dare to confide he practised every species of deception.  He told some, that his intentions were approved by the government,—­others, that his expedition was against Mexico only, and that he was sure of foreign aid.  He represented to the honest, that he had bought lands, and wished to form a colony and institute a new and better order of society; the ignorant were deluded with a fanciful tale of Southern conquest, and a magnificent empire, of which he was to be king, and Theodosia queen after his death.  So thoroughly was this deception carried out, that it is difficult to determine who were actually engaged with him.  Without doubt, many acceded to his plans only because they did not knew what his plans really were.  He made rapid journeys from New Orleans to Natchez, Nashville, Lexington, Louisville, and St. Louis.  In the winter of 1805 he returned to Washington, and in the following summer again went down the Ohio.  Wherever he went, he threw out complaints against the government,—­charged it with imbecility,—­boasted that with two hundred men he could drive the President and Congress into the Potomac,—­freely prophesied a dissolution of the Union, and published in the local journals articles pointing out the advantages which would result from a separation of the Western from the Eastern States.  Gen. Eaton had been denounced in Congress, and had a claim against the government; Burr tempted him with an opportunity to redress his wrongs and satisfy his claim.  Commodore Truxton had been struck from the Navy list; he offered him a high command in the Mexican navy.  He took every occasion to flatter the vanity of the people; attended militia parades, and praised the troops for their discipline and martial bearing.  Large donations of land were freely promised to recruits; men were enlisted; Blennerhassett’s Island was made the rendezvous; and provisions were gathered there.

At length his movements began to cause some anxiety to the public officers.  The United States District Attorney attempted to indict him at Frankfort, Kentucky, but the grand-jury refused to find a bill.  Henry Clay defended him in these proceedings, and in reference to his connection with the case, Mr. Parton makes a characteristic display of the spirit in which his book is written, and of his unfitness for the ambitious task he has undertaken.  He quotes the following passage from Collins’s “Historical Sketches of Kentucky":—­“Before Mr. Clay took any active part as the counsel of Burr, he required of him an explicit disavowal, [avowal,] upon his honor, that he was engaged in no design contrary to the laws and peace of the country.  This pledge was promptly given by Burr, in language the most broad, comprehensive, and particular.  He had no design, he said, to intermeddle with or disturb the tranquillity of the United States, nor its territories, nor any part of them.  He had neither issued nor signed nor promised a commission to any person for any purpose.  He