etter of the
Constitution."

"Law, as the world goes," said Burr, "is whatever is boldly asserted
and plausibly maintained. But I wish to speak to you of the prospect
opening before us in the Mississippi Valley. Here are you,
commander-in-chief of the Western troops and governor of Upper
Louisiana. Immense power rests in your hands. Now, if it be the will
of the people of Kentucky and the Southern States that Mexico should
become a part of our common country, or should the sovereign citizens
of this section prefer that Mexico shall become part of an independent
republic or empire, formed by uniting all the States and Territories
of the Southwest, including Mexico--I say if 'we, the people,' demand
this, and volunteer to devote lives and fortunes and sacred honor to
establish such a new nationality, could not you, would not you, must
you not, as a patriot, as a friend of liberty, as a servant of the
people, seize an opportunity of making yourself greater than
Washington, by fathering a richer, freer and more glorious country
than that now held together by a Constitution which, as you truly say,
is no stronger than a thread?"

Is it possible that Burr when he uttered these words could have been
aware that he was repeating arguments very similar to those which
Baron Carondelet had addressed to Wilkinson nine years before, to
induce him to deliver Kentucky to his Catholic Majesty, the King of
Spain? Burr's proposal had so many points of coincidence with that
made by the Spanish governor, that Wilkinson felt a momentary sense of
being detected. There was also a confusion of impressions in his
brain; the very service he had tendered to Spain, for gold and for
glory, was now solicited against Spain for glory and for gold.

Burr saw that his words were striking home and resumed
interrogatively:

"Were you not instrumental in the good work of separating Kentucky
from Virginia? You made eloquent speeches, you managed everything."

"Yes, I pleased everybody."

"You will please more by abetting a grateful constituency in their
efforts to form a better government than the East can pledge them. If
it was a good thing to separate Kentucky from Virginia, how much
better to sever the Southwest from--"

"This much I will say," interrupted Wilkinson: "I am in favor of State
sovereignty and the rights of secession. I am a consistent man. The
principles I advocated in 1785 I still hold. My dear colonel," he
continued, coming up to