daughter, Burr
said that tears flowed abundantly, but Burr must have described what he
wished to see. American politicians are not Homeric heroes, who weep
on slight provocation; and any inclination to pity Burr must have been
inhibited by the knowledge that he had made himself the rallying-point
of every dubious intrigue at the capital.

The list of Burr's intimates included Jonathan Dayton, whose term as
Senator had just ended, and who, like Burr, sought means of promoting
his fortunes, John Smith, Senator from Ohio, the notorious Swartwouts
of New York who were attached to Burr as gangsters to their chief, and
General James Wilkinson, governor of the northern territory carved out
of Louisiana and commander of the western army with headquarters at St.
Louis.

Wilkinson had a long record of duplicity, which was suspected but never
proved by his contemporaries. There was hardly a dubious episode from
the Revolution to this date with which he had not been connected. He was
implicated in the Conway cabal against Washington; he was active in the
separatist movement in Kentucky during the Confederation; he entered
into an irregular commercial agreement with the Spanish authorities
at New Orleans; he was suspected--and rightly, as documents recently
unearthed in Spain prove--of having taken an oath of allegiance to Spain
and of being in the pay of Spain; he was also suspected--and justly--of
using his influence to bring about a separation of the Western States
from the Union; yet in 1791 he was given a lieutenant-colonel's
commission in the regular army and served under St. Clair in the
Northwest, and again as a brigadier-general under Wayne. Even here the
atmosphere of intrigue enveloped him, and he was accused of inciting
discontent among the Kentucky troops and of trying to supplant
Wayne. When commissioners were trying to run the Southern boundary
in accordance with the treaty of 1795 with Spain, Wilkinson--still a
pensioner of Spain, as documents prove--attempted to delay the survey.
In the light of these revelations, Wilkinson appears as an unscrupulous
adventurer whose thirst for lucre made him willing to betray either
master--the Spaniard who pensioned him or the American who gave him his
command.

In the spring of 1805 Burr made a leisurely journey across the
mountains, by way of Pittsburgh, to New Orleans, where he had friends
and personal followers. The secretary of the territory was one of his
henchmen; a ju