On the Trail of the Treasonous - Chapter 7
The Seeds of Treason are Spread in the East
With his seeds of treason planted in the western states and territories, Burr returned to Washington City, to coordinate his plans with the British minister, and to spin his stories of deception to the American government and the Spanish government. And to try to secure the one thing that he needed the most of all - money !
Carlos Martinez de Yrujo, by Gilbert Stuart
On his arrival back at Washington City, Aaron Burr immediately met with British Minister Merry, but he learned that no message from the British government had arrived in reply to his request for money, and for ships, and for money!
Burr reported to Merry on the success of his journey through the western country, that ‘everything was in fact completely prepared in every quarter for the execution of his plan’, and he impressed upon Merry the motives for Britain aiding the conspiracy. Merry wrote on November 25th to Lord Mulgrave that:
“when he [Burr] reached Louisiana he found the inhabitants so impatient under the American government that they had actually prepared a representation of their grievances, and that it was in agitation to send deputies with it to Paris. The hope, however, of becoming completely independent, and of forming a much more beneficial connection with Great Britain, having been pointed out to them, and this having already prevailed among many of the principal people who are become his associates they found means to obtain a suspension of the plan of having recourse to France … He observed – what I readily conceive may happen – that when once Louisiana and the Western country became independent, the Eastern states will separate themselves immediately from the Southern; and that thus the immense power which is now risen up with so much rapidity in the western hemisphere will, by such a division, be rendered at once informidable.”
Next, on November 30th, Burr was able to arrange a 2-hour meeting with President Jefferson!!! Although the President made no notes of this meeting (as he usually did of his meetings), they might have discussed Burr’s plans – as seen in the ‘Queries’ from the Gazette of the United States, and perhaps, discussed the administration’s future policy with Spain.
As Merry would note in his November 25th report, ‘Mr. Burr … still has the means of knowing the secrets of this Government’ and that Burr had said that President Jefferson had ‘seceded from the idea of recommending Congress at the approaching meeting to adopt any severe and strong measures in regard to Spain.’
Burr now believed that ‘there will be no war with Spain unless we shall declare it’ (in his letter to Joseph Alston) and that ‘we shall have no war unless we should be actually invaded’ (in his letter to Blennerhassett).
And Burr wrote to Wilkinson that:
“about the last of October our cabinet was seriously disposed for war with the Spaniards; but more recent accounts of the increasing and alarming aggressions and annoyance of the British, and some courteous words from the French, have banished every such intention. In case of such warfare, Lee would have been commander-in-chief; truth I assure you: he must you know come from Virginia …”
With no prospect of war with Spain, and with no support likely to come from Britain, Burr now had to look for other sources to finance his enterprise.
On December 5th, Jonathan Dayton, Burr’s most trusted conspirator, was sent on a secret visit to entice the Spanish Minister to America, Carlos Yrujo - suggesting that 30,000 or 40,000 dollars would be a worthwhile price for ‘secret’ information of a plot upon Spain’s American possessions.
On assuring Dayton of Spain’s generous nature to her friends, Yrujo then reported to Pedro Cevallos, Spain’s Secretary of State, what Dayton had told him, that:
“this secret is known at the present moment to only three persons in this country. I am one of them; and I will tell you that toward the end of the last session and near the end of last March, Colonel Burr had various very secret conferences with the British minister, to whom he proposed a plan not only for taking the Floridas, but also for effecting the separation and independence of the Western States – a part of this plan being that the Floridas should be associated in this new federative republic; England to receive as the price of her services a decisive preference in matters of commerce and navigation, and to secure these advantages by means of a treaty to be made as soon as she should recognize this new republic. This plan obtained the approval of the British minister, who sent it and recommended it to his court.”
In his meeting with Yrujo, Dayton was implying that Burr’s sole intention was the separation and independence of the western states, and that the attack upon the Floridas was only a subsumed part of his original plan, but it was a part of Britain’s plan – thus, laying the blame for the attack on the Floridas, upon the British! And he was implying that the Floridas would not become part of Britain’s colonial possessions, and would not become a part of the United States, but would become a part of Burr’s new western empire!
