The Burr Conspiracy

Have you ever heard of Aaron Burr’s connection to Ouachita Parish? If you remember your history, or have seen the play Hamilton, you know Aaron Burr (VP of Thomas Jefferson) killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. This episode happened roughly three years later.

Aaron Burr leased from the Baron de Bastrop, around 40,000 acres of Ouachita land. He publicly stated he wanted to settle the land with armed followers, which was reasonable at the time. Louisiana was a new state, settled mainly by French and Spanish settlers. You wanted a bunch of Americans to settle in the new lands just to make sure any thought of rebellion would be foolhardy. You also wanted loyal settlers to keep Spain from coming in and taking territory too! They still had territory next door to Louisiana and there were large rumors Spain was gunning for a fight.

The private story was that Burr wanted to launch an attack on Mexico to set up a new empire. Burr was going to use the Ouachita as his staging ground. Unfortunately, his co conspirator, General James Wilkinson (the same man Wilkinson County, MS is named for!) decided to spill the beans. Burr was arrested in Alabama for treason and hauled to Virginia for trial. Fortunately for him, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall took a strict interpretation of the Constitutional definition of treason and acquitted him. The scandal wrecked Burr’s already tattered reputation and he never really recovered.

The Burr Conspiracy on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_conspiracy .