An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson

by Andro Linklater

211 Cox’s three articles on the Louisiana-Texas frontier explore Spain’s border strategy in detail.

  212 On the day that he was to meet Humboldt, Monday, June 11, 1804, JW bombarded Jefferson with detailed queries to be put to Humboldt about routes leading into Texas and Mexico. He signed himself “Jabeil Kingan,” a pseudonym that was in some ways the equivalent of Agent 13, in that he seemed to use it mostly for communicating secret information about Mexico to Americans.

  Wilkinson copied Humboldt’s chart and passed it on to young Zebulon Pike when he set out on his expedition to the west in 1806. And Pike, knowing no better, later published it as an American map, provoking Humboldt to protest angrily to Jefferson at the use of information “which he undoubtedly obtained in Washington with the copy of my map . . . a quick glance at Mr. Pike’s map may prove to you from where he got it.” By then years had passed, and Jefferson brushed the matter aside, although he certainly knew how Pike came by his information.

  CHAPTER 21: BURR’S AMBITION

  The wealth of excellent studies of the Burr Conspiracy poses its own challenge. While juggling JW’s, Burr’s, and Clark’s competing versions, all remarkable for their tendentious way with information, Roger Kennedy’s Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character, and Gordon Wood’s “The Real Treason of Aaron Burr,” have been useful correctives. But I still incline to Henry Adams’s view in History of the United States of America that Creole unrest was, next to the loyalty of the army’s commander, the critical ingredient.

  215 “To save time of which I need much and have little”: JW to Burr, May 23, 1804, quoted in Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, 191.

  216 “never known, in any country, the prejudice in favor of birth, parentage, and descent”: Quoted in Wood, “Real Treason.”

  216 “Mr. Burr’s career is generally looked upon as finished”: Quoted in Adams, History of the United States.

  217 “his conduct very soon inspired me with distrust”: Jefferson, “Conversations with Aaron Burr,” 1804, PTJ.

  217 “He is sanguine enough to hope every thing”: Hamilton to Gouverneur Morris, December 24, 1800, WAH.

  218 “to effect a separation of the Western Part of the United States”: Anthony Merry, quoted in Adams, History of the United States.

  218 “You have appointed General Wilkinson”: Joseph Daveiss to Jefferson, January 10, 1806, PTJ.

  219 “one of the most agreeable, best informed, most genteel, moderate”: Gideon Granger to William Easton, March 16, 1805.

  219 “Of the General I have no very exalted opinion”: Albert Gallatin to Jefferson, February 12, 1806, Writings of Albert Gallatin, ed. Henry Adams Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1879. Gallatin’s comments were evidently in response to Jefferson’s query about his loyalty. In his next sentence Gallatin refers specifically to Ellicott’s warning, demonstrating that Jefferson had not only received his message, but remembered its contents.

  219 “in the meantime I can only say the country is a healthy one”: JW to Charles Biddle, March 18, 1805, quoted in Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior.

  220 “The Kentuckians are full of enterprise”: John Adair to JW, December 10, 1804, ibid.

  220 “We must have a peep at the unknown world”: JW to Adair, May 28, 1805, Clark, Proofs, 120.

  220 “he talked as if the business was indispensable”: Lyon’s deposition to Ezekiel Bacon, congressional committee of inquiry.

  220 “two or three frigates”: Adams, History of the United States.

  222 Morally, the battle of the queues had been won in 1804 when Jefferson himself cropped his pigtail. It went with a general tidying up of the president’s style. “He has improved much in the article of dress,” wrote Senator Plumer in December 1804; “he has laid aside the old slippers, red waistcoat, and soiled corduroy small-clothes, and was dressed all in black, with clean linen and powdered hair.”

  CHAPTER 22: BETRAYER BETRAYED

  The sources for this chapter are those cited earlier.

  225 “the gentle Aurora with lighted taper”: The quote and the reception scene come from Hay, Admirable Trumpeter, 222.

  226 “There has been Leaves cut out of the Books”: Quoted in Linklater, Measuring America, 274.

  227 “From a rank Federalist to a suspected Republican”: Edward Hempstead, quoted in Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, 207.

