589-609, 616-22.
[813] Except, of course, Wilkinson"s story that Burr urged Western revolution, during the conference of these two men at St. Louis.
[814] McCaleb, 34.
[815] Wilkinson"s testimony, _Annals_, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 611.
[816] McCaleb, 35; Parton: _Burr_, 401.
[817] McCaleb, 36-37.
[818] c.o.x, 190; and McCaleb, 39.
[819] McCaleb, 38.
[820] Pitt died January 6, 1806. The news reached America late in the winter and Wilkinson learned of it some time in the spring. This fed his alarm, first awakened by the rumors set afloat by Spanish agents of which Clark had advised him. According to Davis and Parton, Wilkinson"s resolve to sacrifice Burr was now taken. (See Davis, II, 381-82; also Parton: _Burr_, 412.)
[821] This was that Burr with his desperadoes would seize the President and other officers of the National Government, together with the public money, a.r.s.enals, and ships. If, thereafter, he could not reconcile the States to the new arrangement, the bandit chief and his followers would sail for New Orleans and proclaim the independence of Louisiana.
Professor McCaleb says that this tale was a ruse to throw Casa Yrujo off his guard as to the now widespread reports in Florida and Texas, as well as America, of Burr"s intended descent upon Mexico. (See McCaleb, 54-58.) It should be repeated that the proposals of Burr and Dayton to Merry and Casa Yrujo were not publicly known for many years afterward.
Wilkinson had coached Dayton and Burr in the art of getting money by falsehood and intrigue. (_Ib._ 54.)
[822] Adams: _U.S._ III, 189-91.
[823] _Blennerha.s.sett Papers_: Safford, 115.
[824] Blennerha.s.sett to Burr, Dec. 21, 1805, _ib._ 118; and see Davis, II, 392.
[825] McCaleb, 50-53.
[826] Plumer, 348; Parton: _Burr_, 403-04.
[827] Eaton a.s.sumed this t.i.tle during his African career. He had no legal right to it.
[828] Eaton had done good work as American Consul to Algiers, a post to which he was appointed by President Adams. In 1804, Jefferson appointed him United States Naval Agent to the Barbary States. With the approval of the Administration, Eaton undertook to overthrow the reigning Pasha of Tripoli and restore to the throne the Pasha"s brother, whom the former had deposed. In executing this project Eaton showed a resourcefulness, persistence, and courage as striking as the means he adopted were bizarre and the adventure itself fantastic. (Allen: _Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs_, 227 _et seq._)
Eaton charged that the enterprise failed because the American fleet did not properly cooperate with him, and because Tobias Lear, American Consul-General to Algiers, compromised the dispute with the reigning Bey whom Eaton"s nondescript "army" was then heroically fighting. (Eaton to the Secretary of the Navy, Aug. 9, 1805, _Eaton_: Prentiss, 376.)
Full of wrath he returned to the United States, openly denouncing all whom he considered in any way responsible for the African _debacle_, and demanding payment of large sums which he alleged had been paid by him in advancing American interests in Africa. (_Ib._ 393, 406; also see Allen, 265.)
[829] See Truxtun"s testimony, _infra_, 459-60.
[830] The talks between Burr and Eaton took place at the house of Sergeant-at-Arms Wheaton, where Burr boarded. (_Annals_, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 510.)
[831] See Eaton"s deposition, _Eaton_: Prentiss, 396-403; 4 Cranch, 462-67. (Italics are Eaton"s.)
[832] Samuel Dana and John Cotton Smith. (See Eaton"s testimony, _Annals_, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 512; and _Eaton_: Prentiss, 396-403.)
That part of Eaton"s account of Burr"s conversation which differs from those with Truxtun and Decatur is simply unaccountable. That Burr was capable of anything may be granted; but his mind was highly practical and he was uncommonly reserved in speech. Undoubtedly Eaton had heard the common talk about the timidity and supineness of the Government under Jefferson and had himself used language such as he ascribed to Burr.
Whichever way one turns, no path out of the confusion appears. But for Burr"s abstemious habits (he was the most temperate of all the leading men of that period) an explanation might be that he and Eaton were very drunk--Burr recklessly so--if he indulged in this uncharacteristic outburst of loquacity.
[833] _Eaton_: Prentiss, 402.
[834] McCaleb, 62.
[835] Burr to Jackson, March 24, 1806, Parton: _Jackson_, I, 313-14.
Burr also told Jackson of John Randolph"s denunciation of Jefferson"s "duplicity and imbecility," and of small politics receiving "more of public attention than all our collisions with foreign powers, or than all the great events on the theatre of Europe." He closed with the statement, then so common, that such "things begin to make reflecting men think, many good patriots to doubt, and some to despond." (See McCaleb, 51.)
[836] This man, then thirty-five years of age, and "engaging in ...
appearance" (_Blennerha.s.sett Papers_: Safford, 434), had had a picturesque career. A graduate of Gottingen, he lived in Paris during the Revolution, went to London for a time, and from there to Vienna, where he practiced medicine as a cover for his real design, which was to discover the prison where Lafayette was confined and to rescue him from it. This he succeeded in doing, but both were taken soon afterward.
Bollmann was imprisoned for many months, and then released on condition that he leave Austria forever. He came to the United States and entered into Burr"s enterprise with unbounded enthusiasm. His name often appears as "Erick Bolman" in American records.
[837] Dayton to Wilkinson, July 24, 1806, _Annals_, 10th Cong. 1st sess.
560.
[838] See testimony of Littleton W. Tazewell, John Brokenbrough, and Joseph C. Cabell. (_Annals_, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 630, 675, 676).
[839] For Burr"s cipher dispatch see Appendix D.
[840] _Annals_, 10th Cong. 1st sess. 424-28 and see McCaleb, 77.
Professor McCaleb evidently doubts the disinterestedness of Morgan and his sons. He shows that they had been in questionable land transactions and, at this moment, were asking Congress to grant them a doubtful land claim. (See McCaleb, footnote to 77.)
[841] Testimony of Morgan"s son, _Annals_, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 424.
[842] "Colonel Burr, on this occasion as on others, comported himself precisely as a man having "treasonable" designs would _not_ comport himself, unless he were mad or intoxicated." (Parton: _Burr_, 415.) Professor McCaleb"s a.n.a.lysis of the Morgan incident is thorough and convincing. (See McCaleb, 76-78.)
[843] Nevill and Roberts to Jefferson, Oct. 7, 1806, "Letters in Relation to Burr Conspiracy," MSS. Lib. Cong. This important letter set out that "to give a correct written statement of those [Burr"s]
conversations [with the Morgans] ... would be difficult ... and indeed, according to our informant, much more was to be collected, from the _manner_ in which certain things were said, and hints given than from words used."
[844] McCaleb, 78-79; Parton: _Burr_, 411.
[845] McCaleb, 83-84; Parton: _Burr_, 412-13.
At this time Burr also wrote to William Wilkins and B. H. Latrobe calling their attention to his Bastrop speculation. (Miscellaneous MSS.
N.Y. Pub. Lib.)
[846] See testimony of Dudley Woodbridge, _infra_, 489.
[847] McCaleb, 80.
[848] Parton: _Burr_, 415-16.
[849] McCaleb, 81.
[850] _Ib._; and see Parton: _Jackson_, I, 318.