To James Madison from James Taylor, 28 December 1806 (Abstract)
From James Taylor, 28 December 1806 (Abstract)
§ From James Taylor. 28 December 1806, “New Port,” Kentucky. “‘As to the instruments to distribute the money and procure provisions.’
“I presume you have information as to what has been done in this line at Marietta. I possess none spacific. As to Cincinnati, I know of none avowedly done at this place. Great quantities have been forwarded by the Contractor.
“I had a conversation with Genl. Sandford as to my impressions concerning a Certain character and also talked to Capt Clark1 in the same way with permission to mention his name to you with the circumstances on which I ground my suspicions added to a number of other circumstances.
“At the time the first & second numbers of the ‘querist’2 were making a good deal of noise here, he in a conversation with a gentleman of the first respectability and my self, advanced as his own opinions most of the remarks of the ‘Querist,’ and endeavoured to shew how different our interests were, that altho’ the doctrine was unpleasant at this time in less than two years it would become orthodox. He enquired if it was not agreed on all hands that the event would take place at some time or other & seemed to think it had as well take place soon as at a late period. One of the arguments was that we had nothing to do with the expences of Embassadors Consuls &c. &c. also spoke of the expence of the Navy, which he said could or would render us very little service. We both defended with some warmth. This conversation & the opinions I understood were expressed by many in Cincinnati, & indeed some others I heared my self was the ground of my fears expressed in my letter of 13th of October,3 but those characters on finding the thing very unpalitable to the bulk of the people clawed off, and some denied they ever had entertained such principles.”
Tr (DNA: RG 46, Papers Pertaining to the Case of Senator John Smith of Ohio, 10A-J3); Tr (OCHP: John Smith Papers). Both Trs labeled extracts and noted at the bottom: “I do Certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the draft of a letter from my self to the Secretary of State dated December 28th. 1806.” First Tr signed by Taylor.
1. Taylor probably referred to William Clark, who had returned to Kentucky from his western expedition by November 1806. In January 1807 Clark described Burr’s plans as “of the most desperate and violent aspect” (James J. Holmberg, ed., Dear Brother: Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark [New Haven, 2002], xxix, 119).
2. In the fall of 1806 a series of essays advocating disunion appeared under the pseudonym Querist. Harman Blennerhassett was widely considered the likely author (Lewis, The Burr Conspiracy, 139). The first two essays were published in the Alexandria Daily Gazette, 13–14 Nov. 1806.