BURR CONSPIRACY

The 'Burr conspiracy' was a suspected treasonous “cabal” of planters, politicians and army officers led by former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr. According to the accusations against him, Burr’s goal was to create an independent nation in the center of North America and/or the Southwest and parts of Mexico. Burr’s explanation: To take possession of, and farm, 40,000 acres (160 km²) in the Texas Territory leased to him by the Spanish. When the expected war with Spain broke out, he would fight with his armed “farmers,” to seize any lands he could conquer in the war–all legal by rules of warfare. (Note: this was before the Louisiana Purchase had been officially accepted by the U.S. Government as a territory. Thomas Jefferson was having second thoughts about absorbing it into the union. Any taking of that land by an American at that time would not have been unconstitutional or even illegal.) Jefferson and others had Burr arrested and indicted for treason with no firm evidence put forward. He stood trial in Richmond, Virginia for treason because of the alleged conspiracy but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. A Revolutionary War hero, U.S. Senator, New York State Attorney General and Assemblyman, and finally Vice President under Jefferson, Burr adamantly denied and vehemently resented all charges against his honor, his character or his patriotism.

Background and plan

After being charged for the murder of Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, Aaron Burr ran to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to escape arrest. Later on he conceived plans to emigrate, he always claimed, to take possession of land in the Texas Territories leased to him by the Spanish (the lease was granted, and copies still exist). Burr’s true intentions are still considered ambiguous to some historians, who claim he intended to take parts of Texas and some or all of the Louisiana Purchase for himself. They claim Burr envisioned a new empire in the West over which he would rule. This historically unproven version of a conspiracy by Burr to take American land is still in print in many biographies, encyclopedias, and even history books. Letters written to this version can be found in letters by contemporaries who distrusted Burr, but no solid evidence can be found. Burr did meet with the British Foreign Minister, Anthony Merry, and, as he explained to several of his colleagues, implied that the British might regain power in the Southwest if they contributed money to his expedition. Merry gave him fifteen hundred dollars and never saw him again. A man of few words, Burr was good at implying much without actually committing himself–“smoke and mirrors”–a trait that infuriated many of his contemporaries.

Players

;James Wilkinson:James Wilkinson was one of Burr’s most important co-conspirators. Though it was eventually discovered that his involvement in the conspiracy was most likely an attempt to further his own personal and political goals, he worked closely with Burr to develop a plan for secession. The commanding General of the Army at the time, Wilkinson was known for his corrupt practices, including his attempt to separate Kentucky and Tennessee from the union during the 1780’s. Burr persuaded President Thomas Jefferson to appoint Wilkinson to the position of Governor of the Territory of Louisiana. Wilkinson would later come to betray Burr by revealing his plot to Jefferson and denying all involvement in the conspiracy. William Eaton charged that Wilkinson had attempted to involve him in the conspiracy.
;Anthony Merry:In 1805, when his term as Vice President ended, Burr met with Anthony Merry, the British Minister to the United States. Burr offered to detach Louisiana from the Union in exchange for a half a million dollars and a British fleet in the Gulf of Mexico. Merry considered following through with the deal; however, those with whom he worked in London expressed no interest in furthering American secessionism.
;Harman Blennerhassett:Blennerhasset proved a valuable tool in helping Burr further his plan. He provided friendship, support, and most importantly access to the island that he owned on the Ohio River, about 2 miles (3 km) below what is now Parkersburg, West Virginia. Burr and his co-conspirators used this island as a storage space for men and supplies.

Events

In 1805, Burr went west in order to recruit volunteers to enter Spanish territories. In New Orleans, he met with the Mexican Associates, a group of ’’criollos’’ whose objective was to conquer Mexico. Burr was able to gain the support of New Orleans’ Catholic bishop for his expedition into Mexico.
With news of his plan slowly leaking into public domain, charges were brought against Burr in Kentucky by Joseph Hamilton Daviess, the federal District Attorney for Kentucky, claiming that Burr wished to make war with Mexico. Yet with the help of his adroit young attorney, Henry Clay, Burr was able to have the case dismissed.
Following the events in Kentucky, Burr went back west later into 1806 with the hope of recruiting more volunteers for a military expedition down the Mississippi River. Here he recruited Blennerhassett and began using his island, Blennerhasset Island, to store men and supplies. The Governor of Ohio grew suspicious of the activity on the island, and ordered the state militia to raid the island and seize all supplies. Blennerhasset managed to escape with one boat, and he met up with Burr at the operation’s Headquarters on the Cumberland River. With a significantly smaller force, the two headed down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and New Orleans. Wilkinson had vowed to supply troops at New Orleans; however, he had come to the conclusion that the conspiracy was bound to fail, and rather than providing these troops, Wilkinson revealed Burr’s plan to President Jefferson.

