be dismissed from consideration.
The loyalty of the Mississippi Valley at this time is beyond question;
and Burr was too keen an observer not to recognize the temper of the
people with whom he sojourned. But there is reason to believe that he
and his confederates may have planned an enterprise against Mexico, for
such a project was quite to the taste of Westerners who hated Spain as
ardently as they loved the Union. Circumstances favored a filibustering
expedition. The President's bellicose message of December had prepared
the people of the Mississippi Valley for war; the Spanish plotters had
been expelled from Louisiana; Spanish forces had crossed the Sabine;
American troops had been sent to repel them if need be; the South
American revolutionist Miranda had sailed, with vessels fitted out
in New York, to start a revolt against Spanish rule in Caracas; every
revolutionist in New Orleans was on the qui vive. What better time could
there be to launch a filibustering expedition against Mexico? If it
succeeded and a republic were established, the American Government might
be expected to recognize a fait accompli.

The success of Burr's plans, whatever they may have been, depended on
his procuring funds; and it was doubtless the hope of extracting aid
from Blennerhassett that drew him to the island in midsummer of 1806.
Burr was accompanied by his daughter Theodosia and her husband, Joseph
Alston, a wealthy South Carolina planter, who was either the dupe or the
accomplice of Burr. Together they persuaded the credulous Irishman to
purchase a tract of land on the Washita River in the heart of Louisiana,
which would ultimately net him a profit of a million dollars when
Louisiana became an independent state with Burr as ruler and England
as protector. They even assured Blennerhassett that he should go as
minister to England. He was so dazzled at the prospect that he not only
made the initial payment for the lands, but advanced all his property
for Burr's use on receiving a guaranty from Alston. Having landed his
fish, Burr set off down the river to visit General Jackson at Nashville
and to procure boats and supplies for his expedition.

Meanwhile, Theodosia--the brilliant, fascinating Theodosia--and her
husband played the game at Blennerhassett's Island. Blennerhassett's
head was completely turned. He babbled most indiscreetly about the
approaching coup d'etat. Colonel Burr would be king of Mexico, he told
his gardener, and M