ILLUSTRATIONS

"Pull, Boys! Pull!" cried the officer, "there was a woman with him"

Frontispiece

"Can I bear any communication from you to my friend, Colonel Burr?"

"You must not stay here. You will be recognized" "This is your answer!".

'Aaron Burr, in the dress of a Creek Chief, stepped into the
center of the council, and addressed the meeting".
Theodosia," said he, in calm, even tones, "If you can be
firm I shall be glad to have you stay with me"
"You are the real murderer "

"The Hero of Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena, stood before him "

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76

105

221

269

281

283

308

"By this blow, I am severed from the human race!"

66

"As the Pirates reached the deck, Theodosia grasped a cutlas "

366

"Because, Theodosia, I love you".

“What I saw, was Little Burr here, bearing upon his back the body of General Montgomery," .

380

· 391

F

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

OR a hundred years, one of the most remarkable of Americans has borne a weight of obloquy and calumny such as has been heaped upon no other man, and, unlike any other man, during his lifetime he never by voice or pen made answer to charges made against him, or presented either to friends or foes any argument or evidence to refute them.

The American public makes idols of its great men; but when from any cause those great men fall from their high estates, the American public has no mercy for its fallen heroes.

I will not speak longer in general terms, of uncertain application, but declare at once that the remarkable man I have in mind is Aaron BURR: a man who fought bravely to secure the independence of the Colonies; a man who rose to the highest position at the bar, and who was offered a seat upon the bench; a man who was elected to the highest position in the gift of the American people, and who filled the second place with a dignity and grace that have never been equalled; a man who revenged the wrongs inflicted upon him during a period of thirty years, on the fatal field at Weehawken; a man who contemplated a conquest, and who was tried for high treason by the members of the party which afterwards carried out exactly the programme of conquest that he had outlined; a man who bore his downfall with patience and dignity; a man whom neither political persecution, nor poverty, nor the perfidy of his friends could force to speak one word of recrimination or complaint; a man who bore the loss of daughter and grandson, the dearest ties that bound him to the human race, with resignation; a man who for twenty-five years thereafter toiled cn without complaint to supply the means for an humble living; a man who, although he killed his foe according to the rules of the code of honor then in force, has been called either assassin or murderer by the makers of school-books, thus instilling into infant minds a prejudice which only research and study in after years could effectually remove.