Such considerations animated a group of Americans in Paris, among whose prominent members were Thomas Paine, the pamphleteer, Joel Barlow, the poet, and Dr.James O'Fallon, a Revolutionary soldier now interested in Western land speculation.

All were then ardent sympathizers with the French Revolution, and they entered heartily into the design of stirring up the Western country against Spain.
The project attracted some frontier leaders, among them George Rogers Clark, famous for his successful campaigns against the hostile Indians and the British during the Revolutionary War.

He was to lead a force of Western riflemen against the Spanish posts in Louisiana, and Genet brought with him blank brevets of officers up to the grade of captain for bestowal on the Indian chiefs who would cooperate.

The expenses of the expedition were to be met by collections which Genet expected to make from the treasury of the United States on account of sums due to France.
The project of using the United States as a French base could claim legal rights under the treaties of 1778 between France and the United States.
There were two treaties, both concluded on the same day.

One, entitled a treaty of amity and commerce, was a mutual conveyance of privileges; it provided that the ships of war of each country should defend the vessels of the other country against all attacks that might occur while they were in company.