The spirit of Kentucky after the receipt of this letter is indicated by a communication printed in the Kentucky Gazette of March 8, 1803.
"If the result of Mr. Monroe's mission should prove inauspicious one opinion will pervade all America. We shall then possess but one mind and one arm. The patriotism of the country will banish all party distinctions, and the breast of every citizen will burn with indignation. * * * Let us await with patience his return--with that silent expectation, which, prepared to meet with joy the news of a happy issue, is nevertheless, if disappointed, ready to inflict a blow that will let all Europe know that, though difficult to be aroused, America acts with vigor and effect."
The same paper of July 19, 1803, contained news from Paris, under the caption, "Important if True--Paris, May 13, Louisiana is ceded to the United States on the most honorable terms; and indemnification will be made for French spoliation."
This report proved correct. The great Territory of Louisiana had been ceded to the United States for eighty million francs.
On Tuesday, December 20, 1803, the United States took possession by her two commissioners, William C. Claiborne and General James Wilkinson.
On Saturday, March 2, 1805, at the close of the administration, Vice-President Burr took formal leave of the United States Senate. The Washington Federalist referring to his farewell address, declared it "* * * the most dignified, sublime and impressive ever uttered. * * * The whole Senate was in tears and so unmanned that it was half an hour before they could recover themselves sufficiently to come to order and choose a vice-president pro tem."
Yet his great abilities were marred by an instinct for traitorous intrigue and an unconscionable untrustworthiness which made his life a failure.
Upon retirement, he felt forced to shift his residence and at the suggestion of his friend, General James Wilkinson, a man much more dangerous and less trustworthy than Burr and at the time chief officer of the United States Army, he traveled westward with the presumed intent of establishing his domicile at Nashville.
Many who know Wilkinson's secret history, now believe that even then he had instigated Burr to the adoption of his traitorous plot to drive Spain from North America and establish a great empire; which in due course was to take over the Western Country and if expedient, by force of arms, would then spread its dominion eastward to the Atlantic.