iametrically opposed. Their
end was always either to bring about a secession of the West from the
East by the aid of Spain or some other foreign power; or else a conquest
of the Spanish dominions by the West, in defiance of the wishes of the
East and of the Central Government. Burr proposed to carry out both of
these plans.

He Endeavors to Enlist the Foreign Powers.

The exact shape which his proposals took would be difficult to tell.
Seemingly they remained nebulous even in his own mind. They certainly so
remained in the minds of those to whom he confided them. At any rate his
scheme, though in reality less dangerous than those of his predecessors
in Western treason, were in theory much more comprehensive. He planned
the seizure of Washington, the kidnapping of the President, and the
corruption of the United States Navy. He also endeavored to enlist
foreign Powers on his side. His first advances were made to the British.
He proposed to put the new empire, no matter what shape it might assume,
under British protection, in return for the assistance of the British
fleet in taking New Orleans. He gave to the British ministers full--and
false--accounts of the intended uprising, and besought the aid of the
British Government on the ground that the secession of the West would so
cripple the Union as to make it no longer a formidable enemy of Great
Britain. Burr's audacity and plausibility were such that he quite
dazzled the British minister, who detailed the plans at length to his
home government, putting them in as favorable a light as he could. The
statesmen at London, however, although at this time almost inconceivably
stupid in their dealings with America, were not sunk in such abject
folly as to think Burr's schemes practicable, and they refused to have
anything to do with them.

He Starts West and Stays with Blennerhassett.

In April, 1805, Burr started on his tour to the West. One of his first
stoppages was at an island on the Ohio near Parkersburg, where an Irish
gentleman named Blennerhassett had built what was, for the West, an
unusually fine house. Only Mrs. Blennerhassett was at home at the time;
but Blennerhassett later became a mainstay of the "conspiracy." He was a
warm-hearted man, with no judgment and a natural tendency toward
sedition, who speedily fell under Burr's influence, and entered into his
plans with eager zeal. With him Burr did not have to be on his guard,
and to him he confided freely