An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson (65 page)

325 “more the Lamb than the Lion, the Spinster than the Soldier” and “literally a Washington in all his great qualities”: JW to Jefferson, March 21, 1824, PTJ.

325 “slothful, ready to vice, insensible to social affection”: JW’s memorial to Iturbide appears in Bolton, “General James Wilkinson as Advisor to Emperor Iturbide.”

325 “divinely situated on the Coast of the Gulph”: JW to Jonathan Williams, December 1822, quoted in Jacobs,
Tarnished Warior
, 308.

327 That JW was caught on the horns of a dilemma, unable to make his fortune and too proud to return penniless, was made clear in a letter to Thomas Aspinwall, U.S. consul in London. JW said he needed to make a fortune in order not to have to depend on “gifts and graces” from the “little Jesuit Madison or his Bi-faced friend Monroe.” JW to Aspinwall, April 17, 1823, printed in
Bulletin N.Y. State Library
3:362.

327 “I have just made a contract apparently”: JW to Joseph Wilkinson, February 25, 1825,
Tarnished Warrior
, 311.

B
IBLIOGRAPHY

N
OTES ON
S
OURCES

There has never been a shortage of material on James Wilkinson. He hoarded letters and papers obsessively, and his notoriety in his own lifetime ensured that many people either corresponded directly with him or made reference to his activities. The only problem is to make sense of information, which was rarely biased toward the truth.

James Wilkinson’s papers are widely distributed. The largest single collection, the James Wilkinson Papers, containing about 650 documents, is held by the Chicago Historical Society. Other notable sources are the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky, covering the period 1784 to 1805, especially Wilkinson’s land deals and separatist activity; the Pennsylvania Historical Society, for papers relating to the Biddle family and Wilkinson’s political activities to 1807; the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Winthrop Sargent and William Claiborne Letters for the period 1795 to 1807; the Missouri Historical Society, covering Wilkinson’s governorship and exploration; and the Library of Congress (LoC). In this last location are also to be found important collections relevant to Wilkinson’s life: the Andrew Ellicott Papers relating to their connection, 1795 to 1807; Harry Innes Papers, particularly volumes 19, 22, and 23, containing Wilkinson’s business correspondence, 1784 to 1805; Thomas Jefferson Papers (TJP), correspondence from 1800 to 1824; George Washington Papers (GWP), letters and references, 1776 to 1799; and the
Papeles Procedentes de Cuba
of the Archivo General de Indias, in particular photostats of legajos (bundles) numbers 2373, 2374, and 2375, containing most of Wilkinson’s coded communications.

The Jefferson and Washington Papers are also available online at, respectively,
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/index.html
., and
http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu:8080/founders/GEWN.html
, as are other LoC sources: American State Papers; Journals of the Continental Congress (JCC); Letters of the Continental Congress; and the Annals of Congress— at
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/index.html
. The Adams Family Papers (AFP) have been assembled online by the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the War Department Papers (WDP), once widely scattered, have been brought together at the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, also available online.

Many of Wilkinson’s official letters were also published in his different volumes of memoirs.

U
NPUBLISHED
P
APERS

Archivo General de Indias.
Papeles Procedentes de Cuba
(PPC), legajos 2373, 2374, and 2375. LoC. The library also has photostats of manuscripts from the Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid, containing references to Wilkinson.

Andrew Ellicott Papers. LoC.

Harry Innes Papers. LoC.

War Department Papers. Center for History and New Media. George Mason University.
http://wardepartmentpapers.org/index.php
.

James Wilkinson Papers. Chicago Historical Society.

C
ONTEMPORARY
S
OURCES

Adams, Charles F.
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
. 12 vols. Vol 9. Philadelphia: 1874–77. Adams Family Papers (AFP). Massachusetts Historical Society. (digital)
www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea
.

American State Papers. LoC. (ASP)

—Foreign Relations. Vol. 1, 1789–1819.

—Indian Affairs. Vol. 1, 1789–1819.

—Military Affairs. Vol. 1, 1789–1819.

Annals of Congress
(AC) Burke, Edmund.
Reflections on the Revolution in France
. 1790. Reprint, New York and London: Penguin Classics, 1986.

Burr, Aaron.
Memoirs of Aaron Burr with Miscellaneous Selections from His Correspondence
. Ed. Matthew West. New York: Harper & Bros., 1834.

———.
The Private Journal of Aaron Burr During His Residence of Four Years in Europe.
2 vols. New York: Harper, 1838.

Carpenter, T.
The Trial of Colonel Aaron Burr on an Indictment of Treason
. Washington, DC: Westcott, 1808.

Clark, Daniel.
Proofs of the Corruption of General James Wilkinson and of His Connexion
with Aaron Burr
. Philadelphia: Hall & Pierie, 1809.

Ellicott, Andrew.
The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, late Commissioner on behalf of the United
States . . . for determining the boundary between the United States and the possessions of
his Catholic Majesty in America . . . With six maps . . . To which is added an appendix
containing all the astronomical observations made, etc.
Philadelphia, 1803.

