Governor Meriwether Lewis was caught in a web of competing conspiracies. As I continue to research events in the year of 1809, I have changed my mind on several important issues since the original publication of this book in 2009. I have developed a new understanding of James Wilkinson, and I have discovered evidence of a new Burr conspiracy.
There were two conspiracies to invade Mexico in 1809—one by Aaron Burr and the “Mexican Association,” and the other by General Wilkinson and John Smith T., originating in St. Louis. Both conspiracies involved American army officers. The Wilkinson-Smith T. conspiracy was responsible for the death of Meriwether Lewis. Lewis was being thwarted and opposed by both groups. His honesty and loyalty to the United States government stood in the way of all the conspirators.
The two conspiracies were not connected. Wilkinson and Aaron Burr were now bitter enemies. Wilkinson’s had betrayed Burr during their filibuster expedition of 1806-07, when he arranged an informal peace with the Mexican commander over Sabine River boundary issues, and defended New Orleans against arriving “Burrites” and the Mexican Association.
In 1809, it was natural to be thinking of a revolution in Mexico. Napoleon had put his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the throne of Spain in 1808. The British were supporting Spanish Patriots in their fight against French rule in the Pennisular Wars of 1808-14. The King of Portugual had gone into exile in Brazil. Spain’s American colonies—which stretched from California to the southern tip of South America—were ripe to gain their independence from Spain. British, French and American agents were actively engaged in encouraging revolution in Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela and elsewhere. Revolutionary fever had spread to the New World.
General Wilkinson was a useful double agent for both the United States and Spain. Receiving money as Agent #13 from the Spanish government, he was also a spymaster for the United States.1 He foiled Burr’s plans to invade Mexico, and he avoided war at the Sabine River in 1806. Neither country wanted to go to war. Spain was only interested in protecting its silver mines, and the United States was confident it would eventually acquire Spanish territory on the Gulf Coast by intrigue and diplomacy. The status quo was maintained until Napoleon took over the throne of Spain in 1808.
The real enemies of the United States were Britain and France: both nations had ruled North America before, and both wanted to get back into American territory. Wilkinson, throughout his long career in public life, consistently thwarted conspiracies involving the British or French, starting with the Conway Cabal in 1777. The 20 year old Wilkinson, who was then a staff aide to General Horatio Gates, exposed a plot by General Gates and French army officers to replace Washington as Commanding General of the Revolutionary Army. Wilkinson was rewarded with the gift of a large loyalist estate outside of Philadelphia, and the hand of Ann Biddle in marriage. The Biddle family were prominent members of Philadelphia society and friends of George Washington. 2
After several years of research, I now believe Wilkinson has served as a convenient scapegoat for those who want to defend the reputations of Americans who collaborated with the British and French during the hectic years of the early American Republic and the worldwide Napoleonic Wars.
Even though I now think Wilkinson was a patriot; he was a “patriotic sociopath.” He murdered his enemies when they threatened to destroy his career. He most likely caused the assassination of General Anthony Wayne by poison. In 1796, Anthony Wayne, Commanding General of the U. S. Army, died of “stomach gout” while on his way east to begin a court martial against Wilkinson, his rival for power. In a letter to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, General Wayne called Wilkinson “that vile assassin.” 3 After Wayne’s death, Wilkinson succeeded him as Commanding General.
In 1809, General Wilkinson was in real trouble. He knew his position as General was in serious jeopardy. His enemies on all sides hoped they could bring him down.
• Daniel Clark of New Orleans published a book in 1809 called Proofs of the Corruption of General James Wilkinson and of his Connexion to Aaron Burr. Excerpts were being published in newspapers around the country. It was a defense of Clark and members of the secret Mexican Association in New Orleans, who had participated in Aaron Burr’s 1806 filibuster expedition. Daniel Clark knew Wilkinson was in the secret pay of Spain and Clark had testified as the principal witness against him in the congressional investigation of Wilkinson in 1808. The Mexican Association was retaliating against Wilkinson for betraying Burr’s filibuster. 4
• William Simmons, the accountant for the War Department was “very busily employed ransacking the war department, for evidence of the earliest date” to use against Wilkinson in 1809.5
• William Eustis was a close friend of Aaron Burr’s. (They were so close that they discussed sexual matters together).6 He was appointed Secretary of War by President James Madison in March, 1809. In April, 1809, Eustis ordered Wilkinson to take troops stationed in New Orleans up river to Natchez. The 2,000 troops were defending New Orleans against possible attacks by the British. Wilkinson remained at New Orleans until September. This became one of the charges against him at his 1811 court-martial: disobedience of orders.
• Governor Meriwether Lewis was bringing evidence to Washington in September, 1809 concerning Wilkinson’s dealings while he was governor of the territory in 1805-06, regarding the land titles of large land owners in the St. Louis area and leases in the mining district south of St. Louis.7
While serving as the first Governor of Louisiana in 1805-06, Wilkinson had committed fraud. Now, beginning in 1810, three federally appointed land commissioners in St. Louis were going to start examining the titles of large land claims issued by the Spanish government, and the lead mine leases based on them. They had first dealt with small land owners. Wilkinson’s fraudulent dealings were going to be exposed—including leases owned by John Smith T. in the lead mine district.
Two of the commissioners were Wilkinson’s men, but the third commissioner, J. B. Lucas, was an independent, a whistle blower, and a friend of Albert Gallatin’s, the Secretary of the Treasury. Wilkinson and John Smith T., a lead mine operator, wanted Judge Lucas removed from office. Lucas’s term of office, like that of Governor Meriwether Lewis’s, was up for renewal in the 1810 session of Congress.
In the winter of 1809-10, John Smith T. went to Washington with a petition calling for Lucas’s dismissal.8 He was unsuccessful. Congress reappointed Lucas to his post in March, 1810. If Governor Lewis had still been alive, Smith T. would have lobbied against his reappointment also.
What was at stake?—control of the lead mine district south of St. Louis in the Ste. Genevieve area. Lead was used to make bullets, and served as a vital national resource for the United States, which had reserved the lead district as public land in 1807. It could only be leased, and the question of prior land claims affected the leases. (Southeastern Missouri still has the largest concentration of lead in the world, producing 70% of the nation’s primary lead supply and much of its zinc.)9
The “Lead King” of Virginia, Moses Austin arrived in the area in 1796. He swore allegiance to the King of Spain in order to receive a grant of one square league of land (4,428 acres) around Potosi, Missouri.10 Austin introduced modern methods of mining and smelting and employed workers year round. Previously, local residents had dug pits for mining and smelted lead on bonfires or stone fireplaces during the off seasons of their agricultural duties. The small mine operators resented Austin, and he soon had competition from a large mine operator, John Smith T..
John Smith T. arrived in the lead mine district about 1797. Smith—who was from Tennessee—had added the “T.” to his last name to distinguish himself from other John Smiths. He was a wealthy land speculator, who had killed 15-20 men in duels. After the United States acquired Louisiana, Smith T. fought with Austin for control of the best lead mine areas, and both men employed private armies in their “Mineral Wars.” Smith T. was also the area’s most prominent “Burrite.” 11
When Meriwether Lewis replaced General Wilkinson as Governor of Louisiana in 1807, his first mission was to remove suspected Burrites from positions of power and influence.12 Smith T. brought boat loads of lead, munitions and men down the Mississippi to join Aaron Burr during his 1806 filibuster expedition to invade Mexico, but turned back when he learned of Jefferson’s orders to “withdraw from any military expedition or enterprise against the dominions of Spain.” 13 In May, 1807, under Lewis’s new administration, Smith T. was dismissed from his judicial and military appointments in Louisiana.14
Smith T. and General Wilkinson agreed they were some kind of shirt tail relatives because Smith T.’s mother’s maiden name was Lucy Wilkinson.15 They were natural partners in intrigue, and both were flamboyant. Wilkinson had designed his own uniform covered with gold braid, and rode the finest of horses, using gold stirrups and spurs and a leopard skin saddle cloth with dangling claws.16 Smith T. was “rather under the middle size”17 and wore a heavily-fringed and ornamented buckskin hunting shirt. He was always armed—he carried a rifle he called “Hark from the Tombs,” along with four additional pistols and a dirk (knife). Smith T. employed two highly skilled slaves in his gun manufacturing facility and was a skilled gunsmith himself. 18 Wilkinson and Smith T. were powerful men, who would stop at nothing—including assassination—to get their own way.
In this section I will make the best case I can for how a conspiracy to assassinate Meriwether Lewis was carried out. It is, of course, speculative.
By 1809, Smith T. was in an alliance with Wilkinson. They needed to prevent Lewis from bringing damaging documents to Washington D.C., that would hurt both of them. Their next goal was to get him out of office as Governor of Louisiana. If necessary, they would assassinate him.
A primary reason for getting Lewis out of power was to keep him from interfering with their planned filibuster expedition to revolutionize Mexico. (“Filibuster” means an unauthorized expedition into a foreign country to promote a revolution.) I don’t believe they were participating in the plot to invade Mexico organized by Aaron Burr in 1809, which I will discuss in the next section. The difference between the two conspiracies is that Wilkinson and Smith T. were anticipating Texas would eventually become part of the United States, while Burr was planning to establish a new country.
If they had made plans to assassinate or to persuade Lewis while he was traveling to Washington by boat, they had to improvise. Lewis had intended to board a sailing ship at New Orleans to go by water to Baltimore. On his way down the Mississippi to New Orleans, Lewis changed his mind and decided to go overland from Fort Pickering (today’s Memphis, Tennessee), to travel on the Natchez Trace to Nashville.
Lewis started his trip at St. Louis on September 4th, 1809 accompanied by his servant, John Pernier, and his dog, Seaman. Contrary to popular belief, a Newfoundland dog of the 1800’s looked nothing like a modern Newfoundland. It was a much sturdier, working dog used in water rescue because of its webbed feet and strong build.19
Lewis, who was battling malarial fevers, stopped at New Madrid, Missouri, near the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, to rest. While he rested, he made out a will in his small memorandum book and had it witnessed. In the will he left everything to his mother, Lucy Marks, after his debts were paid. The will was dated September 11, 1809.20
The General’s nephew, Benjamin Wilkinson, a St. Louis merchant, must have been on board the boat with at least one other man involved in the conspiracy. Wilkinson and this man improvised a new plan after Lewis decided to go overland on the Natchez Trace. It appears they had planned for Lewis to “commit suicide” while he was traveling on the boat, due to the false stories they circulated of his “attempted suicides” before he reached Fort Pickering. The conspirators improvised a new strategy—still using the suicide story—one that would involve Indian Agent James Neelly, Robert Grinder, and Captain John Brahan.
Lewis arrived at Fort Pickering at the Chickasaw Bluffs on the afternoon of September 15th. He was very ill from malaria. He wrote to President Madison on September 16th:
I arrived here [yesterday-inserted] about [2 Ock-crossed out] P. M…. My apprehension from the heat of the lower country and my fear of the original papers of the voyage fallings onto the hands of the British has induced me to change my rout and proceed by land through the state of Tennisee to the city of Washington.
We know Benjamin Wilkinson stayed at the fort with Lewis, because when Lewis left the fort on September 29th, Wilkinson became responsible for a trunk Lewis had promised to bring to New Orleans for shipment to Baltimore. The trunk belonged to Captain James House, who was going by an overland route to Baltimore. There was no reason for Benjamin Wilkinson to stay at the fort for two weeks, unless he was part of the conspiracy. He would have brought news of the improvised plot to his uncle, General Wilkinson, at Natchez on his way down river. Benjamin died of unknown causes on board the ship sailing to Baltimore in December, 1810.21
The unnamed conspiracy man must have immediately left Fort Pickering on September 15th to find James Neelly, the government Indian Agent, at his Chickasaw Indian Agency near Pontotoc, Mississippi. The Agency, on the Natchez Trace, was 100 miles southeast of the fort. This person could have arrived at the agency on the 17th or 18th of September. Neelly’s cooperation was vital, as Neelly would have to agree to go back to the fort and escort Meriwether Lewis on the Natchez Trace.
