American Connections: The Founding Fathers, Networked by James Burke

Author:James Burke [Burke, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Legislators - United States, United States - History - Revolution; 1775-1783, Politicians - United States, United States - History - 1783-1815, Legislators, United States - Signers, Statesmen - United States, Political, General, United States, Politicians, Historical, Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Biography & Autobiography, Statesmen, Biography, History
ISBN: 9780743282260
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-02T20:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY

Caesar Rodney

CAESAR RODNEY (DE) was forty-seven. And loaded. And by the time of Independence, deep into the murky waters of local Delaware politics. On July 1 he was in South Delaware on antiloyalist business when he heard from a colleague in Philadelphia that the third Delaware delegate (of three) was going to vote against the Declaration and that Rodney had to get there fast to tip the balance. Riding all night through thunderstorms, he arrived on July 2 just in time for the vote. Never mind Paul Revere.

Rodney’s younger brother Thomas was equally busy throughout the war as a militiaman and member of Congress. In 1803 Jefferson made him U.S. judge for the Mississippi Territory, and he moved to middle-of-nowhere Natchez. Where he met the extraordinary Harman Blennerhassett, a tall, stooping, shortsighted Irish aristo who, having incestuously married his young niece and scandalized the local Irish upper crust, was obliged to leave for America. Where he bought an island in the Ohio River near Parkersburg and spent most of his money building a great mansion with library, landscaped gardens, and a music room where he played the violin. In this other Eden the Blenerhassetts put on Shakespeare plays and entertained anybody who turned up.

In May 1805 one such turner (in more senses than one) was recent ex–vice president of the U.S. Aaron Burr. Who came to dinner and blew away Blennerhassett with tales of a Mexican empire, to be grabbed from Spain and which would include the (newly American) Louisiana Territory. Burr would be emperor and Blennerhassett would be involved in some well-paid capacity. Fellow plotter in this hugger-mugger was James Wilkinson, general of the American armies and governor of Upper Louisiana. And double agent for the Spaniards. Blennerhassett started recruiting soldiers and building boats.

In 1806 Wilkinson got cold feet and told President Jefferson (almost) everything. Jefferson ordered troops to find Burr and Blennerhasset. They did. In 1807 at the trial for treason in Richmond, Virginia, the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. At the same time without Jefferson’s knowledge Wilkinson had already sent a spy into Spanish territory. Lieutenant Zebulon Pike had no idea what Wilkinson was up to but his reconnaisance mission was supposedly to check out what the Spaniards were doing on the southwest border of Louisiana and tell Wilkinson.

Pike headed west and ended up on the Rio Grande, where he was jumped by the Spaniards (who it turned out had been advance-warned by Wilkinson) and escorted back to American territory. By this time Wilkinson was on trial, so Pike had nobody to brief on his trip. Pike’s interpreter on the expedition had been Antoine Vasquez, whose brother worked for Manuel Lisa, one of the heroic figures of the early fur-trapping days. Lisa was a general merchant in St. Louis (flea-pit, sewage in the streets) selling everything from guns to chamber pots to such as explorers Lewis and Clark.

In 1811 a competitor arrived on the scene. W. P. Hunt had been hired by New York

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