CHAPTER I

THE AYES HAVE IT

I

COLONEL BURR assumed his first public office, not by his own desire, but at the urgent invitation of the citizens of New York.

It was in 1784. He had not been a resident of the city six months; he was struggling to establish himself in his profession; he had nothing to recommend him to the consideration of the voters except his military record, his reputation as a rising lawyer and the conspicuous qualities of his intellect. These proved, in so short a time, sufficient to attract to him the attention of his fellow townsmen; he allowed himself to be persuaded; and in April was elected a member of the Assembly, taking his seat at the opening of the Legislature in New York in the following October. It was the first step in a political career which was to take him to the very threshold of the presidency, and make of him the Second Gentleman in the land.

The first session of the Legislature in which he took part was very brief; during the second, beginning on January 27, 1785, there came up for dis

cussion a bill to incorporate a certain society of mechanics, some of the features of which promised to imperil the freedom of municipal government. In the face of violent threats advanced against his person, Colonel Burr, alone among his less determined colleagues from the city, opposed the measure and brought about its defeat, earning for himself the widespread approval of the community. He then supported a motion for the abolition of slavery in New York- a policy which was finally to go into effect in 1800-and was made chairman of a committee appointed to revise the laws of the State. He had, therefore, in a few months, given evidence of courageous and constructive thinking, and of considerable executive ability. But the expiration of his term, in April, found him unwilling, at the time at least, to remain in the political field, and he returned to the practice of the law.

But the people of New York could not afford to dispense entirely with his public abilities. For seven years he served as a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Hospital; in 1791, he was one of a Commission chosen to dispose of the wild lands of the State, an enterprise which resulted in calamitous scandal from which he alone escaped; indeed, in 1788, he presented himself once more as a candidate for the Assembly, and was defeated on the anti-Federalist ticket; in the following year, he co-operated with Mr. Hamilton in that unsuccessful effort to elect Judge Yates to the Governorship in place of George Clinton-one of those FederalistRepublican alliances which were to recur in the political history of the State, and which brought

together in the same cause two men who were ever after in such matters to be in opposition-and in 1789 one has already noticed Governor Clinton's unprejudiced selection of him as Attorney General. And in 1791, United States Senator Philip Schuyler, of New York, came up for re-election.

2

The political destinies of the State of New York were controlled at the time by three great families, the Clintons, the Schuylers and the Livingstons. Of these, the Clintons, led by George Clinton who had been Governor of the State ever since the Independence, were the standard bearers of the Republican, anti-Federalist party. The Schuylers, confessing allegiance to General Philip Schuyler, were as conspicuously the guardians of the Federalist cause. The Livingstons, whose name was almost synonymous with that of the State, were jealous partners of the Schuyler trust. A powerful Republican family, then, and a Federalist alliance of two ambitious factions.

Ambitious, and increasingly discontented, for there was disappointment among the Livingstons. One of their number should have been chosen Senator, to accompany General Schuyler, in place of the interloper, Rufus King; the Chancellor, Robert Livingston, head of the clan, should never have been ignored in favor of John Jay for the Chief Justiceship of the United States. These matters rankled in Livingston minds; they threatened the solidity of their faith in the Federalist administration of Mr. Washington, and inclined them to a republicanism

which, in the person of Brockholst Livingston, they were soon rabidly to adopt; they fostered a suspicious distrust of that other interloper, Alexander Hamilton. For Alexander Hamilton was at the President's elbow, influential and covetous-had he not written into the Federal Constitution that clause stating that "no person, except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution," should be eligible for the presidency; and he foreign born! And Alexander Hamilton was the son-in-law of General Philip Schuyler.

So it seemed to the Livingstons when General Schuyler's first term-the short term which had brought him to the Senate as junior to Rufus King— expired, in 1791. In the estimation of the Schuylers, there was no possible doubt of his return; was he not the acknowledged head of the Federalist party in power-and, in any case, son-in-law Alexander would see to it. Senator Schuyler was re-elected in advance, there was not even an opposition candidate for the office. But the Livingstons held different views; something should be done to put the Schuylers in their place and counteract the growing influence of the precious West Indian son-in-law; and when General Schuyler's name was put alone in nomination the Livingstons had so well arranged affairs that there were more nays than ayes. One is not competent to decide which group was the more profoundly startled, the Schuylers or the voting Senators; but someone must be chosen, and Colonel Burr was suggested. He was promptly elected by a vote of twelve to four, which reveals the extent to