Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-10-12

MAY he who claims thy tender heart,
Deserve its love, as / have done,
For kind and gentle.ss thou art,
If so belov'd thou'rt fairly won
Bright may the sacred torch remain, 80
And cheer thee till We meet again.
---------.zsszszRsx.----
From the Ne1u 1ork .Erenias' Post.
THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF.
IS No. XVI.
g Proefs efthe corruption Of gen. 9ames
Williamson and ct his c0nnectioa with Aaron
Burr" SIC.
Yet admit that letter written to another
IS not in itself complete evidence,of guilt in
she person to whom it is addressed. A con-
Srary doctrine would put any innocent man
an the power OF the FIRST villain, vino chose
TO write to him in the s,ilc of ain associate.
To judge of the weight of such evidence,
we must examine the previous connexion OF
: sthe parties, the motives that might ba> &C
situated the writer, and, above all, the con-
duct OF the party on receiving the commune
cation. 1--we should in the prior cores
= pondence discover no mystery, no evidence
lot previous knowledge ofthe plan-ii the
! writer could be supposed to have an interest
: IN endeavoringto impllcate his correspon-
dcnt--a,d 1t the party receiving this propo-
sition made a ju.l and immediate disclosure,
: was guilty of no evasion or prevarication in
hrs account eft! confess that should
think it unjust on such evidence to condemn.
Let us then fairly test the conduct of gen.
Wilkinson BIZ thsse rules.
1st. His previous knowledge of the plan.
his may be fairly inferred from his en-
gaeement in a similar scheme under the
Spanish government. and is fully proved
by the mysterious correspondence, which
is even now refused TO be produced ; by his
acknowledgment under oath, that it was
calculated TO implicate him, by his confess
sion that he had written to Burr that he
would be ready before him" Ready for
what /! Why for a plan, of which, accord
.ing 20 gen, Wilkinson, he knew nothing.
And, fnaily, by his own letters to me, 70
general Adair, and to col. M'Kee.
= I'd. What motive could Mr.. Burr have
had in writing such letter, if the general
were ignorant of his plans, and if he had
not sanctioned them ? Would conspirator
who is generally supposed to have been a
man not deficient in understanding. have
made this disclosure to the commander of
tue army that was to oppose him, unless
ne had reason to count upon his assistance?
search IN vain for some motive that would
have influenced either colonel Burr or Mr..
Dayton to write those letters. ! find none
which can be made consistent with the idea
OF innocence in their correspondents.
have heard ofsuch stratagems, in order to
render officers suspected by their comman-
ders: but in those cases it was always con.
trived that the paper should fall into the
hands OF the person whose suspicious it was
lntendedto excite. Here. the letters were
sent by a confidential messenger direct
iy to the person to whom they were ad-
dressed. They were written, too, some
time previous to that fixed for the CON-
.mencement OF the expedition. This disclos-
-es the time and place of rendezvous, the or
der of march, and the number of the forces;
so that, unless they were assured of the ge-s:
nerars corporation, they put it completely
IN his power to destroy their scheme and
ruin its authors. The idea of this being
continuance to duplicate Wilkinson is there
: fore absurd.
Let us apply, however, our third and
surest test. How was this proposition re.
ceiveds when was it disclosed? and has
that disclosure been fully made, without a.
ny coneealment or prevarication: It wa.