jects of Mr. Burr to certain members of Congress. They believed Col. Burr capable of any thing-and agreed that the fellow ought to be hanged; but thought his projects too chimerical and his circumstances too desperate to give the subject the merit of serious consideration. The total security of feeling in those to whom I had rung the tocsin induced me to suspect my own apprehensions unseasonable, or at least too deeply admitted; and, of course, I grew indifferent about the subject.

Mr. Burr's visits to me became less frequent and his conversation less familiar. He appeared to have abandoned the idea of a general revolution; but seemed bent on that of the Missisippi; and although I could perceive symptoms of distrust in him towards me, he manifested great solicitude to engage me with him in the enterprize. Weary of his importunity, and at once to convince him of my serious attachments, I gave the following toast to the public:

The United States-Palsey to the brain that should plot to dismember, and Leprocy to the hand that will not draw to defend our union!

I doubt whether the sentiment was better understood by any of my acquaintance than Colonel Burr. Our intercourse ended here we met but seldom afterward. I returned to my farm in Massachusetts, and thought no more of Mr. Burr, nor his empire, till sometime late in September or beginning of October, when a letter from Morris Belknap, of Marietta, to Timothy E. Danielson, fell into my hands at Brimfield, which satisfied me that Mr. Burr had actually commenced his preparatory operations on the Ohio. I now spoke publicly of the fact-transmitted a copy of the letter from Belknap to the department of state, and about the same time, forwarded through the hands of the post master general, to the President of the United States, a statement in substance, of what is here above detailed concerning the Missisippi conspiracy of the said Col. Aaron Burr-which is said to have been the first formal intelligence receiv

ed by the executive on the subject of the conspirator being in motion.

I know not whether my country will allow me the merit of correctness of conduct in this affair. The novelty of the duty might, perhaps, have embarrassed stronger minds than mine. The uprightness of my intentions I hope will not be questioned.

The interviews between Col. Burr and myself, from which the foregoing statement has resulted, were chiefly in this city in the months of February and March, last year.

WILLIAM EATON.

Washington City, Jan. 26th, 1806.

Sworn to in open court, this 26th day of January, 1807.

WM. BRENT, Clerk.

Some suspicions have been entertained by a few, that EATON listened to Burr with a wavering disposition, or with sentiments for some time favorable to his projects. This however was mere suspicion, nor was there even any evidence adduced to support such a charge.

GEN. EATON firmly believed that Wilkinson was equally guilty with Burr; as will appear from the answer to the following extract of a letter from Wilkinson to EATON.

Washington, Jan. 23d, 1808.

MY DEAR EATON,

THE conspiracy formed for my destruction in New Orleans last spring, of which I was fully apprised at Richmond, at the time I was sounding Powers and Clark as to their object in coming there, has burst forth in consequence of my exposition of the turpitude of John Randolph, and Clark being pushed by his associates in New Orleans, to

fulfil his compact to destroy me. This villainous explosion which I dreaded before a vile corrupt Judge, with Burr and his pack of infernal attorneys, to torture, distort, deform and misrepresent, to suit the purpose of the combination, has occurred under circumstances, and taken a course, which give my enemies and accusers a claim to my thanks and if I do not prostrate them under my feet and repel every charge of dishonor, then do you abjure your Christian faith and turn Turk: nay more, renounce me forever. The inclosed is a mere coup d'oeil of what is believed-poor Clark his horrid attempt on my honor, has brought forward more of honor, with documents to prove him guilty of perjury and forgery, and that he was an associate of the Mexican combination, and labored to promote Burr's views.

WILLIAM EATON.

J. WILKINSON.

The compiler of these memoirs happened to be with GEN. EATON, in Boston when this letter was received. I asked him if he had any doubts of the guilt of Wilkinson: he replied that he had not the least: but that Wilkinson had ingenuity enough to escape. To this letter he returned the following an

swer.

SIR,

Boston, Feb. 6th, 1808,

THE letter and inclosures you did me the honor to forward on the 29th ult. did not arrive until yesterday. For the honor of your cloth; for the nations honor; for the personal respect I feel towards my former General, I devoutly wish your reputation may come from the ordeal like gold seven times tried by the fire. Yet to an eye which can impartially view the statements as they come to the public, doubts cannot but arise.

If Clark be perjured, he has nevertheless had the address to work so much of consistency into his story that men, unacquainted with your character, admit

:

suspicion. It will require all your talent and ingenuity to do away this suspicion. Do you remember, sir, having shewed me a confidential letter from Mr. Clark, which talked of Dukedoms and Principalities? I should do injustice to candor were I to withhold the impressions made on my mind on the occasion: which were that at one period you must have thought of a WESTERN EMPIRE; but that mature deliberation determined your adherence to duty and the union of course that your arrangements and mode of exciting them, in the end, were necessary and proper. On the charge of corruption, the manner you explained the receipt of $20,000 of a Spanish officer, being due as a balance on a tobacco trade, smuggled through his connivance, was satisfactory to me the conduct was lawful to any American citizen. Mr. Clark swears there was no tobacco speculation in the case: this testimony must be invalidated, or my opinion must suspend. I really wait with great solicitude the result of the important enquiry, and remain with great respect, Sir, your very obedient

WILLIAM EATON.

In a public address some time after, GEN. EATON expressed himself thus-"I have jeopardized my life and reputation to preserve the integrity of the Union and, (I hope to be forgiven,) to this vigilance and fidelity, rather than to movements on the Sabine or at New Orleans, our hero of Carter's mountain owes his political if not persoual existence : for, it was not until my public exposure had alarmed Gen. Wilkinson in his camp, that he, though more than two years acquainted with the treasonable plot, thought of betraying his fellow traitor, and becoming a pairiot by turning states evidence."

During the month of February, 1807, GEN. EATON succeeded in procuring an adjustment of his accounts, by the passage of a bill authorising the de

partment of state to settle them according to equity:. but not till he had, in the following spirited manner, addressed the Committee of claims, which address he made public.

To the HONORABLE CHAIRMAN of the COMMITTEE Of CLAIMS.

Washington City, Feb. 9th, 1807.

SIR, ON a review of the statement, accompanying my petition of 20th Feb. 1804, now before this honorable Committee, I cannot find a paragraph which needs correction or modification. That statement surveys the chief ground and origin of my claims. Have the goodness, sir, to pass attentively over it; and to carry forward, in the examination, a view of the events which have since occurred to establish the correctness of the measures there alluded to. It will satisfy you that a perseverance in those measures has given peace to this country and emancipation to three hundred of our fellow citizens; and that, while it has done something to stamp a good impression on the pirates of Barbary, it has saved your treasury more than a million of Dollars. My reward, hitherto, is penury and wounds! I ought not, perhaps, to say this; it carries something which savors of reproach: this I do not mean. I have no where been refused indemnity. On the contrary, three years ago, when as yet the effects of my arrangements had not been realized, your Committee expressed an opinion that I had a well founded claim on the government.

But the delay, in the decision necessary to a reimbursement of my expenditures, has greatly distressed me in my individual concerns-expenditures of which my country now reap the profit-and of which a vast majority of my countrymen appear to be very sensible.