Filson, John.
The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucké
. Wilmington, Adams, 1784.

Foster, Thomas, ed.
The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796–1810.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.

Imlay, Gilbert.
A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America
. 3rd ed. London: J. Debrett, 1797. Reprint, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1969.

Kilty, John.
Land Holder’s Assistant and Land Office Guide.
Baltimore: G. Dobbin &Murphy, 1808. MSA L 25529.

Jefferson, Thomas.
Notes on the State of Virginia
. 1785. Reprint, New York, Evanston, London: Harper Torchbook, 1964.

———.
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson
. Ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950–74. Online: American Memory, LoC (PTJ).

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789
. Ed. Worthington C. Ford et al. Washington, DC, 1904–37 ( JCC).

Letters of Brunswick and Hessian Officers during the American Revolution
. Trans. William Stone. Albany, NY: Munsell’s Son, 1891.

Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789
. 25 vols. Ed. Paul H. Smith et al. Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1976–2000 (LDC).

Lodge, Henry Cabot.
The Works of Alexander Hamilton
, vol. 10. Federal edition. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904. (WAH)

Marshall, Humphrey.
The History of Kentucky, Exhibiting an Account of the Modern Discovery;
Settlement; Progressive Improvement; Civil and Military Transactions; and the Present
State of the Country
. 2 vols. Frankfort, KY: George S. Robinson, 1824.

Papers of the Continental Congress. American Memory, LoC (PCC).

Reed, Joseph.
The Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed
. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1847.

Washington, George.
The Papers of George Washington
. Digital ed. Ed. Theodore J. Crackel. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2007 (PGW).

———.
The Writings of George Washington
. Ed. Jared Sparks. Boston, 1834 (WGP).

Wilkinson, James.
Burr’s Conspiracy exposed and General Wilkinson vindicated against the
slanders of his enemies on that important occasion
. Washington, 1811.

———.
Memoirs of My Own Times
. 3 vols. and an atlas. Philadelphia: A. Small, 1816.

———. (“A Kentuckian,” i.e., Wilkinson).
A Plain Tale, Supported by Authentic Documents,
Justifying the Character of General Wilkinson
. Richmond, KY: The Inquirer, 1807.

J
OURNAL
A
RTICLES

Baack, Ben. “Forging a Nation State: The Continental Congress and the Financing of the War of American Independence.”
Economic History Review
, n.s., 54, no. 4 (November 2001).

Birtle, Andrew J. “The Origins of the Legion of the United States.”
Journal of Military
History
67, no. 4 (October 2003).

Bolton, Herbert E. “General James Wilkinson as Advisor to Emperor Iturbide.”
Hispanic
American Historical Review
1, no. 2 (May 1918).

———. “Papers of Zebulon M. Pike, 1806–1807.”
American Historical Review
13, no. 4 ( July 1908).

Brooks, Philip C. “Spain’s Farewell to Louisiana, 1803–1821.”
Mississippi Valley Historical
Review
27, no. 1 ( June 1940).

Cox, Isaac Joslin. “The American Intervention in West Florida.”
American Historical
Review
17, no. 2 ( January 1912).

———. “The Freeman Red River Expedition.”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society
92, no. 2 (May 5, 1948).

———. “General Wilkinson and His Later Intrigues with the Spaniards.”
American
Historical Review
19 (1914).

———. “Hispanic- American Phases of the ‘Burr Conspiracy.’ ”
Hispanic American
Historical Review
12, no. 2 (May 1932).

———. “The Louisiana-Texas Frontier I.”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
10, no. 1 ( July 1906).

———. “The Louisiana-Texas Frontier II.”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
17, no. 1 ( July 1913).

———. “The Louisiana-Texas Frontier III.”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
017, no. 2. Online, p. 140.

———. “The Louisiana- Texas Frontier During the Burr Conspiracy.”
Mississippi Valley
Historical Review
10, no. 3 (December 1923).

———. “The Pan- American Policy of Jefferson and Wilkinson.”
Mississippi Valley
Historical Review
1, no. 2 (September 1914).

———. “Spanish Papers Relating to the Treachery of General James Wilkinson.”
American Historical Review
21 (1916).

Davis, Elvert. “By Invitation of Mrs. Wilkinson: An incident of life at Fort Fayette.”
Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine
13 ( July 1930): 145–81.

Earle, Robert G. “The Taverns of Colonial Philadelphia.”
Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society
, n.s., 43, no. 1 (1953).

Ekirch, Arthur A. “The Idea of a Citizen Army.”
Military Affairs
17, no. 1 (Spring 1953).

Folch, Vincent. “An Interview of Governor Folch with General Wilkinson.”
American
Historical Review
10 ( July 1905).

Hay, Thomas R. “Letters of Mrs. Ann Biddle Wilkinson from Kentucky, 1788–1789.”
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
56 ( January 1932): 33–55.

———. “Some Reflections on the Career of General James Wilkinson.”
Mississippi
Valley Historical Review
21 (March 1935): 471–94.