-Caveat Lector-
Treason in America -- From Aaron Burr to Averell Harriman
ANTON CHAITKIN (C)1984
New Benjamin Franklin House
P. O. Box 20551
New York, New York 10023
ISBN 0-933488-32-7
-----
-4-
"The Whole Continent of America Will Become English"
Aaron Burr was sworn in as Vice-President of the United States on March 4,
1801. Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as President, and appointed Albert
Gallatin Secretary of the Treasury.
The United States had been the victim of undeclared war by the British since
the Treaty of Paris officially ended the American War for Independence in
1783. British forces, in Canada and in forts still occupied by the British
within the United States, directed Indian attacks against American frontier
settlers until 1796. Under the pretext of war with France, British Secretary
of State Henry Dundas in 1793 had signed an order authorizing British
warships to attack and seize U.S. vessels that might have been trading with
the colonies of France.
About 550 American ships were indiscriminately seized, their cargoes stolen,
and their crews kidnapped and "impressed" into the British navy. Thousands of
U.S. seamen—as many as 10-20,000 were dragged onto British warships.
As British-French warfare intensified in the late 1790s, the French also
began attacking U.S. ships, seizing the cargo of perhaps 350 ships. Since the
American sailors spoke a different language, they could be of no use to the
French navy.
At the same time North African fiefdoms—the "Barbary pirates"—were maintained
by British money and supplies as a terrorist auxiliary to the British navy,
ensuring British rule of the sea by crippling or destroying other nations'
transatlantic commerce.
Prior to the Jefferson administration, the American government had made a
start toward defending itself against this onslaught. A brief summary of
these efforts will be useful for comparison with the policy the
Jefferson-Burr-Gallatin administration was to adopt beginning in 1801.(1)
The first public works law, passed in 1789, had set up federal control of
aids to navigation. Treasury Secretary Hamilton personally directed the
construction of the Cape Henry lighthouse, built in 1792 at the entrance to
Chesapeake Bay, and in use until 1881. The Montauk lighthouse at the end of
Long Island was built in 1797.
Hamilton got congressional authorization in 1790 for ten boats to patrol the
coast against smuggling, a project which was the ancestor of today's Coast
Guard.
Fears of renewed war with Great Britain led to congressional authorization
for the first American system of seacoast fortifications: repairing three
existing positions and fortifying 16 additional harbors. The Corps of
Artillerists and Engineers was created in 1795 to direct most fortification
work, including Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor.
The southern frontiers were defended against the Spanish and the Indians by
four forts built in Georgia, and the army took over Fort Stevens at Mobile
from the Spanish. Under the 1796 Jay Treaty, the United States took from the
British Forts Niagara and Oswego in upstate New York, and Forts
Michilimackinac and Detroit in Michigan.
Fort Washington was built in the Ohio territory at the site of what was later
the city of Cincinnati. Fort Pickering was built in 1797 at the mouth of the
Tennessee River. A fort was built in 1797 on the Mississippi River near
present-day Vicksburg.
The first post-Revolutionary naval construction began in 1794 in response to
the attacks of the North African terrorists ("pirates"). President Washington
was initially authorized to commission 2,060 naval personnel, while six
frigates were to be built.
The first three frigates, the United States, the Constellation and the
Constitution, were completed in 1797. Then-congressional opposition leader
Albert Gallatin fought against their construction, on the grounds that "If
the sums to be expended to build and maintain the frigates were applied to
paying a part of our national debt, the payment would make us more
respectable in the eyes of foreign nations than all the frigates we can
build.”(2)
The other three authorized ships were built in 1798 when the French attacks
intensified, and the Department of the Navy was created in 1798. Navy
Secretary Benjamin Stoddert of Maryland purchased land and set up
government-owned naval yards for ship construction: in Washington, near the
capital; in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with ample timber and skilled
craftsmen; in Boston, where the legislature ceded choice land; in Brooklyn,
New York, at an old Revolutionary War anchorage; in Norfolk, Virginia; and in
Philadelphia at the foot of Broad Street.
After the 1801 election, Congress completed the Washington-Adams program by
appropriating an additional $500,000 for the building of six more warships
and the completion of yards, docks, and wharves.
The regular army was strengthened and a 15,000-man provisional force was
created in 1797. General Alexander Hamilton was second in command to George
Washington, and was the nation's highest-ranking officer after Washington's
death in 1799.
Gallatin's Infamy
Before assuming his official duties as Secretary of the Treasury, Swiss
oligarch Albert Gallatin drew up the program of the Jefferson administration.
