s eyes toward the West,
which for a score of years had seethed in a turmoil out of which it
seemed that a bold spirit might make its own profit. He had already been
obscurely connected with separatist intrigues in the Northeast; and he
determined to embark in similar intrigues on an infinitely grander scale
in the West and Southwest. He was a cultivated man, of polished manners
and pleasing address, and of great audacity and physical courage; and he
had shown himself skilled in all the baser arts of political management.

It is small wonder that the conspiracy of which such a man was head
should make a noise out of all proportion to its real weight. The
conditions were such that if Burr journied West he was certain to
attract universal attention, and to be received with marked enthusiasm.
No man of his prominence in national affairs had ever travelled through
the wild new commonwealths on the Mississippi. The men who were founding
states and building towns on the wreck of the conquered wilderness were
sure to be flattered by the appearance of so notable a man among them,
and to be impressed not only by his reputation, but by his charm of
manner and brilliancy of intellect. Moreover they were quite ready to
talk vaguely of all kinds of dubious plans for increasing the importance
of the West. Very many, perhaps most, of them had dabbled at one time or
another in the various separatist schemes of the preceding two decades;
and they felt strongly that much of the Spanish domain would and should
ultimately fall into their hands--and the sooner the better.

He Misunderstands the Western Situation.

There was thus every chance that Burr would be favorably received by the
West, and would find plenty of men of high standing who would profess
friendship for him and would show a cordial interest in his plans so
long as he refrained from making them too definite; but there was in
reality no chance whatever for anything more than this to happen. In
spite of Burr's personal courage he lacked entirely the great military
qualities necessary to successful revolutionary leadership of the kind
to which he aspired. Though in some ways the most practical of
politicians he had a strong element of the visionary in his character;
it was perhaps this, joined to his striking moral defects, which brought
about and made complete his downfall in New York. Great political and
revolutionary leaders may, and often must, have in them something of