJO. 71 arrest every man believed to be concerned in the schemes of Burr, whether they contemplated an attack on New Orleans or an attack on the dominion of Spain. A proclamation was to be issued and a call for help to be made on the Governors of Ohio and Kentucky and on Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee. The proclamation is dated November twenty-seventh. No mention is made in it of the name of Burr. Certain persons are declared to be conspiring against Spain; such conspiracy is pronounced illegal, and all civil and military officers are bidden to seize and hold persons and property concerned in it. While Jefferson was signing his proclamation at Washington, De Pestre rode into Philadelphia with letters and messages to Yrujo and to the conspirators at New York. But Yrujo needed little information. He knew all. Two weeks before De Pestre knocked at his door, he wrote to Cevallos a long account of the plans of Burr. Five hundred men, he declared, were gathering on the Ohio. Under the pretext of settling on a great land-purchase lately made, Burr would lead them down the Mississippi. Reaching Cincinnati, they would seize the arms deposited there by Government. At Natchez they would again stop till the Assembly of Orleans had met, declared independence, and invited Burr to rule.* To this knowledge De Pestre added little; but that little was most valuable. To the rumors of an attack on Mexico, Yrujo was to give no heed. They were set afloat to explain the arming and the enlisting, which could no longer be kept secret. The purpose of Burr was the liberation of the Western States. For such liberation, Louisiana, Orleans, Tennessee, and Ohio were ready. Kentucky was not. All must be arranged to coerce her if, when the time came, she attempted to resist. Would not Yrujo see to it that, when the revolution began, the Governor of West Florida stopped the couriers the friends of Government would send with the news to Washington? Instead of doing so, Yrujo warned the Governors of West Florida and Baton Rouge not to trust Wilkinson. "He has," said the Marquis, "acted in good faith hitherto, but his fidelity real * Yrujo to Cevallos, November 10, 1806. Manuscript, Spanish Archives. Adams's History of the United States, vol. iii, pp. 261, 262. cannot be depended on if he has a greater interest in violating it." At New York De Pestre made a short stay, and soon came back to Yrujo with a singular tale. The leaders and commanders, he said, had been ordered to their posts-some to New Orleans; some to Washington, to watch the Government and keep Burr informed of what it did; some to Norfolk, to gather provisions; and some to Charleston, to take command of the troops supposed to be raised by Alston, in South Carolina. That Yrujo believed these men would start for their posts is far from likely, for the Government had already begun to act, the proclamation denouncing the conspiracy was almost three weeks old, and the whole plot was doomed to failure. In Ohio the Governor called out the militia, and seized most of the boats building at Marietta. In the West Blennerhasset with the conspirators, some thirty in number, and the supplies, fled down the Ohio on the night of December tenth and escaped. Burr meanwhile was on his way to Nashville. Reaching there December fourteenth, he was asked by Jackson to explain his conduct, and solemnly denied any desire to break up the Union. The boat-building, therefore, was suffered to go on unmolested. On the nineteenth the proclamation arrived. Yet even then no attempt was made to seize Burr. Such impunity, however, could not last. A hint was accordingly sent to him by the authorities at Nashville that he would do well to flee; and on the twenty-second, abandoning all his boats but two, he bade farewell to Jackson, whose duty it was to have seized him, received from the General the value of the boats and supplies he left behind, and began his journey down the Cumberland. With him went a nephew of Mrs. Jackson. At the mouth of the Cumberland they met Blennerhasset, and the two parties, numbering a hundred men, in thirteen boats, floated on with the current of the Ohio past Fort Massac. The fort stood on the Illinois side of the river, was garrisoned by the First Infantry, and commanded by Captain Bissell. To him on the twenty-seventh of November had been sent a copy of the proclamation and specific orders what to do. Yet, when the flotilla slipped by the place on the night 1807. BURR REACHES BAYOU PIERRE. 73 of December twenty-ninth, neither the proclamation nor an order had been received. Pulling ashore a mile before the fort, Burr spent the next day in the neighborhood, visited Captain Bissell, obtained a furlough for a sergeant he had persuaded to join his force, and on the last day of the year again started for New Orleans, and January tenth reached a place called Bayou Pierre, some thirty miles above Natchez. While the boats made fast to the bank, Burr landed and went to the plantation of a man named Peter B. Bruin, one of the district judges of the Territory of Mississippi. Asking for news, he was given a copy of the Moniteur containing his letter to Wilkinson. The letters despatched to Jefferson, Wilkinson next sent word to the commanding officer at New Orleans,* hurried to the Sabine, spent ten days on the frontier, and came back to Natchitoches, where a packet reached him from Erich Bollmann, then at New Orleans. Enclosed in it was a copy of Burr's letter of July and a note from Dayton. Hardly had these come to hand when a letter from Natchez informed him that reports from St. Louis announced that a plot existed for the separation of the Western country, that the revolution was soon to begin, and that on the fifteenth of November, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Territory of Orleans were to publish a declaration of independence. And now for the first time Wilkinson seemed truly alarmed and in earnest. He wrote to Colonel Cushing, then on the Sabine, to hurry to New Orleans. He went at once to Natchez, and from Natchez sent out new alarms to Jefferson, to Claiborne, and to the commander at New Orleans, and November twenty-fifth entered that city himself. There he spread terror on every hand. The militia were placed under his orders. The Legislature was summoned to a special session. The merchants were gathered and told of the plans of Burr. * Wilkinson to Lieutenant-Colonel Freeman, October 23, 1806. Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. ii, Appendix ci. Wilkinson to Colonel Cushing, November 7, 1806. Memoirs, vol. ii, Appendix xcix. Wilkinson to Jefferson, November 12, 1806. * Wilkinson to Claiborne, November 12, 1806. Memoirs, vol. ii, Appendix c. |