CHAPTER important cases, that the meeting should be postponed till XVII. the court was over, since he was not willing, by any act of 1804. his, to expose his clients to embarrassment, loss, or delay.

It was not at all in the spirit of a professed duellist, it was not upon any paltry point of honor, that Hamilton, had accepted this extraordinary challenge, by which it was attempted to hold him answerable for the numerous. imputations on Burr's character bandied about in conversation and the newspapers for two or three years past. The practice of duelling he utterly condemned; indeed, he had himself already been a victim to it in the loss of his eldest son, a boy of twenty, in a political duel some two years previously. As a private citizen, as a man under the influence of moral and religious sentiments, as a husband loving and loved, and the father of a numerous and dependent family, as a debtor honorably disposed, whose creditors might suffer by his death, he had every motive for avoiding the meeting. So he stated in a paper which, under a premonition of his fate, he took care to leave behind him. It was in his character of a public man; it was in that lofty spirit of patriotism, of which examples are so rare, rising high above all personal and private considerations-a spirit magnanimous and self-sacrificing to the last, however in this instance uncalled for and mistaken--that he accepted the fatal challenge. "The ability to be in future useful," such was his own statement of his motives, "whether in resisting mischief or effecting good in those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would probably be inseparable from a conformity with prejudice in this particular.”

With that candor toward his opponents by which Hamilton was ever so nobly distinguished, but of which so very seldom, indeed, did he ever experience any return, he disavowed in this paper, the last he ever wrote, anv

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disposition to affix odium to Burr's conduct in this par- CHAPTER ticular case. He denied feeling toward Burr any personal ill will, while he admitted that Burr might nat- 1904. urally be influenced against him by hearing of strong animadversions in which he had indulged, and which, as usually happens, might probably have been aggravated in the report. Those animadversions, in some cases, might have been occasioned by misconstruction or misinformation; yet his censures had not proceeded on light grounds nor from unworthy motives. From the possi bility, however, that he might have injured Burr, as well as from his general principles and temper in relation to such affairs, he had come to the resolution which he left on record, and communicated also to his second, to withhold and throw away his first fire, and perhaps even his second; thus giving to Burr a double opportunity to pause and reflect.

The grounds of Weehawk, on the Jersey shore, opposite New York, were at that time the usual field of these single combats, then, chiefly by reason of the inflamed state of political feeling, of frequent occurrence, and very seldom ending without bloodshed. The day having been July 11. fixed, and the hour appointed at seven o'clock in the morning, the parties met, accompained only by their seconds. The barge-men, as well as Dr. Hosack, the surgeon mutually agreed upon, remained, as usual, at a distance, in order, if any fatal result should occur, not to be witnesses. The parties having exchanged saluta-. tions, the seconds measured the distance of ten paces; loaded the pistols; made the other preliminary arrange. ments; and placed the combatants. At the appointed signal, Burr took deliberate aim, and fired. The ball entered Hamilton's side, and as he fell his pistol too was unconsciously discharged. Burr approached him apparent

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CHAPTER ly somewhat moved; but on the suggestion of his sec ond, the surgeon and barge-men already approaching, he 1804. turned and hastened away, Van Ness coolly covering him from their sight by opening an umbrella. The surgeon found Hamilton half lying, half sitting on the ground, supported in the arms of his second. The pallor of death was on his face. "Doctor," he said, "this is a mortal wound ;" and immediately fainted, as if overcome by the effort of speaking. As he was carried across the river the fresh breeze revived him. His own house being in the country, he was conveyed at once to the house of a friend, where he lingered for twenty-four hours in great agony, but preserving his composure and self-command to the last.

The news of his death, diffused through the city, produced the greatest excitement. Even that party hostility of which he had been so conspicuous an object was quelled for the moment. All were now willing to admit that he was not less patriotic than able, and that in his untimely death-for he was only in his forty-eighth year -the country had suffered an irreparable loss. The general feeling expressed itself in a public ceremony, the mournful pomp of which the city had never seen equalled. A funeral oration was delivered in Trinity Church by Gouverneur Morris, at whose side, on the platform erectted for the speaker, stood four sons of Hamilton, between the ages of sixteen and six. Morris briefly recapitulated Hamilton's public services and noble virtues-his purity of heart, his rectitude of intention, his incorruptible integrity. "I charge you to protect his fame!" he added; "it is all that he has left-all that these orphan children will inherit from their father. Though he was compelled to abandon public life, never for a moment did he abandon the public service. He never lost sight of

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your interests. In his most private and confidential con- CHAPTER versations, the single objects of discussion were your freedom and happiness. You know that he never courted 1804. your favor by adulation or the sacrifice of his own judg ment. You have seen him contending against you, and saving your dearest interests, as it were, in spite of your selves. And you now feel and enjoy the benefits resulting from the firm energy of his conduct. He was charged with ambition, and, wounded by the imputation, he declared, in the proud independence of his soul, that he never would accept of any office unless, in a foreign war, he should be called on to expose his life in defense of his country. He was ambitious only of glory; but he was deeply solicitous for you. For himself he feared nothing; but he feared that bad men might, by false professions, acquire your confidence, and abuse it to your ruin.”

In Hamilton's death the Federalists and the country experienced a loss second only to that of Washington. Hamilton possessed the same rare and lofty qualities, the same just balance of soul, with less, indeed, of Washington's severe simplicity and awe-inspiring presence, but with more of warmth, variety, ornament, and grace. If the Doric in architecture be taken as the symbol of Washington's character, Hamilton's belonged to the same grand style as developed in the Corinthian-if less impressive, more winning. If we add Jay for the Ionic, we have a trio not to be matched, in fact, not to be approached in our history, if, indeed, in any other. Of earth-born Titans, as terrible as great, now angels, and now toads and serpents, there are every where enough. Of the serene and benign sons of the celestial gods, how few at any time have walked the earth!

When the correspondence which preceded the duel came to be published, the outburst of public indignation

CHAPTER against Burr was tremendous. He was regarded as no XVII. better than a deliberate murderer, who had artfully con1804. trived to entrap his victim. The desperate duel, two years before, between John Swartwout and De Witt Clinton; another duel, the last year, between Robert Swartwout, a brother of John, and Richard Riker, an active Clintonian partisan, in which Riker had been severely wounded, were coupled with the challenge to Hamilton as parts of one connected system of cool-blooded and murderous intimidation. Burr was charged by Cheetham, of the American Citizen, with having practised pistol-shooting for three months before the challenge, with having gone to the field clothed in silk, as a partial sort of armor, and with having, while Hamilton lay on the bed of death, mirthfully apologized to his intimates for not having shot him through the heart.

Astonished at the torrent of indignation which poured down upon him, and fearing an arrest, after concealing himself in New York for two or three days, he passed stealthily through New Jersey, and sought refuge in Philadelphia, where he found shelter and hospitality from the district attorney, Dallas. The coroner's inquest, after a long sitting and some difficulty in obtaining evidencesome of Burr's friends allowing themselves to be impris oned rather than to testify-returned a verdict of willful murder by the hand of Aaron Burr. A bill of indict. ment for that crime was found against him in New Jersey, where the duel had been fought; while the grand jury of New York found bills as well against him as against the two seconds for being concerned in sending and receiving a challenge-an offense punishable, by a recent act of that state, with disfranchisement and incapacity to hold office for twenty years. Apprehending that his person might be demanded of the governor of