Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 123

FROM MR. RUSSELL.

Paris, October 25, 1810.

In reply to Mr. Burr's note of this morning, Mr. Russell begs leave to inform him that the province of granting pa.s.sports to citizens of the United States belongs to the consul, to whom all wishing for that protection must apply.

TO MR. M'RAE.

Paris, October 29, 1810.

Mr. Burr presents compliments. Having addressed himself to Mr. Russell for a certificate of citizenship, has been informed by him that the business of granting certificates was transferred to the consul. He therefore repeats the request to Mr. M'Rae. If a personal attendance be deemed necessary, Mr. Burr will wait on Mr. M'Rae for the purpose at any hour he may be pleased to appoint.

FROM MR. M'RAE.

Paris, October 29, 1810.

Mr. M'Rae answers to Mr. Burr's note of this morning, that his knowledge of the circ.u.mstances under which Mr. Burr left the United States renders it his duty to decline giving Mr. Burr either a pa.s.sport or a permis de sejour. If, however, the opinion Mr. M'Rae has formed and the determination he has adopted on this subject be erroneous, there is a remedy at hand.

Although the business of granting pa.s.sports and permis de sejour generally is confided to the consul, the charge des affaires unquestionably possesses full authority to grant protection in either of those forms to any person to whom it may be improperly denied by the consul.

TO MR. RUSSELL.

Paris, November 1, 1810.

On receipt of Mr. Russell's note, Mr. Burr applied to the consul; a copy of his reply is herewith enclosed. It cannot be material to inquire what are the _"circ.u.mstances"_ referred to by the consul, nor whether true or false. Mr. Burr is ignorant of any statute or instruction which authorizes a foreign minister or agent to inquire into any circ.u.mstances other than those which tend to establish the fact of citizen or not. If, however, Mr. Russell should be of a different opinion, Mr. Burr is ready to satisfy him that no circ.u.mstances exist which can, by any construction, in the slightest degree impair his rights as a citizen, and that the conclusions of the consul are founded in error, either in point of fact or of inference.

Yet, conceiving that every citizen has a right to demand a certificate or pa.s.sport, Mr. Burr is constrained to renew his application to Mr.

Russell, to whom the consul has been pleased to refer the decision.

FROM MR. RUSSELL.

Paris, November 4, 1810.

Without subscribing to the opinion of Mr. M'Rae with regard to the appeal that lays from the erroneous decisions of the consul to the charge d'affaires, Mr. Russell has no objection to judging the case which Mr. Burr has presented to him.

The man who evades the offended laws of his country, abandons, for the time, the right to their protection. This fugitive from justice, during his voluntary exile, has a claim to no other pa.s.sport than one which shall enable him to surrender himself for trial for the offences with which he stands charged. Such a pa.s.sport Mr. Russell will furnish to Mr. Burr, but no other.

In the winter of 1810 and 1811, being cut off from remittances from America, it appears from his journal that he suffered sad privations from the want of money.

In his diary of November 23, he writes--"Nothing from America, and really I shall starve. Borrowed three francs to-day. Four or five little debts keep me in constant alarm; all together, about two Louis."

December 1, 1810. "----- came in upon me this morning, just as I was out of bed, for twenty-seven livres. Paid him, which took literally my last sous. When at Denon's, thought I might as well go to St.

Pelasgie; set off, but recollected I owed the woman who sits in the pa.s.sage two sous for a segar, so turned about to pursue my way by Pont des Arts, which was within fifty paces; remembered I had not wherewith to pay the toll, being one sous; had to go all the way round by the Pont Royal, more than half a mile."

His journal for a year is filled with similar details, and would be a melancholy narration were it not that it exhibits him under every vicissitude, suspected and watched by the French government, misrepresented by the representatives of his own country, treated with almost universal coldness and neglect, cut off from all communication with America, without money, without occupation, and without any reasonable hope of a termination of his troubles, uniformly composed, firm, and cheerful. Not a discontented or fretful expression is to be found in his voluminous memoranda.

At length, in July, 1811, a ship being about sailing in ballast for America, with Napoleon's permission, Colonel Burr, through the influence of the Duc de Ba.s.sano, received permission to leave Paris.

He arrived at Amsterdam on the 3d of August; and after a month's delay, apparently from the capricious tyranny of the French authorities, he sailed for America in the ship Vigilant on the 20th of September; and, escaping from the toils of one of the great belligerants, he fell into the power of the other, and was on the next day captured by an English frigate and carried into Yarmouth.

