Chapter XVII…

Chapter XVII

On the 2d of October, 1792, Governor Clinton nominated Colonel Burr to the Council of Appointment as Judge of the Supreme Court of the state, which nomination was immediately confirmed. Thus, within the short space of about three years, he was appointed by the democratic party to the several important stations of Attorney-General, Senator of the United States, and Judge of the Supreme Court. The last appointment was made without consulting Mr. Burr. As soon as he was notified of the fact, he informed the governor of his non-acceptance; yet so anxious was his excellency, and so strong were his hopes that Colonel Burr might be induced to withdraw his resignation, that be refused to lay it before the council until the legislature, on the 7th of December, adopted the following resolution--

"Whereas it appears to the legislature, by the records of the Council of Appointment, that Aaron Burr, Esq., one of the senators for this state in the Senate of the United States, was, on the 2d day of October last, appointed one of the puisne justices of the Supreme Court of Judicature of this state: Thereupon,

"Resolved (if the honourable the Senate concur herein), That his excellency the governor be and hereby is requested to inform the legislature whether the said Aaron Burr hath accepted or refused the said office."

On the 24th of October, 1791, Congress convened, and Colonel Burr took his seat in the Senate of the United States. In those days it was the practice of the president, accompanied by the heads of departments, to proceed to Congress Hall for the purpose of meeting the two branches of the national legislature, and opening the session with a speech, to which a response was made by each body separately. On the 25th the president made his annual communication; whereupon the Senate "Ordered, That Messrs. Burr, Cabot, and Johnston be a committee to prepare and report the draught of an address to the President of the United States, in answer to his speech, delivered this day to both houses of Congress in the Senate Chamber."

The next day Colonel Burr, as chairman of the committee, draughted and reported an answer, which was adopted by the Senate without alteration or amendment: an occurrence, it is believed, that happened in only two other instances during the period that speeches were delivered by the executive. After the election of Mr. Jefferson the system of sending messages was substituted.

The journals of the Senate afford ample evidence that Colonel Burr was an industrious and efficient member of that body. During the first session of his term of service he was placed on numerous committees, some of them important, and generally as chairman. His business habits soon became evident, and were called into operation. His character for firmness was well established before be took his seat in the Senate; but on the 9th of January, 1794, it was displayed with effect. In consequence of a difference between the two houses, a bill to increase the standing army was lost.

Mr. King, of New-York, by consent, introduced a new bill; it was entitled "An act for the more effectual protection of the southwestern frontier settlers." Unsuccessful efforts were made by Colonel Burr and others to amend it, by striking out some of its most odious features; but there was a decided majority, as it was known to be an administration measure, determined on carrying it through. The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, and the question on its passage was to be taken on the last day of the session. By the rules of the Senate, the question could not be put if any member objected. Colonel Burr objected, and the bill was thus defeated.

Notwithstanding his public engagements, Colonel Burr's mind was constantly employed with the education of his daughter. Mrs. Burr's health was gradually declining, insomuch that she was unable, at times, to attend to her domestic concerns. This to him was a source of unceasing care and apprehension. His letters to his daughter are numerous. They are frequently playful, always interesting, displaying the solicitude of an affectionate father anxious for the improvement of his child.

TO MRS. BURR.

Philadelphia, 18th January, 1793.

By the enclosed to Mr. Gurney, [1] I have requested him to write me a letter respecting the health of the family, and Theo.'s improvement. Request him to enclose, on a separate sheet, some columns of figures, pounds, shillings, and pence. I shall show the letter and enclosure as a specimen of his talents to some persons to whom I wish to recommend him. Beg him to use no uncommon word or expression. He will pardon this piece of advice when he recollects that I know so much better than he does what will suit the persons to whom it is to be shown. If he should offer his letter for your perusal before he sends it, remark freely; it will be a kindness of which no one is so capable.

Should this come to hand after he has given his lesson on Saturday, send him his letter, and request him to call on you, if you should be able to bear five minutes conversation with him.

I wrote you yesterday, and have nothing to add respecting myself; and only a repetition of my prayers for you, with my most affectionate and anxious wishes.

A. BURR.

TO MRS. BURR.

Philadelphia, 8th February, 1793.

You may recollect that I left a memorandum of what Theo. was to learn. I hope it has been strictly attended to. Desire Gurney not to attempt to teach her any thing about the "concords." I will show him how I choose that should be done when I return, which, I thank God, is but three weeks distant.

It is eight days since I left home, and I have not a word from any one of the family, nor even about any one of them. I have been out but once, half an hour at Mrs. P.'s, a concert; but I call often at Mrs. L.'s. I am more and more struck with the native good sense of one of that family, and more and more disgusted with the manner in which it is obscured and perverted: cursed effects of fashionable education! of which both sexes are the advocates, and yours eminently the victims. If I could foresee that Theo. would become a mere fashionable woman, with all the attendant frivolity and vacuity of mind, adorned with whatever grace and allurement, I would earnestly pray God to take her forthwith hence. But I yet hope, by her, to convince the world what neither sex appear to believe--that women have souls!

Most affectionately yours,

A. BURR.

TO MRS. BURR.

Philadelphia, 15th February, 1793.

I received with joy and astonishment, on entering the Senate this minute, your two elegant and affectionate letters. The mail closes in a few minutes, and will scarce allow me to acknowledge your goodness. The roads and ferries have been for some days almost impassable, so that till now no post has arrived since Monday.

It was a knowledge of your mind which first inspired me with a respect for that of your sex, and with some regret, I confess, that the ideas which you have often heard me express in favour of female intellectual powers are founded on what I have imagined, more than what I have seen, except in you. I have endeavoured to trace the causes of this rare display of genius in women, and find them in the errors of education, of prejudice, and of habit. I admit that men are equally, nay more, much more to blame than women. Boys and girls are generally educated much in the same way till they are eight or nine years of age, and it is admitted that girls make at least equal progress with the boys; generally, indeed, they make better. Why, then, has it never been thought worth the attempt to discover, by fair experiment, the particular age at which the male superiority becomes so evident? But this is not in answer to your letter; neither is it possible now to answer it. Some parts of it I shall never answer. Your allusions to departed angels I think in bad taste.

I do not like Theo.'s indolence, or the apologies which are made for it. Have my directions been pursued with regard to her Latin and geography?

Your plan and embellishment of my mode of life are fanciful, are flattering, and inviting. We will endeavour to realize some of it. Pray continue to write, if you can do it with impunity. I bless Sir J., who, with the assistance of Heaven, has thus far restored you.

In the course of this scrawl I have been several times called to vote, which must apologize to you for its incoherence. Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO MRS. BURR.

Philadelphia, 16th February, 1793.

A line of recollection will, I am sure, be more acceptable than silence. I consider myself as largely in your debt, and shall of necessity remain so.

You have heard me speak of a Miss Woolstonecraft, who has written something on the French revolution; she has also written a book entitled "Vindication of the rights of Woman." I had heard it spoken of with a coldness little calculated to excite attention; but as I read with avidity and prepossession every thing written by a lady, I made haste to procure it, and spent the last night, almost the whole of it, in reading it. Be assured that your sex has in her an able advocate. It is, in my opinion, a work of genius. She has successfully adopted the style of Rousseau's Emilius; and her comment on that work, especially what relates to female education, contains more good sense than all the other criticisms upon him which I have seen put together. I promise myself much pleasure in reading it to you.

Is it owing to ignorance or prejudice that I have not yet met a single person who had discovered or would allow the merit of this work?

Three mails are in arrear; that of Tuesday is the last which has arrived. I am impatient to know how writing agrees with you. Pray let me hear, from day to day, the progress of your cure. Most affectionately yours,

A. BURR.

TO MRS. BURR.

Philadelphia, 18th February, 1793.

Just what I apprehended, I find, has taken place. Three sheets were too much for a first attempt. It will, I fear, discourage you, if not disable you from more moderate experiments. Yet I will hope to receive by this day's mail at least one line, announcing your progressive recovery, under your own hand.

Be assured that, after what you have written, I shall not send for Gurney. Deliver him the enclosed. I hope it may animate his attention; and tell him, if you think proper, that I shall be much dissatisfied if Theo.'s progress in Latin be not very considerable at my return. Geography has, I hope, been abandoned, for he has no talent at teaching it.

The close of a session being always crowded with business, keeps me much engaged. You must expect short letters--mere notes. Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 20th February, 1793.

At length, my dear Theo., I have received your letter of the 20th of January--written, you see, a month ago. But I observe that it was not put into the postoffice until the day before yesterday. I suppose Frederick or Bartow had carelessly put it in some place where it had lain forgotten. It would indeed have been a pity that such a letter should have been lost. There is something in the style and arrangement of the words which would have done honour to a girl of sixteen.

All three of the Miss A.'s will visit New-York next summer, and pass some weeks there. I hope to be at home in ten or twelve days from this time. Let me receive one or two more letters from you, even if you are obliged to neglect a lesson to find time to write them.

Alexis [2] often bids me to send you some polite and respectful message on his part, which I have heretofore omitted. He is a faithful, good boy. Upon our return home he hopes you will teach him to read.

I am, my dear Theo.,

Your affectionate papa,

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 24th February, 1793

MY DEAR THEO.,

In looking over a list made yesterday (and now before me), of letters of consequence to be answered immediately, I find the name of T.B. Burr. At the time I made the memorandum I did not advert to the compliment I paid you by putting your name in a list with some of the most eminent persons in the United States. So true is it that your letters are really of consequence to me. I now allude to that of the 19th instant, covering a fable and riddle. If the whole performance was your own, which I am inclined to hope and believe, it indicates an improvement in style, in knowledge of the French, and in your handwriting. I have therefore not only read it several times, but shown it to several persons with pride and pleasure.

I confess myself unable to solve your riddle, unless the teeth or the alphabet (generally supposed to be twenty-four in each) will give the solution. But I have not yet had an opportunity to consult Miss P. A. To-morrow I shall call on her for the purpose, and will not fail to inform you of her conjectures on the subject.

Your affectionate papa,

A. BURR,

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 16th December, 1793.

I have a thousand questions to ask, my dear Theo., but nothing to communicate; and thus I fear it will be throughout the winter, for my time is consumed in the dull uniformity of study and attendance in Senate; but every hour of your day is interesting to me. I would give, what would I not give to see or know even your most trifling actions and amusements? This, however, is more than I can ask or expect. But I do expect with impatience your journal. Ten minutes every evening I demand; if you should choose to make it twenty, I shall be the better pleased. You are to note the occurrences of the day as concisely as you can; and, at your pleasure, to add any short reflections or remarks that may arise. On the other leaf I give you a sample of the manner of your journal for one day.

18th December,

I began this letter at the date which you see, being Monday last--was interrupted, and the mail closed. Yesterday I was confined with a severe headache, owing, I believe, to a change from an active to a sedentary life without a corresponding change in diet.

A week and more has elapsed since I left home, and not a line from you; not even the Sunday letter. Observe, that the journal is to be sent to me enclosed in a letter every Monday morning.

Plan of the Journal.

16th December, 1793.

Learned 230 lines, which finished Horace. Heigh-ho for Terence and the Greek grammar to-morrow.

Practised two hours less thirty-five minutes, which I begged off.

Hewlett (dancing-master) did not come.

Began Gibbon last evening. I find he requires as much study and attention as Horace; so I shall not rank the reading of him among amusements.

Skated an hour; fell twenty times, and find the advantage of a hard head and

Ma better--dined with us at table, and is still sitting up and free from pain.

Your affectionate papa,

A. BURR.

TO MRS. BURR.

Philadelphia, 24th December, 1793.

Since being at this place I have had several conversations with Dr. Rush respecting your distressing illness, and I have reason to believe that he has given the subject some reflection. He has this evening called on me, and given me as his advice that you should take hemlock. He says that, in the way in which it is usually prepared, you should commence with a dose of one tenth of a grain, and increase as you may find you can bear it; that it has the narcotic powers of opium, superadded to other qualities. When the dose is too great, it may be discovered by a vertigo or giddiness; and that he has known it to work wonderful cures. I was the more pleased with this advice, as I had not told him that you had been in the use of this medicine; the concurrence of his opinion gives me great faith in it. God grant that it may restore your health, and to your affectionate

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 25th December, 1793.

The letter, my dear Theo., which (I have no doubt) you wrote me last Sunday, has not yet come to hand. Am I to blame Strong? or the postmaster? or whom?

When you have finished a letter, read it carefully over, and correct all the errors you can discover. In your last there were some which could not, upon an attentive perusal, have escaped your notice, as you shall see when we meet.

I have asked you a great many questions, to which I have as yet no answers. When you sit down to write to me, or when you set about it, be it sitting or standing, peruse all my letters, and leave nothing unanswered. Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 31st December, 1793.

I received your letter and journal yesterday in the Senate Chamber, just before the closing of the mail, so that I had only time to acknowledge it by a hasty line. You see I never let your letters remain a day unanswered, in which I wish you would imitate me. Your last had no date; from the last date in the journal, and your writing about Christmas holydays as yet at some distance, I suppose you wrote about Sunday the 22d. Nine days ago! I beg you again to read over all my letters, and to let me see by your answers that you attend to them. I suspect your last journal was not written from day to day; but all on one, or at most two days, from memory. How is this? Ten or fifteen minutes every evening would not be an unreasonable sacrifice from you to me. If you took the Christmas holydays, I assent: if you did not, we cannot recall the time. This is all the answer which that part of your letter now admits of.

It is said that some few yet die of the yellow fever which lately raged here; but the disorder does not appear to be, at present, in any degree contagious; what may be the case upon the return of warm weather, is a subject of anxious conjecture and apprehension. It is probable that the session of Congress will continue into the summer.

Give a place to your mamma's health in your journal. Omit the formal conclusion of your letters, and write your name in a larger hand. I am just going to Senate, where I hope to meet a letter from you, with a continuation of your journal down to the 29th inclusive, which, if it gives a good account of you and mamma, will gladden the heart of

A BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 31st December, 1793.

This day's mail has brought me nothing from you. I have but two letters in three, almost four weeks, and the journal is ten days in arrear. What--can neither affection nor civility induce you to devote to me the small portion of time which I have required? Are authority and compulsion then the only engines by which you can be moved? For shame, Theo.! Do not give me reason to think so ill of you.

I wrote you this morning, and have nothing to add but the repetition of my warmest affection.

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 4th January, 1794.

At the moment of closing the mail yesterday, I received your letter enclosing the pills. I cannot refer to it by date, as it has none. Tell me truly, did you write it without assistance? Is the language and spelling your own? If so, it does you much honour. The subject of it obliged me to show it to Dr. Rush, which I did with great pride. He inquired your age half a dozen times, and paid some handsome compliments to the handwriting, the style, and the correctness of your letter.

The account of your mamma's health distresses me extremely. If she does not get better soon, I will quit Congress altogether and go home. Doctor Rush says that the pills contain two grains each of pure and fresh extract of hemlock; that the dose is not too large if the stomach and head can bear it; that he has known twenty grains given at a dose with good effect. To determine, however, whether this medicine has any agency in causing the sick stomach, he thinks it would be well to take an occasion of omitting it for a day or two, if Doctor Bard should approve of such an experiment, and entertains any doubts about the effects of the pills on the stomach. Some further conversation which I have had with Doctor Rush will be contained in a letter which I shall write by this post to Doctor Bard.

My last letter to you was almost an angry one, at which you cannot be much surprised when you recollect the length of time of your silence, and that you are my only correspondent respecting the concerns of the family. I expect, on Monday or Tuesday next, to receive the continuation of your journal for the fortnight past.

Mr. Leshlie will tell you that I have given directions for your commencing Greek. One half hour faithfully applied by yourself at study, and another at recitation with Mr. Leshlie, will suffice to advance you rapidly.

Your affectionate,

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 7th January, 1794.

When your letters are written with tolerable spirit and correctness, I read them two or three times before I perceive any fault in them, being wholly engaged with the pleasure they afford me; but, for your sake, it is necessary that I should also peruse them with an eye of criticism. The following are the only mispelled words. You write acurate for accurate; laudnam for laudanum; intirely for entirely; this last word, indeed, is spelled both ways, but entirely is the most usual and the most proper.

Continue to use all these words in your next letter, that I may see that you know the true spelling. And tell me what is laudanum? Where and how made? And what are its effects?

"It was what she had long wished for, and was at a loss how to procure it."

Don't you see that this sentence would have been perfect and much more elegant without the last it? Mr. Leshlie will explain to you why. By-the-by, I took the liberty to erase the redundant it before I showed the letter.

I am extremely impatient for your farther account of mamma's health. The necessity of laudanum twice a day is a very disagreeable and alarming circumstance. Your letter was written a week ago, since which I have no account. I am just going to the Senate Chamber, where I hope to meet a journal and letter. Affectionately,

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 8th January, 1794

Your two letters of Friday and Saturday came together by yesterday's mail, which did not arrive till near sunset. Your letter of Friday was not put into the postoffice until Saturday afternoon. You might have as well kept it in your own hands till Monday eleven o'clock. Since the receipt of these letters I have been three times to Doctor Rush to consult him about a drink for your mamma; but not having had the good fortune to find him, have written to him on the subject. I shall undoubtedly procure an answer in the course of this day, and will forward it by to-morrow's post.

I beg, Miss Prissy, that you will be pleased to name a single "unsuccessful effort" which you have made to please me. As to the letters and journals which you did write, surely you have reason abundant to believe that they gave me pleasure; and how the deuse I am to be pleased with those you did not write, and how an omission to write can be called an "effort," remains for your ingenuity to disclose.

You improve much in journalizing. Your last is far more sprightly than any of the preceding. Fifty-six lines sola was, I admit, an effort worthy of yourself, and which I hope will be often repeated. But pray, when you have got up to two hundred lines a lesson, why do you go back again to one hundred and twenty, and one hundred and twenty-five? You should strive never to diminish; but I suppose that vis inertiæ, which is often so troublesome to you, does some times preponderate. So it is now and then even with your

A. BURR.

Learn the difference between then and than. You will soonest perceive it by translating them into Latin.

Let me see how handsomely you can subscribe your name to your next letter, about this size,

A. BURR.

TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 10th of January, 1794.

I fear that you will imagine that I have been inattentive to your last request about Dr. Rush; but the truth is, I can get nothing satisfactory out of him. He enumerates over to me all the articles which have been repeatedly tried, and some of which did never agree with your mamma. He is, however, particularly desirous that she should again try milk--a spoonful only at a time: another attempt, he thinks, should be made with porter, in some shape or other. Sweet oil, molasses, and milk, in equal proportions, he has known to agree with stomachs which had rejected every thing else. Yet he says, and with show of reason, that these things depend so much on the taste, the habits of life, the peculiarity of constitution, that she and her attending physician can be the best, if not the only advisers. It gives me very great pleasure to learn that she is now better. I shall write you again on Sunday, having always much to say to you

Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 13th January, 1794.

Your letter of the 9th, my dear Theo., was a most agreeable surprise to me. I had not dared even to hope for one until to-morrow. In one instance, at least, an attempt to please me has not been "unsuccessful." You see I do not forget that piece of impudence.

Doctor Rush says that he cannot conceive animal food to be particularly necessary; nourishment is the great object. He approves much of the milk punch and chocolate. The stomach must on no account be offended. The intermission of the pills for a few days (not however for a whole week) he thinks not amiss to aid in determining its effects. The quantity may yet be increased without danger, but the present dose is in his opinion sufficient; but after some days continual use, a small increase might be useful.

I was yesterday thronged with company from eight in the morning till eleven at night. The Greek signature, though a little mistaken, was not lost upon me. I have a letter from Mr. Leshlie, which pays you many compliments. He has also ventured to promise that you will every day get a lesson in Terence by yourself. You know how grateful this will be to

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 14th January, 1794.

I really think, my dear Theo., that you will be very soon beyond all verbal criticism, and that my whole attention will be presently directed to the improvement of your style. Your letter of the 9th is remarkably correct in point of spelling. That word rec_ie_ved still escapes your attention. Try again. The words wold and shold are mere carelessness; necess_e_ry instead of necess_a_ry, belongs, I suspect to the same class.

"Dr. B. called here, but did not speak of his having rec_ie_ved a letter from you, but desired," &c.

When I copied the foregoing, I intended to have shown you how to improve it; but, upon second thought, determine to leave it to yourself. Do me the favour to endorse it on, or subjoin it to, your next letter, corrected and varied according to the best of your skill.

