The Life of John Marshall, Volume 3: Conflict and construction, 1800-1815

The rivalry of Hamilton and Burr began as young attorneys at the New York bar, where Burr was the only lawyer considered the equal of Hamilton. Hamilton's open hostility, however, first showed itself when Burr, then but thirty-five years of age, defeated Hamilton's father-in-law, Philip Schuyler, for the United States Senate. The very next year Hamilton prevented Burr from being nominated and elected Governor of New York. Then Burr was seriously considered for Vice-President, but Hamilton also thwarted this project.

When Burr was in the Senate, the anti-Federalists in Congress unanimously recommended him for the French Mission; and Madison and Monroe, on behalf of their colleagues, twice formally urged Burr's appointment. Hamilton used his influence against it, and the appointment was not made. At the expiration of Burr's term in the Senate, Hamilton saw to it that he should not be chosen again and Hamilton's father-in-law this time succeeded.

President Adams, in 1798, earnestly desired to appoint Burr to the office of Brigadier-General under Washington in the provisional army raised for the expected war with France. Hamilton objected so strenuously that the President was forced to give up his design. (See Adams to Rush, Aug. 25, 1805, Old Family Letters, 77; and same to same, June 23, 1807, ib. 150.)

In the Presidential contest in the House in 1801 (see vol. ii, 533-38, of this work), Burr, notwithstanding his refusal to do anything in his own behalf (ib. 539-47), would probably have been elected instead of Jefferson, had not Hamilton savagely opposed him. (Ib.)

When, in 1804, Burr ran for Governor of New York, Hamilton again attacked him. It was for one of Hamilton's assaults upon him during this campaign that Burr challenged him. (See Parton: Life and Times of Aaron Burr, 339 et seq.; also Adams: U.S. ii, 185 et seq.; and Private Journal of Aaron Burr, reprinted from manuscript in the library of W. K. Bixby, Introduction, iv-vi.) So prevalent was dueling that, but for Hamilton's incalculable services in founding the Nation and the lack of similar constructive work by Burr, the hatred of Burr's political enemies and the fatal result of the duel, there certainly would have been no greater outcry over the encounter than over any of the similar meetings between public men during that period.

756

Dueling continued for more than half a century. Many of the most eminent of Americans, such as Clay, Randolph, Jackson, and Benton, fought on "the field of honor." In 1820 a resolution against dueling, offered in the Senate by Senator Morrill of New Hampshire, was laid on the table. (Annals, 16th Cong. 1st Sess. 630, 636.)

757

McCaleb: Aaron Burr Conspiracy, 19; Parton: Burr, 382.

758

Vol. ii, 545, of this work.

759

Adams: U.S. i, 331.

760

"His official conduct in the Senate … has fully met my approbation," testifies the super-critical Plumer in a letter to his wife March 2, 1805. (Plumer, 331.)

761

"Burr is completely an insulated man." (Sedgwick to King, Feb. 20, 1802, King, iv, 74.)

"Burr has lost ground very much with Jefferson's sect during the present session of Congress… He has been not a little abused … in the democratic prints." (Troup to King, April 9, 1802, King, iv, 103.)

Also see supra, chap. ii; Adams: U.S. i, 280; and Parton: Burr, 309.

762

Adams: U.S. i, 230-33; Channing: Jeff. System, 17-19.

763

"Burr is a gone man; … Jefferson is really in the dust in point of character, but notwithstanding this, he is looked up to … as the Gog and Magog of his party." (Troup to King, Dec. 12, 1802, King, iv, 192-93.) See also Adams: U.S. i, 282.

764

Channing: Jeff. System, 18-19.

765

Adams: U.S. i, 332.

766

Adams: U.S. ii, 185.

"He was accused of this and that, through all of which he maintained a resolute silence. It was a characteristic of his never to refute charges against his name… It is not shown that Burr ever lamented or grieved over the course of things, however severely and painfully it pressed upon him." (McCaleb, 19.) See also Parton: Burr, 336.

