Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 117

As soon as the Senate could compose themselves sufficiently to choose a president pro tem., they calve to the following resolution:----

"Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of the Senate be presented to _Aaron Burr_, in testimony of the impartiality, dignity, and ability with which he has presided over their deliberations, and of their entire approbation of his conduct in the discharge of the arduous and important duties a.s.signed him as president of the Senate; and that Mr.

Smith, of Maryland, and Mr. White be a committee to wait on him with this resolution.

_Attest_. SAM. A. OTIS, Secretary.

To which resolution Colonel Burr returned the following answer to the Senate:----

"Next to the satisfaction arising from a consciousness of having discharged my duty, is that which is derived from the approbation of those who have been the constant witnesses of my conduct, and the value of this testimony of their esteem is greatly enhanced by the prompt.i.tude and unanimity with which it is offered.

"I pray you to accept my respectful acknowledgments, and the a.s.surance of my inviolable attachment to the interests and dignity of the Senate.

A. BURR.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON.

Philadelphia, March 22, 1805.

The enclosed paper will show you what is doing here. The subject of convention is about to divide this state into new and inveterate parties. The old names and the old animosities of federal and republican will be lost, but the pa.s.sions will have full scope in the new.

I am not wholly free from apprehension that you take no interest in any thing but a rice-field. Fame says that you are about to degenerate into a mere planter. If so, it is to be lamented that you have any thing above common sense, and that you have learned any thing more than to read and write, for all above common sense and school education spoils the planter.

Though in my former letters I did not, in express terms, inform you that I was under ostracism, yet it must have been inferred. Such is the fact. In New-York I am to be disfranchised, and in New-Jersey hanged. Having substantial objections to both, I shall not, for the present, hazard either, but shall seek another country. You will not, from this, conclude that I have become pa.s.sive, or disposed to submit tamely to the machinations of a banditti. If you should you would greatly err.----and his clan affect to deplore, but secretly rejoice at and stimulate the villanies of all sorts which are practised against me. Their alarm and anxiety, however, are palpable to a degree perfectly ridiculous. Their awkward attempts to propitiate reminds one of the Indian wors.h.i.+p of the evil spirit. G.o.d bless you ever.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, March 29, 1805.

I arrived here on the 21st instant, and shall remain here yet ten days. John W. Smith is now here. He married Miss Duer a few weeks ago, and will take her, with Frances, &c., to Orleans next month. Ann does not go; but one younger than Susan, whose name I forget. Miss Dallas is to be married in a few days to a handsome young man, just admitted to the bar: no fortune, but said to possess talents. Poor La R. quite pale and emaciated; the fruit of dissipation. Celeste as heretofore, abating the influence of time, which is a little too visible; courteous even to flattery. La Planche a recluse. Miss Binney is to be married next week to Mr. Wallace, a young lawyer of this city of good character and prospects.

People who are occupied are never dull, never melancholy. I learn, then, from your letter of the 10th, that you have been a little lazy.

To be sure, if that letter was written for publication, it would do credit to the author; but to me, _en particulier_, other reflections might have occurred. The story, however, is prettily told, and I kiss your hand for some other pretty things. But let me see more of the effects of those precepts and that example.

I am apprehensive that your milk diet will not carry you through the summer. You will want stimulus of some kind. For this purpose something is used in all warm countries. In the West Indies they drink rum and they die. In the East Indies and China, ginseng is the panacea. Try ginseng. Some decoction or (bitter) infusion. When my stomach is out of order or wants tone, nothing serves so effectually as a cup of chamomile tea, without sugar or milk. I think this would give you an appet.i.te. Make the experiment. Bathing in seawater is a grand preservative. If your bath be in the house, the best time is an hour or two before dinner. Tepid bath; none of your cold baths for such a machine as yours. If you have no convenience for a warm bath in the house, set a mason to work to-morrow and make one in each of your country houses. It is a high evidence of the barbarism of our Southern states that, in an extent of three hundred miles, filled with wealthy people, and in a hot climate, there should not be, in any one private family, a convenient bathing-room. Perhaps, indeed, some ruined French refugee may have expended fifty dollars to furnish himself and family this luxury, as essential to comfort and cleanliness as to health.

In ten or twelve days I shall be on my way westward. My address, till further orders, is at Cincinnati, Ohio, to the care of the Hon. John Smith. As the objects of this journey, not mere curiosity, or _pour pa.s.ser le tems_, may lead me to Orleans, and perhaps farther. I contemplate the tour with gayety and cheerfulness. The most weighty solicitude on my mind is your health and that of your boy. My letters have given you some advice as to yourself. You will have a letter from Pittsburg, and from other points as opportunities may offer, though I shall seldom be far from the route of some mail. G.o.d bless you

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Philadelphia, April 10, 1805.

I rejoice that your nerves are in better tone, for truly, in some of your letters, I could scarcely recognise my daughter. As to the boy, I beseech you not to undertake to teach him the various sounds of the letters abstractedly from the words in which those sounds are found.

This must be learned arbitrarily. Go on with his a, b, &c.; and when he shall have learned the language, and not till then, can you teach him (or ought it to be attempted) the principles of the construction of that language.

My ostracism is enlivened by a constant succession of visitors from New-York and New-Jersey. Swartwout and Bunner have just now come in, and I have not been a day without some _one, two_, or more. They stay generally two or three days with me, and I am privileged to take them with me wherever I dine. Major Powell, the friend of Miss Keene, and the lover of her mother, returned lately from Europe and died here last week. He has left an estate of ten or twelve thousand guineas per annum.