"Ma begs you will omit the thoughts of leaving Congress," &c.; "omit" is improperly used here. You mean "abandon, relinquish, renounce, or abjure the thoughts," &c. Your mamma, Mr. Leshlie, or your dictionary (Johnson's folio), will teach you the force of this observation. The last of these words would have been too strong for the occasion. You have used with propriety the words "encomium" and "adopted." I hope you may have frequent occasion for the former, with the like application.

"Cannot be committed to paper," is well expressed.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 16th January, 1794.

I hope the mercury, if tried, will be used with the most vigilant caution and the most attentive observation of its first effects. I am extremely anxious and apprehensive about the event of such an experiment.

I fear, my dear little girl, that my letter of the 13th imposed too much upon you; if so, dispense with what you may find too troublesome. You perceive by this license the entire confidence which I place in your discretion.

Your journal still advances towards perfection. But the letter which accompanied it is, I remark with regret, rather a falling off. I have received none more carelessly written, or with more numerous omissions of words. I am sensible that many apologies are at hand; but you, perhaps, would not be sensible that any were necessary, if I should omit to remind you.

On Sunday se'nnight (I think the 26th) I shall, unless baffled or delayed by ice or weather, be with you at Richmond Hill. I will not bid you adieu till the Friday preceding. In the interim, we shall often in this way converse.

I continue the practice of scoring words for our mutual improvement. The use, as applicable to you, was indicated in a former letter.

I am sure you will be charmed with the Greek language above all others. Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 23d January, 1794.

Io, triumphe! There is not a word mispelled either in your journal or letter, which cannot be said of a single page you ever before wrote. The fable is quite classical, and, if not very much corrected by Mr. Leshlie, is truly a surprising performance, and written most beautifully. But what has become of poor Alpha Beta? Discouraged? That is impossible. Laid aside for the present? That, indeed, is possible, but by no means probable. Shall I guess again? Yes; you mean to surprise me with some astonishing progress. And yet, to confess the truth, your lessons in Terence, Exercises, and "music" (without a k, observe) seem to leave little time for any other study. I must remain in suspense for four days longer.

Doctor Rush thinks that bark would not be amiss, but may be beneficial if the stomach does not rebuke it, which must be constantly the first object of attention. He recommends either the cold infusion or substance as least likely to offend the stomach.

Be able, upon my arrival, to tell me the difference between an infusion and decoction; and the history, the virtues, and the botanical or medical name of the bark. Chambers will tell you more perhaps than you will wish to read of it. Your little mercurial disquisition is ingenious, and prettily told.

I have a most dreary prospect of weather and roads for my journey. I set off on Saturday morning, and much fear that it will take two or three days to get to Now-York.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 13th February, 1794.

I received your letter and enclosures yesterday in Senate. I stopped reading the letter, and took up the story in the place you directed; was really affected by the interesting little tale, faithfully believing it to have been taken from the Mag. D'Enf., and was astonished and delighted when I recurred to the letter and found the little deception you had played upon me. It is concisely and handsomely told, and is indeed a performance above your years.

Mr. Leshlie is not, I am afraid, a competent judge of what you are capable of learning; you must convince him that you can, when you set in earnest about it, accomplish wonders.

Do you mean that the forty lines which you construed in Virgil were in a part you had not before learned?

I despair of getting genuine Tent wine in this city. There never was a bottle of real unadulterated Tent imported here for sale. Mr. Jefferson, who had some for his own use, has left town. Good Burgundy and Muscat, mixed in equal parts, make a better Tent than can be bought. But by Bartow's return you shall have what I can get--sooner if I find a conveyance.

Bartow is the most perfect gossip I ever knew; though, I must say, it is the kind of life I have advised him to while he stays here. Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 7th March, 1794.

Your letter of the 4th was three days on the road. I am certain that I have answered punctually all which have come to hand. True, I have not written to you as frequently as during the first few weeks of my residence here. For the last month I have been very much occupied by public business. You will need no other proof of it when I tell you that near twenty unanswered letters are now on my desk, not one of yours among them, however, except that received last evening. I have not even been to the theatre except about an hour, and then it was more an errand of business than amusement.

Poor Tom, [3] I hope you take good care of him. If he is confined by his leg, &c., he must pay the greater attention to his reading and writing.

I shall run off to see you about Sunday or Monday; but the roads are so extremely bad that I expect to be three days getting through. I will bring with me the cherry sweetmeats, and something for Augusta Louisa Matilda Theodosia Van Horne. I believe I have not recollected all her names.

Affectionately,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 31st March, 1794.

I am distressed at your loss of time. I do not, indeed, wholly blame you for it, but this does not diminish my regret. When you want punctuality in your letters, I am sure you want it in every thing; for you will constantly observe that you have the most leisure when you do the most business. Negligence of one's duty produces a self-dissatisfaction which unfits the mind for every thing, and ennui and peevishness are the never-failing consequences. You will readily discover the truth of these remarks by reflecting on your own conduct, and the different feelings which have flowed from a persevering attention to study, or a restless neglect of it.

I shall in a few days (this week) send you a most beautiful assortment of flower-seeds and flowering shrubs. If I do not receive a letter from you to-morrow, I shall be out of all patience. Every day's journal will, I hope, say something of mamma.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 7th June, 1794.

I have received my dear Theo.'s two little, very little, French letters. The last left you tormented with headache and toothache, too much for one poor little girl to suffer at one time, I am sure: you had doubtless taken solue sudden cold. You must fight them as well as you can till I come, and then I will engage to keep them at bay.

I remark that you do not acknowledge the receipt of a long letter which I wrote you on the road the night after I left New-York. I hope it has not missed you; but it is needless now to ask about it, for I shall certainly see you before I could receive your answer to this.

Whatever you shall translate of Terence, I beg you to have copied in a book in a very fair handwriting.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Albany, 4th August, 1794.

MY DEAR THEO.,

We arrived here yesterday, after a hot, tedious passage of seven days. We were delayed as well by accidents as by calms and contrary winds, The first evening, being under full sail, we ran ashore at Tappan, and lay there aground, in a very uncomfortable situation, twenty-four hours. With great labour and fatigue we got off on the following night, and had scarce got under sail before we missed our longboat. We lost the whole tide in hunting for it, and so lay till the morning of Wednesday. Having then made sail again, with a pretty strong head wind, at the very first tack the Dutch horse fell overboard. The poor devil was at the time tied about the neck with a rope, so that he seemed to have only the alternatives of hanging or drowning (for the river is here about four miles wide, and the water was very rough); fortunately for him, the rope broke, and he went souse into the water. His weight sunk him so deep that we were at least fifty yards from him before he came up. He snorted off the water, and turning round once or twice, as if to see where he was, then recollecting the way to New-York, he immediately swam off down the river with all force. We fitted out our longboat in pursuit of him, and at length drove him on shore on the Westchester side, where I hired a man to take him to Frederick's. All this delayed us nearly a whole tide more. The residue of the voyage was without accident, except such as you may picture to yourself in a small cabin, with seven men, seven women, and two crying children--two of the women being the most splenetic, ill-humoured animals you can imagine.

On my arrival here I was delighted to receive your letter of the 30th, with the journal of that and the preceding days. Your history of those three days is very full and satisfactory, and has induced me, by way of return, to enlarge on the particulars of my journey. I am quite gratified that you have secured Mrs. Penn's (observe how it is spelled) good opinion, and content with your reasons for not saying the civil things you intended. In case you should dine in company with her, I will apprize you of one circumstance, by a trifling attention to which you may elevate yourself in her esteem. She is a great advocate for a very plain, rather abstemious diet in children, as you may see by her conduct with Miss Elizabeth. Be careful, therefore, to eat of but one dish; that a plain roast or boiled: little or no gravy or butter, and very sparingly of dessert or fruit: not more than half a glass of wine; and if more of any thing to eat or drink is offered, decline it. If they ask a reason--Papa thinks it not good for me, is the best that can be given.

It was with great pain and reluctance that I made this journey without you. But your manners are not yet quite sufficiently formed to enable you to do justice to your own character, [4] and the expectations which are formed of you, or to my wishes. Improve, therefore, to the utmost the present opportunity; inquire of every point of behaviour about which you are embarrassed; imitate as much as you can the manners of Madame De S., and observe also every thing which Mrs. Penn says and does.

You should direct your own breakfast. Send Cesar every morning for a pint of milk for you; and, to save trouble to Madame De S., let her know that you eat at breakfast only bread and butter.

I wish you would read over your letters after you have written them; for so many words are omitted, that in some places I cannot make out the sense, if any they contain. Make your figures or ciphers in your letters, but write out the numbers at length, except dates. Adieu, affectionately adieu,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Albany, 14th August, 17 94.

MY DEAR THEO.,

Last evening's mail brought me your letter and journal from the 1st to the 11th of August, according to your dates, which, however, are wrong.

The account of your time is very satisfactory. You really get along much better than I expected, which is infinitely to the credit of your good sense, that being your only guide. From the attentions you receive from Mrs. Penn and her family, I judge you have been so fortunate as to gain her esteem, and that her prejudices are turned into prepossessions, which I assure you gratified me not a little.

Your invitation to the Z.'s was, I confess, a very embarrassing dilemma, and one from which it was not easy to extricate yourself. For the future, take it as your rule to visit only the families which you have known me to visit; and if Madame De S. should propose to you to visit any other, you may tell her what are my instructions on the subject. To the young ladies, you may pretend business or engagements: avoid, however, giving any offence to your companions. It is the manner of a refusal, much more than the refusal, which gives offence. This direction about your visits applies only to the citizens or English families. You may, indeed it is my wish, that you should visit with Madame De S. all her French acquaintance.

I go this afternoon to attend a court at Ballston, and shall, on Monday, attend one at Troy, which will probably last about three days; after which I shall take passage for New-York, proposing, however, to pass a day at Kingston, and another at Poughkeepsie, with citizen Hauterieve, so that I may be expected home some time in the week after next; but you will hear often from me before that time. You must not send me any letter after those which will come by the mail leaving New-York on Monday next; yet you must continue your letters and journal as usual, for my amusement on my return.

In future, write no more on the little paper, but let the letters and journal be together on paper of this size, or common letter-paper. Set apart every day half an hour or an hour to write to me, and I must again entreat you to write at least legibly: after great pains, I am wholly unable to decipher some of the hieroglyphics contained in your last.

Four pages in Lucian was a great lesson; and why, my dear Theo., can't this be done a little oftener? You must, by this time, I think, have gone through Lucian. I wish you to begin and go through it again; for it would be shameful to pretend to have read a book of which you could not construe a page. At the second reading you will, I suppose, be able to double your lessons; so that you may go through it in three weeks. You say nothing of writing or learning Greek verbs;--is this practice discontinued? and why?

I wish you to go oftener to the house. You may, if you like, go any morning, to take an early breakfast there, giving notice the day before to Mr. Leshlie, that he may attend at the hour of your return, when I know you can readily make up the lost time.

Do you continue to preserve Madame De S.'s good opinion of your talents for the harp? And do you find that you converse with more facility in the French? These are interesting questions, and your answer to this will, I hope, answer fully, all the questions it contains. Vale, vale.

A. BURR

TO THEODOSIA,

Albany, 16th August, 1704.

Another post has arrived, and brought me no letter from you. It is the last omission which I shall readily pardon, and this only in consideration of your not having then received my last. I returned this day from Ballston, and my principal business to this city was to receive and answer your letters. Judge, therefore, of my disappointment.

Mr. and Mrs. Witbeck made many inquiries about you, and appeared much mortified that you did not accompany me.

I hope you will, before this can reach you, have answered J. Yates's letter. Once more I place my expectations on the arrival of the next post.

Let me know whether Mrs. Penn has left town, how often you have been with her, and what passed. I need not repeat my anxiety to know how you and Madame de S. agree, and what progress you make in music, dancing, and speaking French. She promised to give you now and then a lesson on the forte-piano; is she as good as her word?

Having failed in your promise to write by every post, you cannot expect me to return within the month--one promise being founded on the other.

Your affectionate papa,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Albany, 18th August, 1794.

Yesterday I received your letter and journal to the 13th inclusive. On the 13th you say you got nine pages in Lucian. It was, to be sure, a most surprising lesson. I suspect it must have been the second time going over; and even then it would have been great, and at the same rate you will be through a second time before my month is up. I should be delighted to find it so. I have not told you directly that I should stay longer than a month, but I was angry enough with you to stay three months when you neglected to write to me for two successive posts.

I am very sorry to see so many blank days with Mr. Leshlie. If he is not at your room within a quarter of an hour of his time, Cesar should be forthwith sent off express for him. Let Cesar, therefore, call on you every morning at the hour Mr. Leshlie ought to come.

I left New-York on the 28th of July. My month, therefore, will expire on the 28th of August, so that you cannot complain until that day is past. The court at Troy will probably detain me the whole of this week, which is three days longer than I expected.

I long to hear what you contributed towards Madame de S.'s jour de fête. No letter yet for John Yates. Why do you delay it so long? You have had several leisure days; for this delay there should be some apology in your letter.

Affectionately your papa,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Troy, 21st August, 1794.

MY DEAR THEO.,

I sent Alexis in the rain to Albany for your letter of the 18th and journal, which he has just brought me. Your letters are my only consolation during this afflicting absence--for it is to me a real affliction. I have forborne to express to you my impatience, lest it should increase yours.

The business I have undertaken here will, contrary to all expectation, detain me till Saturday night. I hope to be on my return on Monday, when you must begin to pray for northerly winds; or, if you have learned, to say mass, that the French Roman Catholics rely on to procure them all earthly and spiritual blessings. By-the-by, if you have not been to the Roman chapel, I insist that you go next Sunday, if you are not engaged in some other party.

I am very happy to receive a letter for John Yates. I shall send it to him to-day; it is very handsome, and will please him much. I will indeed return with all possible speed. Continue your journal. Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 21st December, 1794.

I obeyed faithfully the command in your letter which bade me read the journal first, and I read it with great eagerness, hoping to find what I did find in the last sentence. That 16th was really a surprising day. Three hundred and ninety-five lines, all your exercises, and all your music. Go on, my dear girl, and you will become all that I wish.

I keep carefully your letters and journals, and when we meet you shall read them again, which I am sure you will do with pleasure. It is always delightful to see and correct our own errors.

Monsieur Maupertuis is highly mortified that you should suppose him so ignorant as to have lost himself on the road. It seems he only went a little off the highway from curiosity to see the country.

I hope you like Terence. Can't you lug a scrap from him now and then, apropos, into your letters? It will please

Your affectionate papa,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA IN PHILADELPHIA.

New-York, 5th January, 1795.

You see me safe arrived in New-York. I have passed but one hour at Richmond Hill. It seems solitary and undesirable without you. They are all well, and much, very much disappointed that you did not come with me.

Pray write to Mrs. A., if but one line; she expects and deserves it. I was there last evening for the first time. Your picture is really like you; still it does not quite please me. It has a pensive, sentimental air; that of a love-sick maid! Stewart has probably meant to anticipate what you may be at sixteen; but even in that I think he has missed it.

Bartow has grown immensely fat. Mrs. A. has recovered and walks about. There has been a serious attempt to institute masquerade. It has not succeeded, nor is it yet abandoned.

We (you and I) have both neglected one duty of civility. Some weeks ago Mrs. Jackson was polite enough to call on you, with Miss Jackson and Miss Brown, who left you cards. You have never returned the visit. I beg you to do it without delay. Doctor Edwards will probably make time to go with you for a few minutes. It is at Doctor Jackson's in Third-street, between High and Arch.

Our house in Partition-street is very neatly finished, and pleases me much; so much that I propose to inhabit it upon our return from Philadelphia, at least until the hot weather.

You are now in the arms of Somnus, or ought to be; for though I date my letter the 5th, it is in truth about half past eleven at night of the 4th. So wants half an hour of the 5th. Dream on. Salutem.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Bristol, 14th September, 1795.

Saturday night I lodged at Elizabethtown, and, after two wettings, dined on Sunday with General Freelinghuysen. Madame (late Miss Yard) asked much after you, as did Maria, the general's daughter. The family is a picture of cheerfullness and happiness. At Princeton (to-day) I met Le Mercier, who is well, except a broken scull, a face disfigured, and some bruises about the ribs--considerable deductions, you will say, from the "corpore sano." They are the effects of a very huge beating bestowed on him (gratis) by two gentlemen of the town. He had some difference with one of them, who had challenged him, which Le Mercier refused, not being a Christian-like and clerical way of settling differences. So the challenger, with a friend (for L. M. could have thrashed him singly), took an opportunity to catch poor Le Mercier alone, and discussed the subject with him in the manner above stated.

Your friends Miss Stockton and Miss Smith said some civil things about you, and send abundance of love, which I promised them I would forget to deliver.

My journey thus far has been wonderfully fortunate, having only overset once and broken down once, which, considering that I am seventy miles on my route, is, for me, a very small list of grievances; but I shall count it full measure if I am prevented from entering Philadelphia to-morrow, which is a little to be apprehended.

You must pay off Meance and Hewlet for their attendance on you and Natalie. [5] They must be paid regularly at the end of each month. I forgot it. Get their accounts, and give them an order on Strong for the amount. When either of you want money, Roger Strong will furnish it. Pray settle also your account with Madame Senat, and write me that these things are done.

Tell Mr. Martel that I request that all the time he can spare you be devoted to Latin; that I have provided you with a teacher of French, that no part of his attention might be taken off. I will send from Philadelphia the certificate he requested, which escaped my memory while at New-York.

I fear it will puzzle you all to decipher this. You may show to Mr. Martel the clause which relates to him. Salutem, chère Theodosia.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 17th September, 1795.

By this post I received a letter from Colonel Ward, requesting leave to remove his family into my house, Richmond Hill. He lives, you may recollect, in the part of the town which is said to be sickly. I could not therefore refuse. He will call on you to go out with him. You had better, immediately on receipt of this, go out yourself, and apprize Anthony and Peggy.

Your letter to Kersaint is much to the purpose. It came by this day's mail, though put in the postoffice on Tuesday, but after the closing of the mail. With it I have also received your letter, written, I suppose, on Tuesday evening, because it speaks of the circus; but, as usual, without date. I beg that, when you sit down to write a letter, you will begin by putting a date at the top; this will then presently become a habit, and will never be omitted.

I am sorry, very sorry that you are obliged to submit to some reproof. Indeed, I fear that your want of attention and politeness, and your awkward postures, require it. As you appear desirous to get rid of these bad habits, I hope you will soon afford no room for ill-nature itself to find fault with you--I mean in these particulars; for as to what regards your heart and your motives of action, I know them to be good, amiable, and pure. But to return to the subject of manners, &c. I have often seen Madame at table, and other situations, pay you the utmost attention; offer you twenty civilities, while you appeared scarcely sensible that she was speaking to you; or, at the most, replied with a cold remercie, without even a look of satisfaction or complacency. A moment's reflection will convince you that this conduct will be naturally construed into arrogance; as if you thought that all attention was due to you, and as if you felt above showing the least to anybody. I know that you abhor such sentiments, and that you are incapable of being actuated by them. Yet you expose yourself to the censure without intending or knowing it. I believe you will in future avoid it. Observe how Natalie replies to the smallest civility which is offered to her.

Your habit of stooping and bringing your shoulders forward on to your breast not only disfigures you, but is alarming on account of the injury to your health. The continuance in this vile habit will certainly produce a consumption: then farewell papa; farewell pleasure; farewell life! This is no exaggeration; no fiction to excite your apprehensions. But, setting aside this distressing consideration, I am astonished that you have no more pride in your appearance. You will certainly stint your growth and disfigure your person.

Receive with calmness every reproof, whether made kindly or unkindly; whether just or unjust. Consider within yourself whether there has been no cause for it. If it has been groundless and unjust, nevertheless bear it with composure, and even with complacency. Remember that one in the situation of Madame has a thousand things to fret the temper; and you know that one out of humour, for any cause whatever, is apt to vent it on every person that happens to be in the way. We must learn to bear these things; and, let me tell you, that you will always feel much better, much happier, for having borne with serenity the spleen of any one, than if you had returned spleen for spleen.

You will, I am sure, my dear Theodosia, pardon two such grave pages from one who loves you, and whose happiness depends very much on yours. Read it over twice. Make me no promises on the subject. On my return, I shall see in half an hour whether what I have written has been well or ill received. If well, it will have produced an effect. I have sent Alexis with your letter to Kersaint while I write this. After closing of the mail I shall present myself. To-morrow morning I take stage for Baltimore; thence to Washington, &c. You shall certainly hear often from me. You have not yet acknowledged the receipt of my letter from Bristol. R. Strong has received his, written at the same time. Having many letters to answer by this mail, I cannot add any thing sprightly to this dull letter. One dull thing you will hear me repeat without disgust, that I am your affectionate friend,

A. BURR

TO THEODOSIA.

