Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 108

SIR,

Your first letter, in a style too peremptory, made a demand, in my opinion, unprecedented and unwarrantable. My answer, pointing out the embarra.s.sment, gave you an opportunity to take a less exceptionable course. You have not chosen to do it; but, by your last letter, received this day, containing expressions _indecorous_ and improper, you have increased the difficulties to explanation intrinsically incident to the nature of your application.

If by a "definite reply" you mean the direct avowal or disavowal required in your first letter, I have no other answer to give than that which has already been given. If you mean any thing different, admitting of greater lat.i.tude, it is requisite you should explain.

I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,

ALEX. HAMILTON.

A. BURR, Esq.

This letter was unsealed, but I did not read it in his presence. After some conversation relative to what General Hamilton would say on the subject of the present controversy, during which Mr. Pendleton read from a paper his ideas on the subject, he left me for the purpose of seeing and consulting Mr. Hamilton, taking the paper with him. In about an hour he called at my house. I informed him that I had shown to Colonel Burr the letter he had given me from General Hamilton; that, in his opinion, it amounted to nothing more than the verbal reply I had already reported; that it left the business precisely where it then was; that Mr. Burr had very explicitly stated the injuries he had received and the reparation he demanded, and that be did not think it proper to be asked now for further explanation.

Towards the conclusion of the conversation I informed him that Colonel Burr required a general disavowal of any intention, on the part of General Hamilton, in his various conversations, to convey expressions derogatory to the honour of Mr. Burr. Mr. Pendleton replied that he believed General Hamilton would have no objections to make such declaration, and left me for the purpose of consulting him, requesting me to call in the course of the afternoon for an answer. I called on him, accordingly, about six o'clock. He then observed that General Hamilton declined making such a disavowal as I had stated in our last conversation; that he, Mr. Pendleton, did not then perceive the whole force and extent of it; and presented me with the following paper, No.

IX., which I transmitted in the evening to Mr. Burr.

No. IX.

In answer to a letter properly adapted to obtain from General Hamilton a declaration whether he had charged Colonel Burr with any particular instance of dishonourable conduct, or had impeached his private character either in the conversation alluded to by Doctor Cooper, or in any other particular instance to be specified, he would be able to answer consistently with his honour and the truth, in substance, that the conversation to which Doctor Cooper alluded turned wholly on political topics, and did not attribute to Colonel Burr any instance of dishonourable conduct, nor relate to his private character; and in relation to any other language or conversation of General Hamilton which Colonel Burr will specify, a prompt and frank avowal or denial will be given.

The following day (Tuesday, 26th June), as early as was convenient, I had an interview with Colonel Burr, who informed me that he considered General Hamilton's proposition a mere evasion, that evinced a desire to leave the injurious impressions which had arisen from the conversations of General Hamilton in full force; that when he had undertaken to investigate an injury his honour had sustained, it would be unworthy of him not to make that investigation complete. He gave me further instructions, which are substantially contained in the following letter to Mr. Pendleton, No. X.

No. X.

June 26, 1804.

SIR,

The letter which you yesterday delivered to me, and your subsequent communication, in Colonel Burr's opinion, evince no disposition, on the part of General Hamilton, to come to a satisfactory accommodation.

The injury complained of and the reparation expected are so definitely expressed in Colonel Burr's letter of the 21st instant, that there is not perceived a necessity for further explanation on his part. The difficulty that would result from confining the inquiry to any particular times and occasions must be manifest. The denial of a specified conversation only would leave strong implication that on other occasions improper language had been used. When and where injurious opinions and expressions had been uttered by General Hamilton must be best known to him, and of him only will Colonel Burr inquire. No denial or declaration will be satisfactory unless it be general, so as wholly to exclude the idea that rumours derogatory to Colonel Burr's honour has originated with General Hamilton, or have been fairly inferred from any thing he has said. A definite reply to a requisition of this nature was demanded by Colonel Burr's letter of the 21st instant. This being refused, invites the alternative alluded to in General Hamilton's letter of the 20th.

It was required by the position in which the controversy was placed by General Hamilton on Friday (June 22d) last, and I was immediately furnished with a communication demanding a personal interview. The necessity of this measure has not, in the opinion of Colonel Burr, been diminished by the general's last letter, or any communication which has since been received. I am, consequently, again instructed to deliver you a message as soon as it may be convenient for you to receive it. I beg, therefore, you will be so good as to inform me at what hour I can have the pleasure of seeing you.

Your most obedient and humble servant,

W. P. VAN NESS.

NATHANIEL PENDLETON, Esq.

In the evening of the same day I received from him the following answer:--

No. XI.

June 26, 1804.

SIR,

I have communicated the letter which you did me the honour to write to me of this date, to General Hamilton. The expectations now disclosed on the part of Colonel Burr appear to him to have greatly extended the original ground of inquiry, and, instead of presenting a particular and definite case for explanation, seem to aim at nothing less than an inquisition into his most confidential conversations, as well as others, through the whole period of his acquaintance with Colonel Burr.

