d who, in their dislike of Jefferson, reckoned
on finally giving the Presidency to Burr. To this, Hamilton,
however, magnanimously objected, and in the end Jefferson secured the
Presidential prize, while to Burr fell the Vice-Presidency.

For the next eight years, until the coming of Madison's Administration,
Jefferson was at the helm of national affairs, assisted by an able
Cabinet, the chief members of which were James Madison, Secretary
of State, and the Swiss financier, Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the
Treasury. Aaron Burr, as we have recorded, was Vice-President, though
the relations of Jefferson with him were far from cordial, owing to his
political intrigues, which led the President ultimately to eschew him
and distrust his character. Jefferson's attitude toward the man was
later on shown to be well justified, as the result of Burr's hateful
quarrel with Alexander Hamilton, and his mortally wounding that eminent
statesman in a duel, which doomed him to political and social ostracism.
It was still further intensified by Burr's treasonable attempt to
seduce the West out of the Union and to found with it and Mexico a rival
Republic, with the looked-for aid of Britain. These unscrupulous acts
occurred in Jefferson's second term; and, failing in his conspiracy,
Burr deservedly brought upon himself national obloquy, as well as
prosecution for treason, though nothing came of the latter.

Some two years after Jefferson's assumption of office, Ohio was admitted
as a State into the Union. The next year (1803) saw, however, an
enormous extension of the national domain, thanks to the President's
far-seeing, if at the time unconstitutional, policy. This was the
purchase from France, at the cost of $15,000,000, of Louisiana, a vast
territory lying between the Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, and the
Rio Grande, which had been originally settled by the French, and by
their government ceded in 1763 to Spain as a set-off for Florida, while
the French King at the same time ceded his other possessions on this
continent to England. In 1800, Napoleon had forced Spain to re-cede
Louisiana to France, as the price of the First Consul's uncertain
goodwill and other intangible or elusive favors. At this period, France
desired to occupy the country, or at least to form a great seaport at
New Orleans, the entrepot of the Mississippi, that might be of use to
her against English warships in the region of the West Indies. When news
of the t