Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 84

Your obedient servant,

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA.

Was.h.i.+ngton, January 22, 1802.

Still silent. Yet is 20th December the latest date which I have received from you; hence I infer that you have remained at Georgetown much longer than was intended. Five weeks without hearing from you!

Intolerable. Now I think to repose myself in sullen silence for five weeks from this date. I know that the apples and nuts will bring you out again. Thus children are moved; but I also thought that a pretty little letter, even without bonbons, would have done the same. I have a very beautiful elegy on a lady whom you love better than any one in the world; even better, I suspect, than L. N., and I was about to send it, but I won't till I hear from you: a nice, handsome letter; none of your little white ink scrawls. They talk of adjourning. No; I won't tell you that either. I have nothing to say of myself, nor any thing to ask of you which has not been often asked. Tell me that Mari is happy, and I shall know that you are so. Adieu, my dear little negligent baggage. Yes; one question. Do you leave your cards T. B. A.

or Joseph A.? What are L. N.'s? And one injunction repeated. Do not suffer a tooth to be drawn, or any operation to be performed on your teeth.

A. BURR.

TO JOSEPH ALSTON,

Was.h.i.+ngton, February 2 1802.

Your letter of the 10th of January was the first evidence of your existence which I had received for near a month preceding. I hope your wife is allowed the use of pen, ink, and paper. Her letter, three days later, has been also received. The successful "execution of your energies" is highly grateful to me. It _seems probable_ that I shall p.r.o.nounce, in person, on the merit of the workmans.h.i.+p somewhere about May day.

The repeal of the judicial system of 1801 engrosses the attention of both houses of Congress. The bill is yet before the Senate. You may have observed that some days ago it was referred to a special committee by the casting vote of the vice-president. Bradley having arrived two days ago, and the republicans having thus an additional vote, the committee was this day discharged, and it is highly probable that the bill will pa.s.s the Senate to-morrow. On this subject I hesitate, though it is not probable that my vote will be required. Of the const.i.tutionality of repealing the law I have no doubt, but the equity and expediency of depriving the twenty-six judges of office and pay is not quite so obvious. Read the Const.i.tution, and, having informed yourself of the out-door talk, write me how you view the thing.

It has for months past been a.s.serted that Spain has ceded Louisiana and the Floridas to France; and it may, I believe, be a.s.sumed as a fact. How do you account for the apathy of the public on this subject?

To me the arrangement appears to be pregnant with evil to the United States. I wish you to think of it, and endeavour to excite attention to it through the newspapers. If you publish any thing, send me the papers which may contain it.

Truxton is going out to the Mediterranean with three large and one small frigate. Apprehensions are entertained that our good ally, George III, does secretly instigate and aid the Barbary powers. We do not know that Tunis has declared war, but such an event will not surprise me.

I have not heard a syllable of any changes made or to be made in offices in your state, and, for reasons well known to you, I shall neither make an inquiry nor offer advice. C. Pinckney's nomination was confirmed by one vote. All the other nominations have been confirmed, mostly without opposition.

Theodosia writes me that the mountain plan is wholly abandoned for Sullivan's Island. I do not, however, as yet abandon it; and, if I can get hence early in April, I think of going direct to Columbia, there to establish myself till you shall both condescend to visit me.

When you shall be both settled in your own house, I crave a history of _one day,_ in the manner of Swift's journal to Stella; or, as you do not like imitation, in your own manner. Vale.

A. BURR.

TO THEODOSIA. Was.h.i.+ngton, February 2, 1802.

I have just received a pretty little letter from C. C., all on nice, pretty figured paper, such as you love, and she talks a great deal about you; the substance of it is, that you are an ugly, little, lazy, stupid, good-for-nothing knurle, and that she is very sorry she ever wrote you a line. I can't vouch for the very words, but I think this is a fair abridgment of that part of her letter which concerns T. B.

A. I wish you would teach half a dozen of your negroes to write; then you might lay on the sofa, and, if you could submit to the labour of thinking and dictating, the thing would go on.

We make a pleasant society here, so that one may get through the winter without ennui. I live at Mr. Law's, not nominally, but in fact.

Mrs. Madison is distant one mile. Anna Payne [2] is a great belle.

Miss Nicholson [3] ditto, but more retired; frequently, however, at Mrs. Law's. But pray, miss (madam), as to busts and statues, all the B.'s being out of the question, is there nothing in this line to be found in South Carolina? I suppose it never came into your head to think or inquire. Pray shake your little noddle, to give the brains, if any there be, a little action; but who can do two things at once?

That's true. I forgive thee all thy sins, without any further penance than that which you have imposed on yourself. But write C. and poor little Anna, to congratulate her. Tell her what a fine fellow I learn her husband is. Mrs. Anna Constable Pierpont.

We have a perpetual summer here. I am weary of it, though, in truth, I care nothing about it. With you it must be burning hot.

The cook had only Peggy to aid him; but as Peggy is equal to about forty South Carolina Africans, he is very reasonable if he asks only thirty-five, and ought to be indulged. Your maid will make a miserable housekeeper, and be spoiled as femme de chambre, which last character is, I take it, the more important one. The poem or elegy is not sent, and is not forgotten. I am now going to smoke a segar and pray for you.

A. BURR

FROM CHARLES BIDDLE.

Philadelphia, February 3, 1802.

DEAR SIR,

I enclose you a letter for Commodore Truxton. Should he be gone to Norfolk, please to forward it.

Every _gentleman_ here, and, what I am sure you think of much more consequence, every _lady_, was much pleased with your vote on the judiciary bill. Those who do not think it unconst.i.tutional to repeal the law are of opinion it would be very injurious to do it. Your friend,

CHARLES BIDDLE.

FROM COLONEL MARINUS WILLETT.

New-York, February 4, 1802.

DEAR SIR,

What a racket this vile judiciary law makes. It must be repealed; but how the judges, who have their appointment during good behaviour, are to be removed without making a breach in the const.i.tution, is beyond my abilities to develop. It will not, however, be the first a.s.sault on that instrument; and, if two wrongs could make one right, this account might be squared. But that horrid law must, indeed it must, be repealed.

I have received your two favours, one dated the 28th of January, and the other without date. The effect of the abolition of the internal taxes on Mr. Osgood [4] gives me no concern. He has plenty of other business, and money enough without the income from his office.

G.o.d bless you; you have my prayers always; and who dare say they are not as good as a bishop's, or any member of a Presbyterian synod?

Sometimes I think I'll turn Presbyterian, that I may have the benefit of their prayers not to outlive my useful days; an event I deprecate above all others, and this is a prayer I never heard in our church--I mean my church, which, you know, is the Episcopal. Most sincerely your friend,

M. WILLETT.

FROM JOHN M. TAYLOR. Philadelphia, February 5, 1802.

DEAR SIR,

I had the pleasure of writing you some days ago, since which there are pet.i.tions circulating through the city for a repeal of the judiciary system. My own opinion is that there is no necessity for such a measure, as the two houses of Congress have the subject before them, and their decision will be had ere the pet.i.tions can be sent forward, and I have no doubt it will be repealed.

I have reasoned with all those who thought you ought to have voted against it being referred to the committee of five, that your intention must have been to afford the opposite party time to discuss the subject fully, so that they might not say of you and your friends (as Governeur Morris has said) that they pertinaciously forced it on the then minority. I think it is better to give them time.

Yours, very respectfully,