While he was prepared to meet the particular case fairly and fully, he thinks it inadmissible that he should be expected to answer at large as to every thing that he may possibly have said in relation to the character of Colonel Burr at any time or upon any occasion. Though he is not conscious that any charges which are in circulation to the prejudice of Colonel Burr have originated with him, except one which may have been so considered, and which has long since been fully explained between Colonel Burr and himself, yet he cannot consent to be questioned generally as to any rumours which may be afloat derogatory to the character of Colonel Burr, without specification of the several rumours, many of them, probably, unknown to him. He does not, however, mean to authorize any conclusion as to the real nature of his conduct in relation to Colonel Burr by his declining so loose and vague a basis of explanation, and he disavows an unwillingness to come to a satisfactory, provided it be an honourable, accommodation.

His objection is the very indefinite ground which Colonel Burr has a.s.sumed, in which he is sorry to be able to discern nothing short of predetermined hostility. Presuming, therefore, that it will be adhered to, he has instructed me to receive the message which you have it in charge to deliver. For this purpose I shall be at home and at your command to-morrow morning from eight to ten o'clock.

I have the honour to be, respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

NATHANIEL PENDLETON.

WM. P. VAN NESS, Esq.

I transmitted this to Colonel Burr; and, after a conference with him, in which I received his further instructions, and that no misunderstanding might arise from verbal communication, I committed to writing the remarks contained in No. XII., which follows:

No. XII.

Wednesday morning, June 27, 1804.

SIR,

The letter which I had the honour to receive from you, under date of yesterday, states, among other things, that, in General Hamilton's opinion, Colonel Burr has taken a very indefinite ground, in which he evinces nothing short of predetermined hostility, and General Hamilton thinks it inadmissible that the inquiry should extend to his confidential as well as other conversations. To this Colonel Burr can only reply, that secret whispers traducing his fame and impeaching his honour are at least equally injurious with slanders publicly uttered; that General Hamilton had, at no time and in no place, a right to use any such injurious expression; and that the partial negative he is disposed to give, with the reservations he wishes to make, are proofs that he has done the injury specified.

Colonel Burr's request was, in the first instance, proposed in a form the most simple, in order that General Hamilton might give to the affair that course to which he might be induced by his temper and his knowledge of facts. Colonel Burr trusted with confidence, that, from the frankness of a soldier and the candour of a gentleman, he might expect an ingenuous declaration. That if, as he had reason to believe, General Hamilton had used expressions derogatory to his honour, he would have had the magnanimity to retract them; and that if, from his language, injurious inferences had been improperly drawn, he would have perceived the propriety of correcting errors which might thus have been widely diffused. With these impressions Colonel Burr was greatly surprised at receiving a letter which he considered as evasive, and which, in manner, he deemed not altogether decorous. In one expectation, however, he was not wholly deceived; for the close of General Hamilton's letter contained an intimation that, if Colonel Burr should dislike his refusal to acknowledge or deny, he was ready to meet the consequences. This Colonel Burr deemed a sort of defiance, and would have felt justified in making it the basis of an immediate message; but, as the communication contained something concerning the indefiniteness of the request; as he believed it rather the offspring of false pride than of reflection; and as he felt the utmost reluctance to proceed to extremities while any other hope remained, his request was repeated in terms more explicit. The replies and propositions on the part of General Hamilton have, in Colonel Burr's opinion, been constantly, in substance, the same.

Colonel Burr disavows all motives of predetermined hostility, a charge by which he thinks insult added to injury. He feels as a gentleman should when his honour is impeached or a.s.sailed; and, without sensations of hostility or wishes of revenge, he is determined to vindicate that honour at such hazard as the nature of the case demands.

The length to which this correspondence has extended only tending to prove that the satisfactory redress, earnestly desired, cannot be attained, he deems it useless to offer any proposition except the single message which I shall now have the honour to deliver.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

W. P. VAN NESS.

NATHANIEL PENDLETON, Esq.

I handed this to Mr. Pendleton at twelve o'clock on Wednesday the 27th. After he had perused it, agreeable to my instructions, I delivered the message which it is unnecessary to repeat. The request it contained was acceded to. After which Mr. Pendleton remarked that a court was then sitting in which General Hamilton had much business to transact, and that he had also some private arrangements to make, which would render some delay unavoidable. I acceded to his wish, and Mr. Pendleton said he would call on me again in the course of the day or the following morning, to confer further relative to time and place.

Thursday, June 28th, ten o'clock P. M., Mr. Pendleton called on me with a paper which he said contained some views of General Hamilton, and which he had received from him. I replied, that if the paper contained a definite and specific proposition for an accommodation, I would with pleasure receive it, and submit it to the consideration of my princ.i.p.al; if not, that I must decline taking it, as Mr. Burr conceived the correspondence completely terminated by the acceptance of the invitation contained in the message I had yesterday delivered.

Mr. Pendleton replied that the paper did not contain any proposition of the kind I alluded to, but remarks on my last letter. I, of course, declined receiving it. Mr. Pendleton then took leave, and said that he would call again in a day or two to arrange time and place. Tuesday, July 3d, I again saw Mr. Pendleton; and, after a few subsequent interviews, the time when the parties were to meet was ultimately fixed for the morning of the 11th of July instant. The occurrences of that interview will appear from the following statement, No. XIII., which has been drawn up and mutually agreed to by the seconds of the parties.