“And have you called on Sir George?” asked Mr. Madison, coolly.

“No, sir; I have had enough of their delaying and dallying, and instead of sailing for Quebec, I sailed for Boston, determined, if the government of the United States would pay me for it, to divulge the whole secret of British perfidy to this government.”

“We’ll pay ye, won’t we, Misther Madison?” put in Terrence, with his characteristic impertinence.

“What proofs have you of the perfidy of Great Britain?” asked the president.

“I have letters, sir, and official documents which would make any honorable man blush.”

“No doubt of it, yer honor,” put in Terrence.

“Have you those papers with you, Mr. Henry?” asked the careful president.

“Some of them.”

“Will you produce them, so I may judge what they are?”

“Yes, the prisident and mesilf want to get a squint at the dockymints,” put in Terrence.

The very impertinence of Terrence was his success.  Mr. Madison could not repress a smile.

Henry laid before the president the strong documentary evidence, which clearly proved that Great Britain, while indulging in the most friendly expressions toward the United States, and negotiating treaties, was secretly engaged in efforts to destroy the young republic of the West, by fomenting disaffection toward it among a portion of the people, and intriguing with disaffected politicians with an expectation, with the aid of British arms, to be able to separate New England from the Union and re-annex that territory to the British dominions.

Madison, who was just about to declare war against Great Britain, was well satisfied of the importance of Henry’s disclosures.  Examining them carefully, he asked: 

“What do you ask for these papers?”

“Lave that all to me, Misther Madison,” said Terrence with an earnestness which caused the grave Mr. Madison to smile; but Mr. Madison was not inclined to leave so important a matter with Terrence.  He again asked Henry how much he asked for those papers.

“I want one hundred thousand dollars.”

“It’s too much, Misther Madison; we can’t give it,” declared Terrence.

Madison, glancing at the impetuous Irishman, said that he could not pass on such an important matter without consulting his cabinet and taking their advice in the matter, and consequently he dismissed his visitors for the present, assuring Mr. Henry that he would give the matter of purchasing his documents serious consideration, and in the course of three or four days at most hold another conference with them.  The secret service fund was at the disposal of the president, and he determined to purchase the documents with this fund, if his cabinet would so advise.  The advice was given, and he sent a proposition to Henry, offering him fifty thousand dollars for his documents, which consisted chiefly of the correspondence of the parties to the affair in this country and in England.