Resolved, That John Smith, a Senator from the State of Ohio, by his participation in the conspiracy of Aaron Burr against the peace, union, and liberties of the people of the United States, has been guilty of conduct incompatible with his duty and station as a Senator of the United States; and that he be therefor, and hereby is, expelled from the Senate of the United States.
Resolved, That John Smith, a Senator from the State of Ohio, by his participation in the conspiracy of Aaron Burr against the peace, union, and liberties of the people of the United States, has been guilty of conduct incompatible with his duty and station as a Senator of the United States; and that he be therefor, and hereby is, expelled from the Senate of the United States.
Mr.Adamsthen rose and addressed the Senate,and after replying to the legal views presented by the defence, went on to say—
I have now finished my remarks upon that part of Mr. Smith’s defence, which rests upon the supposed irregularity of the proceedings which have hitherto been sanctioned by the Senate, on this investigation, and upon objections against the principles maintained in the report of the committee. The question on the facts remains still to be discussed.
What, then, is the evidence of Mr. Smith’s participation in the conspiracy of Aaron Burr?
Since the resolution now under consideration was first offered to the Senate, the state of the evidence has very considerably changed; in some respects favorably to Mr. Smith’s defence; in others, to my mind, more inauspiciously. The testimony of Elias Glover, I consider as totally discredited; but since the deposition produced by Mr. Smith to the committee, with his answers to their queries, I gave very little credit to that witness, even before the accumulation of evidence against him, which Mr. Smith has since obtained, and recently exhibited to the Senate. Even then I thought the testimony of Glover could be of very little weight, otherwise than as it was confirmed by that of others. With the same exception, I now give it no credit at all. Stripped of the confirmation which it may receive, from admitted circumstances, from other testimony, and from Mr. Smith’s own acknowledgments, I consider the case as if no affidavit of Glover belonged to it.
But if the credit of Elias Glover has been annihilated, that of Peter Taylor has been beyond all controversy confirmed. In his answers to the committee, Mr. Smith denied almost all the material facts, (and material in the highest degree they are,) attested by Peter Taylor, respecting him, on the trials at Richmond, and he declared his belief that he could prove, by witnesses of the first respectability, his want of character as a man of truth and veracity. Since then, Mr. Smith has had the fullest opportunity to cross-examine the man himself, and to take testimony to his general character. And what is the result? The general character of Peter Taylor has risen purified from the furnace. In every witness of whom the question was asked, he had found a panegyrist. One or two mistakes of circumstances perfectly immaterial to Mr. Smith, or to any other person implicated, have been discovered in a lynx-eyed scrutiny of his testimony at Richmond; and the candor with which he instantly acknowledged them, and the firmness with which on Mr. Smith’s inquiries, he persevered in asserting all the important facts of his narrative, have given to his evidence a much greater weight than it could claim before. So decisive indeed is it, that Mr. Smith’s counsel now solemnly admits those facts which Mr. Smith had as solemnly denied in his answer; and argues with his usual ingenuity to dispel their effect.
Of Colonel James Taylor, the testimony has been in one respect counteracted, and in another much strengthened. His character was so well known, and so universally respected, that no attempt could be made to assail it, other than on the basis of a supposed mistake. This mistake, Mr. Smith, in his affidavit, made before he left this place, asserted that he expected to prove by General Findley; the only third person in hearing, according to Colonel Taylor’s statement, when the conversation, occasioned by theQueristoccurred. Mr. Smith returns without the deposition of General Findley; but in its stead he brings a deposition of his friend Dr. Sellman, and also a private letter to him from the same Dr. Sellman, intimating that General Findley could not confirm Colonel Taylor’s testimony; but with a broad insinuation that General Findley would not give that deposition in favor of Mr. Smith, which he ought, for fear of losing his office. On the fact of this particular conversation, then, we must balance the weight of testimony apparently contradictory. It is barely possible that the conversations mentioned by the two witnesses, were not the same, but held at different times; and as evidence seemingly variant between two persons of character, ought always, if possible, to be reconciled, perhaps the fair and candid construction would be that. If, however, it was the same conversation, we must be reduced to the necessity of choosing which of the two witnesses has been most correct in his recollection. I cannot but consider the express testimony of Colonel Taylor, confirmed by the silence of General Findley, as that which is best entitled to our belief. Colonel Taylor, we know, was on this occasion a most reluctant witness; he had been the friend and intimate acquaintance of Mr. Smith; his principle obviously was to say as little as possible, consistent with his obligations to speak the truth. The impressions on his mind did not stand singly upon his judgment; he had compared them with those of General Findley, and by that comparison had found them confirmed. They had not slumbered upon his memory for a length of time, so as to lose their distinctness. He had communicated them to the Secretary of State in his letter of the 13th of October, 1806, written a very few days after the conversation was held. An extract of this letter is in evidence before us, and it tallies exactly with Colonel Taylor’s testimony given to the committee and before the Senate. The impartiality of Colonel Taylor, his candor, his tenderness for Mr. Smith, the excellency of his general character, and his appeal to the recollection of another respectable witness in confirmation of his own, all combine to give his testimony the highest claim to our belief. With Dr. Sellman I have no personal acquaintance, and can, therefore, speak of him only upon the evidence exhibited here on this occasion. He appears at least, in the character of a very ardent partisan of Mr. Smith. In the newspapers transmitted to us, I see his name at the foot of several very violent publications, which have not been read, but which show that fifteen months ago he hadin some sort staked his own character upon the reputation of Mr. Smith. A number of depositions concur to prove that he, in company with a man who has since been convicted of an atrocious robbery, was at the head of a party who burst open the doors, and broke in upon a meeting of private citizens assembled to pass certain resolutions unfavorable to Mr. Smith, and threatened them with a coat of tar and feathers. The insinuation in his private letter to Mr. Smith, against the fair fame of General Findley, bears no distinguishing features of an ingenuous mind. I cannot believe that General Findley, a man of honorable consideration in society, holding an important public trust, could have been actuated by such unworthy motives in declining to contradict Colonel Taylor’s deposition. Could he have done it consistently with truth, he had every inducement that could operate upon generous feelings to do it. His contradiction would not have impaired the reputation of Colonel Taylor. It would not have induced a probability that he was mistaken. But to Mr. Smith it was of the first importance—his reputation in the world, his seat in the councils of the nation, the comfort of his life, the peace and happiness of his family, were all at stake, and called in the most imperious manner for the testimony of a man, who, by merely declaring that he had understood his meaning differently from the witness appealing to him, might have removed from him the burden of this imputation. It is impossible to believe that he was deterred from such an act of signal justice, by the base and contemptible fear of losing his office.
