The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
The information in the enclosed paper, as to proceedings in the State
of Ohio, is correct. Blennerhasset's flotilla of fifteen boats and two
hundred barrels of provisions, is seized, and there can be no doubt that
Tyler's flotilla is also taken, because, on the 17th of December, we
know there was a sufficient force assembled at Cincinnati to intercept it
there, and another party was in pursuit of it on the river above. We are
assured that these two flotillas composed the whole of the boats, provided
Blennerhasset and Tyler had fled down the river. I do not believe that
the number of persons engaged for Burr has ever amounted to five hundred,
though some have carried them to one thousand or fifteen hundred. A part
of these were engaged as settlers of Bastrop's land, but the greater
part of these were engaged under the express assurance that the projected
enterprise was against Mexico, and secretly authorized by this government.
Many were expressly enlisted in the name of the United States. The
proclamation which reached Pittsburg, December 2d, and the other parts of
the river successively, undeceived both these classes, and of course drew
them off, and I have never seen any proof of their having assembled more
than forty men in two boats from Beaver, fifty in Tyler's flotilla, and
the boatmen of Blennerhasset's. I believe therefore, that the enterprise
may be considered as crushed, but we are not to relax in our attentions
until we hear what has passed at Louisville. If everything from that place
upwards be successfully arrested, there is nothing from below that is to
be feared. Be assured that Tennessee, and particularly General Jackson,
are faithful. The orders lodged at Massac and the Chickasaw bluffs, will
probably secure the interception of such fugitives from justice as may
escape from Louisville, so that I think you will never see one of them.
Still I would not wish, till we hear from Louisville, that you should
relax your preparations in the least, except so far as to dispense with
the militia of Mississippi and Orleans leaving their homes under our order
of November 25th. Only let them consider themselves under requisition, and
be in a state of readiness should any force, too great for your regulars,
escape down the river. You will have been sensible that those orders were
given while we supposed you were on the Sabine, and the supposed crisis
did not admit the formality of their being passed through you. We had
considered Fort Adams as the place to make a stand, because it covered the
mouth of the Red river. You have preferred New Orleans on the apprehension
of a fleet from the West Indies. Be assured there is not any foundation
for such an expectation, but the lying exaggerations of those traitors to
impose on others and swell their pretended means. The very man whom they
represented to you as gone to Jamaica, and to bring the fleet, has never
been from home, and has regularly communicated to me everything which
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The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private — John Shaqi
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