City of Washington, 23d September, 1795.

I write from the house of our friends, Law and Duncanson, where I make my home. Miss Duncanson, who is mistress of the house, is a very sprightly, sensible, ladylike woman. My remarks on this city are reserved till we meet.

Your letter of the 17th, and one without date (I suppose the 18th), came in this evening. They contain more wit and sprightliness than you ever wrote in the same compass, and have amused me exceedingly. But why do you diminish their value by carelessness? There is an omission of one or more words in almost every sentence. At least I entreat you to read over your letters before you seal them: some clauses are absolutely unintelligible, though in several I can guess what word you intended.

Why are you still in town? I am very much dissatisfied with it; for Mr. Strong writes me that the fever is in Partition-street. I beg you to go off with a good parcel of books to Frederick's.

I told Madame Senat that I should want the two front rooms in Partition-street, and the very small room which adjoins the smallest of the front rooms; and surely she will have room enough without it. Try to arrange this so; that is, by asking her if she cannot spare that room (the large front). Mr. Strong writes me that she is taking possession of it. In that case my papers will be moved, which will be very disagreeable to me.

I fix the 24th of October for my return; if any very extraordinary thing should detain me, you shall be advised of it seasonably. Direct to me at the city of Washington until the 10th of October. Tell R. Strong the same. I forgot to write it to him.

When, you go on any party from Pelham, to Brown's Mrs. Cox's, &c., your studies may be intermitted. At least as much of them as may be necessary. I am tired, and half sick; a great cold, for which I shall lie by here tomorrow.

Thine,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

City of Washington,

26th September, 1795.

Since Tuesday last I have been here much against my will; arrested by high command; performing quarantine by authority not to be questioned or controverted. In plain English, I am sick. On Wednesday I found one side of my face as large as your uncle F.'s; red swollen eyes; ears buzzing and almost stopped; throat so closed as to refuse a passage to words out or food in; and a stupid mazy-headedness, well adapted to the brilliancy of my figure. Being the guest of my friends Law and Duncanson, I receive from them the most distressing attentions, but especially from Miss Duncanson, a well-bred, sprightly, and agreeable woman. My person had not, however, till this morning, received its last embellishment. Alexis came in at his usual hour, and presenting himself at my bedside, after staring at me for half a minute, exclaimed, with an air of great astonishment--Diable! and not a word more. Qu'a-t-il, Alexis? To which he made not a word of reply, but fell to drawing up the curtains; and having also very deliberately opened the window-shutters, he returned again to his examination. After gazing for some time (which I found it useless to interrupt), he diabled two or three times at intervals of some seconds, and then pronounced that I had ou la petite vérole ou la rougeole; and to convince me, brought a glass. In truth he did not diable without reason, for my whole face, neck, hands, and arms are most bountifully covered with something like the measles or rash. All these pleasant appearances seem to be the effects of a great cold, taken I know not when or how--

"Nil illi larva aut tragicis upus esse cothurnis."

My throat is something better, notwithstanding I went abroad yesterday.

Sunday, 27th September.

I am so much better to-day, that, if the weather was good, I should prosecute my journey if I could find the means of getting on; but the rain, which is continual and very heavy, keeps well and sick within doors.

It is now ten days since I have heard from you; a very long time, considering the situation in which you was left at the date of your last: in a city infected with a mortal and contagious fever. I hope, nay, I persuade myself that you obeyed my wishes by escaping from it to Pelham. The next mail will tell me, and, I trust, relieve me from an anxiety which pursues me day and night.

Monday, 28th September.

Your letter of the 21st, written, I suppose, at Dr. Brown's, is just come in, and relieves me from a weight of anxiety about your health. I am sorry, however (very sorry), that you are not at Frederick's, and am not absolutely either pleased or satisfied with the change.

Of attention and tenderness you will receive not only enough, but a great deal too much; and an indulgence to every inattention, awkward habit, and expression, which may lead you to imagine them to be so many ornaments: as to your language, I shall expect to find it perfectly infantine. As to studies or lessons, I do not know which of them you allude to, as you do not say what books you have taken up. If Mr. Leshlie is your only master, as I suppose, your lesson must be larger than ever heretofore. Your translation of the comedy into French, if not finished, must go on; and if finished, something similar must be taken up. Some English or French history must employ a little of every day. I hope you will ride on horseback daily if the weather should permit--Sam [6] always with you. Visit your neighbours B. B. as often as you please, taking very great care not to surfeit the family with your charming company, which may happen much sooner than you would be inclined to believe.

You ought to be out of the Odyssey before this will reach you, counting only two hundred lines a day since we parted. You may begin the Iliad, if you please. Since you are at uncle B.'s, I will not now pretend to inquire into the motives, much less to censure. I have no doubt but you meant to do the best, and I now hope you will endeavour to make the best of it, and bad enough that will be, with respect to all improvement, if I am not disappointed.

Pray allot an hour for your journal, and never let it be a day in arrear. I shall consider this as occupying usefully the hour which used to be Hewlet's or Meance's. At any rate, let me not, on my return, have occasion to apply to you the motto,

"Strenua me exercet inertia,"

nor that other of

"Operose nihil agit."

But so improve your time that you may with pleasure review and commit it to journal.

----"Hoc est, Vivere bis, vitâ priori frui."

And let it, at no very distant period, be said of you,

"Tot, tibi, sunt, ergo dotes, quot sidera coelo."

If you should never deserve this, it shall not be the fault of

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA IN PHILADELPHIA.

New-York, 8th February, 1796.

What will you think of the taste of New-York when I shall tell you that Miss Broadhurst is not very generally admired here? Such is the fact. I have contributed my feeble efforts to correct this opinion. Mat's [7] child will not be christened until you shall be pleased to indicate the time, place, manner, and name.

I have promised Tom that he shall take me to Philadelphia if there be sleighing. The poor fellow is almost crazy about it. He is importuning all the gods for snow, but as yet they don't appear to listen to him.

Your being in the ballette charms me. If you are to practise on Wednesday evening, do not stay away for the expectation of receiving me. If you should be at the ballette, I will go forthwith to see you. Adieu, chère fille.

A. Burr.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 16th January, 1797.

When I write to you oftener than your turn, you must not let it be known, or there will be jealousy. Your two letters of the 11th and 13th have so much wit, sprightliness, and good sense, that I cannot delay to tell you how much they pleased me. Go on, and you will write better than Cynthia herself. To aid your advances towards perfection, I shall often point out such errors as shall appear to me more particularly to claim your attention.

At present you fail most in punctuation. A very little thought will teach where the sense is complete and a full period is proper. The lesser pauses may be found by reading over two or three times what you may have written. You will naturally make small pauses where the sense shall require it. In spelling you are very well. Always write your name with great care. Adieu.

A. Burr.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, 23d January, 1797.

You must not "puzzle all day," my dear little girl, at one hard lesson. After puzzling faithfully one hour, apply to your arithmetic, and do enough to convince the doctor that you have not been idle. Neither must you be discouraged by one unlucky day. The doctor is a very reasonable man, and makes all due allowance for the levities as well as for the stupidity of children. I think you will not often challenge his indulgence on either score.

And do you regret that you are not also a woman? That you are not numbered in that galaxy of beauty which adorns an assembly-room? Coquetting for admiration and attracting flattery? No. I answer with confidence. You feel that you are maturing for solid friendship. The friends you gain you will never lose; and no one, I think, will dare to insult your understanding by such compliments as are most graciously received by too many of your sex.

How unpardonably you neglect C. and N. B. Where are the promised letters? I see with delight that you improve in diction, and in the combination and arrangement of your little ideas. With a view to farther improvement, your letters to me are a most useful exercise. I feel persuaded that all my hopes and wishes concerning you will be accomplished.

Never use a word which does not fully express your thoughts, or which, for any other reason, does not please you. Hunt your dictionary till you find one. Arrange a whole sentence in your mind before you write a word of it; and, whatever may be your "hurry" (never be in a hurry), read over your letter slowly and carefully before you seal it. Interline and erase lightly with your pen what may appear to you to require amendment or correction. I dispense with your copying unless the letter should be much defaced, in which case keep it till the next mail. Copy and improve it.

Your play on "Light" is pretty and witty, and the turn on the dear little letter does not dishonour the metempsychosis of Madame Dacier.

I shall probably see you very soon; we will then rearrange your hours, and endeavour to remove the present and forestall all future troubles. I should be mortified--I should be almost offended--if I should find that you passed over any word in my letters without becoming perfectly acquainted with its meaning, use, and etymology.

Since I commenced this letter, yours of the 21st has come in. It speaks of another which has not come, and of Martel's paper, neither of which have come. This arises from "hurry." The note to Mr. Livingston is middling. Affectionately--no, you hate that word; perhaps every thing is implied in plain.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Albany, 4th January, 1799.

On Tuesday I arrived here, and yesterday received your two letters of the 29th and 30th of December. Your despondency distresses me extremely. It is indeed unfortunate, my dear Theodosia, that we are constrained to be separated. I had never so much need of your society and friendship, nor you, perhaps, of mine. It is a misfortune which I sincerely regret every hour of the day. It is one, however, which you must aid me to support, by testifying that you can support your share of it with firmness and activity. An effort made with decision will convince you that you are able to accomplish all I wish and all you desire. Determination and perseverance in every laudable undertaking is the great point of difference between the silly and the wise. It is essentially a part of your character, and requires but an effort to bring it into action. The happiness of my life depends on your exertions; for what else, for whom else do I live? Not that the acquisition of the languages alone can decide your happiness or mine; but if you should abandon the attempt, or despair of success, or relax your endeavours, it would indicate a feebleness of character which would dishearten me exceedingly. It is for my sake that you now labour. I shall acknowledge your advancement with gratitude and with the most lively pleasure. Let me entreat you not to be discouraged. I know you to be capable of much greater efforts than this will require. If your young teacher, after a week's trial, should not suit you, dismiss him on any pretence without wounding his pride, and take the old Scotchman. Resolve to succeed, and you cannot fail.

I parted with you amid so much hurry and confusion, and so many vexations, that, when I had time to reflect, I seemed to have said none of the things which I had wished and intended. I reproached myself perpetually that I had not urged you to attend me. Your letters almost confirmed me in the design of returning to fetch you; and yet more sober reason seems to tell me that these things were rather the effusions of sentiment than of a deliberate estimate of your real interests. In six weeks, however, we shall meet.

I intended to have recommended to you the ancient and modern history of Millot. Natalie has some of the volumes--some are in the library at Mrs. D.'s, of which I hope you keep the key. Millot is concise, perspicuous, and well selected. Rollin is full of tedious details and superstitious nonsense.

There is nothing more certain than that you may form what countenance you please. An open, serene, intelligent countenance, a little brightened by cheerfullness, not wrought into smiles or simpers, will presently become familiar and grow into habit. A year will with certainty accomplish it. Your physiognomy has naturally much of benevolence, and it will cost you some labour (which you may well spare) to eradicate it. Avoid, for ever avoid, a smile or sneer of contempt; never even mimic them. A frown of sullenness or discontent is but one degree less hateful. You seem to require these things of me, or I should have thought them unnecessary. I see, with pleasure I see, that you have engaged in this matter. We shall both be gratified by the result, which cannot fail to accord with our wishes.

R. has a deal of godly coquetry. It makes a strange medley. I was most hospitably received, and full opportunity given with pretty apparent design. R. has promised to be in Albany in a month. Things are in statu quo.

I am unsettled, and at present at Witbeck's. One would think that the town was going into mourning for your absence. I am perpetually stopped in the streets by little and big girls. Where is Miss Burr? Won't she come up this winter? Oh, why didn't you bring her? &c.

J. B. P. arrived yesterday, he has not given me a letter, or any other thing from you. He suspects, however, that he has at least a letter; a fact which he will endeavour to ascertain in the course of this week. I wrote you two letters on my way up, addressed to 135 Greenwich-street. Is that right? Adieu, chère amie,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Albany, 11th February, 1799.

On Saturday, the 9th, I received Your two letters, from the 1st to the 6th inclusive; the last of which is the only one that has come in due season, or in what is termed the course of post. You now see that a letter can come from New-York in three days; a truth which has been frequently verified by the receipt of my letters, but never before by the despatch of your own.

How very perverse and provoking you are about your correspondence with Mr. Martin. I told you expressly that he was not angry, but, on the contrary, that he sent it laughingly and as a good joke. Pray, from whom did you learn that he was angry? You charge me with not noticing two of your letters, and that I have not given you any directions about heedlessness. With submission, miss, you are mistaken. It is true that I have not repeated the word, but I have intimated several things intended to this point. You expected, I presume, that I should treat the subject scientifically, as Duport does his art, and begin by explanation of terms, and then proceed to divide and subdivide the matter, as a priest does a sermon. Such a dose would, I am sure, have sickened you. I have therefore thought it best to give you very little at a time, and watch, as physicians do with potent medicines, the effect produced. When we meet, which I verily believe will be in five or six days after the receipt of this, you shall have as much as I shall find your stomach will bear.

What the deuse can have got into Madame S. and N., I am utterly at a loss to conjecture, and beg you not to give the remotest hint, but meet them as usual.

My overtures to B. Livingston and Mr. and Mrs. R. were mere volunteers, not produced by any thing you said or wrote; but I thought it might tend to produce a certain effect in your favour. So you have no apologies to make or pardons to ask on this subject. As this, however, is much the best composed part of your letter, I am particularly obliged to you for it, even if you did it to display your eloquence. It is, indeed, very happily expressed.

You seem to have emerged from your lethargy, which, I must confess, was obvious to an alarming degree in several preceding letters. I congratulate you upon it, and hope you will never suffer it again to invade your faculties.

We will talk of houses, &c. about the 19th inst. Henry Walton has gone to New-York by the last stage. He is one of those whose good opinion and esteem I wish you to acquire. He has delicacy, taste, and refinement--very, very rare qualities in this country at this day. He will be often at your house; receive him with courtesy.

I go to bed between 12 and 1, and rise between 7 and 8. For some reasons to me unknown, I cannot drink a single glass of wine without serious injury; still less can I bear ardent spirits; of course, I am pretty much in the bread and water line; this is the more provoking, as I dine out almost every day, and the dinners are really excellent and well-dressed, not exceeded in New-York. I have dined at home but four days since my arrival in this city. Think of that Miss B., and be hush about hospitality, &c.

Your name to one letter is beautifully written; to the other, la la. The handwriting of the letters various; very good, very bad, and middling; emblematic, shall I say, of the fair authoress? Please to resolve me whether author is not of both genders, for I hate the appendix of ess?

What novel of Miss Burney or D'Arblay is that in which the heroine begins by an interesting account of little details on her début in London, and particularly of a ball where she met Lord Somebody and did twenty ridiculous things? I want such a description of a ball from you. Be pleased to read those first letters of the novel referred to, and take them for a model.

You don't say half enough about the long letter which I wrote you on Sunday of the last week. Adieu, chére amie.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Albany, 26th January, 1800.

We arrived yesterday without accident. To-day I expected Alexis and John; but the stage has arrived without them, and without a line explanatory of the cause of their delay.

On alighting from the stage yesterday, I found at the door of my intended lodgings a number of persons who were impatiently expecting my arrival. I perceive that I shall be day and night engrossed by business. If I should write to you less or less often than usual, you will know the cause.

The ideas, of which you are the object, that daily pass through my mind, would, if committed to writing, fill an octavo volume; invent, then, and teach me some mode of writing with the facility and rapidity that we think, and you shall receive by every mail some hundred pages. But to select from a thousand thoughts that which is best and most seasonable; of the variety of attitudes of which every object is susceptible, to determine on that which is most suitable for the thing and the occasion; of all possible modes of expression and language, to discern the most appropriate, hic labor, hoc opus est. Yet have we both known persons of a moderate grade of intellect who could write whenever you would put a pen in their hands, and for any length of time you might please, without one moment of reflection or embarrassment. Pray explain to me this phenomenon. All this I confess is not very applicable to you or to my present occupation, for I generally write you what first offers, without considering whether it be the best; and if many obtrude themselves at once, I write you, as at present, of--nothing. Indeed, my dear Theodosia, I have many, many moments of solicitude about you. Remember that occupation will infallibly expel the fiend ennui, and that solitude is the bug-bear of fools. God bless and aid thee.

A. BURR

TO THEODOSIA.

Albany, 30th January, 1800.

At length John and Alexis have arrived; but what gratified me more, and what I looked for with much more impatience was, a letter. I selected yours from the number which they brought me. I was not disappointed. It merits all the eagerness with which I had expected it.

You reflect, and that is a security for your conduct. Our most humiliating errors proceed usually from inattention, and from that mental dissipation which we call heedlessness. You estimate your situation with great truth. Many are surprised that I could repose in you so great a trust as that of yourself; but I knew that you were equal to it, and I am not deceived.

You do right to stay much at home. It will scarcely be worth while to go to V. P.'s. C. is excluded from all rule. I am quite oppressed with the kindness and friendship of b. b. towards you. How fortunate you are in such a friend. If their invitations should be so frequent as to interrupt your lessons, you will do well to refuse even them. There is a measure to be observed in the acceptance of the good offices even of our best friends; and at your age, to prefer duty to pleasure when they are in collision, is a degree of firmness rarely exhibited, and, therefore, the more calculated to inspire respect. I perceive that I am not very explicit; but you will reflect and discern my meaning. Montesquieu said he wrote to make people think, and not to make them read--and why may not A. Br. Perhaps, however, there may be no collisions; and then your good sense will teach you not to wear out good-will.

You indicate a very pleasant mode in which you suppose I may make you happy; but you do not estimate things rightly. What you imagine to be symptoms of love are the mere effusions of politeness, added to respect and esteem.

I forget the plan we projected, but there can be no better one than that of your last letter, to which, therefore, you may adhere, unless indeed you can invent a better.

You may tell C. that as she and I are on ceremony, I shall expect the first letter. She knows well that the bare sight of her handwriting would drive Le Guen and the parchments to the antipodes. I do thank you for your constancy about the French ball. Do not be alarmed lest I expect too much. I know your force, and now feel assured that I shall have reason to be more than satisfied both with your discretion and your attainments. I shall not again find time to write you two pages; so do not expect it. Nevertheless, you will engross much, very much of the thoughts and affections of

A. BURR

Previous to the year 1800, slavery existed in the State of New-York. Colonel Burr, at different periods, was the owner of slaves. All those that remained in his family for any length of time were taught to read and write. During his absence from home it was his practice to correspond with one or more of them. As a master, he was beloved. A few letters are here given as specimens of this correspondence. They are copied literally.

TO COLONEL BURR.

New-York, 3d December.

HONOURED MASTER,

I received your letter December 1st, and we are all happy to hear that you are well. Harry has taken the chair to the coachmaker's, and has gave him directions according to your orders. I have asked James to write to you to know how the venison was to be done; but I will now have it cured as you have ordered. The sashes of the windows were nailed down the day that you went away, and the ladder that you mention belongs to Mr. Halsey, and be has taken it away. All the papers that have any writing on is put into the drawers, and I will take care of the ink that it does not freeze. Colonel Platt was here, and has taken the four red cases that was in the wine-room; and he asked me for a square box, and as you had not told me of it, I said that I had never seen it. There is nothing in the stable; but don't know what is in Sam's room, as he has locked the door. We are happy to hear that Sam, and George, and the horses are in good order, and all the family gives their love to them.

PEGGY GARTIN.

TO COLONEL BURR.

New-York, 17th December.

HONOURED MASTER,

I received your letter, and am happy to hear that you are in a good state of health. Harry went to Mr. Alston's farm the day after I received the letter, and the man had gone away the 11th day of December. Stephen was not at home when he went there, and by what he could understand there was a great difference between Daniel and Stephen; and Harry says that for the time that he has been there he had not neglected his work. But, master, I wish to beg a favour of you; please to grant it. I have found there is a day-school, kept by an elderly man and his wife, near to our house, and if master is willing that I should go to it for two months, I think it would be of great service to me, and at the same time I will not neglect my work in the house, if you please, sir.

PEGGY.

TO COLONEL BURR.

New-York, 29th December.

HONOURED MASTER,

I received your letter, which has given me no satisfaction concerning your health; and as there has been a report in the paper that you was wounded, it has made us very uneasy, supposing it to be true; but I hope that it is not so, as I hear that people gives no credit to it. I go to the school, since master is willing, and I like the teacher very much. He pays great attention to my learning, and I have teached Nancy her letters ever since you have been gone, which I think will be of as much service to her as if she went to school. We are all well at present, and I hope that you are the same.

