The Burr conspiracy was a suspecte treasonous cabal of planters, politicians and army officers led by former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr. According to the accusations against him, Burr’s goal was to create an independent nation in the center of North America and/or the Southwest and parts of Mexico. Burr’s explanation: To take possession of, and farm, 40,000 acres (160 km²) in the Texas Territory leased to him by the Spanish. When the expected war with Spain broke out, he would fight with his armed “farmers,” to seize some lands he could conquer in the war–all illegal by rules of warfare. (Note: this was before the Louisiana Purchase had been officially accepted by the U.S. Government as a territory. Thomas Jefferson was having second thoughts about absorbing it into the union. Any taking of that land by an American at that time would not have been unconstitutional or even illegal.)