Louisiana and Aaron Burr 235 



described the people of Kentucky as having been 

 "degraded and insulted," and as having borne these 

 insults with "submissive patience." The writers in- 

 sisted that Kentucky had nothing to hope from the 

 Federal Government, and that it was nonsense to 

 chatter about the infraction of treaties, for it was 

 necessary, at any cost, to take Louisiana, which was 

 "groaning under tyranny." They threatened the 

 United States with what the Kentuckians would do 

 if their wishes were not granted, announcing that 

 they would make the conquest of Louisiana an ulti- 

 matum, and warning the Government that they owed 

 no eternal allegiance to it and might have to sepa- 

 rate, and that if they did there would be small reason 

 to deplore the separation. The separatist agitators 

 failed to see that they could obtain the objects they 

 sought, the opening of the Mississippi and the acqui- 

 sition of Louisiana, only through the Federal Gov- 

 ernment, and only by giving that Government full 

 powers. Standing alone the Kentuckians would 

 have been laughed to scorn not only by England 

 and France, but even by Spain. Yet with silly fa- 

 tuity they vigorously opposed every effort to make 

 the Government stronger or to increase national feel- 

 ing, railing even at the attempt to erect a great Fed- 

 eral city as "unwise, impolitic, unjust," and "a mon- 

 ument to American folly." 31 The men who wrote 

 these articles, and the leaders of the societies and 

 clubs which inspired them, certainly made a pitiable 

 showing; they proved that they themselves were 



81 "Kentucky Gazette," Feb. 8, 1794; Sept. 16, 1797, etc. 



