XIX. Burr had been compelled to surrender; and against the CHAPTER late proceedings at New Orleans! Burr withdrew to the house of one of his sureties; but, 1807. alarmed by a report that some military officers had been sent from New Orleans by Wilkinson to arrest him, he disappeared that same evening. He spoke with much bitterness of Wilkinson as a traitor, and expressed a great dislike to fall into his hands. He returned to his boats, and told the men that he had been tried and acquitted, but that they were going to arrest him again, and that he must fly. What property, provisions, and other things there were in the boats, they might sell and make the most of, and might go and settle on the Washita lands if they chose. Nothing more was heard of Burr for some time, except a message, believed to be in his handwriting, directed to T. or F. (Tyler or Floyd), found under the cape of a coat belonging to Burr, but worn by a negro boy, in which he desired his men, if they had not separated, to keep together, to get their arms ready, and he would join them the next night-a message which led to several arrests. Burr's men, several of whom were afterward used against him as witnesses, dispersed through the Territory, furnishing it, as Poindexter afterward testified, with an abundant supply of schoolmasters, singing-masters, dancing-masters, and doctors. reward having been offered for his capture, Burr was ar rested some time after in the Eastern Mississippi settle- Feb. 19. ments, on the Tombigbee, through which he was passing on horseback, meanly dressed, attended by a single companion, and whence he was sent, under a guard, to Washington. The arrest was made by the register of the land-office, assisted by Lieutenant Gaines (afterward Major-general Gaines), with a sergeant and four men from Fort Stoddart. A XIX. CHAPTER Just about the time of Burr's arrival near Natchez, General Adair reached New Orleans by land, but was 1807. immediately taken into custody by Wilkinson, and sent round by sea to Baltimore. The alarm did not immediately cease upon the stoppage of Burr's boats. As it was imagined that he had promises of foreign assistance, confederates in various quarters, and numerous partisans in the city itself, it was thought that even yet an attack might be made. There had been in New Orleans a society called the Mexican Association, formed for the purpose of obtaining information respecting the internal provinces of that viceroyalty, with a view, it was admitted, to some future expedition against them. This society, it was said, had some time before dwindled to nothing, and had discontinued its meetings; yet all those who had once been connected with it were suspected as Burr's partisans. Not willing to risk further arrests, from which the prisoners might be discharged on writs of habeas corFeb. 10. pus, Governor Claiborne applied to the Territorial Legis lature to suspend that writ. But though, in other respects, the majority had supported his and Wilkinson's measures, they refused to grant this request. A considerable party, both in the Assembly and among the citi zens, was very bitter against what they called the highhanded and tyrannical proceedings of Wilkinson and Claiborne. Wortman resigned his office of judge on the ground that the government was usurped by military authority, and Livingston presently came out with a long vindication against the insinuation which had been thrown out by Wilkinson to his disadvantage. 1806. In the midst of the excitement occasioned by the issue Dec. 1. of the president's proclamation, the ninth Congress came together for its second session. In the opening message some allusions were made to that proclamation; but it XIX. was six weeks before the proceedings against Burr came CHAPTER distinctly before the House. To a call for information, moved by Randolph, and carried against a good deal of 1807. opposition from the president's more particular supporters, the president replied by a statement of the steps taken Jan. 22. by his orders. Though it was not yet known what had become of Burr, all occasion for alarm had ceased. the president declared, and yet, as if in spite of this declaration, a bill was at once introduced into the Senate, and, by a suspension of all the rules by unanimous con- Jan. 23. sent, was passed in secret session without a division, suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus for three months. So This singular movement is best explained by the legal proceedings then pending in the case of Bollman and Swartwout, who, having been brought across the coun try from Annapolis, had arrived at Washington that same evening, and had been committed to the custody of the Jan. 24. marine corps. The following Monday they were brought before the Circuit Court, the principal court of law of the district, on a charge of treason, the president's message of the previous week being relied upon by the counsel for the government as conclusive proof of the existence of a traitorous plot a course of reasoning to which two of the three judges assented. A deposition of Wilkinson, objected to as being ex parte, was also introduced, as well as the testimony of Eaton; and the court, on this evidence, two to one, committed the prisoners for trial. Jan. 30. If the suspension of the habeas corpus was intended for this case, that intention failed of its effect, for the House very unceremoniously rejected the bill from the Jan. 26. Senate by the decisive vote of 113 to 16. A day or two Jan. 28. after, all alarm was quieted by the information commu CHAPTER nicated to Congress by the president that Burr had passXIX. ed Fort Massac with only ten boats, not strongly man1807. ned, and without appearance of military array. Bollman and Swartwout Alexander, who had also reached Washington in custody, having been meanwhile Feb. 6. discharged-were presently brought before the Supreme Court of the United States on a writ of habeas corpus, and, after a very elaborate argument (Harper and Martin appearing as their counsel), first, as to the right of the court to issue the writ, and then as to the sufficiency of the cause of commitment, they were discharged Feb. 21. from custody on the ground that they did not appear to have been in any way connected with the commission of any overt act of treason. Adair, who, along with Ogden, had been discharged about the same time by a Baltimore judge, addressed a long letter to the Kentucky delegation in Congress, in which he insisted that he had gone to New Orleans only on a land speculation and commercial business. By a common revulsion of feeling, the exaggerated rumors as to Burr's force, and the alarm thereby excited in New Orleans and elsewhere, became now subjects of ridicule. Henry Clay, lately Burr's counsel in Kentucky, denounced the arrests made by Wilkinson at New Orleans as illegal and unconstitutional. Smith, of Maryland, admitted that Wilkinson's proceedings were not technically legal, but he justified them as precautions which the general's position and information had made it necessary for him to take. In the House, toward the end of the session, the same subject was very warmly discussed, on a series of resoFeb. 19. lutions directing a bill to be brought in more effectually to secure the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus to persons in custody under the authority of the United XIX. States. Both sections of the opposition, the Federalists, CHAPTER and the little party led by Randolph, severely denounced the conduct of Wilkinson; and the resolutions were with 1807. difficulty got rid of by a majority of only two votes. The president had recommended in his opening message the giving to the executive, in case of enterprises meditated against the government, the same suppressive powers already possessed in case of enterprises against foreign powers. But the Democrats had not yet entirely forgotten how violently, when in opposition, they had resisted the latter act. A bill, in conformity to the president's recommendations, was brought into the House; but as it could not be so shaped as to suit the majority, it failed to pass. Another bill on the same subject came down from the Senate, but the whole was struck out in the House except a single section, still in force, authorizing the president, in all cases in which he had the right to call out the militia to suppress insurrection and resistance to the laws, to employ for the same purpose the naval and military forces of the United States. Another subject pressed upon the attention of the House in the president's message, and which occupied a large share of attention from the beginning to the end of the session, was the prohibition of the importation of slaves from and after the first of January, 1808. All concurred in expressing the greatest anxiety that this traffic should be prohibited from the first moment that it fell under the cognizance of Congress. But as to the details of the measure, very great differences of opinion arose; principally as to the punishments to be imposed upon those who might persist in carrying on the traffic, and as to the disposal of negroes illegally introduced. As originally reported by a committee, of which Early, of Georgia, was chairman, the bill provided that all |