Fallen Founder

by Nancy Isenberg

  8. Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 231.

  9. Trial of Samuel Chase, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, impeached by the House of Representatives. For High Crimes and Misdemeanors, before the Senate of the United States, 2 vols. (Washington City, 1805; New York, 1970), I: 14–18; Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 215, 217–18; Brown, ed., William Plumer’s Memorandum, 236–39.

  10. Brown, ed., William Plumer’s Memorandum, 239; Trial of Samuel Chase, I: 6.

  11. Trial of Samuel Chase, I: 22–23; Uriah Tracy to James Gould, Feb. 4, 1805, in Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 225–26.

  12. Brown, ed., Memorandum of William Plumer, 238, 274; Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 216. For the letter to Governor Bloomfield, see Autobiography of Charles Biddle, 306–08; see also AB to Charles Biddle, Nov. 22, 1804, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 897–98.

  13. Brown, ed., Memorandum of William Plumer, 283–85.

  14. Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 26.

  15. Ibid., 269–70; Samuel Taggart to John Taylor, Feb. 18, 25, 1805, Samuel Taggart Papers, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.; Manasseh Cutler to Dr. Torrey, Mar. 1, 1805, in Schachner, Aaron Burr, 265.

  16. “Charles Lee,” in Harrison, ed., Princetonians: 1769–1775, II: 493–97; Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 203, 254, 279, 282.

  17. Harper had been the defense attorney for the son of Judge Pickering; see Robert Goodloe Harper to AB, Mar. 5, 1804, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 813–14, 847–48; see also The Trial of Samuel Chase, II: 247, and Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 285, 291–92.

  18. See Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 296–99; The Trial of Samuel Chase, II: 492–93.

  19. Simon, What Kind of Nation, 217; Elsmere, Justice Samuel Chase, 301–02, 309–10.

  20. See “John Quincy Adams’s Notes on Burr’s Farewell Address to the Senate,” in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 912; and Monthly Register, Magazine, and Review of the United States (1805): 115. The Senate body as a whole “Resolved unanimously,” thanking Burr for his “impartiality, dignity and ability, with which he presided over their deliberations,” and then praised him by extending “entire approbation of his conduct” in the discharge of “the arduous and important duties, assigned him as President of the Senate.” See Journal of the Senate of the United States of America; being the Second Session of the Eighth Congress, begun and held at the City of Washington, November 5, 1804, and on the twenty-ninth year of the sovereignty of said United States (Washington City, 1804), 191.

  21. Samuel Latham Mitchell to wife, Mar. 2, 1805, in Harper’s Magazine 58 (1879): 749–50; see also Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 910–11.

  22. Washington Federalist, Mar. 13, 1805; see also Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 917.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Schachner, Aaron Burr, 267. On some of Burr’s favorite books, see Wandell and Minnegerode, Aaron Burr, I: 126.

  25. “Farewell Address to the Senate,” in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 915.

  26. William Godwin, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793; New York, 1985), 140; Dorothy Hale, “Profits of Altruism: Caleb Williams and Arthur Mervyn,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 22 (1988): 58.

  27. William Godwin, Caleb Williams, or Things as They Are, ed. Maurice Hindle (London, 1794; New York, 1988), 334–35.

  28. “Farewell Address to Senate,” Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 916.

  29. Ibid., and Journal of the Senate of the United States, 191.

  30. American Citizen, Mar. 22, 1805, Morning Chronicle, Mar. 11, 19, 1805; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 911.

  31. AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Mar. 13, 1805, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, II: 360.

  32. For Burr’s interest in land speculation in New Orleans, see Richard Platt to AB, Dec. 3, 1803; see also Jonathan Dayton to AB, Oct. 27, 1803, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 5.

  33. See Amy S. Greenberg, Manifest Manhood and the Antebellum American Empire (New York, 2005), 5; and Hoffer and Hull, Impeachment in America, 154.

  34. See Robert E. May, Manifest Destiny’s Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2002), 4; Alan Taylor, “A Northern Revolution of 1800? Upper Canada and Thomas Jefferson,” in Onuf et al., eds., The Revolution of 1800, 383–409.

  35. Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic, 106–07; May, Manifest Destiny’s Underworld, 4; and William Masterson, William Blount (Baton Rouge, La., 1954), 307; see also AH to Rufus King, Aug. 22, 1798, and AH to Francisco de Miranda, Aug. 22, 1798, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXII: 154–56; and Charles H. Brown, Agents of Manifest Destiny: The Lives and Times of the Filibusters (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1980), 3–5.

