Томас Джефферсон - The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9)

Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of my constant and unalterable respect and attachment.

Dear Sir,—I had intended yesterday to recommend to General Dearborne the writing to you weekly by post, to convey information of our western affairs, so long as they are interesting, because it is possible, though not probable, you might sometimes get the information quicker this way than down the river, but the General received yesterday information of the death of his son in the East Indies, and of course cannot now attend to business. I therefore write you a hasty line for the present week, and send it in duplicates by the Athens and the Nashville routes.

The information in the enclosed paper, as to proceedings in the State of Ohio, is correct. Blennerhasset's flotilla of fifteen boats and two hundred barrels of provisions, is seized, and there can be no doubt that Tyler's flotilla is also taken, because, on the 17th of December, we know there was a sufficient force assembled at Cincinnati to intercept it there, and another party was in pursuit of it on the river above. We are assured that these two flotillas composed the whole of the boats, provided Blennerhasset and Tyler had fled down the river. I do not believe that the number of persons engaged for Burr has ever amounted to five hundred, though some have carried them to one thousand or fifteen hundred. A part of these were engaged as settlers of Bastrop's land, but the greater part of these were engaged under the express assurance that the projected enterprise was against Mexico, and secretly authorized by this government. Many were expressly enlisted in the name of the United States. The proclamation which reached Pittsburg, December 2d, and the other parts of the river successively, undeceived both these classes, and of course drew them off, and I have never seen any proof of their having assembled more than forty men in two boats from Beaver, fifty in Tyler's flotilla, and the boatmen of Blennerhasset's. I believe therefore, that the enterprise may be considered as crushed, but we are not to relax in our attentions until we hear what has passed at Louisville. If everything from that place upwards be successfully arrested, there is nothing from below that is to be feared. Be assured that Tennessee, and particularly General Jackson, are faithful. The orders lodged at Massac and the Chickasaw bluffs, will probably secure the interception of such fugitives from justice as may escape from Louisville, so that I think you will never see one of them. Still I would not wish, till we hear from Louisville, that you should relax your preparations in the least, except so far as to dispense with the militia of Mississippi and Orleans leaving their homes under our order of November 25th. Only let them consider themselves under requisition, and be in a state of readiness should any force, too great for your regulars, escape down the river. You will have been sensible that those orders were given while we supposed you were on the Sabine, and the supposed crisis did not admit the formality of their being passed through you. We had considered Fort Adams as the place to make a stand, because it covered the mouth of the Red river. You have preferred New Orleans on the apprehension of a fleet from the West Indies. Be assured there is not any foundation for such an expectation, but the lying exaggerations of those traitors to impose on others and swell their pretended means. The very man whom they represented to you as gone to Jamaica, and to bring the fleet, has never been from home, and has regularly communicated to me everything which had passed between Burr and him. No such proposition was ever hazarded to him. France or Spain would not send a fleet to take Vera Cruz; and though one of the expeditions now near arriving from England, is probably for Vera Cruz, and perhaps already there, yet the state of things between us renders it impossible they should countenance an enterprise unauthorized by us. Still I repeat that these grounds of security must not stop our proceedings or preparations until they are further confirmed. Go on, therefore, with your works for the defence of New Orleans, because they will always be useful, only looking to what should be permanent rather than means merely temporary. You may expect further information as we receive it, and though I expect it will be such as will place us at our ease, yet we must not place ourselves so until it be certain, but act on the possibility that the resources of our enemy may be greater and deeper than we are yet informed.

Your two confidential messengers delivered their charges safely. One arrived yesterday only with your letter of November 12th. The oral communications he made me are truly important. I beseech you to take the most special care of the two letters which he mentioned to me, the one in cypher, the other from another of the conspirators of high standing, and to send them to me by the first conveyance you can trust. It is necessary that all important testimony should be brought to one centre, in order that the guilty may be convicted, and the innocent left untroubled. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

There is a vessel fitting out at New York, formerly called the Emperor, now the James, or the Brutus (accounts differ), to carry 22 guns and 150 men, and to be commanded by Blakely, who went out Lieutenant of the Leander. She is confidently believed to be destined for Burr at New Orleans. The collector should be put on his guard; he can get much information from the Mayor of New York on the subject. If Blakely went out really with Miranda as Lieutenant, he should be immediately arrested and put on his trial. Will you be so good as to take the necessary measures on this subject?

Mr. Clarke left with me the papers I now send you, presenting the claim of the Corporation of New Orleans to all the lands between the city and the Bayou St. Jean, as a common. What is to be done? The subject is broader than these papers present. I presume this claim would be proper for an investigation and report by the commissioners. I believe it to be a plot against Lafayette. That there should be left a reasonable common for them we had directed; but they might as well claim to the ocean as to the Bayou St. Jean. I am certain there is in some of Claiborne's letters information that they never had a right to a common, but under a kind of lease or permission for a term of years expired long since.

But I think we should go further, and direct the governor to report to us in detail all the lots and buildings owned by the public in New Orleans, stating the use they were applied to under the former government, and that for which they would be proper now; to be laid before Congress at their next session, for their determination. Indeed I am not certain but that Claiborne has made such a report to the Secretary at War. Affectionate salutations.

Dear Sir,—Yours of December 19th has been duly received, and I thank you for your friendly attention to the offer of lands adjoining me for sale. It is true that I have always wished to purchase a part of what was Murray's tract, which would straiten the lines of the Poplar Forest, but I really am not able to make a purchase. I had hoped to keep the expenses of my office within the limits of its salary, so as to apply my private income entirely to the improvement and enlargement of my estate; but I have not been able to do it.

Our affairs with Spain, after which you inquire, do not promise the result we wish. Not that war will take place immediately, but they may go off without a settlement, and leave us in constant bickering about indemnification for spoliations, the navigation of the Mobile and the limits of Louisiana. Burr's enterprise is the most extraordinary since the days of Don Quixotte. It is so extravagant that those who know his understanding, would not believe it if the proofs admitted doubt. He has meant to place himself on the throne of Montezuma, and extend his empire to the Alleghany, seizing on New Orleans as the instrument of compulsion for our western States. I think his undertaking effectually crippled by the activity of Ohio. Whether Kentucky will give him the coup de grace is doubtful; but if he is able to descend the river with any means, we are sufficiently prepared at New Orleans. I hope, however, Kentucky will do its duty, and finish the matter for the honor of popular government, and the discouragement of all arguments for standing armies. Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.