118. See George Morgan to Presley Neville, Sept. 2, 1806, and “Memorandum,” dated Nov. 19, 1806, recorded by Justice William Tilgham, in Burr Conspiracy documents, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. George Morgan sent his own warning to Jefferson, and Presley Neville and Judge Roberts sent a letter about the interview to James Madison. Though Jefferson later wrote to Morgan (incorrectly) that Morgan’s was the first “intimation” he had of Burr’s plot, at the time he did not react to the warning. Interestingly, General Neville’s son had joined Burr’s expedition. See Abernethy, Burr Conspiracy, 84; Malone, Jefferson the President: Second Term, 239; and Thomas Jefferson to George Morgan, Mar. 26, 1807, in Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, IX: 174. Eaton’s involvement in the Burr trial was not the first time he viewed himself as defeating a conspiracy. In 1797, he had been charged with a confidential commission from the secretary of state to arrest New Yorker D. Nicholas Romayne, then considered Tennessean William Blount’s major accomplice in the attempt to seize Spanish lands. See The Life of the Late Gen. William, 53–54; and Edwards, Barbary General, 54–56.
119. “Memorandum” dated Nov. 19, 1806; Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, I: 504. See also Presley Neville and Samuel Roberts to James Madison, Oct. 7, 1806 (this letter also reported on the same meeting with the Morgans and there was no mention of the offensive remark), James Madison Papers, Library of Congress; and AB to Jonathan Rhea, July 25, 1807, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1037.
120. Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, I: 509–10.
121. Ibid., I: 508, 513–18, 526–29.
122. Ibid., I: 518–19, 521, 532.
123. Ibid., I: 529, 533, 578. Henry Tazewell, a member of the grand jury, and a lawyer, praised Wickham’s address—see Schachner, Aaron Burr, 432.
124. Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, I: 534–39, 542, 558.
125. Ibid., I: 562–63.
126. Ibid., I: 568–69, 578, 582.
127. See New York Herald, Oct. 3, 1807; American Citizen, Oct. 5, 1807; Parton, Life and Times of Aaron Burr, 2: 146; Burstein, America’s Jubilee, 39; and Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, II: 58, 95.
128. Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, II: 96–97.
129. Amazingly, because Blennerhassett had become so important to the prosecution’s case, just two days before Wirt’s speech, William Duane, editor of the Aurora, tried to bribe the prisoner with a promise of a presidential pardon if he agreed to turn state’s evidence against Burr—see Sanford, ed., The Blennerhassett Papers, 356–58; see also Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, II: 64–65.
130. Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, II: 123–24; Beveridge, The Life of John Marshall, III: 498.
131. Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, II: 336–37.
132. Ibid., II: 425, 428–29, 439, 445–47.
133. William Wirt to Dabney Carr, Sept. 7, 1807, in William Wirt Papers, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore; Thomas Ritchie to Joseph C. Cabell, Aug. 31, 1807, Cabell Papers, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; Robertson, Report of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr, II: 539; Beveridge, The Life of John Marshall, III: 523–24; Malone, Jefferson the President: The Second Term, 345; and AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Sept. 26, 1807, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, II: 411.
134. In the end, Burr gave a bond for $5,000, but the state of Ohio declined to prosecute him—see Beveridge, The Life of John Marshall, III: 517, 527–28; and George Hay to Thomas Jefferson, Oct. 15, 1807, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Library of Congress. Joseph Cabell, who took notes on the trial, wrote that toward the end of the proceedings, Wilkinson was “secretly given up by Hay and Wirt”—Joseph C. Cabell to Isaac Coles, Nov. 6, 1807, Cabell Papers, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
135. Mary-Jo Kline, editor of the Burr Papers, compared handwriting and discovered the true authorship of the cipher letter—see Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 985; see also Charles Biddle to Nicholas Biddle, July 18, 1807, Nicholas Biddle Letters, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
136. Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, Jan. 11, 1812, in Ford, ed., The Works of Thomas Jefferson, IX: 120.