767

"Burr … is acting a little and skulking part. Although Jefferson hates him as much as one demagogue can possibly hate another who is aiming to rival him, yet Burr does not come forward in an open and manly way agt. him… Burr is ruined in politics as well as in fortune." (Troup to King, Aug. 24, 1802, King, iv, 160.)

768

Davis, ii, 89 et seq.; Adams: U.S. i, 332-33; McCaleb, 20; Parton: Burr, 327 et seq.

769

See supra, 150-52, and vol. iv, chap. i, of this work.

770

Plumer, 295.

771

It appears that some of the New England Federalists urged upon the British Minister the rejection of the articles of the Boundary Treaty in retaliation for the Senate's striking out one article of that Convention. They did this, records the British Minister, because, as they urged, such action by the British Government "would prove to be a great exciting cause to them [the New England Secessionists] to go forward rapidly in the steps which they have already commenced toward a separation from the Southern part of the Union.

"The [Federalist] members of the Senate," continues Merry, "have availed themselves of the opportunity of their being collected here to hold private meetings on this subject, and … their plans and calculations respecting the event have been long seriously resolved… They naturally look forward to Great Britain for support and assistance whenever the occasion shall arrive." (Merry to Hawkesbury, March 1, 1804, as quoted in Adams: U.S. ii, 392.)

772

As early as 1784, Washington declared that he feared the effect on the Western people "if the Spaniards on their right, and Great Britain on their left, instead of throwing impediments in their way as they now do, should hold out lures for their trade and alliance… The western settlers (I speak now from my own observations) stand as it were, upon a pivot. The touch of a feather would turn them any way… It is by the cement of interest alone we can be held together." (Washington to the Governor of Virginia, 1784, as quoted in Marshall, v, 15-16.)

773

Marshall, v, 179.

774

Jefferson to Breckenridge, Aug. 12, 1803, Works: Ford, x, footnotes to 5-6.

775

See Shepherd in Am. Hist. Rev. viii, 501 et seq.; also ib. ix, 748 et seq.

776

Clark: Proofs of the Corruption of Gen. James Wilkinson, 11-12, 16, 18-24, and documents therein referred to and printed in the appendix to Clark's volume.

777

"Wilkinson is entirely devoted to us. He enjoys a considerable pension from the King." (Casa Yrujo, Spanish Minister, to Cevallos, Jan. 28, 1807, as quoted in Adams: U.S. iii, 342.) And see affidavits of Mercier and Derbigny, Blennerhassett Papers: Safford, footnotes to 429, 432.

"He [Wilkinson] had acted conformably as suited the true interests of Spain, and so I assured him for his satisfaction." (Folch, Spanish Governor of Florida, to the Governor-General of Cuba, June 25, 1807, as quoted by Cox in Am. Hist. Rev. x, 839.)

778

Parton: Burr, 383; see also McCaleb, 4-9.

It should be borne in mind that this was the same Wilkinson who took so unworthy a part in the "Conway Cabal" against Washington during the Revolution. (See vol. i, 121-23, of this work.)

For further treatment of the Spanish intrigue, see Cox in Am. Hist Rev. xix, 794-812; also Cox in Southwestern Historical Quarterly, xvii, 140-87.

779

Annual Message, Dec. 3, 1805, and Special Message, Dec. 6, 1805, Richardson, i, 384-85, 388-89.

780

See Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 314-15.

Burr wrote: "In New-York I am to be disfranchised, and in New-Jersey hanged" but "you will not … conclude that I have become disposed to submit tamely to the machinations of a banditti." Burr to his son-in-law, March 22, 1805, Davis, ii, 365.

781

1797-98.

782

Lodge: Alexander Hamilton, 212-15; and see Turner in Am. Hist. Rev. x, 276.

783

Davis, ii, 376-79.

784

Only one previous incident in Burr's public life can even be faintly criticized from the point of view of honesty. In 1799 there were in New York City but two banking institutions, and both were controlled by Federalists. These banks aided business men of the Federalist Party and refused accommodation to Republican business men. The Federalists controlled the Legislature and no State charter for another bank in New York could be had.

