Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 112

Philadelphia, August 3, 1804.

The preceding is a summary of the intelligence by this day's mail. The purport of the inquest is confirmed by a letter from J.B.P. I am further advised that an application has been made to Governor Lewis, of New-York, requiring him to demand me of the governor of this state, with which Lewis will most probably be obliged to comply. I shall, nevertheless, remain here some days (from 8 to 20), that I may the better know the measures of the enemy. _Have no anxiety about the issue of this business._

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, August 2, 1804.

Your letters of the 8th and 18th of July are received; the latter yesterday. You must not complain or find fault if I omit to answer, or even to write. Don't let me have the idea that you are dissatisfied with me a moment. I can't just now endure it. At another time you may play the Juno if you please. Your letters amuse and console me.

Continue to write with this reliance, and without the expectation of pay in kind. I owe you no thanks for a letter if you demand prompt payment to the full amount.

All you write of the boy represents him such as I would have him. His refusal of the peaches reminded me of his mother. Just so she has done fifty times, and just so I kissed her; but then I did not give her peaches.

Nothing can be done with Celeste. There is a strange indecision and timidity which I cannot fathom. The thing, however, is abandoned; and, for a few months, I believe, all such things.

I shall be here for some days. How many cannot now be resolved. I am very well, and not without occupation or amus.e.m.e.nt. Nothing would give me so much pleasure as to hear that your time, or any part of it, is usefully employed.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, August 3, 1804.

You will have learned, through Mr. Alston, of certain measures pursuing against me in New-York. I absent myself from home merely to give a little time for pa.s.sions to subside, not from any apprehension of the final effects of proceedings in courts of law. They can, by no possibility, eventually affect my person. You will find the papers filled with all manner of nonsense and lies. Among other things, accounts of attempts to a.s.sa.s.sinate me. These, I a.s.sure you, are mere fables. Those who wish me dead prefer to keep at a very respectful distance. No such attempt has been made nor will be made. I walk and ride about here as usual.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, August 11, 1804.

Your letter of the 25th July finds me in a moment of great occupation, being on the point of embarking for St. Simons. Write to me on receipt of this, and enclose to the postmaster at Darien, Georgia. The letter to me to be addressed to A. B., at Hampton, St. Simons; and pray write over again all you have written since the 25th, for the letters now on the way will not be received for some time. I shall lay a plan for meeting you somewhere, but whether I may have it in my power to visit the high hills of Santee is doubtful; I fear improbable. They say there is no going through the flat country at this season without hazard of life. Consult your husband about this, and write me as above directed. You shall hear from me the moment of my arrival anywhere; that is, I shall write, and you may read as soon as you can get the letter.

If any male friend of yours should be dying of ennui, recommend to him to engage in a duel and a courts.h.i.+p at the same time--prob. est.

Celeste seems more pliant. I do believe that eight days would have produced some grave event; but, alas! those eight days, and perhaps eight days more, are to be pa.s.sed on the ocean.

My love to Natalie; to her girl and your boy. I have received a very charming letter from her, which shall be noticed when I get the other side of you. Adieu.

A. BURR.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON.

Philadelphia, August 11, 1804.

Your letters of the 21st and 25th July are just now received, and I have barely time to read them and transmit your orders to New-York about Montalto.

My plan is to visit the Floridas for five or six weeks. I have desired Theodosia to consult you whether there be any healthy point within a hundred miles or so of St. Simons at which we might meet. Might I safely travel through your low country at this season?

Theodosia fat and the boy pale are bad omens. For G.o.d's sake, or rather for theirs, your own, and mine, hurry them off to the mountains. I could, perhaps, as easily find you there as elsewhere.

Warrants have been issued in New-York against all those charged with an agency in the death of General Hamilton, but no requisition or demand has been made by the governor of that state on this or any other, nor does it seem very probable that such demand will be immediately made.

I am negotiating to get an a.s.surance from authority that I shall be bailed, on receipt of which I shall surrender.

The eastern republicans take part against the calumniators in New-York. Swartwout is now here. He thinks the tide has already turned in New-York. You had better open a correspondence with him.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Hampton, St. Simon's, August 28, 1804.

We arrived on Sat.u.r.day evening, all well. The mail, which arrives but once a week, had just gone. An accidental opportunity enables me to forward this to Savannah.