137. Jefferson also wrote to the marquis de Lafayette that Burr’s “conspiracy has been one of the most flagitious of which history will ever furnish an example,” and that the “man who could expect to effect this, with American materials, must be a fit subject for Bedlam.” See Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, Jan. 11, 1807, Thomas Jefferson to Robert Livingston, Mar. 24, 1807, Thomas Jefferson to ?, Mar. 25, 1807, Thomas Jefferson to Colonel George Morgan, Mar. 26, 1807, Thomas Jefferson to William B. Giles, Apr. 20, 1807, and Thomas Jefferson to Marquis de La Fayette, July 14, 1807, in Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, XI: 133, 171–72, 174, 191, 277.
138. Burr dined with Jefferson at the President’s House on Nov. 19, 1805, Feb. 22, 1806, and Apr. 9, 1806. His private conference with Burr is believed to have occurred in Mar.—see Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 964; see also Jefferson’s dinner records in Mary Ellen Scofield, “The Fatigues of His Table: The Politics of Presidential Dining During the Jefferson Administration,” Journal of the Early Republic 16 (Fall 2006): 466–467.
139. John Adams to Benjamin Rush, Feb. 2, 1807, in Schultz and Adair, eds., The Spur of Fame, 76.
CHAPTER TEN
1. Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1042.
2. See reprinting of the handbill in American Citizen, Nov. 9, 1807.
3. See other reports in American Citizen, Nov. 9, Dec. 5, 1807; and Sanford, ed., Blennerhassett Papers, 478–82; Clarkson and Jett, Luther Martin, 274.
4. For the tragic portrait, which comes from Charles Biddle’s reminiscences, see Schachner, Aaron Burr, 445–46; Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Conspiracy, 293; and The Autobiography of Charles Biddle, 323. For reports on Burr’s movements, see National Intelligencer, Nov. 18, 1807; and Sanford, ed., Blennerhassett Papers, 518.
5. Sanford, ed., Blennerhassett Papers, 535–38. For Alston’s repayment, see Côté, Theodosia, 255–56; and Theodosia Burr Alston to AB, May 10, 1811, in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 327–28; see also Ronald Ray Swick, “Harman Blennerhassett: Irish Aristocrat and Frontier Entrepreneur,” in Essays in History 14 (Charlottesville, Va., 1968–69): 65–66, 68, 70–71.
6. Nicholas and his older brother William provided legal assistance to Burr. See AB to William S. Biddle, Nov. 19, 1807, AB to Nicholas Biddle, Dec. 1, 1807, AB to Nicholas Biddle [ca. December 1807], and AB to Nicholas Biddle [1807–08], in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 6. For Burr’s patronage of and affection for Biddle’s sons, see AB to Samuel Smith, Mar. 31, 1804, Charles Biddle to AB, Mar. 13, 1812, and AB to Charles Biddle, July 18, 1804, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 550; II: 687, 885–86; see also Thomas Payne Govan, Nicholas Biddle: Nationalist and Public Banker, 1786–1844 (Chicago, 1959), 19–22, 59, 78.
7. See AB to Charles Williamson, Nov. 25, 1807, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 6; Charles Williamson to Lord Justice Clerk, June 5, 1807, in Williamson Papers, Newberry Library, Chicago.
8. Williamson wrote that one informant told him: “If we had let Burr alone he would have attacked Mexico I have no doubt, & the opinion is very much abroad that Wilkinson deceived him—and instead of joining him as he had reason to believe he would, from some cause or other (some think bribed by the Spaniards) took part against him—and overact the whole.” See Charles Williamson to Lord Justice Clerk, July 12, 1807, Williamson Papers.
9. Swartwout kept in regular contact with Williamson from Feb. to May 1808, sending him several letters and arranging meetings. See Charles Williamson to Lord Melville, Feb. 9, 1808, and Swartwout to Williamson, Mar. 8, Mar. 20, Mar. 29, Apr.
26, May 14, 1808, in Williamson Papers; see also Cox, “Hispanic-American Phases of the ‘Burr Conspiracy,’” 170–71; and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1045.
10. The court-martial of Wilkinson began on Jan. 11 and lasted until June 28, 1808. See Thomas Jefferson to Edward Tiffin, Jan. 30, 1808, in Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, XI: 435; and Abernethy, Burr Conspiracy, 260, 265–67.
11. AB to Theodosia Burr Alston [ante June 1, 1808], in Matthew Livingston Davis, ed., The Private Journal of Aaron Burr (New York, 1838), I: 20–21; William K. Bixby, ed., The Private Journal of Aaron Burr (Rochester, N.Y., 1903), I: 1–2.
