Fallen Founder

by Nancy Isenberg

74. Theodore Sedgwick to Rufus King, Apr. 9, 1798, in ibid., II: 311, 313; see also Mann, Republic of Debtors, 191.

  75. AB to Theodore Sedgwick, Jan. 2, 1797, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 3.

  76. For Greenleaf’s betrayal of Morris and Nicholson, see Arbuckle, Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot, 118–19, 137; for Greenleaf’s underhanded dealing with Burr, see Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 290–91; on the legal proceedings involved in the Angerstein tract, see Goebel, ed., The Law Practice of Alexander Hamilton IV: 172–74; and AB v. Angerstein, May 3, 1799, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 20. There is some dispute over the value of £24,000 sterling; Goebel set the penalty at $106,000, while Mary-Jo Kline claims it was $90,000; in a private letter from Hamilton, he makes it $80,000—see Goebel, ed., op. cit., 174, 176, note 37; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 740, note 1; AH to John Rutledge, Jr., Jan. 4, 1801, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXV: 292–98.

  77. Burr had borrowed money from Marinus Willett, and in 1798, he wrote a revealing letter about the state of his finances: “For the present, you know how little in my power—The enclosed in the very last dollar I have—.” See AB to Marinus Willett, Mar. 26, 1798, his various promissory notes to Willett, and Burr’s “Account with John Lamb, 1795–97,” in Burr Papers, microfilm, reels 3 and 4; see also Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 291, 296; and Leake, Memoir of the Life and Times of General John Lamb, 124–26, 131.

  78. Arbuckle, Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot, 58–60, 187–89, 193–94, 199.

  79. AB to James Greenleaf, Jan. 17, 1796, and AB to John Nicholson, Mar. 18, 1798, Burr Papers, microfilm, reels 3 and 4. Burr repaid part of his notes that Nicholson had endorsed, but he probably still owed him money, even after Nicholson’s death in 1800. After the impeachment trial, Nicholson was sued by the state of Pennsylvania for monies unaccounted for during his tenure as comptroller-general. He also had to deal with the U.S. government in the suit over the protested note (involved the U.S. Bank) that Burr had signed to Nicholson. In trying to arrange some kind of payment agreement, he allowed the U.S. government to retain $5,000 of Burr’s notes—see John Nicholson to AB, Mar. 14, 1797, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4. Nicholson asked Burr to serve as his defense lawyer during his impeachment trial. Burr declined, but did act as his consultant—see Arbuckle, Pennsylvania Speculator and Patriot, 57.

  80. See AB to John Lamb, Jan. 12, 1798; see also Deed to Sir John Temple, June 17, 1797 (inventory of his household furnishings), and Lease to William Martine, June 30, 1797. Lamb preferred that Burr find another way to repay his debts, and sent a letter releasing him from the obligation to settle his debts with the proceeds of his house. But Burr seemed intent on scraping together whatever funds he could to rescue his friend. See John Lamb to AB, Mar. 29, 1797, and the constant exchange of letters between Burr and Lamb about his finances, and Burr’s “Account with John Lamb, 1795–97,” in Burr Papers, microfilm, reels 3 and 4; also Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 296–97.

  81. See AB to John Lamb, Jan. 12, 1798. Burr and his friends expressed similar emotions. In one letter, Van Gaasbeek wrote, “I would sooner sacrifice every farthing than to wound the reputation of one so deserving a Friend.” Burr’s philosophy for dealing with debts was best expressed in a letter to Oliver Phelps who was trying to collect money from Thomas Morris. Burr wrote: “You are acquainted with his distress and I presume are not disposed to add to them from mere revenge—indeed I know you to be incapable of acting from such motives on any occasion—Your object is doubtless to secure your debt and you are perfectly justified in taking every legal measure to attain this end—At the same time, if you can get better and sooner paid by concord than hostility, I am sure you would prefer it. It is my opinion that you can—If Mr. Morris be driven to the last extremity, you may probably lose your debt—He has friends who are willing, at present, to aid him to a certain extent.” Burr’s point was that negotiation, and some concession on the part of the lender, was far better than extreme measures to destroy the debtor. See Peter Van Gaasbeek to AB, Feb. 1, 1797, and AB to Oliver Phelps, Dec. 15, 1799, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4; and on sureties, see Mann, Republic of Debtors, 16.

  82. For a description of the estate, see Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 6 vols. (New York, 1926), V: 1340; see also Allgor, Parlor Politics, 60; and for furnishings, Deed to Sir John Temple, June 17, 1797, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4.