Neelly was appointed Indian Agent for the Chickasaw in July, 1809. A resident of the area, he was well known to the Chickasaw tribe, who had requested his appointment. He arrived at the Indian Agency on August 26th and found the buildings in unlivable condition. The previous agent had died the year before. Neelly then went to Fort Pickering to make arrangements for delivering the Indian annuities of 1808 and 1809 to the Chickasaw. A large quantity of goods were in storage at the fort. While he was there, he bought a government horse for $125 on August 31st. Then he would have gone back to the agency to see about repairing the buildings. 22
The unnamed conspirator, after meeting with Neelly at the agency around September 18th, would have gone north on the Trace to make arrangements with Robert Grinder at Grinder’s Stand and then with John Brahan at Nashville: Grinder would do the killing, and Brahan would arrange the cover up. Neelly probably recommended Grinder as the killer.
All that is required to make this scenario work is for Brahan to be lying about when Neelly arrived at the fort—he writes to President Jefferson in the name of Neelly:
I [Neelly] arrived at the Chickasaw Bluffs on or about the 18th of September.
Since the letter is a forgery containing lies, there is no reason to give the dates any credibility. In fact, there is already a uncertainty factor—”on or about.” Neelly probably arrived “on or about” September 21st at the fort. It was a three day journey from the agency to the fort.
After leaving Neelly’s Agency, the traveling conspirator met Major Amos Stoddard on the Natchez Trace. He told Major Stoddard that he had prevented Lewis from commiting suicide at the fort. When Stoddard arrived at Nashville, he told Captain House. After hearing Stoddard’s account, House wrote to Frederick Bates in St. Louis with the story of Lewis’s attempted suicides at the fort.
Major Stoddard was going from Fort Adams (40 miles south of Natchez) to Nashville, so he would have used the Natchez Trace. He met his informant on the trace, even though Captain House says Stoddard met the unnamed man “in the vicinity of Chickasaw Bluffs.” The unnamed man—who said he saved Meriwether Lewis’s life by preventing “several attempts” at suicide at the fort—was not telling the truth. It is likely that Captain House was one of the conspirators, as he is making a nice “paper trail” by reporting this to Bates.
This is very strong evidence that there was a man who was part of the conspiracy, who was traveling on the Trace sometime around September 20th. It makes a logical argument as to how the conspiracy was arranged. There is also the unidentified man who arrived at the fort and told Captain Russell that Lewis wanted his trunks held there instead of being sent to St. Louis or Nashville. Were one or two men involved? Assuming the conspirator arrived at the fort with Lewis and then left to arrange the conspiracy, this had to be another man telling Russell to hold the trunks.
Neelly must have told the conspirator that he needed to appear in court at Franklin on October 11th. It would determine Neelly’s starting date from Fort Pickering in order to allow him enough time to travel to Franklin for his court date. Neelly and Lewis left the fort on September 29th, allowing just enough time for Neelly to reach Franklin by October 11th.
We have no idea what Neelly told Lewis when they parted ways after crossing the Tennessee River. Did Neelly just vanish while en route? Or did he tell Lewis he had a court date? We can’t tell from the manufactured evidence what happened.
After his court appearance, Neelly would have gone to Grinder’s Stand on his way back to the agency, arriving at the stand on October 13th, two days after Lewis’s death. The conspirator was near Grinder’s Stand on October 11th, the date of Lewis’s death. He would have met with Neelly when he arrived there. On the 13th or 14th, Neelly would have gone south to the Indian Agency, and the unnamed conspirator would have gone north to Nashville, bringing the news of Lewis’s death to Captain John Brahan.
The timeline of events fits perfectly. Neelly writes his letter at the Chickasaw Indian Agency on October 18th, and Brahan writes his letter in the name of Neelly at Nashville on October 18th. This was always a puzzle in the conventional story of Lewis’s suicide—why did it take seven days for the news to reach Nashville? It was only about two days travel time from Grinder’s Stand to Nashville. Now it makes sense.
With the role of the unnamed conspirator mapped out, let’s return to Lewis’s arrival at Fort Pickering on September 15th. Lewis was well enough to write a letter to President Madison on September 17th, enclosing a copy of the Territorial Laws of Louisiana, which was the cause of so much of his financial distress. Lewis had personally paid a bill of $1,517.95 to publish the laws. He expected to be repaid by the federal government, but Secretary of State Robert Smith had denied repayment on the grounds that Lewis had not received prior authorization. Lewis’s yearly salary as Governor of Louisiana was $2,000. He was going to Washington to get his money back.
Captain Gilbert C. Russell, the commander of the fort, had similar issues with the government. Officials on the western frontier often had to pay bills for which they had not received prior authorization. Russell needed to go to Washington to argue for his reimbursements. William Clark was traveling to Washington to deal with bureaucrats. Federal employees on the frontier were being sorely misused. Captain Russell wrote to Jefferson on January 4, 1810:
… in about six days he [Lewis] was perfectly restored in every respect & able to travel. Being then placed myself in a similar situation with him by having my Bills protested to a considerable amount I had made application to the General & expected leave of absence every day to go to Washington on the same business with Governor Lewis. In consequence of which he waited six or eight days expecting I would go with him, but in this we were disappointed & he set off with Major Neely who was going to Nashville.
Neelly would have arrived at the fort around September 21st. He told Russell he was going to Nashville, and he would escort Lewis on the Natchez Trace. There were four travelers in the group who left Fort Pickering on September 29th: Meriwether Lewis, his servant John Pernier, James Neelly, and Russell’s man who was hauling Lewis’s two trunks. They were going southeast on the road to the Indian Agency, where they would connect up with the Natchez Trace. From there, they would head north to Nashville.
Captain Russell provided his own man with a pack horse to handle the trunks—trunks which contained the Lewis and Clark journals and other important papers. Neelly had insisted that after Russell’s man reached the Indian agency, he would substitute his own man for the rest of the journey to Nashville. When he returned to the fort, Russell’s man must have told Russell that Lewis was drinking heavily and Neelly was encouraging it. Russell wrote a second letter to Jefferson on January 31st:
He [Neelly] can have no just claim for anything more than the expenses of his [Lewis’s] interment unless he makes a charge for packing his two Trunks from the nation [Chickasaw Indian territory]. And for that he cannot have the audacity to make a charge after tendering the use of a loose horse or two which he said he had to take from the nation & also the aid of his [Neelly’s] servant. He seem’d happy to have it in his power to serve the Govr & but for making the offer which I accepted I should have employ’d the man who packed the trunks to the Nation to have them taken to Nashville & accompany the Govr. Unfortunately for him this arrangement did not take place, or I hesitate not to say he would this day be living. The fact is which you may yet be ignorant of that his untimely death may be attributed solely to the free use of liquor …. this Agt. being extremely fond of liquor, instead of preventing the Govr from drinking or keeping him under any restraint advised him to it & from everything I can learn gave the man every chance to seek an opportunity to destroy himself. Also from the statement of Grinder’s wife where he killed himself I cannot help to believe that Purney was rather aiding & abeting in the murder than otherwise.
Lewis had absolutely no history of alcohol abuse. However, the cure for malarial fevers was opium mixed with alcohol, a mixture called laudenam. When he had arrived at Fort Pickering Russell had denied him the use of strong liquor and restricted him to “claret & a little white wine.” He told Jefferson that Lewis had sworn off strong drink and the use of snuff. But it is obvious Lewis was under a great deal of stress, and perhaps—like many potential victims of assassination—he was aware his days might be numbered.
They reached the agency probably on October 2nd. Neelly created the deposition for the newspaper ad on October 3rd, and they set off from the agency on October 4th. Now the party consisted of Lewis, Pernier, Neelly and Neelly’s servant. It is a distance of 85 miles on a modern map program between Pontotoc and the Tennessee River. They would have spent the night of October 6th at Colbert’s Inn on the south side of the river and crossed over on the ferry the next morning.
Sixteen miles north of the Tennessee River on the Trace, there was a stand (traveler’s inn) located at the junction of a road, or trail, going east and north toward Lawrenceburg. The intersection is called Cypress Inn today. Back then it was the location of Tuscomby’s Stand, or 16-mile-house. Tuscomby was a Chickasaw Indian chief. By treaty, the Indians had the exclusive right to operate stands in their territory. They would have spent the night of October 7th at Tuscomby’s. 23
The next day, Neelly would have gone to Lawrenceburg and then used an old Indian trail following the route of U. S. Highway 43 to travel north to Franklin. Neelly owned a large farm at Franklin, where his wife lived. It was a distance of about 100 miles. If Neelly left Lewis at Tuscomby’s Stand on the morning of October 8th, he would have arrived at his farm on the 10th and been able to appear in court the next day.
Lewis, Pernier, and Neelly’s servant would have continued north on the Trace. It was a distance of only 44 miles from Tuscomby’s Stand to Grinder’s Stand. The travel distances and timeline are correct for Neelly to reach Franklin by October 11th; but Lewis and his party had an extra day. Perhaps Neelly really did just disappear and they waited at Tuscomby’s an extra day. Or they rested some place on the Trace as they approached Grinder’s Stand. Or perhaps we really don’t know when Lewis died. The only firm date we have is for Neelly’s court appearance on October 11th. The rest of our information is based on the letter created by Brahan in the name of Neelly.
Now I am going to choose details among the three accounts told by Mrs. Grinder, as the basis of my speculation. The first account is in Brahan’s letter to Jefferson (pp. 234–35). The second is Alexander Wilson’s, Lewis’s friend, who visited Grinder’s Stand in May, 1810, six months after Lewis’s death (pp. 251–53). The third account was told to a stranger, a teacher in the Cherokee Nation. It was reported in the New York City Dispatch in 1845 (pp. 260–262). I accept the third account as containing details that sound real, concerning Lewis’s last hours of life. It was told by Mrs. Grinder after her husband died. Remember, Mrs. Grinder is part of the conspiracy and is not telling the truth.
Lewis came up to Grinder’s Stand on October 10th and asked for lodging. He told Mrs. Grinder that two other men would be along shortly, his servant John Pernier, and Neelly’s servant. They arrived and put up their horses. Mrs. Grinder told Alexander Wilson in her second account:
He [Lewis] lighted his pipe, and drawing a chair to the door, sat down, saying to Mrs. Grinder, in a kind tone of voice: “Madame this is a very pleasant evening.” He smoked for some time, but quitted his seat and traversed the yard as before. He again sat down to his pipe, seemed again composed, and casting his eyes wistfully towards the west, observed what a sweet evening it was.
And then the story takes a dramatic turn in her third account, told after her husband’s death:
About dark two or three other men rode up and called for lodging. Mr. Lewis immediately drew a brace of pistols, stepped towards them and challenged them to fight a duel They, not liking this salutation, rode onto the next house, five miles. This alarmed Mrs. Grinder.
Who were these men? One had to have been the unnamed conspirator from the boat, accompanied by one or two others. Lewis recognized them and was prepared to fight for his life. This is what I call their attempt to “reason” with Lewis and persuade him to give up the incriminating documents and agree to leave Louisiana. They were going to give Lewis one last chance before they assassinated him.
Mr. Grinder was not present. His wife was alone with their children and a young servant girl. Grinder’s Stand consisted of two rooms, one for the family, and one for travelers. There was also a separate kitchen facility a few yards from the building. Mrs. Grinder spent the night in the kitchen with their children and the servant girl. She knew that her husband, Robert Grinder, and his niece’s husband, Thomas Runion, would be arriving in the middle of the night to kill Meriwether Lewis.
