On the Trail of the Treasonous - Chapter 5
The Path of Treason Begins
During the winter of 1804-5, Burr avoided the grand juries that sought his indictment for the murder of Alexander Hamilton, by remaining in the nation’s capital, Washington City, where he was able to meet with Colonel Charles Williamson, who would arrange a meeting with the British minister, Anthony Merry, that would set up his back-channel to the British ministry. Burr would meet with General Wilkinson to work out the kinks in their plot; and he would also meet with some delegates from New Orleans, in his bid to find allies with any anti-American tendencies that he could exploit.
British minister to the United States, Anthony Merry
While being attacked by both the ‘federalist’ and ‘republican’ newspapers, and not wanting to wait until the coroner’s jury indicted him for murder, Aaron Burr, on the night of July 21st, secretly boarded a boat and was rowed to Perth Amboy, in New Jersey, and he then made his way to Philadelphia to stay with friends, but again to also meet with Colonel Charles Williamson.
Before he was to sail for London, Colonel Williamson would meet with Anthony Merry, the British Minister to the United States. Williamson then left Philadelphia on August 31st, arrived in Britain in early October, and immediately met with Henry Dundas, the new First Lord of the Admiralty, concerning his plot with Burr.
Of his meeting with Williamson, Merry wrote to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Harrowby, (on August 6th 1804) that:
“I have just received an offer from Mr. Burr, the actual vice president of the United States (which situation he is about to resign) to lend his assistance to His Majesty’s Government in any manner in which they may think fit to employ him, particularly in endeavouring to effect a separation of the western part of the United States from that which lies between the Atlantic and the mountains, in its whole extant. – His propositions on this and other subjects will be fully detailed to your Lordship by Col. Williamson who has been the bearer of them to me, and who will embark for England in a few days. – It is therefore only necessary for me to add that if, after what is generally known of the profligacy of Mr. Burr’s character, His Majesty’s Ministers should think proper to listen to his offer, his present situation in this country where he is now cast off as much by the democratic as by the federal party, and where he still preserves connections with some people of influence, added to his great ambition and spirit of revenge against the present administration, may possibly induce him to exert the talents and activity which he possesses with fidelity to his employers …” [!!!]
At the end of August, Burr then embarked on a journey south, with Samuel Swartwout, to stay with Pierce Butler at his plantation on Saint Simon’s Island in Georgia, and for ten days they explored parts of Florida by horseback and canoe, before Burr returned north to visit his daughter in South Carolina. His reception in the southern states was different - he was ‘overwhelmed with all sorts of attention and kindness – presents are daily sent’. While he was away, his house and furniture in New York City had been sold to satisfy his creditors.
Burr arrived back at Washington City to again preside over the Senate as Vice President, where he would stay – immune from subpoenas from the grand juries in New York and New Jersey, and where he would meet many times with General James Wilkinson. During Burr’s final session in the Senate, he also would meet with three messengers who arrived from New Orleans.
On December 31st 1804, ‘a remonstrance and petition of the representatives elected by the freemen of the Territory of Louisiana’, signed by three representatives (Sauve, Derbigny, and Destrehan) was presented to Congress ‘stating certain objections to the system of government of the said territory, as established by an act passed on the 26th of March 1804’. That act had divided Louisiana into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana; and had provided for a Governor, judges, and a thirteen-member Legislative Council to administer the Territory and the District – and for all to be appointed by the President.
The remonstrance wished that:
“so much of the law above-mentioned, as provides for the temporary government of this country, as divides it into two Territories, and prohibits the importation of slaves, be repealed. And that prompt and efficacious measures may be taken to incorporate the inhabitants of Louisiana into the Union of the United States, and admit them to all the rights, privileges, and immunities, of the citizens thereof.”
Note: After a January 23rd 1804 petition to Congress for banning the importation of slaves into Louisiana had been presented by the American Convention [for promoting the abolition of Slavery and improving the condition of the African Race], the March 26,1804 act had banned the importation of slaves into the Louisiana territory from without the limits of the United States.