PEGGY.

TO COLONEL BURR. New-York, 12th January.

HONOURED MASTER,

I have received your letter of the 4th inst., and it gives us great happiness to hear that you are in good health, as all the family are except myself. I was taken sick on the 30th of last month, so that I have not been able to go to school; and as I am better than I have been, to write these few lines; I am too weak to write Mrs. Alston, but Elenora's child is well. The woman came here the 7th of this month for the money, and Harry went to Mrs. Van Ness the 9th, and she said that Mr. Van Ness did not tell her any thing of it, and she could not give it.

PEGGY.

Footnotes:

1. Theodosia's preceptor.

2. A coloured boy.

3. A coloured man, the slave of Colonel Burr.

4. Theodosia had now entered her twelfth year.

5. Natalie De Lage was the daughter of a French lady, who was once a member of the family of the Princess L'Ambaul. Natalie was adopted and educated by Colonel Burr as his child. She married the son of General Sumter, of South Carolina.

6. A slave of Colonel Burr's.

7. A servant of Colonel Burr.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter XVIII

The preceding correspondence not only introduces the reader into the social circle of Colonel Burr, but into the bosom of his family. It develops his character, so far as the most sacred and confidential communications can develop it--as a friend--a husband--a parent--and a master. We are approaching a period, however, in his history when the scene is to be changed. In the spring of 1794 Mrs. Burr died; and in 1801 his daughter was married, and removed to South Carolina. Thus terminated, in a great measure, all those domestic relations and enjoyments which had afforded him so much pleasure, and connected with which be had indulged the best feelings of his heart.

Colonel Burr was a member of the Senate of the United States from the 4th of March, 1791, until the 4th of March, 1797. During this period he continued to practise the law. He was in that class of his profession to which belonged a Hamilton, a Harrison, and a Livingston. The partiality of some of his friends may have placed him at the head of the bar. His opponents ranked him second only to their particular favourite. As a speaker, Colonel Burr was calm and persuasive. He was most remarkable for the power which he possessed of condensation. His appeals, whether to a court or a jury, were sententious and lucid. His speeches, generally, were argumentative, short, and pithy. No flights of fancy, no metaphors, no parade of impassioned sentences, are to be found in them. When employed on the same side of a cause with General Hamilton, it was his uniform practice to permit that gentleman to select his own place in the cause.

It has often been remarked that Colonel Burr's character could not be better drawn than it is in a short sketch of his father, by Governor Livingston. "Though a person" (says the governor) "of a slender and delicate make, to encounter fatigue he has a heart of steel; and, for the despatch of business, the most amazing talents, joined to a constancy of mind that ensures success in spite of every obstacle. As long as an enterprise appears not absolutely impossible, he knows no discouragement; but, in proportion to its difficulty, augments his diligence; and, by an insuperable fortitude, frequently accomplishes what his friends and acquaintance conceive utterly impracticable."

In the year 1793 Albert Gallatin was appointed a senator of the United States by the State of Pennsylvania. On claiming his seat in January, 1794, a petition was presented against his admission into that body, on the ground that he had not been a citizen the requisite number of years. The subject was referred to a committee of seven. Their report elicited a warm debate, which continued for several days. Colonel Burr took an active part, and greatly distinguished himself in support of Mr. Gallatin's claim. His colleague, Mr. King, had taken the lead against the right of Mr. Gallatin to a seat. John Taylor, of Caroline, Virginia, addressed a note to Colonel Burr, in which he says--"We shall leave you to reply to King: first, because you desired it; second, all depends upon it; no one else can do it, and the audience will expect it."

On the 28th of February, 1794, the Senate "Resolved, That the election of Albert Gallatin to be a senator of the United States was void, he not having been a citizen of the United States the term of years required as a qualification to be a senator of the United States."--Ays 14, nays 12.

On the 20th of February, 1794, the Senate adopted a resolution, declaring that their galleries, at the commencement of the next session, should be opened while the Senate were "engaged in their legislative capacity." For this, or a similar resolution, Colonel Burr had voted at every previous session since he had been a member.

His personal respect for John Jay has been heretofore mentioned; but on no occasion did he permit such feelings to interfere with his political acts, when called upon to perform a public duty. On the 16th of April, 1794, the president nominated John Jay, then chief-justice of the United States, as envoy extraordinary to Great Britain. On the 19th, when the nomination was called up for consideration, Mr. Burr offered the following resolutions--

"Resolved, That any communications to be made to the court of Great Britain may be made through our minister now at that court with equal facility and effect, and at much less expense, than by an envoy extraordinary; and that such an appointment is at present inexpedient and unnecessary:

"That to permit judges of the Supreme Court to hold, at the same time, any other office or employment emanating from, and holden at the pleasure of, the executive, is contrary to the spirit of the constitution; and, as tending to expose them to the influence of the executive, is mischievous and impolitic." Ays 10, nays 17.

The nomination was then confirmed by a vote of 18 to 8, Mr. Burr voting in the negative. This vote, it was understood at the time, gave pain to Mr. Jay. In a letter to his lady, dated the 20th of April, the judge says--"Yesterday the Senate approved of the nomination by a great majority. Mr. Burr was among the few who opposed it."

About this period the democratic party were highly incensed against the president for continuing Gouverneur Morris as a minister to the French Republic. The Executive Provisory Council had requested his recall. He was considered a monarchist, and hostile to the revolution. Many of the opposition senators had spoken with great freedom of the policy of General Washington in this particular. These remarks having been communicated to the president, he expressed, informally, a willingness to recall Mr. Morris, and to nominate a member of the opposition, if they would designate a suitable person. In consequence of this suggestion, the democratic members of the Senate, and some of the most distinguished members of the House, had a conference, and resolved on recommending Colonel Burr. Mr. Madison, Mr. Monroe, and another member of Congress whose name is not recollected, were delegated to wait on the president and communicate the wishes of the party.

General Washington paused for a few moments, and then remarked, that he had made it a rule of life never to recommend or nominate any person for a high and responsible situation in whose integrity he had not confidence; that, wanting confidence in Colonel Burr, he could not nominate him; but that it would give him great pleasure to meet their wishes if they would designate an individual in whom he could confide. The committee returned and reported the result of their conference. The senators adhered unanimously to their first nomination, and the same delegates waited upon the president and reiterated the adherence of their friends to Colonel Burr. Whereupon General Washington, with some warmth, remarked that his decision was irrevocable; but immediately added, "I will nominate you, Mr. Madison, or you, Mr. Monroe." The former replied that he had long since made up his mind never to leave his country, and respectfully declined the offer. They retired, and reported the result of their second interview. The democratic gentlemen were not less inflexible, and instructed their delegates to say to the president that they would make no other recommendation. On the third visit they were received by Mr. Randolph, secretary of state, to whom they made the communication, but who considered it indecorous, knowing the president's feelings, to repeat the message.

This incident demonstrates, on the one hand, the strong and unchangeable prejudices of General Washington against Colonel Burr; and on the other, the firm and unbounded confidence reposed in him by the democracy of those days. The anecdote is not related on the authority exclusively of Colonel Burr. It is confirmed by the written statement of a gentleman of high standing, to whom Mr. Monroe repeated all the details. No other selection was made by the opposition senators; but, on the 27th of May, 1794, James Monroe was nominated as Minister Plenipotentiary to the French Republic.

On the 8th of June, 1795, the president submitted to the Senate of the United States the treaty negotiated with Great Britain by John Jay. This question called into operation all the powers of Mr. Burr's mind. He was opposed to it in the form it had been negotiated. His views and opinions may be distinctly understood by comparing the amendments which he proposed with the original treaty. On the 22d June the Senate resumed the consideration of it, whereupon he offered the following resolutions:--

"That the further consideration of the treaty concluded at London the 19th of November, 1794, be postponed, and that it be recommended to the President of the United States to proceed without delay to further friendly negotiation with his Britannic Majesty, in order to effect alterations in the said treaty in the following particulars:----

"That the 9th, 10th, and 24th articles, and so much of the 25th as relates to the shelter or refuge to be given to the armed vessels of states or sovereigns at war with either party, be expunged.

"2d Art. That no privilege or right be allowed to the settlers or traders mentioned in the 2d article, other than those which are secured to them by the treaty of 1783 and existing laws.

"3d. Art. That the 3d article be expunged, or be so modified that the citizens of the United States may have the use of all rivers, ports, and places within the territories of his Britannic Majesty in North America, in the same manner as his subjects may have of those of the United States.

"6th Art. That the value of the negroes and other property carried away contrary to the 7th article of the treaty of 1783, and the loss and damage sustained by the United States by the detention of the posts, be paid for by the British government--the amount to be ascertained by the commissioners who may be appointed to liquidate the claims of the British creditors.

"12th Art. That what relates to the West India trade, and the provisos and conditions thereof in the 12th article, be expunged, or be rendered much more favourable to the United States, and without any restraint on the exportation, in vessels of the United States, of any articles not the growth, produce, or manufacture of the said islands of his Britannic Majesty.

"15th Art. That no clause be admitted which may restrain the United States from reciprocating benefits by discriminating between foreign nations in their commercial arrangements, or prevent them from increasing the tonnage or other duties on British vessels on terms of reciprocity, or in a stipulated ratio.

"21st Art. That the subjects or citizens of either party be not restrained from accepting commissions in the army or navy of any foreign power."

In 1797, while Colonel Burr was yet a member of the United States Senate, his mind was occupied with the project of a bank, and he conferred with several of his personal friends on the subject. Among others, he wrote the honourable Thomas Morris, who was at the time a member of the state Senate.

TO THOMAS MORRIS.

New-York, 1st February, 1797.

SIR,

I have been informed that the present sheriff of Dutchess either has resigned or will decline a reappointment, and that Platt Smith is among the candidates. I have very little personal acquaintance with Mr. Smith--am not, indeed, certain that I should recognise him if I should meet him; but I have long known him by reputation, and can assure you that he is a man of irreproachable character, of independent property, and much above ordinary in point of intelligence. His connexions are very influential (perhaps the most so) in that county. He is, in short, a man, in my opinion, every way qualified to fill the office. Has always been of your party, and supported Jay's election. He is withal a generous, manly, independent fellow, of that cast which you like; one who will feel sensibly any favours or civilities which may be done him. If you should not be otherwise pledged, you will oblige several of your personal friends by supporting his pretensions.

I have drawn out a plan for a bank, but find that it will require so many explanations that I forbear to send it. I perceive that you are about selling our stock in the funds of the United States. We have already talked over this matter. The more I reflect, the stronger appear the objections. It will doubtless be urged in favour of an immediate sale, that our funds are in danger of seizure by the United States. This is a mere bugbear. Such a thing will never again be even proposed, and, if proposed, will never receive three votes in the Senate. I hope, therefore, our legislature will not suffer themselves to be precipitated into this sale from any such unfounded apprehensions.

Mr. Belasies, a gentleman, a man of education and fortune, by birth an Englishman, has come out with his family to reside in this country. If he should apply for leave to hold lands in this state, I hope he may be gratified; from the little I have seen, and the much I have heard of him, I am persuaded that he will be a valuable acquisition to any state and to any society. He is no politician.

I return to-morrow to Philadelphia, where I shall remain for this month. May l expect to see you here in the spring? Present me most respectfully to Williamson, and be assured of my esteem and attachment.

A. BURR.

In April, 1798, Colonel Burr was elected a member of Assembly for the city and county of New-York by the democratic party. This year was marked with more political virulence than any other year since the independence of the country. It was during the year 1798 that the alien and sedition laws were passed. In the autumn of 1798, Matthew Lyon, then a representative in Congress from Vermont, was endicted for harbouring an intention "to stir up sedition, and to bring the president and government of the United States into contempt," &c. He was convicted, and the sentence was--"Matthew Lyon, it is the pleasure of this court that you be imprisoned four months, pay costs, and a fine of one thousand dollars, and stand committed until the judgment be complied with." This year the celebrated mission to France, consisting of Messrs. Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, excited the attention not only of the American people, but of the civilized world. In short, this year the foundation was laid for the overthrow of federal power in the United States.

In no section of the country was there more political excitement than in New-York. Parties were nearly balanced. There were only two banks in the city; the Bank of New-York, and the branch of the United States Bank. They were charged with being influenced in their discounts by political considerations. At all events, they were under the management and control of federalists; and to counteract their alleged influence, Colonel Burr was anxious for the establishment of a democratic institution. With this view he proposed to obtain a charter for supplying the city with water; and as it was certain that if confined to that particular object the stock would not be subscribed, he caused the application to be made for two millions of dollars, and inserted a clause in that charter, that the "surplus capital might be employed in any way not inconsistent with the laws and constitution of the United States or of the State of New-York." It is under this clause that the Manhattan Company use and exercise all the privileges of a bank. The directors were named in the charter, and a majority of them were of the democratic party.

It has been said that the charter was obtained by trick and management; and that, if suspicion bad been entertained by any of the federal members, Colonel Burr could not have got the bill through the legislature. It is due to him, so far as it can be justly done, to rescue his memory from the imputation of having misrepresented or misstated to any member the object he had in view. The facts in reference to the passage of the charter of the Manhattan Company through the Senate will now be given. The statement is upon authority that cannot be contradicted.

When the bill had passed the Assembly and was sent to the Senate, Colonel Burr, during the hours of business, went into the Senate Chamber, and requested a federal senator (now living) from the western district to move a reference of that bill to a select committee, to report complete, which would supersede the necessity of its going to a committee of the whole. The senator replied, that though he had no objection to make the experiment, yet that he was persuaded the motion would not prevail, because the Senate, not having a press of business before them, uniformly refused thus committing bills to select committees instead of a committee of the whole. Colonel Burr then suggested, that perhaps if the mover would intimate, while on the floor, that the honourable Samuel Jones was contemplated as chairman of that committee, the confidence which the Senate was known to repose in him, and in his uniform attention to every thing relating to the city of New-York, would perhaps induce the Senate on this occasion to depart from its accustomed mode of proceeding. Accordingly the motion was made, and passed without opposition.

The committee named by the honourable Stephen Van Rensselaer, then lieutenant-governor, were Samuel Jones, Ambrose Spencer, and Thomas Morris. It was suggested to one of these gentlemen that the part of the bill authorizing the employment of the surplus capital had better be stricken out of it; in consequence of which that gentleman applied to Colonel Burr for an explanation on this point. Mr. Burr promptly and frankly informed the honourable member, that it not only did authorize, but that it was in tended the directors should use the surplus capital in any way they thought expedient and proper. That they might have a bank, an East India Company, or any thing else that they deemed profitable. That the mere supplying the city with water would not, of itself, remunerate the stockholders. Colonel Burr added, that the senator was at liberty to communicate this explanation to other members, and that be had no secrecy on the subject. The bill was subsequently reported by Mr. Jones and passed.

This view of the proceedings of the legislature is sustained by what occurred in the Council of Revision, from the minutes of which an extract has been made.

"At a meeting of the Council of Revision, held at the City Hall of the City of Albany, on Monday, the 1st of April, 1799.

"PRESENT--His Excellency the Governor, the Honourable the Chancellor, the Chief Justice, and Judge Benson.

"Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Robbins, from the honourable the Assembly, delivered to the council the bill entitled An act for the relief of John Lansing, the bill entitled An act for supplying the city of New-York with pure and wholesome water, and the bill entitled An act to amend the statute of limitation, and the bill entitled An act making provision to keep in repair the bridge over Schoharie Creek, at Fort Hunter, in the county of Montgomery.

"The council proceeded to take the said bills into consideration, and thereupon

"Resolved, That the bill entitled An act for supplying the city of New-York with pure and wholesome water be committed to the honourable the Chief Justice; that the bill entitled An act to amend the statute of limitation be committed to the honourable the Chancellor."

"At a meeting of the Council of Revision, held at the City Hall of the City of Albany, on Tuesday, the 2d of April, 1799.

"PRESENT--His Excellency the Governor, the Honourable the Chancellor, the Chief Justice, and Judge Benson.

"The honourable the Chief Justice, to whom was committed the bill entitled An act for supplying the city of New-York with pure and wholesome water, reported the following objections, to wit:

"Because the bill creates a corporation, with a capital of two millions of dollars, vested with the unusual power to divert its surplus capital to the purchase of public or other stock, or any other moneyed transactions or operations not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of this state or of the United States, and which surplus may be applied to the purposes of trade, or any other purpose which the very comprehensive terms in which the clause is conceived may warrant; this, in the opinion of the council as a novel experiment, the result whereof as to its influence on the community must be merely speculative and uncertain, peculiarly requires the application of the policy which has heretofore uniformly obtained, that the powers of corporations relative to their money operations should be of limited instead of perpetual duration."

"The council proceeded to take the preceding objections into consideration, which were overruled; it was thereupon

"Resolved, That it does not appear improper to the council that the said bill, entitled An act for supplying the city of New-York with pure and wholesome water, should become a law of this state.

"Ordered, That the honourable the Chancellor deliver a copy of the preceding resolution, signed by his excellency the Governor, to the honourable the Assembly."

"State of New-York, Secretary's Office.

"I certify the preceding to be true extracts from the minutes of the Council of Revision of this state.

(Signed)

"ARCHD. CAMPBELL,

"Deputy Secretary.

"Albany, April 29th, 1836."

Of the correctness of the above statement, and the fairness of Mr. Burr's conduct in relation to the Manhattan Company, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt; but it is probable that a large portion of the members never attempted to examine into the extent of the powers granted to the Manhattan Company; while another portion considered the project of Colonel Burr, in reference to an East India Company or a bank, as chimerical and visionary. It is, however, evident that no trick or misrepresentation was practised to procure the passage of the bill; unless, indeed, his silence on the floor of the house as to his ulterior views may be so construed. His object was a bank; and when appealed to on this particular point, he admitted the fact. At all other times he remained silent on the subject. When the bill had passed he was lauded by the democratic party for his address, and they rejoiced in his success. Its political effect was considered highly important, as it tended to break down a system of pecuniary favouritism, which was made to operate in support of the party in power.

During the summer of 1799 vague rumours were privately circulated respecting certain transactions of Colonel Burr with the Holland Land Company. It was whispered that a bond, which the company held against him for twenty thousand dollars, had been given up for secret services rendered them. In other circles it was hinted that the compensation was for procuring the passage of a bill through the legislature authorizing aliens to hold lands, &c. Connected with these rumours, John B. Church, Esq. had spoken with so much freedom as to produce a challenge from Colonel Burr. On the 2d of September, 1799, the parties met at Hoboken, and having exchanged a shot without effect, Mr. Church made the amende honorable, and the affair was so satisfactorily adjusted as to restore the social intercourse of these gentlemen. Mr. Church was attended by Abijah Hammond, Esq., and Colonel Burr by Judge Edanus Burke, of South Carolina.

On the ground a most ludicrous incident occurred. Previous to leaving the city of New-York, Colonel Burr presented to Judge Burke his pistol-case. He explained to the Judge that the balls were cast intentionally too small; that chamois leather was cut to the proper size to put round them, but that the leather must be greased (for which purpose grease was placed in the case), or that there would be a difficulty in getting the ball home. After the parties had taken their stand, Colonel Burr noticed the judge hammering the ramrod with a stone, and immediately suspected the cause. When the pistol was handed him by his friend, he drew the ramrod, and ascertained that the ball was not home, and so informed the judge; to which Mr. Burke replied, "I forgot to grease the leather; but you see he is ready, don't keep him waiting; just take a crack as it is, and I'll grease the next!" Colonel Burr bowed courteously, but made no reply, and discharged his pistol in the state it had been given to him. The anecdote for some time after was the subject of merriment among those who had heard it.

No explanation was ever given, it is believed, of the transactions between Colonel Burr and the Holland Land Company. It was his practice to let his actions speak for themselves, and to let the world construe them as they pleased. This was a great error, and was the source in after life of much trouble and suffering to him, yet he would not depart from it. A few weeks subsequent to this duel, however, be received from a friend a kind letter, asking confidentially an explanation of these transactions, to which he replied,

COLONEL BURR TO -----.

New-York, 6th October, 1799.

DEAR SIR,

I cannot refuse to the manner of your request, nor to the friendly motives which have produced it, to satisfy your inquiries with regard to Witbeck's bond and the Holland Company.

In December, 1795 or 1796, I forget which, I entered into a covenant with the Holland Company for the purchase of one hundred thousand acres of land, at twelve shillings per acre, payable by instalments. The covenant contained a penalty of twenty thousand dollars; as security on my part for this penalty, in case it should become due, I mortgaged to Cazenove, or the Holland Company, twenty thousand acres of land in Presque Isle, being one hundred shares of two hundred acres each in the Population Company, and I assigned to him Thomas L. Witbeck's bond, payable to me, for twenty thousand dollars, as further collateral security.

In the fall of 1797 Cazenove joined with me in a power of attorney to James Wadsworth, then in Europe, for the sale of one hundred thousand acres, and, until the summer or fall of the year following, we had reason to believe that they were or would be sold, which of course would have terminated all questions about the penalty. Some time in the year 1797 or 1798, it was noised in Albany that Thomas L. Witbeck had given a bond for twenty thousand dollars, and his credit at the bank and elsewhere became affected by it. He wrote me often on the subject. In reply, I begged him to explain that the bond was not for the payment of money, and that, even if it should become forfeited, the twenty thousand acres of Presque Isle lands were alone a sufficient security. Witbeck, however, continued to be uneasy for his credit, and teased me to take up his bond by giving other security. I thought this rather unkind, and did not trouble myself about it. Indeed, I was in hopes that the sale of the land in Europe would have closed the transaction. Not long after this, I think in November last, Cazenove informed me that be had been applied to by Witbeck to change that security, and added that he was willing to change it for one of equal solidity, provided it would not impair his rights.

Witbeck's importunities continued, and he became so very urgent and repeated that I was finally (November last), long after the passing of the alien bill, induced to offer A. I. Frederick Prevost's bond in the place of Witbeck's. Cazenove took time to consider and inquire; and finding, in fact, that Prevost's bond was a much better one than Witbeck's, agreed to take it. Prevost accordingly executed to me a bond for twenty thousand dollars, of which Harrison drew a special assignment to the Holland Company. We made a memorandum that this exchange should not vary the rights of the parties (viz., the Holland Company and Aaron Burr), and Thomas L. Witbeck's bond was given up. In this transaction I never suspected that Cazenove imagined that he was doing a favour either to me or Thomas L. Witbeck, and I am confident that he never entertained so absurd a belief. It was with great reluctance that I gave Prevost's bond. I had claims on Witbeck which justified me in exposing him to some hazard. Prevost had a family, a clear, independent estate, and did not owe a cent in the world; but he had better nerves than Witbeck, and would not tease me.

About this time we learned that all prospect of selling the land in Europe had failed, and as I never had an expectation of paying except from the land itself, it became necessary to close the transaction. It should be observed, that soon after my contract with Cazenove he received orders, as he informed me, to sell no more under sixteen shillings (two dollars), and afterward I understood that he had raised the price to twenty shillings. In December last we had several conferences for the purpose of settling this business. I offered to give back the land and cancel the covenants. He talked of the penalty. I replied that be would only recover the damages sustained, which, by his own account, were nothing; for, as the price of the land was raised to twenty shillings, the Holland Company would, by their own estimation, gain one hundred thousand dollars by taking back the land. He appeared to feel the unreasonableness of his demand, and finally evaded my proposal by questioning his own authority. This I considered as a pretence; some irritation ensued, and we parted without concluding any thing.

Thus the matter remained until May last (1799), when our negotiations were renewed. After various overtures and propositions on either side, it was at length agreed that I should convey to the Holland Company, absolutely, the twenty thousand acres Presque Isle lands. That this should be received in discharge of the advances that Cazenove had made thereon, and in full satisfaction of all damages claimed on the covenants; and that thereupon the covenants should be cancelled, the bond of I. A. Frederick Prevost be given up, and the Holland Company take back their lands. This was accordingly done a few days before Cazenove sailed for Europe, which was, I think, in June last.

I should have noted, that about the year 1792 or 1793, I became jointly concerned with the Holland Company and sundry individuals in the purchase from the State of Pennsylvania of the whole Presque Isle angle, and of other lands adjoining to the amount of a million of acres. The association was called the Population Company, and was under the management of directors, who had a right to assess on the proprietors or associates any sums they might think proper to promote the settlements required by the patents. My interest was one hundred shares, or twenty thousand acres, for which I had paid, at the time I mortgaged to Cazenove, upwards of seven thousand five hundred dollars. The thing was considered as extremely valuable, and I have no doubt but my interest would, if I could have retained it five years, have been worth to me more than one hundred thousand dollars. Lands within the angle were last year sold at twenty dollars per acre.

Though it be obvious that no damages were due or could have been recovered by the Holland Company on the penalty contained in the covenants, yet I had several motives to urge me to some sacrifice in order to get rid of the business. First. I could not repay the advances made by Cazenove, which amounted to several thousand dollars. Second. I could not bear to give any uneasiness to Frederick Prevost, which might have been the consequence of a legal proceeding. Third. I was a little apprehensive of being sued on the covenants for payment of the purchase money. Cazenove, on his part, had but a single motive, to wit--he found that these lands were all I had to give, and that a suit would have produced only expense.

The aforegoing facts are substantially known to Le Roy, Bayard, and McEvers, and to Harrison and Ogden. The two last were consulted on the closing of the business in May and June last (1799). The former of them, Harrison, several times on the exchange of the bonds. I have not spoken to either of those gentlemen on the subject since the transactions took place; but any person is at liberty to do it who may choose to take the trouble.

I have given you a summary of my whole concern with Cazenove and the Holland Company, not knowing what part of it might tend to elucidate your inquiries.

By those who know me, it will never be credited that any man on earth would have the hardiness even to propose to me dishonourable compensations; but this apart, the absurdity of the calumny you allude to is obvious from the following data, resulting from the deeds and known facts:

That at the time the Alien Bill was under consideration, and long after, the bond, the covenant, and the penalty were objects of no concern, as we had reason to believe that the lands were or would be sold in Europe, so as to leave me a profit:

That Witbeck's bond was never given up, but exchanged for one more safe and valuable:

That I had not, nor by possibility could have, any interest in this exchange, as it was relieving one friend to involve another still more dear to me:

That, so far from any understanding between Cazenove and me, we had controversies about the very bond and penalty for more than a year after the passing of the Alien Bill: That no part of the penalty was ever due from me to the Holland Company; and that of course, they could never have demanded the bond, which was expressly a security for the penalty, and not for the payments:

That nevertheless I did finally give Cazenove a valuable and exorbitant compensation to induce him to cancel the covenants and discharge the penalty.

This, sir, is the first time in my life that I have condescended (pardon the expression) to refute a calumny. I leave to my actions to speak for themselves, and to my character to confound the fictions of slander. And on this very subject I have not up to this hour given one word of explanation to any human being. All the explanation that can be given amounts to no more than this--That the thing is an absolute and abominable lie. I feel that the present detail is useless and trifling; but you have asked with good-nature, and I could not, with the appearance of good-nature, refuse. I pardon you the labour I have had in writing, and for that which you will have in reading no apology can be due from

Your friend and obedient servant,

A. BURR.

In January, 1801, Colonel Burr's daughter Theodosia was married to Joseph Alston, Esq., of South Carolina. Mr. Alston was in his twenty-second, Miss Burr in her eighteenth year. He was a gentleman of talents and fortune, and a few years after his marriage was chosen governor. Some opinion of his style of writing may be formed by his defence of early marriages; while that portion of his letter which relates to his native state cannot be uninteresting to South Carolinians.

THEODOSIA BURR TO JOSEPH ALSTON.

New-York, January 13th, 1801.

I have already written to you by the post to tell you that I shall be happy to see you whenever you choose; that I suppose is equivalent to very soon; and that you may no longer feel doubts or suspicions on my account, I repeat the invitation by a packet as less dilatory than the mail; but for all these doubts and suspicions I will take ample revenge when we meet.

I yesterday received your letter of the 26th of December, and am expecting your defence of early marriages to-day. My father laughs at my impatience to hear from you, and says I am in love; but I do not believe that to be a fair deduction, for the post is really very irregular and slow--enough so to provoke anybody.

We leave this for Albany on the 26th inst., and shall remain there till the 10th February. My movements will after that depend upon my father and you. I had intended not to marry this twelvemonth, and in that case thought it wrong to divert you from your present engagements in Carolina; but to your solicitations I yield my judgment. Adieu. I wish you many returns of the century.

14th January.

I have not yet received your promised letter; but I hope it may be long in proportion to the time I have been expecting it. The packet has been delayed by head-winds, but now that they are fair she will have a quick passage; at least such I wish it. Adieu, encore.

THEODOSIA.

JOSEPH ALSTON TO THEODOSIA BURR.

Charleston, S. C. December 28th, 1800.

Aristotle says "that a man should not marry before he is six-and-thirty:" pray, Mr. Alston, what arguments have you to oppose to such authority? Hear me, Miss Burr.

It has always been my practice, whether from a natural independence of mind, from pride, or what other cause I will not pretend to say, never to adopt the opinion of any one, however respectable his authority, unless thoroughly convinced by his arguments; the "ipse dixit," as logicians term it, even of Cicero, who stands higher in my estimation than any other author, would not have the least weight with me; you must therefore, till you offer better reasons in support of his opinion than the Grecian sage himself has done, excuse my differing from him.

Objections to early marriages can rationally only arise from want of discretion or want of fortune in the parties; now, as you very well observe, the age of discretion is wholly uncertain, some men reaching it at twenty, others at thirty, some again not till fifty, and many not at all; of course, to fix such or such a period as the proper one for marrying, is ridiculous. Even the want of fortune is to be considered differently, according to the country where the marriage is to take place; for though in some places a fortune is absolutely necessary to a man before he marries, there are others, as in the eastern states for example, where he marries expressly for the purpose of making a fortune.

But, allowing both these objections their full force, may there not be a single case that they do not reach? Suppose (for instance, merely) a young man nearly two-and-twenty, already of the greatest discretion, with an ample fortune, were to be passionately in love with a young lady almost eighteen, equally discreet with himself, and who had a "sincere friendship" for him, do you think it would be necessary to make him wait till thirty? particularly where the friends on both sides were pleased with the match.

Were I to consider the question personally, since you allow that "individual character" ought to be consulted, no objection clearly could be made to my marrying early.

From my father's plan of education for me, I may properly be called a hot-bed plant. Introduced from my infancy into the society of men, while yet a boy I was accustomed to think and act like a man. On every occasion, however important, I was left to decide for myself; I do not recollect a single instance where I was controlled even by advice; for it was my father's invariable maxim, that the best way of strengthening the judgment was to suffer it to be constantly exercised. Before seventeen I finished my college education; before twenty I was admitted to the bar. Since that time I have been constantly travelling through different parts of the United States; to what purpose I leave you to determine.

From this short account of myself you may judge whether my manners and sentiments are not, by this time, in some degree formed.

But let us treat the subject abstractedly; and, as we have shown that under particular circumstances no disadvantages result from early marriages, let us see if any positive advantages attend them.

Happiness in the marriage state, you will agree with me, can only be obtained from the most complete congeniality of mind and disposition, and the most exact similarity of habits and pursuits; now, though their natures may generally resemble, no two persons can be entirely of the same mind and disposition, the same habits and pursuits, unless after the most intimate and early association; I say early, for it is in youth only the mind and disposition receive the complexion we would give them; it is then only that our habits are moulded or our pursuits directed as we please; as we advance in life they become fixed and unchangeable, and instead of our governing them, govern us. Is it not therefore better, upon every principle of happiness, that persons should marry young, when, directed by mutual friendship, each might assimilate to the other, than wait till a period when their passions, their prejudices, their habits, &c. become so rooted that there neither exists an inclination nor power to correct them? Dr. Franklin, a very strong advocate for my system, and, I think, at least as good authority as Aristotle, very aptly compares those who marry early to two young trees joined together by the hand of the gardener; "Trunk knit with trunk, and branch with branch intwined, Advancing still, more closely they are join'd; At length, full grown, no difference we see, But, 'stead of two, behold a single tree!" [1]

Those, on the other hand, who do not marry till late, say "thirty," for example, he likens to two ancient oaks;

"Use all your force, they yield not to your hand, But firmly in their usual stations stand; While each, regardless of the other's views, Stubborn and fix'd, it's natural bent pursues!" [2]

But this is not all; it is in youth that we are best fitted to enjoy that exquisite happiness which the marriage state is capable of affording, and the remembrance of which forms so pleasing a link in that chain of friendship that binds to each other two persons who have lived together any number of years. Our ideas are then more refined; every generous and disinterested sentiment beats higher; and our sensibility is far more alive to every emotion our associate may feel. Depend upon it, the man who does not love till "thirty" will never, never love; long before that period, he will become too much enamoured of his own dear self to think of transferring his affections to any other object. He may marry, but interest alone will direct him in the choice of his wife; far from regarding her as the sweetest friend and companion of his life, he will consider her but as an unavoidable encumbrance upon the estate she brings him. And can you really hope, my Theodosia, with all your ingenuity, to convince me that such a being will enjoy equal happiness in marriage with me? with me, about to enter into it with such rapture; who anticipate so perfect a heaven from our uniting in every study, improving our minds together, and informing each other by our mutual assistance and observations? No--I give you full credit for your talents, but there are some causes so bad that even you cannot support them.

Enough, however, of this topic till we meet; I have already given you a volume of nonsense upon it.

Now for the fable, I cannot call it description, your "dear friends" have given you of this state. "The country," they say, because of the marshy grounds, "is rendered continually unhealthy with fever and agues." One would really conclude from this that we were a good representation of a meeting of Shaking Quakers. Alas! beautiful and romantic hills of Carolina, which the delighted traveller so often stops to admire; fair and fertile plains interspersed with groves of the orange, the lemon, and the myrtle, which fling such healthful fragrance to the air, where are ye fled? Has some earthquake, some sudden and dreadful concussion of nature, ingulfed you? No! You still remain for the delight and ornament of our country; you have lost existence only in the imagination of some beau or belle of New-York; who, ignorant of the geography and appearance of the most celebrated states, believes every other place except the Park and the Battery a desert or a marsh. But let us proceed:--"As to Charleston, an annual epidemic, joined to the yells of whipped negroes, which assail your ears from every house, and the extreme heat, make it a perfect purgatory!" What! is Charleston, the most delightfully situated city in America, which, entirely open to the ocean, twice in every twenty-four hours is cooled by the refreshing seabreeze, the Montpelier of the south, which annually affords an asylum to the planter and the West-Indian from every disease, accused of heat and unhealthiness?--Island of Calypso, where reigned perpetual spring! may we not, after this, expect thy flower-enamelled fields to be metamorphosed into dreary wastes of snow, and the sweet concerts of the feathered choir, which elysionized thy woods, converted into the howling of the tiger, or the horrid bark of the wolf? But this is not all, unfortunate citizens of Charleston; your disposition has been even still more outraged than your climate. Your mildness, humanity, and benevolence, are no more; cruelty, barbarity, a sanguinary love of torture, are now your distinguishing characteristics; the scream, the yell of the miserable, unresisting African, bleeding under the scourge of relentless power, affords music to your ears! Ah! from what unfriendly cause does this arise? Has the God of heaven, in anger, here changed the order of nature? In every other region, without exception, in a similar degree of latitude, the same sun which ripens the tamarind and the anana, ameliorates the temper, and disposes it to gentleness and kindness. In India and other countries not very different in climate from the southern parts of the United States, the inhabitants are distinguished for a softness and inoffensiveness of manners, degenerating almost to effeminacy; it is here then, only, that we are exempt from the general influence of climate: here only that, in spite of it, we are cruel and ferocious! Poor Carolina!

"The state of society, too, is equally inviting. The men and women associate very little; the former employ themselves either in the business of life, or in hunting horse-racing, and gaming; while the latter meet in large parties, composed entirely of themselves, to sip tea and look prim!" Would a stranger who had been among us, who had witnessed the polished state of our society, the elegance of our parties, the case and sociability of manners which prevail there, the constant and agreeable intercourse between the sexes, the accomplishments of our ladies, that proud and elevated spirit among the men which would feel "a stain like a wound," believe the account you have written meant as a picture of South Carolina? Would he believe, still further, that it was drawn by an American? No. He would suppose it the production of some jaundiced foreigner, who had never visited us, and who set down every thing out of his own country as rude and Gothic. Now I recollect Morse gives a description something like this of North Carolina; and I suspect your "friends" stole their account, with a little exaggeration, from him, but mistook the state. I have now replied to the fable of your "dear friends" in a veritable style; but, setting aside rhapsody, if you have time to read it, I will give you a proper and impartial account of our country in a few words. Possibly it may serve to amuse you, if still confined by your ankle.

For about sixty or seventy miles from the seacoast, the land is, perhaps, more uninterruptedly level than any equal tract of territory in the United States; from that distance it gradually becomes more hilly, till, as you advance into the interior, you become entangled in that chain of mountains which, rising in the back parts of Pennsylvania, runs through that state, touches a corner of Maryland, and, extending through North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, forms a line between the Atlantic and transatlantic states. In upper Carolina it is as healthy as anywhere on the continent. The people are robust, active, and have a colour as fine as those of Rhode Island. In the low country, it is true, we are visited by "the fevers and agues" you mention, but it is only at a particular season, and near the banks of the rivers. In this we are by no means singular; those who reside on the borders of the lakes, the Connecticut, the Delaware, and the Potomac, are equally exposed. On the seacoast we again find health; Charleston, till within a few years past, was remarkably healthy. Since '93 it has been afflicted, at different times, during the summer, with an epidemic, which has certainly proved extremely fatal; but ought it to be called an "annual visitant" here any more than at Boston, New-York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, &c., all of which places have been equally, and some of them more, afflicted by it?

With regard to our manners; if there is any state which has a claim to superior refinement, it is certainly South Carolina. Generally speaking, we are divided into but two classes, very rich and very poor; which, if no advantage in a political view, is undoubtedly favourable to a polished state of society. Our gentlemen having large fortunes, and being very little disposed by the climate to the drudgery of business or professions, have full leisure for the attainment of polite literature, and what are usually called accomplishments; you therefore meet with few of them who are not tolerably well informed, agreeable companions, and completely well bred. The possession of slaves renders them proud, impatient of restraint, and gives them a haughtiness of manner which, to those unaccustomed to them, is disagreeable; but we find among them a high sense of honour, a delicacy of sentiment, and a liberality of mind, which we look for in vain in the more commercial citizens of the northern states. The genius of the Carolinian, like the inhabitants of all southern countries, is quick, lively, and acute; in steadiness and perseverance he is naturally inferior to the native of the north; but this defect of climate is often overcome by his ambition or necessity; and, whenever this happens, he seldom fails to distinguish himself. In his temper he is gay and fond of company, open, generous, and unsuspicious; easily irritated, and quick to resent even the appearance of insult; but his passion, like the fire of the flint, is lighted up and extinguished in the same moment. I do not mention his hospitality and kindness to strangers, for they are so common they are no longer esteemed virtues; like common honesty, they are noticed only when not possessed. Nor is it for the elegance of their manners only that the South Carolinians are distinguished; sound morality is equally conspicuous among them. Gaming, so far from being a fashionable vice, is confined entirely to the lower class of people; among gentlemen it is deemed disgraceful. Many of them, it is true, are fond of the turf; but they pursue the sports of it merely as an amusement and recreation, not a business. As to hunting, the country gentlemen occasionally engage in it, but surely there is nothing criminal in this! From my education and other pursuits I have seldom participated in it myself; but I consider it, above all exercises, the most manly and healthful.

But come, let us dismiss the gentlemen and their amusements, and take up the female part of the community.

The ladies of Carolina, I confess, are not generally as handsome as those of the northern states; they want that bloom which, in the opinion of some, is so indispensable an ingredient in beauty; but their paleness gives them an appearance of delicacy and languor which is highly interesting. Their education is perhaps more attended to than anywhere else in the United States; many of them are well informed, all of them accomplished. For it would be far more unpardonable in a girl to enter a room or go through a congo ungracefully, than to be ignorant of the most common event in history or the first principles of arithmetic. They are perfectly easy and agreeable in their manners, and remarkably fond of company; no Charleston belle ever felt "ennui" in her life. In the richness of their dress and the splendour of their equipages they are unrivalled. From their early introduction into company, and their constant and unreserved intercourse with the other sex, they generally marry young; and if their husbands want only companions for the theatre or the concert-room, or some one to talk over the scandal of the day with when at home, they make tolerable wives. As we have now brought them to the "ne plus ultra" of human happiness, marriage, we will leave them there, and so finish our description.

The reason of your not hearing from me so long after your return to New-York was this: not knowing till you wrote me from Ballston how my letters would be received, I was really afraid to venture writing.