The two servants slept in the stable, with the horses and the trunks. The stable was located about 200 yards from the main building. In her third account she related the following story concerning events immediately after Lewis’s death in the early hours of October 11th:
After daylight Mr. Pyrna and the servant made their appearance and it appeared they had not slept in the house, but in the stable. Mr. P. had on the clothes Mr. L. wore when they came up to Mrs. Grinder’s the evening before, and Mr. L.’s gold watch in his pocket. Mrs. G. asked what he was doing with Mr. L.’s clothes on; Mr. P. replied, “He gave them to me.” Mr. P. and the servant then searched for Mr. L. found him and brought him into the house, and though he had on a full suit of clothes, they were old and tattered, and not the same as he had on the evening before, and though Mr. P. had said that Lewis had no ammunition, Mrs. G. found several balls and a conserable quantity of powder scattered the floor of the room occupied by Lewis; also a cannister with several pounds in it.
It is inconceivable that Pernier and Neelly’s man didn’t hear gunfire, so most of her story has to be discounted. Pernier may have been sleeping in the stable to protect Lewis’s trunks. But from this third account, it seems Pernier was going to ride off as a decoy at first light. Pernier was a mulatto, part French and part African American. He must have resembled Lewis—at least enough to act as a decoy.
What happened that night? Local tradition relates that a coroner’s jury was called after Lewis’s death; and that all six jury members believed Robert Grinder killed Lewis but were afraid to convict him. It is also said the jury found a moccasin footprint in the yard and identified it as Thomas Runion’s and named Runion as an accessory to the killing. The record of the inquest was in a docket book which was once known to exist in the possession of the family of the jury foreman.24
All we know for certain is that Lewis died. It was reported a few years later that Lewis’s dog died on grief on his grave (p. 259). It is much more likely that Seaman was shot and killed. Why didn’t Pernier come to Lewis’s defense? He must have been prevented from doing so. Perhaps Neelly’s man was restraining him. It was also important that Meriwether Lewis’s death be reported as a suicide. If Pernier also died, the suicide story wouldn’t be believed.
What did Pernier know, and what did he tell President Jefferson when he delivered Neelly’s (Brahan’s) letter to him at Monticello? Pernier had worked for Jefferson in the White House before going to St. Louis with Lewis. Pernier also brought the news to Lewis’s mother, Lucy Marks, who was living at Locust Hill in Albemarle County, close to Monticello. She believed that Pernier was hiding something and that he was involved in the murder of her son. She never believed it was suicide.
Pernier was in a very difficult situation. I believe he told Jefferson the details of the assassination. This has been one of the great puzzles relating to the death of Lewis. Why didn’t anyone from the federal government visit Grinder’s Stand and make inquiries? Why didn’t they arrange for Lewis’s reburial at his family’s graveyard at Locust Hill near Charlottesville? The answer is they knew the truth, that Lewis had been murdered, but they didn’t want it to become public knowledge or a matter for speculation. They covered it up.
Why didn’t Jefferson ask President James Madison, to investigate Lewis’s death?—because it was a time of tremendous vulnerability for the new republic. The United States was headed towards war with Great Britain. There were at least two major conspiracies occurring—three, if you count the New England movement for seccession as separate from the Burr conspiracy. Lewis never would have wanted his death to become a cause for potential disruption of the union. Jefferson’s daughter Martha was living with him at Monticello at this time, with her eight children. She gave birth to her ninth child on January 10, 1810, and he was named Meriwether Lewis Randolph in honor of Lewis.
John Pernier died in Washington six months after Lewis. He was living with a blind, old man, another former servant from Jefferson’s White House. Pernier was waiting to get his back pay of $271.50 from Lewis’s estate. On May 5th, 1810, someone wrote a letter on behalf of the blind old man which said Pernier had died of an overdose of laudenam on April 30th. His friend, who was very poor, was hoping to collect money due Pernier.
General Wilkinson was in Washington when Pernier died, preparing to testify before two congressional committees investigating him. He arrived in Washington in mid April. It is quite likely that he arranged for Pernier to be given a dose of laudenam that would kill him. Pernier had no money to buy it. And who was the person with the educated handwriting, who showed up to write the letter for the old blind man? 25
What motives did General Wilkinson and John Smith T. have for arranging Lewis’s assassination? Their first motive was to retrieve the documents he was carrying—Lewis was going to provide more proof that Wilkinson should be removed as Commanding General of the Army, and Smith T. was going to have his lease holdings in the lead mines challenged. The second motivation was that Lewis was going to upset their plans for a filibuster expedition to revolutionize Mexico.
After Lewis’s death, the documents were inventoried, bundled in groups, and put in the custody of Thomas Freeman, a Wilkinson associate. (See pp. 236–39.)President Madison’s secretary reported that when documents arrived, they were:
so badly assorted that no idea could be given them by any terms of general descriptions.
What were the documents? We can assume the relevant ones were never delivered to Washington DC. They had to contain proof that Wilkinson had committed fraud when he was governor in 1805-06 and Smith T.’s claims were based on fraud.
The question of land claims had reached a boiling point in the fall of 1809. In August, sixteen men met in Ste. Genevieve and chose Smith T. to represent land claimants at the next session of congress of behalf of the “Territory of Louisiana.” A letter writer. signing himself “Land Claimant” wrote to the Missouri Gazette on October 16th urging:
Look before you leap, and think twice, before you sign once…. I have no doubt but col. John Smith T., and other gentlemen who claim the right of representing you would mix their large or elastic 10,000 or 20,000 acre claims with your Bona fide land claims of moderate size …26
Judge J. B. Lucas—the land commissioner Smith T. wanted to remove from office—wrote to his friend, Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, on October 19th:
SIR: the hatred of certain species of Land Claimants against me… is once more revived. I am assailed by a powerfull host, I mean powerfull in the territory … It is probably unnecessary to inform you that John Smith T. who will attend in Washington, this winter as agent for Certain land Claimants in this territory was one of the principal Cooperators with the noted Cox in forcing settlements som years ago on the Yazoo Claim in the state of Tennessee, he is one of my most active ennemies.27
Lucas wrote to the Secretary of War Eustis in December, 1809 about the activities of Governor Wilkinson in 1805-06:
…amongst his [Wilkinson’s] various undue assumptions of power, the one that proved to be the most fatal to the peace of the territory and whose effects are still existing at this Moment and Much felt indeed, is his undue interference with the land claims…. I found Many claims were suspicious others evidently fraudulent; and allmost all of them lame or otherwise more or less defective; at the same time I found that the claimants were generally exorbitant in their pretensions, Bositerous and appearently very confident, as persons generally are when Bolstered by any one whom they believe to be possessing of great power or influence…28
Six weeks after Lewis’s assassination, in late November, 1809, a small expedition set off from Ste. Genevieve, the headquarters of the lead mine district. One of its members was young James Patterson from Pulaski, Tennessee. The others were Reuben Smith, John Smith T.’s brother, a resident of Ste. Genevieve; and John McLanahan, a former sheriff of St. Louis under Wilkinson’s administration. They were accompanied by interpreter Manuel Blanco and three slaves. They said they were on a trading expedition to Sante Fe. They were arrested by Spanish officials in February, 1810, who kept only the Americans in custody; the interpreter and slaves were released.29
They were on a mission to contact Mexican revolutionaries headed by a Catholic priest, Father Miguel Hildago. Hildago’s revolution failed, but Independence Day in Mexico is celebrated as September 16th, dating from Father Hildago’s “Grito de Delores” (Cry of Dolores) issued in September, 1810. Dolores, located in the state of Guanajuato in the Sierre Madre Mountains, is one of the richest sources of silver in the world.30 Reuben Smith later named his son Hildago Smith.31
How would they have known about Father Hildago’s plans for revolution? Father James Maxwell, an Irish Catholic priest, was an ally of Smith T. and Wilkinson. Father Maxwell, who arrived in Ste. Genevieve in 1796, was a land speculator and politician, as well as a priest. He had obtained title to 109,785 acres, on which he planned to settle Irish Catholic emigrants. His land titles, like Smith T.’s land titles, had not been validated by the Spanish government. Father Maxwell was also the first speaker of the territorial legislature of Missouri and the Vicar General of Upper Louisiana for the Catholic Church.32 The trading expedition was carrying letters from Father Maxwell.
The Catholic Church was the money lender in colonial Mexico, and wielded a great deal of power. In 1804, the Spanish government, under the Royal Law of Consolidation, confiscated church properties. Because of this takeover, the Catholic Church became actively committed to Mexican independence.33 In 1805, Aaron Burr had received support from church authorities in New Orleans for his planned filibuster.34
Vardis Fisher, in his Suicide or Murder?: The Strange Death of Meriwether Lewis, discovered a letter from John Brahan to Secretary of War Eustis, and reprinted it without realizing its significance. Brahan wrote to Eustis on September 12, 1810 :
Enclosed is a printed paragraph cut from a Public Newspaper, stating the Arrest by Governor Salcedo, of sundry Citizens of the United States known to Capt. Brahan, of very respectable character & connexions,—and that they have been confined as close prisoners under the charge of being Spies for the French Emperor;—they are said to be in the Castle of St. Eclearia.—Capt. Brahan, in behalf of them & their friends, solicits the immediate interference of the Government of the U.S. to save them from the fatal effects that may proceed from those misrepresentations that have caused their arrest:—etc, etc.35
We know Brahan knew John Smith T. because one of the rare surviving examples of Smith T.’s handwriting was enclosed in a letter from Brahan to Secretary of War Eustis. On February 7, 1809, Smith T. asked Brahan to find out if he could have a contract to deliver 300,000 pounds of lead at a price of 6.25 cents per pound to the government of Louisiana at Ste. Genevieve in the month of August, 1809. ($18,750 total price).36 Brahan was commander of the Army Garrison at Hiwassee, Tennessee, about 100 miles southeast of Nashville. Was this part of their plot to invade Mexico? It may have been.
In June, 1809, Captain Brahan was appointed Receiver of Public Money for the federal land sales which would take place in the Huntsville, Alabama-Muscle Shoals area.37 He asked Secretary of War Eustis if he could retain his appointment in the army until the spring of 1810.38 John Smith T. formerly held title to this land when he was involved in the great Yazoo Land scandals of the 1790’s. At one time Smith T. owned (on doubtful title) half of northern Alabama.39
The release of the three traders from their Mexican prison was not secured until Smith T. traveled to Mexico and ransomed them in 1812. The three men immediately set off to join the Guttiérez-Magee Expedition to liberate Mexico, where they were placed in command of a group of American volunteers.40
Harris Gaylord Warren, author of The Sword Was Their Passport: A History of American Filibustering in the Mexican Revolution states there were three groups of Americans assembling in the Neutral Ground of the Sabine River in 1812:
One was composed of from 300 to 500 idlers; a second was somewhat more respectable and would consist of 500 men from Mississippi; and a still more respectable force would be raised by Reuben Smith, James Patterson, and J. McLanahan, the three traders mentioned previously by Shaler.
