it is not to our purpose to detail in this article, succeeded in engaging him to become their head.

The name of this great man gave a prodigous eclat to the side that he joined; so great was their triumph and so loud the noise, that a person ignorant of the interior state of that country, would have concluded that the anti-federalists or Whigs had dwindled to a miserable faction. The body, however, instead of expiring as their opponents had vainly calculated, soon afforded symptoms of vigour and longevity; and it has since convinced the world, that it at the same time comprised a great majority of the

nation.

Mr. Burr acted uniformly with this republican party, even during the lowest ebb of its fortunes ; but he never possessed its confidence to that degree that some of the subsequent events would lead a distant observer to imagine. When Washington gave notice, in 1797, that he should decline serving as President for another term, the two grand divisions of Whigs and Tories began to muster their forces, each striving to nominate the new president from its own party. The former set up Jefferson as their candidate, while their opponents united in the selection of John Adams, who possessed the double advantage of being the Vice-President with Washington; and having been an older advocate for, and more celebrated during the revolution, than his rival.

The mode of voting for President and Vice-President (which is now altered) was then a vicious one,. A a 4

it

it being by a double and undistinguished ballot, and by no means calculated to determine the sense of the voter, in respect to which of the successful candidates was to fill the first office. That important point was left to be decided by the plurality of votes when counted at the seat of government; so that a case might happen when a man would become President against the will of every voter. For, suppose a majority intended that Paul should be President, and Peter VicePresident; but it happens that the number of voters who intend that Peter shall be Vice-President, is one more than those who intend Paul shall be President; in that case the order intended by the voters is reversed: Peter is President, and Paul Vice-President. Now these two offices in themselves are extremely distinct and dissimilar: the one being charged with the whole of the executive government of the country; the other is nothing more than preident of the senate, charged to preside in their debates, and possessing less power than the speaker of the English House of Commons.

This being the constitutional mode of naming to those two places, the importance, in the view of each party, of supporting its own candidate for Vice-Pre sident, was nearly equal to that which respected the President. Had it been otherwise, the Whigs, who fixed on Jefferson for President, would have been contented that Adams should be Vice-President, and might have voted for him accordingly; while the friends of Adams might have reversed the order with respect to Jefferson. But in the state of things that

then

then prevailed, such a project would have been dangerous to the designs of both. It was necessary that the anti-federalists should have such a candidate for Vice-President, as the other party would not vote for, and thus guard against his being President.

Another circumstance likewise deserves attention in respect to America. There is a little state jealousy, as well as local propriety, which must not be overlooked. If the first magistrate is taken from the south, the second should, if possible, be selected from the north. Jefferson was from Virginia; it became necessary therefore for the Whigs to look towards a different region for their other candidate. All these reasons, and others which might be here enumerated, induced them to fix on Burr; although there was not a single man in all America who would have voted for his being President; and very few who, on the simple score of relative merit, would have preferred him to many others as Vice-President. There seemed to be a sort of necessity on this occasion for setting him up; and this circumstance, which raised him for a while, perhaps, above the standard of real estimation in which he was generally held, has been the cause of his present downfall; and has finally reduced him to a situation from which, perhaps, it will be not a little difficult for him again to raise himself to the level to which bis talents fully entitle him.

In consequence of the circumstances alluded to above, he was coupled with Jefferson in 1797, and the Whigs voted for him in the character we have already pointed out; but, notwithstanding their efforts,

he proved unsuccessful; for Adams was declared first magistrate, and Jefferson second. But, at the end of the constitutional term of four years, the election of 1801 occurred, and both the Whig candidates, Jeffer son and Burr, were returned.

It was on this occasion that he was afterwards accused of practices which, if true, at once savoured of ingratitude and injustice; and ought, in the estimation of both federalists and anti-federalists, to deprive him of all future confidence.

In the undistinguished mode in which votes were given at that time, it was intended that all who nominated Jefferson should include him also; but it was said, and generally believed, that he set a friend at work to procure one vote to be thrown away from Jefferson on some indifferent person, in order that the number for himself might exceed that for his colleague, and he be declared President, and Jefferson Vice-President, against the intention of all the voters, and the whole country! The project, however, did not ultimately succeed, although it proved more fortunate than it deserved; but the general opinion (whether false or true), that he intended to raise himself by such a flagrant conduct, has had the effect to sink him very low in the public estcem; so that the four years of his presiding in the senate, which are now expired, have been rather endured than rclished by an indignant people, who deemed themselves grossly insulted.

This decline of popularity produced another dis astrous event, with which we shall close this account

of

of Mr. Burr. Seeing no chance of being again elected to an office that required the general confidence of the United States, and, having several friends in New York who did not believe him guilty of the improper conduct laid to his charge, he declared himself candidate for Governor of that State in 1804. In this, however, the Vice-President did not succeed, being opposed by the greater part of the Whigs, and by all the Tories. During the canvas previous to the election, it seems that General Hamilton, a leading man among the federalists, had made some free observations on the political and moral character of the subject of this memoir, probably with a view to defeat his election.

It was some time after, and through the channel of a newspaper, that these animadversions became known to Mr. Burr, who then, from one of the most unaccountable opinions that have distorted the facul ties of human reason in civilized life, thought it necessary to call the General to a personal account: that is, to decide a point of respectability between two men, by firing pistols at each other!

Mr. Hamilton, an active and highly distinguished officer in the American army, was present in many battles during the conflict with England, and had obtained a great military reputation *. Burr, on the

*The late Alexander Hamilton was descended from a respectable Scotch family, settled for some centuries in the county of Ayr. His grandfather, Alexander Hamilton, of Grange, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Robert Pallok, of Pollok, in Ren

frewshire,