I am at the house of Major Butler, comfortably settled. A very agreeable family within half a mile. My project is to go next week to Florida, which may take up a fortnight or ten days, and soon after my return to go northward, by Augusta and Columbia, if I can find ways and means to get on; but I have no horse, nor does this country furnish one. In my letter to your husband, written at the moment of leaving Philadelphia, I desired him to name some place (healthy place) at which he could meet me. Enclose to "Mr. R. King, Hampton, St.

Simon's."

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

St. Simon's, August 31, 1804.

I am now quite settled. My establishment consists of a housekeeper, cook, and chambermaid, seamstress, and two footmen. There are, besides, two fishermen and four bargemen always at command. The department of laundress is done abroad. The plantation affords plenty of milk, cream, and b.u.t.ter; turkeys, fowls, kids, pigs, geese, and mutton; fish, of course, in abundance. Of figs, peaches, and melons there are yet a few. Oranges and pomegranates just begin to be eatable. The house affords Madeira wine, brandy, and porter. Yesterday my neighbour, Mr. Couper, sent me an a.s.sortment of French wines, consisting of Claret, Sauterne, and Champagne, all excellent; and at least a twelve months' supply of orange shrub, which makes a most delicious punch. Madame Couper added sweetmeats and pickles. The plantations of Butler and Couper are divided by a small creek, and the houses within one quarter of a mile of each other; accessible, however, only by water. We have not a fly, moscheto, or bug. I can sit a whole evening, with open windows and lighted candles, without the least annoyance from insects; a circ.u.mstance which I have never beheld in any other place. I have not even seen a c.o.c.kroach.

At Mr. Couper's, besides his family, there are three young ladies, visitors. One of them arrived about three months ago from France, to join a brother who had been s.h.i.+pwrecked on this coast, liked the country so much that he resolved to settle here, and sent for this sister and a younger brother. About the time of their arrival, the elder brother was accidentally drowned; the younger went with views to make an establishment some miles inland, where he now lies dangerously ill. Both circ.u.mstances are concealed from the knowledge of Mademoiselle Nicholson. In any event, she will find refuge and protection in the benevolent house of Mr. Couper.

The cotton in this neighbourhood, on the coast southward to the extremity of Florida, and northward as far as we have heard, has been totally destroyed. The crop of Mr. C. was supposed to be worth one hundred thousand dollars, and not an extravagant estimate, for he has eight hundred slaves. He will not get enough to pay half the expenses of the plantation. Yet he laughs about it with good humour and without affectation. Butler suffers about half this loss. Part of his force had been turned to rice. My travelling companion, secretary, and aid-de-camp is Samuel Swartwout, the youngest brother of John, a very amiable young man of twenty or twenty-one.

Now, verily, were it not for the intervention of one hundred miles of low, swampy, pestiferous country, I would insist on your coming to see me, all, all! Little _gamp_, and Mademoiselle Sum_tare_, and their appendages; for they are the princ.i.p.als.

I still propose to visit Florida. To set off in three or four days, and to return hither about the 16th of September; beyond this I have at present no plan. It is my wish, G.o.d knows how ardently I wish, to return by land, and pa.s.s a week with you; but, being without horses, and there being no possibility of hiring or buying, the thing seems scarcely practicable. Two modes only offer themselves--either to embark in the kind of mail stage which goes from Darien through Savannah, Augusta, and Columbia, to Camden, or to take a water pa.s.sage either to Charleston or Georgetown. Either of these being accomplished, new difficulties will occur in getting from Statesburgh northward. I must be at New-York the first week in November. Consult your husband, and write me of these matters. Enclose to Mr. Roswell King, which I repeat, lest my former letters should not have been received. Our mail has just arrived, but has brought me no letter.

I erred a little in my history of the family of Mademoiselle N. There are still two brothers here. One a man d'une certaine age. Though not wealthy, they are not dest.i.tute of property.

Mr. C. has just now gone with his boat for the dashers who live about thirty miles southwest on the main. He has requested me to escort Madame C. on Sunday to his plantation on the south end of this island, where we are to meet him and his party on Monday, and bring them home in our coach. Madame C. is still young, tall, comely, and well bred.