But, in addition to the evidence exhibited before the departure of Mr. Smith from this place, a multitude of new depositions are now produced; most of them obtained by himself, for the purpose of his own exculpation, and two or three furnishing strong additional circumstances against him; even those which he brings for his own discharge, have disclosed a fact of the highest import, in my estimation, very unfriendly to his defence. I mean his studious avoidance of appearing before the grand jury at Frankfort, in Kentucky, on the second complaint against Burr, in December, 1806. From the fullest consideration which I have been able to bestow upon the whole mass of this additional testimony, I have not discovered in it any ground sufficient for the rejection of this resolution. I still am convinced that it ought to pass. The most material of all the witnesses, to demonstrate that conduct of Mr. Smith, which, in my mind, imposes upon the Senate the necessity of coming to this decision, ishimself. It is the coincidence between his course of conduct and that of Mr. Burr; his own tardy acknowledgments; his own alternate denials and admissions; his own consciousness of participation in unlawful proceedings, and the testimony of his own witnesses, which constitute the most irresistible evidence against him. The other witnesses and the circumstances of the times, chiefly serve to corroborate and elucidate, what he and his witnesses show, in feeble characters, and indistinct obscurity.
To exhibit this coincidence of conduct between Mr. Smith and Mr. Burr, in that light of which it is susceptible, it may be necessary, Mr. President, to review the transactions of Col. Burr, in relation to these projects, from the time when he descended from that chair, in which you now sit, until the arrival of the President’s Proclamation at Cincinnati, on the 13th of December, 1806; and to compare the conduct of Mr. Smith, contemporaneous with the several events of public notoriety, and with the facts testified by the witnesses, in the volume of evidence taken at Richmond, and transmitted to Congress by the President of the United States, with the purposes and views of Mr. Burr, at the several stages in the progress of this conspiracy.
On the 3d day of March, 1805, the term of Mr. Burr’s career as Vice President of the United States expired. How long, before that time, he had been revolving in mind his designs upon the western division of the Union, we need not inquire; but that they were then entirely new, there is every reason to believe. It is known to many, perhaps to all the members of this body, who were in the Senate at the time, that Mr. Burr, during that period, paid a very studied attention, and professed a peculiar respect to Mr. Smith. Very soon after this, in the spring, summer, and autumn of 1805, Mr. Burr was traversing the Western States and Territories, down to New Orleans, busily engaged in making every preparation possible, at that time, for the campaign of the ensuing year; even then we find, from a great variety of testimony, that Cincinnati, Mr. Smith’s place of residence, was a spot where a great portion of Mr. Burr’s exertions had been made; even then, from the depositions produced by Mr. Smith, it appears that a Western empire, withCincinnatifor its capital, had been fully disclosed to William McFarland. This importance of Cincinnati may serve to explain Mr. Smith’s observation to Major Riddle, that, if Burr succeeded, he would prefer living at Cincinnati, rather than at Baltimore or Philadelphia.
In the winter of 1805, Mr. Burr returns, to spend his time at this place, and at Philadelphia. Here it was that he made his overtures to Mr. Eaton, from whose testimony I must ask your permission, sir, to read two or three extracts, showing how far his projects were then matured:
“Col. Burr now laid open his project of revolutionizing the territory west of the Alleghany; establishing an independent empire there—New Orleans to be the capital, and he himself to be the chief; organizing a military force on the waters of the Mississippi, and carrying conquest to Mexico.”“He stated to me that he had in person (I think the preceding season) made a tour through that country; that he had secured to his interests, and attachedto his person, the most distinguished citizens of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Territory of Orleans; that he had inexhaustible resources and funds; that the army of the United States would act with him; that it would be reinforced by ten or twelve thousand men from the above-mentioned States and Territory.”“He mentioned to me none, as principally and decidedly engaged with him, but General Wilkinson, a Mr. Alston, who, I afterwards learned, was his son-in-law, and a Mr. Ephraim Kibby, who, I learned, was late a captain of rangers in Wayne’s army.” “Of Kibby, he said, that he was brigade major in the vicinity of Cincinnati, (whether in Ohio or in Kentucky, I know not,) who had much influence with the militia, and had already engaged a majority of the brigade to which he belonged, who were ready to march at Mr. Burr’s signal. Mr. Burr talked of this revolution as a matter of right inherent in the people, and constitutional; a revolution which would rather be advantageous than detrimental to the Atlantic States; a revolution which must eventually take place; and for the operation of which the present crisis was peculiarly favorable; that there was no energy, to be dreaded, in the General Government, and his conversations denoted a confidence that his arrangements were so well made that he should meet with no opposition at New Orleans, for the army and the chief citizens of that place were ready to receive him.”
