An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson (63 page)

219 “in the meantime I can only say the country is a healthy one”: JW to Charles Biddle, March 18, 1805, quoted in Jacobs,
Tarnished Warrior
.

220 “The Kentuckians are full of enterprise”: John Adair to JW, December 10, 1804, ibid.

220 “We must have a
peep
at the unknown world”: JW to Adair, May 28, 1805, Clark,
Proofs
, 120.

220 “he talked as if the business was indispensable”: Lyon’s deposition to Ezekiel Bacon, congressional committee of inquiry.

220 “two or three frigates”: Adams,
History of the United States
.

222 Morally, the battle of the queues had been won in 1804 when Jefferson himself cropped his pigtail. It went with a general tidying up of the president’s style. “He has improved much in the article of dress,” wrote Senator Plumer in December 1804; “he has laid aside the old slippers, red waistcoat, and soiled corduroy small-clothes, and was dressed all in black, with clean linen and powdered hair.”

C
HAPTER 22:
B
ETRAYER
B
ETRAYED

The sources for this chapter are those cited earlier.

225 “the gentle Aurora with lighted taper”: The quote and the reception scene come from Hay,
Admirable Trumpeter
, 222.

226 “There has been Leaves cut out of the Books”: Quoted in Linklater,
Measuring
America
, 274.

227 “From a rank Federalist to a suspected Republican”: Edward Hempstead, quoted in Jacobs,
Tarnished Warrior
, 207.

228 “Not a single fact has appeared”: Jefferson to Samuel Smith, May 5, 1806, PTJ. 228 “an elegant barge, [with] sails, colors, ten oars”: Aaron Burr to Theodosia Alston,
Memoirs of Aaron Burr
.

228 “whose worth you know well how to estimate”: JW to Clark, June 9, 1805, Clark,
Proofs
, 119.

229 “many absurd and evil reports circulated here”: Clark to JW, September 7, 1805, Wilkinson,
Burr’s Conspiracy exposed
, 82.

229 “particularly of the garrison- towns between Vera Cruz and Mexico [City]”: John Graham’s deposition to the court of inquiry, January 1806.

229 “I have encouraged, and will continue to encourage”: October 10, 1804,
Burr’s
Conspiracy exposed
, 81.

229 “He has often said that the Union could not last”: Claiborne quoted in Gayarré,
History of Louisiana
, ch. 4.

230 “because I do not acknowledge his superiority,” JW to Samuel Smith, November 14, 1806, quoted in Jacobs,
Tarnished Warrior
, 207.

230 “My friend, no person was ever more mistaken!” and subsequent quotes:
Memoirs
, 2:304.

231 “a Corps of 100 Artillerists, 400 Cavalry”: JW to Dearborn, September 8, 1805, American State Papers, Military Affairs, L.C.

232 “Burr is about something”:
Burr’s Conspiracy exposed
, 13.

232 “You observe to me”: Adair to JW, January 27, 1806,
Burr’s conspiracy exposed
, 19. 233 “Nothing has been heard from the Brigadier since October”: Burr to JW, April 16, 1806
, Memoirs
, vol. 2, appendix 86.

235 “Aliens and Suspicious Characters mingling with the Natives”: JW to Jefferson, December 23, 1805, PTJ.

236 “You will therefore with as little delay as possible repair to the Territory of New Orleans”: Dearborn to JW, May 6, 1806, American State Papers, Military Affairs, L.C.

237 “Bruff, Lucas &c say it is done to get me out”: JW to Samuel Smith, June 17, 1806, ibid.

C
HAPTER 23:
T
HE
G
ENERAL AT
B
AY

The sources for the Burr Conspiracy are those cited earlier.

238 “General Wilkinson being expressly declared”: Quoted in Crackel,
Mr. Jefferson’s
Army
.

239 “Genrl Wilkinson had not left St Louis on 28th July”: Dearborn to Jefferson, September 2, 1806, PTJ.

240 The abortive approach to the naval captains: See Crackel,
Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

241 “It is now well ascertained that you are to be displaced in the next session”: Dayton to JW, July 24, 1806,
Burr’s Conspiracy exposed
, 16.

242 “[Even] if I had no regard for my own health and constitution”: Journal entry, October 16, 1805, Zebulon M. Pike,
An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the
Mississippi and Through the Western Parts of Louisiana
. . . (Philadelphia: C. & A. Conrad, 1810).

242 “Any number of men who may reasonably be calculated on”: October 2, 1806, Pike to JW, quoted in Hollon, “Zebulon Montgomery Pike and the Wilkinson-Burr Conspiracy.” For evidence that papers taken from Pike suggested that he expected to be taken by the Spanish, Bolton, “Papers of Zebulon M. Pike.”

243 “It must appear strange to you, friend Briggs”: Deposition of Isaac Briggs,
Memoirs
, vol. 2, Appendix 53.

244 “The time looked for by many”: JW to Adair, September 27, 1806.

245 Swartwout’s arrival and transfer of the letter was described by both JW and in Cushing’s deposition at Burr’s trial. T. Carpenter,
Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr
, 236, 355.

245 Burr’s letter was, according to the modern editor of his papers, Mary-Jo Kline, probably written by Dayton. However, for all practical purposes it was Burr’s, and he did not demur when Chief Justice Marshall explicitly referred to it as Burr’s letter.

