On the other hand when once the plot was unmasked those persons to whom he had confided his plans were certain to insist that he had really kept them in ignorance of his true intention.

In consequence it is quite impossible to say exactly how much guilty knowledge his various companions possessed.

When it comes to treating of his relationship with Wilkinson all that can be said is that no single statement ever made by either man, whether during the conspiracy or after it, whether to the other or to an outsider, can be considered as either presumptively true or presumptively false.
It is therefore impossible to say exactly how far the Westerners with whom Burr was intimate were privy to his plans.

It is certain that the great mass of the Westerners never seriously considered entering into any seditious movement under him.

It is equally certain that a number of their leaders were more or less compromised by their associations with him.