“Col. Burr now laid open his project of revolutionizing the territory west of the Alleghany; establishing an independent empire there—New Orleans to be the capital, and he himself to be the chief; organizing a military force on the waters of the Mississippi, and carrying conquest to Mexico.”
“He stated to me that he had in person (I think the preceding season) made a tour through that country; that he had secured to his interests, and attachedto his person, the most distinguished citizens of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Territory of Orleans; that he had inexhaustible resources and funds; that the army of the United States would act with him; that it would be reinforced by ten or twelve thousand men from the above-mentioned States and Territory.”
“He mentioned to me none, as principally and decidedly engaged with him, but General Wilkinson, a Mr. Alston, who, I afterwards learned, was his son-in-law, and a Mr. Ephraim Kibby, who, I learned, was late a captain of rangers in Wayne’s army.” “Of Kibby, he said, that he was brigade major in the vicinity of Cincinnati, (whether in Ohio or in Kentucky, I know not,) who had much influence with the militia, and had already engaged a majority of the brigade to which he belonged, who were ready to march at Mr. Burr’s signal. Mr. Burr talked of this revolution as a matter of right inherent in the people, and constitutional; a revolution which would rather be advantageous than detrimental to the Atlantic States; a revolution which must eventually take place; and for the operation of which the present crisis was peculiarly favorable; that there was no energy, to be dreaded, in the General Government, and his conversations denoted a confidence that his arrangements were so well made that he should meet with no opposition at New Orleans, for the army and the chief citizens of that place were ready to receive him.”
Such, then, was the plan of Mr. Burr, and such, by his declarations, the state of his preparatory measures in the winter of 1805-’6; and I have read the part of his statement relative to Major Kibby, (and I mention it now, lest I might hereafter forget it,) because it may serve to explain what Mr. Smith said to Major Riddle just after the arrival of the President’s Proclamation at Cincinnati; that he (Smith) knew more of Burr’s plans than any man in the State of Ohio, exceptone. Here, it seems, there was one man, who knew them very sufficiently; and it appears, by the depositions produced by Mr. Smith, that William McFarland also knew a great deal of them.
Let us follow Mr. Burr to Philadelphia, and notice some particulars of his conversation there with Commodore Truxton, in July, 1806. I shall read from the Commodore’s testimony only those parts which may serve best to connect the chain of events, and to show the consistency of Burr’s purposes. He had previously, in the winter, talked with that gentleman about land speculations, but in July, 1806, “he observed, (says the Commodore,) that he wished to see, or to make me (I do not recollect which) Admiral; for he contemplated an expedition into Mexico, in the event of a war with Spain, which he thought inevitable. Mr. B. then asked me if I would take the command of a naval expedition. I asked him if the Executive of the United States was privy to or concerned in the project. He answered me emphatically that they were not. I told Mr. Burr that I would have nothing to do with it.” “Mr. Burr observed that, in the event of a war, he intended to establish an independent Government in Mexico; that Wilkinson, the army and many officers of the navy, would join. I replied, that I could not see how any of the officers of the United States could join.”
“Mr. Burr asked me if I would not write to General Wilkinson, as he was about to despatch two couriers to him. I told him that I had no subject to write on, and declined writing.”
This conversation was about the last of July; and I must now recur to one or two passages in the famous ciphered letter of Gen. Wilkinson. In the copy I have before me, it has no date,[51]but the formal letter of introduction, which Mr. Swartwout carried with it, is dated 25th July, 1806. It was, then, written on or near the same day when Mr. Burr had his last conversation with Commodore Truxton.
This letter indicates that Mr. Burr was on the point of departure for the execution of the enterprise, which it declares he had actually commenced; that detachments were to rendezvous on the Ohio, 1st November, and to move down rapidly from the falls on the 15th of November, with the first five hundred or one thousand men, in light boats, constructing for that purpose.
It adds: “Burr will proceed westward, first August, never to return; with him goes his daughter; the husband will follow in October, with a corps of worthies.”
Finally, the letter contains also this passage: “Already are orders to the contractor given to forward six months’ provisions to points Wilkinson may name; this shall not be used until the last moment, and then under proper injunctions.”
Whether Mr. Burr did actually leave Philadelphia on the 1st of August, as his letter announces, I am unable to collect from any of the testimony that has fallen under my observation; but on the 21st of August he had reached Pittsburg; and there he invited himself to dinner the next day with Col. Morgan, in a manner precisely similar to that in which he so shortly afterward invited himself to pass five or six days at the house of Mr. Smith. At Colonel Morgan’s, he dined and lodged one night. I shall not recur specially to the remarkable testimony of Colonel Morgan and his son, for it must be fresh in the recollection of every one who hears me. I shall barely notice that, during his short visit here, he broached all his doctrines respecting the imbecility of the present Administration, and the right, the interest, and the provocations which the Western people had to separate them from the Atlantic States. He was here commencing that mode of operation for effecting the dismemberment of the Union, which, in his subsequent letter of the 26th October to Mr. Smith, he states to be the only mode in which that object could be accomplished. His experiment did not commence in the right place. His attempt to tamper with men of honor and sentiment, metthe reception it deserved. He left the house before breakfast the next morning.
