A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Edited by James D. Richardson
I had for some time been in the constant expectation of receiving
such further information as would have enabled me to lay before the
Legislature the termination as well as the beginning and progress of
this scene of depravity so far as it has been acted on the Ohio and its
waters. From this the state of safety of the lower country might have
been estimated on probable grounds, and the delay was indulged the
rather because no circumstance had yet made it necessary to call in the
aid of the legislative functions. Information now recently communicated
has brought us nearly to the period contemplated. The mass of what I
have received in the course of these transactions is voluminous, but
little has been given under the sanction of an oath so as to constitute
formal and legal evidence. It is chiefly in the form of letters, often
containing such a mixture of rumors, conjectures, and suspicions
as renders it difficult to sift out the real facts and unadvisable
to hazard more than general outlines, strengthened by concurrent
information or the particular credibility of the relator. In this state
of the evidence, delivered sometimes, too, under the restriction of
private confidence, neither safety nor justice will permit the exposing
names, except that of the principal actor, whose guilt is placed beyond
question.
Some time in the latter part of September I received intimations that
designs were in agitation in the Western country unlawful and unfriendly
to the peace of the Union, and that the prime mover in these was Aaron
Burr, heretofore distinguished by the favor of his country. The grounds
of these intimations being inconclusive, the objects uncertain, and the
fidelity of that country known to be firm, the only measure taken was to
urge the informants to use their best endeavors to get further insight
into the designs and proceedings of the suspected persons and to
communicate them to me.
It was not till the latter part of October that the objects of the
conspiracy began to be perceived, but still so blended and involved in
mystery that nothing distinct could be singled out for pursuit. In this
state of uncertainty as to the crime contemplated, the acts done, and
the legal course to be pursued, I thought it best to send to the scene
where these things were principally in transaction a person in whose
integrity, understanding, and discretion entire confidence could be
reposed, with instructions to investigate the plots going on, to enter
into conference (for which he had sufficient credentials) with the
governors and all other officers, civil and military, and with their
aid to do on the spot whatever should be necessary to discover the
designs of the conspirators, arrest their means, bring their persons
to punishment, and to call out the force of the country to suppress any
unlawful enterprise in which it should be found they were engaged.
By this time it was known that many boats were under preparation,
stores of provisions collecting, and an unusual number of suspicious
characters in motion on the Ohio and its waters. Besides dispatching
the confidential agent to that quarter, orders were at the same time
sent to the governors of the Orleans and Mississippi Territories and
to the commanders of the land and naval forces there to be on their
guard against surprise and in constant readiness to resist any enterprise
which might be attempted on the vessels, posts, or other objects under
their care; and on the 8th of November instructions were forwarded to
General Wilkinson to hasten an accommodation with the Spanish commandant
on the Sabine, and as soon as that was effected to fall back with his
principal force to the hither bank of the Mississippi for the defense
of the interesting points on that river. By a letter received from
that officer on the 25th of November, but dated October 21, we learnt
that a confidential agent of Aaron Burr had been deputed to him with
communications, partly written in cipher and partly oral, explaining his
designs, exaggerating his resources, and making such offers of emolument
and command to engage him and the army in his unlawful enterprise as he
had flattered himself would be successful. The General, with the honor
of a soldier and fidelity of a good citizen, immediately dispatched a
trusty officer to me with information of what had passed, proceeding
to establish such an understanding with the Spanish commandant on the
Sabine as permitted him to withdraw his force across the Mississippi
and to enter on measures for opposing the projected enterprise.
The General's letter, which came to hand on the 25th of November, as has
been mentioned, and some other information received a few days earlier,
when brought together developed Burr's general designs, different parts
of which only had been revealed to different informants. It appeared
that he contemplated two distinct objects, which might be carried on
either jointly or separately, and either the one or the other first,
as circumstances should direct. One of these was the severance of the
Union of these States by the Alleghany Mountains; the other an attack
on Mexico. A third object was provided, merely ostensible, to wit, the
settlement of a pretended purchase of a tract of country on the Washita
claimed by a Baron Bastrop. This was to serve as the pretext for all
his preparations, an allurement for such followers as really wished to
acquire settlements in that country and a cover under which to retreat
in the event of a final discomfiture of both branches of his real
design.
He found at once that the attachment of the Western country to the
present Union was not to be shaken; that its dissolution could not be
effected with the consent of its inhabitants, and that his resources
were inadequate as yet to effect it by force. He took his course then
at once, determined to seize on New Orleans, plunder the bank there,
possess himself of the military and naval stores, and proceed on his
expedition to Mexico, and to this object all his means and preparations
were now directed. He collected from all the quarters where himself or
his agents possessed influence all the ardent, restless, desperate,
and disaffected persons who were ready for any enterprise analogous to
their characters. He seduced good and well-meaning citizens, some by
assurances that he possessed the confidence of the Government and was
acting under its secret patronage, a pretense which procured some credit
from the state of our differences with Spain, and others by offers of
land in Bastrop's claim on the Washita.
