The life of John Marshall . nding with the Federalists,who had but recently fawned upon him, as it wasto the physical being of his antagonist. What nowfollowed was as if Aaron Burr had been the pre-destined victim of some sinister astrology, so utterlydid the destruction of his fortunes appear to be thepurpose of a malign fate. His fine ancestry now counted for nothing withthe reigning politicians of either party. None ofthem cared that he came of a family which, on bothsides, was among the worthiest in all the country.^His superb education went for naught. His brilliani?services as one of the
The life of John Marshall . nding with the Federalists,who had but recently fawned upon him, as it wasto the physical being of his antagonist. What nowfollowed was as if Aaron Burr had been the pre-destined victim of some sinister astrology, so utterlydid the destruction of his fortunes appear to be thepurpose of a malign fate. His fine ancestry now counted for nothing withthe reigning politicians of either party. None ofthem cared that he came of a family which, on bothsides, was among the worthiest in all the country.^His superb education went for naught. His brilliani?services as one of the youngest Revolutionary oflScers were no longer considered — his heroism atQuebec, his resourcefulness on Putnams staff, hisvalor at Monmouth, his daring and tireless efficiencyat West Point and on the Westchester lines, were, tothese men, as if no such record had ever been written. Nor, with those then in power, did Burrs notable ^ His father was the President of Princeton. His maternal grand*father was Jonathan AARON BURR THE BURR CONSPIRACY 277 public services in civil life weigh so much as a featherin his behalf. They no longer remembered that onlya few years earlier he had been the leader of hisparty in the National Senate, and that his appoint-ment to the then critically important post of Min-ister to France had been urged by the unanimouscaucus of his political associates in Congress. Noneof the notable honors that admirers had assertedto be his due, nor yet his effective work for his party,were now recalled. The years of provocation ^ which ^ Hamiltons pursuit of Burr was lifelong and increasingly venom-ous. It seems incredible that a man so transcendently great as Hamil-ton — easily the foremost creative mind in American statesmanship— should have succumbed to personal animosities such as he dis-played toward John Adams, and toward Aaron Burr. The rivalry of Hamilton and Burr began as yoimg attorneys at theNew York bar, where Burr was the only lawyer co
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjec, booksubjectstatesmen
