246 The Winning of the West 



cans with Spain at this time. During the very years 

 when Carondelet, under the orders of his Govern- 

 ment, was seeking to delay the execution of the 

 boundary treaty, and to seduce the Westerners from 

 their allegiance to the United States, a Senator of 

 the United States, entirely without the knowledge 

 of his Government, was engaged in an intrigue for 

 the conquest of a part of the Spanish dominion. This 

 Senator was no less a person than William Blount. 

 Enterprising and ambitious, he was even more deeply 

 engaged in land speculations than were the other 

 prominent men of his time. 50 He felt that he had 

 not been well treated by the United States authori- 

 ties, and, like all other Westerners, he also felt that 

 the misconduct of the Spaniards had been so great 

 that they were not entitled to the slightest consid- 

 eration. Moreover, he feared lest the territory 

 should be transferred to France, which would be a 

 much more dangerous neighbor than Spain; and he 

 had a strong liking for Great Britain. If he could 

 not see the territory taken by the Americans under 

 the flag of the United States, then he wished to see 

 them enter into possession of it under the standard 

 of the British King. 



In 1797 he entered into a scheme which was in 

 part one of land speculation and in part one of armed 

 aggression against Spain. He tried to organize an 

 association with the purpose of seizing the Spanish 

 territory west of the Mississippi, and putting it un- 

 der the control of Great Britain, in the interests of 



50 Clay MSS., Blount to Hart, March 13, 1799, etc., etc. 



