The Aaran Burr Conspiracy . A history largely from original and hitherto unused sources. By Walter Flavius McCaleb , A. M., Ph. D., Fellow in the Texas State Historical Association, sometime Fellow in History in the University of Chicago. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1903. Pp. xviii+377. $2.50 net.)

It is hardly speaking too strongly to call this a notable work. There may be some who will not accept its solution of the century old problem of the conspiracy as complete and satisfactory, but there are few who will deny that it marks an epoch in the treatment of the subject. Its principal theses are supported vigorously, and to most readers no doubt convincingly.

The theory of the conspiracy which has been generally accepted hitherto, and which has had its best exposition in the work of Henry Adams, is that it had two objects that might be alternative or joint as occasion should determine. One was to establish an empire in the Southwest on territory to be wrung from Spain; the other, to set up an independent confederacy of Western States. Dr. McCaleb's theory simplifies the explanation greatly by making the first object the only one. In support of his contention he argues that there was then no appreciable sentiment in the West in favor of disunion, but much in favor of a filibustering attack on the Spanish possessions. He explains the apparently treasonable correspondence of Burr with Merry, the British minister to the United States, and Yrujo, the Spanish, to which Mr. Adams has attached so much importance, by the very plausible assumption that his purpose was to beguile one or both of them into securing for him the money needed for the enterprise. On the whole, the theory of Dr. McCaleb seems much more rational and better adjusted to the facts of the conspiracy than that which it seeks to displace, and it can hardly fail to win acceptance from the historians.

As an example of far-reaching and thorough investigation, this book stands eminent among the historical output with which the century opens. It would be difficult to say too much in praise of the scientific and scholarly enthusiasm that led the author to hunt from Mexico to London for new materials relative to his subject in every collection where there was any reason to hope they might be found. In the mind of the reviewer there is a story which is hinted at in Dr. McCaleb's introduction, but which can not here be told, of how the work grew—a story hardly less interesting in some respects than that contained in its own pages; how the fortunate discovery of certain letters relating to the conspiracy which he had been directed to search for in the then almost inchoate mass of the Bexar Archives quickened the impulse that sent the young student wandering from city to city throughout Mexico and the United States and finally across the Atlantic that he might perchance discover some grains of truth that had escaped the winnowing of others. To the fruitfulness of his quest, the book itself testifies abundantly. No previous writer on the subject has had available anything like the same store of original materials; and, had Dr. McCaleb done no more than bring those to light, the historical scholarship of America would owe him many thanks for that alone. But he has done more. The materials so patiently and industriously gathered have been handled well; so well, indeed, as to justify the term already applied to the book—notable.

Some defects are to be observed. For example, it is difficult to believe that the author has fully preserved the judicial attitude in the chapter on “The Trial at Richmond.” There is likely to rise in the mind of the cool and impartial reader a question whether he has not drawn Jefferson smaller and Marshall larger than their actual proportions. The contrast between the characters of these two men is a subject concerning which there is much more evidence than this book contains; and it seems evident that the intensity of Dr. McCaleb's conviction has impaired to some extent the faithfulness of his coloring. But the characterization of Burr, while perhaps a little over sympathetic—if the term may be allowed in such connection—, seems on the whole the most vivid and real hitherto given to the public.

How to cite:
"The Aaran Burr Conspiracy", Volume 007, Number 3, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 235 - 236. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v007/n3/review_8.html
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