"You are not, you say, an admirer of Adams, the arch-Federalist. Do you worship his successor? Are you an unconditional Jeffersonian?"
"No, I am not. It seems to me that Jefferson aids the cause of centralization, with the same motive that moved Adams, but with less boldness. What do you think, Colonel Burr, of the temporizing policy of the administration in regard to Spain?"
"In regard to Spain?" echoed Burr, blowing a ring of smoke from his lips, "what do you think, yourself?"
"I think it infamous! It disgraces this nation to submit to exactions and insults from the Spaniards. Why don't the Government declare war, and conquer Mexico?"
"Would you be in favor of that?" asked Burr, lightly touching the ashes of his cigar with the tip of his little finger—so lightly that the ashes did not fall.
"Would I be in favor of it? I am in favor of it. Are not you, Colonel Burr?"
The politician again barely grazed the cylinder of white ashes with his little finger.
"We must not be rash."
"I feel that I am rash to talk so positively, but how can there be a difference of opinion on a subject like this? Why don't Congress declare war?"
"Is it your belief that, if war were declared, there would be difficulty in raising volunteers in Virginia?"