Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/202



arrest of all concerned in the unlawful enterprise. Burr and his party were arrested near Natchez, his boats and military supplies were seized and he was taken before the Supreme Court and released on bail. The grand jury refused to indict him and Burr, failing to secure a discharge escaped. In attempting to make his way by night to Pensacola to find shelter on a British vessel in that harbor, he was captured and taken to Richmond, Virginia. He was there indicted, tried for high treason and acquitted.

With the arrest of Burr the whole scheme failed, although there is little doubt that several influential men were implicated. The mass of the people, however, were loyal to the Union and gave no encouragement to Burr's visionary scheme. Emigration now spread westward along the rivers and many of the more courageous and farseeing home-seekers pushed out upon the treeless plains of the Mississippi Valley.

The first newspaper published west of the river was issued at St. Louis in July, 1808, called the Louisiana Gazette. Its proprietor was Joseph Charless and, as there was no print paper to be found in Louisiana at that time, the first numbers of the new journal were printed on cap writing paper. When the Territory of Missouri was organized the name of the paper was changed to the Missouri Gazette, and in later years became the Missouri Republican, afterward the St. Louis Republic. During this year the southern portion of Louisiana was organized into the District of Arkansas.

In 1805 General James Wilkinson was in command of the Military Department of the West, with headquarters at St. Louis. When he sent Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike on an expedition to the upper Mississippi River, he gave him instructions to select a site for a military post somewhere between St. Louis and Prairie du Chien and procure the consent of the Indians for the building of a fort. In Lieutenant Pike's report he says: