Answer. He said yes, and many greater men than Wilkin

son.

Question by Mr. HAY. I will ask you whether at that time, you were in the service of the United States?

Answer. I was declared not to be.

Mr. HAY. I do not wish to hurt your feelings, but merely to shew to the jury the state you were in.

Commodore Truxtun then proceeded :-Colonel Burr again wished me to take a part and asked me to write a letter to general Wilkinson; that he was about to dispatch two couriers to him. I told him that I had no subject to write about; and declined writing. Mr. Burr said that several officers would be pleased at being put under my command. He spoke highly of lieutenant Jones, and asked me if he had sailed with me? I told him that he had not, and that I could give him no account of Mr. Jones, having never seen him to my knowledge. He observed that the expedition could not fail; that the Mexicans were ripe for revolt; that he was incapable of any thing chimerical, or that would lead his friends into a dilemma. He shewed me the draught of a periauger or kind of boat that plies between Paulus-Hook and New-York, and asked my opinion of those boats, and whether they were calculated for the river Mississippi and the waters thereof; and I gave him my opinion that they were. He asked me whether I could get a naval constructor to make several copies of the draught? I told him I would. I spoke to a naval constructor and delivered it to him, but as he could not finish them as soon as colonel Burr wished, the draught was returned to him. Mr. Burr told me that he intended those boats for the conveyance of agricultural products to market at New-Orleans, and in the event of a war, for transports. I knew, and informed him, that they were not calculated for transports by sea, nor for the carrying of guns; but having determined to have nothing to do with the Mexican expedition, I said very little more to him about those boats; but I very well recollect what I said to him in our last conversation towards the end of July. I told him that there would be no war. He was sanguine there would be war. He said, however, that if he was disappointed as to the event of war, he was about to complete a contract for a large quantity of land on the Washita; that he intended to invite his friends to settle it; that in one year he would have a thousand families of respectable and fashionable people, and some of them of considerable property: that it was a fine country, and that they would have a charming society, and in two years he would have double the number of settlers; and being on the frontier, he

would be ready to move whenever a war took place. I have thus endeavored to relate the substance of the conversations which passed between us, as well as I can recollect. Though it is very possible that I have not stated them, after such a lapse of time, verbatim.

Question by Mr. MAC RAE. Was it in your first conversation that he told you, that you should think no more of those men at Washington?

Answer. It was in several.

Question by the same counsel. Was it not in July, that he told you, that he wished to see you unwedded from the navy of the United States, and to make you an admiral?

Answer. That conversation happened in July. He wished to see or make me an admiral; I cannot recollect which.

Question by Mr. HAY.-Did not those conversations take place, after it was declared, that you were no longer in the service of the United States?

Answer. They did.

In answer to a question by colonel Carrington, one of the jury, he again stated, that the latter conversation was in July. Question by Mr. MARTIN.-Was it not to the event of a war with Spain, that these conversations related?

Answer. All his conversations respecting military and naval subjects, and the Mexican expedition, were in the event of a war with Spain. I told him my opinion was, that there would be no war, and he seemed to be confident, that there would be

war.

Mr. MAC RAE.-Did he mention general Eaton in any of those conversations?

Answer. He mentioned no person but general Wilkinson and lieutenant Jones.

Mr. HAY.-Had you not expressed your dissatisfaction at the declaration of your not being in the service of the United States?

Answer. I had. The misunderstanding between the secretary of the navy of the United States and myself took place in March 1802.

On cross examination, the commodore further stated, that he had had several (he did not know how many) conversations with Mr. Burr; and that as well as he could recollect, it was about the latter end of July, that he informed him, that he was about concluding a bargain for the Washita lands, and wished also to see him unwedded from the nayy of the United States. H

added, colonel Burr said, that after the Mexican expedition, he intended to provide a formidable navy, at the head of which he intended to place me: that he intended to establish an independent government, and give liberty to an enslaved world. I declined his propositions to me at first, because the president was not privy to the project. He asked me the best mode of attacking the Havanna, Carthagena, and La Vera Cruz; but spoke of no particular force.

Question by colonel BURR.-Do you not recollect my telling you of the propriety of private expeditions, undertaken by individuals in case of war; and that there had been such in the late war, and that there is no legal restraint on such expeditions?

Mr. HAY objected to this question as improper.

Colonel BURR insisted on its propriety, and that the gentlemen for the prosecution had set an example far beyond it.

Commodore Truxtun answered: You said that Wilkinson, the army and many of the officers of the navy would join, and you spoke highly of lieutenant Jones.

Colonel BURR.-Had I not frequently told you, and for years, that the government had no serious intention of employing you, and that you were duped by the Smiths? and do you not think that I was perfectly correct in that opinion?

Answer. Yes: I know very well I

was,

Colonel BURR.-Were we not in terms of intimacy? Was there any reserve on my part, in our frequent conversations; and did you ever hear me express any intention or sentiment respecting a division of the union?

Answer. We were very intimate. There seemed to be no reserve on your part. I never heard you speak of a division of the union.

Colonel BURR.-Did I not state to you, that the Mexican expedition would be very beneficial to this country?

Answer. You did.

Colonel BURR.-Had you any serious doubt as to my intentions to settle those lands?

Answer. So far from that, I was astonished at the intelligence, of your having different views, contained in newspapers received from the western country, after you went thither.

Question. Would you not have joined in the expedition if sanctioned by the government?

Answer. I would most readily get out of my bed at twelve VOL. I.

3 Q

o'clock at night, to go in defence of my country, at her call, against England, France, Spain, or any other country.

Mr. HAY.-Did the prisoner speak of commercial speculations?

Answer. He said they might be carried on to advantage.

Question. Did he, in his conversations, speak of commercial establishments, in which he or his friends were to have an interest?

Answer. He spoke of settling that country, and sending produce therefrom to different parts of the world, New-Orleans particularly.

Mr. WIRT.-Did he speak of an independent empire in Mexico having an advantageous connexion with this country?

Answer. I understood him so.

Mr. MAC RAE.-Did he wish to fill your mind with resentment against the government?

Answer. I was pretty full of it myself, and he joined me in opinion.

Mr. WIRT. On what subject did Burr wish you to write to general Wilkinson?

Answer. General Wilkinson and myself were on good terms, and he wished me to correspond with him; but I had no subject for a letter to him, and therefore did not write to him.

Mr. HAY.-Suppose we were to have a war with Spain, would not New-Orleans be a proper place from whence to send an expedition against the Spanish provinces? Is it not more proper for that purpose, than any other place in the western parts of the country?

Answer. Certainly it is; but large ships cannot come up to New-Orleans; small craft or vessels must take the expedition down the river.

Question by Mr. Parker, one of the jury. Did you understand for what purpose the couriers spoken of were to be sent by Mr. Burr to general Wilkinson?

Answer. I understood from him, that there was an understanding between himself and general Wilkinson, about the Mexican expedition.

Mr. Parker. Was this expedition only to be in the event of a war with Spain?

Answer. Yes: In all his conversations with me, he said that this expedition was to take place only in the event of a war with Spain.

Mr. Parker. Was there no proposition made to you for such an expedition, whether there was war or not?

Answer. There was not.

Colonel BURR said, that enterprises by individuals, are lawful and customary in cases of war; and asked, whether there were not preparations making in Philadelphia now for that purpose.

Answer. Preparations are making at New-York, as to gun boats and fortifications. The merchants of Liverpool, in expectation of war, build ships for privateers, and if there be no war, they convert them into Guineamen.

Question by Mr. MAC RAE.-Are not the preparations going on openly at New-York? Has any commander been appointed independent of the government?

Answer. No.

Question by colonel BURR.-Did I not say, that I had never seen lieutenant Jones?

Answer. I do not recollect that, but you spoke highly of him.

Question by Mr. HAY.-When he proposed to make you an admiral, did not the thought strike you, how he was to accomplish this?

Mr. BоTTS denied that commodore Truxtun had said that Mr. Burr had promised to make him an admiral.

Commodore Truxtun.-Mr. Burr told me he wished to make or see me one, I do not particularly recollect which was his expression.

Question by Mr. HAY.-From what quarter of the world was the expedition by sea to go?

go

Answer. I do not know. I did not ask him where it was to from.

Question by the same. Did you not understand that you were to command the expedition by sea?

Answer. I declined the offer, and asked no questions particularly on the subject.

Mr. BOTTS.-Can ships be built secretly in a corner?
Answer. No.

Peter Taylor was next sworn.

Mr. HAY asked him to state every thing he knew concerning the assemblage on Blannerhassett's island.

Mr. BOTTS objected to this mode of examination; and though he was willing to accommodate Mr. Hay so far as to let the witness tell his story in his own way, yet he would not consent to his introducing completely illegal testimony; he had no objec