The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

The Burr Conspiracy 183

The Burr Conspiracy

Republican virtue seemed to have triumphed, but

Jefferson soon found himself in trouble at home

and abroad.

In part his difficulties arose from the extent of

the Republican victory. In 1805 his Federalist oppo-

nents had no useful ideas, no intelligent leadership,

and no effective numbers. They held only a quarter

of the seats in Congress. As often happens in such sit-

uations, lack of opposition weakened party discipline

and encouraged factionalism among the Republicans.

The Republican who caused Jefferson the most

trouble was Aaron Burr, and the president was partly

to blame for the difficulty. After their contest for the

presidency in 1801, Jefferson pursued Burr vindic-

tively, depriving him of federal patronage in New York

and replacing him as the 1804 Republican vice presi-

dential candidate with Governor George Clinton,

Burr’s chief rival in the state.

While still vice president, Burr began to flirt

with treason. He approached Anthony Merry, the

British minister in Washington, and offered to

“effect a separation of the Western part of the United

States.” His price was £110,000 and the support of

a British fleet off the mouth of the Mississippi.

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr preparing for their duel, which left Hamilton dead.

gates of Louisiana very wide. Other explorers sent out
by Jefferson accomplished far less. Thomas Freeman,
an Irish-born surveyor, led a small party up the Red
River but ran into a powerful Spanish force near the
present junction of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas
and was forced to retreat. Between 1805 and 1807
Lieutenant Zebulon Pike explored the upper
Mississippi Valley and the Colorado region. (He dis-
covered but failed to scale the peak south of Denver
that bears his name.) Pike eventually made his way to
Santa Fe and the upper reaches of the Rio Grande, but
he was not nearly so careful and acute an observer as
Lewis and Clark were and consequently brought back
much less information. By 1808 fur traders based at
St. Louis were beginning to invade the Rockies, and by
1812 there were 75,000 people in the southern section
of the new territory, which was admitted to the Union
that year as the state of Louisiana. The northern region
lay almost untouched until much later.

Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewisat
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Lewis and Clark: What Were They Trying to
Accomplish?atmyhistorylab.com

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