  36. James R. Sofka, “Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of World Politics,” in Peter J. Kastor, ed., The Louisiana Purchase: Emergence of an American Nation (Washington, D.C., 2002), 57–59; see also Peter J. Kastor, The Nation’s Crucible: The Louisiana Purchase and the Creation of America (New Haven, Conn., 2004), 37.

  37. E. Wilson Lyon, Louisiana in French Diplomacy (Oklahoma City, 1934), 183; Kastor, The Nation’s Crucible, 38.

  38. For pro-invasion sentiments, see the Morning Chronicle, Nov. 18, 1802, and Chronicle Express, Feb. 3, 1803; also Walter McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy and New Light on Aaron Burr (reprint 1903; New York, 1966), 19; Kastor, The Nation’s Crucible, 38; and Thomas Robson Hay and M. R. Werner, The Admirable Trumpeter: A Biography of General James Wilkinson (New York, 1941), 196.

  39. For Burr’s efforts to secure information from the U.S. consul to London, see George W. Erving to AB, Apr. 5, 1803, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 753, 767; and Charles Biddle to AB, Feb. 3, 1803, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, II: 235.

  40. Kastor, The Nation’s Crucible, 40, 42.

  41. James Madison to Charles Pinckney, Oct. 12, 1803, in Gaillard Hunt, ed., Writings of James Madison; 9 vols. (New York, 1900–10), VII: 74; see also Sofka, “Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of World Politics,” 60.

  42. Thomas Jefferson to James Bowdoin, Apr. 2, 1807, in Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, XI: 185.

  43. See Jack D. L. Holmes, “Showdown on the Sabine: General James Wilkinson vs. Lieutenant-Colonel Simon De Herrera,” Louisiana Studies 3 (1964): 46–76.

  44. See AB to Charles Biddle, Nov. 18, 1800, Mar. 3, 1802, and James Wilkinson to AB, May 16, 1802, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 458–59, II: 682–84, 720–22, 921–22; see also Hay and Werner, The Admirable Trumpeter, 109, 113, 156–57, 186–87, 189, 191.

  45. James Wilkinson to AB, May 23, 26, 1804, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 5; Isaac J. Cox, “General Wilkinson and His Later Intrigues with the Spaniards,” American Historical Review 19 (July 1914): 800.

  46. Albert Gallatin to Thomas Jefferson, Feb. 12, 1806, in Henry Adams, ed., The Writings of Albert Gallatin, 3 vols. (New York, 1879), I: 290.

  47. On Burr and Dayton’s connection to Clark, see Jonathan Dayton to AB, May 12, 1804, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 5; also AB to Abraham R. Ellery, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, II: 274–75. Some historians have supposed that Jefferson made a corrupt bargain with Burr in acceding to these appointments, ensuring Burr’s support during the Chase trial. There is, however, no evidence to support this claim. For Burr’s support of Browne, see AB to Thomas Jefferson, Mar. 10, 1805 (a letter sent after the Chase trial and after Burr was no longer vice president), in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 918. On Wilkinson’s appointment, see William Foley, “James A. Wilkinson: Territorial Governor,” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin 25 (1968): 4, 16. For the corrupt bargain, see Henry Adams (the originator of this interpretation), History of the United States During the First Administration of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1889), II: 220–21; and Schachner, Aaron Burr, 263; Milton Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Conspiracy and Years of Exile, 1805–1836 (New York, 1982), 27; and Thomas Perkins Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy (New York, 1954), 21–22
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  48. For Burr’s efforts to meet Humboldt, see Andrew Ellicott to AB, June 11, 1804, and Alexander von Humboldt to AB, June 27, 1804, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 5; on Burr making a copy of Humboldt’s map, see also Isaac J. Cox, “General Wilkinson and His Later Intrigues with the Spaniards,” American Historical Review 19 (July 1914): 800. On Burr making a copy of Humboldt’s map, see Statement by Henry Lee, in Henry Lee’s correspondence, 1781–1818, Curtis-Lee Family Papers, box 2, n.d., Library of Congress. I would like to thank Manuscript Reference Librarian Bruce Kirby for locating this source. For those who see Burr as getting the map, see Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy, 20; and Thomas Robson Hay, “Charles Williamson and the Burr Conspiracy,” Journal of Southern History 2 (May 1936): 183. Other historians have Wilkinson pumping Humboldt for information, and both Burr and Wilkinson securing the map—see Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, 212; and Isaac J. Cox, “Hispanic-American Phases of the ‘Burr Conspiracy,’” Hispanic-American Review XII (May 1932): 154.

