Fallen Founder

by Nancy Isenberg

  58. Hamilton admitted to Livingston’s brother-in-law, Morgan Lewis, that he had blocked Livingston’s appointment to Washington’s cabinet or another high office—see Young, The Democratic Republicans, 159–61, 189–90.

  59. Joanne B. Freeman, “The Art and Address of Ministerial Management: Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton,” in Bowling and Kennon, eds., Neither Separate Nor Equal: Congress in the 1790s, 273, 276–78.

  60. Robert Troup to AH, June 15, 1791, and Nathanial Hazard to AH, Nov. 25, 1791, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, VIII: 478–79, IX: 529–31.

  61. Schuyler was livid over his defeat, taking his slight no better than Livingston had when President Washington spurned him. He became even more committed to defeating Clinton, and deeply resented Burr. Hamilton had been outmaneuvered—and he certainly did not take kindly to defectors. William Smith Livingston (the ax-wielding parade marshal who had attacked Greenleaf’s shop) left the Federalist band, and Hamilton called him “that Whore in politics.” Jefferson later lured Pennsylvanian Tench Coxe, the assistant secretary of the treasury, Hamilton’s chief aide, into the Republican camp. After this, Hamilton did everything within his power to destroy Coxe. See Young, The Democratic Republicans, 161, 192; Don R. Gerlach, Philip Schulyer and the Growth of New York, 1733–1804 (Albany, N.Y., 1968), 36; Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XIII: 480–81; and Jacob E. Cooke, Tench Coxe and the Early Republic (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1978), 156, 330.

  62. AB to Theodore Sedgwick, Jan. 20, Feb. 3, 1791, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 2.

  63. See Albany Register, Feb. 13, 1792; and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 93–97.

  64. AB to Theodosia Prevost Burr, Feb. 19, 1792, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, I: 315; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 101–03. On St. Clair, see Ferling, First of Men, 406–07.

  65. See “Governor’s Election,” Albany Register, Feb. 13, 1792; for the three-man race, see New-York Journal, Feb. 15, 1792, and Young, The Democratic Republicans, 280.

  66. A letter signed “A Plain Farmer,” Daily Advertiser, Feb. 16, 1792.

  67. See James Fairlie to Robert Yates, Feb. 8, 1792, Misc. Mss., Fairlie Papers, New-York Historical Society; and Robert Ernst, Rufus King: American Federalist (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1968), 67–69; Schachner, Alexander Hamilton, 8, 102–05.

  68. Peter Van Gaasbeek to AB, March 28, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 103.

  69. Young, The Democratic Republicans, 234, 237, 239; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 77–86; Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, I: 329–30.

  70. Jones, “The Public Career of William Duer,” 261–63, 282, 287.

  71. Young, The Democratic Republicans, 305–06.

  72. See AB to Tench Coxe, June 12, 1792, and AB to Jacob Delamater, June 15, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, 124–26; Young, The Democratic Republicans, 309.

  73. Robert Troup to John Jay, June 10, 1792, cited in Tripp, Robert Troup, 105; see also letter of William Willcocks, Daily Advertiser, June 14, 1792; New-York Journal, June 30, 1792; Young, The Democratic Republicans, 304, 310–11; and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 111–12.

  74. See AB to Jacob Delamater, June 15, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 109, 126; Burr was defended (probably by a friend) in the newspapers on similar grounds, claiming that “In this business Col. Burr stands clear of the charge of party; he had been opposed to Governor Clinton, and of course did not favor his interest.” See “To the People of the State of New York,” signed “Columbianus,” in New-York Journal, Aug. 11, 1792; also Young, The Democratic Republicans, 309.

  75. Young, The Democratic Republicans, 85–86, 305; Brooks, “Melancton Smith,” 211.

  76. As I noted before, Burr had faced Cooper’s unscrupulous dealings in the legal battle over the Otsego Patent in 1785. Richard Smith was one in a long line of corrupt sheriffs under Cooper’s thumb. For the accusations of fraud and corruption by the canvassers, see “The Reasons Assigned by the Majority of the Canvassers, in Vindication of their Conduct,” first published June 15, 1792, reprinted in An Impartial Statement of the Controversy, Respecting the Decision of the Late Committee of Canvassers (New York, 1792), 19, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3. Though the “Reasons” was published after Burr drafted his opinion, it is evident that Burr was well aware of the charges of corruption. In his opinion, he wrote that based on the affidavits, Richard Smith “knew of the appointment of Mr. Gilbert.” He suggests here that Smith blatantly held onto the position. Thomas Greenleaf had filled his paper, the New-York Journal, with affidavits attesting to intimation by Cooper before the canvassers made their decision—see letter signed “A.B.,” New-York Journal, June 2, 1792. Melancton Smith wrote a letter to the papers about the “fraud and corruption” in Otsego—see letter signed “Lucuis” in New-York Journal, June 30, 1792. David Gelston led the investigation of Judge Cooper in the state assembly—see Young, The Democratic Republicans, 296, 300–01, 321–22; Brooks, “Melancton Smith,” 211; Taylor, William Cooper’s Town, 175–80.