Shaler was an American official stationed in Natchitoches who was keeping a close watch on the filibusterers:
Shaler learned from three traders who had been imprisoned by Salcedo [Governor of Spanish Texas] for three years that Texas was ripe for a revolution. 41
The Guttiérez-Magee Expedition was a joint Mexican-United States filibuster. Bernardo Guttiérez, a Creole blacksmith, had served under Father Hildago in 1810. Lieutenant Augustus Magee, a West Point graduate, was a protégée of General Wilkinson’s. The 23 year old Magee, a Lieutenant, had quit the army to join Guttiérez as co-leader of the filibuster. Guttiérez toured the United States, promoting U. S. support for the revolution, and met with James Monroe, Madison’s new Secretary of State. But Magee and Guttiérez soon had a falling out, and Guttiérez wrote:
Magee was a vile traitor ….But the divine Omnipotence who always favored us, permitted this villain to fall sick and die, as a result of some poison which he had taken to avoid being shot.42
After Magee’s mysterious death in February, 1813, Guttiérez captured the town of San Antonio in April, 1813 and the royalist army surrendered. The two commanders of the army were secretly in sympathy with the United States. They were Simon de Herrara, who negotiated the Neutral Ground Agreement with Wilkinson in 1806, and Manuel Salcedo, Governor of Spanish Texas. The two leaders were promised safe passage to Louisiana, and 800 men and officers of the royalist army joined the revolutionary army. However, Guttiérez took charge of the two commanders and twelve of their officers, and—without the knowledge of the Americans—had them executed. 43
After the deaths of Salcedo and Herrara, Guttiérez was made President Protector of an independent Texas by a revolutionary junta. In August, 1813 General Toledo, a revolutionary from Cuba took charge of the army, with Joseph Biddle Wilkinson, the General’s son, serving as his aide. But the revolution ended in failure, and it wasn’t until 1821 and many more attempts, that Mexico achieved its independence.44
In December, 1808, General Wilkinson received orders to take command of 2,000 troops in New Orleans, and prepare to defend the city against British or French attack. The General was also sent on a diplomatic mission to assure the Spanish governors of West Florida and Cuba of the friendship of the United States. He visited both countries before arriving in New Orleans. While en route, he proposed a memorable toast at a public dinner in Norfolk, Virginia to: “The New World, governed by itself and independent of the Old.” 45
Because Napoleon had overthrown the King of Spain in 1808, the Spanish government of Cuba expelled 30,000 French refugees from Cuba, who had fled there after the slave revolution in Haiti. During the spring and summer of 1809, 10,000 of these refugees moved to New Orleans, doubling the size of the French speaking population, and severely straining the resources of New Orleans.46
In 1809, Governor William Clairborne had more to worry about than attacks by the British or French, or the arrival of French refugees. There was a secret organization in New Orleans called the Mexican Association. The association, which had 300 members, wasn’t very secret. Its leaders were Edward Livingston, former Mayor of New York City; Judge John B. Prevost, Aaron Burr’s stepson; Judge James Workman; John Watkins, the former Mayor of New Orleans; and Daniel Clark, one of wealthiest men in the Louisiana. 47
Wilkinson would be assailed by the Mexican Association when he arrived in New Orleans in April, 1809. They hated him for betraying the Burr filibuster expedition in 1806. The Mexican Association had collaborated with Aaron Burr. When Burr visited New Orleans in 1805, he stayed with Edward Livingston, his longtime friend from New York state politics.48 During Burr’s visit, Daniel Clark pledged $50,000 ($2 million in today’s money) towards the Mexican expedition. 49
The goals of the Mexican Association—which Spanish officials called “the American Party”—were to liberate both Mexico and the Spanish territory around New Orleans—Pensacola, Mobile, and Baton Rouge—and establish a new, independent country with New Orleans as its capitol.
In testimony at the 1808 military court of inquiry regarding General Wilkinson, John Graham, Secretary of Orleans Territory, testified that when Daniel Clark approached him about joining Burr’s expedition in 1806, Clark told Graham:
Suppose such a person as yourself joined such an expedition, he might be made a duke.50
Graham turned him down. In December, 1806, Daniel Clark was elected the first representative of Orleans Territory to the United States Congress—and thereafter, Clark took pains to distance himself from both Burr and Wilkinson.
Wilkinson was acting as a double agent when he cooperated with Burr in 1805-06 before betraying him. It was a matter of concern to President Jefferson as to whether he could trust Wilkinson—would he support Burr or betray him? But in the end, Wilkinson proved his loyalty to the United States.
Governor Claiborne wrote to Secretary of State Madison on December 3rd-4th, 1806 after Wilkinson arrived in New Orleans to defend the city against arriving Burrites and resident members of the Mexican Association:
I have no doubt that a conspiracy is formed highly injurious to the interest of the U. S… When the unprincipled combination shall be made known, General Wilkinson will be greatly obnoxious to the associates—but his fidelity to his Country, cannot fail to be justly appreciated by the good and virtuous.51
The Mexican Association was descended from the Mexican Association of New York City, tying in nicely with Edward Livingston’s move to New Orleans.52
There is, however, another conspiracy occurring in the northeastern states during the same time period, which is very much connected to the Burr-Mexican Association conspiracy. It has been called the “Northern Confederacy.” It originated with the “Essex Junto” in Essex County, Massachusetts and played an important role in Federalist Party politics until the end of the War of 1812. 53
Members of the Northern Confederacy feared they would never gain control of the national government because of the “3/5’s rule.” It was a compromise reached at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 between southern slaveholding states and northern states, which required each state to count slaves as 3/5 of a person for purposes of taxation. This raised the taxes collected from the slaveholding states, but it also increased the states’ representation in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College. The 3/5’s rule allowed slave states to dominate national politics until the Civil War.
The leaders of the Northern Confederacy backed Burr during the 1800-01 presidential election. Burr originally was from New Jersey and practiced law in New York state. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, they felt threatened by the idea of more slaveholding states being created in Louisiana. They didn’t object to slavery so much, as to its role in determining national politics. Burr’s daughter, Theodosia, married Joseph Alston, a wealthy rice plantation owner in South Carolina who owned more than 200 slaves, and Burr himself owned slaves.54 It was a matter of who controlled the national government.
The Embargo Act, instituted by Jefferson in December, 1807, prohibited trade with either Britain or France. The embargo crippled the commercial and shipping interests of the northeastern states. Jefferson—who wanted to avoid entering the war between the two great powers—believed it would be enough to deny them trade. There were sufficient grounds for a declaration of war against both countries due to their interference with American shipping.
The Embargo Act was a failure however. There was widespread illegal activity, and it served to strengthen the ties between northeastern commercial and shipping interests with the British government in Canada. Many Americans loyal to Great Britain had emigrated to Canada during the Revolutionary War period. Some 33,000 Loyalists had settled in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and 6,000 in Quebec.55
By looking at a map, you can see why residents of the northern states wanted to expand their territory. If they joined Canada, or a new country was formed, they would have access to the St. Lawrence River. Many friends and relatives were already living in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec.
Aaron Burr married the widow of a prominent British officer named James Prevost. Her husband’s nephew, George Prevost, a colonel in the British army, became Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1808, based in Halifax. Prevost was in charge of the military defense of British colonies on the Atlantic Ocean. He had been Governor of Dominica, an island in the Caribbean, defending it against a French invasion in 1805. In contravention of Jefferson’s Embargo Act, Governor Prevost set up “free ports” in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick where Americans did not have to pay custom duties. Prevost ecouraged leaders of the Northern Confederacy to separate from the United States.56
In March, 1808, John Quincy Adams paid a special visit to Thomas Jefferson to warn him about Governor Prevost of Nova Scotia. In June, Adams resigned from his U. S. Senate seat as senator from Massachusetts, and became a member of Jefferson’s party, the Democrat-Republicans. Adams had been the only Federalist Party senator to vote in favor of Jefferson’s Embargo Act. Adams later wrote:
I had seen a letter from the Governor of Nova Scotia to a person in Massachusetts, affirming that the British government had certain information of a plan by that of France to conquer the British possessions, and effect a revolution in the United States, by means of a war between them and Great Britain….
It was in these letters of 1808 and 1809 [written to his friends in Congress] that I mentioned the design of certain leaders of the Federalist party to effect a dissolution of the Union, and the establish of a Northern confederacy….
The plan was so far matured that the proposal had been made to an individual to permit himself, at the proper time, to be placed at the head of the military movements which it was foreseen, would be necessary to carrying it into execution. In all this there was no overt act of treason…. 57
In 1811, George Prevost became the Governor General of Canada and was Commander of British Forces in North America during the War of 1812. Aaron Burr—through his marriage to Theodosia Prevost who was ten years his senior—had five stepchildren. One of them, John B. Prevost, was a federal judge in New Orlean, and a leader of the Mexican Association.58
After being acquitted in his trial for treason in 1807, Burr sailed for England in June, 1808. He stopped at Halifax where he met George Prevost, who provided him with letters of introduction to influential persons.59 In August, when he arrived in England, Burr declared on his entry form that the reasons for his visit had long been known to Lord Melville, and that:
The undersigned was born within the king’s allegiance and his parents British subjects.60
Later he would make a formal claim to British citizenship on the grounds that he was born in 1756, while New Jersey was still a British colony.61
In June, 1808 a British miliary force of 9,000 men was assembling in Ireland to sail for Caracas, Venezuela to begin revolutionizing Spanish America under the leadership of the Venezulean revolutionary, Francisco de Miranda. However, the British government changed its plans, and on July 8th, signed a treaty of alliance with Spanish patriots fighting to expel the French from the Iberian pennisula. The troops sailed for Spain instead.62
During the nine months he was in Britain, Burr was busy with what he called “X affairs,” the revolutionizing of Spanish America. He met with Jeremy Bentham, a political philosopher and social reformer. They studied maps of the Gulf Coast and Mexico together. He met with the Marqués de Casa Yrujo, a Spanish diplomat who had married Sally McKean, the daughter of the governor of Pennsylvania. And he met with the Spanish patriots who were in London. He visited Edinburgh, Scotland as a guest of prominent families. He met with British leaders on “X” matters.63
In April, 1809 Burr was told to leave England by the British government, who arranged for his passage to Helgoland, a British-occupied island in the North Sea which was a center of smuggling and intrigue against Napoleon.64 From there he went to Sweden, Denmark and Germany, while waiting to obtain an entry visa into Napoleonic France. By February, 1810 he was in Paris, ready to talk about “X” with Napoleon’s ministers.65
He submitted proposals to revolutionize Canada, Nova Scotia, the Floridas, Texas, Mexico and Jamaica. He would use 1,000-5,000 men raised in Europe and preferred to use American ships—”the best sailing vessels”—which could be found in Europe and “denationalized.” The expedition would be joined by 10-12,000 men at Pensacola, Florida, the center of his operations for the Gulf Coast invasions. The Duc de Cadore reported to Napoleon, on March 19, 1810:
Mr. Burr would like to know the views of His Majesty on the plans he has submitted to you. He is ready to execute your orders, and he points out that the present moment would give him more means to be useful than he has later. Today he has at his disposition men who would have followed him last year in an expedition against Mexico. He has at his disposal those who are discontented with the federal government: a great number have attached themselves to him, and he has at this time all the advantages of a party leader. 66
Burr was not successful in obtaining Napoleon’s support, because he had been conspiring with Napoleon’s minister of police, Joseph Fouche, the Duc d’ Otrante, to engage in secret, unauthorized negotiations with Britain. Fouche—who had survived in French politics since the first days of the Terror—was forced to flee the country when the intrigue was exposed.67
Finally, in October, 1811, Burr arrived back in London. From there he returned to New York City in June, 1812, four years after he left the country. In the month that he returned, the War of 1812 between the U. S. and Great Britain began.
As the reader can see, there were a dizzying amount of conspiracies going on in 1808-09. In regards to the death of Meriwether Lewis, the relevant information is Burr’s statement to Napoleon about “men who would have followed him last year in an expedition against Mexico.” This brings us to the final plot—the “Burr-Mexican Association Conspiracy of 1809,” as distinct from the earlier 1806 conspiracy.
This conspiracy came to my attention in David Leon Chandler’s book, The Jefferson Conspiracies.68 Chandler names Wilkinson as the head of a conspiracy to assassinate Meriwether Lewis, and says Wilkinson’s motive was to stop Lewis from bringing evidence of his fraudulent land dealings to Washington. Chandler implicates Jefferson in the plot because of his support for Wilkinson, and then dismisses the story of another plot, which he said Wilkinson was making up—
It appears to have been a Wilkinson effort to deflect blame and ingratiate himself with the administration… The effort is so clumsily close to the Burr plot that it defies belief. There is a “conspiracy” to seize New Orleans. There is a forged letter, and there is the involvement of trusted confederates.69
I obtained Wilkinson’s letter to Eustis about the so-called conspiracy. Wilkinson enclosed copies of three letters written in French, which I had translated by a specialist in old French. They are published here for the first time.70
The letters were written by a young artillery officer in the U. S. Army, Lieutenant Francis Newman, in May-July, 1809. Who was Francis Newman? His father, also named Francis Newman, had a large estate in North Cadbury, England. He deserted his wife for a woman named Lydia Ferguson, who was married to Major Henry Sheridan. They fled to France where Lydia gave birth to their son Francis Newman (our letter writer) in August, 1786. 71
In 1789, they left France for the United States, and purchased the La Grange Estate in La Plata, Maryland. It was the home of Dr. James Craik, Physician General of the U. S. Army, and a close friend and personal physician to George Washington.72 There may be more to this story of the Newman family than meets the eye.
