Louisiana and Aaron Burr 333 



claimed, as part of Louisiana, portions of both West 

 Florida and Texas. The Spaniards refused to ad- 

 mit the justice of the claim and gathered in the dis- 

 puted territories armies which, although small, out- 

 numbered the few regular troops that Wilkinson 

 had at his disposal. More than once a collision 

 seemed imminent. The Westerners clamored for 

 war, desiring above all things to drive the Spaniards 

 by force from the debatable lands. For some time 

 Jefferson showed symptoms of yielding to their 

 wishes; but he was too timid and irresolute to play 

 a high part, and in the end he simply did nothing. 

 However, though he declined to make actual war on 

 the Spaniards, he also refused to recognize their 

 claims as just, and his peculiar, hesitating course, 

 tended to inflame the Westerners, and to make them 

 believe that their government would not call them 

 to account for acts of aggression. To Jackson 

 doubtless Burr's proposals seemed quite in keeping 

 with what he hoped from the United States Gov- 

 ernment. He readily fell in with views so like his 

 own, and began to make preparations for an ex- 

 pedition against the Spanish dominions; an expe- 

 dition which in fact would not have differed essen- 

 tially from the expeditions he actually did make into 

 the Spanish Floridas six or eight years afterward, 

 or from the movement which still later his fellow- 

 Tennesseean, Houston, headed in Texas. 



From Nashville Burr drifted down the Cumber- 

 land, and at Fort Massac, on the Ohio, he met Wil- 

 kinson, a kindred spirit, who possessed neither honor 



