208 The Winning of the West 



another occasion he had offered his sword to the 

 Spanish Government, and had requested permission 

 to found in Spanish territory a State, which should 

 be tributary to Spain and a barrier against the 

 American advance. He had thus already sought 

 to lead the Westerners against Spain in a warfare 

 undertaken purely by themselves and for their own 

 objects, and had also offered to form by the help 

 of some of these Westerners a State which should 

 be a constituent portion of the Spanish dominion. 

 He now readily undertook the task of raising an 

 army of Westerners to overrun Louisiana in the 

 interests of the French Republic. The conditions 

 which rendered possible these various movements 

 were substantially the same, although the immediate 

 causes, or occasions, were different. In any event 

 the result would ultimately have been the conquest 

 of the Spanish dominions by the armed frontiers- 

 men, and the upbuilding of English-speaking States 

 on Spanish territory. 



The expedition which at the moment Clark pro- 

 posed to head took its peculiar shape from outside 

 causes. At this period Genet was in the midst of 

 his preposterous career as Minister from the French 

 Republic to the United States. The various bodies 

 of men who afterward coalesced into the Demo*- 

 cratic-Republican party were frantically in favor of 

 the French Revolution, regarding it with a fatuous 

 admiration quite as foolish as the horror with which 

 it affected most of the Federalists. They were 

 already looking to Jefferson as their leader, and 