In any event, by 1809, 23-year-old Francis Newman was stationed at Natchitoches in Louisiana Territory and married to Barbara Ronquillo, the daughter of a wealthy Spanish Creole family in New Orleans. After her death, he married her cousin, Marie Solis. Mari’es brother and father figure prominently in the story of what happened to Lieutenant Newman in 1809.
The young officer wrote three letters from Natchitoches, Louisiana near the Neutral Ground Territory, where he was living with his pregnant wife. He told his wife’s cousin to tell his father-in-law to try to sell the family property and leave New Orleans, because a “horrible disaster” was about to happen.
His wife’s cousin, Joseph Solis, Jr., and her uncle, Joseph Solis, Sr., delivered Frances’s letters to the Mayor of New Orleans, in late August, 1809 and they were promptly arrested for doing so, with a bail set at $50,000. They stood trial for libel and were acquitted in December.
Dear Cousin,
I hope this finds you and your whole family in good health. We are all doing well. I recently learned the terrible news that my mother-in-law has died. I have hidden it from my wife so far, because she is pregnant and I am afraid to break the news to her.
My dear cousin, I am afraid to give you details on a plan that is not yet clear to me. I would simply advise you to tell my father-in-law, to try to sell and leave the country, and your father, too. Tell them to avoid getting caught up in the horrible disaster that I see as inevitable.
I will send you a letter by mail in which I will give you the exact details, and at the same time, I am counting on your discretion, not to give my name to anyone. You will recognize my signature at the bottom of the following letters. F.N. I will keep this short, because I don’t have time. Give my regards to your family and my father-in-law. I remain your most sincere friend and cousin for life.
Farewell. Signed
Francis Newman
to Mr. Joseph Solis, Jr., in New Orleans.
Natchitoches, May 19, 1809
My Dear Cousin,
I am taking advantage of the opportunity to send this with Mr. E[illegible] so I can fill you in the matter about which I already spoke to you in my last letter. It involves a correspondence that exists from New Orleans with Mr. Salcedo and various other persons in America, who are forming a party to declare independence. I was invited, like all of the officers, because the American government itself is in on it and in agreement, but what makes me shudder is that a Spanish officer, such as Salcedo, is acting so disgracefully. This correspondence was addressed to a certain Don S[illegible] Seballos, and from Louisiana. It reached Mr. Jean Cortés, and the latter sent it immediately to Mr. Salcedo, who sent [it to?] Don Nicolas Villa[illegible] M[illegible]: once an officer of the Dragoons came, who took this correspondence home. I learned through Mr. Cortés that he fears being discovered because they wrote that Mr. Bosque was arrested on suspicions and was put in irons in St-Jean de Lua, and he may disclose something.
In the last correspondence there is a letter from Mr. Seballos telling Cortés “We have all the French émigrés on the island of Cuba; they are in agreement with us and are outraged at the Spanish government, and they will certainly conduct themselves well, I am assured,” he said, “by several of the most respectable of them, and thus I was able declare my support to these poor souls whose lot I am going to improve.” Those were his words. But he also said “We have several people against us here, but I hope I will be able to turn them around,” and many other things as well. Finally, to come back to the correspondence, the courier is a sort of—savage. He has quite a distinguishing mark—the tip of his left toe is cut off, he has short, kinky hair. He goes down in a barge, and on the way back he lands at the entrance of the fork, and climbs on horseback, and he comes here. I’m going to have you get acquainted with him, because I am going to give him a letter to deliver to you when he goes down there, because he was held up by some bouts of fever. I will send you a letter by mail, which should leave one of these days. I am sending you the names of some people in New Orleans: S[illegible name] Seballos, Argotte, S[oué?], Bidal [Vidal], Riaño, Valverde, Trevilla, Mr. Folch, and, finally, some others such as Bronier, and everyone, as I take them, I will let you know as you requested of me in your letters. Give my regards to the whole family.
Your devoted friend and cousin.
Signed - F.N.
Mr. Joseph Solis, Jr. in New Orleans.
Natchitoches, May 19, July 20th 1809
My Dear Cousin,
I received your letter in which you talk to me and tell me that you are going to discover and intercept this correspondence. I hope you succeed. I will give you all the information I can, and as I would like, in order to be able to remedy a disgraceful matter, which I regard with horror. I would advise you that you cannot stop this courier given that he is going to reach the mouth of the fork. He is armed with a pair of pistols and a dagger. You can be sure that he will not want to travel with anyone. I advise you of this so that you take the necessary measures. I advise you not to reveal my identity, because I would be finished. I have requested permission to go down there. If it is granted to me, I hope to take away some documents with which I could present myself in a Spanish country. The messenger should be arriving there any time. He will give you a letter in which I talk about nothing but some family matters, because this is so you can get to know him. My dear cousin, since you have undertaken such a delicate affair, you must arm yourself with courage; but I do not doubt your steadfastness. That which must guide you is the honor or your country, and to spare so much innocent blood that must be spilled; because, at a dinner given recently at Cortés’ house, Mr. Salcedo told Cortés in front of us, the officers, and all of the people who seemed to be involved in the affair “I have just written to Seballos that I have 15,000 men at my disposal and that we are gaining supporters every day.” My dear cousin, for my part, I would like to be able to help in such an honorable undertaking for a citizen. Remember that, if you succeed, you will save your country. I pray to the Almighty to watch over you and keep you safe.
Again, I advise you not reveal my identity. You know that I am in the military and that I would be finished. If I can obtain what I am after, I will not be in this territory for long.
Regards to the whole family from me and my wife. Your most faithful friend and cousin for life. Farewell.
Signed F.N.
Mr. Joseph Solis, Jr., in New Orleans.
What did Wilkinson say about the letters that he enclosed in the letter he sent to Secretary of War Eustis?
Camp Terre aux Bouefs
3rd Sept 1809
Sir:
The Mayor of New Orleans a few days since, put the enclosed copies of letters into my hands. The reported author is an officer of our artillery, and an Englishman by birth, who was foisted onto the service I know not how. His father, or reputed father, living near Port Tobacco. The young man forfeited his honor to me and married the daughter of a Spanish Pilot on this River.
I have known for some time that a club of Frenchman, Spaniards and others, at the bottom of which I have considered my friend Clark, have been endeavoring to excite jealousies in the Spanish provinces, against the government of the United States, the most distinguished and aristocratic Spaniards in this quarter and myself personally; but I had no conception of the industry of the agents or of the complication of the plans. I have reasons to believe Newman unprincipled, but I must do him the justice today, that I suspect the letters inclosed have been fabricated for him and his name forged. Solis since submitting the originals of these letters to a friend to take a copy, has denied that he ever received a letter from Newman, and the accused Spanish gentleman yesterday brought an action of defamation against him. I have ordered Newman to Fort Adams and I shall find a means to test his integrity in this case; for I shall insist on prosecuting Solis for forgery, and in the meantime I think he should not be promoted….
To prevent the effect of the machinations into which Newman has been introduced, upon the mind of Salcedo, and to favour the mission of Captain Hughes [another matter discussed in the letter] I have considered it my duty to write to the Spaniard [Salcedo], and to give him unquestionable evidence of the amicable dispositions of our government and of the motives which direct the defending movements of our troops up the River. 73
What did the Governor of New Orleans Territory, William Claiborne, say about the affair when he wrote to Secretary of State Robert Smith on November 5, 1809?
The Mayor informed me, also, that suits were commenced by the persons named in the Letters, signed Frances Newman, and F. N. against the two Spaniards who carried the originals to M. Missonet, for Damages and that the deffendants were held to Bail in the sum of fifty—thousand—dollars.—The Mayor further stated that the Letters signed by Frances Newman & F. N. were thought to be forgeries… I mentioned to the Mayor, that notwithstanding the suit, I was no means satisfied on the subject and that I much doubted, whether the letters signed by Frances Newman and F. N. were forgeries.
At all times, the utmost vigilance on the part of the officers of the Government in this Territory is essential, but it is particularly so at the present period, when foreigners and Strangers are daily arriving among us; of whom, many are of doubtful character and desperat fortunes, and may (probably) become willing instruments in the hands of those unprincipled, intriguing individuals, who would wish to disturb the peace, and Union of the American States.74
On November 12, 1809 Claiborne wrote to Robert Smith and reported he had heard from a reliable source that someone had seen a letter in which it was stated:
“that Governor Salcedo was arrested and the Country [the Spanish province of Texas] much agitated.”
Claiborne said he was sending Colonel Henry Hopkins, the Adjutant General of New Orleans Territory, out on a tour of the territory to investigate matters.75
On November 16th, Claiborne wrote to the Captain General of Yucatan, Don Benito Perez, about two American schooners with their crew and passengers being held in Yucatan on the suspicion they were engaged in operations, originating in New Orleans, against the Spanish provinces. The ships were the Celestine and Margaret. Claiborne assured the Captain General that the government of the United States would continue to remain neutral and urged the release of the prisoners and their ships.76
On November 24th, Francis Newman, made a deposition to Governor Claiborne in which he denied all knowledge of the letters or the contents of the letters. Lieutenant Newman was promoted to Captain in November. 77 Later, during the War of 1812, Newman was in charge of Fort Petit Coquilles during the Battle of New Orleans. The fort, rebuilt and renamed Fort Pike, is still in existence today as a state historic site.78
On December 31st, 1809 Claiborne wrote a final report on the affair to Secretary of State Robert Smith:
In a Letter which Colo Hopkins has addressed me, dated La Fourche, November 23, 1809 he says—”I have had a nocturnal interview with two persons residing in this place, one by the name of Hopkins, a Kinsman of C. Taylor and reported to be the natural son of Colonel Burr;—and the other Doctor Savage the Brother in Law of Edward Livingston. 79 From these men I obtained the following information,—Burr was never ordered from England—Burr would have received an appointment in the Revolutionary Army of Spain, if his want of the knowledge of the Language had not been an obstacle;—Burr among other enterprises in person, with four hundred men, was to encamp in the Spanish Dominions, and before the feeble Government of Spain could remove them, they would be joined by twenty thousand of the most brave and enterprising men of the United States;—
We have in this Territory many persons of similar characters to Hopkins and Savage (?); and whose frequest conversations as to the facility of revolutionizing Mexico are calculated to excite the people to Jealousy of our neighbors.” 80
Claiborne went on to say that the Solis men had been acquitted of libel by a Grand Jury, and everyone was in agreement that the letters were forgeries with no truth to them.
All the pieces fit together. Aaron Burr told Napoleon that he had men ready to follow him into Mexico in 1809. Francis Newman reported Governor Salcedo told American army officers he had 15,000 men ready to revolutionize Mexico. Colonel Hopkins reported to Governor Claiborne that Burr’s men told him there were 20,000 men ready to fight.
Frances Newman was right when he warned his cousin, that a “horrible disaster” was about to happen in New Orleans. But the actions of the Solis family in bringing Newman’s letters to the attention of authorities stopped it. The conspiracy was revealed around mid August in New Orleans. If Burr was going to arrive with 400 men as his two conspirators told Colonel Hopkins in November, 1809, the plan would have been for the following year. Conspiracies are always subject to changing circumstances, and they are always based on future hopes.
