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CHAPTER XVIII.

Aaron Burr-Elected Vice President of the United StatesLoses the confidence of his party-Is nominated for Governor of New York-Defeated through the influence of Hamilton-Kills Hamilton in a duel-Flees to South CarolinaReturns to Washington-Sets out for the West-His nominal projects-His association with Wilkinson-Becomes acquainted with Blennerhasset-Actual project of BurrReaches New Orleans-Returns overland to Kentucky--. Spends the spring and summer in Philadelphia and Washington-Attempts to win over Eaton, Truxton, and Decatur -His second journey to the West-Builds boats on the Muskingum-Contracts for supplies and enlists volunteers— Wilkinson at Natchitoches-Receives despatches from Burr -Sends a messenger to the president-Orders New Orleans to be strengthened-Proceeds to Natchez-Despatches a second messenger to Washington-Writes to Claiborne and the Governor of the Mississippi Territory-Reaches New Orleans-His measures at that place.

IN the year 1801, Aaron Burr, a native of New Jersey, a graduate of Princeton, a colonel in the war of independence, and subsequently a senator of the United States, was elected Vice President of the Union. He was a man of the most extraordinary talents, plausible, intriguing, daringly ambitious, singularly polished in his address, but of the lowest moral character.

Before the expiration of his term of office, he had lost the confidence of his party, and while Jefferson was unanimously nominated as a candidate for re-election to the presidency; in the

selection of a candidate for vice president, Burr was set aside, and George Clinton nominated in his stead.

Possessing yet some little political power in New York, he was enabled to have himself brought forward by his friends as an independent candidate for governor of that state, in opposition to Chief Justice Lewis, the nominee of the administration party.

Owing to the high character of Alexander Hamilton, and the influence of his opinions upon the active politicians of the state, Burr was defeated, and charging his discomfiture to the instrumentality of Hamilton, only waited a favourable opportunity for accomplishing a signal revenge.

Hamilton at this time was at the head of the federal party, which, though shorn of its former power, was yet large enough to offer formidable opposition to any candidate whose fitness they doubted, or whose opinions were at variance with their own.

Sinking rapidly in the scale of political reputation, and deeply involved in pecuniary liabilities, Burr brooded over the failure of his latest hope with a malignity, which, gathering strength by nursing, at length impelled him to force his antagonist into a duel. The result was such as might have been expected. Hamilton was shot down at the first fire, and to escape the indignant

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outburst of public opinion, Burr fled to South Carolina, and took refuge with his accomplished and unfortunate daughter, who had married a wealthy planter of that region.

The seat of government having been removed to the District of Columbia, Burr returned to Washington and presided over the senate until the expiration of his term of office; and then being unable to return to New York in consequence of the officers of that state holding a warrant against him for the killing of Hamilton, he turned his attention to a wider field of operations, and to bolder schemes of ambition.

At the close of the session of Congress in the spring of 1805, Burr set out for the West. The nominal objects for which this journey was prosecuted were variously stated. One was a speculation for a canal around the falls of the Ohio, which he had projected with Senator Dayton of New Jersey, whose extensive purchase of military land warrants had given him a large interest in the military bounty lands in that vicinity.

Burr had offered a share in this speculation to General Wilkinson, who, besides being commanderin-chief of the army in that quarter, had lately been appointed governor of the new territory of Louisiana. Burr and Wilkinson had long been known to each other, and the former seems to have reckoned confidently upon securing the cooperation of his old military associate, with whom

he had carried on, at various times, a correspondence in cipher, and whose civil and military position promised to make him a very efficient agent in the scheme to which all other projects were intended finally to succumb.

Wilkinson, who about this time was getting ready to embark at Pittsburgh to take possession of his government in Louisiana, invited Burr to descend the river in his company; but as Burr's own boat-the common ark or flat-boat of those days-was already prepared to start, he proceeded on his voyage alone.

When nearly opposite Marietta, he stopped at Blennerhasset's Island, and there, for the first time, made the acquaintance of its enthusiastic but visionary owner. This was Herman Blennerhasset, an Irish gentleman, who, becoming disgusted with the political condition of his own country, had settled on an island in the Ohio, and being possessed of a considerable fortune, gratified his refined taste by erecting an elegant mansion in the wilderness, and surrounding it with all those luxurious accessories which had hitherto been unknown beyond the mountains.

The beautiful and accomplished wife of Blennerhasset was no less an enthusiast than himself; and Burr, a master of all those arts which are best calculated to elicit the admiration of women, soon succeeded in attaching warmly to his cause

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two persons whose ambition had previously been bounded by the limits of their own domain.

Working upon the ardent imagination of Blennerhasset, Burr moulded him as easily to his purposes as the potter the clay beneath his hands. Both Blennerhasset and his wife devoted themselves, and all they possessed of wealth, to the fortunes of the crafty and unscrupulous adventurer, with an enthusiasm heated almost to fanaticism by the glowing prospects held out to them in the future.

The project which Burr actually entertained was one well adapted to enlist in his cause all those who were dissatisfied with their present condition of life, and such turbulent and restless spirits as were ready for any enterprise which promised to gratify their ambition, even though it should be at the expense of common justice and morality.

Well knowing how odious the Spanish name had become to a great portion of the people of the West and South, from the difficulties which had for so many years attended the navigation of the Mississippi on the one hand, and from the long existing territorial disputes on the other, the scheme which Burr desired to perfect was to organize a military force upon the western waters, descend the Mississippi, and wrest from Spain a portion of her territory bounding on the Gulf of Mexico. As the consummation of this act would