Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1832-12-27
From The Youths Companion.
AMBITION BLASTED.

Every one acquainted with the public
men Of our country, must know something
Of Aaron Burr, Of this city, once Vice.
President ofthe United States. His his
tory exhibits striking instance Of blasted
ambition. Ola most persuasive eloquence
and bland manners, with deep know
ledge Of the human heart, Aaron Burr
looked forward in his earlier days to the
highest Offices and distinctions in the re-
public. He had attained the highest but
one. But before his dark and searching
eye there stood one obstacle to his as
cent; it was Hamilton. The illustrious
Hamilton, who had weathered the storms
of the revolution by the side of Washing
ton, and who had saved the nation in her
councils that Washington saved by his
sword and Fabian prudence,-was pa
triot too inCorruptible to look coldly on
and see the rise of an unprincipled spirit,
whose intellectual capacity only equalled
his want of principle. To the eye OF
Hamilton, Burr was in politics what Ben
edict Arnold had been in the field; and
his opposition to his designs, partook Of
that keen and stern character which ev-
or made Hamilton so terrible to the enc
mics of the true rights of the country.
They met, at length, on "the dark and
bloody ground" about two miles above
Hoboken, on the Jersey shore, opposite
this city Hamilton fell-and as he fell,
the earthly prospects Of Burr darkened in
,thick-ribbed gloom.
Immediately after this catastrophe, the
conduct Of Burr began to excite atten-
tion. He frequently took sudden and
rapid and distant journeys, disguised so
as not to be known on the road. One
week he would be seen in his office in
New York-the next in distant city, as
if he had dropped from the clouds. 1t
was at first supposed that he was suffer-
ing the agonies Of rcmorse for the murder
of Hamilton; but the eye of Government
soon detected the preparation for some
design of violence. Arms and men had
been gathered at different points, either
for division Of the United States, or for
descent upon Mexico-or for both OBJ
jects blended. He was arrested in the
remote West, and carried in irons for
many hundred miles through country
over whose Senate he had presided as
the second officer Of government, to the
place designed for his trial. He was
acquitted Of the charge of treason, bu
the irreversible sentence of public opin.
ion had gone forth against him. He be.
i came wanderer in foreign lands.
/ Over few Of these vagrant years o
his life deep obscurity rests. He re.
turned, however, to New-York, the scene
of his former glory and aspirations. Here
he has spent his life with but little notice
or distinction; and without any more in.
fuence over the public mind, than if he
had been frozen into statue of stone the
moment that he sent the death shot to the
bosom of Hamilton.
! Sometimes, now, little, bowed-dowr
man, with his eyes fastened on the pave
ment, may be seen hurrying along in thu
vicinity of fReed-street. His hair, which
was once black as the ravens wing, i
now blanched with the whiteness of snow
His eyes, which once shot lightnings il
their soul-searching glances, are nov
lustreless, and dull.
i That man is AARON BURR.