WILKINSON-WILL. 



779 



lenger. He was made captain in 1855, and the next 

 year published Theory of the Winds. After many 

 years of special duty at home the outbreak of the 

 rebellion brought him again to the front, and afforded 

 an opportunity of supposed service and abundant 

 distinction of which he was just the man to avail 

 himself. He was in the West Indian waters in search 

 of the Confederate cruiser Sumter, when, in the 

 Bahama Channel, he came upon the British steamer 

 Trent, carrying the mails and having on board as pas- 

 sengers two commissioners of the Confederate States, 

 Mason and Slidell, accredited respectively to France 

 and England. Valuing the end far above the means, 

 and taking the law into his own hands, he promptly 

 overhauled the vessel, Nov. 8, 1861, disregarding all 

 protests, took from her the Confederate officials and 

 conveyed them to the North as prisoners of war. No 

 early event of the conflict caused greater sensation. 

 In the fervor of patriotic feeling legal questions were 

 apt to be overlooked. Wilkes was loaded with dem- 

 onstrations of popular applause and received the 

 thanks of Congress. But in England his action was 

 regarded in a very different light ; the British ministry 

 inclined to make a declaration of war for the outrage 

 on its flag, but Prince Albert is said to have caused the 

 way to be left open for reconsideration by the American 

 government. It was plain on reflection that interna- 

 tional law had been violated with however praise- 

 worthy intentions. The U. 8. government bowed to 

 necessity ami released the commissioners, and Secre- 

 tary Seward, by an adroit stroke of diplomacy, repre- 

 sented Great Britain as having acceded to the applica- 

 tion of international law long insisted upon by America. 

 Vet Wilkes d'nl not suffer, but was presently made a 

 commodore in 1862. Placed in command of a flotilla 

 on the Potomac, he destroyed City Point, Aug. 28. 

 In 1863 he was busy along the Southern coast in 

 enforcing the blockade and capturing blockade-runners. 

 He was retired July 25. I Slid, with the rank of rear- 

 admiral. He died at Washington, Feb. 8, 1877. A 

 hero is nearer to the public heart than a scientist, and 

 Wilkes' great services to geographical ami other knowl- 

 edge hardly made him so famous as the momentary 

 deed of a patriotic but reckless impulse, which might 

 have involved ruinous consequences to his country bad 

 it not been quietly but practically disavowed by the 

 cooler heads of his superiors. (p. M. B.) 



WILKINSON. JAMKS (1757-1825), for some years 

 Commander-in-chief of the U. S. army, was born in 

 Charles co. , Md., and at 18 was a captain in the Revo- 

 lutionary war. He served under Arnold and dates, 

 became adjutant-general to the latter, and carried to 

 Congress the tidings of Burgoyne's surrender. He 

 was to some extent involved in the Conway cabal, and 

 left the army as a colonel in 1778, but the next year 

 was appointed clothier-general to it. Going into busi- 

 ness in Kentucky, he rendered great service to that 

 rcirion by opening the Mississippi to its trade ; having 

 gone to New Orleans in 17s" with a flat lx>at, he man- 

 aged not only to sell his cargo, but to obtain free en- 

 trance for others and for himself a contract to supply 

 tobacco. This won him great local repute and pop- 

 ularity, and in 17s'J Luiisville sent 25 flat-boats loaded 

 with provisions to New Orleans. His adventurous 

 and speculative character was never above reproaeh : 

 be was soon accused of complicity with Spanish 

 intrigues in Kentucky, then disaffected. He took part 

 as lieutenant-colonel in the expedition against the 

 Indians on the Wabash, was commissioned lirigadier- 

 general in .March, 1792. and commanded the right 

 wing of Wayne's army at the Maumec, Aug. 20, 1794. 