He announced that the principal object of the regime would be paying off the
public debt. Jefferson, who had previously favored building a navy, now
concurred with Gallatin, saying later that "we shall never see another
President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects subordinate
to" debt reduction.(3) Under the pretext of debt reduction, Gallatin planned
to eliminate the armed forces of the United States. This seemed logical
enough to Jefferson, who had, after all, once remarked, "If the U.S. stood
with respect to Europe precisely on the footing of China, we should thus
avoid wars "(4)
Gallatin's financial scheme assumed that for the next 16 years, there would
be zero growth in the United States economy. Thirty-eight million dollars of
the debt would be paid off by 1810, the remainder (slightly more than that
sum) by 1816. Annual revenues of the government were $10 million, and the
plan said that the revenues would stay at that level. Of this annual income,
over three-fourths, or $7.3 million, was to be earmarked for the payment of
accelerated debt payments, leaving just $2.7 million for all non-debt items.
Non-debt expenditures under the previous administration had averaged $5
million; the Gallatin budget meant that $2.3 million, or 46 percent of all
non-debt items, would be cut back.(5) Under President Adams, $2.1 million had
gone to the navy and $1.8 million to the army. The armed forces would bear
virtually the entirety of Gallatin's cuts, including an immediate halving of
appropriations for the navy. Ship construction was halted. The yards, docks,
and fortifications were allowed to fall into disrepair and eventual ruin. The
money that had previously been appropriated was returned to the Treasury, for
the payment of debt. After wholesale dismissals from the navy, there remained
1,395 men and six warships, facing 800 British warships and over L00,000 men.
Over the next several years, even a temporary shortfall of revenue was used
as a pretext for further cuts in the naval budget. The unforeseen 1803
purchase of Louisiana increased the debt by $11 million (while doubling the
size of the nation). b order to keep the same insane ratios in his scheme,
Gallatin needed $700,000 more for debt service payments. Since only $400,000
additional revenue existed another $300,000 was cut from the naval budget.
The first test for the new administration actually came before Albert
Gallatin had arrived in Washington to join the cabinet. The Pasha of Tripoli,
one of the African pirate states set up by the British to prey on shipping,
demanded a larger U.S. payoff than he had been receiving, and declared war
against the United States. Advised by loyal cabinet members led by Navy
Secretary Robert Smith, President Jefferson approved the dispatching of a
squadron to confront the North Africans; the little fleet included the-three
frigates whose construction Gallatin had sought to block.
The American force employed was inadequate, however, and the plundering
continued. In the summer of 1802, the navy, under its Secretary Smith,
planned to escalate the attack. However Gallatin wrote to Jefferson (who had
left most presidential duties in Gallatin's hands and gone to Virginia for
the season) pleading with the President to stop the navy from attacking the
pirates. "Eight years hence we shall, I trust, be able to assume a different
tone; but our exertions [i.e. expenditures] at present consume the seeds of
our greatness and retard to an indefinite time the epoch of our strength."(6)
Raymond Walters, Jr., in a generally fawning biography (Albert
Gallatin—Jeffersonian Financier and Diplomat), describes the outcome of the
cabinet dispute:
While the President hesitated, Smith ordered the frigate John Adams to sail
from New York to blockade the Barbary Coast. Gallatin sent frantic appeals to
Jefferson at Monticello to countermand the order. Not enough of the naval
appropriations remained unexpended to cover the cost, he insisted. Jefferson
was somewhat impressed and inquired whether some way could not be found to
include the expenses of the John Adams as a "debt incurred." During the
delay, the frigate put to sea.
Thus was the nation committed to war against the pirates. With the squadron
against whose use Gallatin had complained, Commodore Edward Preble stormed
Tangiers and brought the Emperor of Morocco to terms.(7)
In this heroic assault against immense odds, the U. S. S. Philadelphia was
captured and its crew made slaves. This so enraged the American public that
Jefferson was forced to ask Congress, in March of 1804, for temporary
additions of $750,000 per year to the navy budget to carry on the fight
against the pirates. Despite Gallatin's sabotage, the pirates were finally
crushed in 1805. During these engagements Commodore Preble and Stephen
Decatur, who commanded the Enterprise, gave to the world a startling picture
of the potential military might of the United States.
As useful as these defensive expeditions had been, they remained virtually
the only deployment of the tiny U.S. navy, which was constantly being reduced
by Swiss Treasury Secretary Gallatin during the Jefferson years. The graver
threat— the vast British fleet—remained unopposed, continuing to attack and
plunder American ships and kidnap their crews.
The Workman Memorandum
When Jefferson and Burr took office in 1801, the British had been at war with
France for nearly a quarter-century, with a pause for "peace'—and trade
war—in the late 1780s. Most effective for the British side had been their
"irregulars" from the British-Swiss secret service, including: British
espionage leader (and Burr's cousin) Jacques Mallet du Pan; Swiss banker (and
Gallatin's cousin) Jacques Necker, who strangled the French kingdom's
finances; and Jean-Paul Marat from Neuchatel and Geneva, who was trained for
ten years by British intelligence in England before going on to murder
thousands of France's intellectuals in the Reign of Terror.