  77. Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 112–13, 126–29, 132–33.

  78. AB to James Monroe, Sept. 10, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 135–37.

  79. AH to unknown, Sept. 26, 1792, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XII: 480.

  80. AB to Jacob Delamater, June 15, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 125.

  81. See AB to John Trumbull, Aug. 20, 1972, Peter Colt to AB, Sept. 5, 1972, and AB to Theodore Sedgwick, Oct. 14, 1972, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 131–35, 140–42.

  82. AB to Theodore Sedgwick, Oct. 14, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 140–41.

  83. The rebuttal to Burr’s pamphlet was entitled An Appendix to the Impartial Statement of the Controversy Respecting the Decision of the Late Committee of Canvassers (New York, 1792); not only did this include Trumbull’s opinion, but even his boyhood friend, Aaron Ogden, signed on to an opinion criticizing Burr. See Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 114.

  84. Benjamin Rush to AB, Sept. 24, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 137–38; and Noble E. Cunningham, “John Beckley: An Early American Party Manager,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 13 (Jan. 1956): 40–52, esp. 41. See also Jeffrey L. Pasley, “‘A Journeyman, Either in Law or Politics’: John Beckley and the Social Origins of Political Campaigning,” Journal of the Early Republic 16 (Winter 1996): 531–69.

  85. Benjamin Rush to AB, Sept. 24, 1792.

  86. John Nicholson to James Madison, Oct. 3, 1792, The James Madison Papers, Library of Congress. See also Noble Cunningham, The Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of Party Organization, 1789–1801 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1957), 46.

  87. Melancton Smith and Marius Willett to James Monroe and James Madison, Sept. 30, 1792, The James Monroe Papers, Library of Congress; and AB to John Nicholson, Oct. 7, 1792, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 139. Clinton broke the tie on the Council of Appointment in favor of appointing Burr an associate justice to the state supreme court on Oct. 2. Burr’s letter of introduction for Smith was dated Oct. 7. See Young, The Democratic Republicans, 328; also Schachner, Alexander Hamilton, 308.

  88. Arbuckle, Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot, 78–79, 85; Cunningham, The Jeffersonian Republicans, 49. Monroe purchased 100,000 acres of land in the Kentucky Territory, and planned a venture with Madison for land in Genesee Valley, New York. See Ammon, James Monroe, 38–39, 78.

  89. Monroe and Madison to Smith and Willett, Oct. 19, 1792, James Monroe Papers; see also James Monroe to James Madison, Oct. 9, 1792, in Stanislaus Hamilton, ed., The Writings of James Monroe, 7 vols. (1889–1903; AMS, 1969), I: 242.

  90. Monroe voiced his concerns by suggesting that the New Yorkers were placing their state and regional interests above “union,” though he noted that they had made no effort to garner northern support for Burr. James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, June 14, 1792, and James Monroe to James Madison, Oct. 9, 1792, in Hamilton, ed., Writings of James Monroe, I: 237–38, 242.

  91. Yo
ung, The Democratic Republicans, 332.

  92. AH to Gouverneur Morris, Dec. 24, 26, 27, 1800, and Jan. 16, 1801; AH to Oliver Wolcott, Dec. 16, 1800; and AH to Theodore Sedgwick, Dec. 22, 1800; for the earlier letters, see AH to unknown, Sept. 21, 1792, and AH to unknown, Sept. 26, 1792, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XII: 408, 480.

  93. AH to unknown, Sept. 21, 1792.

  94. Ibid. Duer owed between $1,583,000 (estimated by the Federalist paper, The Gazette of the United States) and $3 million. There is no evidence that Hamilton asked Duer to resign; he left because he felt he could promote his schemes better outside of the government. In 1792, he begged Hamilton for help after the U.S. district attorney brought suit against him for the settlement of his accounts, which had been left unpaid largely due to Hamilton. After Duer entered prison, Hamilton never visited him, and only communicated by mail; he made several small loans, but had abandoned his friend by May. Hamilton’s other close friend, Robert Troup, resembled Duer, investing in schemes like the Million Dollar Bank in 1791. Troup’s finances were precarious through the 1790s, and he was on the brink of ruin in 1798. At the time of his death, Hamilton’s friends organized a subscription of $100,000 to pay for his debts and provide for his family. See Jones, “The Public Career of William Duer,” 269, 277–78, 289; Tripp, Robert Troup, 140–41, 178; and for Hamilton’s debts, see Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton, 547–53.

