To James Madison from Nathan Williams, 5 September 1806
From Nathan Williams
Utica (NYork) Septr. 5th. 1806.
Sir,
A rumour has been spreading in this country for some days past, relative to an extraordinary expedition in the western territories and down the Ohio. I have been able to obtain a few particulars, which may perhaps reflect some light upon the subject. These particulars I have obtained from Doctr. Kirkpartrick [sic] my successor in congress, a man in whom the utmost confidence can be placed. He resides at the Salt springs in onondago, of which he is superintendent. A man by the name of Comfort Tyler who until lately has resided there, and who once had property & influence there, has lately returned from the western country full of cash, altho’ he went away much involved.1 He has paid off his debts & goes in stile. He is collecting all the young, active & enterprising men in his power to go somewhere down the Ohio, to what place, I believe he leaves them at present ignorant. They are to meet at Pittsburgh on the first of December next. He wants at least three hundred of the above description, and states that common or ordinary men can be obtained in great plenty in the western country. He states that he is authorised by an association, and mentions the names of Burr, Dayton, Bloomfield, Swartwout & others of less note. He states that there is nothing on foot inimical to government. Every thing beyond the first of December is kept a secret. Those engaged are however told, that if at any time they wish to return, they will be paid their expences from the time they set off from this country, until they return. Some well educated young men are engaged, and such Tyler prefers. Tyler is a man of a strong uncultivated mind, active, daring & enterprising—very capable & I presume very willing to act an under part in any undertaking, however daring, provided it holds forth a prospect of mending his fortune. He is apt however, I believe, to display whatever he is engaged in, in as glowing a light as he well can.
Perhaps this is nothing more than a speculation, or a project for settling some new country—it may be something more. The above is all I have thought worthy of communicating. I remain sir, with the highest respect Your humble servant
Nathan Williams
RC (DLC). Postmarked at Al⟨bany⟩, 10 Sept.
1. Comfort Tyler (1764–1827), a native of Connecticut, joined the Revolutionary forces at age fourteen. After the war he worked as a surveyor and schoolteacher at Caughnawaga, New York, and helped draw the boundary between New York and Pennsylvania. In 1788 he settled in Onondaga, where he served as justice of the peace, county coroner, sheriff, county clerk, and member of the state legislature, all before 1802. In late 1806 Tyler reportedly succeeded in assembling up to six hundred men at Beaver, Pennsylvania, for the expedition described by Williams, but only about thirty were with him when he arrived at Blennerhassett Island in the Ohio River on 8 Dec. Learning the next day that government agents in Ohio had seized boats and provisions destined for the expedition, and that local forces would likely soon attack the island, Tyler and his associates, Harman Blennerhassett and Israel Smith, sailed down the river that night to meet Aaron Burr at the Cumberland River in Kentucky. Tyler accompanied Burr to Bayou Pierre, Mississippi Territory, where Burr surrendered to territorial authorities. Both men were indicted for treason in June 1807 along with Blennerhassett and four others, but owing to Burr’s acquittal, Tyler was never tried. He moved to Montezuma, New York, in 1811, served as a commissary in the War of 1812, and was involved with the construction of the Erie Canal (Dwight H. Bruce, ed., Onondaga’s Centennial: Gleanings of a Century [2 vols.; Boston, 1896], 1:842–43; Lewis, The Burr Conspiracy, 148–49, 156, 159, 161–62, 181, 298, 302, 390).