First Claslzes witlz tlze United States
by all the means in your power, repel any invasion of the territory of the United States east of the River Sabine, or north or west of the bounds of what has been called West Florida." 10 : But fortunately for all concerned, Wilkinson was delayed three months in St. Louis by "various and unavoidable obstacles." Subsequent events point strongly to the shady and not satisfactorily explained relations of the general with the colorful conspirator, ex-Vice-President Aaron Burr. These unfortunate relations and the excited state of public opinion both in the United States and the Interior Provinces have sadly confused the true state of affairs. "Burr's designs were complicated with the attitude of the United States Government . .. and the complication confounded contemporaries, most of all the Spaniards. They saw the conspiracy only as an aggressive movement against their territories, organized as it were under the wing of the Government." 103 Let us return to Wilkinson and the third crisis on the frontier. Although his movements were incredibly slow, the general was loud in his denunciation of Spanish perfidy and his determination to drive the Spaniards beyond the Sabine. "I will soon plant our standards on the left bank of the Grand River [Rio Grande]," he said shortly after his orders reached him. The Orleans Gazette announced on October 3 that from Fort Adams all the regular troops had marched under Captain Sparks for Natchitoches, and that at any moment Major Ferdinand L. Claiborne was expected to take the Mississippi militia and Captain Farrar's dragoons to the frontier. To General John Adair, Senator, Wilkinson wrote in reply as to the distance from St. Louis to Santa Fe: "Do you know that I have reserved these places for my own triumphal entry, that I have been reconnoitering and exploring the route for sixteen years; that I not only know the way but all the difficulties and how to surmount them?" Shortly after his arrival at Natchitoches in September, he again wrote Adair: "The time long looked for by many and wished for by more has now arrived. More will be done by marching than fighting; 5,000 men will give us to Rio ................ ; 10,000 to .. .. ....... ..... ; we must here divide our army into three parts and will then require
102 Wilkinson, James, Memoirs of M,y Own Time, Appendix xc. Salcedo to Cordero, August 25, and September 18 1 1806. Nacogdoclus Arcl,ives, X, pp. 141-145. 103 McCaleb, Tl,e Aaron Burr Conspiracy, 109.
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