"the hog pea, 19 "the true winter vetch," "the Carolina drill," and "the Scotch threshing-machine," he was collecting from "an extensive circle of observation and information," and transmitting to the head of the opposition in Congress the most unjust and poisonous opinions that could possibly be fabricated of the President's character and conduct. This would of itself have furnished cause sufficient for Gen. Lee, or any other sincere friend of the President, to put him on his guard, to open his eyes to the ambush from which this pretended friend and philosopher was secretly wounding him-where, too, his great and patriotic soul felt the injury the most acutely-in the love and confidence of his country.

No. XV.

JEFFERSON'S PROFESSIONS OF FRIENDSHIP AND SECRET HOSTILITY TO BURR.

To this person he continued to manifest the most respectful friendship, as will be seen by a letter of the 1st of February, 1801, just before the competition for the Presi dency was to be decided by the House of Representatives, and when it was desirable not to irritate Burr or disgust his friends.

"DEAR SIR: It was to be expected that the enemy would endeavor to sow tares between us that they might divide us and our friends. Every consideration assures me that you will be on your guard against this, as I assure you I am strongly. I hear of one stratagem so imposing and so base, that it is proper I should notice it to you. Mr. Mumford,

who is here, says he saw at New York before he left it, an original letter of mine to Judge Breckenridge, in which are sentiments highly injurious to you. He knows my handwriting, and did not doubt that to be genuine. I inclose you a copy taken from the press copy of the only letter I ever wrote Judge Breckenridge in my life; the press copy itself has been shown to several of our mutua. friends here. Of consequence the letter seen by Mr. Mumford must have been a forgery, and if it contains a sentiment unfriendly or disrespectful to you, I affirm it solemnly to be a forgery, as also if it varies from the copy enclosed. With the common trash of slander I should not think of troubling you, but the forgery of one's hand-writing is too imposing to be neglected. A mutual knowledge of each other furnishes us with the best test of the contrivances which will be practiced by the enemies of both.”

The difference here in point of fact is between the statements of Mr. Mumford and the press copy; and as Mr. Jefferson himself affirms that, from the commencement of his acquaintance with Burr, he was in the habit of expressing to Mr. Madison his suspicions of his honesty, and perceived that he kept himself in the market, it is reasonable to suppose that he indulged the same sentiments in letters to other gentlemen, and that consequently the press copy was mistaken. This is the more probable, as a similar accident will hereafter be pointed out, and as he does not refer Burr to Judge Breckenridge, either for a sight of the letter itself or for a copy of it. The last sentence, however, contains the quintessence of deceit, where he tells Burr, that by reflecting on their mutual sincerity and reciprocal respect, he would furnish himself with the best possible test for detecting the poison of the mischief-making fabrications of their enemies. That is, 'if you hear any thing of me incon sistent with honor on my part, and with respect and

friendship for you, you have only to feel assured that it is a base contrivance of our mutual enemies to sow tares between us. This is the reasoning I shall employ, should a similar stratagem be attempted on me.' Now only suppose that

Mr. Madison had just at this time discovered to Burr one of the "habitual cautions," which he had received in regard to him!

When, however, in 1807, his friend Burr was arrested on a charge of treason, he discovered that he had all along despised him, in spite both of his own endearing professions, and of the equally cordial effusions of his press copy. In a letter to Mr. Giles of the 20th of April, 1807, (Vol. IV. p 74,) he says: "Against Burr personally I never had one hostile sentiment. I never indeed thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure of."

The contrast between these sentiments and those in the Anas, on the one hand, and those in his letters to Burr,— all volunteers, not answers-on the other; will be useful in enabling you to comprehend the difference of his style, when speaking to a man he hated, and of him. It justifies the inference that at the very moment he was so grossly traducing Gen. Lee to Gen. Washington, declaring that he had never "done him any other injury than that of declining his confidences," he would have been glad, had there been the least prospect of promoting his own interest by it, to encumber him with epistles and press copies of homage and attachment.

Of the object of the conspiracy, his conduct in regard to which is now to be compared with that pursued in quelling the Western insurrection, he gives the following account in a letter of the 2d of April, 1807, to our minister in Spain, (Vol. IV. p. 71,)" Although at first he proposed a separa- ·

tion of the Western country, and on that ground received encouragement and aid from Yrujo, according to the usual spirit of his government toward us, yet he very early saw that the fidelity of the Western country was not to be shaken, and turned himself wholly toward Mexico." And in the letter to Mr. Giles of the 20th, he thus describes the points of treason he expects to be established, by witnesses whose testimony he affirms "will satisfy the world, if not the Judge, of Burr's guilt"-"And I do suppose the following overt acts will be proved: 1. The enlistment of men in a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round Blennerhasset's island, when they discovered Governor Tiffin's men to be on them modo guerrino arriati, 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation regularly signed with the aids of the Governor, as between two independent hostile commanders."

These acts, he says, amount incontestably to treason. Yet the attack of five hundred armed men on the hɔue ɔf the inspector of the revenue, and a detachment of the troops of the United States-the burning the inspector's house and forcing an officer of the United States Army to march out and surrender-the shooting at the marshal with intent to kill him, while in the execution of his duty-the seizing and violating the mail of the United States on its passage to the seat of government-the arrest and intimidation of the marshal-the banishment of those citizens of Pittsburg, who were suspected of allegiance to their country-open resistance to the laws and defiance of the government—the rejection of an offered amnesty-the preparation of a force of 7,000 men to wage war against the United States, and to effect ultimately a dissolution of the Union-all these revolting outrages, in the comparative infancy of the gov

ernment, when they were leveled at the peace and dignity of the nation, through the fame and feelings of President Washington, Mr. Jefferson considered as nearly harmless, as provoked by "an infernal law," and as at most merely riotous transactions ! !"

The force with which Burr was to accomplish his designs, he estimates as follows, in a letter of the 14th of July, 1807, to Gen. La Fayette. (Vol. IV. p. 97.) "Burr had probably engaged one thousand men to follow his fortunes, without letting them know his projects, otherwise than by assuring them the government approved of them. The moment a proclamation issued undeceiving them, he found himself left with about thirty desperadoes only." This conspirator, with his gang of thirty followers, however, was too formidable to be left unpunished, whether in due course of law or not, and therefore the President of the United States descended from his station, and took the lead in hunting him down.

Accordingly, on the 2d of June, 1807, he opened a correspondence with the District Attorney of the United States, (Vol. IV. pp. 75 to 103,) which for indecency to the court, disrespect for the independence of a co-ordinate department, outrage upon the sanctity of justice, and cruelty to the prisoner, was never exceeded by the executive authority of any nation, in any age. After saying to Mr. Hay, “While Burr's case is depending before the court, I will trouble you from time to time with what occurs to me,' -he proceeds to counsel him as to the management of various stages of the prosecution, inspiring him all the while with distrust of the purity of the court before which he was pleading, until the 19th of June, when he makes a suggestion, the wickedness of which cannot be adequately expressed in any language but his own. (p. 86.) "I inclose you the copy of a letter received last night, and giving