land. His uncanny ability to sway small and large groups alike--in an land where outsized ideas and ambitions seemed the order of the day--would aid him on the road ahead. Burr came west with no clear idea what to do. He thought he might simply rebuild his legal career, speculate in land, and seek public office. Or possibly construct a canal around the Falls of the Ohio. But such ideas didnt quite fit with a man who had been so close to the Presidency of the Republic. It is not known exactly where the idea for a conspiracy came from, but on April 29, 1805 Burr unveiled his plan to lead a revolution in Mexico (still a colony of Spain) over dinner with Herman Blennerhassett. Blennerhassett was a rich landowner who lived on a 300-acre island on the Ohio River and Burr realized that for this plan to succeed it would require a great deal of money, men and other resources . But Blennerhassett wasnt much for grand foreign adventures and Burr eventually settled on a strategy of swindling Britain and Spain into giving him the money and the troops he needed to revolutionize Mexico. This was difficult from the start, especially since the Spaniards controlled Mexico at the time. Burrs plan was to lie to both Britain and Spain, telling them he was trying to tear the United States in half, east from west. But instead of breaking up the country he intended instead to use the money and troops from Spain and Britain to invade Mexico. He outlined the first part of his strategy in a letter to Anthony Merry, the British minister to the US, and Don Carlos Yrujo, the Spanish minister to the US on January 1st, 1806. This letter eventually ended up in the hands of president Jefferson, and would become an important part of the prosecutions case against Burr in his trial for treason. Burr maintained that he never had any intention of committing treasonit was simply a ruse against two countries that were not particularly popular in the US at that t...