This was the state of my information of his proceedings about the last
of November, at which time, therefore, it was first possible to take
specific measures to meet them. The proclamation of November 27, two
days after the receipt of General Wilkinson's information, was now
issued. Orders were dispatched to every interesting point on the Ohio
and Mississippi from Pittsburg to New Orleans for the employment of such
force either of the regulars or of the militia and of such proceedings
also of the civil authorities as might enable them to seize on all the
boats and stores provided for the enterprise, to arrest the persons
concerned, and to suppress effectually the further progress of the
enterprise. A little before the receipt of these orders in the State
of Ohio our confidential agent, who had been diligently employed in
investigating the conspiracy, had acquired sufficient information to
open himself to the governor of that State and apply for the immediate
exertion of the authority and power of the State to crush the
combination. Governor Tiffin and the legislature, with a promptitude,
an energy, and patriotic zeal which entitle them to a distinguished
place in the affection of their sister States, effected the seizure
of all the boats, provisions, and other preparations within their
reach, and thus gave a first blow, materially disabling the enterprise
in its outset.
In Kentucky a premature attempt to bring Burr to justice without
sufficient evidence for his conviction had produced a popular impression
in his favor and a general disbelief of his guilt. This gave him an
unfortunate opportunity of hastening his equipments. The arrival of
the proclamation and orders and the application and information of our
confidential agent at length awakened the authorities of that State
to the truth, and then produced the same promptitude and energy of
which the neighboring State had set the example. Under an act of their
legislature of December 23 militia was instantly ordered to different
important points, and measures taken for doing whatever could yet be
done. Some boats (accounts vary from five to double or treble that
number) and persons (differently estimated from 100 to 300) had in
the meantime passed the Falls of Ohio to rendezvous at the mouth of
Cumberland with others expected down that river.
Not apprised till very late that any boats were building on Cumberland,
the effect of the proclamation had been trusted to for some time in the
State of Tennessee; but on the *19th of December similar communications
and instructions with those to the neighboring States were dispatched by
express to the governor and a general officer of the western division
ofthe State, and on the 23d of December our confidential agent left
Frankfort for Nashville to put into activity the means of that State
also. But by information received yesterday I learn that on the 22d of
December Mr. Burr descended the Cumberland with two boats merely of
accommodation, carrying with him from that State no quota toward his
unlawful enterprise. Whether after the arrival of the proclamation, of
the orders, or of our agent any exertion which could be made by that
State or the orders of the governor of Kentucky for calling out the
militia at the mouth of Cumberland would be in time to arrest these
boats and those from the Falls of Ohio is still doubtful.
On the whole, the fugitives from the Ohio, with their associates from
Cumberland or any other place in that quarter, can not threaten serious
danger to the city of New Orleans.
By the same express of December 19 orders were sent to the governors of
Orleans and Mississippi, supplementary to those which had been given
onthe 25th of November, to hold the militia of their Territories in
readiness to cooperate for their defense with the regular troops and
armed vessels then under command of General Wilkinson. Great alarm,
indeed, was excited at New Orleans by the exaggerated accounts of Mr.
Burr, disseminated through his emissaries, of the armies and navies
he was to assemble there. General Wilkinson had arrived there himself
on the 24th of November, and had immediately put into activity the
resources of the place for the purpose of its defense, and on the 10th
of December he was joined by his troops from the Sabine. Great zeal was
shewn by the inhabitants generally, the merchants of the place readily
agreeing to the most laudable exertions and sacrifices for manning the
armed vessels with their seamen, and the other citizens manifesting
unequivocal fidelity to the Union and a spirit of determined resistance
to their expected assailants.
Surmises have been hazarded that this enterprise is to receive aid
from certain foreign powers; but these surmises are without proof or
probability. The wisdom of the measures sanctioned by Congress at its
last session has placed us in the paths of peace and justice with the
only powers with whom we had any differences, and nothing has happened
since which makes it either their interest or ours to pursue another
course. No change of measures has taken place on our part; none ought
to take place at this time. With the one, friendly arrangement was then
proposed, and the law deemed necessary on the failure of that was
suspended to give time for a fair trial of the issue. With the same
power friendly arrangement is now proceeding under good expectations,
and the same law deemed necessary on failure of that is still suspended,
to give time for a fair trial of the issue. With the other, negotiation
was in like manner then preferred, and provisional measures only taken
to meet the event of rupture. With the same power negotiation is still
preferred, and provisional measures only are necessary to meet the event
of rupture. While, therefore, we do not deflect in the slightest degree
from the course we then assumed and are still pursuing with mutual
consent to restore a good understanding, we arc not to impute to them
practices as irreconcilable to interest as to good faith, and changing
necessarily the relations of peace and justice between us to those of
war. These surmises are therefore to be imputed to the vauntings of the
author of this enterprise to multiply his partisans by magnifying the
belief of his prospects and support.
By letters from General Wilkinson of the 14th and 18th of December,
which came to hand two days after the date of the resolution of the
House of Representatives--that is to say, on the morning of the 18th
instant--I received the important affidavit a copy of which I now
communicate, with extracts of so much of the letters as comes within the
scope of the resolution. By these it will be seen that of three of the
principal emissaries of Mr. Burr whom the General had caused to be
apprehended, one had been liberated by habeas corpus, and two others,
being those particularly employed in the endeavor to corrupt the general
and army of the United States, have been embarked by him for ports in
the Atlantic States, probably on the consideration that an impartial
trial could not be expected during the present agitations of New
Orleans, and that that city was not as yet a safe place of confinement.
As soon as these persons shall arrive they will be delivered to the
custody of the law and left to such course of trial, both as to place
and process, as its functionaries may direct. The presence of the
highest judicial authorities, to be assembled at this place within a few
days, the means of pursuing a sounder course of proceedings here than
elsewhere, and the aid of the Executive means, should the judges have
occasion to use them, render it equally desirable for the criminals as
for the public that, being already removed from the place where they
were first apprehended, the first regular arrest should take place here,
and the course of proceedings receive here its proper direction.
TH. JEFFERSON.
JANUARY 26, 1807.
_To the Senate, and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I received from General Wilkinson on the 23d instant his affidavit
charging Samuel Swartwout, Peter V. Ogden, and James Alexander with the
crimes described in the affidavit a copy of which is now communicated
to both Houses of Congress.
It was announced to me at the same time that Swartwout and Bollman, two
of the persons apprehended by him, were arrived in this city in custody
each of a military officer. I immediately delivered to the attorney of
the United States in this district the evidence received against them,
with instructions to lay the same before the judges and apply for their
process to bring the accused to justice, and put into his hands orders
to the officers having them in custody to deliver them to the marshal
on his application.
TH. JEFFERSON.
JANUARY 27, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I now render to Congress the account of the fund established for
defraying the contingent expenses of Government for the year 1806.
No occasion having arisen for making use of any part of the balance of
$18,012.50, unexpended on the 31st day of December, 1805, that balance
remains in the Treasury.
TH. JEFFERSON.
JANUARY 28, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
By the letters of Captain Bissel, who commands at Fort Massac, and of
Mr. Murrell, to General Jackson, of Tennessee, copies of which are now
communicated to Congress, it will be seen that Aaron Burr passed Fort
Massac on the 31st December with about ten boats, navigated by about six
hands each, without any military appearance, and that three boats with
ammunition were said to have been arrested by the militia at Louisville.
As the guards of militia posted on various points of the Ohio will be
able to prevent any further aids passing through that channel, should
any be attempted, we may now estimate with tolerable certainty the means
derived from the Ohio and its waters toward the accomplishment of the
purposes of Mr. Burr.
TH. JEFFERSON.
JANUARY 31, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
In execution of the act of the last session of Congress entitled "An
act to regulate the laying out and making a road from Cumberland, in
the State of Maryland, to the State of Ohio," I appointed Thomas Moore,
of Maryland; Joseph Kerr, of Ohio, and Eli Williams, of Maryland,
commissioners to lay out the said road, and to perform the other duties
assigned to them by the act. The progress which they made in the
execution of the work during the last season will appear in their report
now communicated to Congress. On the receipt of it I took measures
to obtain consent for making the road of the States of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia, through which the commissioners proposed to
lay it out. I have received acts of the legislatures of Maryland and
Virginia giving the consent desired; that of Pennsylvania has the
subject still under consideration, as is supposed. Until I receive full
consent to a free choice of route through the whole distance I have
thought it safest neither to accept nor reject finally the partial
report of the commissioners. Some matters suggested in the report belong
exclusively to the Legislature.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 6, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I lay before Congress the laws for the government of Louisiana, passed
by the governor and judges of the Indiana Territory at their session at
Vincennes begun on the 1st of October, 1804.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 6, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The Government of France having examined into the claim of M. de
Beaumarchais against the United States, and considering it as just and
legal, has instructed its minister here to make representations on the
subject to the Government of the United States. I now lay his memoir
thereon before the Legislature, the only authority competent to a final
decision on the same.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 10, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
I communicate, for the information of Congress, a letter from Cowles
Mead, secretary of the Mississippi Territory, to the Secretary of War,
by which it will be seen that Mr. Burr had reached that neighborhood
on the 13th of January.
TH. JEFFERSON.
FEBRUARY 10, 1807.
