The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1868-03-27
AARON BURR AND his DAUeHFER.

Not many fathers and daughters have
/ been fonder or faster friends than Aaron
and Theodosia Burr. The character and
memory of Burr, in the popular imag-
| ination, have been b1ackened beyond
the hope of bleaching. Of course, he
was a man mixed of good and bad, and
was not such an unmitiEated devil as
some would paint him. But his salfish-
ness, sensuality, recklessness and de-
graduation give, in one respect, peculiar
interest and instructiveness to the en-
thusiastic friendship subsisting between
him and his daughter. 1t is no disproot
of the need of the great virtues to serve
as the basis of true and enduring
Friendship. It proves thata sincere love,
even in an unclean and depravea soul,
purges it, and adorns it with meritori-
Gus charms and real worth in that rela-
ton. However bad Burr may have
been in other relations, to his daughter
he was ever good, gentle, and wise, I'M
wearied in his devotion, and clothed
with many destinations. Good persons
may sometimes be ill-consorted and
odious to each other-their intercourse
full of jars and frictions. Bad persons
may sometimes be so related as to show
each other only their good qualities, and
be happy friends while ali around are
detesting them. - -.
In one of her letters to her father,
Theodosia speaks of his wonderful for
titude, and goes on to say, Gotten, af-
ter rejecting on this subject, you appear
to me so elevated above all other men !;
I contemplate you with such strange
mixture of humility, admiration, rever-
ence, love and pride, that very little SUI
perstition would, be necessary to make
me worship you as a superior being |;
such enthusiasm does your character ex-
cite in me. When 1 afterward revert to
myself, how. insignificant do my best
qualities appear! My vanity would be
greater, if had not been placed so near
you and yet my pride is in our relation
ship. had rather not live than not be
the daughter OF, such, a man. Burr, on
the evening before bis duel, with Ham
ilton, wrote to, his daughter a. long let
ter in which he said, 81 am indebted to
you, my dearest Theodosia, for great
portion of the happiness which I have
enjoyed in this life. You have COM
pletely satisfied all that my heart and af-
fections had hoped, or. even wished"
Unhapily he slew his antagonist, and
himself survived to carry q load of
deadly and universal obloquy which
would have crushed to the earth almost
any other man.
Theodosia set sail from Charleston in
a little vessel, Which was never nearu
of again. 1t WAS supposed to have
foundered off Cape Hatteras. The loss
of his daughter, Burr said, severed him
from the human race" Certainly, from
that time to the end of his prolonged
and dishonored life, he never was who'll
ly what he had been before. An inner
spring had been broken, and the pures
contents ofhis heart had escaped through
the breach. Parton very fifty dictates
to the memory of Theodosia his highly
readable and charitable life of her faith
er. That brilliant lawyer, the late Ru-
fus ChOate, remarked, on reading this
life, that there did not seem to have been
III Burr single glimpse of so much as
the last and poorest tribute vice pays
to virtue, not even the affectation of a
noble sentiment. But we may claim
with justice that the friendship with
his daughter is one bright place in that
frighfully stained, one golden CLEAN on
that dismally mutilated career.-Alger's
friendships Of Women.