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SCI LIBRARY

The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson

By Subject


BURR, AARON / IMPERIAL ASPIRATIONS



Burr's enterprise is the most extraordinary since the days of Don Quixote. It is so extravagant that those who know his understanding, would not believe it if the proofs admitted doubt. He has meant to place himself on the throne of Montezuma, and extend his empire to the Alleghany, seizing on New Orleans as the instrument of compulsion for our western States. I think his undertaking effectually crippled by the activity of Ohio. Whether Kentucky will give him the coup de grace is doubtful; but if he is able to descend the river with any means, we are sufficiently prepared at New Orleans.

to Charles Clay, 11 January 1807