On the 1st of September he had descended the river and was upon Blannerhasset’s island; and, on the 4th of the same month, appeared in the newspaper, at Marietta, the first number of theQuerist, which was followed by two or three more. I have been unable to obtain a copy of these papers, but the substance of their contents is well known. Their object was to prepare the minds of the people, in that part of the country, for a separation from the Atlantic States; they dilated upon all the topics so familiar in the mouth of Mr. Burr; and so much were they identified with his doctrines, that Dr. Wallace, one of the witnesses at Richmond, with whom Burr had conversed on these subjects in the summer of 1805, declares that, on his first perusal of these papers, he drew from their internal evidence the conclusion that the ideas were Burr’s, and the language Blannerhasset’s. Blannerhasset was, indeed, the writer, and precisely at the same time and immediately after, was ranging the country with the activity and spirit of a recruiting officer—promising the plunder of banks at New Orleans and of Mexican mines—settling the hereditary succession of the fancied Crown; and teeming with embassies and empires.
On the very same day that the first number of the “Querist” appeared at Marietta, the 4th of September, Mr. Burr, by the pencilled note, invites himself to the house of Mr. Smith, in Cincinnati, where he is hospitably received and entertained five or six days. During this time, he spends an evening at William McFarland’s, where he holds exactly the same kind of conversation about the impotence of the Government, the rights and wrongs of the Western country, and their inducements to separate from the rest of the Union. About the 10th of September he leaves Mr. Smith’s; proceeds to Lexington, in Kentucky, where he arrives and concludes his contract for the Washita lands, before the close of that month.
Mr. Smith, in his answers to the queries of the committee, (an answer which he offered to make upon oath,) says that, on this visit, Colonel Burr tarried with him five or six days, and then progressed on his journey: for what he next adds, I must refer to his own words:
“But he did not disclose to meANYobject he had in view. Meanwhile the voice of suspicion and jealousy was raised against him, and although I knew as little of his objects in visiting the Western States as either of you, still, as I had entertained him in conformity to the customs in which I was reared, and according to my own sense of propriety, I felt uneasiness and jealousy in consequence of these reports.”
“But he did not disclose to meANYobject he had in view. Meanwhile the voice of suspicion and jealousy was raised against him, and although I knew as little of his objects in visiting the Western States as either of you, still, as I had entertained him in conformity to the customs in which I was reared, and according to my own sense of propriety, I felt uneasiness and jealousy in consequence of these reports.”
The character of Colonel Burr is now generally well understood; and, when combined with the circumstances I have just mentioned, and with others which I am about to mention, it is difficult to conceive that his visit to Mr. Smith at this time should have been made without design. For the projects he contemplated, and which he was then attempting to carry into execution, Mr. Smith was a man of the very first importance. As a Senator of the United States, it is obvious how useful his services might become, in his attendance here, during the session of Congress. As a contractor for building gunboats, and for supplying the army with provisions, he could, without exciting suspicion, and without danger of detection, be of the greatest use in performing the same services, and furnishing for Mr. Burr the same kind of supplies. As a man of influence and consideration in the State to which he belonged, his aid in propagating the doctrines of disunion, and in contributing to the accomplishment of that end, were not less desirable. The motives of profit and of distinction which might be held up to his expectations, were of a nature as persuasive upon a mind, which could be as susceptible of receiving them, as those of making Truxton an Admiral, or Eaton a General. Is it, then, credible that, while Burr was proceeding upon his business, with all the activity and energy of his character; while his boats were building and his provisions collecting; while he was obtruding almost upon every stranger and transient acquaintance, that he found in his way, the opinions which were suitable to his purpose—while Blannerhasset was filling the newspapers with rebellion, and engaging men for war, under his standard—is it credible, I say, that Burr should have solicited entertainment under the roof of Mr. Smith, and obtained it, for five or six days, without so much as intimating to him any one of his purposes? Is it credible that, in the course of that visit and in the intimacy between the parties, which the whole transaction so strongly implies, amidst the violent suspicions with which Mr. Burr, even then, was notoriously surrounded, there should never have occurred to the friendly solicitude of Mr. Smith a single inquiry which would have led to a disclosure, real or pretended, of the object of Mr. Burr’s visit, and of his progress through the Western States? Should this be deemed, under all these circumstances, a credible thing, I then ask, how Mr. Smith’s asseveration that Burr did not then disclose to himANYobject he had in view, is to be reconciled with Mr. Smith’s affidavit of 6th January, 1807, in which he says, “Burr did then speak to him about his project of settling a large tract of his Washita lands.”
It is one of the peculiarities attending Burr’s conduct, through the whole of his conspiracy, that he had always an ostensible object, to serve as a mask to the real design. One of the difficulties and inconveniences of this method of transacting business is, that in exhibiting the purpose, which is meant only for show, it is apt to be materially variant from itself at different times. It is often variant, not upon trivial incidents, with which the best human memory cannot be accountable for perfect accuracy, but upon the most essential part of the story. It isinconceivable to me, that, at that precise period of Mr. Burr’s experiment upon the Western States, he should thus have been, at his own desire, the guest of Mr. Smith, five or six days, without making to him any communication of his real views, while he was so liberally disseminating them to others far less intimate to his acquaintance, and far less important to his purposes—and when we find Mr. Smith’s own narrative, upon this very point, so variant from itself at different times, how can we suppress the belief that the real story was not that which could safely be told?