12. Davis, ed., Private Journal, I: 121.
13. Bixby, ed., Private Journal, I: 2; William Pinckney to James Madison, Aug. 2, 1808, The Papers of James Madison, Library of Congress.
14. AB to Colonel Charles Williamson, July 19, 1808, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 6; and “Declaration before John Reeves” [August 10, 1808], in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1047–48.
15. AB to Charles Williamson, July 19, 1808; Charles Williamson to AB, June 19, 1808, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1046–47; and Hay, “Charles Williamson and the Burr Conspiracy,” 205–06. See also William W. Kaufman, British Policy and the Independence of Latin America, 1804–1828 (New Haven, Conn., 1951), 36–40.
16. See William Spence Robertson, “The Juntas of 1808 and the Spanish Colonies,” English History Review 31 (1916): 573–85; and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1052.
17. AB to Samuel Swartwout, Aug. 19, 1808, Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1049, 1053.
18. For Burr’s interest in Bentham’s writings, see George W. Erving to AB, Apr. 5, 1803, and Jeremy Bentham to Samuel Bentham, Aug. 29, 1808, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 767, 1057.
19. See AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Sept. 9 and 10, 1808, AB to Jeremy Bentham, Sept. 12, 1808, and Theodosia Burr Alston to AB, Dec. 5, 1808, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 46–49, 50–52; and AB to Jeremy Bentham, Sept. 7, 1808, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1059. See also Williford, “Bentham on the Rights of Women,” 168–72; Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 12.
20. See David Armitage, “The Declaration of Independence,” William and Mary Quarterly 59 (2002); and John Dinwiddy, Bentham (Oxford, 1989), 20–21, 39–42, 49–51.
21. Burr owned Beccaria’s writings; see Burr’s inventory of his book collection, Burr Papers, reel 3; see also my discussions of Burr’s attraction to Utilitarianism in chapters one and four.
22. One expert on Bentham stresses that 1809 was a crucial turning point for the philosopher. He overcame his fears of the French Revolution and began to look to America as the democratic model of the future. Some scholars have noted the influence of James Mill, who met Bentham in 1807. But most scholars have either ignored Burr or downplayed his influence, probably because of his scandalous reputation. But Burr (as he no doubt told Bentham at this time) saw himself as having “superior knowledge” on American democracy, which, of course, he did. See AB to David Randolph, Aug. 21, 1808, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II:1051–52. See also H. L. A. Hart, “Bentham and the United States of America,” Journal of Law and Economics 19 (1976): 560–61; and Chilton Williamson, “Bentham Looks at America,” Political Science Quarterly 70 (Dec. 1955): 544; Dinwiddy, Bentham, 81–82; Williford, “Bentham on the Rights of Women,” 168–69.
23. Dinwiddy, Bentham, 92.
24. Burr even collected drawings from Bentham’s brother Samuel, who had helped design the revolutionary prison—AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Sept. 10, 1808, and Theodosia Burr Alston to AB, Dec. 5, 1808, in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 243–44, 269; AB to Jeremy Bentham, Sept. 2, 1808, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1056–57.
25. The memorandum was to be delivered to the Marquis de Casa Yrujo by fellow American David Randolph—see AB to David Randolph, Aug. 21 and Aug. 28, 1808, and AB to Jeremy Bentham, Sept. 1, 1808, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1051–52, 1054–55.
26. AB to Jeremy Bentham, Sept. 2, 1808, AB to Anthony Merry, [Nov. 6, 1808], in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1057, 1064–65; Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 9.
27. See Theodosia Burr Alston to William Eustis, Oct. 3, 1808. For her other correspondence with the doctor, see her July 20, Oct. 6, 1808, letters to him in the Burr Papers, reel 6; see also Côté, Theodosia, 249–50.
28. AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Oct. 24, Nov. 9, 10, 1808, Theodosia Burr Alston to AB, Oct. 31, 1808, , in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 249–50, 252, 254, 258–60; AB to Joseph Alston, Nov. 10, 1808, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 82–83.
29. AB to Timothy Green, Sept. 9, 1808, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 6; AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Sept. 9,1808, and Theodosia Burr Alston to AB, Oct. 31, 1808, in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 245, 251; and AB to Jeremy Bentham, Oct. 14, 1808, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1063.
