9140. WILKINSON (James), Plans against Burr.—
Although we at no time believed
Burr could carry any formidable force
out of the Ohio, yet we thought it safest that
you should be prepared to receive him with all
the force which could be assembled, and with
that view our orders were given; and we were
pleased to see that without waiting for them,
you adopted nearly the same plan yourself,
and acted on it with promptitude; the difference
between yours and ours proceeding from
your expecting an attack by sea, which we knew
was impossible, either by England or by a fleet
under Truxtun, who was at home; or by our
own navy, which was under our eye. Your
belief that Burr would really descend with six
or seven thousand men, was no doubt founded
on what you knew of the numbers which could
be raised in the western country for an expedition
to Mexico, under the authority of the
government; but you probably did not calculate
that the want of that authority would take
from him every honest man, and leave him only
the desperadoes of his party, which in no part
of the United States can ever be a numerous
body.—
To General Wilkinson. Washington ed. v, 39.
Ford ed., ix, 4.
(W.
Feb. 1807)
