Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1858-07-21
SMtisttllal1eo11s Reaa>g
From Parton'S Life of Burr.
Aaron BURR'S TWO MARRIAGES.

His FIRST MARRIAGE, AT TWENTY SIN-NlES.
PRErosT.-That Colonel Burr, the most rising
young man in the State of New York, hand
some, fascinating, well born and famous, whose
addresses few maidens in the country would
have been inclined to repulsc, should have cho-
sen to marry widow ten years older than
himself, with two rollicking boys, Zone of them
eleven years DID, with precarious health and
no great estate, was circumstance which seems
to have been incomprehensible to his friends at
the time, as it has since proved puzzle to the
writer's of biographical gossip. Upon the theo-
ry that Burr aras the artful devil he has been
said to be, all whose endS>and aims were his
own advancement, no man can explain such a
marriage Before the Revolution he had re-
fused point-blank to address young lady OF
fortune, whom his uncle, Thaddcus Burr, inccs-
sanity urged upon his attention. During the
Revolution he was on terms of intimacy with
all the great families of the State-the Clintons,
the Livngstones, the Schuylers, the Van RenS-
selaers and the rest-alliance with either Of
whom gave young man of. only average abili-
ties immense advantages in a state which was
to single extent under the domination OF great
families. But no considerations OF this kind
could break the spell which drew him with
mysterious power to the cottage Of remote and
rural Paramus.
The lady was not beautiful. Besides being
past her prime, she was slightly distigured by
u scar ON her forehead. 1t was tue graceful
and winning manners of Mrs. Provost that first
caotirated tie mind Of Col. Burr. She was,
indeed, in oil respects, an eStlmabe lady
affectonate, accomplished, well verscd IN lltera-
ture, and as much given to the practice as
averse to the profession of piety. But 1t was
in her character rs lady and woman OF the
world that she proved so rresistibly pleasing to
him OH their first acquaintance. lie used IN
after years to say that i'll style and manners
she was without q peer among all the women
he had ever known, and that II his own nlaii-
ners were in any respect superior to those OF
men in general, it was owing to tic insensible
;nhuence of hers. The reader may perhaps
have observed that young men OF spirit and
intelligence, who have been brought up in the
severe. ungracous way of the stricter PuiitaES,
are sometimes too keenly susceptible OF the
charm of manner, and are apt to attach to it
mn excessive Importance.
But more lasting charm of this lady was
her cultivated mind. Burr was lover Of
pictures. lover of everything that distinguishes
man from the Puritan, and it was rare, indeed,
in those days 10 find lady i'll America who
had the KIND Oh CULTURE WHICH SJ iI'P'IniLeS w i'n
such tastes In Europe, women were only be-
ginning to emerge from the gross gross 3 ignorance 3is
which was thought to be their proper eohultion'
and in America if they were not Ignorant few
had the knowledge interesting to man like
Burr. Among his own female. relatives, there
was penetrating and brilliant intellect enough
but how perverting, how repressed. Some OF
the most renowned ladies OF the time, with a
thousand virtues, scarcely ever looked into
book. Mrs. Putnam was mighty at the spin
ning-weel, Mrs Washington (as we lately learn
FROM Mrs. Kirklands pleasant pases) was DE,
yotee of the knitting needle, and the vile OF
another famous general was not little proud
Of her patchwork quilts Burr had met few
ladies in his earlier life who like Mrs. Provost,
were familiar with the most recent expressions
of European intellect, who could talk intelli-
gently with him about Foltaire, Rousseau and