  83. Burr is listed as a resident in Richmond Hill in the 1793 and 1774 in the New York City Directory and Register (1793, 1794), 22, 27; see also Schachner, Aaron Burr, 122, and for mention of the gallery, the Deed to Sir John Temple, June 17, 1797.

  84. For Davis, see Schachner, Aaron Burr, 121; Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to the Vice President, 110; and John Davis, Travels in Four and a Half Years in the United States of America (reprint 1909), 26; for Brant, see AB to John Vanderlyn, Feb. 28, 1797, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4; for the comte de Volney, see Parton, Life and Times of Aaron Burr, I: 154, and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 1097; and for Nathalie-Marie-Louise-Stephanie-Beatrice de Lage de Volunde (1782–1841), see Côté, Theodosia Burr, 93, and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 280.

  85. Burr acquired Richmond Hill by signing a sixty-nine-year lease from the Episcopal Trinity Church on May 1, 1797. Though he had occupied the estate for several years, the lease was not signed until a month and a half before he sold his furnishings. Burr assigned the lease to John Jacob Astor of Richmond Hill in 1803, along with the deed to several lots. See Deed to Sir John Temple, June 17, 1797, and Lease to William Martine, June 30, 1797, “Assignment of lease to John Jacob Astor of Richmond Hill property,” Oct. 22, 1803,” and “Deeds of Lots on Bedford & Downing Streets to John Jacob Astor,” Nov. 18, 1803, Burr Papers, microfilm, reels 4, 5. See also Schachner, Aaron Burr, 125.

  86. Theodosia Burr to John Bartow Prevost, Aug. 30, 1799, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4.

  87. Theodosia Burr to John Bartow Prevost, June 17, 1799, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4; Maria Nicholson to Hannah Gallatin, Feb. 5, 1801, in Adams, Life of Gallatin, 245; and Côté, Theodosia Burr, 112.

  88. AB to John Lamb, Mar. 31, 1797, and AB to Pierpont Edwards, Oct. 30, 1797, in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4.

  89. William Loughton Smith to Ralph Izard, Nov. 8, 1796, in “South Carolina Federalist Correspondence, 1789–1797,” 785; AH to John Rutledge, Jan. 4, 1801, and AH to James McHenry, Jan. 4, 1801 (same enclosure on AB to both men), in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXV: 292–98. Hamilton owed at least $60,000 according to Gouverner Morris at the time of his death, and his assets, at best, were estimated at $40,000. Yet Morris and Hamilton’s other friends felt that $100,000 should be raised by subscription to cover Hamilton’s debts and support his family—so his debts might have been more or his assets much less. See Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton, 547–53; and Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York, 2004), 724.

  90. Burr became involved in the German Company in 1794. See Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 221–22; and Robert Liston and John Graves Simcoe quoted in Alan Taylor, “A Northern Revolution in 1800? Upper Canada and Thomas Jefferson,” in James Horn, Jan Ellen Lewis, and Peter S. Onuf, eds., The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic (Charlottesville, Va., 2002), 386–87.

  91. Taylor, “A Northern Revolution,” 390, 396, 399.

  92. See Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 316–17.

  93. See Adams, Life of Gallatin, 186; Ammon, James Monroe,157; Thomas Jefferson to AB, June 17, 1797, and his reply, AB to Thomas Jefferson, June 21, 1797, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 298–301. For Jefferson’s earlier letter to Burr concerning his friend, Dr. Currie, see Thomas Jefferson to AB, Jan. 7, 1797, and other letters from Jefferson in 1798 and 1800 on Currie’s case in Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 4.

  94. AB to William Eustis, June 12, 1797, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 297.

  95. See AB to James Monroe, Aug. 9, 1797, in ibid., I: 311; Ammon, James Monroe, 160�
�61, 168–69. For the dinner and toasts, see New York Daily Advertiser, July 15, 1797.

  96. David Gelston’s Account of an Interview between Alexander Hamilton and James Monroe, July 11, 1797, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXI: 159–62.

  97. For the list of Hamilton’s affairs, see Joanne Freeman, Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic (New Haven, Conn., 2001), 326; for an account of the Church affair, see Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 410.

  98. AB to ?, Oct. 6, 1799, Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 410.

  99. Ibid.

  100. AB to AH, June 20, 1804, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 5.

  101. AB to Theodosia Burr, Sept. 17, 1795, in Van Doren, ed., Correspondence of Aaron Burr and his Daughter Theodosia, 36; AB to James Monroe, Aug. 13, 1797, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 312 (italics added).

