Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 81

P. BUTLER.

TO, JOSEPH ALSTON.

Albany, October 15, 1801.

Our Convention [7] met on Tuesday the 13th, and will probably continue in session five or six days longer. I shall forthwith return to New-York, beyond which I have no plan for the month of November, except, negatively, that it will not be in my power to visit South Carolina till spring.

On the road I pa.s.sed half an hour with Mrs. L., late Mary A. She appeared most sincerely glad to see me. She is still beautiful; something ennuyed with the monotony of a country life; talked of you with the warmest affection. It is really a fraud on society to keep that woman perpetually buried in woods and solitude.

I am extremely solicitous to know how you get on. Pray make easy journeys, and be not too impatient to get forward. Never ride after dark, unless in case of unavoidable necessity, and then on horseback.

What a volume of parental advice. G.o.d bless you both.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA

New-York, November 3, 1801.

It is very kind indeed to write me so often. Your last is from Petersburgh. "Like G.o.ds," forsooth; why, you travel like--; that, however, was a very pretty allusion. I have repeated it a dozen times and more. Your other letters also contain now and then a spark of Promethean fire: a _spark_, mind ye; don't be vain.

And so--has returned _sans femme_; just now arrived. He saw you and spoke to you, which rendered him doubly welcome to A. B.

You made two, perhaps more conquests on your Northern tour--King Brandt and the stage-driver; both of whom have been profuse in their eulogies. Brandt has written me two letters on the subject. It would have been quite in style if he had scalped your husband and made you Queen of the Mohawks.

Bartow, &c., are well. Mrs. Allen better. Mrs. Brockbolst Livingston dead. Mrs. Van Ness has this day a son. Thus, you see, the rotation is preserved, and the balance kept up.

There are no swaar apples this year; some others you shall have, and "a set of cheap chimney ornaments." I have not asked the price, but not exceeding _eight hundred dollars!_ Did you take away "The man of Nature?" I proposed to have sent that with some others to L. N., but you have thus marred the project.

Since I began this letter I am summoned to leave town two hours before daylight to-morrow morning, to return next day, when I shall know definitely the result of the sale, which, indeed, is the object of the journey. On my return I pa.s.sed a day with M. A. Monsieur is cold, formal, monotonous, repulsive. G.o.ds! what a mansion is that bosom for the sensitive heart of poor M. Lovely victim! I wish she would break her pretty little neck. Yet, on second thought, would it not be better that he break his? _He_ is often absent days and weeks. _She_ has not seen the smoke of a city in five years; but this is dull. I had something more cheerful to say; this, however, came first, and would have place. And here am I, at midnight, talking such stuff to bagatelle, and twenty unanswered letters of _vast importance_ before me! Get to bed, you hussy.

A. BURR.

November 5.

This letter was nicely sealed up and laid on my table; late last night I returned from the country, and found the letter just where I left it. Very surprising! This was so like my dear self, that I laughed and opened it, to add that Richmond Hill will probably be sold within ten days for _one hundred and forty thousand dollars_, which, though not half the worth, is enough and more.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

New-York, November 9, 1801.

This fine day brings me your two letters from Raleigh and Fayetteville, 28th and 30th of October. It is quite consoling to find that you will have taken the precaution to inquire the state of health before you venture your precious carca.s.s into Charleston. A fever would certainly mistake you for strangers, and snap at two such plump, ruddy animals as you were when you left New-York.

You shall have apples, and nuts, and a cook, and _lucerne_ seed. As to _femme de chambre_, I cannot speak with certainty. I have put in motion the whole French republic on the occasion. Mrs. Kemble's friend cannot be found. Most probably Madame S. has tortured into Gamble some name which has not a letter of Kemble or Gamble in it.

Natalie sailed the Thursday after you left town, and she is probably _now_ in Havre with her mother. A letter received from Madame d'Lage [8] since Natalie sailed, advises us that she is there waiting for her, which is indeed most fortunate, and relieves me from a small portion of the anxiety which I suffer for that charming girl. Yet, alas! there is room for too much. I expect to see her here within a year.

Anna wonders you do not write to her. It never occurred to her that she had not written to you: so she is now occupied, and you may soon expect at least twenty pages from her indefatigable pen. I am going to see Board. There is an ancient story of a man who once gave life and spirit to marble (you may read it in the form of a drama in Rousseau).

Why may not this be done again? The sale of Richmond Hill goes on, and will, I believe, be completed within eight days. The price and the terms are agreed; some little under works r.e.t.a.r.d the conclusion.

Adieu, my dear Theodosia.

A. BURR.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON

New-York, November 15, 1801.

I send the enclosed newspaper merely on account of the proceedings of the Rhode Island legislature. They are on the second page. That, in New-England, men should be found hardy enough to oppose, in public speeches, the recommendation of a thanksgiving sanctioned by the usage of one hundred and fifty years; that this opposition should prevail, and the recommendation be rejected by a large majority of a House of a.s.sembly, are events the most extraordinary which the present generation hath beheld.

It has been announced in your gazettes that I am to visit Charleston this month. Nothing is more true than that my warmest wishes have urged me to verify this expectation; but it is equally certain that I shall do no such thing. When I expressed the hope of seeing your state previously to the session of Congress, I did not know that I was chosen a member of the Convention by the county of Orange, much less could I foresee that I should be president of that Convention; and no individual suspected that fifteen days would have been consumed in accomplis.h.i.+ng the business of six hours. These circ.u.mstances ought to redeem my character, in this instance, at least, from the charge of versatility or caprice, Vale.

A. BURR.

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Was.h.i.+ngton, November 18, 1801.

DEAR SIR,

Your favour of the 10th has been received, as have been those also of September 4th and 23d, in due time. These letters, all relating to office, fall within the general rule which even the very first week of my being engaged in the administration obliged me to establish, to wit, that of not answering letters on office specifically, but leaving the answer to be found in what is done or not done on them. You will readily conceive into what sc.r.a.pes one would get by saying _no_, either with or without reasons; by using a softer language, which might excite false hopes, or by saying _yes_ prematurely; and, to take away all offence from this silent answer, it is necessary to adhere to it in every case rigidly, as well with bosom friends as strangers.

Captain Sterret is arrived here from the Mediterranean. Congress will have a question as to all the Barbary powers of some difficulty. We have had under consideration Mr. Pusy's plans of fortification. They are scientifically done and expounded. He seems to prove that no works at either the Narrows or Governor's Island can stop a vessel; but to stop them at the Hook by a fort of _eight thousand_ men, and protecting army of _twenty-nine thousand_, is beyond our present ideas of the scale of defence which we can adopt for all our seaport towns.

His estimate of _four millions of dollars_, which experience teaches us to double always, in a case where the law allows, but (I believe) _half a million_ ties our hands at once. We refer the case back to Governor Clinton, to select half a dozen persons of judgment, of American ideas, and to present such a plan, within our limits, as these shall agree on. In the mean time, the general subject will be laid before Congress. Accept a.s.surances of my high respect and consideration.

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

TO THEODOSIA.

New-York, November 20, 1801.

It is several days since I wrote to you, and many more since I received a letter from you. That from Fayetteville is still the last.