Burr, as a member of the State Senate, secured from the Legislature a charter for the Manhattan Company to supply pure water to the city; but this charter authorized the use by the company of its surplus capital in any lawful way it pleased. Thus was established a new bank where Republican business men could get loans. Burr, in committee, frankly declared that the surplus was to establish a bank, and Governor Jay signed the bill. Although the whole project appears to have been open and aboveboard as far as Burr was concerned, yet when the bank began business, a violent attack was made on him. (Parton: Burr, 237-40.) For charter see Laws of New York (Webster and Skinner's edition), 1799, chap. 84.

785

Merry to Harrowby, Aug. 6, 1804, as quoted in Adams: U.S. ii, 395.

786

McCaleb, viii-ix, 20-23.

787

Merry to Harrowby (No. 15), "most secret," March 29, 1805, as quoted in Adams: U.S. ii, 403.

788

Adams: U.S. ii, 394.

789

Davis, ii, 381; also Parton: Burr, 412.

790

Henry Adams, in his researches in the British and Spanish archives, discovered and for the first time made public, in 1890, the dispatches of the British, Spanish, and French Ministers to their Governments. (See Adams: U.S. iii, chaps. xiii and xiv.)

791

Professor Walter Flavius McCaleb has exploded the myth as to Burr's treasonable purposes, which hitherto has been accepted as history. His book, the Aaron Burr Conspiracy, may be said to be the last word on the subject. The lines which Professor McCaleb has therein so firmly established have been followed in this chapter.

792

Pitt died and Burr did not get any money from the British. (See Davis, ii, 381.)

793

"Burr's intrigue with Merry and Casa Yrujo was but a consummate piece of imposture." (McCaleb, viii.)

794

Up to this time Dayton had had an honorable career. He had been a gallant officer of the Revolution; a member of the New Jersey Legislature for several years and finally Speaker of the House; a delegate to the Constitutional Convention; a Representative in Congress for four terms, during the last two of which he was chosen Speaker of that body; and finally Senator of the United States. He came of a distinguished family, was a graduate of Princeton, and a man of high standing politically and socially.

795

See Cox in Am. Hist. Rev. xix, 801; also in Southwestern Hist. Quarterly, xvii, 174.

796

That Burr, Dayton, and others seriously thought of building a canal around the falls of the Ohio on the Indiana side, is proved by an act passed by the Legislature of Indiana Territory in August, 1805, and approved by Governor William Henry Harrison on the 24th of that month. The act – entitled "An Act to Incorporate the Indiana Canal Company" – is very elaborate, authorizes a capital of one million dollars, and names as directors George Rogers Clark, John Brown, Jonathan Dayton, Aaron Burr, Benjamin Hovey, Davis Floyd, and six others. (See Laws of the Indiana Territory, 1801-1806, 94-108.) The author is indebted to Hon. Merrill Moores, M.C., of Indianapolis, for the reference to this statute.

797

Hildreth, V. 597.

798

Adair had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War, an Indian fighter in the West, a member of the Kentucky Constitutional Convention, Speaker of the House of Representatives of that State, Registrar of the United States Land Office, and was one of the ablest, most trusted, and best beloved of Kentuckians.

Adair afterward declared that "the intentions of Colonel Burr … were to prepare and lead an expedition into Mexico, predicated on a war" between Spain and the United States; "without a war he knew he could do nothing." If war did not come he expected to settle the Washita lands. (Davis, ii, 380.)

799

See McCaleb, 25; Parton: Burr, 385-86.

800

McCaleb, 26; Parton: Life of Andrew Jackson, i, 307-10.

801

Parton: Jackson, i, 309.

802

Burr to his daughter, May 23,1805. This letter is delightful. "I will ask Saint A. to pray for thee too. I believe much in the efficacy of her prayers." (Davis, ii, 372.)

803

McCaleb, 27; Parton: Burr, 393.

