rollover, benedict arnold, here comes james wilkinson. and i shall also apologize because i really enjoyed writing about him. in my defense there are two possible explanations i could offer. the first is the psychologically compelling about somebody who can lead a double life, absolutely in the public for so long. and the other point curiously is that he played a role that was extraordinarily important to the survival of democracy in a very new and very vulnerable state. in short i am going to suggest that despite his despicable behavior james wilkinson did a lot for which we should be very grateful. now what's so surprising about his career as a spy is that almost everyone suspected him of being one. he wants to be one of the most out of it secret agents in history. i refer to him as wilkinson the spanish pensioner which meant he was in spain there also are pamphlets printed accusing him of a traitor and in kentucky there was an entire newspaper that was devoted to exposing him. and each of the first four presidents, george washington, j

and to his credit, james wilkinson was very fond of her, too.used to write lovely letters saying how much she was missing my jimmy as she called him. and i think the question that was always in my mind was how much she knew, you know, how she must have guessed because he was getting an awful lot of money than a general could earn. and i think to a certain extent she just sort of blinded her eyes from it. she came from a very sophisticated, wealthy philadelphia families, the biddles. and so she liked that. i think -- i think she just sort of blinked her eyes to it. the terrible thing is she was dying during the burr conspiracy. i think that she had tuberculosis and he's downstairs writing this reports to jefferson saying i will lay down my life to defend you and to defend the united states and whatever -- and whatever i can give in support of democracy. i will. at the same time knowing, of course, that he had been prepared to do exactly the opposite. and so she died fairly soon after the defeat of the burr conspiracy. and then after about 10 year

i suggest general james wilkinson was behind the plot to assassinate louis. nd that he wrote the fake russell letters and russell's statement that he was known to use forgeries during his long career of treachery. wilkinson is called america's greatest traitor by historians. he was a fifth generation mary landrieu who served as a commanding general of the united states army for many years and was the first governor of louisiana territory in 1805. he became a secret agent of the spanish government in 1787, and was called agent number 13. he was a double agent over 30 years. general wilkinson died in mexico city in 1825 working for the mexican government. in the one short year that wilkinson was governor of louisiana territory in 1805, he created a lot of chaos over corrupt land deals. he was a co-conspirator with aaron burr in the 1806 attempt to invade mexico. but he betrayed burr and saved himself. at birth was indicted for treason and wilkinson narrowly escaped indictment. merriweather lewis was present at birth trial, for treason, after he returned from the