Wilkinson's Advice to the Spaniards.
Wilkinson was bitterly hostile to all these schemes in which he himself
did not have a share, and protested again and again to Miro against
their adoption. He protested no less strongly whenever the Spanish court
or the Spanish authorities at New Orleans either relaxed their vigilant
severity against the river smugglers, or for the time being lowered the
duties; whether this was done to encourage the Westerners in their
hostilities to the East, or to placate them when their exasperation
reached a pitch that threatened actual invasion. Wilkinson, in his
protests, insisted that to show favors to the Westerners was merely to
make them contented with the Union; and that the only way to force them
to break the Union was to deny them all privileges until they broke it.
[Footnote: _Guyarre_, iii., 30, 232, etc. Wilkinson's treachery dates
from his first visit to New Orleans. Exactly when he was first pensioned
outright is not certain; but doubtless he was the corrupt recipient of
money from the beginning.] He did his best to persuade the Spaniards to
adopt measures which would damage both the East and West and would
increase the friction between them.
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