CHAPTER XLVI

BURR'S TRIAL. JEFFERSON'S RECORD

AFTER the expiration of his term as Vice-President Burr was adrift. A combination of the Clintons and Livingstons in New York, aided by Hamilton, had defeated him in the race for Governor; and after he had settled old scores by calling Hamilton out and killing him in the duel, a sudden wave of indignation had driven Burr from the State. Indictments for murder having been found against him; he could not return. Jefferson had taken sides with the Livingston-Clinton faction, as any practical politician would have done, and Burr soon realized that he had no footing anywhere. The President refused to give him a foreign appointment, or to otherwise aid him, and he became desperate.

What his famous plot was in reality can not be known with certainty. Late in his life he declared that he had intended to do what Sam Houston and others did in Texas. Andrew Jackson certainly understood that some such design against Spain was in contemplation, else he would never have gone so far with Burr as to call out his Tennessee militia.

The purchase by Burr of the large Spanish grant points in the same direction, as did the talk at Blennerhasett's Island, where Mexican empire was the burden of the song. But the overtures which Burr made to Great Britain first, and then to Spain, and then to France, disclosed a purpose to sever the Union. It may be safely assumed that he would have stopped at nothing in the effort to retrieve his fortunes.

There was a good deal of secret plotting and planning, cipher despatches, vague soundings of this man and that, purchase of supplies, collection of boats, employment of men, journeying up and down the Ohio and the Mississippi.

Had Burr concentrated his mind upon the effort to wrest territory from Spain, talked that and nothing but that, frittering away no unnecessary time in social festivities, he might have done something great in the Southwest. Such a design was familiar in those regions, and was popular. George Rogers Clarke had meditated such a scheme, and had found no difficulty in gathering up volunteers. Others had brooded over similar plans, and the sentiment favoring them had only to organize to become formidable.

It was Burr's misfortune, however, to put faith in General James Wilkinson, as better men than Burr had done.

Historians of our republic differ in many things,

but as to this man Wilkinson there is a concurrence of opinion that gives the wearied reader of contradictions a positive recreation. With one voice, and by a rising vote, scribes of every persuasion denounce Wilkinson. Venal, cowardly, treacherous, a bribe-taker from Spain, a traitor to the United States, faithless in all relations, public and private, he stands on the pillory side by side with Benedict Arnold. Burr trusted this man as Washington had trusted him. It was to Wilkinson that the cipher despatches were sent. It was Wilkinson who had it in his power to "give away" the whole conspiracy.

And he gave it away.

This main prop failing, the rickety fabric fell. Wilkinson having betrayed his chief, the timorous associates everywhere rushed to cover.

If ever it had been Burr's intention to make any armed resistance to the authorities of the United States, he was in no condition to do so when the crisis came. At the first notice that presidential proclamations and legal warrants were out against Burr, his supporters fell away in the haste of patriotic self-preservation.

Burr disguised himself and tried to escape to the Gulf, but was recognized and arrested.1 Pending Burr's preparation and previous to Wilkinson's

1 As there has been much dispute as to the details and exact place of Burr's arrest, the author quotes here an extract from a private letter, written him while this work was in press, by Mr. Dunbar Hunt, now of