 He was commander-in-chief, 1796-98, and again, 

 1800-12, though tailoring under constant suspicions 

 and accusations of the gravest nature. lie was one 

 of the two commissioners who received the cession of 

 Louisiana from the French in 1803, and in 1805-6 was 

 ita territorial governor. At this time he was charged, 

 not without apparent reason, with corruption and 



complicity with the treasonable plans of Burr, with 

 whom he had sustained close relations and conducted 

 a correspondence in cipher. The charges were em- 

 bodied by Daniel Clark, of New Orleans, in an octavo 

 volume of 349 pages (1809). The inmost facts of this 

 connection and the general's real motives are matters 

 of conjecture ; but he suddenly assumed an attitude 

 of vehement and energetic loyalty, put Burr's agents 

 to the question, arrested certain persons as conspir- 

 ators, sent a report to Pres. Jefferson in October, 1806, 

 and made vigorous preparations to repel any hostile or 

 insidious attack. The affair made a great stir, not 

 only on the spot, but throughout the country and at 

 the seat of government, where it presently became a 

 party issue. Jefferson and his followers defended 

 Wilkinson, while the Federalists accused him of ille- 

 gality and abuse of power in the arrests. Randolph 

 denounced him in Congress, and was challenged to a 

 duel in 1808. Wilkinson's conduct was a burning 

 question for four years ; he was indicted by the grand- 

 jury, investigated by two committees of Congress, and 

 tried by a court-martial, in which Taney pleaded his 

 cause and procured an acquittal in 1811. After this 

 he went bock to New Orleans, improved the defences 

 of the city, and came into collision with Jackson. He 

 received a major-general's commission in March, 1813, 

 reduced Mobile the next month, and in May went to 

 the Canada border, where he accomplished nothing. 

 His movement on Lake Champlain in 1814, through 

 lack of co-operation between himself and AVade Hamp- 

 ton, was such a fiasco that he laid down his command 

 and asked tor a court-martial, by which he was again 

 acquitted. At the reorganization of the army in 1815 

 he was not included, but received a pension from 

 Maryland, which adhered to him as a favorite son. 

 Distrusted with the ingratitude of republics, he put 

 t'ortli his own side of the story in Memoirs rf My Otcn 

 Times (3 vpls., 1816), purchased an estate near the 

 city of Mexico and spent his latter years in self-imposed 

 exile, dying there Dec. 28, 1825. His large volumes 

 are vigorously written and show no mercy to his 

 numerous enemies, but documentary evidence has been 

 published which establishes his guilt. See Gayarre's 

 History of Louisiana: Spanish Domination (1854). 



(F. M. B.) 



WILL in law denotes the disposition of one's prop- 

 v i -rv iv ertv to ta ^ e e ff ect a * ter death. Wills 

 *57o < 6oo arc u . suilllv written, yet they may be 



Am. Kep.). 



unwritten or nuncupative. To make 

 a valid nuncupative will, the person 

 must be in fxtrcmfi and in immediate prospect of 

 death. In England the power of making such a will 

 is restricted by statute to soldiers in military service, 

 i. e., on an expedition, and sailors at sea. In some of 

 the United States these wills are specially restricted 

 by statute, while in others they exist as they did in 

 England previous to the limiting statute, i. e. , confined 

 to a small amount of personal estate. Wills written 

 in pencil have been held valid. 



Tlie Tmtn tor's Capacity. He must be of the age 

 of discretion, which is fixed by statute in England and 

 in most of the United States at twenty-one years. 

 Under the common law in England aliens could noi 

 devise real estate, but in the several States this has 

 been altered by statutes. Formerly married women 

 did not have testamentary capacity, out, together with 

 most other of their disabilities, this has very generally 

 been removed by statutes. In the case of wills of 

 persons who are blind or deaf and dumb, there must 

 be proof that the testator understood the contents of 

 the will and communicated with the witnesses. Idiots 

 are wholly incapable of executing a will ; so also are 

 lunatics, except during a lucid interval allowing the 

 exercise of memory and judgment. It has been held 

 that mere weakness of understanding will not invali- 

 date a will, if the testator were capable of compre- 

 hending the object in view. Delirium, whether from 

 disease or stimulus, while the paroxysm continues to 