  102. AB to AH, June 20, 1804, Burr Papers, microfilm, reel 5.

  103. According to Burr, they had averted two other affairs. He claimed that Hamilton came forward voluntarily and made apologies, thus preempting Burr from initiating the code duello—see AB to Charles Biddle, July 18, 1804, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, II: 887.

  104. Ibid., I: 314, 320–21. John Dawson, another friend drawn into the affair, reported Burr’s comment that he disliked the “childish mode of writing” used by both men. See John Dawson to James Monroe, Dec. 24, 1797, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXI: 319; Ammon, James Monroe, 160.

  105. James Monroe to James Madison, Oct. 15, 1797, and James Madison to James Monroe, Oct. 19, 1797, in Stagg, ed., Papers of James Madison, XVII: 50, 53; Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXI: 319; Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 320–21.

  106. James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, Oct. 20, 1797, in Stagg, ed., Papers of James Madison, XXI: 54. Hamilton’s pamphlet was published on Aug. 25 and entitled Observations on Certain Documents Contained in No. V & VI of “The Hist. of the U.S. for the Year 1796,” In Which the Charge of Speculation Against Alexander Hamilton, Late Secretary of the Treasury, is Fully Refuted. Written by Himself (Philadelphia, 1796).

  107. Hamilton portrayed himself as the seduced victim: he wrote that Mrs. Reynolds’s “conduct, made it extremely difficult to disentangle myself. All the appearances of a violent attachment, and of agonizing distress at the idea of relinquishment, were played off with a most imposing art. This, though it did not make me entirely the dupe of the plot, yet kept me in a state of irresolution.” See the Observations on Certain Documents, reprinted in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXI: 238–85, esp. 252.

  108. The female poet may have been a man using a female pseudonym. See Jemmima Spinningwheel [pseudo.], Independent Chronicle, Oct. 9, 1797, quoted in Cogan, “The Reynolds Affair,” 406–08. New Yorker John Armstrong (a Federalist who later converted to Republicanism) made the disparaging comment about Hamilton hiding under Mrs. Reynolds’s petticoats—see C. Edward Skeen, John Armstrong, Jr., 1758–1843: A Biography (Syracuse, N.Y., 1981), 41. See also Robert Troup to Rufus King, June 3, 1798, in King, ed., The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II: 330.

  109. On the controversy over Hamilton’s appointment, see Kurtz, The Presidency of John Adams, 280–81; and for a discussion of the sexual overtones of the XYZ Affair, see Nancy Isenberg, “Death and Satire: Dismembering the Body Politic,” in Isenberg and Andrew Burstein, eds., Mortal Remains: Death in Early America (Philadelphia, 2003), 87–88. Even Hamilton wrote about the “mistresses,” who “are appointed to intrigue our envoys.” See his article “The Stand No. V” in the Commercial Advertiser, Apr. 16, 1798, reprinted in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXI: 428, 431.

  110. For the rumors about Knox, see Oliver Wolcott to AH, Oct. 10, 1798, in Gibbs, ed., Memoirs of the Administration of Washington and Adams, II: 101. Adams had no choice but to accept Hamilton, as Secretary of State Timothy Pickering explained to Rufus King: “You must know that the President wishes Knox to precede Hamilton whom he dislikes extremely, and whom he would have named first; but that the order of the names was designated by General Washington, who claimed as a condition of his accepting the Chief Command, the privilege of proposing his principal officers”—Timothy Pickering to Rufus King, Aug. 29, 1798, in The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II: 405.

  111. The Military Committee was a “citizens’ organization,” and had no official standing or authority. See Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXI: 476; and Ebenezer Stevens to AB, Aug. 17, 1798, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 347–48, 353–54.

  112. Hamilton also recommended the other member of the military committee, Ebenezer Stevens, for the position as naval agent, despite the fact that he, too, was not a Federalist. For his recommendation of Burr, see Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, June 28, 1798; and for Stevens, see Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, June 2, 1798, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXI:521–22, 480. For rumors, see Timothy Pickering to Oliver Wolcott, July 11, 1798, in Gibbs, ed., Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and John Adams, II; 71; for his earlier attacks, see chapter four: “An Unprejudiced Mind.”

