Louisiana and Aaron Burr 323 



wishes; and as he possessed little tact he also be- 

 came embroiled with the American inhabitants, who 

 were men of adventurous and often lawless temper, 

 impatient of restraint. Representatives of the French 

 and Spanish governments still remained in Louisi- 

 ana, and by their presence and their words tended 

 to keep alive a disaffection for the United States 

 Government. It followed from these various causes 

 that among all classes there was a willingness to 

 talk freely of their wrongs and to hint at righting 

 them by methods outlined with such looseness as to 

 make it uncertain whether they did or did not com- 

 port with entire loyalty to the United States Gov- 

 ernment. 



Furthermore, there already existed in New Or- 

 leans a very peculiar class, representatives of which 

 are still to be found in almost every Gulf city of 

 importance. There were in the city a number of 

 men ready at any time to enter into any plot for 

 armed conquest of one of the Spanish-American 

 countries. 9 Spanish America was feeling the stir 

 of unrest that preceded the revolutionary outbreak 

 against Spain. Already insurrectionary leaders like 

 Miranda were seeking assistance from the Ameri- 

 cans. There were in New Orleans a number of 

 exiled Mexicans who were very anxious to raise 

 some force with which to invade Mexico, and there 

 erect the banner of an independent sovereignty. 

 The bolder spirits among the Creoles found much 

 that was attractive in such a prospect; and reckless 



' Wilkinson's "Memoirs," II, 284. 