The larger question is the extent of the conspiracy. Did it involve British military support? It must have. Was the goal to set up an independent country? Burr was associating with Spanish officers. Britain was fighting on the side of Spain. Britain had been prepared to send 9,000 troops to liberate Venezuela. Because of Burr’s family connections to George Prevost, it is reasonable to speculate that British forces in North America would have participated. Wilkinson reported there were 6,000 British troops in the West Indies in 1809.
It was more or less an internal Spanish fight for control of Mexico. Would a newly independent Mexico be revolutionized with the aid of the British, or the French, or the Americans? How closely would it involve Spanish officials from the continent? What would be the form of the new government?
Northeastern merchants and shippers did business in the Caribbean and Mexico. The northeast was the home of privateers—private individuals, with armed ships, who captured enemy ships during wartime and split the proceeds with the government. Both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 were fought by privateers. Baltimore made the fast Baltimore Clipper sailing ships used by privateers, smugglers and slave traders.
What was the connection of this conspiracy to the death of Meriwether Lewis? The connection is with the men who received the letters—Secretary of State Robert Smith, and Secretary of War William Eustis. These were the same two men who were opposing Meriwether Lewis, and refusing to reimburse him for legitimate government expenses.
In the interest of party unity, Madison had chosen men for his cabinet who were not loyal to him. Robert Smith’s brother, Samuel Smith, was Senate Majority leader. The Smith brothers were wealthy Baltimore shipping merchants. Senator Smith was the leader of a faction called “The Invisibles” who intrigued against Madison and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury. His brother, the Secretary of State, undermined Madison’s policies.81 William Eustis, the Secretary of War, was a close friend and family physician of Aaron Burr.
John Randolph, the Senator from Virginia wrote:
Our cabinet presents a novel spectacle to the world—Divided against itself, and the most deadly animosity raging between its principle members,—what can come of it but confusion, mischief, and ruin? 82
Both Secretary of War Eustis and Secretary of State Smith wanted Lewis out of office as Governor of Louisiana. The Smith brothers were leaders of the “Invisibles” faction opposing Madison and Gallatin, and Eustis was undoubtedly allied with them. They wanted their own men in charge of Louisiana and New Orleans. Meriwether Lewis and William Claiborne were honest and capable administrators, who held the line against intrigue and corruption during a very difficult time.
Wilkinson published a three volume set of Memoirs in 1816 which included the events of 1808-09. Much of its material was used in his defense during his court martial of 1811.
In December, 1808 he was ordered to take command of troops being assembled around the United States to go to New Orleans. He explained there was:
… a general impression, that the country was on the eve of hostilities with Great Britain; at the above period, the executive [President Thomas Jefferson] received advice, that the disposable force at Halifax, under Sir George Prevost, was held there in readiness for service, in the West Indies, or to take possession of New Orleans, if our troops should make a northern movement; and hold it as a equivalent, for whatever they might lose, on the side of Canada and Nova Scotia. 83
On April 13, 1809, Wilkinson reached the mouth of the Mississippi. He wrote:
I called at Havanna, and Pensacola, on my voyage, under a special mission from the executive of the United States… The awfully critical situation of Spanish America, imperiously enjoins it on us, to strengthen this feeble, remote, and exposed quarter… Great Britain has now a disposable force, of six thousand men in the West Indies.84
He described the situation in New Orleans:
I found the state of the service deplorable indeed; picture to yourselves, gentlemen, a body of two thousand undisciplined recruits, men and officers (with a few exceptions) sunk in indolence and dissipation; without subordination, discipline or police, and nearly one-third of them sick.85
The general issued orders for mosquito netting for the tents and for the hospital on April 23rd. There were more than 400 sick. He summed up his responsibilities:
Ordered to “THE DEFENCE, OF THE CAPITAL OF LOUISIANA, AGAINST A MARITIME INVASION,” IT BECAME MY PRIMARY DUTY, TO SELECT THE POSITION MOST FAVORABLE TO THE MAIN OBJECT OF MY COMMAND; after which, the health and discipline of the troops, claimed my care and attention.86
On May 12th, he complained to Secretary of War Eustis that the military agent was forbidden to supply goods if the expense exceeded fifty dollars, unless under extraordinary cases. His judgement would prevail over that of Wilkinson, the commanding officer. Military engineers were building useless defenses costing forty thousand dollars. The army had no general staff; the hospital had no surgeon or nurse. The troops had no bunks or mosquito netting, which could not be procured because of the ‘FIFTY DOLLAR ORDER.” There was no transport to provide for movement of the troops—no ox, horse, ass, cart or wagon. There were only six cannons, of which several were damaged. He urged removal of the troops from New Orleans, as it was impossible to maintain their health or discipline in so “licentious a place.” 87
On May 29th, he had chosen a location for the encampment of the troops, Terre aux Boeufs, at the English Turn of the river. Terre aux Boeufs means “Land of Cattle”—the area where produce was grown for the city, and cattle were grazed. It is the same place where General Andrew Jackson fought and won the Battle of New Orleans in January, 1815. It was the best place to defend the city against maritime invasion. He wrote that if the troops remained in New Orleans:
…[it] will expose them to the arts, intrigues, dissipation and corruption of my personal enemies, and the enemies of the administration, and the enemies of the government; who are busy, under the management of Clark and his cabal, as fiends of hell, to corrupt and seduce men and officers from their duty, and to excite discontent and sedition.88
The general warned it would take time to develop military discipline in the troops who would resent leaving New Orleans.
The troops under his command were based in several other locations, including Natchitoches. He also advised Secretary Eustis on May 29th:
From Natchitoches, where ________ has been, and is now in command, I have no returns [reports]; this gentleman’s strong sympathies with[Daniel] Clark and his associates have produced a course of conduct, very unworthy his profession, and more particularly of a revolutionary officer; when I reached this place, to oppose Colonel Burr and his associates in 1807, I found _______ closely connected with the celebrated _____ and ______: and hence, perhaps, his antipathy to me.
Our sick do not vary essentially, nor does our mortality increase, though our sick report is frightful.89
Natchitoches, of course, is where Francis Newman was stationed.
The Secretary of War issued orders on April 30th for the General to move the troops to the high ground near Fort Adams and Natchez, Mississippi. Fort Adams was located 40 miles south of Natchez. Natchez was then considered to be 100 leagues, or 300 miles, from New Orleans by river travel. Natchitoches was 100 miles due west of Natchez. 90
Governor William Claiborne wrote on July 29th to Secretary of State Robert Smith:
You will have heard no doubt, many rumours of the dreadful mortality among the Troops of the U. States stationed in this vicinity. But you may be assured, they are greatly exagerated.—This climate is, in truth, unfavorable to strangers, and it could not have been expected, that the troops would have been exempted from the deseases common to the Country.—The number of deaths have not been considerable, and the sick List not unusually numerous.—I was a few days since at the Camp on a visit to General Wilkinson;—I found it in excellent order and every possible exertion appeared to have been used to render the men comfortable.—The position is an eligible one; it is situated about 12 miles below New Orleans and is represented by several of the old Inhabitants to be as healthy as any point on the Mississippi…. I have understood that an order has been issued for the immediate removal of the Troops by water from hence to Natchez or Fort Adams.—I regret the circumstance, because a voyage up the river, at this time of year, will be hazardous to the health of the men, and because I consider the presence of a respectable detachment of Troops, near to New Orleans as being at this period absolutely necessary. 91
Wilkinson was charged in his 1811 court martial with the “great mortality” of troops at Terre aux Boeufs. He provided daily army reports in his Memoirs that show by the end of June, the total number of sick had decreased by 120 men. The troops had arrived at Terre aux Boeufs on June 10th. They would leave the camp on September 14th. He included a table of official army records showing deaths and desertions of the troops:
A total of 764 men died and 166 deserted. 77% of the deaths occurred after leaving Terre aux Boeufs. 92 They left Terre aux Boeufs on the orders of Secretary of War William Eustis, who ordered the troops moved to the vicinity of Natchez, Mississippi, where the climate was healthier. General Wilkinson was charged with “disobedience of orders and neglect of duty” in establishing a camp at Terre aux Boeufs, and he was ordered removed from his command in October, 1809.
On February 24, 1810 Eustis reviewed the events surrounding the removal of troops, and said that after receiving his orders on June 22nd:
the General made every possible effort to procure transport for his army; but the sickness which afflicted the army, and the whole country, also extended to the marine; owing to this circumstance, and the distance of the vessels from New Orleans, unexpected delays occurred; in addition to which, it being found necessary to have the assistance of public boats at Fort Adams, which required repairs, the General found himself unable, to embark the army until the month of September.” 93
If anyone is to be blamed for the “great mortality” of the troops, it is Secretary of War Eustis. It is altogether possible he wanted the troops near Natchitoches in order to participate in the invasion of Mexico, rather than to defend against the same invasion at Terre aux Boeufs. Eustis was a longtime friend of Aaron Burr’s.
Where exactly was General Wilkinson during the removal of the troops to Natchez in September through late October? He did not leave New Orleans immediately, as he was sick himself. He wrote to Eustis from New Orleans on September 18th. The next letter to Eustis is dated December 6th, from Natchez.
In 1811 the general published a book called: Burr’s Conspiracy Exposed: And General Wilkinson Vindicated Against the Slander of His Enemies on That Important Occasion, in response to Daniel Clark’s book attacking him. In this 1811 book he provided some very interesting information: William Tharp testified under oath—
…on the 30th September last [1809], the following conversation took place [at New Orleans], which I minuted down the same day, and have now before me.
He, Sterrett [a newspaper editor in New Orleans and associate of Daniel Clark] declared to me that he had labored and exerted every nerve to ruin general Wilkinson, and that he would continue to do so to the last, and that during the ensuing session of Congress, the General would fall, and all of his friends with him; this he knew to be certain; that he was confirmed in this belief by a letter he had recently received from a correspondent * who stood high with Mr. Jefferson, who had been assured by him that Mr. J. was now convinced that Wilkinson was guilty, and that he would be this session either broke, or the army would be so modelled as to get him out of the service.
* This advice was no doubt from Mr. Sterrett’s correspondent, Mr. Simmons [the War Department accountant] …94
The 1811 book also included a warrant for the general’s arrest dated October 9, 1809. It was issued by Judge Thomas Rodney of Mississippi Territory on an action brought by John Adair, a former senator from Kentucky and one of Aaron Burr’s top supporters. It accused the general of assault and battery and false imprisonment of Adair during January, 1807, when the general was arresting Burrites arriving in New Orleans and sending them by ship to Richmond, Virginia. At Richmond, the Burrites were released.
The warrant included the information that bail was taken for $7,000 on October 25th. Where was General Wilkinson during the month of October? He says he received news of his recall about the time the arrest warrant was served on him at Natchez on October 9th. John Adair, who was in Natchez, knew about the general’s recall two weeks before the general received the notice of his removal from command. The general was in Natchez—either in jail or out of jail—in mid October.95 He remained on duty through December 16th, when he turned over the command of the army to General Wade Hampton.
Since the general was in New Orleans and Natchez during September and October, 1809, how did the conspirators communicate with him? Communication was slow—it took at between 18-23 days to go back and forth from Fort Pickering to Natchez. Contemporary journals report it was14 days from Fort Pickering to Natchez by water. By land, it took 3 days from Fort Pickering to the Indian Agency and 5 days to travel on the trace to Natchez, for a total of 8 days (or perhaps 9 days). 96
The conspirators’ plans changed when Lewis decided to take the Natchez Trace. Lewis arrived at Fort Pickering on September 15th. General Wilkinson arrived in Natchez in late September or early October. He would have been told about the conspiracy’s change of plans by his nephew, Benjamin Wilkinson who was traveling down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Benjamin left Fort Pickering on September 29th, and would have reached Natchez around October 13th.
