Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1876-06-19
The Duel.

impressive funeral pageant which had,
up to that time, appeared in its streets.
-Four years previously the mock funeral
Of Washington had been celebrated with
all the pomp of which the age was capa-
bic, but that was merely a civic demon
stration of respect and sorrow. When
Hamilton was buried the populace be-
held the corpse of the dead, and saw in
his funeral the result of a terrible crime.
1t was not only the death of an exalted
and almost idolized leader, but his death
by murder, that gave such deep and
unutterable thrill to the heart of the
public. The history of this tragedy is
so familiar to our readers that mere
reference is sufficient to revive Its pow
er. 1t will be remembered that the
cause Of the duel, as alleged by Colonel
Burr, was the reflection made upon him
by Hamilton in conversation with Gen.
eral Cooper and others several years pre-
viously. This, however, was but pre-
text for settling long account. There
was a constitutional antagonism between
these two gifted men, but though their
mutual antipathy had been of long stand
ing, its bloody termination was little ex-
pected. Only four years previously they
had served as united counsel, having
been associated in one of the most i'm
portant murder cases which had ever oc-
Cured in New York CITY,. This was the
trial of Levi Weeks for the murder of
Gulielma Sands, and was commonly call
ed "the Manhattan Well murder"
Miss Sands was the daughter of
British officer and lived with her uncle
She was engaged to be married to the
prisoner. One night she accompanied
him in sleigh-drive, so it was alleged,
and never returned. When Weeks was
interrogated concerning her he denied
that she accompanied him, and although
it was proved that she left her room to
go with him no one saw them depart to-
gether A week afterwards, as some
boys were playing on the Commons (the
locality being near Spring street, they
discovered corpse in one of the wells
belonging to the Manhattan Company.
The alarm was given, and the body was
found to be that of the missing girl An
intense excitement followed, and Weeks
was indicted and tried for the crime. He
had influential friends, who were deter
mined to employ the best legal talent.
Burr was then forty-fve years old, and
had won reputation as an adroit and
tenacious attorney, and an expert in the
use of all kinds of legal strategy. He
was also recognized as the leader of the
northern republicans fact which soon
afterwards placed him in nomination for
the Presidency. Hamilton was year
younger, and enjoyed distinction as a
: statesman, man of unsurpassed elo-
quence and the leading federalist of New
York. Two such noted lawyers, and es.
!. pecially such political opponents, had
: never previously associated in Grim,
inal practice; and indeed this was the
first murder of Importance which had oc.
CURED since the Revolution. The cast
5 lasted three days, and the prisoner was
acquitted but many considered hin
l guilty, and no one had been found OF
whom circumstances fastened the deeC
: so powerfully. The trial took place the
j 3lst day of March, 1900, in Fedora
e Hall, which occupied the site on whicl
1 the Treasury now stands, and the judg
was Chancellor Lansing, who subsequent
ly pershed in so mysterious a manner
Indeed, the whole affair was a series o
: tragedies. In addition to the hard fat
b of Miss Sands, was that of the counse
It for the defence. One of these killed tn
other, and then became fugitive, Will
!, the Judge either committed suicide o
q died by violence or accident. He disap
peared in a manner which has neye
L been explained. Some assert that h
. hanged himself in the garnet of the Cit
q Hotel, and that his friends buried tn
2 body secretly while others say that b
y left the hotel for the Albany steamboat
1t which then lay at the foot of Cedar St
I and that he fell into the slip and wa
drowned. 1t is to be remembered tha
q at the very time when Hamilton wa
). thus associated with Burr he was. in hi
n private correspondence, writing bite
'e things against him. He was deeply cor
= " vinced that Burr was dangerous ma
n to society and to the country.
To return to the duel. After the mul
J. der trial Burr and Hamilton never wer
If found in harmony, and indeed they eeai
y ed to be even on speaking terms. The
= were antagonistic leaders of polite;
j. opinion, and the division of parties wa
u. then often accompanied by the most bi
W ter personal hostility. Burr had for
years previously been defeated in til
5 Presidential canvass, and though tn
- defeat grew out of a division in the r.
is publican party, yet the federalists. anon
it whom Hamilton was 50 influential, boz
to part in it. Burr no doubt ascribed b
n ill-success to Hamilton's uncOncealed o.
CT :.:o .nd xvaa detarmined 10 infi