804

McCaleb, 29.

805

Davies, Parton, and McCaleb state that the Catholic Bishop appointed three Jesuits, but there was no bishop in New Orleans at that time and the Jesuits had been suppressed.

806

Burr to his daughter, May 23, 1805, Davis, ii, 372.

807

"No one equalled Andrew Jackson in warmth of devotion to Colonel Burr." (Adams: U.S. iii, 221.)

808

Parton: Jackson, i, 311-12; and McCaleb, 81.

809

McCaleb, 32-33. Minor was probably directed to do this by Casa Yrujo himself. (See Cox: West Florida Controversy, 189.)

810

Clark to Wilkinson, Sept. 7, 1805, Wilkinson: Memoirs of My Own Times, ii, Appendix xxxiii.

811

Testimony of Major James Bruff, Annals, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 589-609, 616-22.

812

Except, of course, Wilkinson's story that Burr urged Western revolution, during the conference of these two men at St. Louis.

813

McCaleb, 34.

814

Wilkinson's testimony, Annals, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 611.

815

McCaleb, 35; Parton: Burr, 401.

816

McCaleb, 36-37.

817

Cox, 190; and McCaleb, 39.

818

McCaleb, 38.

819

Pitt died January 6, 1806. The news reached America late in the winter and Wilkinson learned of it some time in the spring. This fed his alarm, first awakened by the rumors set afloat by Spanish agents of which Clark had advised him. According to Davis and Parton, Wilkinson's resolve to sacrifice Burr was now taken. (See Davis, ii, 381-82; also Parton: Burr, 412.)

820

This was that Burr with his desperadoes would seize the President and other officers of the National Government, together with the public money, arsenals, and ships. If, thereafter, he could not reconcile the States to the new arrangement, the bandit chief and his followers would sail for New Orleans and proclaim the independence of Louisiana.

Professor McCaleb says that this tale was a ruse to throw Casa Yrujo off his guard as to the now widespread reports in Florida and Texas, as well as America, of Burr's intended descent upon Mexico. (See McCaleb, 54-58.) It should be repeated that the proposals of Burr and Dayton to Merry and Casa Yrujo were not publicly known for many years afterward.

Wilkinson had coached Dayton and Burr in the art of getting money by falsehood and intrigue. (Ib. 54.)

821

Adams: U.S. iii, 189-91.

822

Blennerhassett Papers: Safford, 115.

823

Blennerhassett to Burr, Dec. 21, 1805, ib. 118; and see Davis, ii, 392.

824

McCaleb, 50-53.

825

Plumer, 348; Parton: Burr, 403-04.

826

Eaton assumed this title during his African career. He had no legal right to it.

827

Eaton had done good work as American Consul to Algiers, a post to which he was appointed by President Adams. In 1804, Jefferson appointed him United States Naval Agent to the Barbary States. With the approval of the Administration, Eaton undertook to overthrow the reigning Pasha of Tripoli and restore to the throne the Pasha's brother, whom the former had deposed. In executing this project Eaton showed a resourcefulness, persistence, and courage as striking as the means he adopted were bizarre and the adventure itself fantastic. (Allen: Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs, 227 et seq.)

Eaton charged that the enterprise failed because the American fleet did not properly coöperate with him, and because Tobias Lear, American Consul-General to Algiers, compromised the dispute with the reigning Bey whom Eaton's nondescript "army" was then heroically fighting. (Eaton to the Secretary of the Navy, Aug. 9, 1805, Eaton: Prentiss, 376.)

Full of wrath he returned to the United States, openly denouncing all whom he considered in any way responsible for the African débâcle, and demanding payment of large sums which he alleged had been paid by him in advancing American interests in Africa. (Ib. 393, 406; also see Allen, 265.)

828

See Truxtun's testimony, infra, 459-60.

829

The talks between Burr and Eaton took place at the house of Sergeant-at-Arms Wheaton, where Burr boarded. (Annals, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 510.)