The conversation to which Colonel James Taylor attests, occurs within a very few days after the departure of Mr. Burr from Mr. Smith’s house, at this period. The subject of that conversation was the separation of the States. Mr. Smith takes pains to circulate thatQuerist, which was to scatter the seeds of disunion throughout the Western country. Mr. Smith adopts its arguments as his own; and adds others of the same tendency to assist its effects. Mr. Smith contends that these doctrines, however obnoxious then,in less than two years would becomeORTHODOX. Is there no knowledge and participation in Burr’s projects on the face of these expressions? We are told they were speculative opinions; and we hear complaints that a man should be held accountable for his political speculations. But when speculative opinions are associated with military preparations, and a formidable enterprise in the very process of execution, then, sir, they assume a very different complexion from that of free and legitimate discussion. Speculative opinions, at all times, have such an influence upon practice, that I hold it not very justifiable in a man vested with public trust, to speak in terms of approbation, of a dismemberment of this Union, upon any contingency, or at any distance of time. We ought to deprecate this greatest of all possible calamities, for our posterity as well as for ourselves. Yet, I acknowledge, that even these dangerous opinions, when merely speculative, may be expressed without evil intentions, and ought not to draw the weight of public censure upon the person using them, in the form of a decision of this body. It is the time, the occasion, the circumstance, upon which this speculative opinion was divulged, which display it as evidence of Mr. Smith’s participation in Burr’s conspiracy against the Union.
We have followed the course of events until the close of September, about which time Blannerhasset follows Mr. Burr into Kentucky. In the course of that and the following month, the preparations and conversations of both these personages, the numbers of the Querist, and certain publications of an opposite character, which appeared in another newspaper, called the Western World, had roused the suspicions, the anxieties, the resentments of the people in that part of the Union, to the highest degree. About the 20th of October, Mrs. Blannerhasset found it necessary to despatch Peter Taylor from the island, into Kentucky, for the purpose of warning Burr that he could not, with personal safety to himself, return to the island. Taylor was to go first to Chilicothe, then to Smith’s, atCincinnati; and there he was to be told where Burr and Blannerhasset were to be found. At this time it was no longer safe to inculcate the disunion of the States. The people there, I thank God, were not to be deluded by Mr. Burr’s mode or by any other mode of effecting a dismemberment. They were true to themselves and to their country. The public odium had arrived at such a pitch, that it might not be advisable for Mr. Smith to appear so intimate with Burr, as to know where he was to be found, and it might also be necessary for him to have the ostensible object of Mr. Burr’s purposes ascertained. For, although he says that, when Burr was with him in September, he had talked about the settlement of the Washita lands, yet, at that time, the purchase was not made.
This view of the state of things at that time will explain the particulars of Peter Taylor’s testimony. When he arrives at Mr. Smith’s, and inquires for Burr and Blannerhasset, Mr. Smith answers, that he knows nothing of either of them. That Taylor must be mistaken; that was not the place; but finding Taylor to be Blannerhasset’s servant, he tells him, “he expected they were at Lexington, at the house of a Mr. Jourdan.” Now, sir, what does this denial, in the first instance, that he knew any thing of them, and this pointing so precisely afterwards to the very house where they were to be found, indicate? The counsel for Mr. Smith says, that Taylor was sent there for Mr. Burr’s greatcoat; nothing of that appears in the evidence. But, from Taylor’s declaration, it appears that he was sent there to ascertain where Burr and Blannerhasset were to be found; that Mr. Smith, at first, denied knowing where they were, and afterwards told him the very house in Lexington where he was to go for them. As the sole object of Taylor’s going to Mr. Smith, was to inquire where Burr and Blannerhasset were, and as, before he left the house, Mr. Smith gave him a letter for Burr, undercover, to Blannerhasset, it is impossible to doubt the correctness of Taylor’s testimony in that respect; that Mr. Smith told him where to go. The inference is irresistible. This accurate knowledge where they were, and this express denial of that knowledge to a man whom he supposed a stranger, is a proof that, even then, Mr. Smith knew much more than he was willing to avow.
The remainder of Peter Taylor’s story, so far as it respects Mr. Smith, all concurs to establish the same fact. Mr. Smith’s anxious inquiries for thenews; for what was passing; for what wassaid, about General Wilkinson; the charge to Peter Taylor not to go to a tavern, lest he should be sifted with questions; and, finally, the letter, professedly to Blannerhasset, but enclosing one to Mr. Burr, all combine to exhibit a state of mind agitated and alarmed, studious of concealment, and fearful of detection.
Above all, consider the inquiry, what wassaidabout General Wilkinson. What could have associated, in a mind utterly ignorant of all Burr’s projects, inquiries about Wilkinson with the then situation of Burr and Blannerhasset? Recollect the passage of the ciphered letter: “Already has the contractor orders to furnish six months’ provisions at the points Wilkinson shall name; this shall be used only at the last moment, and then under proper injunctions.”
Mr. Smith has, at one time, denied all the material facts attested by Peter Taylor; and he attempted to disgrace his character; so little has he been borne out by his own evidence, now produced, that he formally admits the very facts he had denied. The same course has been pursued with regard to Colonel James Taylor’s testimony. Sir, this treatment of the witnesses is not calculated to inspire confidence in the solidity of Mr. Smith’s defence. Unfounded attacks upon the character of a respectable witness, not only confirm, but aggravate the weight of his testimony.
If, however, the testimony of Peter Taylor needed confirmation, it would be found in the substance of the letter itself, of which he was the bearer, and of the answer to that letter. To these two documents I now ask the particular attention of the Senate. The letter is dated 23d October, 1806, and says: “I beg leave to inform you that we have, in this quarter, various reports prejudicial to your character. It is believed by many that your design is to dismember the Union; although I do not believe that you have any such design, yet I must confess, from the mystery and rapidity of your movements, that I have fears, let your object be what it may, that the tranquillity of the country will be interrupted, unless it be candidly disclosed, which I solicit, and to which, I presume, you will have no objection.”
