Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 111

A. BURR.

The elder Prevost, [5] Augustine James Frederic Prevost, is a most amiable and honourable man. Under the garb of coa.r.s.e rusticity you will find, if you know him, refinement, wit, a delicate sense of propriety, the most inflexible intrepidity, incorruptible integrity, and disinterestedness. I wish you could know him; but it would be difficult, by reason of his diffidence and great reluctance to mingle with the world. It has been a source of extreme regret and mortification to me that he should be lost to society and to his friends. The case seems almost remediless, for, alas! _he is married!_

A. BURR.

If you can pardon and indulge a folly, I would suggest that Madame Sansay, too well known under the name of Leonora, has claims on my recollection. She is now with her husband at St. Jago of Cuba.

A. BURR.

Footnotes:

1. Colonel Burr then resided at Richmond Hill.

2. For the satisfaction of some of General Hamilton's friends, I examined his body after death, in presence of Dr. Post and two other gentlemen. I discovered that the ball struck the second or third false rib, and fractured it about in the middle; it then pa.s.sed through the liver and diaphragm, and, as far as we could ascertain without a minute examination, lodged in the first or second lumbar vertebra. The vertebra in which it was lodged was considerably splintered, so that the spiculae were distinctly perceptible to the finger. About a pint of clotted blood was found in the cavity of the belly, which had probably been effused from the divided vessels of the liver.

3. As his habit was delicate, and had been lately rendered more feeble by ill health, particularly by a disorder of the stomach and bowels, I carefully avoided all those remedies which are usually indicated on such occasions.

4. They supported Colonel Burr for the office of governor in opposition to Morgan Lewis.

5. Mrs. Burr's son by her first husband, Colonel Prevost, of the British army.

CHAPTER XVII.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON.

New-York, July 13, 1804.

GENERAL HAMILTON died yesterday. The malignant federalists or tories, and the imbittered Clintonians, unite in endeavouring to excite public sympathy in his favour and indignation against his antagonist.

Thousands of absurd falsehoods are circulated with industry. The most illiberal means are practised in order to produce excitement, and, for the moment, with effect.

I propose leaving town for a few days, and meditate also a journey for some weeks, but whither is not resolved. Perhaps to Statesburgh. You will hear from me again in about eight days.

A. BURR.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON.

July 18, 1804.

The event of which you have been advised has driven me into a sort of exile, and may terminate in an actual and permanent ostracism. Our most unprincipled Jacobins are the loudest in their lamentations for the death of General Hamilton, whom, for many years, they have uniformly represented as the most detestable and unprincipled of men--the motives are obvious. Every sort of persecution is to be exercised against me. A coroner's jury will sit this evening, being the _fourth_ time. The object of this unexampled measure is to obtain an inquest of murder. Upon this a warrant will issue to apprehend me, and, if I should be taken, no bail would probably be allowed. You know enough of the temper and principles of the generality of the officers of our state government to form a judgment of my position.

The statement [1] in the Morning Chronicle was not submitted to my perusal, I being absent at the time of the publication. Several circ.u.mstances not very favourable to the deceased are suppressed; I presume, from holy reverence for the dead. I am waiting the report of this jury; when that is known, you shall be advised of my movements.

At present I have decided on nothing. Write under cover to Charles Biddle, Philadelphia.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

July 20, 1804.

La G. has, on a recent occasion, manifested a degree of sensibility and attachment which have their influence on _gamp_. Her conduct is also highly honourable to the independence of her mind, for all her a.s.sociations and connexions would lead to a different result. An interview is expected this evening, which, if it take place, will terminate in something definitive.

It was, indeed, a pretty ludicrous description which you received. On the other side you may add, real good-temper and cheerfulness; a good education, according to the estimation of the world. I shall journey somewhere within a few days, but whither is not yet decided. My heart will travel southward, and repose on the hills of Santee.

Adieu, my dear child.

A. BURR.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON.

Philadelphia, July 29, 1804.

The coroner's jury continued to the 26th (my last New-York date) to sit and adjourn. Upon suspicion that my friends had some knowledge of the subject, derived either from Van Ness or me, _warrants_ have issued to bring them in to testify. Matthew L. Davis was apprehended, and, refusing to answer, was committed to prison, where he now lies; probably Colonel Willett is now also in jail on the same account.

Swartwout, Van Ness, and others are secreted. How long this sort of persecution may endure cannot be conjectured.

The ferment, which was with so much industry excited, has subsided, and public opinion begins to take its proper course.

A. BURR.

FROM JOHN SWARTWOUT.

New-York, August 2, 1804.

I was interrupted in my letter yesterday. The jury agreed to their verdict this morning at _two_ o'clock, _viz_., wilful murder by the hand of A. B. William P. Van Ness and Nathaniel Pendleton accessories before the fact. The only evidence, Bishop Moore. Edward Ferris, James Ferris, and a Mr. Milne dissented, and contemplate a protest against the illegal conduct of the coroner. Their counsel is James Woods. At four o'clock this morning I despatched an express to Van Ness. The printers, you perceive, continue their malevolence through the vilest motives; notwithstanding all this, there is a considerable reaction.

The public palate has become satiated. The Nicholsons, the Gelstons, the Mills's, and may other demo's are rapidly travelling back to 1800.

Mr. P. called and begged that the Chronicle might still be kept silent. He observed, that he mixed with these people, and found it to be the true policy. Although this is not my opinion, yet we must be governed by the advice of the majority.

The oration (by Gouverneur Morris) has displeased many republicans of the first water. Governor Morgan Lewis speaks of the proceedings openly as disgraceful, illiberal, and ungentlemanly. In short, a little more noise on their side, and a little further magnanimity on ours, is all that is necessary. In all this bustle, judicious men see nothing but the workings of the meanest pa.s.sions. The Salem Gazette and the Boston Chronicle seem to take the most correct ground.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON.