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PREFACE

B u r r h ad counted, and the g reatest l eaders i n that s truggle had been his associates. I f we look more c losely we shall see, what has been but too t i m i d l y s uggested, that it was the W e s t and South that took up the b urden o f the Republic when it had well n i g h wearied o f t he load. A s f or the conspiracy, patriotism was but one of its e lements. F o r h i m w h o reads the secret of the A n g l o S a x o n character, there is epitomized i n the movement t he whole course of the race that threw d o w n the b ulwarks of Rome, that terrorized E u r o p e i n a V i k i n g ' s fleet, that conquered the W e s t e r n W o r l d , a nd that looks c onfidently f orward to the time when the struggle for u niversal s upremacy shall t est i ts powers. t he keynote of the history of the race. T h i s n arrative of the conspiracy of A a r o n B u r r h as been i n large part written f r o m o r i g i n a l and hitherto u nused s ources of i nformation. I t must not be thought, h owever, that the w o r k of scholars i n this field h as been i g n o r e d ; on the contrary, I have made much use of- it, but never intentionally without due credit e ither i n text or notes. I have not found it expedient, Expansion     conquest   was the keynote of the c o n s p i r a c y ;     i t is

h owever, to point out even the most g l a r i n g anachronisms i n many of the secondary narratives w h i c h treat o f t he conspiracy; much less have I attempted to i n d i cate d ivergences of o p i n i o n     a n d there are divergences as wide as misdemeanor is f r o m treason. I n t he endeavor to make this study exhaustive m u c h