Evening Star Newspaper, October 18, 1931, Page 89

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, OCTOBER 18_, | — ing day he was welcomed by a general saiute from the Observatory,” etc. < Regarding the induction into office of Presi- dent JefTerson, there was an account printed at the time, but all the writer found regarding Burr on that impertant occasion was the fol- lowing: “Aaron Burr, vice president of the United States, this mcrning took his seat in the Senate as President of that body.” The paper did not state where Mr. Burr was stopping, but some time during his term of office he resided on the south side of F street northwest, about at the east end of the National Press Building, at what was formerly 1336-1338 in that block. N 1804, before Burr's term of office as Vice President had expired, we find him running for the office ¢f Governor of New York, for which he was defeated by Morgan Lewis, and it was this election that brought on the differ- ence between Burr and Hamilton, resulting in the duel of July 7, 1804, and the death of Hamilton, which followed July 12, five days later. The cause assigned for this notable en- counter, as given by the Intelligencer at the time, follows: “A short time previously to the late election a letter was publjshed in Albany, written by one , in which it was stated that Gen. H,, in conversation, had declared that Mr. Burr was a dangerous man and ought not to be trusted. This letter was republished in New York. Abcut a fortnight ago Col. B. wrote to Gen. H., wishing to know whether he had ever declared anything like that attributed to him. ‘The general arswered that he had no recol- lection of the conversation alluded to, nor were any particular words attributed to him in the letter, and that he could not therefore undertake to say whether he had or had not held such a conversation; but that if Col. B. would specify any particular ~conversation, or state any particular words, that he, Gen. H., would at orce either avow cr disavow them. *Col. B. replied that it was not in his power to specify the p:rticular conversation alluded to, but insisted that Gen. Hamilton should declare whether he ever had, in any conver- sation whatever, made use of any words derofatory t> his character. To this sort of demand Gen. H. declared he did not think himself bound to answer, but again expressed his willingness at orce frankly to avow or dis- avow any particul-r conversation which might be specified. Col. B. was not satisfied and directed that, unless Gen. H. gave him a direct answer, he must fight him.” HE duel which terminated so fatally to one of the greatest Americans of all time took place at Weehawken, on the Hudson, and a New York paper of July 21 has the following to say as to the arrangements and results: “Col. Burr arrived first.on the ground, as had been previously agreed. When Gen. Hamilton _arrived the parties exchanged salutations and the seconds prcceeded to make their arrange- . ments. They measured the distance, 10 full paces, and cast lots for the choice of positions, as also to determine by whom the word should be given, both of which fell to the second of Gen. Hamilton. They then proceeded to load the pistols in each other’s presence, after which the parties took their stations. The gentleman who was to give the word then explained to the parties the rules which were to govern them in firing, which were as follows: ‘Th~ - parties being placed at their stations, * * * the second who gives the word shall ask them whether they are ready. Being answered in - the affirmative, he shall say, “Present.” After this the parties shall present and fire when -they please. * * * If cne fires before the other, the opposite second shall say, “One, two, three, fire,”” * * * but he shall then fire or lose his fire” He then asked if they were pre- pared. Being answered in the affirmative, he gave the word “Present,” as had been agreed on, and both parties presented as they fired in succession. The intervening time is not ex- pressed, as the seconds do not precisely agree on that point. The fire of Col. Burr took effect and Gen. Hamilton almost instantly fell. Col. Burr then advanced toward Gen. Hamil- ton with a manner and gesture that appeared to Gen. Hamilton’s friend to be expressicn of regret, but, without speaking, turned about and withdrew, being urged frem the field by his friend, as has been subsequently stated, with a view to prevent his being recognized by the surgeon and bargemen, who were then ap- proaching. No further communication took place between the principals and the barge that carried Col. Burr immediately returned to the city.” . Hamilton was mortally wounded and re- quested that he be taken to the home of Mr. Bayard, where he expressed a desire that the bishop might be sent for; but, as he was not available, Mr. Moore of the Dutch Church was sent for and instantly came and after asking some questions of the wounded man had him partake of the holy communion. ‘T is hard at this distant day to realize the profound shock the death of Alexander Hamilton produced. From every quarter came wordseef regret—words undoubtedly true and sincere. The New York-Herald of July 21, 1804, said: “When we say that Hamilton is dead, we can add nothing to the cause of grief—when we remember how he lived! We can add nothing to the luster of his fame. Eulogism sinks languid on the melting heart. It gives no throb unfelt before; it cites no worth unknown. If the pathetic will of Cicero were to speak, even from the gloom of the tomb, it could open no new source of regret; it could raise no new emotion of sorrow. Deep and solemn is the grief of a people. The tide swells from 10,000 fountains; the torrent rolls in a resistless course. If the great spirit of our departed glory will linger but a little and delay its ardent flight to the prepared mansions of eternal bliss, it will witness that we are not ungrateful; it will be- hold the pure and convulsive tributes of un- affected woe. His virtues are reflected from countless - tears, and men say he is lost, as if nothing was left! The great hope of the Na- tion is sunk. * * * Party rage is overwhelmed 1931. The old Moore House, Temple Farm, Yorktown, Va. where the terms of surrender were signed. in the flood of lamentation, and all men unite in unfeigned eulogisms on the splendid talents, the pure patriotism, the spotless integrity, the noble, disinterested nature of the lost Ham- ilton!"” Mr. Dennie, writing in the Port Folio, said: “Thus has perished, in the prime of life and in the midst of his usefulness, Alexander Hamilton, the man of exalted sentiments and extensive views, whose theories guided the statesman, whose eloquence influenced Senates. whose delicacy might have polished courts and whose versatile talents blessed mankind. He has fallen, not in the course of nature, not jeopardizing his life in the high places of the fleld, but by a private and petty hand, and his perplexed and sorrowing country makes the pathctic interrogatory of the Royal Psalmist: “*Know yet not that there is a great man fallen this day in Israel?’” The reporter for Jackson's Register, who wrote Alexander Hamilton at Yorktown. Didon were also put in full mourning for the occasion. Prom the minute Hamilton fell, a mortally wounded man, Burr's successful career was ended. Early in August, 1804, the ccroner’s jury brought in the following verdict: “That Aaron Burr, Esq, Vice President of {he United States, was guilty of the murder of Alexander Hamilton—and that William P. Vvan Ness, Esq., attorney at law, and Nathaniel Pendclton, Esq., counselor at law, were acces- sories.” Burr stole away frcm New York like a thief in the dark and found his way to his daugh- ter's, Theodosia’s home, but before reaching there he ‘'must have been ill at e2se, for in the Intelligencer of August 3, quoting a gentle- man in Philadelphia, we find: “Mr. Burr was attacked the day before yes- terday with a hydrocephalus and is now lying extremely ill in the neighborh-od of this city,” The inscription on the flag reads “New York Baittery of Artillery.” the article printed in the Intelligencer, closed by saying: . “My heart is too full to proceed. Our Na- tlon’s pride, our last, best hope is gone!"” ‘The funeral took place on Saturday, July 14, 1804, and the interment was in Trinity Church- yard, New York. The scene, it is stated, was impressive and made unusually solemn by the presence of the four sons of the deceased, ranging in age from 6 to 16, “the once hopes and joys of the deceased, who, with tears burst- ing from their eyes, sat upon the stage at the feet of the orator bewailing the loss of their parent! It was too much—the sternest powers, the bloodiest villain could not resist the melting scene.” And the Daily Advertiser concludes its write-up with: “We never witnessed, in this country or in Europe, on any similar occasion, so general a sorrow, such an unusual regret or a ceremonial more awful and impressive.” HE British ship of war, Boston, Capt. Doug- lass, at anchor within the Hook, appeared in mourning the whole forenoon and at 10 o'clock commenced firing minute guns, which were continued for 48 minutes. His majesty’s packet Lord Charles Spencer, Capt. Cotesworth, was also in mourning and fired an equal num- ber of guns. ‘The French frigates Cybelle and and the editor of the Intelligencer, quite ac- commodatingly informs us that a hydrocepha- lus is a dropsy in the head. Burr's wife, formerly Mrs. Theodosia Prevost, who was 10 yezrs his senior, died cf cancer in 1794, and after his duel with Hamilton his troubles never ceased. His efforts to form a republic in the Southwest, for which he was tried for treason in 1807, and acquitted, are well known, but only made his utter ruin the more certain and c:mplete. Perhaps the hard- est blow of all, however, was the loss of his only child and daughter, Theodosia, who was lost off Cape Hatteras. During all of his trouble she was steadfast in her devction to her father, and the recollections of her virtues, and of her only son, who preceded her to the grave at the age of 11, and of his wife, of whom he was passionately fcnd, were perhaps the only pleasures of one who lived alone in the past, for, 2s the poet has said: “Memory is the only friend that grief can call its own.” At 78 Burr married Mme. Jumel, from whom he soon separated, and his last days were de- pendent upcn a Scotch woman friend of for- mer years for a hore. He died September 14, 1836, and well it might be said: “The mills of the gods grind slow, but sure.” -ried December 14, 1780. LIZABETH HAMILTON—"Betsy"—wife of Alexander Hamilton and daughter of Philip J. Schuyler, appointed one of the four major generals in the Continental Army in 1775, lived in Washington fcr meny years and died here at the advaced age of 97, a noble, highly-re- spected woman. To Col. Hamiltorf she was mar- Just when she first came here the writer cannot say. but in a let- ter written by Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith in the Spring of 1829 we find her saying: “For your sake, dear Maria, I will visit Mrs. Ham- liton, though I have resisted many inducements to make new acquaintances.” A correspondent, writing of a State dinner at the White House during President Fil- more's administration, 1850-1853, makes the following mention of this notable woman: “At a state dinner we met Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, whom Mr. Fillmore escorted to.the table—a plain little old lady and very plainly dressed. The dinner consisted of nine courses and we sat from 7 to 9. Through the entire length of the table was a mirror zbout a foot in width with a scrt of bird-cage arrangement at the edges, on which, at intervals were placed vases of zrtificial flowers; we saw very few natural flowers and there was no conservatory at the White House.” Previous to this we find at the “birth-night ball” at the White House, February 22, 1845, that President Tyler weas accompanied by President-elect Polk, and that “Mrs. Madison was present with Mrs. Alexander Hamiltcn.” How interesting these social functions must have been, since it was her “Hamilton,” as she always called him, who planned the social fea- tures that Washington was to have as Presi- dent. Mrs. Hamilton was a charitable woman and it was due to her efforts that the first orphan asylum in New York was established, and she had the great pleasure ¢f being present in Epiphany Church, in this city, at the fiftieth anniversary of its founding, when a memorial service was held. It was while living in Washington that this veneratle woman sccured the passage of an appropriation for the purchase and publication of her illustrious husband’s papers, which she had carefully preserved in 57 folio vclumes, for no woman ever revered the memory of her de- ceased consort more than did she, and it is said she was always ready to purchase, even at an exorbitant price, stray copies of his cele- brated ramphlet in which he avowed his in- fidelity to her rather than expose himself to a charge of official misconduct. The home of Mrs. Hamilton, where she Mved with her daughter, Mrs. Holley, probably the wife of John Milton Holley, who served as a Representative in Congress frcm New York, from 1847 to 1848—stood on the site of what would now be 1325 H street northwest, a little ezst of the alley. It was one of two handsme three-story brick residences, built by Count de Menon, and which stood back from the building line, with a fence bordering it, of fes- tooned chains. In the cther house lived, about 1850, Gen. Winfield Scott and his wife. T was in the H street residence that Mrs. Hamilton, the beautiful “Betsy” of Hamil- ton’s day, breathed her last, and of which The Star of November 10, 1854, says: “Death of a Distinguished Lady.—We have heretofore noticed the dangerous illness of Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, the venerated widow of Gen. Alexander Hamilton, and. aide to Gen. Washington in the Revolution, and the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United Staies. Notwithstanding the most skillful attentions of the attending physician, Dr. Hall, and the assiduous nursing of her affectionate daughter, Mrs. Holley, she expired yesterday morning. Her two sons, James A. and John C. Hamilton, Esq., of New York, were also present at her illness and death. The remains were taken to the depot this morning, and left for New York, accompanied only by the family. Mrs. Hamilton was the daughter ot Gen. Philip J. Schuyler of Albany, distinguished in the Revolutionary War. She lived to the very advanced age of 97 years and three months, and died without a struggle, in full communion with the Episcopal Church, and surrounded by her surviving children and a few particular friends.” Hog Cholera Days at Hand CTOBER and November are the months in which the swine raiser faces the risk of loss of his entire stock, a risk which is ever present and one which can be eliminated with ease. These two months are those in which outbreaks of hog cholera are likely and once the disease gets in a herd of swine it is often almost complete in its devastation before the farmer hardly realizes its presence. Innoculation with serum and virus gives absolute and lasting immunity, yet many farm- ers will gamble all their stock against the slight cost of the innoculetbn and face heavy loss which too frequently b met. A .