  95. Hamilton was receiving reports on Burr’s activities. As early as 1791, Nathaniel Hazard claimed that Smith, Nathaniel Lawrence, and Miles Hughes all “dislike Clinton,” and that Lawrence was a great admirer of Burr. After the election controversy, Troup reported to John Jay that the New York Federalists were “determined to rip him [Burr] up.” See Nathaniel Hazard to Alexander Hamilton, Sept. 30, 1791, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, IX: 246–47; and Young, The Democratic Republicans, 328.

  96. The first two letters were written on Sept. 21 and 26, and his letter to John Steele on Oct. 15, 1792; see Syrett, Hamilton Papers, XII: 568–69. John Steele of North Carolina was a moderate Federalist; he served two terms in the U.S. Congress and was appointed comptroller of the treasury in 1796 (Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 671). Burr may have been friendly with Steele, as suggested in a letter to Benjamin Rush in which he says, “your cheerful friend Mr. Steele was about ten days in town.” See AB to Benjamin Rush, Aug. 20, 1793, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3.

  97. Schachner, Alexander Hamilton, 364–65.

  98. Ibid., 366–69.

  99. See AB to Theodosia Prevost Burr, Oct. 30, 1791, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, I: 304. Jacob Katz Cogan identified the relationship between Burr and Maria Reynolds’s daughter in “The Reynolds Affair and the Politics of Character,” Journal of the Early Republic 16 (Fall 1996): 416. Burr handled two divorce cases in 1790, one involving prominent members of the Livingston clan. In each case, Burr represented the wife. In the Livingston case, the wife charged her husband with committing adultery with the same woman for three years. See John Strang v. Anne Lousberry Strang [Apr. 20, 1790] and Anne Horne Livingston v. Henry Beekman Livingston, Dec. 7, 1790, NYCC cases, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 19.

  100. For the list of congressmen and the residences, see Dorcus K. Helms, “An Uneasy Alliance: The Relationhip between Jefferson and Burr: 1791–1807,” M.A. Thesis, North Texas State University, 1979, 5; also Kenneth R. Bowling, “The Federal Government and the Republican Court Move to Philadelphia, November 1791–March 1791,” and Anna Coxe Toogood, “Philadelphia as the National Capital, 1790–1800,” both in Bowling and Kennon, eds., Neither Separate nor Equal: Congress in the 1790s, 5, 8, 38–39.

  101. Bowling, “The Federal Government and the Republican Court,” in Bowling and Kennon, eds., Neither Separate Nor Equal: Congress in the 1790s, 5, 9, 17–21.

  102. Abigail Adams to Abigail Smith, Nov. 21–28, Dec. 26, 1790, in Charles F. Adams, ed., Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams (Boston, 1840), 209–11; Wendy A. Nicholson, “Making the Private Public: Anne Willing Bingham’s Role as Leader of Philadelphia’s Social Elite in the late Eighteenth Century,” M.A. Thesis, University of Delaware, 1988, 2, 4–6, 22–25; and Elizabeth M. Nuxoll, “The Financier as Senator, Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, 1789–1795,” in Bowling and Kennon, eds., Neither Separate Nor Equal: Congress in the 1790s, 116–19, 122.

  103. Nicholson, “Making the Private Public,” 47–49, 52–54; Bowling, “The Federal Government and the Republican Court,” in Bowling and Kennon, eds., Neither Separate Nor Equal: Congress in the 1790s, 22–23.

  104. AB to Theodosia Prevost Burr, Oct. 27, 1791, and Dec. 27, 1791, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, I: 303, 313.

  105. Theodosia Prevost Burr to John Bartow Prevost, Mar. 23, 1792, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3.

  106. AB to Theodosia Prevost Burr, Feb. 8, 1793, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, I: 362.

  107. AB to Theodosia Prevost Burr, Dec. 27, 1791, in ibid., I: 313; and AB to Pierpont Edwards, [Oct.–Nov. 1791]; and James and Elizabeth Monroe, Nicholas and Hester Gouverneur, and Thomas and Mary Knox v. John Kortright, Nov. 15, 1794, NYCC Cases, Burr Papers, microfilm, reels 2 and 20.

  108. For a copy of Dolley Payne Todd’s will in Burr’s handwriting (dated May 13, 1794), see Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3; see also David B. Mattern and Holly C. Shulman, eds., The Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison (Charlottesville, Va., 2003), 15–16.