  49. For the mythology that Burr headed west out of desperation, combined with the audacity to conquer a new empire, see Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy, 15; for the same image of a restless and embittered man, see James Ripley Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior: Major-General James Wilkinson (New York, 1938), 214–15. Even his biographer, who sees Burr’s actions in a more positive light, concluded that he was “dejected, gloomy,” and as an outcast from New York and Washington society, had to head west. See Schachner, Aaron Burr, 269; and for the persistence of this portrait in a recent study, see Buckner F. Melton, Jr., Aaron Burr: Conspiracy to Treason (New York, 2002), 38.

  50. Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy, 10–11.

  51. There was no official oath of allegiance to Spain, but Wilkinson gave the Spanish official the impression that he wished to become a Spanish subject. See Hay and Werner, The Admirable Trumpeter, 83–88, 91, 95–96; Malone, Jefferson the President: Second Term, 218, 362–67; and John Thornton Posey, “Rascality Revisited: In Defense of General James Wilkinson,” Filson Club Quarterly 74 (2000): 343–45. Judith O’Hare Smith concludes that Wilkinson easily imagined Kentucky as a colony of Spain—see “The Spanish Conspiracy, 1783–1792: A Quest for Equality,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 1983, 159.

  52. Cox, “General Wilkinson and His Later Intrigues with the Spaniards,” 795–98.

  53. For those questioning the value of Wilkinson’s “Reflections,” see Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, 206; Hay and Werner, The Admirable Trumpeter, 213. Abernethy makes nothing of the memorial; see Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy, 13. The historian with the best grasp of Wilkinson’s motives is Isaac Cox. He finds it odd that the Spanish would trust, let alone pay Wilkinson for his “obvious suggestions,” but he does see the general as trying to exert pressure on the Spanish by encouraging Jefferson to insist on the Rio Grande boundary. My point is that Wilkinson was more than willing to manipulate both sides—and provoke war—if it made him more valuable—see Cox, “General Wilkinson and His Later Intrigues with the Spaniards,” 799–801. For a translated version of Wilkinson’s “Reflections on Louisiana,” though incorrectly attributed to Vicente Folch, see James Alexander Robertson, ed., Louisiana Under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States 1785–1807 (Cleveland, 1911), 332, 333, 339, 341–45.

  54. “Reflections on Louisiana,” in Robertson, ed., Louisiana Under the Rule of Spain, 325–27, 330, 333–35, 339–40, 342, esp. 337–38.

  55. Charles Biddle to James Wilkinson, Mar. 18, 1805, in Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, 215; “Reflections on Louisiana,” in Robertson, ed., Louisiana Under the Rule of Spain, 334; John Adair to James Wilkinson, Dec. 10, 1804, in Isaac J. Cox, “Western Reactions to the Burr Conspiracy,” Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society (1928), 75.

  56. Cox, “General Wilkinson and His Later Intrigues with the Spaniards,” 801; Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy, 28; see Andrew Jackson to George Washington Campbell, Jan. 15, 1807, and “Testimony Before the Grand Jury in the Case of Aaron Burr,” June 25, 1807, in Harold Moser, Sharon Macpherson, and Charles F. Bryan, Jr., eds., The Papers of Andrew Jackson. Vol II: 1804–1813 (Knoxville, Tenn., 1984), 147–49, 168–69.

  57. See Anthony Merry to Lord Harrowby, Aug. 6, 1804, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 891–92; Adams, History of the United States, 1801–1805, 11, 394–95, 402–03.

  58. Williamson knew about Burr’s plan before his duel with Hamilton; see Charles Williamson to AB, May 16, 1804, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 5; see also Hay, “Charles Williams and the Burr Conspiracy,” 175–78. Burr and Williamson were both in involved in the Cayuga Bridge Company—see John W. Wells, Cayuga Bridge (Ithaca, N.Y.), 2–3; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 391–92.

  59. Hay, “Charles Williamson and the Burr Conspiracy,” 180; Raymond A. Mohl, “Britain and the Aaron Burr Conspiracy,” History Today 21 (1971): 391, 392–95.

  60. Malcolm Lester, Anthony Merry Redivivus: A Reappraisal of the British Minister to the United States, 1803–06 (Charlottesville, Va., 1978), 22, 30–37, 41–42, 101–02, 110–11; Mohl, “Britain and the Aaron Burr Conspiracy,” 393; Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Conspiracy, 35, 38, 49.

  61. Henry Adams concluded that Merry cared little about Hamilton’s death, but the British minister still used High Federalist language to describe “what is generally known of the Profligacy of Mr. Burr’s Character.” See Anthony Merry to Lord Harrowby, Aug. 6, 1804, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 891–92; and Adams, History of the United States, 1801–1805, 394.