A similar remonstrance was communicated to Congress on January 4th 1805, from the representatives of the freemen of the District of Louisiana, signed by the deputies of New Madrid, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis and its dependencies, St. Charles and its dependencies. This remonstrance asked:
“1st. for the repeal of the act erecting Louisiana into two Territories and providing for the temporary government thereof …
3rd. that a Governor, secretary and judges, should be appointed by the President, who shall reside in the district of Louisiana, and hold property therein to the same amount as is prescribed by the ordinance respecting the Territory Northwest of the river Ohio.
4th (and) should, in preference, be chosen from among those who speak both the English and French languages.
5th. That the records … should be kept, and had in both the English and French languages …
6th. That supposing the District of Louisiana to be divided into five counties, ten members, two from each county, shall be elected by the people having a right to vote in each county, according to the rules prescribed by the Ordinance respecting the Northwest Territory …
7th. … being entitled … to the free possession of our slaves, and to the right of importing slaves into the district of Louisiana …”
On January 25th 1805, in the House of Representatives, John Randolph gave a report from the committee that was appointed on the part of the Message of the President (November 8th 1804) that related to the part that read ‘… in pursuance of the act providing for the temporary government of Louisiana … the form of government thus provided having been considered but as temporary, and open to such future improvements as further information of the circumstances of our brethren there might suggest, it will of course be subject to your consideration …’; and to whom was referred the memorials from Louisiana.
The memorials referred to the third article of the treaty with France that ‘the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated into the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoyment of all rights, advantages, and immunities, of citizens of the United States …’
Randolph, in the report, said that:
“… by permitting her inhabitants to form their own regulations, the voice of discontent would be hushed, faction (if it exist) disarmed, and the people bound to us by the strong ties of gratitude and interest. The spirit of disaffection, should it be excited at any future period by ambitious and unprincipled men, would be in direct hostility to the obvious interests of the people of Louisiana, while the ability of the Union to repress it would remain unimpaired …”
and submitted the resolution that:
“provision ought to be made by law for extending to the inhabitants of Louisiana the right of self-government.”
However, the three representatives from Louisiana argued that:
“any interpretation tending to procrastinate the incorporation of the present inhabitants of Louisiana into the Union is directly opposite to the spirit of the third article of cession of our country, the object of which is unquestionably to secure that advantage to the inhabitants who are annexed to the United States by that treaty; that, consequently, any condition depending on future circumstances ought to be inadmissible, because it would expose the inhabitants, who existed in Louisiana when the treaty was made, to be kept out of the enjoyment of rights which have been stipulated for them.”
That earlier March 1804 act would then be changed by ‘an act further providing for the government of the Territory of Orleans’ on March 2nd 1805, that in addition to the presidentially-appointed Governor and Legislative Council, it provided for the election of 25 representatives of a General Assembly for the Territory of Orleans; and that whenever the district reached over 60,000 free inhabitants that ‘they shall thereupon be authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government and be admitted into the Union …’
But, by ‘an act further providing for the government of the District of Louisiana’ of March 3rd 1805, the District of Louisiana became the Territory of Louisiana, and would be administered by a Governor, a Secretary and three Judges – all to be appointed by the President. – without an elected assembly!
On March 29th 1805, Merry wrote to Lord Harrowby about the three messengers from Louisiana, that:
“when they found that their fate was decided, although the law had not as yet passed, no longer abstained from communicating with those agents (i.e. agents of foreign powers at this place), nor from expressing very publicly the great dissatisfaction which the law would occasion among their constituents, – going even so far as to say that it would not be tolerated, and that they would be obliged to seek redress from some other quarter; while they observed that the opportunity they had had of obtaining a correct knowledge of the state of things in this country, and of witnessing the proceedings of Congress, afforded them no confidence in the stability of the Union, and furnished them with such strong motives to be dissatisfied with the form and mode of government as to make them regret extremely the connection which they had been forced into with it. These sentiments they continued to express till the moment of their departure from hence, which took place the day after the close of the cession.”
