ent and democracy were manifestations of
the same radical and destructive spirit.

The rising tide of Republicanism and the increasing popularity of the
Administration cast the Federalist leaders into the deepest gloom. The
annexation of Louisiana was regarded as a mortal blow, since it
imperiled the ascendency of New England in the Union, and New England
was the stronghold of Federalism. At the beginning of the year 1804,
most of the Federalist members of Congress from New England were agreed
in thinking that a crisis was approaching. Democracy was about to
triumph over the forces of law and order. The only question was how to
save their section, where the ravages of Jacobinism could yet be stayed.
There was but one answer, from the point of view of Senator Timothy
Pickering. The people of the Eastern States could not reconcile their
habits, views, and interests with those of the South and West:
therefore, let them withdraw from the Union and form a Northern
Confederation. Plumer, of New Hampshire, and Tracy and Griswold, of
Connecticut, were in hearty agreement with this view. Pickering then put
his project before the members of the coterie of Federalists in
Massachusetts, which was generally known as the "Essex Junto." As the
confederacy shaped itself in Pickering's imagination, it would of
necessity include New York, which would act as a barrier to the
insidious inroads of Southern Jacobinism; but Massachusetts should
initiate the movement.

Replying for his intimates in the Essex Junto, George Cabot put aside
the project, not as in any wise morally reprehensible,--on the contrary,
he thought separation desirable,--but as impracticable. The people of
New England were not aware of their danger and therefore not prepared
for so radical a movement. The only chance for a successful revolution,
Cabot thought, would be "a war with Great Britain manifestly provoked by
our rulers." Pickering and Griswold then turned to New York for support
and to Aaron Burr.

The Vice-President was at this time without political influence in the
Administration, and without credit, either morally or politically. In
New York, the Livingstons and the Clintons, whom he had mortally
offended, were determined to drive him from the party. At first, Burr
was inclined to give way: he even applied to the President for an
executive appointment; but this resource failing, he determined to fight
his enemies to the bitter end. In February, 1804, he wa