his plans; but elsewhere, and in dealing
with less emotional people, he had to be more guarded.

How Far Burr's Allies were Privy to his Treason.

It is always difficult to find out exactly what a conspirator of Burr's
type really intended, and exactly how guilty his various temporary
friends and allies were. Part of the conspirator's business is to
dissemble the truth, and in after-time it is nearly impossible to
differentiate it from the false, even by the most elaborate sifting of
the various untruths he has uttered. Burr told every kind of story, at
one time or another, and to different classes of auditors. It would be
unsafe to deny his having told a particular falsehood in any given case
or to any given man. On the other hand when once the plot was unmasked
those persons to whom he had confided his plans were certain to insist
that he had really kept them in ignorance of his true intention. In
consequence it is quite impossible to say exactly how much guilty
knowledge his various companions possessed. When it comes to treating of
his relationship with Wilkinson all that can be said is that no single
statement ever made by either man, whether during the conspiracy or
after it, whether to the other or to an outsider, can be considered as
either presumptively true or presumptively false.

It is therefore impossible to say exactly how far the Westerners with
whom Burr was intimate were privy to his plans. It is certain that the
great mass of the Westerners never seriously considered entering into
any seditious movement under him. It is equally certain that a number of
their leaders were more or less compromised by their associations with
him. It seems probable that to each of these leaders he revealed what he
thought would most attract him in the scheme; but that to very few did
he reveal an outright proposition to break up the Union. Many of them
were very willing to hear the distinguished Easterner make vague
proposals for increasing the power of the West by means which were
hinted at with sinister elusiveness; and many others were delighted to
go into any movement which promised an attack upon the Spanish
territory; but it seems likely that there were only a few
men--Wilkinson, for instance, and Adair of Kentucky--who were willing to
discuss a proposition to commit downright treason.

Burr and Andrew Jackson.

Burr stopped at Cincinnati, in Ohio, and at one or two places in
Kentucky. In both States ma