in
politics he rose like a meteor, being Hamilton's peer in the one, his
superior in the other. Organizing his "Little Band" of young
Republicans, spite of federalist opposition and sneers from the old
republican chiefs, he became Attorney-general of New York in 1789. In
1791, superseding Schuyler, he was United States senator from that
State, and in 1800, Vice-President.

Higher he could not mount, as federalist favor cursed him among his own
party, yet was too weak to aid him independently. It was kept down by
Hamilton, who saw through the man and opposed him with all his might.
For this Burr forced him to a duel, and fatally shot him, July 11, 1804.

Indicted for murder, Burr now disappears from politics, but only to
emerge in a new role. During all the early history of our Union the
parts beyond the Alleghanies were attached to it by but a slender
thread, which Spanish intrigue incessantly sought to cut. At this very
time Spain was pensioning men in high station there, including General
Wilkinson, commanding our force at New Orleans. Could not Burr detach
this district or a part of it from our Government and make here an
empire of his own? Or might he not take it as the base of operations for
an attack on Spanish America that should give him an empire there? Some
vision of this sort danced before the mad genius's vision, as before
that of Hamilton in the Miranda scheme. Many influential persons
encouraged him, with how much insight into his plan we shall never know.
Wilkinson was one of these. Blennerhassett, whose family and estate Burr
irreparably blasted, was another. He expected aid from Great Britain,
and from disaffected Mexicans.

From the outset the West proved more loyal than he hoped, and when, at
the critical moment, Wilkinson betrayed him, he knew that all was lost.
Sinking his chests of arms in the river near Natchez, he took to the
Mississippi woods, only to be recognized, arrested by Jefferson's order,
and dragged to Richmond to jail. As no overt act was proved, he could
not be convicted of treason; and even the trial of him for misdemeanor
broke down on technical points. The Federalists stood up for Burr as if
he had been their man, while Jefferson on his part pushed the
prosecution in a fussy and personal way, ill becoming a President.

Jefferson's most lasting work as national chief-magistrate was his
diplomacy in purchasing for the Union the boundless territory beyond the
Mississippi, prized t