  228 “Not a single fact has appeared”: Jefferson to Samuel Smith, May 5, 1806, PTJ. 228 “an elegant barge, [with] sails, colors, ten oars”: Aaron Burr to Theodosia Alston, Memoirs of Aaron Burr.

  228 “whose worth you know well how to estimate”: JW to Clark, June 9, 1805, Clark, Proofs, 119.

  229 “many absurd and evil reports circulated here”: Clark to JW, September 7, 1805, Wilkinson, Burr’s Conspiracy exposed, 82.

  229 “particularly of the garrison- towns between Vera Cruz and Mexico [City]”: John Graham’s deposition to the court of inquiry, January 1806.

  229 “I have encouraged, and will continue to encourage”: October 10, 1804, Burr’s Conspiracy exposed, 81.

  229 “He has often said that the Union could not last”: Claiborne quoted in Gayarré, History of Louisiana, ch. 4.

  230 “because I do not acknowledge his superiority,” JW to Samuel Smith, November 14, 1806, quoted in Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, 207.

  230 “My friend, no person was ever more mistaken!” and subsequent quotes: Memoirs, 2:304.

  231 “a Corps of 100 Artillerists, 400 Cavalry”: JW to Dearborn, September 8, 1805, American State Papers, Military Affairs, L.C.

  232 “Burr is about something”: Burr’s Conspiracy exposed, 13.

  232 “You observe to me”: Adair to JW, January 27, 1806, Burr’s conspiracy exposed, 19. 233 “Nothing has been heard from the Brigadier since October”: Burr to JW, April 16, 1806, Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 86.

  235 “Aliens and Suspicious Characters mingling with the Natives”: JW to Jefferson, December 23, 1805, PTJ.

  236 “You will therefore with as little delay as possible repair to the Territory of New Orleans”: Dearborn to JW, May 6, 1806, American State Papers, Military Affairs, L.C.

  237 “Bruff, Lucas &c say it is done to get me out”: JW to Samuel Smith, June 17, 1806, ibid.

  CHAPTER 23: THE GENERAL AT BAY

  The sources for the Burr Conspiracy are those cited earlier.

  238 “General Wilkinson being expressly declared”: Quoted in Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

  239 “Genrl Wilkinson had not left St Louis on 28th July”: Dearborn to Jefferson, September 2, 1806, PTJ.

  240 The abortive approach to the naval captains: See Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

  241 “It is now well ascertained that you are to be displaced in the next session”: Dayton to JW, July 24, 1806, Burr’s Conspiracy exposed, 16.

  242 “[Even] if I had no regard for my own health and constitution”: Journal entry, October 16, 1805, Zebulon M. Pike, An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi and Through the Western Parts of Louisiana . . . (Philadelphia: C. & A. Conrad, 1810).

  242 “Any number of men who may reasonably be calculated on”: October 2, 1806, Pike to JW, quoted in Hollon, “Zebulon Montgomery Pike and the Wilkinson-Burr Conspiracy.” For evidence that papers taken from Pike suggested that he expected to be taken by the Spanish, Bolton, “Papers of Zebulon M. Pike.”

  243 “It must appear strange to you, friend Briggs”: Deposition of Isaac Briggs, Memoirs, vol. 2, Appendix 53.

  244 “The time looked for by many”: JW to Adair, September 27, 1806.

  245 Swartwout’s arrival and transfer of the letter was described by both JW and in Cushing’s deposition at Burr’s trial. T. Carpenter, Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr, 236, 355.

  245 Burr’s letter was, according to the modern editor of his papers, Mary-Jo Kline, probably written by Dayton. However, for all practical purposes it was Burr’s, and he did not demur when Chief Justice Marshall explicitly referred to it as Burr’s letter.

  CHAPTER 24: HIS COUNTRY’S SAVIOR<
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  The sources are those cited earlier for the Burr Conspiracy.

  247 The events were described by Cushing and JW at Burr’s trial. T. Carpenter, Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr.

  248 “If I had faultered [sic]”: Memoirs, 2:326.

