promised to repair his shattered fortunes.  That the enterprise was impracticable, and that he was unfit for it, only made it more attractive to his imaginative and simple mind.  The fancy of Wirt has thrown a deceptive romance around the career of Blennerhassett, yet there is enough of truth in the account of the misfortunes which Burr brought upon him and his amiable wife to justify the sympathy with which they have been regarded.

Soon after his arrival at New Orleans Burr seems to have formed bolder designs.  From this time we find in his correspondence, and that of his friends, vague hints of some great undertaking.  This proved to be a project for an expedition against Mexico, and the establishment there of an Empire which was to include the States west of the Alleghanies; subsidiary to this, and connected with it, was a plan for the colonization of a large tract of land upon the Washita.

It is difficult to believe that a design so absurd can have been entertained by a man of common sense; yet it is certain that it was seriously undertaken by Burr.  His conduct in carrying it out furnishes the best measure of his talents and a signal exhibition of his folly and his vices.  His high standing, his reputation as a soldier, attracted the vulgar, and brought him into intercourse with the most intelligent people of the Territory.  The fascination of his manners, and the skill in the arts of intrigue which long discipline had given him, enabled him to sustain the impression which the prestige of his name everywhere produced.  The details of his political conduct could not have been accurately known in a region so remote.  The affair with Hamilton had not injured his reputation in communities where such affairs were common and often applauded.  The circumstances of the time, to his superficial glance, seemed to be encouraging.  A large portion of the country had lately passed under our flag;—­many of the inhabitants spoke a foreign language, and retained foreign customs and predilections;—­the American settlers were an adventurous race, and eager for an opportunity to indulge their martial spirit;—­Mexico was uneasy under the Spanish yoke;—­and some indications of a war between the United States and Spain held out a faint hope that the initiatory steps of his enterprise might be taken with the connivance of the government.  To recruit an army among the hardy citizens of Kentucky and Tennessee, to excite the jealousies of the French in Louisiana, to subdue feeble and demoralized Mexico, and create a new and stable empire, did not appear difficult to the sanguine imagination of a man who was without means or powerful friends, and who at no time had sufficient confidence in those with whom he was engaged to fully inform them of his plans.  But he pursued his purposes with a tenacity which leaves no doubt of his sincerity, and an audacity and unscrupulousness seldom equalled.  A few whom he thought it safe to trust were admitted to his secrets.  Upon those in whom he did not