The relations that he so promptly established with the Spaniards were
both corrupt and treacherous; that is, he undoubtedly gave and took
bribes, and promised to intrigue against his own country for pecuniary
reward; but exactly what the different agreements were, and exactly how
far he tried or intended to fulfil them, is, and must always remain,
uncertain. He was so ingrainedly venal, treacherous, and mendacious that
nothing he said or wrote can be accepted as true, and no sentiments
which he at any time professed can be accepted as those he really felt.
He and the leading Louisiana Spaniards had close mercantile relations,
in which the governments of neither were interested, and by which the
governments of both were in all probability defrauded. He persuaded the
Spaniards to give him money for using his influence to separate the West
from the Union, which was one of the chief objects of Spanish diplomacy.
[Footnote: History of Louisiana, Charles Gayarre, in., 198.] He was
obliged to try to earn the money by leading the separatist intrigues in
Kentucky, but it is doubtful if he ever had enough straightforwardness
in him to be a thoroughgoing; villain.
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