privileges be
granted to the West, and pensions and honors showered on its leaders.
Spain readily adopted this policy of bribery. Wilkinson and Sebastian
were at different times given sums of money, small portions of which
were doubtless handed over to their own agents and subordinates and to
the Spanish spies; and Wilkinson asked for additional sums, nominally to
bribe leading Kentuckians, but very possibly merely with the purpose of
pocketing them himself. In other words, Wilkinson, Sebastian, and their
intimate associates on the one hand, and the Spanish officials on the
other, entered into a corrupt conspiracy to dismember the Union.

Wilkinson's Intrigues.

Wilkinson took a leading part in the political agitations by which
Kentucky was shaken through out these years. He devoted himself to
working for separation from both Virginia and the United States, and for
an alliance with Spain. Of course he did not dare to avow his schemes
with entire frankness, only venturing to advocate them more or less
openly accordingly as the wind of popular opinion veered towards or away
from disunion. Being a sanguine man, of bad judgment, he at first wrote
glowing letters to his Spanish employers, assuring them that the
Kentucky leaders enthusiastically favored his plans, and that the people
at large were tending towards them. As time went on, he was obliged to
change the tone of his letters, and to admit that he had been
over-hopeful; he reluctantly acknowledged that Kentucky would certainly
refuse to become a Spanish province, and that all that was possible to
hope for was separation and an alliance with Spain. He was on intimate
terms with the separatist leaders of all shades, and broached his views
to them as far as he thought fit. His turgid oratory was admired in the
backwoods, and he was much helped by his skill in the baser kinds of
political management. He speedily showed all the familiar traits of the
demagogue--he was lavish in his hospitality, and treated young and old,
rich and poor, with jovial good-fellowship; so that all the men of loose
habits, the idle men who were ready for any venture, and the men of weak
character and fickle temper, swore by him, and followed his lead; while
not a few straightforward, honest citizens were blinded by his showy
ability and professions of disinterestedness. [Footnote: Marshall, I.,
245.]

It is impossible to say exactly how far his different allies among the
separatist leade