WILKINSON, James, soldier, born in Benedict, Maryland, in 1757; died near the city of Mexico, 28 December, 1825. He had just completed his studies for the medical profession when he enlisted in the army under Washington at Cambridge. There he soon formed a close intimacy with Colonel Benedict Arnold and Captain Aaron Burr, and, being given a captain's commission, joined Arnold in September, 1775, on his expedition into Canada. He was advanced to the rank of major, and in June, 1776, appointed to the staff of General Horatio Gates. Subsequently he was promoted to a colonelcy, and appointed adjutant-general. In this capacity he was in the battle of Bemis's Heights on 19 September, 1777, and in the more important engagement of 7 October. Under cover of darkness, Colonel John Hardin, of Kentucky, had penetrated the British lines and obtained an accurate view of their strength and position. He regained the American outposts, and there met Wilkinson, who was making the rounds with some boon companions. Hardin confided to him his discoveries, and begged he would at once make them known to General Gates. This Wilkinson did, suppressing Hardin's name, and making himself the hero of the midnight adventure. The consequence was that when Burgoyne had surrendered, Wilkinson was made bearer of the tidings to congress, with a recommendation for his appointment as a brigadier-general. He was eighteen days on the way, and the news was a week old when he finally delivered his despatches. After several days a proposal was introduced into congress to present him with a sword, whereupon Dr. John Witherspoon dryly remarked : "1 think ye'd better gie the lad a pair of spurs." This defeated the resolution, but congress, several weeks later, did appoint him a brigadier-general by brevet, and soon afterward secretary of the board of war, of which Gates was a member. Wilkinson was at this time deep in the Conway cabal, which proposed to elevate Gates to the chief command of the army, and the discovery of the conspiracy was due to his telling the secret in a convivial hour to Lord Stir= ling. Forty-nine army officers of his own grade petitioned congress to rescind his appointment as brigadier, and he at once resigned his brevet commission, retaining his rank of colonel. He was not again actively employed till toward the close of the war, when he served for a time as clothier-general of the army. He then emigrated to Lexington, Kentucky Mississippi river was then closed to American commerce, and western produce was rotting on the ground for lack of a market. Wilkinson saw that he might" realize a speedy fortune if he could obtain from the Spaniards an exclusive right to trade with New Orleans. Securing the good-will of the commandant of Natchez, by the present of a pair of thoroughbreds, he loaded a flat-boat with Kentucky produce, in the spring of 1787, and sent it boldly down the Mississippi, while he went by the land-route to New Orleans. The flat-boat preceded him, and was promptly seized by the authorities on its arrival" but it was quickly liberated on the appearance of Wilkinson, who secured an unlimited trading permission from the Spanish governor. The price he was to pay for this commercial concession and an annual pension of $2,000 was the betrayal of his country. In the entire district west of the Alleghanies great dissatisfaction then existed with the Federal government, in consequence of its inability to open the Mississippi to western commerce and its failure to protect the people against the raids of the savages. It was thought that advantage could be taken of this disaffection to sever the west from the east and erect it into a separate republic in close alliance with Spain. Thus divided, both republics would be weak, and neither would be dangerous to the Spanish possessions. Wilkinson went about the accomplishment of this treasonable project with consummate ability, and by June, 1788, by means of Spanish gold and Spanish promises, was able to count upon the support, of a majority of the convention, which was to meet on the 28th of the ensuing July, to form a constitution for the new state of Kentucky. His work he now considered done ; but Diego Gardoqui, the Spanish minister, desired the secession of the entire west, and despatched a messenger with corrupt overtures to John Sevier, leader of the settlers south of Kentucky. Sevier at once despatched a quick messenger to Isaac Shelby, at Danville, Kentucky, who, with the aid of Thomas Marshall and George Muter, succeeded in thwarting Wilkinson's treasonable designs in the convention. Wilkinson continued his efforts, but with no chance of success. His trading adventures not proving successful, he applied, in 1791, for reinstatement in the army. In December of that year he was appointed a lieu: tenant-colonel on the recommendation of Thomas Marshall, who justified the appointment by saying that so long as Wilkinson was unemployed he considered him dangerous to the public quiet, if not to the safety, of Kentucky. He took service in the western department under General Anthony Wayne, but continued a treasonable correspondence with the Spanish officials, and there is proof that down to 1800 he was in receipt of a Spanish pension. His intrigues encouraged Spain to persist in the occlusion of the Mississippi, and they entailed twelve years of savage warfare upon the border settlements. Wilkinson performed good service against the northwestern Indians, and was promoted to a brigadier-generalship on 5 March, 1792, and to the supreme command of the army on the death of Wayne in 1796. He was made governor of Louisiana in 1805, and in the autumn of that year disclosed to the government the plan of Aaron Burr to erect a southwestern empire. Burr asserted, and Jackson believed, that he was implicated in this conspiracy, and the presumption is very strong that he was its originator. In 1811 he was court-mar-timed, charged with complicity with Burr, and with being in the pay of Spain, but was acquitted for lack of evidence, his subsequently published correspondence with the Spanish government, which conclusively shows his guilt, not being then accessible. In 1813 he was made major-general, and employed in the northern department, where he was not successful, owing to a disagreement with General Wade Hampton. A court of inquiry exonerated him in 1815. He was discharged from the service at the close of the war, and removed to Mexico. His life he has in part, related in his "Memoirs of My Own Times" (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1816). His treason is outlined in Humphrey Marshall's "History of Kentucky" (2 vols., Frankfort, 1824), and more fully related in Charles Gayarrd's "Spanish Domination in Louisiana" (New York, 1854), and James R. Gilmore's " Advance-Guard of Western Civilization " (1887). See also Daniel Clark's "Proofs of the Corruption of General James Wilkinson" (1809), and "Burr's Conspiracy Exposed and General Wilkinson Vindicated" (1811).