I met Miss Sumter (overtook meaning) at Wilmington last winter, and thence to Baltimore we rode together in the stage. She is a frank, sensible, amiable girl. May make a very interesting companion. I was so much pleased with her, that I went several times to see her (two miles), though I visited no lady. I took her to General Van Ness's, where I made her at home. She plays on the piano in a style which may be called superior, and has a most uncommon fine voice, which has been neglected.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Pittsburg, April 30, 1805.

Arrived in good order yesterday. Find my boat and hands ready. The water high and weather fine. Shall set off in two hours. Have therefore no time to give any account of my journey hither. My boat is, properly speaking, a floating house, sixty feet by fourteen, containing dining-room, kitchen with fireplace, and two bedrooms; roofed from stem to stern; steps to go up, and a walk on the top the whole length; gla.s.s windows, &c. This edifice costs one hundred and thirty-three dollars, and how it can be made for that sum pa.s.ses my comprehension.

I find that Frankfort will be better than Cincinnati; so address to me, Frankfort, Kentucky, to the care of the Honourable John Brown.

A. BURR.

On the 30th of April, 1805, Colonel Burr and Gabriel Shaw, who had accompanied him from Philadelphia, left Pittsburg in their boat. At this period Colonel Burr commences, for the amus.e.m.e.nt of his daughter, a journal of his adventures, which contains some interesting details explanatory of the then situation of the western country. Extracts from this journal will be made. On the 2d of May they stopped at a little village on the north bank called M'Intosh. The next day "went on sh.o.r.e in the skiff (letting the ark float on) to see the town of _Wieling_, sometimes erroneously spelled _Wheeling_; a pretty, neat village, well situated on the south bank, containing sixty or eighty houses, some of brick, and some of a fine free stone found in the vicinity. Saw several well-dressed women, who had the air of fas.h.i.+on and movements of _vous autres_ on the coast."

On the morning of the 5th reached Marietta, on the north side, "containing about eighty houses; some that would be called handsome in any village on the continent. After breakfast" (says Colonel Burr) "came in several gentlemen of the town to offer me civilities and hospitalities. We have been walking several miles to see the mounds, parapets, squares, and other remains of unknown antiquity which are found in this neighbourhood. I am astonished and confounded; totally unsatisfied with the conjectures of others, and unable to repose on any plausible one of my own. I shall continue to write to you journal-wise, but, having no copy, you must preserve the sheets, as I may wish to refer to them for facts and dates."

Arrived at Cincinnati on the 11th May, by the course of the river estimated to be 310 miles from Marietta. "Meeting here with General Dayton and several old army acquaintance, remained the whole day." In the evening started "for Louisville, which is at the rapids or falls of the Ohio. There it is proposed to take land, to ride through part of Kentucky, visit Lexington and Frankfort, and meet the ark again at the mouth of the c.u.mberland, which empties into the Ohio about fifty miles before its junction with the Mississippi."

TO THEODOSIA.

Lexington (Kentucky), May 23, 1805.

My journal has grown too big to be sent by mail. I have, therefore, only to a.s.sure you of my health and safety, without entering into any of those details which you will see anon. Shaw is with me. To-morrow we pursue our journey by land to Nashville in Tennessee, and thence down the c.u.mberland to Eddyville, where we expect to find our boat, and intend to go from that place to Orleans in ten days.

Arrived at Nashville on the 29th of May. "One is astonished at the number of sensible, well-informed, and well behaved people which is found here. I have been received with much hospitality and kindness, and could stay a month with pleasure; but General Andrew Jackson having provided us a boat, we shall set off on Sunday, the 2d of June, to navigate down the c.u.mberland, either to Smithland at its mouth, or to Eddyville, sixty or eighty miles above, at one of which places we expect to find our boat, with which we intend to make a rapid voyage down the Mississippi to Natchez and Orleans.

"Left Nashville on the 3d of June in an open boat. Came down the c.u.mberland to its mouth, about 220 miles, in an open boat, where our ark was in waiting. Reached Ma.s.sac, on the Ohio, sixteen miles below, on the 6th. Here found General Wilkinson on his way to St. Louis. The general and his officers fitted me out with an elegant barge, sails, colours, and ten oars, with a sergeant, and ten able, faithful hands.

Thus equipped, I left Ma.s.sac on the 10th of June, Shaw in company.

"On the 17th arrived at Natchez, being by water, as estimated, nearly eight hundred miles from Ma.s.sac. Natchez is a town of three or four hundred houses; the inhabitants traders and mechanics, but surrounded by wealthy planters, among whom I have been entertained with great hospitality and taste. These planters are, many of them, men of education and refinement; live as well as yours, and have generally better houses. We are now going through a settled country, and, during the residue of my voyage to Orleans, about three hundred miles, I shall take breakfast and dinner each day at the house of some gentleman on sh.o.r.e. I take no letters of introduction; but, whenever I hear of any gentleman whose acquaintance or hospitalities I should desire, I send word that I am coming to see him, and have always met a most cordial reception.

"Edward Livingston was married about a fortnight ago to Madame Moreau, _veuve_, lately from St. Domingo, rich in beauty and accomplishments.

I hear so many pleasant things of Orleans, that I should certainly (if one half of them are verified on inspection) settle down there were it not for Theodosia and her boy; but these will control my fate.