Besides Merry, also watching with much interest the attitude of these three messengers, was Aaron Burr. One of the messengers, Peter Derbigny, in an affidavit in August 1807, would recall that:
“in the winter of 1804-1805, being then at Washington City in the capacity of a deputy from the inhabitants of Louisiana to Congress, jointly with Messrs. Destrehan and Sauve, he was introduced to Colonel Burr, then Vice-president of the United States, by General Wilkinson, who strongly recommended to this deponent, and as he believes to his colleagues, to cultivate the acquaintance of Colonel Burr – whom he used to call ‘the first gentleman in America’, telling them that he was a man of the most eminent talents both as a politician and as a military character; and … General Wilkinson told him several times that Colonel Burr, so soon as his Vice-presidency would be at an end, would go to Louisiana, where he had certain projects, adding that he was such a man as to succeed in anything he would undertake, and inviting this deponent to give him all the information in his power respecting that country; which mysterious hints appeared to this deponent very extraordinary, though he could not then understand them.”
At the end of the session of Congress and the end of his term as vice-president, on March 3rd, Burr left Washington City before the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson for a second term as president on March 4th, but also before his immunity from arrest would expire.
No longer a member of the Jefferson administration, Burr then secretly travelled to Philadelphia where he held direct talks with British Minister Merry about their plans – and his dream to become the ‘Napoleon’ of a new empire of Spanish Texas and the Floridas, and that would also include Louisiana and the western states.
Merry wrote another letter to Lord Harrowby on March 29th, (but this one was marked ‘most secret’) that:
“the inhabitants of Louisiana seemed determined to render themselves independent of the United States, and that the execution of their design is only delayed by the difficulty of obtaining previously an assurance of protection and assistance from some foreign power and of concerting their independence with that of the inhabitants of the western parts of the United States, who must always have a command over them by the rivers which communicate with the Mississippi.”
“It is clear that Mr. Burr (although he has not yet confided to me the exact nature and extent of his plan) means to endeavor to be the instrument for effecting such a connection – he has told me that the inhabitants of Louisiana, notwithstanding that they are almost all of French or Spanish origin, as well as those of the western part of the United States, would, for may obvious reasons, prefer having the protection and assistance of Great Britain to the support of France, but that if His Majesty’s Government should not think proper to listen to this overture, application will be made to that of France who will, he had reason to know, be eager to attend to it in the most effectual manner.”
“He pointed out the great commercial advantage which His Majesty’s Dominions in general would derive from furnishing almost exclusively (as they might do thro Canada and New Orleans) the inhabitants of so extensive a territory, where the population is increased with astonishing rapidity, with every article necessary for their consumption: while the impossibility of the country, in question, ever becoming a naval power (since it would have only one bad port, that of New Orleans, where no large vessels can pass), and consequently, of any jealousy or ill will arising from that cause, would ensure the permanent and beneficial intercourse abovementioned.”
“In regard to military aid he said, two or three frigates and the same number of smaller vessels to be stationed at the mouth of the Mississippi to prevent its being blockaded by such force as the United States could send, and to keep open the communication with the sea would be the whole that would be wanted; and in respect to money, the loan of about one hundred thousand pounds, would he conceived be sufficient for the immediate purposes of the enterprise, although it was impossible for him to speak at present with accuracy as to this matter. If a strict confidence could be placed in him, he certainly possesses perhaps in a much greater degree than any other individual in this country, all the talents, energy, intrepidity and firmness which requisite for such an enterprise.”
After Congress passed a law to divide the Louisiana purchase into two territories (the Orleans Territory, south of 33º N, and the Louisiana Territory, north of 33º N), President Jefferson would nominate the young 29-year-old William Claiborne to be the Governor of the Orleans Territory, and on March 11th 1805, he would appoint General Wilkinson to be the Governor of the Louisiana Territory.
On April 10th 1805, Aaron Burr left Philadelphia to travel to Pittsburgh, and by the first of May, he was travelling by boat down the Ohio river on his way to New Orleans, on his path of spreading the seeds of treason across America!
[ next week - chapter 6 - The Seeds of Treason are Spread in the West ]
For those who may wish to support my continuing work on ‘The Unveiling of Canadian History’, you may purchase my books, that are available as PDFs and Paperback (on Amazon) at the Canadian Patriot Review :
Volume 1 – The Approaching Conflict, 1753 – 1774.
Volume 2 – Forlorn Hope – Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785.
Volume 3 – The Storming of Hell – the War for the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, 1786 – 1796.
And hopefully,
Volume 4 – Ireland, Haiti, and Louisiana – the Idea of a Continental Republic, 1797 – 1804,
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Volume 5 – On the Trail of the Treasonous, 1804 - 1814.