You ask how Miss P. walks? If it is your object, as you say, from knowing bow you stand with her in point of forces, to preserve better what you have won, receive a general lesson. "Continue in every respect exactly as you are, and you please me most."

You wish me to acquire French. I already understand something of it, and, with a little practice, would soon speak it. I promise you, therefore, if you become my instructress, in less than two months after our marriage to converse with you entirely in that language. I fix the period after our marriage, for I cannot think of being corrected in the mistakes I may make by any other person than my wife. Suppose, till then, you return to your Latin, and prepare to use that tongue with me, since you are averse to one understood by all the canaille. Adieu. I have literally given you a folio volume.

Yours, my dear Theodosia,

JOS. ALSTON.

P. S. The arrangement you speak of proposing in your letter for an interview has determined me. I shall there fore sail certainly in a few days. Winds be propitious!

Miss BURR.

In April, 1799, the federal party were triumphant in the State of New-York. The city was entitled to thirteen members of Assembly. They were federalists, and were elected by an average majority of 944; the whole number of votes being about 6000. Colonel Burr during this year was not in public life, but he was not an idle spectator of passing events. The year following a President of the United States was to be elected. It was now certain, that unless the vote of the State of New-York could be obtained for Mr. Jefferson, he could not be elected. It was equally certain, that unless the city could be carried by the democratic party, the state would remain in the bands of the federalists.

During the winter of 1799 and the spring of 1800, Colonel Burr commenced a system of party organization for the approaching contest. The presidential electors were at that time chosen by the legislature, meeting in joint ballot. His first object was to secure such a committee of nomination for the city and county of New-York as, in the selection of candidates for the assembly, would be influenced by his recommendation. His opinion, often expressed to his confidential friends during the winter of 1800, was, that without a most powerful ticket there was no prospect of success; with such a ticket and proper exertions it could be elected. He entertained no doubt (and the result proved that he was correct), that on the city and county of New-York were suspended the destinies of the country, whether for good or whether for ill. These views and these opinions were presented and enforced by him for days, and weeks, and months previous to the election upon all the young and ardent politicians of the city with whom he had any intercourse. The effect of which was, that when the crisis arrived, every member of the party seemed to feel the great responsibility which rested upon him.

The next object with Colonel Burr was to inculcate harmony in the party and concert in action. It was known that a most unconquerable jealousy existed between the Clinton and Livingston families and the adherents of those factions. The Clintons and their supporters were anti-federalists. The Livingstons were not less distinguished as federalists, until some time after the organization of the general government under the new constitution. Colonel Burr enforced, in mild and persuasive terms, the necessity of sacrificing all prejudices and partialities; of surrendering all personal and ambitious considerations; of standing shoulder to shoulder, and uniting in one great effort to rescue the country from misrule. By the most unceasing perseverance he succeeded in both these objects.

Every section of the democratic party felt the necessity of Colonel Burr's being a member of the legislature that was to choose the electors; but a difficulty arose. It was understood that General Hamilton would personally attend the several polls during the three days of election; that he would counsel and advise with his political friends, and that he would address the people. Here again all seemed to feel that Colonel Burr was the man, and perhaps the only man, to meet General Hamilton on such an occasion. But if his name was on the Assembly ticket as a candidate, his personal exertions during the election would be lost to the party. To place him in that situation appeared to many like abandoning the field without a struggle to the federalists. In this dilemma, the county of Orange patriotically came forward and nominated him as a candidate on their Assembly ticket, thus leaving him free to act in the city of New-York; and by the people of Orange Colonel Burr was elected a member of the legislature.

All the details connected with the formation of the Assembly ticket in April, 1800, for the city and county of New-York, will be given hereafter. The result is known. It succeeded. The legislature was democratic. Presidential electors of the democratic party were appointed. Colonel Burr's services were appreciated by the democracy in every section of the country, and he was nominated on the ticket with Mr. Jefferson for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States. By the constitution, as it was originally adopted, the person who had the greatest number of votes, provided they were a majority of the whole number given, was president; and the person having the next highest number, with the like proviso, was vice-president. When the ballots were examined, it appeared that Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Burr were the two highest candidates, and that their votes were equal. By the provisions of the constitution, it devolved upon the House of Representatives of the United States, voting by states, to designate which of these gentlemen should be president, and which vice-president.

On proceeding to the ballot a contest ensued, which lasted for several days, producing the most implacable and bitter animosities; a contest which terminated in the election of Mr. Jefferson and the ruin of Colonel Burr. Until within a few years that scene has been completely enveloped in mystery. A part of the incidents connected with it, however, in a fugitive form, are before the world. But the period has arrived when the question should be met with manly firmness; when the voice of history should announce to posterity the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so far as it can be ascertained. The generation which were the actors in those scenes have passed away. The parties immediately interested are sleeping the sleep of death. Few, very few indeed now living, understand the nature of that contest. The curtain shall be drawn aside. The documents which develop its character, and which are scattered in fragments, will be brought together, and recorded (it is hoped) in a permanent and tangible form.

It will be seen that the immediate friends and advisers of Mr. Jefferson, until within a few hours of the balloting, had no confidence in certain leading and distinguished members of Congress, whose names shall be given, but who, on his coming into power, promptly received the most substantial evidence of his kind feelings by appointments to office. The clearest evidence will be presented that Mr. Jefferson entered into terms and conditions with the federal party or some of their leaders; that the honourable James A. Bayard, of Delaware, acted on the part of the federalists, and the honourable Samuel Smith, of Maryland, at present mayor of Baltimore, on the part of Mr. Jefferson; and that terms and conditions were agreed upon between them before Mr. Jefferson could be elected; while, on the other hand, it will be demonstrated that the charges which have been made against Colonel Burr of having intrigued and negotiated with the federal party to obtain the office of president were as unjust as they were groundless. But "I come to bury Cesar, not to praise him."

Footnotes:

1. Manuscript poem of my own.

2. From the same.

[Frontispiece: Theodosia]

MEMOIRS OF AARON BURR.

WITH MISCELLANEOUS SELECTIONS

FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE.

BY MATTHEW L. DAVIS.

"I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him."

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. II.

* * * * *

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by

MATTHEW L. DAVIS,

in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

* * * * *

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

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Chapter I

Colonel Burr's study of the law; shortness of his study; different opinions respecting his law learning; his definition of law; his manner of preparing causes and of conducting suits; his maxim for sluggards; tendency to mystery in his practice; fondness for surprising an opponent; an illustration of this remark; his treatment of associate counsel; nice discrimination in the selection of professional agents; their various characteristics; the same acuteness displayed in politics; anecdote on this subject that occurred during the contested election in 1800; great coolness and presence of mind in civil as well as military life; an example in the death of Mr. P.; commenced practice at the close of the revolution under the most favourable auspices; multiplication of his papers; condensation a peculiar trait in his mind; never solicited a favour from an opponent; a strict practitioner; character of his mind; manner of speaking; accorded to General Hamilton eloquence; an incident in relation to Hamilton and Burr in the cause of Le Guen vs. Gouverneur and Kemble; letter from John Van Ness Yates explanatory of Chief Justice Yates's notes on that occasion; the effect he produced as a speaker; his display of extraordinary talents on his trial at Richmond; his legal opinions on various important occasions; a letter from him evincing his great perseverance when nearly eighty years of age

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Chapter II

A brief history of the rise of political parties in the state of New-York; the city of New-York the rendezvous of the tories, from which they communicated with the British ministry during the war; feelings of the whigs on this subject; Joseph Galloway, of Philadelphia, sails in 1778 for England; his correspondence with the loyalists extensive; extracts from various letters written during the war of the revolution, viz., from the Reverend Bishop Inglis, from Isaac Ogden, from Daniel Cox, during the year 1778; from John Potts, from Daniel Cox, from Isaac Ogden, from Daniel Cox, from Thomas Eddy, from Bishop Inglis, from John Potts, from Bishop Inglis, from Isaac Ogden, from Bishop Inglis, from Isaac Ogden, from Daniel Cox, during the year 1779; from Charles Stewart, David Sproat, and James Humphrey, Jun., printer, in 1779, in which General Arnold's tory sympathies are alluded to; from Bishop Inglis, John Potts, and Christopher Sower; from David Ogden, with the plan of a constitution for the government of the American colonies after the whigs are conquered

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Chapter III

Defeat of General Schuyler as a candidate for the office of governor of the state of New-York, in opposition to George Clinton, in 1777; commencement of the Clinton and Schuyler parties; defeat of General Schuyler as a candidate for Congress in 1780; "a supreme dictator" proposed; opposition of Hamilton to the project; the Clinton and Schuyler parties continued to exist until the adoption of the federal constitution; in 1779 a law passed disfranchising tories; in 1781 an act confirmatory of this law; first session of the legislature after the war held in the city of New-York, in 1784; petitions of the tories rejected; Robert R. Livingston's classification of parties in the state; suit of Mrs. Rutgers vs. Waddington for the recovery of the rent of a building occupied by Waddington in the city of New-York during the war; the mayor's court, James Duane and Richard Varick presiding, decide against Mrs. Rutgers; great excitement and public meetings; Waddington compromises the claim; in 1786 and 1787, sundry laws restricting the privileges of the tories, through the instrumentality of General Hamilton are repealed; the tories unite with the Schuyler party; the strength of the Schuyler party in the legislature elected from the tory counties; names of the members in 1788, 89; to which of the political parties Colonel Burr belonged; letters from John Jay on the subject of proscribing the tories

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Chapter IV

The Livingstons were of the Schuyler party; subsequently of the federal party; their change; reasons assigned; the federalists triumph in the city of New-York at the election of 1799; Mr. Jefferson's opinion as to the effect of the city election in 1800; the several factions of the democratic party unite in this contest, through the arrangements of Burr; the character of his friends; he is elected to represent Orange county; the manner in which the city ticket for 1800 was formed; great difficulty to obtain Governor Clinton's consent to use his name; interview of a sub-committee with the governor; his denunciation of Jefferson; Burr's and Hamilton's efforts at the election; success of the democratic party; apprehensions that the federalists intended to change the result by fraud; a federal caucus held on the evening of the 3d of May, 1800; letter to Duane, editor of the Aurora, stating that the caucus had decided to request Governor Jay to convene the legislature, and change the mode of choosing presidential electors; federal printers deny the charge; the letter to Jay, published in his works, thus proving the correctness of the Aurora's statement

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Chapter V

General Hamilton's pamphlet on the conduct of John Adams; Colonel Burr ascertains that it is in the press; as soon as printed, a copy obtained, and extracts sent to the Aurora and the New-London Bee; Hamilton thus compelled to make the publication prematurely; presidential electors chosen; letter from Jefferson to Burr; Jefferson to Madison; tie vote between Jefferson and Burr; rules for the government of the House of Representatives during the election; informality in the votes of Georgia; constitutional provision on the subject; statement of the case by Mr. Wells, of Delaware, and Mr. Nicholas, of Virginia; balloting commenced on the 11th, and continued until the 17th of February, 1801, when, on the 36th ballot, Mr. Jefferson was elected president; letter from Burr to General S. Smith, constituting him (Smith) his proxy to declare his sentiments in the event of a tie vote

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Chapter VI

Mr. Burr's political position on being elected vice-president; letters from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Madison; the doubtful states in Congress on the presidential question; the doubtful persons; their appointment to office by Mr. Jefferson; address to Colonel Burr by certain republicans at Baltimore, on his way to Washington in 1801; his answer, disapproving of such addresses; casting vote, as vice-president, on the bill to repeal the midnight judiciary act; effects of this vote; letter from A. J. Dallas on the subject; from Nathaniel Niles; from A. J. Dallas; Wood's history of John Adams's administration; suppression by Burr; attacks upon Burr by Cheetham and Duane; private letters from Duane approving of Burr's conduct

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Chapter VII

Effect of Burr's silence under these attacks; allegation that Dr. Smith, of New-Jersey, as a presidential elector, was to have voted for Burr; denial of Dr. Smith; Timothy Green charged with going to South Carolina as the political agent of Burr; denial of Green; General John Swartwout charged with being concerned in the intrigue; denial of Swartwout; Burr charged with negotiating with the federalists; denial of Burr, in a letter to Governor Bloomfield; David A. Ogden said to have been the agent of the federal party or of Burr in this negotiation; letter from Peter Irving to Ogden, inquiring as to the fact; answer of Ogden, denying the charge; Edward Livingston represented as Burr's "confidential friend" on the occasion; denial of Livingston; Burr, in the year 1804, commences a suit against Cheetbam for a libel; wager-suit between James Gillespie and Abraham Smith, and a commission taken out to examine witnesses, April, 1806; transactions in the United States' Senate on the 18th January, 1830, in relation to Mr. Jefferson's charge against Mr. Bayard; letter from R. H. Bayard to Burr; from Burr to Bayard; from Burr to M. L. Davis; from Davis to Burr; from General S. Smith to R. H. and J. A. Bayard; from R. H. Bayard to Burr

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Chapter VIII

Letter from Judge Cooper to Thomas Morris; ditto; from James A. Bayard to Alexander Hamilton; from George Baer to R. H. Bayard; interrogatories to James A. Bayard, in Cheetham's suit; answers to said interrogatories by Mr. Bayard; interrogatories to Bayard in the suit of Gillespie vs. Smith; answers thereto; reasons why Mr. Latimer was not removed from the office of collector of Philadelphia; answer of Samuel Smith to interrogatories in the suit of Gillespie vs. Smith

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Chapter IX

Effect of the attacks upon Burr; power of the press in corrupt hands; Mr. Jefferson's malignity towards Burr; his hypocrisy; false entries in his Ana of conversations said to have been held with Burr; letter to Theodosia; ditto; ditto; to Joseph Alston; Theodosia to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; ditto; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; to Thomas Morris; from P. Butler; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; from Thomas Jefferson; to Theodosia

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Chapter X

Letter to Joseph Alston; from D. Phelps, from Joseph Brandt (Indian chief); from William P. Van Ness; to Theodosia; to Barnabas Bidwell; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; from Charles Biddle; from Marinus Willett; from John M. Taylor; from Mrs. *****; to Theodosia; ditto

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Chapter XI

Letter to Theodosia; ditto; to Joseph Alston; from Charles Biddle; from John Coats; to Theodosia; from C. A. Rodney; to Theodosia; ftom C. A. Rodney; from Uriah Tracy; from General Horatio Gates; from David Gelston; to Theodosia; ditto; from Midshipman James Biddle; from John Taylor, of Caroline

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Chapter XII

Letter from Theodosia to Joseph Alston; ditto; from A. Burr to Joseph Alston; to Natalie; Theodosia to Joseph Alston; to Joseph Alston; ditto; to Theodosia; to Joseph Alston; ditto; to Theodosia; ditto; to Dr. John Coats; from Theodosia; to Theodosia; from Theodosia; to Theodosia; ditto; ditto

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Chapter XIII

Letter to Theodosia; ditto; from Theodosia; to Theodosia; from Theodosia; from Charles Biddle; from John Taylor, of Caroline; from Pierce Butler; to Theodosia; ditto; from Theodosia; from Theodosia; ditto; to Theodosia; ditto; from Theodosia; to Theodosia; ditto; to Charles Biddle; from Midshipman James Biddle

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Chapter XIV

Note from Mr. Madison; from J. Wagner to Mr. Madison; from Samuel A. Otis; letter from George Davis; from Charles Biddle; from Robert Smith; from Robert G. Harper; from J. Guillemard; from John Vaugham; from John Dickinson; to Charles Biddle; to Theodosia; to Peggy (a slave); to Theodosia; to Joseph Alston; to Charles Biddle; ditto; to Natalie Delage Sumter; to Theodosia; to A. R. Ellery; to Theodosia; to Thomas Sumter, Jun.; to Charles Biddle; to F. A. Vanderkemp; to W. P. Van Ness; to Theodosia; to Mrs. *****; to Theodosia; to Miss ----; to Theodosia

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Chapter XV

Letter from Charles D. Cooper, which produced the duel between General Hamilton and Colonel Burr; correspondence between the parties, with explanations by W. P. Van Ness, second of Colonel Burr; statement of what occurred on the ground as agreed upon by the seconds; explanations of the correspondence, &c., by Nathaniel Pendleton, second of General Hamilton; remarks on the letter which Mr. Van Ness refused to receive; account of General Hamilton's wound and death, by Dr. Hosack; remarks by General Hamilton on his motives and views in meeting Colonel Burr; death of Hamilton; oration by Gouverneur Morris; letter from Colonel Burr to Theodosia, dated the night before the duel; same date to Joseph Alston

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Chapter XVI

Letter to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; from John Swartwout; to Theodosia; ditto; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; ditto; journal for Theodosia; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia

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Chapter XVII

Letter to Theodosia; ditto; trial of Judge Chace before the United States' Senate; Burr presides; acquittal; letter to Theodosia; ditto; an account of the effect of Burr's speech on taking leave of the Senate; letter to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; journal of his tour in the Western country; letter to Joseph Alston

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Chapter XVIII

Burr's early views against Mexico; letter from General Miranda to General Hamilton, in April, 1798 on the subject of an expedition, in conjunction with Great Britain, against South America; from Miranda to Hamilton, in October, 1798, announcing the arrangements made with the British; from Miranda to General Knox, same date, on the same subject; General Adair's statement of Burr's views; grant of lands by the Spanish government to Baron Bastrop; transfer of part of said grant to Colonel Lynch; purchase from Lynch by Burr; the views of Burr in his Western expedition, as stated by himself; he is arrested on the Tombigbee; the cipher letter; transported to Richmond; trial and acquittal of Burr; testimony of Commodore Truxton; Dr. Bollman's treatment by Mr. Jefferson

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Chapter XIX

Excitement produced against Burr by Jefferson, Eaton, and Wilkinson; Senate of the United States pass a bill suspending writ of Habeas Corpus; House rejects the bill on the first reading, ayes 113, nays 19; extracts from Blennerhassett's private journal; official Spanish documents, showing that General Wilkinson, after he had sworn to Burr's treasonable designs, despatched his aid, Captain Walter Burling, to Mexico, demanding from the viceroy for his service to Spain, in defeating Burr's expedition against Mexico, the sum of two hundred thousand dollars; sundry letters of Burr to Theodosia, while imprisoned in Richmond on the charge of treason

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Chapter XX

Burr sails for England on the 7th of June, 18O8; arrives in London on the 16th of July; makes various unsuccessful efforts to induce the British ministry to aid him in his enterprise against South America; receives great attention from Jeremy Bentham; continues his correspondence with Bentham after his return to the United States; visits Edinburgh; experiences great courtesy; introduced to M'Kenzie and Walter Scott; returns to London; the ministers become suspicious of him; his papers are seized, and his person taken into custody for two days, when he is released, but ordered to quit the kingdom; leaves England in a packet for Gottenburgh; travels through Sweden, Germany, &c.; Bourrienne's (French minister at Hamburgh) account of Burr, and Burr's account of Bourrienne; arrives in Paris on the 16th of February, 1810; endeavours to induce Napoleon to aid him in his contemplated expedition, but is unsuccessful; asks a passport to leave France, and is refused; presents a spirited memorial to the emperor on the subject; Russell, chargé d'affaires, and M'Rae, United States consul at Paris, refuse him the ordinary protection or passport of an American citizen; in July, 1811, obtains permission from the emperor to leave France; sails from Amsterdam on the 20th of September; is captured next day by an English frigate, and carried into Yarmouth; remains in England from the 9th of October, 1811, until the 6th of March, 1812; arrives in New-York, via Boston, on the 8th of June, after an absence of four years

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Chapter XXI

Colonel Burr, on his return to New-York in 1811, resumes the practice of law; prejudices against him; kindness of Colonel Troup; letter from Joseph Alston to Burr, announcing the death of Aaron Burr Alston; effect upon Burr; Theodosia's health precarious; Timothy Greene despatched to bring her to New-York; letter from Greene; letter from Greene, stating that he is to sail for New-York in a few days, on board a schooner with Theodosia; letter from Alston to Theodosia, expressing apprehensions for her safety; from Alston to Burr on the same subject; from Alston to Burr, abandoning all hope of his wife's safety; Theodosia supposed to have perished in a gale of wind early in January, 1813; from Burr to Alston in relation to his private affairs; Burr expresses his opinions on great, but not on minor political questions; letter from Burr to Alston, denouncing the nomination of Monroe for president, and recommending General Jackson; Alston replies, concurring in sentiment with Burr, but ill health prevents his acting; Alston's death; letter from William A. Alston to Burr, explanatory of his late brother's will so far as Burr is interested; from Theodosia to her husband, at a moment when she supposes that death is approaching; Burr's continued zeal in favour of the South American States; letter from General Toledo to Colonel Burr in 1816, soliciting him to take command of the Mexican forces; Burr commissioned by the Republic of Venezuela in 1819; Burr's pursuits after his return from Europe; superintends the education of the Misses Eden; his pecuniary situation; state of his health; paralytic; manner of receiving strangers; restive and impatient at the close of his life; death; conveyed to Princeton for interment; an account of his funeral; proceedings of the Cliosophic Society

MEMOIRS OF AARON BURR.