  249 “The agency of the Army”: John Randolph, February 1808, quoted in Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

  249 Deposition of Eaton: Louisiana Gazette, March 8, 1807, quoted by Wilkinson, “Paper Prepared and Read.”

  250 “I have never, in my whole life”: JW to Jefferson, October 21, 1806, Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 95.

  251 “I had not formed a decided opinion”: Memoirs, 2:327.

  251 Donaldson’s letter: Ibid., appendix 98.

  253 “a deep, dark and wide-spread conspiracy”: JW to Jefferson, November 12, 1806, ibid., appendix 100.

  253 “I have made up my mind to perish”: JW to Freeman, November 12, 1806, ibid., appendix 101.

  253 “you are surrounded by disaffection”: JW to Claiborne, November 12, 1806, ibid., 2:328.

  253 “Integrity of the Union is menaced”: JW to Samuel Smith, November 12, 1806, quoted in Hay, Admirable Trumpeter, 259. This letter ends with a wild swipe at one of his St. Louis enemies, Judge Return J. Meigs, “a poor, pimping, hypocritical Yankee.”

  253 “spring like Leonidas”: JW to José de Iturrigaray, November 12, 1806, ibid.

  254 “I confess I approached him with caution”: Deposition of Isaac Briggs, Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 53.

  CHAPTER 25: THE GENERAL REDEEMED

  The sources are those cited earlier for the Burr Conspiracy. Much of the detail of JW’s “reign of terror” in New Orleans comes from Charles Gayarré’s History of Louisiana. 256 “Two days after the receipt of General Wilkinson’s information”: Jefferson’s message to Congress, January 27, 1807, PTJ.

  257 “Under circumstances so imperious”: Quoted in Gayarré, History of Louisiana, 163.

  257 “Burr may come”: Mead to Claiborne, December 24, 1806, ibid., 169.

  258 JW and Claiborne’s exchanges: Ibid., ch. 3.

  259 “This was acknowledging the fact”: Ibid., 173.

  261 “dispose of the troops in such manner”: Dearborn to JW, November 27, 1806, American State Papers.

  261 “After a most arduous journey”: Briggs testimony, Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 53. 262 “in a nation tender as to anything infringing liberty”: Jefferson to JW, February 3, 1807, ibid., appendix 30.

  262 “A strict observance of the written laws”: Jefferson to John Colvin, September 20, 1810, PTJ.

  263 “I have never attempted to justify”: JW to Clark, May 24, 1807, Clark, Proofs, 153.

  CHAPTER 26: TWO TRAITORS ON TRIAL

  Among the Burr Conspiracy sources cited earlier, Daniel Clark’s Proofs and Carpenter’s shorthand version of Burr’s trial in September were particularly useful for this chapter.

  264 JW’s approach to Folch, and the latter’s testimony in his support, are detailed in Folch, “An Interview of Governor Folch with General Wilkinson.”

  265 “to forget any personal animosity towards the Governor”: Clark, Proofs, note 65.

  265 The exchange of veiled menaces between JW and Clark are the subject of notes 70 to 76 in Clark, Proofs.

  266 “As to any projects or plans”: Testimony of George Poindexter, Carpenter, Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr, 273.

  266 “Our ground of defence is”: Ibid., 390.

  266 “Why, something would have been done”: Adair quoted in Burr’s Conspiracy exposed, 25.

  267 “he would lash General Wilkinson into tortures”: Quoted in Carpenter, Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr, 356.

  268 “The president has undertaken to prejudge”: Martin to Marshall at the grand jury hearing, quoted in Adams, History of the United States.

  268 “treason against the United States”: Chief Justice John Marshall, Ex Parte Bollman and Ex Parte Swartwout, 8 U.S. 4 Cranch 75 (1807).

  268 “Wilkinson strutted into court”: Washington Irving, quoted in Hay, Admirable Trumpeter, 274.

  269 “I was introduced to a position within the bar”: JW to Jefferson, ibid., 276.

  269 “He is a very slight man but of the common stature”: William Plumer, letter to his son, February 22, 1803, quoted in Albert Beveridge, The Life of John Marshall (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965), 83.

  270 “Your enemies have filled the public ear”: Jefferson to JW, Memoirs, vol. 2, appendix 30.