The Vigilant and the effects of her pa.s.sengers were taken possession of by the government for trial in the admiralty; and as Burr had paid for pa.s.sage to America, and was reduced very low in funds, he was obliged to remain in England. He continued in England from the 9th of October, 1811, till the 6th of March, 1812, when he sailed for America in the ship Aurora, and arrived in New-York, via Boston, on the 8th of June, 1812, just four years after his departure from America. During his second sojourn in England he enjoyed the society and friendship of Bentham and G.o.dwin; but the latter could not alleviate his pecuniary distress, and the former was probably never fully aware of it. The diary contains a protracted record of privations, sometimes threatening absolute and hopeless want, but endured throughout with undisturbed and characteristic fort.i.tude and gayety. He seems to have missed the attentions and society which he found on his first visit to London, and the following extract from his journal of 26th March, 1812, shows that he left England without feeling affection or regret.

"I shake the dust off my feet. Adieu, John Bull! Insula inhospitabilis, as you were truly called 1800 years ago."

Footnotes:

1. It is highly probable that portions of Colonel Burr's journal, with his correspondence while in Europe, may hereafter be published in a single volume, as a separate and distinct work.

2. Joseph Alston, son-in-law of Colonel Burr.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Immediately after Colonel Burr's arrival in the city of New-York, he opened an office and commenced the practice of law. The high and distinguished reputation with which he had retired from the bar in 1801 secured to him, on his return, an extensive and profitable business. A few individuals of the profession, under the influence of former prejudices, some of them hereditary, and as ancient as the 4th of July, 1776, endeavoured to throw impediments in his way; but these efforts were of short duration, and productive of but little effect.

In general, he was courteously, if not kindly received, by gentlemen of the profession. In reference to this subject it was his request, that while no individual should be censured, the name of his friend, Colonel Robert Troup, should be recorded as meriting and receiving his most grateful acknowledgments. It has been seen that their intimacy was formed while they were yet but boys, at a period and under circ.u.mstances "that tried men's souls." On Burr's opening his office, Colonel Troup, having abandoned the practice of law, generously tendered him the use of his library until it should be required for his (Troup's) own son; which, to Burr, was a most acceptable kindness, as he was dest.i.tute of the means of supplying even his most pressing wants. His prospects, for the moment, were cheering and auspicious.

But they were soon "o'er-clouded with wo."

In his daughter (Mrs. Alston) and her son were centred all his hopes, all his affections, all the ties that bound him to this life. The following appears to have been the first letter, after his arrival in the United States, that Burr received from his son-in-law Alston.

FROM JOSEPH ALSTON.

July 26, 1812.

A few miserable weeks since, my dear sir, and in spite of all the embarra.s.sments, the troubles, and disappointments which have fallen to our lot since we parted, I would have congratulated you on your return in the language of happiness. With my wife on one side and my boy on the other, I felt myself superior to depression. The present was enjoyed, the future was antic.i.p.ated with enthusiasm. One dreadful blow has destroyed us; reduced us to the veriest, the most sublimated wretchedness. That boy, on whom all rested; our companion, our friend--he who was to have transmitted down the mingled blood of Theodosia and myself--he who was to have redeemed all your glory, and shed new l.u.s.tre upon our families--that boy, at once our happiness and our pride, is taken from us--_is dead_. We saw him dead. My own hand surrendered him to the grave; yet we are alive. But it is past. I will not conceal from you that life is a burden, which, heavy as it is, we shall both support, if not with dignity, at least with decency and firmness. Theodosia has endured all that a human being could endure; but her admirable mind will triumph. She supports herself in a manner worthy of your daughter.

We have not yet been able to form any definite plan of life. My present wish is that Theodosia should join you, with or without me, as soon as possible. My command here, as brigadier-general, embarra.s.ses me a good deal in the disposal of _myself._ I would part with Theodosia reluctantly; but if I find myself detained here, I shall certainly do so. I not only recognise your claim to her after such a separation, but change of scene and your society will aid her, I am conscious, in recovering at least that tone of mind which we are destined to carry through life with us.

I have great anxiety to be employed against Quebec, should an army be ordered thither, and have letters prepared asking of the president a brigade in that army. From the support which that request will have, if not obtained now, I doubt not it will be at the first increase of the military force, which, if the war be seriously carried on, must be as soon as Congress meet. Then, be the event what it may, I shall at least gain something. Adieu.

Yours, with respect and regard,

JOSEPH ALSTON.