force of his country, was exercising his ingenuity in escaping the researches of the public prosecutors. Before this period every measure of the commander in chief was calculated to insure Burr's success, if he had come down in force, and to have executed that plan of sham defence which was obliqued to him by Bollman. He alarmed us with daily reports of the expected invasion from above, and yet he drew down all his force from the upper country, which is strong by nature, and where the most effectual opposition could have been made, to concentrate it in a town, situated in a plain, and totally without defence. He constructed a fort in the centre of that town, so situated, that it is impossible to fire a single gun without destroying an house. And he endeavours still more to weaken the upper country, by a requisition of all the militia to be sent to him at New Orleans. The firmness of Mr. Meade defeated him in this part of the project; but governor Claiborne, with more politeness, invested him with full power over the whole effective force of the territory, which he employed in the degrading drudgery of his illegal arrests. Burr, he said, would descend with two or three gun-boats; Wilkinson had four; and lest Burr should have too much trouble in taking them, they were distributed, at the distance of several leagues from each other, up the rivers. But the master stroke still remained. He had heard from Swartwout, as he tells us, that the intent was, to provide funds by the plunder of New Orleans, and transports, by the seizure of the ship

ping; he therefore persuaded Claiborne to agree to an embargo, and lest any of the ships, so necessary to this expedition, should sail, and carry away the money or merchandize which was to support it, no vessel of any description was suffered to depart. Here then every thing was prepared, if Burr could realize the hopes he so strongly expressed. If he could have descended with a competent force, he would have found not the least impediment to his progress. The upper country was deserted, Fort Adams dismantled, the gun-boats so stationed as to have been successively taken, and the farcical fortifications at New Orleans calculated only to awe the town, in case its citizens should have been inclined to resist the invader. He would have found the stores filled with merchandize, the money untouched in the vaults of the Bank, and a fine fleet of merchantmen waiting to convey him to his final destination. Wilkinson could soon have convinced him that all these dispositions were the effect of his fidelity to his engagements, and might have found much better excuses for the partial disclosures made to government, than he can now give to his country for these worse than equivocal arrangements. But Burr did not come down at the head of a military force; he became a wanderer, almost an outlaw and a convict; and his worthy associate, fearful of the same fate, became a patriot, a faithful citizen, an honourable soldier. Great God, what a profanation of the most sacred. *names!-We must hereafter invent some new terms to express our admiration of public worth-

these have been indelibly disgraced by their appli cation. At this period, then, the copy of this letter was for the first time sent on to the seat of government. A copy did I say? No; it was not yet time-the general's patriotism had not yet attained so strong a growth, as to bear the shock it would receive from a full disclosure of the contents of that letter. He accordingly cut it, and scraped it, and distorted it, to his and his counsellor's fancy, and by suppressing a sentence here, altering a word there, and inserting one wherever he found it necessary, he thought it at last fitted to his purpose. He then copied it fair, and swore, by the HONOUR OF A SOLDIER and the HOLY EVANGELISTS OF ALMIGHTY GOD, that it " substantially was as fair an inter"pretation" as he had been able to make. Is this true?-do you not slander him?-can this monstrous accusation be supported by proof?-if known to you, why did you not sooner disclose it to the government?-why have you suffered the President to disgrace himself and the nation, to dishonour the army, and endanger the safety of the people, by continuing in command a man capable of this conduct?

Alas! it is not to me alone that the confidence was made of the commission of this crime; it was stated to the government, it was recorded in the tribunals, it was proclaimed to the world! The evidence is not that of witnesses who might be prejudiced-of writings which might be forged-but it is contained in the open, unequivocal, unblush

ing confession of the party, and the testimony of the gentleman who advised the act. (See Notes NO. 82 and 83.) The words printed in italics in the letter are those, which were omitted by Wilkinson in the copies which he twice (once on the 14th January, before Mr. Carrick, and afterwards on the 26th of the same month, before Mr. Pollock) deliberately swore were substantially as true interpretations as he could make. The copy I have inserted above is taken from that laid before Congress by the foreman of the grand jury, who decyphered it. By comparing it with the one sworn to by Wilkinson, in his affidavit, (Note No. 81,) another material variation will be seen. In the beginning of the letter he says,-" I have obtained. "funds, and have actually commenced. The

eastern detachments, from different points, will "rendezvous on Ohio." This mention of the eastern detachments would naturally lead to an enquiry, where the western detachments were. It was therefore necessary to employ the scraper and the pen, as well as the blotter; this was ingeniously done; the word eastern was changed into expedition; the place of the period was changed, and the sentence was made to read-" I have actually com"menced the expedition. Detachments from dif "ferent points will rendezvous on Ohio," &c.

But it was not my object to convict Wilkinson of either perjury or forgery. It was to shew that his manner of making a disclosure of this letter, when at last he resolved to do it, was such as evinced a consciousness of guilt; and the perjury, and

the forgery, and the prevarication, are only the means which he employed to effect concealment.

I have now completed my design, which was, principally, to show that the testimony I gave could be supported by the strongest evidence, independent of my own and to answer the calumnies which have been used to destroy my reputation. I dare hope that I have done this satisfactorily. I believe, that after reading these observations, and the proof that supports them, no one can entertain a doubt, either of the treasonable and corrupt connexion of Wilkinson with the Spaniards, or with the unprincipled, if not traiterous, designs of Burr. Let it be remembered, that the evidence I now produce is brought forward only by individual exertion. Let the high station, the actual means of oppression, and the great favour shewn to the accused, be considered, and it will, I believe, be acknowledged that many witnesses have been deterred by fear, or biassed by interest, to conceal their knowledge of facts important in this enquiry. As soon as one shall be instituted by the executive, these causes will cease to operate, and the fullest evidence may be obtained to corroborate that which I have given.

Before I conclude this address, I cannot but complain that I have been rather hardly dealt with by the President; first in the message to Congress of the 20th January, 1808, (Note No. 84.) In this he says, (6 A paper on the commerce of “Louisiana, bearing date the 18th of April, 1798, "is found in the office, supposed to have been