In Washington President Jefferson was receiving news of Wilkinson’s operations and measuring the nation’s reactions. He grew alarmed. In a carefully worded letter to the General he alluded to Wilkinson’s mistaken notion that 7000 men were descending the Mississippi with Burr for an assault on New Orleans. This total, Jefferson surmised, must have been based on the estimate of the number of men who could be raised in the western country for an invasion of Mexico under the authority of the Government. But, suggested the President, evidently the General had not taken into account that the instant his proclamation reached the West and made it known that the Government did not sanction the expedition, all honest men deserted Burr and left him with only a handful. The President then tactfully cautioned the General against making wholesale arrests. His sending Bollman and Swartwout to Washington, he said, was supported by public opinion. So would be the sending of Burr, Blennerhassett, and Comfort Tyler, if they were apprehended. “I hope,” added the President, “you will not extend this deportation to persons against whom there is only suspicion, or shades of offense not strongly marked. I fear public sentiment would desert you, because seeing no danger here, violations of law are felt with strength. I have thought it just to give you these views of the sentiment here, as they may enlighten your path.” No doubt, continued Mr. Jefferson, Wilkinson had seen the malicious insinuations in the newspapers against him. But the President of the United States protested that he still had faith: “I can assure you that your conduct, as now known, has placed you on ground extremely favorable with the public.” Shortly thereafter a Major Bruff of the Artillery arrived in Washington from St. Louis. He went straight to Secretary of War Dearborn and directly accused Wilkinson of spying for the Spaniards and committing treason with Burr. Dearborn heard Bruff out and then replied calmly that there had been a time when the General had not stood well with the Executive, but his energetic measures at New Orleans had regained him executive confidence and the President would sustain him. Bruff then appealed to Attorney General Caesar Rodney who gave him a realistic and revealing answer. “What would be the result,” Rodney asked, “if all your charges against General Wilkinson should be proven? Why just what the Federalist and all the enemies of the present administration wish--it would turn the indignation of the people from Burr on Wilkinson. Burr would escape and Wilkinson take his place.” There could not have been a clearer exposition of the predicament in which Jefferson found himself. He had declared Wilkinson to be the savior of the nation. To confess now that Wilkinson was a knave would convict himself of gross negligence in entrusting the safety of the western country to such a man.