James Wilkinson - Kentucky Ventures

Kentucky Ventures

After his resignation from the Continental Army, Wilkinson reluctantly became a brigadier general in the Pennsylvania militia in 1782 and also a state assemblyman in 1783, due to the wishes of George Washington. He moved to the Kentucky District in 1784 and was active there in efforts to achieve independence from Virginia.

In April 1787, Wilkinson took a highly controversial trip to New Orleans, which was a colony of Spain. At that time, Americans were allowed to trade on the Mississippi River, but they had to pay a hefty tariff. Wilkinson met with Spanish Governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró and managed to convince him to allow Kentucky to have a trading monopoly on the river; in return he promised to promote Spanish interests in the west. On August 22, 1787, Wilkinson signed an expatriation declaration and swore allegiance to the King of Spain to satisfy his own commercial needs. The “Spanish Conspiracy,” as it is known, was initiated by Wilkinson’s “First Memorial,” a 7,500-word report written before he left New Orleans for Charleston, South Carolina, from New Orleans, to the Spanish concerning the “political future of western settlers” and to convince Spain to “admit us under protection as vassals”. This was encoded with myriad symbols, numbers, and letters that was decoded via a complex English-Spanish cipher code-named “Number 13,” which became the basis for his pseudonym, “Agent 13”.

Upon returning to Kentucky in February 1788, Wilkinson vigorously opposed the new U.S. Constitution. Kentucky had very nearly achieved statehood under the old Articles of Confederation, and there was widespread disappointment when this was delayed because of the new constitution.

Leading up to Kentucky's seventh convention regarding separation from Virginia in November 1788, Wilkinson attempted to gauge the support for Kentucky to seek union with Spain. Wilkinson was not an extremely honorable man, but his ability to win people over with his charm and sincerity got him elected committee chair at the convention. He advocated for Kentucky to seek independence from Virginia first, and then to consider joining the Union of states as a second step. For many, joining the Union was conditional upon the Union negotiating free navigation on the Mississippi with Spain, a contentious point which many Kentuckians doubted the eastern states would act upon.

Unable to gather enough support for his position at the convention, Wilkinson then approached Miró with a proposal. His intention was to grant them 60,000 acres (243 km²) in the Yazoo lands at the junction of the Yazoo River and the Mississippi (near present-day Vicksburg, Mississippi). The land was to be payment for Wilkinson's efforts on behalf of Spain and also to serve as a refuge in the event he and his supporters had to flee from the United States. Wilkinson asked for and received a pension of $7,000 from Miro and also requested pensions on behalf of several prominent Kentuckians, including: Harry Innes, Benjamin Sebastian, John Brown, Caleb Wallace, Benjamin Logan, Isaac Shelby, George Muter, George Nicholas, and even Humphrey Marshall (who at one time was a bitter rival of Wilkinson's).

However, by 1788 Wilkinson had apparently lost the support of officials in the Spanish mainland. Miro was not to grant any of the proposed pensions and was forbidden from giving money to support a revolution in Kentucky. Furthermore, Wilkinson continued to secretly receive funds from Spain for many years.