Arrest

In February and March, 1806, Jo Daviess, United States District Attorney for Kentucky wrote Jefferson several letters warning him of possible conspiratorial activities by Burr. Daveiss’ July 14 letter to Jefferson stated flatly that Burr planned to provoke a rebellion in Spanish-held parts of the West in order to join them to areas in the Southwest to form an independent nation under his rule. Similar accusations were appearing against local Democratic-Republicans in a Frankfort, Kentucky newspaper, Western World, and Jefferson dismissed Daveiss’s accusations against Burr, a Democratic-Republican, as politically motivated.
Rumors of political instability in the West finally forced themselves upon Jefferson and his cabinet, with their suspicions being confirmed when Wilkinson sent him correspondence received from Burr. In an attempt to preserve his innocence and career, Wilkinson edited these correspondences. The letters had been sent to Wilkinson in cypher, however he altered the letter to prove both his "innocence" and Burr's guilt. He warned Jefferson that Burr was “meditating the overthrow of [his] administration” and “conspiring against the State.” Jefferson alerted Congress of the plan, and ordered the arrest of anyone who conspired to attack Spanish territory. He warned authorities in the West to be aware of suspicious activities. Convinced of Burr’s guilt, Jefferson ordered his arrest. Burr fled to the Mississippi Territory, where he was aprehended. He managed his escape from the searchers and was recaptured in February, 1807 and confined at Fort Stoddert. While in transport to Washington D.C. he again attempted escape in South Carolina, but failed.

Trial

Burr was charged with treason for assembling an armed force to take New Orleans and separate the Western from the Atlantic states. He was also charged with high misdemeanor for sending a military expedition against territories belonging to Spain. Geroge Hay, the prosecuting U.S. Attorney, complied a list of over 140 witnesses, one of whom was Andrew Jackson. In order to encourage witness participation, it is said that Thomas Jefferson gave Hay sheets of blank pardons.
The case met oppostition from the beginning, with the high misdemeanor charge being dropped when the government was unable to prove that the expedition had been military in nature or directed towards Spanish territory.
Burr’s trial brought into question the ideas of executive privilege and the independence of the executive. Burr’s lawyers, including John Wickham, asked Chief Justice John Marshall to subpoena Jefferson, claiming that they needed documents from Jefferson in order to accurately present their case. Jefferson proclaimed that as President, he reserved the right to decide “what papers coming to him as President, the public interests permit to be communicated [and] to whom.” He insisted that all relevant papers had been made available, and that he was not subject to this writ because he held executive privilege. He also argued that he should not be subject to the commands of the judiciary, because the constitution guaranteed the executive branch’s independence from the judicial branch. Marshall sided with Burr, deciding that the subpoena could be issued despite Jefferson’s position of presidency. Though Marshall vowed to consider Jefferson’s office and avoid “vexatious and unnecessary subpoenas,” his ruling was significant because it suggested that like all citizens, the President was subject to the law.
Burr’s case required Marshall to consider the definition of treason. It raised the question of whether or not intent was enough to convict someone of treason. Marshall ruled that because Burr had not committed an act of war, he could not be found guilty. Because the First Amendment guaranteed Burr the right to voice opposition to the government, “merely suggesting war or engaging in a conspiracy was not enough to require a conviction.” In order to be convicted of treason, Marshall ruled, an overt act of participation must be proven with evidence. Intention to divide the union was not an overt act: “There must be an actual assembling of men for the treasonable purpose, to constitute a levying of war.” Marshall further supported his decision by indicating that the Constitution stated that two witnesses must see the same overt act against the country. Marshall, however, narrowly construed the definition of treason provided in Article III of the Constitution; he noted that the prosecution had failed to prove that Burr had committed an "overt act," as the Constitution required. As a result, the jury acquitted the defendant, leading to increased animosity between the President and the Chief Justice.

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BURR CONSPIRACY

Background and plan

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Events

Arrest

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