Now, what is the solicitude manifested in this letter? It is not so much that Mr. Burr’s object should be declared,notto be the dismemberment of the Union. It asks for something which may betold, to prevent the tranquillity of the country from being interrupted. And it very explicitly intimates what must bedenied.
It is an answer of a very peculiar kind which appears to be wanted; an answer contained in the letter itself. A voucher is wanted to deny the project for dismembering the Union; and to speak with certainty of the ostensible object. This was the settlement of the Washita lands. Mr. Smith, in one of his narratives, says that Burr had talked with him on this subject in September before; but the purchase of the lands was not then concluded. It was uncertain whether that could now be spoken of as the professed purpose, and Mr. Smith’s letter was well adapted to obtain that certainty.
Mr. Burr’s answer appears perfectly to have understood the object of these inquiries. Much has been said by Mr. Smith about the apparentfranknessandcandorof this letter, and on this document he relies, with great emphasis, as a complete justification of all his subsequent confidence in Mr. Burr. To me, sir, it bears a very different aspect. Considering it in the light of an answer to the solicitude of a man altogether unconscious of Mr. Burr’s real designs, and aware of the extremely suspicious appearances in which the conduct of Mr. Burr was involved, this answer appears to me calculated for any thing rather than to restore confidence. To manifest its real character, let us attend to some of its most remarkable passages. Mr. Burr says:
“If there exists any design to separate the Western from the Eastern States, I am totally ignorant of it. I never harbored or expressed any such intention to any one, nor did any person ever intimate such design to me. Indeed, I have no conception of any mode in which such a measure could be promoted, exceptby operating on the minds of the people, and demonstrating it to be their interest. I have never written or published a line on this subject, nor ever expressed any other sentiments than those which you have heard from me in public companies, at Washington and elsewhere,and in which I think you concurred.”
“If there exists any design to separate the Western from the Eastern States, I am totally ignorant of it. I never harbored or expressed any such intention to any one, nor did any person ever intimate such design to me. Indeed, I have no conception of any mode in which such a measure could be promoted, exceptby operating on the minds of the people, and demonstrating it to be their interest. I have never written or published a line on this subject, nor ever expressed any other sentiments than those which you have heard from me in public companies, at Washington and elsewhere,and in which I think you concurred.”
At this passage there are the following notes by Mr. Smith:
“J. Smith has heard Colonel Burr and others say, that in fifty or a hundred years, the Territory of the United States would compose two distinct Governments.”
“J. Smith has heard Colonel Burr and others say, that in fifty or a hundred years, the Territory of the United States would compose two distinct Governments.”
I return to the letter:
“I have no political view whatever. Those which I entertained some months ago, and which were communicated to you, have been abandoned.”
“I have no political view whatever. Those which I entertained some months ago, and which were communicated to you, have been abandoned.”
Here is another note by Mr. Smith:
“J. Smith presumes that Mr. Burr refers to an invitation to settle in Tennessee, of which he heard him speak.”
“J. Smith presumes that Mr. Burr refers to an invitation to settle in Tennessee, of which he heard him speak.”
The letter proceeds:
“Having bought of Colonel Lynch four hundred thousand acres of land on the Washita, I propose to send thither, this fall, a number of settlers—as many as will go and labor a certain time, to be paid in land, and found in provisions for the time they labor—perhaps one year. Mr. J. Breckinridge, Adair, and Fowler, have separately told me that it was the strong desire of the Administration that American settlers should go into that quarter, and that I could not do a thing more grateful to the Government.I have some other views, which are personal, merely, and which I shall have no objection to state to you personally, but which I do not deem it necessary to publish. If these projects could any way affect the interests of the United States, it would be beneficially; yet, I acknowledge that no public considerations have led me to this speculation, but merely the interest and comfort of myself and my friends.”
“Having bought of Colonel Lynch four hundred thousand acres of land on the Washita, I propose to send thither, this fall, a number of settlers—as many as will go and labor a certain time, to be paid in land, and found in provisions for the time they labor—perhaps one year. Mr. J. Breckinridge, Adair, and Fowler, have separately told me that it was the strong desire of the Administration that American settlers should go into that quarter, and that I could not do a thing more grateful to the Government.I have some other views, which are personal, merely, and which I shall have no objection to state to you personally, but which I do not deem it necessary to publish. If these projects could any way affect the interests of the United States, it would be beneficially; yet, I acknowledge that no public considerations have led me to this speculation, but merely the interest and comfort of myself and my friends.”
And, finally, there is the following marginal admonition:
“It may be an unnecessary caution, but I never write for publication.”
“It may be an unnecessary caution, but I never write for publication.”
Thus you see, sir, that the design of separating the States is denied in terms explicit, as Mr. Smith’s letter had desired; but, with how much regard to truth, this volume of evidence atRichmond has sufficiently proved. The purchase of the Washita lands is announced to have been completed. Thus far, the answer is precisely such as the letter seemed to ask; but all the rest is darkness and oblivion. The caution against publication was itself not naturally suited to inspire confidence. It seems to say, You may show this letter, but you must not publish it. The other allusions are so obscure—so unintelligible—that Mr. Smith has found it necessary to make them clear by explanatory notes. There is a reference to former conversations on the subject of a separation of the States, in which Mr. Smith isreminded that he concurredwith the sentiment which Mr. Burr had expressed. Mr. Smith’s note intimates that this refers to opinions about the separation of the Union in some fifty or a hundred years. But, if Burr’s speculations in public companies postponed to so distant a date the event, which he was projecting, to Eaton, to the Morgans, to Blannerhasset, to McFarland, and Glover, he had been urging the propriety of their accomplishment at a much earlier day. And from the testimony of Colonel James Taylor, it would seem that the concurrence of sentiment for which Mr. Burr refers to the consciousness of Mr. Smith, extended no less to the practical projects than to the speculative opinions of Burr—to the separation of the States within five or two years rather than to the dismemberment of the next century. The mode, says Mr. Burr, for promoting such a measure would be by operating on the minds of the people, and demonstrating it to be their interest. Now this was the very mode in which Mr. Burr and Blannerhasset under him had been attempting to promote the measure. Burr had been so operating at Cincinnati the year before this. And William McFarland at least had persuaded, that Cincinnati was to be the capital of the Western empire. He had been so operating all the way at least from Pittsburg, in August, and until he left Cincinnati in September, only six weeks before these letters were written. TheQueristwas one of these instruments of themodefor operating upon the minds of the people. And when theQueristfirst appeared, Mr. Smith had expressed his approbation of its contents. Is not this the sort of concurrence to which Mr. Burr alludes rather than that of speculating upon the destinies of a future age? The rest of the letter is equally obscure. Mr. Burr’s abandonment of a project for settling in Tennessee requires the explanation of a note from Mr. Smith; and that note is conjectural. Mr. Burr has some other views, merely personal, which he can only communicatepersonally. If they could affect the interests of the United States, it would only be beneficially; but they were prompted by no public considerations, but merely for the interest and comfort of himself and his friends.
Mr. President, I ask again the attention of the Senate to this remarkable sentence. Did Mr. Smith, on receiving the letter, understand this sentence, or did he not? If he did, where is the whole defence which he has now set up? If he did not, was this paragraph calculated to inspire his confidence? Was it calculated to remove suspicions? Projects which could only bepersonallydisclosed! Projects which might affect the interests of the United States! Projects prompted byno publicconsiderations! but merely by personal interest for himself andhis friends! And was this to remove suspicion from the mind of a Senator of the United States? Was this an answer to calm anxieties and restore confidence? Is not the very language of it suspicious? Equivocal? Ambiguous? I ask every member of this Senate to put the question to himself. Had you been at that time in the midst of the scene of Burr’s operations, and had you received such an answer to a letter of solicitous inquiry, would it not have increased instead of allaying your alarm? Would you not have seen in this paragraph a concealment suspicious in itself—darkened still further by expressions of dangerous import and of doubtful legality? Strange indeed must be the texture of that mind to which this answer could restore unqualified confidence in the writer!
But, sir, if Mr. Smith had seen nothing in this letter to startle confidence, instead of composing it, was there nothing in the course of public events at that time, which might and should have aroused him to more than suspicion? Mr. Burr’s letter was dated on the 26th of October; within ten days from that time, that is, on the 5th of November following, the District Attorney of the United States in Kentucky filed a complaint against Mr. Burr, for a violation of the laws of the United States, in setting on foot an expedition against Mexico, which complaint I beg leave to read—
“J. H. Daviess,[52]attorney for the said United States, in and for said district, upon his corporal oath, doth depose and say, that the deponent is informed, and doth verily believe, that a certain Aaron Burr, Esq., late Vice President of the United States, for several said months past hath been and is now engaged in preparing and setting on foot, and in providing and preparing the means for a military expedition and enterprise within this district, for the purpose of descending the Ohio and Mississippi therewith, and making war upon the subjects of the King of Spain, who are now in a state of peace with the people of the United States, to wit: on the province of Mexico, on the westwardly side of Louisiana, which appertain and belong to the King of Spain, a European prince, with whom the United States are at peace.“And said deponent further saith, that he is informed, and fully believes, that the above charge can, and will be fully substantiated by evidence, provided this honorable court will grant compulsory process to bring in witnesses to testify thereto.“And this deponent further saith, that he is informed, and verily believes, that the agents and emissariesof the said Burr, have purchased up, and are continuing to purchase large stores of provisions as if for an army, while the said Burr seems to conceal in great mystery, from the people at large, his purposes and projects: and while the minds of the good people of this district seem agitated with the current rumor, that a military expedition against some neighboring power is preparing by said Aaron Burr.“Wherefore, said attorney, on behalf of said United States, prays that due process issue to compel the personal appearance of the said Aaron Burr in this court, and also of such witnesses as may be necessary in behalf of the said United States; and that this honorable court will duly recognize the said Aaron Burr, to answer such charges as may be preferred against him in the premises. And in the mean time, that he desist and refrain from all further preparation and proceeding in the said armament within the said United States, or the territories or dependencies thereof.”
“J. H. Daviess,[52]attorney for the said United States, in and for said district, upon his corporal oath, doth depose and say, that the deponent is informed, and doth verily believe, that a certain Aaron Burr, Esq., late Vice President of the United States, for several said months past hath been and is now engaged in preparing and setting on foot, and in providing and preparing the means for a military expedition and enterprise within this district, for the purpose of descending the Ohio and Mississippi therewith, and making war upon the subjects of the King of Spain, who are now in a state of peace with the people of the United States, to wit: on the province of Mexico, on the westwardly side of Louisiana, which appertain and belong to the King of Spain, a European prince, with whom the United States are at peace.
“And said deponent further saith, that he is informed, and fully believes, that the above charge can, and will be fully substantiated by evidence, provided this honorable court will grant compulsory process to bring in witnesses to testify thereto.
“And this deponent further saith, that he is informed, and verily believes, that the agents and emissariesof the said Burr, have purchased up, and are continuing to purchase large stores of provisions as if for an army, while the said Burr seems to conceal in great mystery, from the people at large, his purposes and projects: and while the minds of the good people of this district seem agitated with the current rumor, that a military expedition against some neighboring power is preparing by said Aaron Burr.
“Wherefore, said attorney, on behalf of said United States, prays that due process issue to compel the personal appearance of the said Aaron Burr in this court, and also of such witnesses as may be necessary in behalf of the said United States; and that this honorable court will duly recognize the said Aaron Burr, to answer such charges as may be preferred against him in the premises. And in the mean time, that he desist and refrain from all further preparation and proceeding in the said armament within the said United States, or the territories or dependencies thereof.”
It will be remembered that on this complaint a grand jury was summoned, and on the 8th of November discharged, because Davis Floyd, whom the attorney deemed a material witness, and whom we now know to have been one of Mr. Burr’s principal associates, was absent. We all know what the effect of this transaction was here. Certainly not of inspiringconfidencein those who wereignorantof Mr. Burr’s real designs.
No, sir! The confidence which this abortive attempt to bring Mr. Burr to justice inspired, was in himself and associates. He wrote immediately to Blannerhasset not to apprehend any danger from this prosecution, (which his friends then and so long after called a persecution,) butdelayin the settlement of the lands; and one fortnight after—that is on the twenty-third day of November—we see him again at Cincinnati, making the promised personal and confidential communication to Mr. Smith, which he had not dared in a letter of 26th October to commit to paper—and no wonder; for it is a complete and unquestionable acknowledgment of the identical crime for which Mr. Burr had been summoned into court at Frankfort, not twenty days before, and discharged merely from the failure of a witness to attend. But it is not merely a confession ofthatguilt, it imports much more; and the very terms used by Mr. Smith, relating it, in his affidavit of 6th of June, 1807, show that he understood it as importing more. Mr. Burr tells Mr. Smith, that his design “is not dishonorable, orinimicalto this Government;” he “repeated that his object wasnot hostile to the people of the United States or dishonorable to himself,” and that he would be “thebest neighbor this country ever had.” Whether the design was honorable or dishonorable, Mr. Smith should have judged for himself. That it was not inimical to this Government, there was little reason for him to believe, when coupled with those boiling resentments which overflowed from the lips of Mr. Burr in the very act of making this acknowledgment: “In this Government he had been persecuted, shamefully persecuted, and he was sorry to say that in it all private confidence between man and man seemed to be nearly destroyed.” And in this state of temper, Mr. Burr “ventured to tell Mr. Smith that if there should be war between the United States and Spain, he,Burr, shouldhead a corps of volunteers, and be the first to march into the Mexican provinces; if peace should be preserved, which he did not expect, he should settle his Washita lands, and make society as pleasant as possible.”
And this is the communication whichadded strengthto Mr. Smith’s confidence in Mr. Burr! This is the communication upon which Mr. Smith engaged his two sons to go as Burr’s associates!
The attack upon Mexico was to bein casewar should take place between Spain and the United States. But is it possible, sir, that a man of Mr. Smith’s understanding shouldat that time, and under these circumstances, have given an instant of credit to that shallow pretence? If Mr. Swartwout, one of Burr’s acknowledged associates, was ashamed of pretending to rely on this tale of contingent war, and frankly told the grand jury at Richmond that they were to attack Mexico, to be sure, in case of a war with Spain; but if there had beennowarhewas ready to forget the law of the United States against such expeditions. If Commodore Truxton, a private citizen, smarting under the injuries which he conceived he had suffered from the Administration, even in July, while the project was but in prospect, and not in actual execution, made his first and emphatical question, whether the Government of the United States was acquainted with it, and on being informed that they were not, instantly refused to have any concern with it; let me ask, whether in the last days of November, while Burr was persevering in his preparations, after having been brought before a judicial court upon the very charge, and dismissed solely because a witness was absent,a Senator of the United States, receiving this communication from Burr himself, could possibly be the dupe of this pretence? Whether his first question ought not to have been that of Commodore Truxton: Is the Executive of the United States informed of your designs? Is it possible, sir, that this disclosure of the intended Mexican invasion could confirm the confidence of Mr. Smith, when it was the very thing for which the district attorney not three weeks before had entered the complaint against Mr. Burr, before the court of the United States competent to try that offence? Is it possible that Mr. Burr’s confession of his guilt should have been the confirmation of Mr. Smith’s confidence? Yes, sir; so far as relates to the misdemeanor—to Mr. Smith’s participation in the project for invading Mexico—his own affidavit on the 6th of January, 1807, is evidence, which, in my mind, nothing can control. His engagement of his two sons to Mr. Burr, admits neither of denial nor of jurisdiction.
About ten days after this, on the second and third of December, Mr. Smith goes to Cynthiana, Frankfort, and Lexington, to purchase provisions, and to sell bills of exchange. Here he accidentally sees again Mr. Burr. He finds that Mr. Burr is for the second time charged, and now before a grand jury, with that very offence of preparing an expedition against Mexico, which in his confidential communication to Mr. Smith he had explicitly avowed. And Mr. Smith, by the testimony of three of his own witnesses, hurries away from the scene to avoid being subpœnaed as a witness, declaring that he knows nothing on the subject that could either criminate or justify Mr. Burr. The first of these witnesses is Kelly, Mr. Smith’s confidential agent and storekeeper at Cynthiana; of whose character as a man of uprightness and veracity, the most respectable attestations are produced. After stating the motive of Mr. Smith’s going to Cynthiana, and thence to Lexington, Kelly’s deposition, produced there by Mr. Smith himself, proceeds thus: