He collected from all the quarters where himself or
his agents possessed influence all the ardent, restless, desperate,
and disaffected persons who were ready for any enterprise analogous to
their characters. He seduced good and well-meaning citizens, some by
assurances that he possessed the confidence of the Government and was
acting under its secret patronage, a pretense which procured some credit
from the state of our differences with Spain, and others by offers of
land in Bastrop's claim on the Washita.
This was the state of my information of his proceedings about the last
of November, at which time, therefore, it was first possible to take
specific measures to meet them. The proclamation of November 27, two
days after the receipt of General Wilkinson's information, was now
issued. Orders were dispatched to every interesting point on the Ohio
and Mississippi from Pittsburg to New Orleans for the employment of such
force either of the regulars or of the militia and of such proceedings
also of the civil authorities as might enable them to seize on all the
boats and stores provided for the enterprise, to arrest the persons
concerned, and to suppress effectually the further progress of the
enterprise. A little before the receipt of these orders in the State
of Ohio our confidential agent, who had been diligently employed in
investigating the conspiracy, had acquired sufficient information to
open himself to the governor of that State and apply for the immediate
exertion of the authority and power of the State to crush the
combination.
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