Using the principle of making a minimum number of assumptions in arriving at a theory,97 the most logical person to have been involved in the Natchez Trace area was Thomas Freeman. Freeman was described by Andrew Ellicott as an “idle, lying, discontented, mischief-making man”when Ellicott fired him from his job as assistant surveyor in 1798. General Wilkinson hired him after he was fired.98 It is possible that Freeman was on the boat coming down river with Meriwether Lewis, or he may have been at Fort Pickering. He was entirely capable of representing the general’s wishes in any negotiations with Neelly, Grinder and Brahan.
Freeman was the government surveyor of public land at the Great Bend of the Tennessee River. Interestingly enough, Freeman was the largest single purchaser of land at the public auction, buying $18,000 worth of land—obviously on behalf of investors who wished to remain anonymous. 99
We know Freeman took responsibility for delivering Lewis’s bundled and inventoried documents to Washington, and that the documents arrived in complete disorder. Since Freeman was connected to the destruction/removal of documents, it makes him the most logical suspect in the local area for all matters relating to the assassination of Governor Lewis. The documents would have revealed Wilkinson’s activities regarding the land claims of John Smith T., Father James Maxwell, and others with large land holdings and incomplete titles.
There is also the question of involvement of army officers. Captain John Brahan created the Neelly letter forgery, and Captain James House probably participated in the conspiracy. The History Channel’s Brad Meltzer’s Decoded Series proposed that the motives of army officers to participate in the conspiracy would have been because they were named on the secret coded list Lewis prepared for President Jefferson in 1801. The list ranked officers as to their loyalty to Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican party. Nine years later this was old news.
The last question regarding the involvement of Wilkinson in assassinating Lewis is whether he was planning to participate in “revolutionizing” Mexico in Father Hildago’s 1810 revolution. Undoubtedly John Smith T. was involved. All the evidence points to a conspiracy based in the American West to aid Mexicans in their own revolution, with the American goal being at least the acquisition of the province of Texas and favorable trade relationships.
Father James Maxwell of Ste. Genevieve provided a letter of introduction for the “traders” who were (supposedly) traveling to Sante Fe, when they were arrested by Spanish authorities in February, 1810.100 The traders were James Patterson of Pulaski, Tennessee; Reuben Smith, Smith T.’s brother, of Ste. Genevieve; and Josiah McClanahan, the former sherriff of St. Louis, an appointee of Wilkinson’s. Before his death, Benjamin Wilkinson was planning to expand his trade in the Spanish provinces.101 He died on board the ship to Baltimore in 1810.
The announced purpose of the trading expedition, was “geographical and commercial information.” McClanahan wrote to the new Governor of Louisiana, Benjamin Howard, in June, 1812 that they had been motivated to establish a more friendly relationship with the Spanish provinces, because a “new era had taken place,” and a “spirit of change” and “successful revolutions” had inspired them.
It is logical to assume that the conspirators of St. Louis had decided to participate in Father Hildago’s plans to start a revolution in the last months of 1810; and that they knew about it in advance through their connection with Father Maxwell.
After their release from 2½ years in a Mexican prison, the three men became leaders in the Guttiérez-Magee filibuster expedition to revolutionize Mexico in 1812-13. Guttiérez had been a leader in Hildalgo’s failed revolution. Augustus Magee was General Wilkinson’s protégé, and Wilkinson’s son, James Biddle, was part of the expedition. Many men from Tennessee participated.
Aaron Burr’s conspiracy to revolutionize Mexico with British support in 1809 was spoiled by the revelations disclosed in the letters written by Francis Newman. The plan of the St. Louis conspirators to participate in Father Hildago’s revolution was frustrated by the arrest of the three Americans by Spanish authorities. Undoubtedly, many participants in both failed conspiracies joined the Guttiérez-Magee Expediton three years later.
The larger argument in favor of General Wilkinson’s involvement in the assassination of Lewis is that nothing happened in Louisiana Territory or around the Natchez Trace area without his knowledge. He was the most well-connected man in the region. The Natchez Trace had been built as a federal road under his command in 1801—02. The age old question regarding motive, is “who benefits?” and the general undoubtedly benefitted by the death of Meriwether Lewis.
In the end, this is why I call General Wilkinson a “patriotic sociopath.” He defended the United States at crucial times, yet he murdered those who threatened his career. Because of these contradictory activities, he was—and continues to be—a convenient scapegoat for those who wish to obscure the role of others who participated in questionable activities during the years of the early American Republic.
1 It is well known that Wilkinson was employed as Agent #13 by the Spanish government, but Wilkinson also received and dispensed secret service money for the United States. Deposition of William Simmons, War Department accountant, April 13, 1810. American State Papers, House of Representatives, 11th Congress, 2nd session, Misc. Vol. 2, pp. 113–114. Search for 11th congress 2nd session, Brigadier General James Wilkinson, at www.memory.loc.gov
2 This is a new interpretation of Wilkinson’s role in revealing the Conway Cabal. He is usually portrayed as a bumbling, thoughtless young man who accidentally betrayed General Gates because he was drunk.
3 Richard Knopf, Anthony Wayne: A Name in Arms (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1960). See pp. 383–84 for letter from General Wayne to Secretary of War Henry Knox, dated January 29, 1795 for “vile assassin” quote. See pp. 536–88 for letter from Wayne to Secretary of War James McHenry, dated October 28, 1796, in which Wayne says Wilkinson was going to bring impeachment charges against Wayne. Wayne died on December 15, 1796. I think Wayne blamed Wilkinson for the accident that almost took his life on August 2, 1794. While Wayne was en route with his army to the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a giant tree which had been cut with an axe, fell on his tent. A large tree stump near the tent deflected the blow and he survived with only a badly injured leg. Source: Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic by Paul David Nelson (Indiana University Press, 1985), p. 261.
4 Daniel Clark, Proofs of the Corruption of General James Wilkinson and of his Connexion to Aaron Burr: A Full Refutation of His Slanderous Allegations in Relation to the Principal Witness Against Him (University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2005, first published in 1809). James Workman also publish a book defending his own actions, A Letter to the Respectable Citizens in 1807.
5 James Wilkinson, Burr’s Conspiracy Exposed: And General Wilkinson Vindicated Against the Slander of His Enemies On That Important Occasion (Kessinger Publishing, no date, first published in 1811). See page 95-96, deposition of William Tharp.
6 Nancy Isenberg, Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr (Viking Penguin, New York, 2007), p. 35. Isenberg writes that William Eustis was one of three people with whom Burr “felt comfortable disccusing his sexual affairs.” The others were his uncle, Pierpoint Edwards and his daughter Theodosia. Eustis and Burr had become friends during the Revolutionary War. See also Richard N. Côté Theodosia: Theodosia Burr Alston, Portrait of a Prodigy (Corinthian Books, Mt. Pleasant, SC, 2003). Cole writes that Theodosia considered Dr. Eustis a “potential marriage candidate,” p. 35.
7 See pp 53-55, “Wilkinson’s and Smith T.’s Motives.”8 See also William Foley, The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood (University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 1989), p.213.
8 The Territorial Papers of the United States, Territory of Louisiana-Missouri, 1806-14, Vol 14 (US Printing Office, 1949). “Representation to Congress by a Committee of Inhabitants, October 10, 1809,” pp. 323–27.
9 “Southeast Missouri Lead District,” en.wikipedia.org.
10 David B. Gracy II, Moses Austin: His Life (Trinity University Press, San Antonio, 1987), p. 68.
11 Dick Steward, Frontier Swashbuckler:The Life & Legend of John Smith T. (University of Missouri Press, Columbia & London, 2000), pp. 26–51.
12 Meriwether Lewis to William Clark, March 13, 1807 (EG Voohies Collection, Missouri History Museum). “… take such measures in relation to the territory as will be best calculated to destroy the influence and wily machinations of the adherents of Col. Burr.”
13 Steward, p. 77.
14 Steward, p. 83.
15 Steward, pp. 6, 171-72.
16 James Ripley Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior: Major General James Wilkinson (MacMillan Co, NY, 1938), p. 213.
17 John F. Darby, Personal Recollections of John F. Darby, Mayor of St. Louis, 1835 (Hawthorne Publ. Co., St. Louis, no date; first published, 1880), pp. 58, 62.
18 Steward, Frontier Swashbuckler, p. 68-69.
19 McGilvray’s History of British Quadrupeds illustration from 1790. www.newfoundlandpuppies.org
20 Lewis-Marks Collection, M668, University of Virginia Alderman Library; and on file at Albemarle County Courthouse, Charlottesville VA. registered March (?), 1810.
21 There are two conflicting dates of Benjamin Wilkinson’s death: February, 1810 in Annals of St. Louis in its Territorial Days, 1804-1821 by Frederick L. Billon (Arno Press & New York Times, 1971), p. 209; but as December, 1810 in the appendix to Thomas James’ book, Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans, edited by Walter Douglas, p. 256.
22 Thomas Danisi, Uncovering the Truth About Meriwether Lewis (Prometheus Books, 2012) pp. 159–60. Danisi does not interpret this information in the same way. He says Neelly obtained the government horse on August 31, 1809 without explaining where he got the horse. Fort Pickering was the only government agency in the area. It was also where Neelly was ordered to go by the War Department to arrange for the distribution of annuity goods. Danisi says that Neelly rode around for over two weeks visiting Indians “to make introductions” before proceeding to the fort, arriving on September 18th.
23 Dr. William Lindsey McDonald, Lore of the River: The Shoals of Long Ago (Bluewater Publications, USA, 3rd ed., 2007), pp. 112–14.
24 Martin Cooper Avery, “Tragedy at Grinder’s Stand: The Death of Meriwether Lewis,” a master’s thesis, Middle Tennessee State University, 1978, pp. 65–80. John Bakeless, Lewis and Clark: Partners in Discovery (William Morrow & Co., 1947) pp. 419–22. Richard Dillon, Meriwether Lewis:Personal Secretary to President Jefferson, Continental Pathfinder and Governor of Upper Louisiana, with a new foreword by Stephen Ambrose (Great West Books, Lafayette, CA, 1988 & 2003), pp. 344–350. Jonathan Daniels, The Devil’s Backbone: The Story of the Natchez Trace (McGraw Hill Book Co. NY, Toronto, London, 1962), pp. 171–184. John Bakeless researched the story of the local coroner’s inquest thoroughly in his 1947 book with many footnotes. Martin Avery writes that Samuel Whiteside, the foreman of the jury, kept the docket book.
All of the above accounts support the murder theory. Interestingly, Stephen Ambrose, wrote that Dillon’s biography was “such a model biography that there is no need for another.” Yet eight years later, Ambrose reversed himself and wrote Undaunted Courage, in which he defends the suicide story. Dillon wrote: “Was Meriwether Lewis murdered? Yes. Is there proof of his murder? No.” (p.344).
The Cooper Frierson story is on the web, written by a descendant of a member of the jury, in which it is stated that descendants of the jury said that jury members believed Grinder had killed him but they were afraid to convict him. Visit the Cooper Family Records on the Tennessee geneaology website, www.TNgenWeb.org. Search for Lewis County. The involvement of Thomas Runions is reported in Avery’s thesis, as “according to local tradition.” Tony Turnbow says that Thomas Runions was married to Grinder’s niece, Parenthia.
25 Donald Jackson, “On the Death of Meriwether Lewis’s Servant,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser, Vol. 21, No. 3 (July, 1964) pp. 445–448. Pernier died on May 1, 1810. The original letters are in the Coolidge Collection, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.
James Ripley Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior: Major General James Wilkinson (Macmillan Co, NY, 1938), p. 263. The general reached Baltimore on April 16, 1810 on his way to Washington to appear before two congressional committees which were investigating him.
26 Clarence Edwin Carter, The Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. XIV, The Territory of Louisiana-Missouri 1806-1814 continued, p. 328. The quote is from a letter to the Missouri Gazette published on October 19th, 1809. The letter by “A Land Claimant” is dated October 16th.
