The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-09
(Continued.) }


 One presumes that it was at this mo- ment-at the instant when Aaron Burr, seeing the power his daughter held over young Meriwether Lewis and the interest he held for her, turned to these foreign officials at his left-at that moment, let us say, the Burr con- spiracy began.
 Divide that unknown country, the west, and how long would this repub- lie endureY' said Aaron Burr.
 The noise of the banquet now rose about them. Voices blended with laughter. The wine was passing. Awkwardness and restraint had given way to good cheer. In a manner they were safe to talk.
 What" demanded Aaron Burr once more. Gould 0 few francs transfer all that marvellous country from Spain to France? That were absurd. By what possible title could that region wonder ever come to this republic? It is still more absurd to think that. Civ fization does not leap across great rfv- CT valleys. It follows them. You have said rightly, Senor Yrujo. To my mind Great Britain has laid fair grasp, upon the upper west, and Spain holds the lower west, with which our statesmen have interested themselves of late. By all the rights of conquest, discovery and use, gentlemen, Great Britain's traders have gained. for her flag all the territory which they have reached on their western trading routes. l go with you that far"
 Merry turned upon Burr suddenly a deep and estimating eye.
 ''I begin to see," said he, 'that you are open to conviction, MT. Burr"
 "Not open to conviction" said Aaron Burr, "but already convincedv.
 ""What do you mean, Colonel Burr?" The Englishman bent toward him, drowning in intentness.
 "I mean that perhaps I have some thing to say to you two gentlemen of the foreign courts which will be of in terest and importance to you"
 Where, then, could we meet after this is over?'
 The minister from Great Britain surely was not beyond close and ready estimate of events.
 "At my residence after this dinner" rejoined Aaron Burr instantly. His eye did not waver as it looked into the others, but blazed with all the fire of his own soul. Across the Alleghe- nies, along the great river, there is a land waiting, ready for strong men. Are we such men, gentlemen? And can we talk freely as such among our- selves?'
 Their conversation, carried on in or dinary tones, had not been marked by any. Their brows, drawn sharp in sudden resolution, their glance each to the other, made their ratification of this extraordinary speech.
 They had no time for anything fur ther at the moment. A sound came to their ears, and they turned toward the head of the long table, where the tall figure of the president of the United States was rising in his place. The dinner had drawn toward its close.
 MT. Jefferson now stood, gravely re- garding those before him, his keen eye losing no detail of the strange scene. He knew the place of every man and woman at that board. Perhaps this was his own revenge for reception he once had had at London. But at last he spoke.
 'T have news for you all, my friends. today, news which applies not to one man nor to one woman of this or any country more than to another, but news which belongs to all the world.'
 He paused for a moment and held up in his right hand tiny scrap of paper, thin, crunpled. None could guess what significance it had.
 May God in his own power punish me-" said he solemnly, If ever halt or falter ill what I believe to be my duty! I place no bounds to the future of this republic-based, as firmly believe it to be, upon the enduring principle of the just and even rights of mankind.
 "Our country to the west always has inspired me with the extremest curiosity and animated me with the loftiest hopes. Since the year 1883 that great river, the Missouri, empty Ing into the Mississippi. has been look ed upon as the way to the Pacific ocean. One hundred years from that time-that is to say, in 17S3-I myself asked one of the ablest of our western CTS. none other than General George Rogers Clark. to undertake a journey of exploration up that western river It WIS not done. Three years inter, when accredited to the court at Paris, met MT. Ledyard, an American then abroad. Stsired him to cross Russia, Siberia and the Pacific ocean and then to journey eastward over the Stony to find, if he could, the head of that Missouri river of which we know so little. But Ledyard fail nd, for reasons best known. perhaps, to the monarch of Russia.
 Later than that and long before I had the power which now is mine to order matters of thn sort the Boston