CHAPTER III

DOWNSTREAM

I

ALREADY in 1804, that summer after the duel, Colonel Burr had realized that within a year he must contrive some occupation for himself, some employment for his energies, some recuperative enterprise for his fortunes. A place to go, something to do, and some money to do it with. In the North, in New York, in New England, he was ruined; in Washington there would be no place for him after inauguration day of 1805; there was no attraction, at his age, in the prospect of a laboriously reconstructed law practice in any of the cities of the Atlantic seaboard. There remained the Southwest, the Territories, that valley of the Mississippi and the new Louisiana; regions to explore, lands to settle, new states to be formed, maybe, numberless opportunities to be grasped. He was popular out there the West had never cared for Alexander Hamilton-he had many friends there, Senator Smith of Ohio, and Senator Brown of Kentucky, and General Wilkinson, and General Andrew Jack

son. It was in the West that he would find political rehabilitation-unless, as seemed more than likely, there should be war with Spain, in which case Colonel Burr, a veteran of Quebec, would know what to do. In fact, there was an old project of his -a project dating back to the days before Alexander Hamilton and General Miranda even-which might at last come to belated fruition.

But first, he must find money, and that must be done in the East. In Philadelphia, during his sojourn there in July and August of 1804, Colonel Burr looked around him, and allowed the gaze of speculation to rest upon His Excellency Anthony Merry, who was then but lately come upon the American scene as Minister from Great Britain. It had not been a comfortable coming to the distressing wilderness of Washington, nor had the republican simplicity of Mr. Jefferson's social deportment, with its genial lack of regard for precedence, increased the charm of residence in the Federal City to Mr. Merry, or to his tall, tempestuous lady. Along with the whole of Washington society, the Vice President had witnessed the progress of the diplomatic feud-into which the Marquis Yrujo had not been slow to inject his personality-engendered during the winter of 1803 by the failure of the President to conduct Mrs. Merry to a place at his table upon the occasion of her first appearance at a White House dinner, to which, with bland indifference to accepted neutral procedure in the case of two countries at war, he had also invited the Minister from France. Mrs. Merry had been very angry, so that in January Mr. Jefferson was writing

that "she has already disturbed our harmony extremely"; indeed, she was "a virago, and in the short course of a few weeks has established a degree of dislike among all classes which one would have thought impossible in so short a time . . . If [she] perseveres she must eat her soup at home."

But in the meantime, Mr. Jefferson himself had established a degree of dislike on the part of Mr. Merry fully as considerable as that of his wife's unpopularity. Mr. Merry disliked Mr. Jefferson, he disliked Washington, he disliked America. Aside from that, he was an extremely worthy, earnest gentleman who took himself and American affairs quite seriously-so that he listened with enthusiastic interest to certain proposals which the Vice President made to him on August 6, 1804. "I have just received an offer from Mr. Burr," he told his Foreign Office, "to lend his assistance to his Majesty's government in any manner in which they may think fit to employ him, particularly in endeavouring to effect a separation of the western part of the United States . . in its whole extent."

course.

There was nothing extraordinary about this, of A few months before, almost every Federalist Senator in Washington had been to see Mr. Merry to enlist his efforts on behalf of New England separation, in which venture they were naturally expecting "support and assistance" from England; if Mr. Merry knew anything at all about America, he knew that the idea of separation as a solution of domestic disputes was considered perfectly normal and logical, even by Mr. Jefferson himself, the guardian, ostensibly, of the Constitu

VOL. II-3

tion. If the obligations of membership in the Union became too irksome, if the Federal policy ran counter to local interests-leave the Union. The West had been talking of it for years.

Colonel Burr's plan was being taken to England by a certain Colonel Charles Williamson, and it was only necessary for Mr. Merry to add that "if after what is generally known of the profligacy of Mr. Burr's character, his Majesty's ministers should think proper to listen to his offer, his present situation in this country, where he is now cast off as much by the democratic as by the Federal party, and where he still preserves connections with some people of influence, added to his great ambition and spirit of revenge against the present Administration, may possibly induce him to exert the talents and activity which he possesses with fidelity to his employers."

In spite of his poor opinion of Colonel Burr, Mr. Merry thought so well of the scheme-whereby, in return for her assistance, England was to profit commercially-that he failed to see that he was being sold a "Mississippi bubble."

2

Colonel Burr went south that summer, all the way to St. Augustine in Florida, and in the winter. he was back at Washington for his final session in the Senate. And in December, three Creole gentlement from New Orleans-Mr. Sauvé, Mr. Derbigny and Mr. d'Estrehan-arrived at the capital to lay certain grievances before the Government. It was not just that the people of the Territory disliked

American ways, and resented American judicial interference with long established Spanish precedents, and loathed their American Governor Claiborne; it was that the treaty had not been fulfilled. It had been promised the inhabitants of Louisiana that they would be incorporated in the Union, and admitted to the rights of American citizenship as soon as possible, but now a year had passed and they were no better than conquered subjects. Congress took note of these complaints, and on March 2, 1805, graciously conferred upon Louisiana the privilege of electing a General Assembly and certain other concessions.

The three Creole deputies were very angry. They expressed their dissatisfaction "very publicly," Mr. Merry reported to his government; they would seek redress elsewhere, they said; and it was their opinion, "after witnessing the proceedings of Congress," that the Union was extremely unstable, and that the connection with it into which they had been "forced" was most regrettable. So these aggrieved gentlemen talked quite openly to anyone who cared to listen, and among others to the Vice President, to whom they had been introduced by General Wilkinson who was then waiting for his commission as Governor of Upper Louisiana. Separation-separation-the word filled the air.

And now on that same March 2, the Vice President left the Senate chamber for the last time. What was he going to do? Congressman Matthew Lyon, of Kentucky-the Vermont victim of the old Sedition Act had moved lately to the West-thought that he should establish a residence in Tennessee