27 Ibid. pp. 334–45.
28 Ibid. pp. 353–55.
29 Thomas James, Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans (Bibliolife, August 20, 2009). This a reprint edition of the pre-1923 version of the James Journal, supplied by the Missouri Historical Society. Other versions don’t have the appendices where the information concerning the trading expedition is found. The isbn is 978-1113482204. See pp. 286–292.
Leroy Hafen, The Mountain Men and Fur Trade of the Far West (Arthur H. Clark Company, Glendale CA, 2003) Essay on Reuben Smith by W. A. Goff, pp. 261–279.
Noel Loomis and Abraham Nasatir, Pedro Vial and the Roads to Sante Fe, (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1967) pp. 249–51.
Harry Burke Archives, Missouri History Museum, St Louis, Early History of Giles County by James McCallum (1877).
Nashville Clarion in May, 1812 reprinted an article from Natchez, dated May 6th reporting the arrival of the three Americans, released from Mexican prison, and on their way to St. Louis. (from Tony Turnbow)
30 “Guanojuato, Guanajuato” en.wikipedia.org . The region was the world’s leading silver extraction center during the 1700’s; and the city of Dolores, the richest city in Mexico.
31 Harry Burke Archives, “Moses Austin and the Lead for Aaron Burr” (Missouri History Museum, St Louis), p. 11.
32 Frederick A. Hodes, Ph.D., Beyond the Frontier: A History of St. Louis to 1821 (Patrice Press, Tucson AZ, 2004) pp. 223, 266, 385. Father Maxwell was not only Ste. Genevieve’s parish priest, he was Vicar General for Upper Louisiana of the Catholic Church, when President Madison appointed him to the Legislative Council of Missouri Territorial Government in 1812. Fr. Maxwell was chosen speaker of the upper house of the legislature (p. 385). His land claims to four square leagues, in the Spanish colonial era, had not been approved by the Spanish government (p. 223). Almost everyone had incomplete land titles from the Spanish administration. It was one of the reasons for fraudulent land claims under U. S. administration. (See also footnote #100.)
33 Alan Knight, Mexico: The Colonial Era (Cambridge University Press, 2002) pp. 291–92.
34 David O. Stewart, American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America (Simon & Schuster, 2011), pp. 105. “The local bishop and the mother superior of the Ursuline nuns supported the Mexican Association.”
35 Vardis Fisher, Suicide or Murder?: The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis (Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Athens, 1962) pp. 139–45).
36 Record Group 107, M221A, Roll 28, B-422, National Archives and Records Adminstration. February 6, 1809.
37 RG 107 M221A, Roll 33, E-616. General Wilkinson complains about Brahan’s appointment as Receiver of Public Monies while retaining his appointment as head of his platoon, dated June 18, 1809.
38 RG 107, M221A, Roll 28, B-595, dated September 30, 1809.
39 Dick Steward, Frontier Swashbuckler: The Life and Legend of John Smith T. (University of Missouri Press, Columbia and London, 2000) pp.12–13.
40 Hafen, Mountain Men and Fur Trade of the Far West, pp. 262–69.
41 Harris Gaylord Warren, The Sword Was Their Passport: A History of American Filibustering in the Mexican Revolution (Kennikat Press, Fort Washington, NY/London 1972, first published 1943), pp. 24–25.
42 Ibid, p. 59.
43 Ibid, pp. 48–50.
44 Ibid, pp. 67–72.
45 I. J. Cox, “The Pan-American Policy of Jefferson and Wilkinson,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 1, Sept., 1914, pp. 213–39. Cox writes: “ … the suspected Spanish pensioner assumes a Pan-American role that places his name among the earliest advocates of the Monroe Doctrine.” His mission was to assure the Spanish officials in West Florida and Cuba of the friendship of the United States, and of U. S. support for their independence (pp. 222–25).
46 Paul La Chance, “The 1809 Immigratioan of Saint-Domingue Refugees to New Orleans: Reception, Integration and Impact,” from The Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, Volume 3, The Louisiana Purchase and Its Aftermath, 1800-1830 (Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette LA, 1998), pp. 251–278.
47 Jared William Bradley, Interim Appointment: W. C. C. Claiborne Letter Book, 1804-1805 (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 2002), “The Mexican Association/Associates,” pp. 596–603.
48 Herbert S. Parmet and Marie B. Hecht, Aaron Burr: Portrait of an Ambitious Man (MacMillian Co, NY, 1967), p. 240.
49 Stewart, American Emperor, p.113.
50 Wilkinson, Burr’s Conspiracy Exposed, p. 86.
51 William Claiborne, Official Letter Books of W. C. C. Clairborne, 1801–1816, Volume 4 (State Dept of Archives & History, Jackson, Mississippi, 1917; reprint, RarebooksClub.com, May 12, 2012) p. 41.
52 Bradley, Interim Appointment, p. 597.
53 Henry Adams, History of the United States of America During the Administration of Thomas Jefferson (The Library of America, 1986), pp. 1203–07. Adams discussed the Essex Junto, New England opposition to the embargo, and the threat of war in 1809.
54 Stewart, American Emperor, pp, 7, 28. Also, Côté, Theodosia, p. 112.
55 en.wikipedia.org, “Loyalist (American Revolution)” citing Maya Jasanoff, Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (Random House, 2012), p.357.
56 canadianencyclopedia.com, “Sir George Prevost.”
57 Henry Adams, ed., Documents Relating to New-England Federalism, 1800-1815 (Kessinger Publishing Rare Reprints), pp. 51–53. Adams was the grandson of John Quincy Adams.
58 Bradley, Interim Appointment, p. 598.
59 Mary-Jo Kline, ed., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, II (Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1983), p. 1046.
Matthew L. Davis, The Private Journal of Aaron Burr During His Residence of Four Years in Europe with Selections from His Correspondence, Volume 1 (Literature House reprint, 1970, first published 1838), p. 101. Burr wrote in his journal, “At Halifax the whole town was in a bustle to get me a good Newfoundland dog. More than thirty were brought to me for inspections, but not one suited.”
60 Ibid, Kline, pp. 1047–48.
61 Ibid, Kline, pp., 1069, 1073, 1086-90.
62 William Spence Robertson, Francisco de Miranda and the Revolutionizing of Spanish America (Nabu Public Domain Reprints, first published by the American Historical Association, 1909), pp. 411–13.
63 Kline, Political Correspondence, pp. 1049–92 (July 16, 1808-April 26, 1809 in Great Britain). Milton Lomask, The Conspiracy and Years of Exile, 1805-36 (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, NY, 1982), pp. 303–16 (Great Britain). See also the Private Journals of Aaron Burr for an account of his years in Europe.
64 en.wikipedia.org “Heligoland.” The island, which Burr spelled as “Helgoland,” was captured from Denmark by the British in 1807.
65 For ten months Burr toured Sweden, visited Denmark, and then went onto Germany. Burr planned on mustering troops and obtaining vessels in northern Europe.
66 Kline, Political Correspondence, 1099-1125. See the two March 19, 1810 documents. The quote is found on p. 1121.
67 Kline, Political Correspondence, p. 1125. “… in June the emperor learned that Otrante had engaged in unauthorized, secret negotiations with Britian. Otrante was abruptly dismissed as minister of police and fled the country… John Armstrong [the American Ambassador] reported that AB’s name had been linked to the ill-starred intrigue with Britain in the spring.”
68 David Leon Chandler, The Jefferson Conspiracies: A President’s Role in the Assassination of Meriwether Lewis (William Morrow & Co, NY, 1994), pp. 262–64, 274-77.
69 Ibid, p. 275.
70 The translation of the letters was done by Joan L. Wallace, Crown Point Translations, Inc. www.crownpointtranslations.com. They are found in RG 107, M221A, roll 33, W-687 (4) at the National Archives.
71 In searching for information regarding Francis Newman, I found an genealogy site, www.newman-family-tree.net. I contacted Jerry Gandolfo, a descendant, and obtained more information from him regarding his distinguished family, one of the oldest in New Orleans. Gandolfo is the proprietor of the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum at 724 Dumaine St. He leads walking tours in the French Quarter and has been featured in national media. www.voodoomuseum.com
72 The La Grange house is a historic landmark in La Plata, Md. It is a private residence located on Port Tobacco Road. www.port-tobacco-trail.org
73 See note #70.
74 Dunbar Rowland, ed., Official Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne, 1801–1816, Vol. 4 (Rarebooksclub.com reprint, first published 1917), pp.419–23.
75 Dunbar Rowland, ed., Official Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne, 1801–1816, Vol. 5 (University of California Libraries reprint, first published 1917), pp. 1–3.
76 Ibid, pp. 8–10.
77 Ibid, pp. 17–21.
78 http://www.crt.state.la.us The Dept of Culture, Recreation & Tourism of Louisiana has information about the Fort Pike State Historic Site.
79 Dr. Auguste Davazac was Livingston’s brother-in-law. Davazac was also a lawyer and a diplomat. He and his sister, Louise, were from one of the wealtheist families in Ste. Domingue. I would guess that Samuel Miles Hopkins, born in 1772 in Connecticut, educated at Yale, and who studied law under Aaron Burr’s brother-in-law Tapping Reeve is the most logical choice for being the “natural son of Aaron Burr.” Burr was reputed to have fathered other children outside of marriage.
80 Rowland, Official Letter Books, Vol. 5, pp. 22–24.
81 Ralph Ketcham, James Madison, A Biography (University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville & London, 1990), pp. 481–491.
82 Henry Adams, History of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison (The Library of America, 1986), p. 250.
83 James Wilkinson, Memoirs of My Own Times. Vol. 2 (Philadelphia, 1816 reprint) p. 341.
84 Ibid, p. 344-45.
85 Ibid, pp. 346.
86 Ibid, pp. 348–49.
87 Ibid, p. 354.
88 Ibid, p.359.
89 Ibid, p. 361.
90 Ibid, p. 375-76.
91 Rowland, Official Letter Books, Vol. 4, pp. 392–93.
92 Wilkinson, Memoirs, Vol. 2, pp. 371–73.
93 Ibid, p. 382,
94 James Wilkinson, Burr’s Conspiracy Exposed: and General Wilkinson Vindicated Against the Slander of His Enemies on That Important Occasion (Kessinger Publishing’s Legacy Reprits, first published 1811), pp. 96–97
95 Ibid, p. 97.
96 Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, editors, A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Ohio University Press, Athens, 1997) pp. 179–198. It took Judge Rodney 14 days (Nov. 17-30, 1803) to travel from Chickasaw Bluffs to Natchez. Clark Hunter, ed., The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1983), pp. 358–68. Wilson took five days to travel from Chickasaw Big Town to Natchez (May 10-14, 1810) Assuming four days travel from Fort Pickering to Big Town, it is a total of nine days.
97 Occam’s Razor, or the law of economy.
98 Jacobs, Tarnished Warrior, pp. 180–81.
99 Daniel S. Dupre, Transforming the Cotton Frontier: Madison County, Alabama, 1800-1840 (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge and London), pp. 27.
100 Thomas James, Walter Douglas, ed., Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans (reprint from BiblioLife, Missouri Historical Society 1916). p. 287. Douglas reprints two articles: The Lousiana Gazette in an article dated January 4, 1810 [1811] criticizes a garbled account of the arrest of the men, printed in a Philadelphia newspaper on August 14th. “Mark the pretended ignorance of these bloodhounds, they knew these gentlemen were from Ste. Genevieve in the Territory of Louisiana, they well knew the character of the worthy pastor (Rev. Mr. Maxwell, whose letters of credence they bore.”
101 L. Ruth Colter Frick, Courageous Colter and Companions (self-published, 1997), p. 382.
102 James, Three Years, pp. 287–92. Letter from McClanahan to Governor Benjamin Howard, dated June 18, 1812, St. Louis.