C
HAPTER 24:
H
IS
C
OUNTRY’S
S
AVIOR

The sources are those cited earlier for the Burr Conspiracy.

247 The events were described by Cushing and JW at Burr’s trial. T. Carpenter,
Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr.

248 “If I had faultered [
sic
]”:
Memoirs
, 2:326.

249 “The agency of the Army”: John Randolph, February 1808, quoted in Crackel,
Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

249 Deposition of Eaton:
Louisiana Gazette
, March 8, 1807, quoted by Wilkinson, “Paper Prepared and Read.”

250 “I have never, in my whole life”: JW to Jefferson, October 21, 1806,
Memoirs
, vol. 2, appendix 95.

251 “I had not formed a decided opinion”:
Memoirs
, 2:327.

251 Donaldson’s letter: Ibid., appendix 98.

253 “a deep, dark and wide-spread conspiracy”: JW to Jefferson, November 12, 1806, ibid., appendix 100.

253 “I have made up my mind to perish”: JW to Freeman, November 12, 1806, ibid., appendix 101.

253 “you are surrounded by disaffection”: JW to Claiborne, November 12, 1806, ibid., 2:328.

253 “Integrity of the Union is menaced”: JW to Samuel Smith, November 12, 1806, quoted in Hay,
Admirable Trumpeter
, 259. This letter ends with a wild swipe at one of his St. Louis enemies, Judge Return J. Meigs, “a poor, pimping, hypocritical Yankee.”

253 “spring like Leonidas”: JW to José de Iturrigaray, November 12, 1806, ibid.

254 “I confess I approached him with caution”: Deposition of Isaac Briggs,
Memoirs
, vol. 2, appendix 53.

C
HAPTER 25:
T
HE
G
ENERAL REDEEMED

The sources are those cited earlier for the Burr Conspiracy. Much of the detail of JW’s “reign of terror” in New Orleans comes from Charles Gayarré’s
History of Louisiana
. 256 “Two days after the receipt of General Wilkinson’s information”: Jefferson’s message to Congress, January 27, 1807, PTJ.

257 “Under circumstances so imperious”: Quoted in Gayarré,
History of Louisiana
, 163.

257 “Burr may come”: Mead to Claiborne, December 24, 1806, ibid., 169.

258 JW and Claiborne’s exchanges: Ibid., ch. 3.

259 “This was acknowledging the fact”: Ibid., 173.

261 “dispose of the troops in such manner”: Dearborn to JW, November 27, 1806, American State Papers.

261 “After a most arduous journey”: Briggs testimony,
Memoirs
, vol. 2, appendix 53. 262 “in a nation tender as to anything infringing liberty”: Jefferson to JW, February 3, 1807, ibid., appendix 30.

262 “A strict observance of the written laws”: Jefferson to John Colvin, September 20, 1810, PTJ.

263 “I have never attempted to justify”: JW to Clark, May 24, 1807, Clark,
Proofs
, 153.

C
HAPTER 26:
T
WO
T
RAITORS ON
T
RIAL

Among the Burr Conspiracy sources cited earlier, Daniel Clark’s
Proofs
and Carpenter’s shorthand version of Burr’s trial in September were particularly useful for this chapter.

264 JW’s approach to Folch, and the latter’s testimony in his support, are detailed in Folch, “An Interview of Governor Folch with General Wilkinson.”

265 “to forget any personal animosity towards the Governor”: Clark,
Proofs
, note 65.

265 The exchange of veiled menaces between JW and Clark are the subject of notes 70 to 76 in Clark,
Proofs
.

266 “As to any projects or plans”: Testimony of George Poindexter, Carpenter,
Trial
of Colonel Aaron Burr
, 273.

266 “Our ground of defence is”: Ibid., 390.

266 “Why, something would have been done”: Adair quoted in
Burr’s Conspiracy exposed
, 25.

267 “he would lash General Wilkinson into tortures”: Quoted in Carpenter,
Trial of
Colonel Aaron Burr
, 356.

268 “The president has undertaken to prejudge”: Martin to Marshall at the grand jury hearing, quoted in Adams,
History of the United States
.

268 “treason against the United States”: Chief Justice John Marshall, Ex Parte Bollman and Ex Parte Swartwout, 8 U.S. 4 Cranch 75 (1807).

268 “Wilkinson strutted into court”: Washington Irving, quoted in Hay,
Admirable
Trumpeter
, 274.

269 “I was introduced to a position within the bar”: JW to Jefferson, ibid., 276.

269 “He is a very slight man but of the common stature”: William Plumer, letter to his son, February 22, 1803, quoted in Albert Beveridge,
The Life of John Marshall
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), 83.

270 “Your enemies have filled the public ear”: Jefferson to JW,
Memoirs
, vol. 2, appendix 30.

270 Proceedings of the September trial are taken from Carpenter,
Trial of Colonel
Aaron Burr.

272 “he must hang Mr. Burr”: Ibid., 390.

272 “He exhibited the manner of a sergeant”: Blennerhassett, quoted in Hay,
Admirable
Trumpeter
, 275.

C
HAPTER 27:
T
HE
W
AR
WITH
R
ANDOLPH

Randolph’s hostility enmeshed JW in a series of inquiries. Because JW’s biographical works,
A Plain Tale
,
Memoirs
, and
Burr’s Conspiracy exposed
, are composed of the arguments that he deployed in rebuttal, they are central to this and the following chapters.