  113. See AH to John Jay, Feb. 12, 1799, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XXII: 476–77.

  114. John Adams to James Lloyd, 1815, Works of John Adams, X: 123–26. Adams’s memory may be inaccurate, for according to Timothy Pickering, the president was suggesting Burr for quartermaster general—see Timothy Pickering to Oliver Wolcott, July 11, 1798, in Gibbs, ed., Memoirs of the Administrations of Washington and Adams, II: 71. It also appears that Washington had put Burr on his patronage list before the crisis over the Jay Treaty; and he had included other enemies of Hamilton like George Clinton. But we also know that Hamilton was reporting on Burr’s political activities for the opposition party as early as 1792. See AH to George Washington, Sept. 23, 1792, in Syrett, ed., Hamilton Papers, XII: 418; see also Kurtz, The Presidency of John Adams, 244.

  115. Robert Troup to Rufus King, Oct. 2, 1798, in King, ed., The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II: 431–32.

  116. Ibid., II: 431.

  117. For Burr’s revision of the final wording—expunging “French Directory” and replacing it with “all foreign nations”—see New-York Journal, Aug. 22, 1798. In the notice of the meeting, Burr, his good friend David Gelston, Burrite John Broome, Dr. Samuel Mitchell, and Henry Rutgers all were appointed to a committee to draft an address to prevent further depredations on American commerce by the “British government, and any other nation.” The meeting was held on June 13, and the notice was published in the Argus, June 15, 1798. This meeting was held just three days after Burr was appointed to the Military Committee on June 11, and it had been organized by the New York Democratic Society—see Foner, The Democratic-Republican Societies, 200; Helms, “An Uneasy Alliance,” 25; and Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 347.

  118. In his dedication, Burk claimed that Burr gave him the idea for the play. See John Burk, Bunker-Hill; or the death of General Warren: An Historical Play in Five Acts (New York, 1797). See also Joseph I. Shulim, “John Daly Burk: Irish Revolutionist and American Patriot,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 54 (October 1964): 19–36; John Burk to Thomas Jefferson, June 19, 1801, Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress; AB to James Monroe, Dec. 25, 1798, in Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 361–62; and James Morton Smith, Freedom’s Fetters: The Alien and Sedition Laws and American Civil Liberties (Ithaca, N.Y., 1956), 205–06, 211.

  119. Burk was arrested before the passage of the Sedition Act on July 14, 1798. The federal district attorney, Richard Harison, relied on a common law indictment, but action was taken in anticipation of the passage of the new Sedition Act. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering had been watching The Time Piece, and wrote Harison to check Burk’s status as a citizen. “If Burke be an alien,” he wrote, then “no man is a fitter object for the operation of the alien act.” So, Burk was considered a target under both the Alien and Sedition laws—Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic, 177; and James Morton Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 210�
��11.

  120. See Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Apr. 26, 1798, and James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, May 20, 1798, in James Morton Smith, ed., The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776–1826, 3 vols. (New York, 1994), II: 1042, 1050. At least twenty-one printers and editors were fined or imprisoned under the Sedition Act. See Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, and F. M. Anderson, “The Enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Laws,” American Historical Association Annual Report (1912), 115–26; Adams, Life of Gallatin, 204–06; and Sharp, American Politics in the Early Republic, 179, 183.

  121. Margaret Bache was accused of running the paper like a bawdy house, promoting licentiousness instead of spreading the news. Federalist henchman William Cobbett provided the crudest insult; he claimed she published a protest against castration because she missed having sex with her husband. Duane was not only indicted under the Sedition Act, he was sued for libel, tried in state court for “riot and assault,” and in 1799, he was beaten up by an angry group of Federalist soldiers—see Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Tyranny of Printers”: Newspaper Politics in the Early Republic (Charlottesville, Va., 2001), 102–03, 189–90. Ann Greenleaf was indicted under the federal Sedition Act, and then Hamilton instituted a state libel prosecution that forced her to sell her paper. See Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 400; see also New-York Gazette, July 16, 1798; Shulim, “John Daly Burk,” 31.

  122. See Albert Gallatin to James Nicholson, Jan. 30, 1799, The Papers of Albert Gallatin, microfilm; also Walters, Albert Gallatin, 115; Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin, 191–92; and Smith, Freedom’s Fetters, 221–46, esp. 243.

  123. Burr’s speech, along with the debates in the assembly, was reprinted in the Albany Register—see Kline, ed., Burr Papers, I: 371.

  124. Ibid., 366–67, 371.

  125. Ibid., 371.

  126. Ibid., 367.

  127. Ibid., 371.

  128. Robert Troup to Rufus King, Jan. 23, 1799, in King, ed., The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, II, 524; and Aurora, Jan. 18, 1799.