_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
In compliance with the request of the House of Representatives expressed
in their resolution of the 5th instant, I proceed to give such
information as is possessed of the effect of gunboats in the protection
and defense of harbors, of the numbers thought necessary, and of the
proposed distribution of them among the ports and harbors of the United
States.
Under present circumstances, and governed by the intentions of the
Legislature as manifested by their annual appropriations of money for
the purposes of defense, it has been concluded to combine, first, land
batteries furnished with heavy cannon and mortars, and established on
all the points around the place favorable for preventing vessels from
lying before it; second, movable artillery, which may be carried, as
occasion may require, to points unprovided with fixed batteries; third,
floating batteries, and fourth, gunboats which may oppose an enemy at
his entrance and cooperate with the batteries for his expulsion.
On this subject professional men were consulted as far as we had
opportunity. General Wilkinson and the late General Gates gave their
opinions in writing in favor of the system, as will be seen by their
letters now communicated. The higher officers of the Navy gave the same
opinions in separate conferences, as their presence at the seat of
Government offered occasions of consulting them, and no difference of
judgment appeared on the subject. Those of Commodore Barren and Captain
Tingey, now here, are recently furnished in writing, and transmitted
herewith to the Legislature.
The efficacy of gunboats for the defense of harbors and of other smooth
and inclosed waters may be estimated in part from that of galleys
formerly much used but less powerful, more costly in their construction
and maintenance, and requiring more men. But the gunboat itself is
believed to be in use with every modern maritime nation for the purposes
of defense. In the Mediterranean, on which are several small powers
whose system, like ours, is peace and defense, few harbors are without
this article of protection. Our own experience there of the effect of
gunboats for harbor service is recent. Algiers is particularly known
to have owed to a great provision of these vessels the safety of its
city since the epoch of their construction, Before that it had been
repeatedly insulted and injured. The effect of gunboats at present in
the neighborhood of Gibraltar is well known, and how much they were used
both in the attack and defense of that place during a former war. The
extensive resort to them by the two greatest naval powers in the world
on an enterprise of invasion not long since in prospect shews their
confidence in their efficacy for the purposes for which they are suited.
By the northern powers of Europe, whose seas are particularly adapted
to them, they are still more used. The remarkable action between the
Russian flotilla of gunboats and galleys and a Turkish fleet of ships
of the line and frigates in the Liman Sea in 1788 will be readily
recollected. The latter, commanded by their most celebrated admiral,
were completely defeated, and several of their ships of the line
destroyed.
From the opinions given as to the number of gunboats necessary for some
of the principal seaports, and from a view of all the towns and ports
from Orleans to Maine, inclusive, entitled to protection in proportion
to their situation and circumstances, it is concluded that to give them
a due measure of protection in times of war about 200 gunboats will be
requisite.
According to first ideas the following would be their general
distribution, liable to be varied on more mature examination and
as circumstances shall vary; that is to say:
To the Mississippi and its neighboring waters, 40 gunboats.
To Savannah and Charleston, and the harbors on each side from St. Marys
to Currituck, 25.
To the Chesapeake and its waters, 20.
To Delaware Bay and River, 15.
To New York, the Sound, and waters as far as Cape Cod, 50.
To Boston and the harbors north of Cape Cod, 50.
The flotillas assigned to these several stations might each be under
the care of a particular commandant, and the vessels composing them
would in ordinary be distributed among the harbors within the station
in proportion to their importance.
Of these boats a proper proportion would be of the larger size, such
as those heretofore built, capable of navigating any seas and of
reenforcing occasionally the strength of even the most distant ports
when menaced with danger. The residue would be confined to their own
or the neighboring harbors, would be smaller, less furnished for
accommodation, and consequently less costly. Of the number supposed
necessary, 73 are built or building, and the 127 still to be provided
would cost from $500,000 to $600,000. Having regard to the convenience
of the Treasury as well as to the resources for building, it has been
thought that the one-half of these might be built in the present year
and the other half the next. With the Legislature, however, it will rest
to stop where we are, or at any further point, when they shall be of
opinion that the number provided shall be sufficient for the object.
At times when Europe as well as the United States shall be at peace
it would not be proposed that more than six or eight of these vessels
should be kept afloat. When Europe is in war, treble that number might
be necessary, to be distributed among those particular harbors which
foreign vessels of war are in the habit of frequenting for the purpose
of preserving order therein. But they would be manned in ordinary, with
only their complement for navigation, relying on the seamen and militia
of the port if called into action on any sudden emergency. It would be
only when the United States should themselves be at war that the whole
number would be brought into active service, and would be ready in the
first moments of the war to cooperate with the other means for covering
at once the line of our seaports. At all times those unemployed would be
withdrawn into places not exposed to sudden enterprise, hauled up under
sheds from the sun and weather, and kept in preservation with little
expense for repairs or maintenance.