  62. See Charles Williamson to Lord Justice of Scotland (Charles Hope of Grafton), Jan. 6, 1806, a letter intended for Lord Melville; see also Williamson to same, Jan. 3, 1806, and Williamson to Sir Evan Nepean, Feb. 2, 1805, Charles Williamson Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.

  63. AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Mar. 29, 1805, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, II: 366–67.

  64. AB’s abbreviated journal sent to Theodosia (entries from May 23, 1805, to Sept. 2, 1805) in ibid., II: 370, 373.

  65. AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Apr. 30, 1805, and extracts from his journal, in ibid., II: 368–69; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 934.

  66. Ray Swick, “Aaron Burr’s Visit to Blennerhassett Island,” West Virginia History 35 (1974): 205–12, 214, and his An Island Called Eden: The Story of Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett (Parkersburg, W. Va., 2000), 16–22, 26–27; and Raymond Fitch, ed., Breaking with Burr: Harman Blennerhassett’s Journal, 1807 (Athens, Ohio, 1988), xi.

  67. See Swick, “Aaron Burr’s Visit to Blennerhassett Island,” 217; Swick, An Island Called Eden, 38–39; and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 949–52.

  68. Isaac Cox, “The Conspiracy in Indiana,” Indiana Magazine of History 25 (Dec. 1929): 258–60, 262–65; and Stuart Seely Sprague, “The Louisville Canal: Key to Aaron Burr’s Western Trip of 1805,” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 73 (1973): 71–73, 76–78. The canal company took shape in Washington, when its backers petitioned Congress for a charter. This effort failed, but the company eventually secured a state charter from the Indiana legislature. Brown, along with Dayton and John Smith, was on a Senate committee that favored the canal project—see AB to John Brown, May 8, 1805, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 933–35. Burr also tried to recruit Benjamin Henry Latrobe to design the canal—see Benjamin Henry Latrobe to AB, Apr. 7, 1805, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 6.

  69. Sprague, “Louisville Canal,” 76–78; William G. Leger, “The Public Life of John Adair,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Kentucky, 1960; AB to James Wilkinson, Mar. 26, 1805, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 922–24, 926, 934; “John Brown,” in Harrison, ed., Princetonians, 1776–83, III: 221; Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Conspiracy, 67–68; Hay and Werner, The Admirable Trumpeter, 241.

  70. Andrew Burstein, The Passions of Andrew Jackson (New York, 2003), 34, 48–49, 55, 56–57, 62–67, 72, 129, 131–33.

  71. Burr was born in 1756; Brown in 1757; Adair in 1757; Dayton in 1760; Jack
son in 1767. Smith’s age is difficult to determine, but he may have been the oldest member of the group. Lyon was born in 1750. Because little is known of Smith’s life before he came to the Northwest Territory in 1790, he is the only one without a record of military service. For Smith’s and Lyon’s military contracts, see Leland R. Johnson, “Aaron Burr: Treason in Kentucky?” Filson Club History Quarterly 75 (2001): 5, 7–8; see also Robert W. Wilhelmy, “Senator John Smith and the Aaron Burr Conspiracy,” Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin 28 (1970): 39–43.

  72. See AB’s journal to Theodosia Burr Alston, June 6–June 10, 1805, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, II: 370; AB to James Wilkinson, May 19, 1805, and Edward Livingston to AB, July 27, 1802, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 732, 937; Hatcher, Edward Livingston, 108, 110, 123–24, 127; McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, 32–34.

  73. AB’s journal to Theodosia Burr Alston, June 17–July 10, 1805, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, II: 370–71; Abernethy, Burr Conspiracy, 25–26, 28; Kastor, The Nation’s Crucible, 59–61, 70, 72–75; McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, 35; and Hay and Werner, The Admirable Trumpeter, 217.

  74. AB to James Wilkinson, Sept. 26, 1805, and AB to ?, Oct. 7, 1805, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 940–43; McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, 36–37.

  75. United States Gazette, Aug. 2, 1805.

  76. Most studies simply quote the queries, without analyzing the argument. See Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy, 32–34; McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, 38–39; Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Conspiracy, 75–76.

  77. Scholars have missed the unique feature of the Burr Conspiracy: it was imagined as an eastern invasion of the West. For a discussion of the traditional concerns of disunion, see James Lewis, “The Burr Conspiracy and the Problem of Loyalty,” in Kastor, ed., The Louisiana Purchase, 64–73.