The Enquirer

MISCELLANEOUS.

[From The Troy Post, April 4]

EXTRACTS FROM
GEN. WILKINSON'S DEFENCE.

The trial of general Wilkinson has excited so much interest during the winter past, that we presume it will be acceptable to our readers to see a part of his defence. It is said the trial will be published as soon as the sentence of the court is made known. The following extracts are made from the exordium and conclusion of the General's defence.]

O Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Court,

The case before you, however afflicting to the sensibilities of a soldier, has become too common in our own history, as well as that of other nations. The conflicts of ministers and generals appear to be the necessary consequences of every unsuccessful military expedition; Failure produces discontent, discontent murmurs, murmurs recrimination, and recrimination Inquiry. It is presumed there has been a fault somewhere; the public mind becomes restless, and the people must be satisfied, even at the expense of an hundred thousand dollars, without one cent of profit, as in the present case.

This would be well, were good to come of it: but as personal controversies seldom mends the heart or improves the understanding, it never should be suffered on slight grounds.

An upright & able minister would prefer to rest his political standing on his own reputation, sooner than to seek to prop it by the persecution of a faithful, cautious, but unfortunate general. Such was the conduct of a Chatham, whose example it is impossible an Armstrong could imitate.

But my case is perhaps without an example :-That of a minister of high standing and splendid talents, seducing an officer from an honorable command and the fairest prospect of fame, to put him on the execution of an impracticable project, without competent means: and because of its failure, to save himself from public odium, he descends to tricks, stratagems and perfidies, to cast the blame he has incurred from his own shoulders upon those of the officer he has deceived; and this officer! a man with whom he had been associated in the most interesting scenes of the revolutionary war --the friend of his juvenile days, to whom he professed to be bound by the sacred ties of personal confidence and attachment!

Mr. President, I disdain high colourings in case of such gravity, and should disdain to excite the feelings, or warp the judgment of my judges were I capable; the disclosures about to be made will test the truth, & determine my title to credibility.

From the common anxiety we have felt to conclude the procrastinated investigation with as little delay as possible, I have undertaken to perform in 12 days, a work requiring a month. it must not therefore be expected that I should present this defence in that connected prepared state; with that regularity and complete arrangement, and analysis of the testimony which it was my desire to submit to the deliberate understanding of this court, and to the sober reflection of my countrymen.

In forming a judgment on the whole or any distinct part of my conduct, I flatter myself the court will be determined by circumstances as they appeared at the time; by the decisions of the moment and the apparent exigencies of the occasion; not by after knowledge of facts which could not be known at the time.

Before I enter upon the investigation of the testimony, I consider it a matter of propriety towards the Court briefly to state the course I shall pursue: It will be recollected that a report touching the merits of that part of the campaign of 1813 in which I was concerned, at the hall of the house of representatives, was made up by that venerable and presented to that honorable body in session of 1813-14; and it has been admitted by the court that that report should be taken as "prima facie' evidence on this enquiry: I have availed myself of this permission, to present such parts that report to the view of the court as tend to throw light upon the enquiry before it, and to explain the principles and motives of my actions in command, from the first order received at the dawn of the late war, to the termination of my command on the northern frontier last April.

I shall then, Mr President, open the case with a brief narrative of facts and incidents; after which I shall proceed to compare and apply the testimony, and will conclude with a rapid summary of the whole.

CONCLUSION.

The artifices of my accuser prevailed: he deprived me of my sword in the dawn of the campaign; threw me out of the path of glory, and the injury is irreparable.

The troops formed and disciplined in hardships, and suffering, and perils, under my orders, when fitted for action and prepared to meet the enemy, were destined to gather laurels to decorate the brows of more fortunate men.

But amidst the ills inflicted upon me by this tyrant, the hand of Heaven was outstretched in my behalf; and the disgraceful flight of the destroyer of the empire of this country, placed the office he had abused in honorable hands, and secured to me an impartial tribunal to judge my conduct. A tribunal! the first in point of rank and experience, one only excepted, which ever assembled in the United States. But, Mr. President, I possess other sources of consolation, which no earthly power can take from me. I have borne arms and faithfully served my country through three wars! nay more- I have saved her from a civil war. How many toilsome days have I labored for the honor of my country !--how many sleepless nights have I watched over her safety ! Thirty-nine years past, I marched a company over the very ground on which I now stand arraigned--gen waste, wild and uncultivated: now the scene of industry; of wealth, and of talents; the seat of social refinement, of personal charms, and polished society. In October next it will be thirty eight years since I led the entire army of Burgoyne from his intrenchments to surrender an army of six thousand veteran troops of Europe, on the plains of Saratoga, under a convention countersigned by the hand which now presents it to the honorable court, with the prayer, that it may be permitted to accompany the records of this day, and find a place in the archives of the war department.

Mr. President, may the war-worn veteran, with a ruined constitution, the fruits of the services of his whole life; and staggering under the load of obloquy heaped on him by his accuser, be permitted to produce a more recent instance of his zeal in the public service -to shew that he has not been triumphant; that if he has been deprived of the opportunity to swell his humble fame with rivers of blood, his time has not been uselessly employed to the state !

The testimonials of those meritorious, gallant officers, Com. Macdonough and Maj. Genl. McComb, (see app. No.76) seconded by the credible oath of a respectable eye witness, a citizen of this State, will prove beyond a doubt, that my agent contributed essentially to our naval triumph on Lake Champlain, and the preservation of our garrison at Plattsburgh. From these documents it will appear that but for my precaution in establishing a battery at the mouth of Otter Creek, the early movement of the enemy against that point in May last would have blockaded our squadron for the season: The shores of the Lake would have been exposed to his ravages, and Plattsburgh must have yielded to his superior force.

Mr. President and Gentlemen, whatever may be my future destiny, a destiny wrapped in clouds. I shall bear in grateful recollection the patience with which you have waded through this tedious enquiry. I confide in the justice of your award, because I am satisfied it will be founded in integrity. Whatever it may be, I am prepared to meet it with complacency, & were it proper for me to express a wish on this awful occasion, which interests my feelings closer than life itself, I should say—If Guilty, let my punishment be eternal—If Innocent, signit me with Honor. Then I shall not have lived in vain.