Part 234

Mr. RANDOLPH then rose for the purpose of making a motion, and giving information to the House which he had just received. This was a duty which he owed, not only to himself, but to the enlightened and independent freeholders who gave him a seat on this floor, and to the country at large. Within a few days, information had been put into his possession, of a nature and on a subject which he deemed it proper for the constituted authority to inquire into. Had this information come earlier into his possession, he should not till now have delayed giving it publicity. He would first state certain facts, and those facts would be the ground of his motion, on which he should offer no argument. Mr. R. then read the following documents:

NEW ORLEANS, January 20, 1796.

In the galley the Victoria, Bernardo Molina, Patron, there have been sent to Don Vincent Folch nine thousand six hundred and forty dollars; which sum, without making the least use of it, you will hold at my disposal, to deliver it at the moment that an order may be presented to you by the American General, Don James Wilkinson. God preserve you many years.

The BARON DE CARONDELET.

To Señor Don TOMAS PORTELL.

* * * * *

I certify that the foregoing is a copy of its original to which I refer.

TOMAS PORTELL.

NEW MADRID, June 27, 1796.

* * * * *

FORT WASHINGTON, Sept. 22, 1796.

Ill health and many pressing engagements must be my apology for a short letter. I must refer you to my letter to the Baron for several particulars, and for a detail of my perils and abuses. I must beg leave to refer you to our friend Power, whom I find of youthful enterprise and fidelity. He certainly deserves well of the Court, and I don’t doubt but he will be rewarded.

What political crisis is the present! and how deeply interesting in its probable results, in all its tendencies! … and thereby must hope it may not be carried into execution. If it is, an entire reform in the police and military establishments of Louisiana will be found immediately indispensable to the security of the Mexican provinces. I beg you to write me fully on this question in cipher by Power, whose presence in Philadelphia is necessary, as well to clear his own character, attacked by Wayne, as to support the fact of the outrage recently offered to the Spanish Crown in his person, and to bring me either the person or the deposition of a man now under your command, who had been suborned by Wayne to bear false witness against me, and afterwards, for fear he should recant, bribed him to leave Kentucky. Power will give you the perfect of this infamous transaction, and I conjure you by all the ties of friendship and of policy to assist him on this occasion. If Spain does not resent the outrage offered to Power in the face of all Kentucky … My letter to the Baron will explain the motives which carry me to Philadelphia: from thence I will write again to you. Power will explain to you circumstances which justify the belief of the great treachery that has been practised with respect to the money lately sent me. For the love of God and friendship, enjoin great secrecy and caution in all our concerns. Never suffer my name to be written or spoken. The SUSPICION OF WASHINGTON IS WIDE AWAKE. Beware of Bradford, the Fort Pitt refugee--he seeks to make peace--there are spies every where. We have a report here that you are appointed Governor of Louisiana. God grant it, as I presume the Baron will be promoted. I am your affectionate friend.

Copy of a letter in cipher received from General Wilkinson. Natchez, February 6, 1797.

MANUEL GAYOSO DE LEMOS.

In a separate paper, he says what follows:

This will be delivered to you by Noland, who, you know, is a child of my own raising--true to his profession and firm in his attachments to Spain. I consider him a powerful instrument in your hands, should occasion offer--I will answer for his conduct. I am deeply interested in whatsoever concerns him, and I confidently recommend him to your warmest protection. I am, evidently, your affectionate

WILKINSON.

A copy. MAN. GAYOSO DE LEMOS.

N. B.--Don Gayoso was then Governor of Natchez, and the same year was made Governor of Louisiana.

Mr. RANDOLPH stated the following to be an extract of a letter signed “T. Power,” whose handwriting, he said, could be identified:

“On the 27th of the same month [October last] appeared in the Richmond Enquirer a certificate given by myself to General Wilkinson in New Orleans on the 16th of May preceding. Immediately on my getting sight of this piece, which was the same or the next day, I addressed a note to his Excellency General Wilkinson, [No. 3.] Of this I did not keep a copy, and therefore dare not vouch that it is an exact literal transcript of the original; but I will be bold to say that it is nearly (or, to make use of the General’s own language, substantially) the same.