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Chapter I

Colonel Burr's study of the law [1] has been already briefly noticed. He brought to that study a classic education as complete as could, at that time, be acquired in our country; and to this was added a knowledge of the world, perhaps nowhere better taught than in the camp, as well as a firmness and hardihood of character which military life usually confers, and which is indispensable to the success of the forensic lawyer. He was connected in the family circle with _two[2] eminent jurists, who were at hand to stimulate his young ambition, and to pour, in an almost perpetual stream, legal knowledge into his mind, by conversation and by epistolary correspondence. The time he spent in his studies preparatory to his admission would be considered short at the present day; but (to use the language of another) "it is to be recollected that at that time there were no voluminous treatises upon the mere routine of practice to be committed to memory, without adding a single legal principle or useful idea to the mind, and which only teach the law student, as has been said of the art of the rhetorician, 'how to name his tools.' Burr, fortunately for his future professional eminence, was not destined to graze upon this barren moor. He spent his clerkship in reading and abstracting, with pen in hand, Coke and the elementary writers, instead of Sellon and Tidd; and learnt law as a science, and not as a mechanical art."

On the other hand, it has been said "that Colonel Burr was not a deep-read lawyer; that he showed himself abundantly conversant with the general knowledge of the profession, and that he was skilful in suggesting doubts and questions; but that he exhibited no indications of a fondness for the science, nor of researches into its abstruse doctrines; that he seemed, indeed, to hold it and its administration in slight estimation. The best definition of law, he said, was 'whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained.' This sarcasm was intended full as much for the courts as for the law administered by them."

If Colonel Burr may have been surpassed in legal erudition, he possessed other qualifications for successful practice at the bar which were seldom equalled. He prepared his trials with an industry and forethought that were most surprising. He spared no labour or expense in attaining every piece of evidence that would be useful in his attacks, or guard him against his antagonist. He was absolutely indefatigable in the conduct of his suits. "He pursued (says a legal friend) the opposite party with notices, and motions, and applications, and appeals, and rearguments, never despairing himself, nor allowing to his adversary confidence, nor comfort, nor repose. Always vigilant and always urgent, until a proposition for compromise or a negotiation between the parties ensued. 'Now move slow (he would say); never negotiate in a hurry.' I remember a remark he made on this subject, which appeared to be original and wise. There is a saying, 'Never put off till tomorrow what you can do to-day.' 'This is a maxim,' said he, 'for sluggards. A better reading of the maxim is--Never do to-day what you can as well do to-morrow; because something may occur to make you regret your premature action.'"

I was struck, says the same friend, in his legal practice, with that tendency to mystery which was so remarkable in his conduct in other respects. He delighted in surprising his opponents, and in laying, as it were, ambuscades for them. A suit, in which I was not counsel, but which has since passed professionally under my observation, will illustrate this point in his practice. It was an ejectment suit, brought by him to recover a valuable tenement in the lower part of the city, and in which it was supposed, by the able lawyers retained on the part of the defendant, that the only question would, be on the construction of the will. On the trial they were surprised to find the whole force of the plainfiff's case brought against the authenticity of an ancient deed, forming a link in their title, and of which, as it had never, been questioned nor suspected, they had prepared merely formal proof; and a verdict of the jury, obtained by a sort, of coup-de-main, pronounced the deed a forgery. Two tribunals have subsequently established the deed as authentic; but the plaintiff lived and died in the possession of the land in consequence of the verdict, while the law doubts, which form the only real questions in the case, are still proceeding, at the customary snail's pace, through our courts to their final solution.

To be employed as an assistant by Mr. Burr was not to receive a sinecure. He commanded and obtained the constant and unremitted exertions of his counsel. It was one of the most remarkable exhibitions of the force of his character, this bending every one who approached him to his use, and compelling their unremitted, though often unwilling, labours in his behalf. His counsel would receive notes from him at midnight, with questions which were sent for immediate replies.

He showed nice discrimination in his selection of his professional assistants. When learning was required, he selected the most erudite. If political influence could be suspected of having effect, he chose his lawyers to meet or improve the supposed prejudice or predilection. Eloquence was bought when it was wanted; and the cheaper substitute of brow-beating, and vehemence used when they were equivalent or superior. In nothing did he show greater skill than in his measurement and application of his agents; and it was amusing to hear his cool discussion of the obstacles of prejudice, or ignorance, or interest, or political feeling to be encountered in various tribunals, and of the appropriate remedies and antidotes to be employed, and by what persons they should be applied.

Equal discrimination and acuteness was displayed in his political movements. An anecdote which occurred in the contested election of 1800 will exemplify this remark. Funds were required for printing, for committee-rooms, &c. The finance committee took down the names of leading democrats, and attached to each the sum they proposed to solicit from him. Before attempting the collection, the list, at Colonel Burr's request, was presented for his inspection. An individual, an active partisan of wealth, but proverbially parsimonious, was assessed one hundred dollars. Burr directed that his name should be struck from the list; for, said he, you will not get the money, and from the moment the demand is made upon him, his exertions will cease, and you will not see him at the polls during the election. The request was complied with. On proceeding with the examination, the name of another wealthy individual was presented; he was liberal, but indolent; he also was assessed one hundred dollars. Burr requested that this sum should be doubled, and that be should be informed that no labour would be expected from him except an occasional attendance at the committee-rooms to assist in folding tickets. He will pay you the two hundred dollars, and thank you for letting him off so easy. The result proved the correctness of these opinions. On that occasion Colonel Burr remarked, that the knowledge and use of men consisted in placing each in his appropriate position.

His imperturbable coolness and presence of mind were displayed in his civil as well as in his military life. Against most of the vicissitudes of a trial he guarded by his forethought and minuteness of preparation. I was present myself, says the legal friend already referred to, when he received with great composure a communication which would have startled most men. Mr. P. had long been an inmate of his house; he had been connected with him in many respects and for many years. Colonel Burr and two other lawyers were discussing a proposed motion in a chancery suit in which P. was the plaintiff, the colonel himself having, an interest in the result. P. was then out of town. A letter was brought in and handed to the colonel, which, telling us to proceed with our debate, he carefully read, and then placed it, in his customary manner, on the table, with the address downwards. Our discussion proceeded earnestly for ten minutes at least, when the colonel, who had listened with great attention, asked, in his gentlest tone, "What effect would the death of P. have on the suit?" We started, and asked eagerly why he put the question. "P. is dead," he replied, "as this letter informs me; will the suit abate?" The colonel was himself ill at the time, and unable to leave his sofa; and even if there was some affectation in his demeanour, there was certainly remarkable collectedness.

Colonel Burr commenced the practice of his profession at the close of the revolution, under the most favourable auspices; and may be said at one bound to have taken rank among the first lawyers of the day, and to have sustained it until he became vice president, at which time, it is believed, he had no superior at the bar, either in this state or in the Union, nor even an equal, except General Hamilton.

The eclat which Burr, yet a beardless boy, had acquired by his adventurous march under Arnold to Canada, through our northeastern wilds, then a trackless desert; his gallant bearing at Quebec and Monalouth; his efficient services in the retreat of our army from Long Island and New-York; and his difficult and delicate command on the lines of Westchester, followed him to private life, gathered around him hosts of admirers and friends among our early patriots, particularly the youthful portion of them, and no doubt essentially aided him in making his successful professional debut. The name of the chivalrous aid-de-camp who supported in his youthful arms the dying hero of Quebec was familiar in the mouths of men, and from one end of the continent to the other he was eulogized for his military prowess. Such were the cheering auspices under which he sheathed his sword when his physical energies would permit him no longer to wield it.

"He was indefatigable," says another legal friend, "in business, as he had been in his previous studies, and no lawyer ever appeared before our tribunals with his cause better prepared for trial, his facts and legal points being marshalled for combat with all the regularity and precision of a consummate military tactician. No professional adversary, it is believed, has ever boasted of having broken or thrown into confusion the solid columns into which he had formed them, or having found void spaces in their lengthened line, or to have beaten him by a ruse de guerre or a surprise.

"He never heeded expense in completing his preparations for trial; and, while laborious himself to an uncommon degree, he did not stint the labours of others, so far as he could command or procure them. Every pleading or necessary paper connected with his causes was in tile first place to be multiplied into numerous copies, and then abstracted or condensed into the smallest possible limits, but no material point or idea was by any means to be omitted. His propensity to concision or condensation was a peculiar trait in his mind. He would reduce an elaborate argument, extending over many sheets of paper, to a single page. Had he written the history of our revolution, which he once commenced, he would probably have compressed the whole of it in a single volume."

In his professional practice, he never solicited from an opponent any favour or indulgence any more than he would have done from an armed foe; but, at the same time, rarely withheld any courtesy that was asked of him, not inconsistent with the interest of his clients. He was a strict practitioner, almost a legal martinet, and so fond of legal technicalities, that he never omitted an opportunity of trying his own skill and that of opposite counsel in special pleas, demurrers, and exceptions in chancery, notwithstanding the risk of paying costs sometimes, though rarely incurred, and of protracting a cause.

The labour of drawing his pleadings and briefs, however, at least after his return from Europe in 1812, always devolved upon others; and, with marginal notes of all the authorities which had been consulted, from the year books downward, which were sometimes in law French and law Latin, to the last reports in England and some half a dozen of our states, in which may be properly called law English, were submitted to his critical acumen; his thousand doubts, suggestions, hints, and queries, which would start from his mind like a flash, and for a moment seem to throw into inextricable confusion what had been laboriously, and perhaps profoundly studied, at last would most generally be adopted without material alterations or additions.

Colonel Burr's mind cannot be said to have been a comprehensive one. It was acute, analytical, perspicacious, discriminating, unimaginative, quick to conceive things in detail, but not calculated to entertain masses of ideas. He would never have gained celebrity as an author; but as a critic, upon whatever subject, his qualifications have rarely been surpassed, though in literary matters and the fine arts they were only exhibited in conversation. His colloquial powers were impressive and fascinating, though he generally seemed a listener rather than a talker; but never failed to say a proper thing in the proper place."

As a public speaker, his ideas were not diffuse enough; or rather, he appeared to lack fluency to make a long, and what is called an elaborate argument upon any matter, however grave or momentous. In a cause in which he was employed as associate counsel with General Hamilton, an incident occurred, in relation to Chief Justice Yates, not unworthy recording. It speaks a language that cannot he misunderstood, and is demonstrative of the influence which he had over the feelings as well as the minds of his hearers. It was the celebrated case of Le Guen vs. Gouverneur and Kemble, one of the most important, in regard to the legal questions and amount of property involved, which at that day had been brought before our tribunals, and in which case he completely triumphed. Only a short period previous to his decease Colonel Burr remarked, that on this occasion he had acquired more money and more reputation as a lawyer than on any other during his long practice at the bar. A letter was addressed to Thurlow Weed, Esq., requesting him to apply to the Hon. John Van Ness Yates, son of the late chief justice, and ascertain whether the incident, as reported, was founded on fact. To that letter Mr. Weed received the following answer.

JOHN VAN NESS YATES TO THURLOW WEED.

Albany, July 8th, 1837.

DEAR SIR,

After some difficulty in finding my father's notes of the argument in the case of Le Guen vs. Gouverneur and Kemble, I have ascertained that the account you showed me, given in the letter of M. L. Davis, Esq., is in the main correct. My father's notes of General Hamilton's argument are very copious. Those of Colonel Burr's are limited, in this way--"Burr for plaintiff, I. The great principles of commercial law which apply to this case are"--then follows a hiatus of some lines. After which, as follows:--

"II. The plaintiff"--another hiatus.

"III. !!!!!" and this concludes all I can find.

Hamilton's eloquence was (if I may be allowed the expression) argumentative, and induced no great elevation or depression of mind, consequently could be easily followed by a note taker. Burr's was more persuasive and imaginative. He first enslaved the heart, and then led captive the, head. Hamilton addressed himself to the head only. I do not, therefore, wonder that Burr engrossed all the faculties of the hearer. Indeed, I have heard him often at the bar myself, and always with the same effect. I do not recollect, in conversation, any particular allusion of my father's to Burr's argument in the case of Le Guen vs. Gouverneur and Kemble; but I have frequently heard him say, that of all lawyers at the bar, Burr was the most difficult to follow in the way of taking notes. Yet Burr was very concise in his language. He had no pleonasms or expletives. Every word was in its proper place, and seemed to be the only one suited to the place. He made few or no repetitions. If what he said had been immediately committed to the press, it would want no correction.

Yours respectfully,

J. V. N. YATES.

Colonel Burr's style of speaking at the bar was unique, or peculiarly his own; always brief; never loud, vehement, or impassioned, but conciliating, persuasive, and impressive; and when his subject called for gravity or seriousness, his manner was stern and peremptory. He was too dignified ever to be a trifler; and his sarcasm, sometimes indulged in, rarely created a laugh, but powerfully told upon those who had provoked it. His enunciation was slow, distinct, and emphatic; perhaps too emphatic; and this was pronounced, by his early and devoted friend, Judge Paterson, [3] a fault in his mode of speaking while a youth, and seems never to have been fully corrected, as he did that of rapid utterance, attaining the true medium for public speaking in this respect. He spoke with great apparent ease, but could not be called fluent, although he never appeared at a loss for words, which were always so chaste and appropriate that they seemed to, have been as carefully selected before they fell from his lips as if they had been written down in a prepared speech and committed to memory. His manner was dignified and courteous; his self-possession never for an instant forsook him. He never appeared hurried or confused, or betrayed the slightest embarrassment for want of ideas to support his argument, or language in which to clothe it; and possessed a memory so well disciplined as never to forget any thing in the excitement of the legal forum which in the retirement of his study he had intended to use. He has frequently been heard to say that he possessed no oratorical talents; that he never spoke with pleasure, or even self-satisfaction, and seemed unconscious of the effect which he produced upon the minds of his audience.

Colonel Burr accorded the palm of eloquence to General Hamilton, whom he frequently characterized as a man of strong and fertile imagination, of rhetorical and even poetical genius, and a powerful declaimer. Burr's ruling passion was an ardent love for military glory. Next to the career of arms, diplomacy, no doubt, would have been his choice, for which not only his courtly and fascinating manners, but every characteristic of his mind peculiarly adapted him. It is idle now to speculate upon what he might have been had Washington yielded to the importunities of Madison, Monroe, and others, and appointed him minister to the French republic. Our country, before which he then stood in the original brightness of his character, would have been honoured in the choice, both at home and abroad, and his own destiny, at least, would have been widely different.

Notwithstanding oratory was not his forte, and he never spoke in public with satisfaction to himself, still many anecdotes are told of him which would show that the effect of his speeches were sometimes of unequalled power. It is said, that at the close of his farewell address to the Senate of the United States on his retirement from the vice-presidency, there was scarcely a dry eye to be seen among his grave auditors, many of whom were his bitter political adversaries. His manner of speaking was any thing but declamatory, and more resembled an elevated tone of conversation, by which a man, without any seeming intention, pours his ideas in measured and beautiful language into the minds of some small select circle, dislodging all which they may have previously entertained upon a particular subject, and fixing his own there, by the power of a seeming magical fascination, which he could render, when he chose, almost irresistible. To judge him by his success as a public speaker, few men could be called more eloquent.

As a monument of his legal knowledge and talents, his trial at Richmond may be referred to. The two volumes of Reports which contain it exhibit on almost every page the impress of his great mind, in its singular acuteness and perspicacity, and great powers of analysis and argument. On that trial were engaged some of the ablest lawyers of our country, and he manifestly took the lead of them all. But the abilities which he displayed, hour by hour, and day by day, through that long protracted contest, in which the verdict sought for by those who then wielded the political destinies of our country was an ignominious death, were no less remarkable than his unshaken firmness and high moral elevation of deportment, struggling as he was for honour and for life.

Fiat Justicia ruat coelum, was the motto of Chief Justice Marshall on the trial of Colonel Burr. He was acquitted, but his acquittal was not owing to the clemency or partiality of his judges. His acuteness as a lawyer, and the adroitness with which he managed his defence, contributed greatly, no doubt, in saving him from becoming a victim, though his innocence of the charge of treason which had been brought against him could hardly have effected that acquittal. Here, then, his talents have done some good to his country, even if it be of a negative character. They saved it from a stain of blood, which would have been as indelible as is that of Admiral Byng upon the escutcheon of England.

After Colonel Burr's return from Europe in 1812, he was engaged in several important causes, in which he was preeminently successful. His legal opinion in the great steam-boat cause aided in breaking up that monopoly. He was originally employed in the important land trial of Mrs. Bradstreet, and in the Eden causes, involving a large amount of property in the city of New-York, and turning upon some of the nicest points of the most difficult branch of the law of real property: he triumphed over almost the entire force of the New-York bar, backed by powerful corporations and individuals of great wealth, which they profusely lavished in a long-protracted contest. He commenced the Eden suits in opposition to an opinion which bad been given by General Hamilton, Richard Harrison, and other members of the profession of high standing, and on the faith of which opinions the parties in possession of the lands had purchased and held them at the time the suits were commenced.

Had Colonel Burr assiduously pursued the study of law through life, like Marshall, Kent, and others, it is not easy to conjecture to what elevated point he might have risen; but such was not his destiny; the bent of his genius, which had received its inclination at the stirring period of the world when he entered into active life, was military. But to show his persevering industry in his practice as a lawyer, and his power of enduring fatigue, even when almost an octogenarian, the following letter, written by him, is inserted.

Albany, March, 1834.

Germond's, Wednesday Evening.

Arrived this evening between 6 and 7 o'clock, having been forty-five hours in the stage without intermission, except to eat a hearty meal. Stages in very bad order--roads excellent for wheels to Peekskill, and thence very good sleighing to this city. The night was uncomfortable; the curtains torn and flying all about, so that we had plenty of fresh air.

The term was closed this day. Nelson will hold the Special Court to-morrow morning--have seen both Wendell and O'Connor this evening--all ready--came neither fatigued nor sleepy.

A. B.

Footnotes:

1. For the remarks which I am now about to present to the reader I am principally indebted to two highly intelligent members of the bar. Either of whom is fully competent to a development of Colonel Burr's legal character; and neither of whom would be disqualified by any prejudices in his favour. These gentlemen, it is believed, entertained different views as to the Practical value of that species of reading which is necessary to form what is by some termed "a truly learned lawyer."

2. Colonel Burr's brother-in-law, Judge Tappan Reeve, and his uncle, Pierpont Edwards.

3. see Vol. I., Ch. III.

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Chapter II

Before entering upon the details connected with the election of 1800, a brief history of the rise and progress of political parties in the State of New-York is deemed necessary. By the Constitution adopted during the revolutionary war, the state was divided into four districts, viz., The Southern, the Middle, the Eastern, and the Western. In the Southern District was included the counties of Richmond (Staten Island), Kings, Queens, and Suffolk (Long Island), New-York (Manhattan Island), and Westchester. These six counties, from the autumn of 1776 until the summer of 1783, were in a great measure in the possession of the British forces, and those portions of them which were nominally within the American lines were generally inhabited by tories and refugees. Lord North, or the most unrelenting of his followers, were not as much opposed to American independence as were the tories of the united provinces. The city of New-York became the rendezvous of the most intelligent and influential of this class. From this point they communicated with the British premier, through their correspondents in London. Many of them that were in exile from their late homes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut, left their families behind them, under the protection of the whigs. By this arrangement facilities were afforded for ascertaining the position, resources, and movements of the rebel armies. These facilities were not neglected, and the information thus obtained was promptly communicated to the British commander-in-chief in New-York, and to the ministry in England. The whigs felt that ingratitude was returned for their hospitality, and, in consequence, they became daily more incensed against the tories.

It is believed that the war would have terminated in 1780 or 1781, if the British minister and his military commanders in America had not been constantly led into errors by the opinions and advice of the refugees, but especially those residing in the city of New-York. Entertaining such views, the suffering whigs, in their most trying hours, consoled themselves with the hope and belief that, when the struggle should terminate and the country become independent, their oppressors and persecutors would no longer be permitted to remain among them. These were the predominant feelings of the men who were perilling their lives and enduring every species of privation and hardship for the freedom of their native land.

