fear it, but Jefferson is timid and cautious, and has some principles and patriotism; moreover, a desire for fame.  Burr has neither patriotism nor a principle, nor the least regard for his good name.  He is bankrupt, profligate—­he has been living in the greatest extravagance at Richmond Hill, and his makings at the bar, although large, are far exceeded by his expenses; there is always a story afloat about some dark transaction of his, and never disproved:  he challenged Church for talking openly about the story that the Holland Land Company had, for legislative services rendered, cancelled a bond against him for twenty thousand dollars; but the world doubts Burr’s bluster as it doubts his word.  At present he is in a desperate way because Alexander Baring, in behalf of a friend, I.I.  Augustine, is pressing for payment on a bond given to secure the price of land bought by Burr and Greenleaf, and he has been offering worthless land claims in settlement, and resorting to every artifice to avert a crisis.  Baring wanted me to take the case, but of course I wouldn’t touch it.  I sent him to Rinnan.  The man is literally at the end of his tether.  It is a coup or extinction—­failure means flight or debtor’s prison.  Furthermore, he is a conspirator by nature, and there is no man in the country with such extravagant tastes, who is so unscrupulous as to the means of gratifying them.  He is half mad for power and wealth.  The reins of state in his hands, and he would stop at nothing which might give him control of the United States Treasury.  To be President of the United States would mean nothing to him except as a highway to empire, to unlimited power and plunder.  We have been threatened with many disasters since we began our career, but with no such menace as Burr.  But unless I die between now and eighteen hundred and one, Burr will lose the great game, although he may give victory to the Republican party.”

“I am not surprised at your estimate and revelations,” said Morris, “for I have heard much the same from others since my return.  It was this certainty that he is bankrupt that led me to believe he was handling French money in this election—­and he is flinging it right and left in a manner that must gratify his aspiring soul.  Considering his lack of fortune and family influence, he has done wonders in the way of elevating himself.  This makes it the more remarkable that with his great cleverness he should not have done better—­”

“He is not clever; that is the point.  He is cunning.  His is wholly the brain of the conspirator.  Were he clever, he would, like Thomas Jefferson, fool himself and the world into the belief that he is honest.  Intellect and statesmanship he holds in contempt.  He would elevate himself by the Catiline system, by the simple method of proclaiming himself emperor, and appropriating the moneybags of the country.  There is not one act of statesmanship to his credit.  To him alone, of all prominent Americans, the country