The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-02-16
Aaron Burr's Love Letters.

Aaron Burr's Love Letters.
When | knew Burr best he wa:
well advanced in years. He was
one OF the worst men that ever liv.
ed. He had no scruples whatever
about woman, and he chose the
loveliest in the land for his victims
: About the time of his duel he had
disgracful intrigues with a dozen OF
twenty ladies at once in New York,
Albany, Providence, New Haven,
Boston, Baltimore, Richmond and
smaller towns between. Some Of
these were kept up for years, but
most of the ladies had speedy sue
cessors. speak of them as ladies
they were the wives of brilliant
lawyers or wealthy merchants, or
the young daughters Of the fashion,
able old families. There was an
agony of fear among these when the
duel was fought, lest the guilty gal
liant should fall and their terrible
secret be betrayed, and this fear deep
ened into CONSERVATION when he
died at last. Many of the oldest
families in New York, Pennsylva-
MIA and New England trembled
then. And well they might. 1t
had been rumored around that Burr
had never desroyed any letters
from ladies. And this shows, bet
ter than anything else, his lack of
any moral sense whatevor-for he
refused to protect those whom he
had grievonsiy injured, when they
could have been protected without a
moments thought. He used to
boast that he had never destroyed
one letter And with devilish meth
cd he had folded them all carefully,
and filed them regularly in pack
ages-each lady's letters by them,
selves.
When Burr died at last, Matt hew
l.. Davis, about his only friend, who
became his administrator, sent for
me. | went over. There was moth
ing to administer but the expressions
of tenderness which the scoundrel
had cajoled from respectable women
and filed away. There was the will
which he made the day before his
duel with Hamilton. In that he
said to his daughter Theodosia, his
only legitimate child, then at sea:
in blue trunk in the attic you
will find something to amuse, more
to instruct, and still more to re-
greet" That blue trunk which he
had thus coolly bequeathed to his
only child, and that child lovely
daughter, contained the carefully
treasured love letters, from dozen
women at time, proofs of her faith
er's depravity! Does not that show
that Burr was without any moral
sense whatever? Theodosia was
swallowed up by the waves, and
never saw the blue trunk.
We opened the blue trunk, which |
Davis had partly examined, and |
never shall forget my astonishment |
and disgust at what saw. 1t was
nearly full of letters from women,
fled in packages. We looked at
the individuals letters. Most of
them had been signed with initials |
only, or oftener without any name,
or with some pet name; but Burr,
with a malignity whose motives |
cannot yet understand, had written
out each name in full. He seemed
resolved that others should share
his infamy. Some of the names be-
longed to some of the most honored
families in the land-to have reveal
ed them would have been to cause
terrible anguish, and in several
cases probably the breaking up of
families. / used to go over and
look at them when ! had spare
hour.
They were strictly guarded by
Davis. He was queer man, but he
had high sense of personal honor.
Why Mordecai NJ. Noah offered Da-
Wis $4,000 for that blue trunk and
its contents, but of course the offer
was spurned and the insult resent
ed. Matthew Davis, too, had his
eccentricities, and one of these queer
notions in regard to these captured
love letters was that they should all
be returned to the writers That
seemed to me to infiict needless pain,
and / argued with him about it, but
he said the writers would be better
satisfied if they had a chance to de-
stroy them themselves. Some of
them were old ladies then, mothers
and grandmothers, but Davis un-
dertook the grim task of returning
all the packages of letters by the
hand of trusty friends. A good
many he gave back himself He
gave me one of these delecate pack
ages to deliver when | was going to
Providence one day, but told him
| would see him hanged first. But
L knyw that General Scott did ac-
cept one of these packages from
Matthew Davis, and returned 1t
with his own hand to a lady high
in society in Richmond. He told
me so. | always wondered whether
she thanked him or not, but ! for
rot to ask him. But think of the
moral nature of a man capable of
deliberately leaving all those letters
to his own daughter as legacy.
Burr was quite a small man; very
graceful in movement and courte-
Gus in lemeanor; a small hand and
foot; not spirited or dashing at all,
but his manner was full of repose
and his voice was soft and musical.
He would strike one at first rs being
efIeminate, but he was not
so; he was. a bold, strong, capable
man. In conversation, till the last
ten years of his life, he was brilliant.
But, to return to the subject of his
toward women. When
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