Yrujo continues in his report to Cevallos that:
“Meanwhile, Colonel Burr has been in New Orleans, in the Mississippi Territory, in the States of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, to sound and prepare their minds for this revolution. In all these States he has found the most favorable disposition, not only for this emancipation, which the Western States evidently desire, but also for making an expedition against the kingdom of Mexico. This is an idea that occurred to us after sending the first plan to London; and having given greater extension to the project, Colonel Burr sent to London a despatch with his new ideas to Colonel Williamson – an English officer who has been many years in this country, and whose return he expects within a month or six weeks.”
“The first project was very well received by the English Cabinet, and more particularly by Mr. Dundas, or Lord Melville, who was the person charged with this correspondence; but as he has reason to fear dismission from office for causes well known through the debates of Parliament, this plan has suffered some delay; but Mr. Pitt has again turned his attention to it. In order to effect the conquest of the Floridas and the emancipation of the Western States, half a million dollars has been appropriated; the expedition on the part of England will be composed of three ships of the line and seven or eight smaller vessels which will bring arms, ammunition and artillery, but few men, as men were not needed.”
Dayton was now implying (to Yrujo) that the attack on Mexico was really the desire of the western states – that the attacks on the Floridas and Mexico would make the ‘revolution’ more popular among the western states, and that it would begin the moment when the British squadron appeared off the coast of Florida.
Having gained the confidence of Yrujo, by telling him of Burr’s plans – something that the Spanish minster already knew (from the Gazette story earlier in August), Burr would now try to also solicit funds from Spain!!!
On January 1st 1806, Yrujo wrote to Cevallos again, telling of his next meeting with Dayton, where Dayton revealed Burr’s new plan.
Burr and his accomplices were to introduce ‘by degrees’ into the city of Washington a certain number of men in disguise, well armed, who at a signal from Burr, were to seize the President, Vice-president and the president of the Senate and to dissolve the existing government; to seize the public money deposited in the Washington and Georgetown banks; and to take possession of the arsenal on the Eastern Branch. Burr hoped that this would delay any opposition, while he negotiated with the individual states for an arrangement that was favorable to himself and his confederates. If resistance did arise, they would burn all of the vessels at the Navy Yard, saving two or three frigates to carry them and their plunder to New Orleans, where they would ‘proclaim the emancipation of Louisiana and the Western States’.
Yrujo would tell Cevallos that:
“for one who does not know the country, this plan would appear almost insane; but I confess, for my part, that in view of all the circumstances, it seems to me easy to execute … there exists in this country an infinite number of adventurers, without property, full of ambition, and ready to unite at once under the standard of a revolution which promises to better their lot. Equally certain it is that Burr and his friends, without discovering their object, have succeeded in getting the good-will of these men, and inspiring the greatest confidence among them in favor of Burr.”
Yrujo was told by Dayton that Burr had assured him that:
“Spain had nothing to fear for her possessions; that on the contrary he counted on her friendship because of her obvious interest in the success of the enterprise; that the matter of the Louisiana boundary would be arranged to our entire satisfaction; … that the Floridas would be undisturbed, not only out of respect for Spain, but because his political interest demanded that a foreign nation should hold possessions both in the Atlantic States and those of the west.”
Dayton was now implying that this new plan meant that there would be no loss of colonial possessions for Spain!
Yrujo informed Cevallos that:
“Spain would view with extreme satisfaction the dismemberment of the colossal power which was growing up at the very gates of her most precious and important colonies”
and that to be successful, Burr’s plan needed only:
“the acquisition of half a million or a million dollars which the principals calculated would be necessary to expend for provisions, arms, pay for men, etc.”
Dayton had implied that this attack on Spain’s possessions should be seen as part of the overall intention – the splitting of the United States – a most desirous outcome, when compared to the loss of the Floridas, which Spain was now forewarned about!
However, Dayton had also told Yrujo that the British government had sent Francisco de Miranda to the United States, to act in concert with Burr; that Miranda was planning an attack on Venezuela; but that ‘Burr will not treat with Miranda, whom he considers imprudent, and wanting in many qualities necessary for an undertaking of such magnitude as he has on hand’.
It was this information about Miranda, that Yrujo was far more interested in!!! Yrujo gave Dayton $1500 for his ‘secret’ with another $1000 coming in the future, and also promised to consider his request for a monthly pension of $2,000!!!
Afterwards, Yrujo instructed the Spanish consul in New York to spy on Miranda and on what he was doing.
[next week - chapter 8 - Miranda’s Plan for Liberation]
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.