324 The Winning of the West 



American adventurers by the score and the hundred 

 were anxious to join in any filibustering expedition 

 of the kind. They did not care in the least what 

 form the expedition took. They were willing to 

 join the Mexican exiles in an effort to rouse Mexico 

 to throw off the yoke of Spain, or to aid any prov- 

 ince of Mexico to revolt from the rest, or to help the 

 leaders of any defeated faction who wished to try 

 an appeal to arms, in which they should receive aid 

 from the sword of the stranger. Incidentally they 

 were even more willing to attempt the conquest on 

 their own account ; but they did not find it necessary 

 to dwell on this aspect of the case when nominally 

 supporting some faction which chose to make use 

 of such watchwords as liberty and independence. 



Under such conditions New Orleans, even more 

 than the rest of the West, seemed to offer an invit- 

 ing field for adventurers whose aim was both revo- 

 lutionary and piratical. A particularly spectacular 

 adventurer of this type now appeared in the person 

 of Aaron Burr. Burr's conspiracy attracted an 

 amount of attention, both at home and in the pages 

 of history, altogether disproportioned to its real con- 

 sequence. His career had been striking. He had 

 been Vice-President of the United States. He had 

 lacked but one vote of being made President, when 

 the election of 1800 was thrown into the House of 

 Representatives. As friend or as enemy he had been 

 thrown intimately and on equal terms with the 

 greatest political leaders of the day. He had sup- 

 plied almost the only feeling which Jefferson, the 