  109. See “A Fair Correspondent,” Albany Register, Mar. 17, 1794, cited in Young, The Democratic Republicans, 350, 362. For the political role of fashion in Revolutionary France and the United States in the early republic, see Susan Branson, These Fiery Frenchified Dames: Women and Political Culture in Early National Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 2001), 69–72.

  110. James Roger Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (New Haven, Conn., 1993), 79, 82–83; Young, The Democratic Republicans, 353, 357.

  111. AB to John Nicholson, July 16, 1793, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 156–57; and John Steele to Alexander Hamilton, Apr. 30, 1793, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XIV: 358–59.

  112. For his praise of the new French Constitution, see AB to Theodosia Prevost Burr, Dec. 15, 1791, in Davis, ed., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, I: 312. Burr sent his friend Jacob Delamater the fifth volume of Rousseau’s Confessions; see AB to Jacob Delamater, Nov. 20, 1793, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3; and Richard N. Côte, Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy (Mount Pleasant, S.C., 2003), 91–93.

  113. Young, The Democratic Republicans, 354, 393–94; and Albrecht Koschnik, “The Democratic Societies of Philadelphia and the Limits of the American Public Sphere, circa 1793–1795,” William and Mary Quarterly 58, ser. 3 (2001): 615–36.

  114. See Thomas Jefferson to AB, Jan. 20, 1793, and “Motion on the Letter to the French Republic” [Apr. 24, 1794], and AB to James Monroe, May 30, 1794, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 145–46, 178–79, 180–81; and William Howard Adams, Gouverneur Morris: An Independent Life (New Haven, Conn., 2003), 231, 234.

  115. Monroe confided to Jefferson that Washington opposed Burr for reasons of a “personal nature,” but he does not explain what those reasons might have been. See James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, May 26, 1794, The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress; Adams, Gouverneur Morris, 249; and Theodore Sedgwick to Jonathan Dayton, Nov. 19, 1796, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XX: 407.

  116. AB to Pierpont Edwards, May 24, 1794, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 181–82; Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to Vice President, 197. Burr wrote a similar letter to Timothy Edwards, that “my once amiable and accomplished wife had died.” See AB to Timothy Edwards, May 24, 1794, personal collection of Brian D. Hardison, who generously sent me this letter.

  117. Theodosia Burr to John Bartow Prevost, Mar. 23, 1792, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3; and for the phrase “Poor Coln Bur has Lost his Wife,” see Catherine Coles to Dolley Payne Tod
d [Madison], June 1, 1794, Letters of Dolley Madison, 1794–1837, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.; also cited in Mattern and Shulman, eds., Selected Letters of Dolley Payne Madison, 28.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  1. Though the figure was first identified as Jefferson, Noble Cunningham, one of the foremost historians on the rise of the Republican Party, claims it could just as easily be Burr—see Noble E. Cunningham, The Image of Thomas Jefferson in the Public Eye: Portraits for the People (Charlottesville, Va., 1981), 113. Another scholar has argued that the figure is Israel Israel, a wealthy stable owner and tavern keeper, and prominent member of the Democratic Society of Philadelphia. The attacks against him as a greedy broker are anti-Semitic slurs. Still, Swanwick is a better candidate for the figure. Israel was six feet tall (like Jefferson, who was six feet two and a half) and the character is not: he is standing on an elevated podium. Swanwick was known as an orator; Israel was not. The Shakespearean reference points to Swanwick rather than Israel. And Swanwick was a wealthy import-export merchant actively involved in the dry goods trade, which is referred to in the speech given by the figure. On Swanwick (1759–98) and his identification in the cartoon, see Ronald Baumann, “John Swanwick: Spokesman for Merchant-Republicanism in Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 97 (Apr. 1973): 164; and Baumann, “The Democratic-Republicans of Philadelphia: The Origins, 1776–1797,” Ph.D. Dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1970, 503. See also William Pencak, “Jews and Anti-Semitism in Early Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 124 (July 2002): 398–400.

  2. See Baumann, “John Swanwick,” 139–42, 148–50; Henry Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin (1879; New York, 1943), 188.

  3. Baumann notes that Swanwick had acquired tremendous wealth: he owned thirteen ships, many shares of bank stock, urban real estate, and a 200-acre estate. In the cartoon, he is mentioned as crushing other merchants in the dry goods trade. This is a reference to Swanwick’s ability to establish new overseas markets in China, India, Germany, and France, while his competitors, by staying within the British trade network, languished in the 1780s. See Baumann, “John Swanwick,” 133, 142–43; and Baumann, “The Democratic-Republicans,” 502–04.