But with the rise of reformer Lazare Carnot, in the mid-1790s, the French
army became a fearsome instrument. Instead of simply dissolving in anarchy,
France moved outward to invade Europe, breaking down local feudalist trade
barriers, stopping British imports, and setting the stage for the rise of
modern nations.
At one point in the battle for Europe, in the year 1800, British intelligence
officer James Workman submitted a remarkable document to the British Minister
of War, Henry Dundas: the British plan for the conquest of the Western
Hemisphere. This report, though it was the basis for Aaron Burr's later
secession attempts in the American West, has never been mentioned in any Burr
biography, or otherwise seen as a matter of concern to the American public.
In this treatise will be found the basis for Britain's appeal to American
traitors—white racial superiority and love of the British "mother" culture.
Workman's memorandum and his subsequent arrival in New Orleans may be seen as
the opening shot of the American Civil War of 1861-1865.
In 1801, James Workman sailed from England to South Carolina, where he
published his report as an action proposal to those in the U.S.
administration (whose election is referred to as "events of a late date") who
might assist in the execution of the plan.
The Workman document was then printed in the Charleston Courier, and
presumably picked up by Vice-President Burr's daughter and son-in-law in that
city. The following are excerpts from this document, not published in the
United States in the past 174 years. It begins with an introduction added in
South Carolina:
A Memorial Proposing a Plan for the Conquest and Emancipation of
Spanish America, by Means, which would Contribute to the Tranquility of
Ireland.
During the contest, which has now for so many years agitated the world, two
distinct objects of hostility have been avowed by the powers opposed to the
Republic of France; the one, to subvert her government; the other, to
restrain her ambition.... [this proposal concerns the second objective].
The following memorial was drawn up principally in the summer of 1799, when
the arms of the allied powers, universally victorious, had driven the French
out of Italy, and a great part of Switzerland. Nothing then seemed wanting to
restore completely the equilibrium of national power than to place in the
British scale, what might counterpoise the French conquests of the
Netherlands, Holland, and Egypt. For this purpose, Spanish America seemed a
sufficient and an easily obtainable object....
To assist him in drawing up this paper the author procured a copy of the map
of Spanish America published in Madrid by the order of the King of Spain, and
consulted all the books written concerning [Spanish America] in any of the
languages he was acquainted with. The memorial was presented in the summer of
1800 to the late [sic] British War Minister. An attack on the Spanish
colonies was proposed by the author himself so long ago as January 1797.
The author intends to persuade the public of the importance of such measures
and to urge those who have the power of carrying them into execution that it
should be done without a moment's delay....
The capture of Louisiana [then owned by Spain] and La Plata [Argentina] only
. . . would place the other colonies of Spain in such jeopardy and so
completely at our mercy that she would be glad to purchase, with her
perpetual neutrality at least, our forebearance with respect to them— if,
indeed, such a price could be considered an equivalent for such forebearance.
>From some events of a late date, it is not impossible that a powerful and
effective co-operation, towards the proposed objects, might be obtained from
a quarter, from which at the time of writing this memorial, no assistance
could have been reasonably expected; and this consideration supplies another
inducement for publishing it at present.
After this introduction, the memorial continues by discussing, the "naturally
irritable Irish character, " and a novel means for ridding Ireland of
revolutionary leaders—by recruiting them for guerrilla warfare against the
Spanish authorities in the Western Hemisphere.
The kind of war pursued by the enemy [the French], gives him an advantage
over us. He is always on the offensive,, he plays a more lively, interesting,
and animating game than we do. When he is defeated he loses nothing; when he
gains a victory he makes a conquest. It were highly desirable that we should
pursue the same species of warfare....
I suggest . . . leading away all that are formidable of [Ireland's]
inhabitants, for the purpose of seizing on the whole, or the chief of the
Spanish colonies in America.
The memorial proceeds with arguments that the depopulation of Ireland,, then
in the third decade of revolt against British rule, would be better for those
few Irishmen who would be left; and that after the revolutionary leaders were
convinced to go fight the Spanish, the Irish might be sent wholesale to
populate the conquered territory.
Of the places that might be attacked, Florida [then also under Spanish rule]
and Louisiana are the nearest . . . the advantages of Louisiana are almost
commensurate with its extent [about one million square miles]....
New Orleans will be the great depot of the commerce of the western states of
America; and the position of Louisiana would be of great consequence with
respect to future operations . . . the possession of Louisiana might [also] .
. . serve as a place d'armes for invading the richest of the [Spanish King's]
dominions.