  270 Proceedings of the September trial are taken from Carpenter, Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr.

  272 “he must hang Mr. Burr”: Ibid., 390.

  272 “He exhibited the manner of a sergeant”: Blennerhassett, quoted in Hay, Admirable Trumpeter, 275.

  CHAPTER 27: THE WAR WITH RANDOLPH

  Randolph’s hostility enmeshed JW in a series of inquiries. Because JW’s biographical works, A Plain Tale, Memoirs, and Burr’s Conspiracy exposed, are composed of the arguments that he deployed in rebuttal, they are central to this and the following chapters.

  276 “I can distinctly trace the source of my persecutions”: Memoirs, vols. 2, 3.

  276 “I recognize no right to hold me accountable”: Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, 218.

  276 “I denounce John Randolph”: Quoted in Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

  277 The story of the Annapolis party: Memoirs 2:7.

  277 “I [was] a secret agent of the Spanish government”: January 7, 1808, Annals of Congress, 10th Cong., 1st sess.

  279 Jefferson’s assertion that Clark’s evidence “is the first direct testimony ever made known to me” was contradicted not just by Ellicott, but by the contents of Gallatin’s note in 1806.

  279 “the present administration has been minutely informed”: Ellicott to Clark, January 10, 1808, Clark, Proofs.

  280 “If I could believe that there was the least danger to the liberties”: Taylor, February 1808, quoted in Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

  281 “The armed resistance to the embargo laws on the Canada line”: Jefferson to JW, August 13, 1808, PTJ.

  282 “it multiplies our wants, depresses our tastes”: JW to Jefferson, October 6, 1808, PTJ. For Jefferson’s decision to send JW to Cuba, see Cox, “The Pan- American Policy of Jefferson and Wilkinson.”

  282 “Many of the appointments were positively bad”: Winfield Scott, Memoirs of Lieutenant- General Scott, quoted in Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army.

  283 “as large a proportion of our regular troops at New Orleans”: Dearborn to JW, December 2, 1808.

  283 “His Majesty had some relations [with] No. 13”: quoted in Szaszdi, “Governor Folch and the Burr Conspiracy.”

  284 “Sweet was the song sung on Monday evening”: Pensioner’s Mirror (New Orleans), April 20, 1809, quoted in Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior.

  285 The melancholy narrative of Terre aux Boeufs is based largely on the “Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the great Mortality in the Troops at New Orleans,” Annals of Congress, April 1810, and JW’s defense in Memoirs, vol. 2.

  CHAPTER 28: MADISON’S ACCUSATIONS

  The remorseless accumulation of documents by JW in his defense to an avalanche of accusations makes Memoirs, vol. 2, a prime source. Theodore Crackel’s Mr. Jefferson’s Army and William Skelton’s An American Profession of Arms provide essential ballast. For the diplomatic and political lead-up to the war of 1812, see Stagg, Mr. Madison’s War.

  289 “I confess, the strength of my mind was shaken”: Memoirs 2:22.

  290 “Mr. Eustis received me with great cordiality”: Ibid., 2:25.

  292 “the untarnished companion of my thigh for forty years”: Hay, Admirable Trumpeter, 306.

  292 The story of the court- martial proceeding is primarily drawn from Memoirs, 2:3–577. The faked Nolan account that explained his Spanish payments appeared on page 119, as follows:

  General Wilkinson in Account with Don E. M[iró].

  Dr[awn].

  1790 June 2,

  To Cash paid Philip Nolan—
$1800

  1792 Aug. 4, To do. remitted by Lacassang— 4000

  1794 July 29, To do. remitted by Owen— 6000

  To do. paid insurance 121/2 percent 750

  To do. remitted by J. E. Collins 6350

  1796 Jan. 4, To do. paid Philip Nolan per receipt 9000

  To balance due J. W. 2095

  29,995

  Cr[edit].

  By net proceeds of 235 hogshead of Tobacco condemned

  in the year 1790 by Arietta, and passed in the year 1791 by Brion— 17874

  By so much recovered for loss sustained on the cargo

  of the boat Speedwell— 6121

  By so much sent by H. Owen, insured— 6000