During the year 1778, Joseph Galloway, formerly of Philadelphia, sailed for England. His correspondence was extensive, and he became the depository of all the grievances of the American loyalists. He was the medium of communication between them, Lord North, and Lord George Germain. He possessed, in a high degree, the confidence of those who were the conscience keepers of the king. Among the correspondents of Mr. Galloway may be enumerated William Franklin, former governor of New-Jersey, Daniel Cox, and David Ogden, members of his majesty's council in New-Jersey, the Rev. Dr. Inglis, subsequently bishop of Nova Scotia, and Isaac Ogden, counsellor at law of New-York, John Potts, a judge of the Common Pleas in Philadelphia, John Foxcroft, postmaster general of North America, &c., &c. None of Mr. Galloway's correspondents exhibited a more vindictive spirit than the Rev. Bishop Inglis. These letters were private and confidential, excepting so far as, the ministry were concerned, for whose use most of them were intended. None of them, it is believed, have ever heretofore found their way into print. They are now matters of history. They are well calculated to develop the secret designs of the tories, and, at the same time, they afford the strongest view that could be given of the patriotism, the sufferings, and the untiring perseverance of the sons of liberty in those days. Some extracts will now be made from the original manuscripts, for the purpose of showing, in a limited degree, the cause, and thus far justifying the hostile feelings of the whigs towards the refugees.

The Rev. Bishop Inglis, under date of the 12th December, 1778, says--"Not less than sixty thousand of the rebels have perished by sickness and the sword since the war began, and these chiefly farmers and labourers. I consider it certain that a famine is inevitable if the war continues two years longer; nay, one year war more will bring inexpressible distress on the country with regard to provisions, and this will affect the rebellion not less than the depreciation of their pasteboard dollars. The rebellion, be assured, is on the decline. Its vigour and resources are nearly spent, and nothing but a little perseverance and exertion on the part of Britain is necessary to supress it totally. Butler and Brandt's forces, Indians and loyalists, I am told, amount to five or six thousand men. They have distressed and terrified the rebels more since last spring than the whole royal army.

Isaac Ogden, under date 22d November, 1778, says--"Thus has ended a campaign (if it deserve the appellation) without anything capital being done or even attempted. How will the historian gain credit who shall relate, that at least twenty-four thousand of the best troops in the world were shut up within their own lines by fifteen thousand, at most, of poor wretches, who were illy paid, badly fed, and worse clothed, and scarce, at best, deserved the name of soldiers?"

Daniel Cox, under date of 17th December, 1778, says--"Ned Biddle has declined his seat in Congress. The truth is, he means to do more essential service in the assembly, which has ordered the general sense of the people to be taken respecting the present constitution of Pennsylvania. Joe Reed is elected, and accepted the honour of being president and commander-in-chief of the state."

John Potts, under date 1st March, 1779, says--"An opinion prevails here that government (the British) will adopt the mode of devastation. If that should really take place, adieu to all the hopes of the friends of government ever again living in America. Be assured that, should government be restored by such means, her friends would find it impossible to travel this country without a guard to prevent assassination. This is not only my opinion, but the real sentiments of every friend to government. I have conversed with none, except some of the violent tories, indeed, of New England, who seem to partake of the savage temper of our countrymen." G---- N----[1] has said, in a confidential letter to a friend of his, "that government wish to get rid of this country, and is only at a loss how to do it without leaving it in a situation to injure her."

Daniel Cox, 28th February, 1779, says--"At any rate, I see absolute ruin attend us poor attainted loyalists should the colonies be given up, or this place (New-York) be evacuated. I once fondly imagined neither would happen. I wish that our old friend, the Black Prince, [2] could have the direction here again, and have the glory of conducting the future operations to a happy conclusion. I think he is more calculated for it than somebody [3] else, who, though he may possess zeal and honesty, wants head."

Isaac Ogden, 8th March, 1779, says--"Admiral Gambier is ordered from this station, to the universal joy of all ranks and conditions. I believe no person was ever more generally detested by navy, army, and citizen, than this penurious old reptile."

Daniel Cox, 10th April, 1779, says--"In an open letter to me, Mrs. Cox speaks of the increasing depreciation of the continental money, under the allegory of an old acquaintance of mine lying in a deep consumption. Should Great Britain be really treating, and give us up, there must be an end to her glory. But such a misfortune I can never believe her subject to, unless from her own folly and internal factions of the accursed opposition."

Thomas Eddy, under date 5th month, 3d, 1779, says--"From accounts received by last packet of the determined resolution of government to pursue the war in America with vigour, I am led to believe that the leaders in the rebellion must give up before fall. Indeed, when I consider the dissatisfaction universally prevalent caused by the badness of their money, I should not be surprised if such an event would take place as soon as General, Clinton opens the campaign."

Bishop, Inglis, 14th May, 1779, says--"Remonstrate loudly to those in authority against treating with the Congress--treating with them is establishing them, and teaching the Americans to look up to them for deliverance and protection. We have been guilty of a fatal error in this from the beginning; we now see and feel the consequences. This should teach us wisdom and better policy. Though we should conquer the rebels, yet, if an accommodation is settled with the Congress, I shall consider the colonies as eventually lost, and that in a little time, to Great Britain."

John Potts, 15th May, 1779, says--"In my last I mentioned some sanguine hopes which I could not help entertaining, from the prospect of an election to be held in the beginning of April, for a new convention, as they call it, in Pennsylvania. Those hopes are now totally destroyed by the efforts of Joe Reed [4] and the violent party. Their artful cry of tory against the party in favour of the convention raised a flame too great to be withstood, and procured more than twelve thousand signers to petitions against that measure, in consequence of which the assembly rescinded the resolution for holding the election."

"The person to whom I alluded in my last letter is the woman whom I mentioned to you last fall as so truly enterprising. She has brought three messages through the winter. From her I have this much further to assure you, that great preparations are making at Pittsburgh for the reception of troops.

"The friends of government all agree that they will be content to risk for ever every future hope and prospect of being restored to their estates, provided Great Britain will but secure her own authority fully before any terms are listened to; and, when that is acknowledged and established, then grant terms as liberal as she pleases, consistent with good government and future security."

Bishop Inglis, 3d September, 1779, says--"General Tryon made two or three descents on the coast of Connecticut, and burnt the towns of Fairfield and Norwalk. He was accompanied by a large body of refugees, who were extremely useful, and behaved with a resolution and intrepidity which did them great honour. Had the descents on Connecticut been longer continued and carried on more extensively, the most salutary consequences might be apprehended.

"The delusive notion of treating with Congress, I find, still prevails in some degree among you. Yet nothing could be more destructive to the interest of government. Treating with them would be confirming their usurpation. The loyalists, universally dread this above all things. However they may differ in opinion on other points, they are unanimous and united in this; and where so many are perfectly agreed in a matter which is level to all understandings, it must be the evident dictate of truth and reason."

Isaac Ogden, 20th September, 1779, says--"You may well ask what we are doing here. Our army is now (including the garrison from Rhode Island) at least twenty-four thousand men, a number sufficient to march through the whole continent; but what do numbers avail when they are cooped up in this dastardly manner? A want of knowledge of the country, a want of enterprise, or a want of something else, God only knows what, has prevented any and every attempt to interfere with the enemy. It is not a want of sufficient force, neither is it because it was impracticable. These are facts that the warmest of the rebels acknowledge. Their force is really despicable when compared to the army here. How is General Vaughan? I sincerely wish to see him at the head of the army here, as he is the only general that has been here that would listen to the advice of the American loyalists."

Bishop Inglis, 6th of November, 1779, says--"We have now within our lines upward of twenty-six thousand effective men, as I have been informed. Such a force, if led out and exerted with judgment and spirit, could not be resisted by the rebels--it must bear down all opposition. It is reported that Sir Henry Clinton is appointed sole commissioner, with authority to choose five assistants as a counsel, and that he is vested with power to treat with Congress, &c. It may be very proper to have a commissioner here, vested with extensive powers; but as to any hopes of treating with Congress about an accommodation, be assured they are visionary. Congress have done enough to dissipate all such fond expectations, unless their independence is acknowledged; and I should be heartily sorry if a measure so dishonourable to the nation, as treating with the Congress in any respect, were adopted. Insult and obstinacy is all that can be expected from them.

"With respect to the rebellion, I am clearly of opinion that it daily declines. Washington is the man to whom the army look for redress and support. He is now in America what Monk was in England in 1659. I wish I could say in every respect. Were he equally disposed, he might effect as sudden and total a revolution, here as honest George Monk did then in England."

Isaac Ogden, 16th December, 1779, says--"There is an anecdote of General Grey that I have lately heard and believe to be true, though the fact cannot now be fully ascertained. Just before the battle of Brandywine, an officer was despatched home by General Howe. General Grey undertook to give him his instructions how to demean himself on his arrival in London, &c. A copy of these instructions was found by a countryman, and delivered to Joe Shippen (Secretary Joe,) who now has them in Philadelphia. A gentleman here has seen them. As he related them to me, you have them. 'You will first go to Lord George Germain; he will ask you such and such question; you will answer them so and so. You will then be sent to Lord North, who will ask you these questions; you will thus answer them. You will then be sent to the king, who will also ask you, &c.; you are also to give him these answers. You will then be examined by the queen. She is a sensible woman. You must answer with caution, but, of all things, be careful that you say nothing that will condemn the conduct of General Howe.' Some pains are taken to procure this paper from Mr. Shippen; if it can be obtained, you will have it."

David Ogden, 3d December, 1779, says--"What gives me great concern is the fear of a dishonourable peace being made with the rebels. My fears arise from what I am told many of the officers in the army give out that America can never be conquered; and the sooner it is given up, and independence admitted by the crown and parliament, the better for Great Britain; and I am also informed that they have wrote to that purpose to their friends in England. What effect this may have on your side of the Atlantic, backed by the anti-ministerial party with you, enemies to monarchy and the great supporters of the rebellion in America, time must show; but I am persuaded that the present ministers will never give the least countenance to the independence of America. The laying the country waste has been called cruelty by the favourers of the rebellion, and said to be below the character of Britons; but in cases of rebellion, it has always, by the most civilized nations, been held justifiable, and no history affords an instance of calling it cruelty. The great mercy shown the rebels since the commencement of the rebellion is esteemed to be the greatest cruelty, as the lives of many thousands would have been preserved by a vigorous, exertion of the king's troops to distress the rebels wherever they marched, having a strict regard not to injure the loyalists."

Daniel Cox, 7th December, 1779, says--"Should you see Joe Reed's late speech to the assembly of Pennsylvania, you would imagine they felt no shock from the Georgia defeat. [5]

If but common means are actively employed and properly conducted, the rebellion must be crushed totally next campaign. I doubt not every effort in the power of Congress, both abroad and at home, will be made to carry themselves through another year; but, if you are successful at home, they must go to the devil. For God's sake, therefore, do not be frightened nor give us up; all must go right if You are but firm."

Reference has already been made to General Arnold's treason during the summer of 1780.[6]

From the private correspondence of Mr. Galloway, it appears, that as early as the autumn of 1778 Arnold was considered by the refugees as "lenient," if not friendly to them, and in this light was represented to the British ministry.

Charles Stewart, under date of the 17th December, 1778, says--"General Arnold is in Philadelphia. It is said that he will be discharged, being thought a pert tory. Certain it is that he associates mostly with those people, and is to be married to Miss Shippen, daughter of Edward Shippen, Esq."

David Sproat, 11th January, 1779, says--"You will also hear that General Arnold, commandant in Philadelphia, has behaved with lenity to the tories, and that he is on the eve of marriage to one of Edward Shippen's daughters."

James Humphreys, Jun. (printer), 8th of April, 1779, says--"General Arnold has been accused by the council of sundry misdemeanors. He has insisted upon a trial by a court martial, and was triumphantly acquitted. The Congress, however, have thought proper to remove him from his command in the city of Philadelphia, he being of too lenient a disposition to answer their cruel purposes."

This correspondence also develops the conflicting views which were taken by the tories as to the operations of the British army. So far as it had any influence, it was calculated to embarrass the ministry. Only two very short extracts will be given on this subject. The dividing point between the northern and the southern tories was whether the main army should take possession of Hudson's river, or the isthmus between Newcastle and Chesapeake Bay.

Bishop Inglis, May 14th, 1779, says--"I am still of opinion that taking possession of Hudson's river should be the first object. When that is done, which will effectually divide the rebel forces, circumstances should determine whether our operations should be directed eastward or westward."

John Potts, December 17th, 1778, says--"If government means to pursue this matter, she must spare men enough to take possession of the isthmus between Newcastle and Chesapeake Bay, and, by clearing that country of rebels, procure sufficient provision and forage for the whole British force in America. That country can also supply the fleet with a great quantity of naval stores. The whole trade of Maryland and Pennsylvania will be destroyed, and a great part of Virginia. The interior of that peninsula is better disposed towards the British government than any other country in the middle colonies. If possession of Rhode Island and this place (New-York) is retained, and that post taken, America has no access to sea from any intermediate port but Egg Harbour, which will then be scarcely an object. This is your plan, excepting the possession of Philadelphia and Bordentown, and, as the troops would not be dispersed too much, would, for that reason, be more eligible."

During the winter of 1778--79, the tories had it in contemplation to establish a regular corps for the purpose of plundering the whigs. About this period Colonel Burr took command of the lines in Westchester. His opinion of this system of warfare is expressed in a letter to General McDougall from which the following is extracted--"Colonel Littlefield, with the party, returned this morning. Notwithstanding the cautions I gave, and notwithstanding Colonel Littlefield's good intentions, I blush to tell you that the party returned loaded with plunder. Sir, till now I never wished for arbitrary power. I could gibbet half a dozen good whigs with all the venom of an inveterate tory." [7]

Let the reader compare the above whig sentiment with the following tory arrangement:--

Christopher Sower, 1st March, 1779, says--"An association is signing here (New-York), according to which the loyalists are to form themselves into companies of fifty men each; choose their own officers; to have the disposal of all prisoners by them taken; to make excursions against the rebels, plunder them, sell the spoil, appoint an agent to receive the money, and to divide it among them in equal shares." [8]

In the autumn of 1779 the refugees in New-York formed a board of delegates from the several provinces. In reference to it, Daniel Cox, December 7th, 1779, says--"I have lately brought about a general representation of all the refugees from the respective colonies, which now compose a board, called the board of refugees, and of which I have the honour at present to be president. We vote by colonies, and conduct our debates in quite a parliamentary style."

Christopher Sower, the 5th of December, 1779, says--"The deputies of the refugees from the different provinces meet once a week. Daniel Cox, Esq., was appointed to the chair, to deprive him of the opportunity of speaking, as he has the gift of saying little with many words."

Only one more extract will be given from the correspondence of Mr. Galloway, and that relates to the doings of this board of refugees. Among their labours, the manner of bringing the war to a speedy termination, and the formation of a constitution for the British provinces, engrossed their attention. No comments will be made on the plan; but it will not be found unworthy a careful perusal. Although presented as the individual suggestion of Mr. Ogden, it is evident, from other portions of the correspondence, that it was not unadvised, and, to the American reader, is now an amusing document.

David Ogden, 3d December, 1779, says--"When America submits to the crown of Great Britain, which I take as a matter certain, and will soon happen if proper measures are not neglected--pray, will not a constitution and government, in a manner something similar to the following, be most for the honour, security, peace, and interest of Great Britain, and also for the happiness and safety of America, and most compatible to the spirit and genius of both?

"That the right of taxation of America by the British parliament be given up. That the several colonies be restored to their former constitutions and forms of government, except in the instances after mentioned. That each colony have a governor and council appointed by the crown, and a house of representatives to be elected by the freeholders, inhabitants of the several counties, not more than forty nor less than thirty for a colony, who shall have power to make all necessary laws for the internal government and benefit of each respective colony that are not repugnant or contradictory to the laws of Great Britain, or the laws of the American parliament, made and enacted to be in force in the colonies for the government, utility, and safety of the whole. That an American parliament be established for all the English colonies on the continent, to consist of a lord lieutenant, barons (to be created for that purpose), not to exceed, at present, more than twelve, nor less than eight from each colony, to be appointed by his majesty out of the freeholders, inhabitants of each colony; a house of commons, not to exceed twelve nor less than eight, from each colony, to be elected by the respective houses of representatives for each colony, which parliament, so constituted, to be three branches of legislature of the northern colonies, and to be styled and called the Lord Lieutenant, the Lords, and Commons of the British Colonies in North America. That they have the power of enacting laws, in all cases whatsoever, for the general good, benefit, and security of the colonies, and for their mutual safety, both defensive and offensive, against the king's enemies, rebels, &c.; proportioning the taxes to be raised in such cases by each colony. The mode for raising the same to be enacted by the general assembly of each colony, which, if refused or neglected, be directed and prescribed by the North American parliament, with power to levy the same. That the laws of the American parliament shall be in force till repealed by his majesty in council; and the laws of the several legislatures of the respective colonies to be in force till the same be repealed by his majesty, or made void by an act and law of the American parliament. That the American parliament have the superintendence and government of the several colleges in North America, most of which have been the grand nurseries of the late rebellion, instilling into the tender minds of youth principles favourable to republican, and against a monarchical government, and other doctrines incompatible to the British constitution.

"A constitution and government something similar to the above, I am convinced, from the knowledge I have of the temper and spirit of the inhabitants of the colonies, will be most acceptable to them in general (it being what they wish for), and will also be conducive to establish a continued and lasting peace and harmony between Great Britain and the colonies. The Congress, no doubt, as it will deprive them of their power, will oppose the same by every artifice, as well as every other plan of accommodation that will lessen their grandeur and consequence. I am therefore persuaded that the Congress had best be altogether disregarded in any overtures of accommodation to be made or proposed, and all treaties with them absolutely refused, either directly with them, or indirectly through the courts of France and Spain, as men void of faith, or even common justice--deceivers of the people, and enemies to the public weal and happiness of mankind. And to facilitate a submission instead of a treaty, proceed with the army against the rebels with vigour and spirit, and issue a proclamation containing a constitution for North America, and a pardon to all who lay down their arms and take the oath of allegiance to his majesty and his government, excepting, as necessary examples of justice,

"First. The several members of the Continental Congress who have been elected and served as members thereof since the declaration of Independence.

"Second. All governors, presidents of the supreme executive councils or of other councils, or of any of the colonies, acting under the Congress, or any new and usurped form of government.

"Third. All those who have been by his majesty appointed of his council in any of the colonies, and since taken an active part in the civil or military department under the Congress or under any establishment of the rebel government.

"Fourth. All judges who have, since the rebellion, passed sentence of death against any of his majesty's liege subjects, for any supposed or real crime, committed or pretended to be committed against any law enacted or made by the Congress, or by any of the usurped or pretended legislatures of the colonies, making the fact or facts criminal for which he, she, or they were condemned to suffer death.

"Fifth. All commissaries and others who have seized and sold the estates of any of his majesty's liege subjects, under any pretence whatsoever, unless it was done by the consent and orders of the rightful owner, leaving all such to the mercy of his majesty, to be granted to those only whose conduct merits mercy, and hold up the same in the proclamation, if any should issue.

"Will it not be proper as well as just to have the estates of the rebels who are gone out of the king's lines among the rebels forfeited, confiscated, and sold by commissioners to be appointed for that purpose, and the moneys arising on the sales to be applied to the use of the refugees, to compensate for their sufferings by the rebels in ease of the parliamentary donations? Will not the perfidy of France and Spain justify Great Britain in proposing and entering into an alliance with the courts of Russia, Prussia, and other powers, to unite against France and Spain, the common disturbers of public tranquillity; take and divide among them all their islands in the West Indies?"

Footnotes:

1. Lord North.

2. General Vaughan.

3. Sir Henry Clinton.

4. The Hon. Joseph Reed, whom the British attempted to bribe through the agency of Mrs. Ferguson.

5. Referring to the discomfiture at Savannah of the combined forces of France and the United States; the former under the command of Count D'Estaing, the latter commanded by General Lincoln.

6. See Vol. I., Ch. XIII.

7. See Vol. I., Ch. IX.

8. On the back of Mr. Sower's letter Mr. Galloway has made, in his own handwriting, this endorsement--"Mr. Sower is a German refugee at New-York, and a person of the greatest influence among the Germans in Pennsylvania."

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