Burr was, Gordon Wood concludes, a man of secrets and lies. The biggest difference between him and the founders was not ideological. Rather, it was that he just did not care about the things they cared about. “One searches Burr’s papers in vain for a single thoughtful letter about political philosophy or government,” Wood wrote. He was “immune to the ideology and values of the Revolution,” especially its “classical conception of leadership.”66 Jefferson took to calling him “our Cataline.”