The memorial then states that 2,500 regular troops, or 4,000 colonial
irregulars and 1,000 volunteers, would be sufficient to conquer both Florida
and Louisiana, the invasion to be backed by one of the British naval convoys
in the Caribbean. Extensive details of appropriate military action in the
Americas Ire discussed:
The situation of the Indians . . . would afford an advantage too important to
be overlooked or despised by an invader. He could attach them to his
interests . . . by abrogating the vexatious and degrading imposts to which
they are now subject, by treating their chiefs with respect and bestowing
upon them in compliance with their customs, some privileges and distinctions.
The countries proposed to be conquered would not only afford an immediate
increase to our maritime trade, but would become the means of supplying,
sustaining, and forever preserving to Great Britain all the colonies now in
her possession.
It may be said that these projected colonies might in time revolt.... At all
events, whatever may become of sovereignty and imperial dominion, it should
be a proud satisfaction to every Briton to establish and immortalize his
name, his language, and his race in every part of the world....
The same interests, language, laws, customs, and manners will ultimately
unite together, as against foreigners [emphasis in the original], Great
Britain and all the nations and colonies that have sprung or may proceed from
her.
These may quarrel with her, and also with one another, but they will soon see
that her power is a strong and necessary barrier to protect them against
those gigantic military states of the continent of Europe which already
threaten all national independence; and their prejudices, their affections,
and their pride will prevent them from desiring or even permitting . . . that
the country of their fathers and brothers should be brought under any foreign
yoke.
If the Spanish settlements are taken . . . the whole continent of America
will, in less than a century, become English [emphasis added]....
These countries, together with [our] Indian empire, would place nearly
one-third of the inhabitable territory, and one-half of the commercial riches
of the earth at [our] disposal. (8)
Earlier, the U.S. ambassador to England, Rufus King, had sent a letter to
John Adams's Secretary of State, Timothy Pickering, dated February 26, 1798,
bearing intelligence of a preliminary British plan to the same effect. King
called it:
. . . a plan, long since digested and prepared, for the complete independence
of South America.... England . . . will propose to the United States to
cooperate in its execution. [British-backed adventurer Francisco de] Miranda
will be detained [in London] under one pretence or another, until events
shall decide the conduct of England.... I will bring together and ... send to
you, such information as I have been able to procure upon this . . . subject,
having found out and acquired the confidence of certain Jesuits, natives of
South America, who, with a view to its independence, are, and for several
years have been, in the service and pay of England. I have often conversed
with them, and seen the reports which they have prepared for their
employers....(9)
President John Adams had responded angrily to what he later termed the
"pretended, ostensible independence of South America,"(10) and he had turned
down the British suggestion of his connivance as Prime Minister Pitt's
"insidious plan to dupe me into a rash declaration of war against France, and
a submissive alliance, offensive and defensive, with him."(11)
Now, however, "events of a late date" had put into powerful positions persons
more friendly to British conquest of the Americas, North and South.
The most powerful social agency of sedition within the United States,
consistent with the global war aims of the British Empire, was the group of
merchant families who led the Federalist Party after 1800, and who nearly
succeeded in electing Aaron Burr President of the United States. The most
important public leaders of this movement were in New England where the names
Pickering, Cabot, Perkins, and Lowell were associated with pro-English
policies.
These families, along with some who only despised the English a bit less than
they hated the thought of a republican world, had been meditating a
destruction of the American Union since at least the middle 1790s.
In the following chapters, we will show how these New York and New England
leaders worked with the British spy machine created by Aaron Burr, and nearly
destroyed the U.S.A. within the first years of the nineteenth century.
pps53-65
-----
1. The following material is largely taken from American Public Works
Association, History of Public Works in the United States, 1776-1976, Chicago,
1976.
2. AnnalsofCongress, Feb. 10,1797, quoted in Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin,
p. 170.
3. Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, Oct. 11, 1809, in The Writings of
Thomas Jefferson, The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United
States, Washington, D. C. 1903-1904, Vol. XII, p. 324.
4. Jefferson to the Comte de Hogendorp, Oct. 13, 1785, in ibid.
5. Balinky, Alexander S., "Albert Gallatin, Naval Foe," in Pennsylvania
Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. LXXXII, No. 3, July 1958, pp. 293304.
This is an excellent article, despite the author's apologetics for Gallatin's
treachery.
6. Gallatin to Jefferson, August 16, 1802, Gallatin Papers.
7. Walters, Albert Gallatin, pp. 150-151.
8. Workman, James, A Memorial . . . for the Conquest . . . of
Spanish-America, New York Public Library Rare Book Room.
9. Rufus King to The Secretary of State, Feb. 26, 1798, The Works of John
Adams,, ed. Charles Francis Adams; Boston; Little, Brown and Co., 1853; Vol.
VIII, pp. 585-586.
10. John Adams to James Lloyd, Mar. 26, 1815, Works of John Adams, Vol.
X,p.139.
11. ibid, p. 141.
--cont--
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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