830

See Eaton's deposition, Eaton: Prentiss, 396-403; 4 Cranch, 462-67. (Italics are Eaton's.)

831

Samuel Dana and John Cotton Smith. (See Eaton's testimony, Annals, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 512; and Eaton: Prentiss, 396-403.)

That part of Eaton's account of Burr's conversation which differs from those with Truxtun and Decatur is simply unaccountable. That Burr was capable of anything may be granted; but his mind was highly practical and he was uncommonly reserved in speech. Undoubtedly Eaton had heard the common talk about the timidity and supineness of the Government under Jefferson and had himself used language such as he ascribed to Burr.

Whichever way one turns, no path out of the confusion appears. But for Burr's abstemious habits (he was the most temperate of all the leading men of that period) an explanation might be that he and Eaton were very drunk – Burr recklessly so – if he indulged in this uncharacteristic outburst of loquacity.

832

Eaton: Prentiss, 402.

833

McCaleb, 62.

834

Burr to Jackson, March 24, 1806, Parton: Jackson, i, 313-14.

Burr also told Jackson of John Randolph's denunciation of Jefferson's "duplicity and imbecility," and of small politics receiving "more of public attention than all our collisions with foreign powers, or than all the great events on the theatre of Europe." He closed with the statement, then so common, that such "things begin to make reflecting men think, many good patriots to doubt, and some to despond." (See McCaleb, 51.)

835

This man, then thirty-five years of age, and "engaging in … appearance" (Blennerhassett Papers: Safford, 434), had had a picturesque career. A graduate of Göttingen, he lived in Paris during the Revolution, went to London for a time, and from there to Vienna, where he practiced medicine as a cover for his real design, which was to discover the prison where Lafayette was confined and to rescue him from it. This he succeeded in doing, but both were taken soon afterward. Bollmann was imprisoned for many months, and then released on condition that he leave Austria forever. He came to the United States and entered into Burr's enterprise with unbounded enthusiasm. His name often appears as "Erick Bolman" in American records.

836

Dayton to Wilkinson, July 24, 1806, Annals, 10th Cong. 1st sess. 560.

837

See testimony of Littleton W. Tazewell, John Brokenbrough, and Joseph C. Cabell. (Annals, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 630, 675, 676).

838

For Burr's cipher dispatch see Appendix D.

839

Annals, 10th Cong. 1st sess. 424-28 and see McCaleb, 77.

Professor McCaleb evidently doubts the disinterestedness of Morgan and his sons. He shows that they had been in questionable land transactions and, at this moment, were asking Congress to grant them a doubtful land claim. (See McCaleb, footnote to 77.)

840

Testimony of Morgan's son, Annals, 10th Cong. 1st Sess. 424.

841

"Colonel Burr, on this occasion as on others, comported himself precisely as a man having 'treasonable' designs would not comport himself, unless he were mad or intoxicated." (Parton: Burr, 415.) Professor McCaleb's analysis of the Morgan incident is thorough and convincing. (See McCaleb, 76-78.)

842

Nevill and Roberts to Jefferson, Oct. 7, 1806, "Letters in Relation to Burr Conspiracy," MSS. Lib. Cong. This important letter set out that "to give a correct written statement of those [Burr's] conversations [with the Morgans] … would be difficult … and indeed, according to our informant, much more was to be collected, from the manner in which certain things were said, and hints given than from words used."

843

McCaleb, 78-79; Parton: Burr, 411.

844

McCaleb, 83-84; Parton: Burr, 412-13.

At this time Burr also wrote to William Wilkins and B. H. Latrobe calling their attention to his Bastrop speculation. (Miscellaneous MSS. N.Y. Pub. Lib.)

845

See testimony of Dudley Woodbridge, infra, 489.

846

McCaleb, 80.

847

Parton: Burr, 415-16.

848

McCaleb, 81.

849

Ib.; and see Parton: Jackson, i, 318.

850

"There were not a thousand persons in the United States who did not think war with Spain inevitable, impending, begun!" (Parton: Burr, 407; McCaleb, 110.)