The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1852-06-03
EBENSBIRG, THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1852

Passing through the Indiana territory, Burr
next made the acquaintance OF Governor Harrl-
SON. Continuing his route eastward, he stopped
at Cincinnati, Chilicothe, and Marietta, returned
to Philadelphia toward the close of the year,
and spent the following spring and summer
partly in the latter city and partly in Washing
ton.
During this period his movements were envel-
oPed in . cloak Of mystery. He resided IN an
obscure street and received many vi.iter., all Of
whom came to him pretence Of business, but
no two Of whom were admitted into his presence
together.
While he remained in W Washington he had fire.
quent interviews with Major Eaton, then recent
ly returned from his well-knovn adventures in
Tripoli, to whom, warmed by the apparent viii
lingpe.. which Eaton exhibited to enter into his
views, he divulged the whole extent of his pro-
jects
Eaton, Notwithstanding his relations with the
government were at that time of delicate cha
racter, waited on the president, and suggested
the appointment Of Burr to foreign mission,
ntimsting. At the same time, his belief that it
would be the means of preventing an insurrec-
tion or = resolution in the western country,
which would otherwise take place within eigh-
teen moHths.
The president, in reply, expressed his conh-
ience in the attachments of the western people
to the Union, and as ne further questions we're
asked, Esten did not feel himself authorized to
say any more upon the subject.
Having remarked in his conversation with
Eaton, that If he could secure the marine corps
the only soldiers stationed at Washington
and gain over the naval commanders, Truxton,
Preble Decatur, and others, he would oyerturn
the Congress, make away with the president and
declare himself the protector Of an energetic GO
vernment. Burr, In pursuance of this idea,
next sounded Commodore Truxton but the lat
ter, although dissatisfied with the treatment he
had received, declined having any thing to do
with the conspiracy. Decatur and Others also
refused to cooperate, and finding his prospects
uniavorable in the Middle States, Burr set off
toward the close of the summer on q second
western journey.
As cover TO his designs, one Of the first
things he did on reaching Kentucky was to pur
chase Of a Mr.. Lynch, for a nominal considera-
ton of forty thousand dollars of which few
thousand were paid, interest in a claim to
large tract of land on the Washita River, under
Spanish grant to the Baron de Bastrop. The
claims held by Edward Livingston of New Or
leans to portion of the above grant had been
| previously purchased by Burr.
| In connection with BIennerhasset Burr enter
| ed into = contract for building fifteen boats on
| the Muskingum. He also made application to
| John. Smith, of the senators from Ohio for
| the purchase Of two gunboats, then building for
| the government ; authority was given at house
at Marietta for the purchase of provisions, a
! kiln erected for drying corn on Blennerhassett's
Island, and q considerable number of young men
enlisted for an enterprise down the Mississippi,
the true nature Of which was only mysteriously
| limited.
BY this time Wilkinson was at Natchitoches,
in command of the troops collected there to op-
! pose the Spanish invasion. While at this
post he received various letters from Burr, to
/ which he sent replies but how far he commit
| ted himself to the conspiracy, was never ascer-
| tanned That he was tampered with to a con-
| siderable extent, and that his replies were at
least evasiye, does not admit of doubt. A let
ter in cipher from Senator Dayton, assuring Will
| kinson that he would certainly be deprived of
! his command at the next session of Congress,
determined the course of the latter He com
municated the next morning to Colonel Cushing,
| his second in command, the substance of Burr's
letter, and expressed his determination to has
| ten to New Orleans and defend that city against
| Burr, if he should venture to attack it. After
extracting from young Swartwout, the bearer of
| dispatches from Burr all the information neces-
sary to guide his future proceedings, Wilkinson
sent express in hot haste to the President of
the United States, stating the general outline of
the scheme communicated to him by Swartwout,
and then. having been joined by a body of mi
! litia from Mississippi, advanced toward the Sa-
| bine.
simultaneously with his letter to the president
Wilkinson sent directions to the commanding of
fcer at New Orleans to put the place in the best
state of defence, and to attempt to get posses
| sion of the park of artillery left by the French
! government, lest it should fall into other hands
AS there were difficulties at this time between
| the United States and the Spanish government
on the subject Of their respective boundary lines
and as the troops of the two nations had been
called out to watch the motions of each other,
Wilkinson entered into temporary arrangemen,
with the Spanish commander, making the Sa-
bine, for the time being, the line of demarcaton
between the territories of the disputants.