Alexandria Daily Advertiser

FROM the RICHMOND ENQUIRER

TRIAL
COLONEL A. BURR.

MOTION FOR COMMITMENT
EXAMINATION OF EVIDENCE

Saturday October
Colonel McKee's testimony continued.
Mr. Hay Luther also your writing
dated as late in February last? A. It in
Mr. Wirt At the time of this corres-
pondence and before, did you consider
general Wilkinson as your friend, whose
agency you were willing to employ with
the secretary at war?--A. I expected much
less, sir from his interest than his disposi-
tion to serve me
Mr. Wirt. You considered him then
as a friend, whom you considered willing
to trust? A. I did. Q. Is this your writing?
A. It is. Here Mr. Wirt read the
following letter.

Chickasaws, August 1st 1805
Dear Sir

YOUR friendly talk from Pitts-
burg, 13th May, had the pleasure to re-
ceive at this place a few days ago. I thank
you sincerely for your letter to the secre-
tary of war. I hope it will have the effect
at least of relieving me from the most pain-
ful suspense I have ever experienced. I had
addressed himself myself from Tennessee just
before I set out and am now beginning to
look out for his answer I would have
written you sooner on the subject of my
expectations, but I thought them so well
founded as not to require even mentioning
to the secretary; they were founded on a
direct and unsolicited promise from himself
to me that I should be provided for in
Louisiana as soon as the government
should be organized. This was confirmed
to me afterwards thro' col. Moore and gen.
Thomas and last winter he repeated
to several of my friends his continued dis-
position to serve me; but I remain as ig-
ignorant as I was two years ago in what way.
I hope it may be in your quarter and soon,
for a state of suspense is penance worse by
far than fasting. I trust like a good Catholic
that I am in a fair way for Heaven, even
if I should have to pass thro' a jail.
I think I understood, from Mr. Dins-
moor that he had written you at large, on
the late successful negotiations with this
nation he has to day started to Natchez.
from thence to the Choctaws, where about
the beginning of October the Commission-
ers are to meet that nation at Mount Dex,
ter and make another attempt to treat for
land I have had some talk with both the
White and Red Mingos about securing a
tract of land to a Choctaw boy that has con-
verted to practice himself into my affection
this is my business here my prospects
of success are not very flattering, as I had
the business must be clogg'd with other ne-
gotiations.
On the 28th Ult. Col. Burr passed this
on his return from Orleans to Nashville
and I understood he intended to visit
your government
If I am disappointed in the hope of going
up the Mississippi, when I leave this, I will
inform you of my course and prospects.
With sincere respect and esteem, I have
the honor to be,
Your Excellency's
Obedient Servant,
JOHN McKEE
His Excellency Gen. Wilkinson.

Mr McRae then also read the three
following letters:

Chickasaws, October 19, 1805.
Dear General

Your friendly letter of the 8th ult.
I received by post on the 15th instant, and
from some cause or other it was the most
acceptable I ever received; it found me
here alone, far gone in the blue devils,
doubting whether I had not better espatri-
ated myself and try my fortune amidst the
storm now gathering in Europe. You
cannot think it strange that I feel extreme-
ly mortified when I tell you that I have a
year past since May last been waiting in
daily expectation of receiving orders to
repair in a public capacity to some part of
your government--this expectation was ex-
cited by the unsolicited promises of the
secretary of war. It is true he has still
held out to my friends the idea that he in-
tended to provide for me and it must be
admitted he has taken time enough to do
it well. In the mean time I am suffering
the most painful anxiety and my cash ex-
hausted to a small sum. I have al-
ways suspected Claiborne of injuring me with
the government, tho' he declared with un-
lifted hands to the contrary I was in-
formed that he had in 1801 made some repre-
scntations to you and col Hawkins found-
ed on a report made to him by col Joslyn
that I had abused him and the president in
a conversation at Mr. McIntosh's--this
conversation very incorrect and improper lan-
guage you have since seen col. Joslyn
who gave me a certificate of which the
enclosed is a copy: for what I said of Mr.
Claiborne, a candidate for an office in the
state of which I am a citizen I certainly
can be accountable only to him not to the
government that has since cloathed him
with the mantle of its power. If I had
learned orator to or polite, dicere to a man
whose head and heart were neither of them
formed to my taste on the scale of great
Mingo O, perhaps I might have been hit-
ted with an office ere this: however, nil
desperandum, Fcucro ducer I will remain
here till Xmas. The Choctaw treaty I
fear will fall through this season and that
will not be among the least of my disap-
pointments, for I had some expectation of
procuring at it a tract of land for my young
Choctaw. It is reported here from Cum-
berland that the sec'y of war has written
that if the Choctaws wish to sell land they
must send deputies to Washington.
Crescentia, &c. is very Catholic, but when
I proceeded to her to bleach high. I
blushed to the fingers ends, but why, I
would not tell you for all my hopes in the
government, on paper I mean.
With sincere respect and esteem I have
the honor to be
Your Excellency's
Obedient servant
JOHN McKEE
His Excellency Gen. Wilkinson.

The irregularity of the mail-carriers oc-
asioned this to be a mail later than I ex-
pected. I am now informed by a letter
from Mr. Dinsmoor that the Commiss'rs
will meet the Choctaws about 1st Nov. and
this morning I set out with your friend
gen. W. Colbert to Mount Dexter to at-
tend the treaty
J. McK.

Chickasaw Bluffs, Dec. 26, 1806.
Dear General,

So many opportunities present them-
selves here for conveying a letter towards
Orleans that I would be ungrateful to leave
this without at least offering you the com-
pliments of the season, and my hearty
prayers for the success of your bark on this
tempestuous sea of Liberty; for with all
my confidence in her staunchness I cannot
help feeling some anxiety on account of
shoals rocks and the cursed pirates that
infest her track.
I set out to morrow morning for the
Chickasaws and if you should have leisure
to inform me of your health by post--I
will remain there long enough to receive
it, and I hope not much longer.
I have the honor to be with very sin-
cere respect and esteem,
Dear General
Your obedient servant,
JOHN McKEE.
His Excellency Gen. Wilkinson.

Natchez, Jun. 25, 1807.
Dear General,

I wrote you a note from the
Chickasaw Bluffs about Xmas. Soon af-
ter I set out for this place, where I have
been for ten days and will yet remain per-
haps two weeks longer--just to laugh at
the ridiculous scenes that are passing be-
fore us there is a wide field for con-
jecture and every man takes his own direction.
The little mingo here has assumed a mili-
tary attitude to defend the Altar and the
Throne as well against Colonel Burr as the
encroachments of the army.
I have no doubt that ere this you will have
set me down as a Burrite and as such that
you will believe me when I assure you that
as yet I am not; and I must know the ob-
ject and the means better than I do, before
I can be. Tis true that having nothing
to do and hearing that some great enter-
prise was on foot, patronized by many
great men and wink'd at by the government,
I came here to profit of any opportunity
that might offer of bettering my situation
by honorable enterprise. As yet I see no
way open but in the face of my country's
laws, and desperate as my fortune is, I
will never deliberately do an act that will
prevent me from returning to the spot
where I was born.
I have lately received a letter from Mr.
Simpson saying "your friend gen. W.
wishes you were here, as he has now in
his power to serve you." This to me just
now is very interesting information; and
by return of the mail will be glad to hear
from you.
Need I tell you that considerable pains
are taken and taking here to render your
name unpopular; and by persons too I am
informed who speak much of the laws and
E constituted authorities of the country
Your friends Dinsmoor Freeman and
McKee occupy a room here and laugh at
this puddle in a storm.
I have the honor to be very respectfully
Your Excellency's
Obedient Servant
JOHN McKEE
His Excellency Gen. Wilkinson.

(To be continued.)