“Between my repeated declarations to many of my friends and acquaintances (I must say it with a blush) and this certificate, there is a manifest contradiction. And between this same certificate and the deductions to be drawn from my declaration before the Richmond Court, there is an apparent inconsistency, which it is now my task to clear up and reconcile.

“During General Wilkinson’s residence in New Orleans, last winter, I used occasionally to visit him. A few days before he left New Orleans, I waited upon him one morning, and after some conversation on certain transactions that had taken place at a former period in the Western country, and on the delicate situation in which his conduct during the winter was likely to place him, he asked me if I had any objection to give him a certificate that might help him to silence that foul-mouthed Bradford, and refute the assertions of the editor of the Western World. I replied without hesitation that I had none, and would give him one with pleasure, provided he promised me it should not be published. On this he assured me that the only use he proposed to make of it was to lay it before the President, with the view to prove the falsehood of the charges circulated against him, vindicate his character, and secure the confidence of the Executive. This, if not exactly, is substantially what the General said. He then desired me to sit down and write the certificate. I observed that I might not make it out entirely to his satisfaction; and that, as he best knew the points he wished should be embraced in it, he had better make it out himself, and I would copy it. To this he agreed. Next morning, I waited on his Excellency, and he presented me the certificate, which I copied, as it has been published, with a few alterations. One--a very material one--is that, after these words: ‘Do most solemnly declare that I have at no time carried or delivered to Gen. James Wilkinson’--I erased the words, ‘either directly or indirectly,’ and declared to the General I could not insert those words. He did not insist, and contented himself with saying that he wished me to insert them if my conscience would allow it, but not otherwise. This is ingenuously exactly what passed between the General and myself at that time.

“Now let me with the same frankness and ingenuousness, without referring to any preceding or subsequent event, narrate the transaction of 1796, alluded to in my certificate, and concerning which I offered to give testimony in the federal circuit court in Richmond. It is the same that is the subject of the affidavits of Messrs. Derbigny and Mercier. That of the former gentleman is correct as to substance, for I actually did receive from Captain Don Thomas Portell, commandant of New Madrid, the sum of $9,640 for General Wilkinson, towards the latter end of June or beginning of July, 1796, which was packed up in the manner described by Mr. Derbigny, and when I was stopped and my boat searched on the Ohio by Lieutenant Steele, under the orders of General Anthony Wayne, I had other sums on board, but this was the only one I had received for General Wilkinson. On my arrival at Louisville, determined not to expose myself a second time to military insult, and fearful of being overtaken by Steele on his return, and of being again overhauled, I landed my cargo, purchased a horse, and proceeded by land to Cincinnati. As I passed through Lexington, I published in Stewart’s Kentucky Herald my affidavit concerning this outrage, supported by those of the spectators of the transaction, Welsh, White, and Sansom; preceded by a few strictures on this military piracy, signed Impartial. And I now take this opportunity of clearing General Wilkinson of the charge of being the author of it, as is asserted by Bradford, of New Orleans, and declare it was written by myself, and that excepting Captain Campbell Smith, no person ever saw it before it was put into the hands of the printer.

“At Cincinnati I acquainted General W. with the circumstances that had occurred, and he gave me orders to deliver the money to Mr. Philip Nolan. These orders I punctually executed. Mr. Nolan conveyed the barrels of sugar and coffee that contained the dollars to Frankfort in a wagon. I there saw them opened in Mr. Montgomery Brown’s store. The sugar and coffee I afterwards sold to Mr. Abijah Hunt, of Cincinnati.

“I shall take no notice of Mr. McDonough’s affidavit. It does not refer to any thing alluded to in my certificate. That part of mine that has reference to my mission to Kentucky and Detroit in 1797, I shall also pass over in silence, as it has no connection with the present subject.

“I will now endeavor, in a few words, to reconcile what may appear contradictory and inconsistent in my certificate, and the declaration I have just laid before you.