"A son of Colonel Hays, about seventeen years of age, as has been represented, nephew to Mrs. Jackson, went along. His father had become reduced in his circumstances; had been personally known to Colonel Burr, during the revolution; and his son a young man of promise. It had been proposed to the old gentleman, that he should take him, and aid him in his education, which was consented to by his father. General Jackson gave him letters to Governor Claiborne, and instructed young Mr. Hays, as I understood at the time, that should he discover Colonel Burr's views to be at all inimical to the United States, or adverse to the designs of government, to leave him, and place himself under the protection and care of Governor Claiborne.

"Between General Jackson and myself, there has always existed confidence and friendship; and there was nothing ever perceived in him by me, that could induce the belief, that there was any man in the country who would go further, and make greater sacrifices, to defend and maintain the integrity of the Union. On all occasions, his conduct and declarations have stamped upon my mind this conviction. JOHN COFFEE." The following is the testimony of Colonel Edward Ward:

"Nashville, September 2, 1828. "At the request of the chairman of the Nashville Committee, I make the following statement. That General Thomas Overton, deceased, informed me within a few days after the occurrence, that so soon as the rumor reached this country, that Colonel Aaron Burr had treasonable designs against our government, he (General Overton) and General A. Jackson waited on Colonel Burr, who was then, I think, at Clover Bottom, and informed him of the rumor, and required of him to state to them what were his views or designs. This answer was

made, as he said, on the honor of a gentleman: That he had no views inimical to the government, none but what were known to the government and viewed with complaisance.' And as well as my memory serves me, showed them a commission in blank, with Mr. Jefferson's signature to it. EDWARD WARD."

This testimony requires no commentary: it is full and decisive.

તો

"To show what views were expressed by Colonel Burr to General Jackson, and others, so early as the spring of 1806, and to explain beyond the reach of dispute, the time, nature, and import of any possible conversation which General Jackson may have held with Judge Williams, in relation to a commission, connected with any designs, or views of Colonel Burr, we will give extracts from a letter, written by the latter to General Jackson, dated 24th March, 1806, Washington city.

"After speaking of some general political subjects, and of the strong probability of a rupture with Spain,— • If these apprehensions (says he) should be justified by events, a military force on our post would be requisite, and that force might come from your side of the mountains. It is presumed that West-Tennessee could not spare more than two regiments. I take the liberty of recommending to you, to make out a list of officers, from colonel down to ensign, for one or two regiments. If you will transmit to me this list, I will, in case troops should be called for, recommend it to the Department of War, and I have reason to believe, that on such an occasion, my advice would be listened to.' General Coffee says, that in consequence of letters from Colonel Burr, to General Robertson and others, of similar import, a meeting was held in Nashville by General Robertson, General Jackson, and others of the most respectable men, and a list made out of such enterprising young men, as it was

believed, would serve the country well, in the impending contest with Spain.

"This brings us naturally to the consideration of Judge William's statements-and here we cannot forbear to remark, on the danger and folly of attempting to bereave a man of his fame, and charge upon him one of the foulest crimes known to the law, upon loose, vague recollections of a casual conversation, said to have taken place upwards of twenty years ago, without any statement of the conversation in context with it; without any date, except with reference to a range of nine months of time; without any relation of the circumstances, which led to an insulated remark, so strange and incredible, if taken in the sense attempted to be attached to it by Judge Williams; statements made by a man, who, by his own admissions, his own showing, and yet more by what we shall show, is subject to the most inaccurate recollection; when the change, or omission, or addition of a single word, or the nature of the preceding or succeeding remarks, would entirely change the whole meaning and sense of what is stated to have been said."

The investigating committee, in order that ample justice might be done to Judge Williams' mind, consistency, and conduct, republished all that was written or published in relation to this conversation and to General Jackson; and also what had been published to be the substance of the letter written by him to his friend in Virginia.

Upon this they remarked, "that taking the whole of these documents, we have some data from which to estimate correctly, how far the clearness of Judge Williams' mind, and the impartiality of his feelings, qualify him for deposing accurately and fairly. We will look at them, first, with a view to the question, how much reliance is to be reposed in the accuracy and fairness of his statements and memory; and then, in prosecution of the

same inquiry, produce some additional evidence. Secondly; we shall show the extreme improbability, from Williams' own statement, that General Jackson ever could have made any propositions to him, in reference to any illegal or treasonable project; and lastly, the fallacy of the inferences which his pretended friends attempt to deduce from what he has said; and shew what Judge Williams has really stated as General Jackson's conversation with him, and what the conversation (if indeed there ever was one of any such nature) related to.

In his letter to Mr. Kerr, Judge Williams says, the conversation occurred upon his examination by General Jackson, then a Judge, as to his fitness to receive a license to practise law; but when he discovered by the records. of the State that it would be proved, General Jackson was not, and had not, been a Judge for several years before this time, the conversation is divested of this circumstance in his subsequent statements. In the letter to Mr. Kerr, Judge Stewart is said to have heard this conversation as to the offer of a commission; but, when Judge Stewart, not only does not recollect any such conversation, but is sure none such was held in his presence, the scene of the conversation is then recollected by Judge Williams to have been a solitary ride from General Jackson's to Nashville. In his letter to General Jackson, Williams says, "General Jackson in reference to that conspiracy, or what was afterwards called by others a conspiracy, said to me that I could, if I would accept it, obtain a commission of captain." In his last statement, however, made and published in the Knoxville Enquirer of August 6th, 1828, he says, "in riding from General Jackson's house to Nashville, near the Clover-Bottom, he spoke to me in relation to a commission in Burr's army," leaving out the material idea of a reference to what was afterwards, as he says, called a conspiracy; showing thereby that

in these statements, Judge Williams does not pretend to detail with accuracy, the words or terms used in the conversation, but only the general impressions, and that those impressions are indefinite and very vague, and are the mere floating and broken reminiscences of a feeble and shattered memory. Judge Williams says, that from the best of his recollection, Mr. Smith, Mr. Curry and Dr. Watkins, among others, were present when Burr's effigy was burnt. Mr. Smith says he was not present either at the ball, or at the burning of the effigy. Mr. Curry says that he was not present at the ceremony of burning Colonel Burr's effigy, and considered it a disgraceful act; and he also says in confirmation of Judge Williams' feebleness of memory, and the probable recentness of his present, impressions that Mr. Williams called on me frequently after Burr became an object of suspicion, and conversed freely on the subject, and, as I then thought, withheld nothing; yet he never told me that General Jackson wanted to enlist him to fight the Spaniards, nor ever mentioned his name as connected with, or knowing to any of Burr's schemes.' These and other discrepancies and contradictions, are mentioned, not to shew any wilful or corrupt mis-statement on the part of Judge Williams, but to shew how little credence or trust can be placed on the recollections of a memory, mistaken in so many circumstances, and persons, and things, when it comes to detail a conversation, in which a single word would wholly transform its meaning and construction. But to dispose of Judge Williams, and to shew what degree of confidence was due to what he related, either as to facts or the conversations of others-whether this want of confidence arose from great unsoundness of memory or other cause—and also to shew how far Judge Williams' feelings as to General Jackson entitled him to the character of a cool and impartial witness; and also in further elucidation of Judge