CHAPTER mournful pomp of which the city had never seen equaled. XVII. A funeral oration was delivered in Trinity Church by 1804. Gouverneur Morris, at whose side, on the platform erect

ed 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 puri-
ty of heart, his rectitude of intention, his incorruptible
integrity. "I charge you to protect his fame!" he add-
ed; "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
your interests.
In his most private and confidential con-
versations, the single objects of discussion were your free-
dom and happiness. You know that he never courted
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 result-
ing from the firm energy of his conduct. He was charged
with ambition, and, wounded by the imputation, he de-
clared, 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 noth-
ing; but he feared that bad men might, by false profes-
sions, 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

XVII.

the Doric in architecture be taken as the symbol of CHAPTER Washington's character, Hamilton's belonged to the same grand style as developed in the Corinthian-if less im- 1804. pressive, 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 against Burr was tremendous. He was regarded as no better than a deliberate murderer, who had artfully contrived 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 practiced 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

CHAPTER long sitting and some difficulty in obtaining evidenceXVII. some of Burr's friends allowing themselves to be impris1804. oned rather than to testify-returned a verdict of willful murder by the hand of Aaron Burr. A bill of indictment 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 Pennsylvania, Burr privately embarked for Georgia, "merely," so he wrote his daughter, who was married to a South Carolina planter, "to give a little time for passions to subside, not from any apprehensions of the final effects of proceedings in courts of law." But the impression made upon the public mind by this fatal duel did not subside so easily; the absurdity of the sacrifice of a life like Hamilton's to the "honor" of a profligate like Burr was too gross; and a strong impulse was thus given to that growing sentiment of civilized common sense which has nearly extirpated the practice of dueling throughout the free states of America.

The blockade of Tripoli was kept up during the earlier part of the summer by the smaller vessels of the squadron, and one or two captures were made. Later in the season, having borrowed two bomb-ketches and several gun-boats of the Neapolitan government, Preble Aug. 3. attacked the harbor of Tripoli, which was well defended by heavy batteries, and by gun-boats and small armed vessels. After some very desperate fighting, hand to hand, in which Decatur figured conspicuously, two of the Tripolitan gun-boats were sunk, and three others

taken.

The attack was renewed a few days after, but CHAPTER

XVII.

on the arrival of the John Adams, fitted out as a storeship, with news that a squadron from America might 1804. be immediately expected, it was suspended to wait for Aug. 9. these fresh ships. Meanwhile a negotiation was entered into with the Bashaw; but as he still demanded $500 per head for his captives, no arrangement could be made. As the expected squadron failed to appear, two more at- Aug. 28. Sept. 5. tacks were made by Preble, the Constitution ranging alongside the batteries, and bombarding them and the town with good effect. The Intrepid was also fitted as a fire-ship and sent into the harbor, in the hopes of blowing up some of the enemy's ships; but this proved a failure, the explosion taking place prematurely, and resulting in the loss of Lieutenant Somers and the crew who had volunteered on this desperate service. Shortly after, the new squadron arrived, under the command of Com- Sept. 10. modore Barron, by whom Preble was superseded. Barron was now in command of five frigates and five smaller vessels, besides several armed prizes, two thirds the ef fective force of the American navy; but new alarms of hostilities on the part of Morocco made it necessary for a part of the fleet to cruise near Gibraltar; and at Tripoli nothing was done during the autumn and winter beyond keeping up the blockade.

27.

By two treaties made at Vincennes with the Dela- Aug. 18wares and Piankeshaws, and a third at St. Louis with Nov. 3. the Sacs and Foxes, Harrison, governor of Indiana and Indian commissioner, extinguished the Indian title to large additional tracts in that region. The Delawares and Piankeshaws, in consideration of some small additional annuities, ceded all the country south of a line from Vincennes to the falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The Sacs and Foxes, in consideration of an annuity in goods

XVII.

CHAPTER to the value of one thousand dollars, ceded a great tract on both sides of the Mississippi, of near eighty thousand 1804. square miles, extending on the east bank from the mouth of the Illinois to the head of that river, and thence to the Wisconsin; and including on the west a considerable part of the present State of Missouri, from the mouth of the Gasconade northward.

In the choice of electors of president and vice-president, the Democrats-for by that name the Republican party, at least throughout the Northern States, began very generally to be called-succeeded even beyond their April 16. hopes. A letter of Jefferson's to Granger intimates that early in the year some scheme was contemplated for a coalition between the Federalists and Democrats of the seven Eastern States (such as took place twenty years later), to shake off the Virginia ascendency, of which bitter complaints began to be uttered by some of the Democrats; a feeling extending also to Kentucky, as appears from Matthew Lyon's publications in the Kentucky Palladium. This ascendency was the burden of many able articles in the Boston Repertory, the chief organ of the Essex Junto; and the Massachusetts Legislature had recently shown their sense of the matter by proposing for the consideration of the sister states an amendment of the Federal Constitution-the same suggested in the House by a Massachusetts member in the debate on the amendment respecting electors of president -to deprive slave property of any representation on the floor of Congress.

This projected coalition, of which Burr's attempt to be chosen governor of New York was no doubt a part, had no result. The idea of it was probably based, in part, on the expected failure of the proposed amendment in relation to the election of president and vice-president,