30. See “Declaration before John Reeves,” in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 1048–49, 1068; and Theodosia Burr Alston to AB, Aug. 31, 1809, in Van Doren, ed., Private Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 308; Bixby, ed., Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 15–16.
31. AB to Jeremy Bentham, Jan. 13, 1809, AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Feb. 12, 1809, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 135. In his journal, Burr incorrectly identified Henry Mackenzie as Alexander M’Kenzie—Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 47.
32. Burr also felt that his Journal “is only a memorandum to talk from. The most interesting and amusing incidents are not noted at all, because I am sure to remember them”—Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 165.
33. Ibid., I: 16–17.
34. The second editor of Burr’s journal, William Bixby, compiled a glossary of seventeen foreign language words or phrases that described sex or women—see ibid., I: 116, 125, II: 485–503.
35. Ibid., I: 40–41, 75–76, 415, 468, II: 207.
36. Ibid., II: 73–74; Burstein, Jefferson’s Secrets, 29–30. James Wilson’s pocket diary for 1773 can be found in the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; I would like to thank Mary McCarthy for bringing this document to my attention. Professor Brendan McConville has developed a convincing case for why the sexual entries were added later by Wilson’s enemies, discovering that not only was different ink used but the handwriting is different. That a prominent man could be attacked for keeping a sexual diary confirms that fact that Americans, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, knew that elite men did keep this kind of record. I would like to thank Brendan McConville for sharing his research with me. See also Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography, intro. Daniel Aaron (New York, 1990), 81, and Sisman, Boswell’s Presumptuous Task, 28–29.
37. Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 199.
38. AB to Jeremy Bentham, Jan. 23, 1809, and Jeremy Bentham to AB, Mar. 1, 1809, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 166–69; and AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Feb. 15, 1809, in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 286.
39. For AB’s interviews with Lord Melville, see AB to Charles Hope, Mar. 1, 1809, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1077–78; for Melville’s “bold, manly character,” see also David Williamson to AB, Feb. 1, 1809, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I:157. For titling his trip “Adventures of Gil Blas Moheagungk [sic] De Manhattan,” see Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 40. His story was based on Gil Blas by Alain-René Le Sage, which was written between 1700 and 1730; it was translated into English by Tobias Smollett and popular among English and American readers alike. Manhattan is not only a reference to New York but to its Indian name, and Moheigungk was one of the nations inhabiting the island. Burr also referred to himself as Moheigungk in his letter to Bentham. See AB to Bentham, Jan. 23, 1809, in Davis, ed., P
rivate Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 166–68.
40. See Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 93–95; and AB to John Reeves, Apr. 5, 1809, and “Memorandum for Lord Liverpool,” in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1083–85.
41. AB to Jeremy Bentham, Apr. 19, 1809, AB to Mrs.——, N.Y., Apr. 25, 1809, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 202–03, 212; AB to Lord Liverpool, Apr. 20, 1809, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1090–92.
42. See AB to Mary Jane Clairmont (Mrs. Willliam) Godwin, Mar. 29, Apr. 21, 1809, and AB to Ann Onslow, Apr. 21, 1809, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 186–87, 205–06. For Burr’s references to himself as a state prisoner, see AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Apr. 22, 1809, in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 293, and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1092.
43. Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1092–93; Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 107, 110–11, 128; Schachner, Aaron Burr, 462.
44. AB to Theodosia Burr Alston, Oct. 13, 1809, in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 311; AB to Henry Gahn, Oct. 12, 1809, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 312–13; Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 122–23.
45. Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1093; Lynn Hudson Parsons, John Quincy Adams (Madison, Wis., 1998), 88–89, 91–92, 96.
46. Diedrich Lünning to AB, Oct. 21, 1809, and AB to Alexandre Maurice Blanc de Lanautte, comte d’Hauterive, Sept. 10, 1809, in Davis, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 332, 305; Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 254–55, 76–77.
47. See AB to comte d’Hauterive, Jan. 29, 1810, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1093–94, 1096.
48. AB to comte de Volney, Jan. 29, 1810, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1097–98; Bixby, ed., Private Journal of Aaron Burr, I: 338; and Erwin G. Gudde, “Aaron Burr in Weimar,” South Atlantic Quarterly 40 (1941): 361–63.
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