Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-03-12

Edtt0F Morning NeI0S. NeFeFY IN my
reading hitherto, have / met with such
an ignorant, villainous SANDER of dead
man as that contained in the extract
from Notes and Queries, relating to Col
Burr, inadvertently published in your
issue of the 10th inst Col. Burr was
no doubt an immoral man, and an astute
politician of wonderful ability, but he
was not a deril. as his life. portrayed
even by his enemies. evidences. Notes
and Queries is, I believe, an English
journal, claiming to be q medium for
historical accuracy, but in this instance
it has given to the world the baldest tissue
of falsehood that malignity could invent
to destroy the character of an erring but
overabused public man.
Its informant says that che was on an
official Uisit to this country in 1853 and
spent two days on the Hudson river,
near the scene of Burr's duel with
Hamilton on the 18th July, 1904 that
General Taylor, of Ohio, was at the
same time a visitor to their mutual
friend, and that General Taylor told him
that when he (Taylor) was studying at
West Point and returning there one day
on a river steamer, Colonel Burr and
the widow of General Hamilton were on
board, Burr having returned to America
from his enforced absence in Europe in
consequence of his reasonable
practices on Mexico; that Burr
went up to Mrs. Hamilton, and taking
off his hat and bowling, said: Mrs.
Hamilton, believer My name is Burr"
that the effect on Mrs. Hamilton, then
well stricken in years, was electric Ris
ing from her seat, she gathered up her
dress, as if to touch Burr with it would
be contamination; drew herself up, and
looking at him from head to foot, swept
away with a dignity and grace worthy
of her best days, and left him standing
abashed. Burr replaced his hat upon
his head, and slowly moved back to the
seat he had purposely left to make this
experiment upon the feelings of the
widow of the man ne had slain.
Who General Taylor, of Ohio, is ]
don't know, as he does not appear in the
register of graduates of West Point at OF
about that time. The first Taylor" on
the roll being from the District of Co
lumbia, in the class of 1926. Moreover,
the accidental presence of Burr and Mrs.
Hamilton on the same steamer, which
has been so grossly falsifed by Notes and
Queries, occurred in 1922. Burr was
Vice President of the United States
from March A, 1901, to 1906. He killed
Hamilton in square duel. July 10, 1904,
and on retiring from the Vice Presidents
chair, March 2, 1905, the Senate unani-
mously voted him kind and most com
plimentary resolution of thanks.
The incident of the steamer has been
variouslY gossiped, but never went be-
You'd the statement that on going to the
dinner table on steamer Mrs Hamil-
ton saw Burr standing on the opposite
side of the table near to the seat she was
about to take, that she tainted, and was
taken from the cabin. This is the extent
of our American sensation, which, slight
as it is, goes beyond the facts of the case.
The truth IS, as related by Parton in his
Life of Burr" page 618, that the
two met on small boat steaming be-
tween New York and Manhattanville,
looked at each other, and landed when
the boat stopped at Manhattanville, each
going his and her own way in an ordi-
nary manner From an intercourse of
forty years with the Hamiltons, do not
think Mrs. Hamilton was woman to
give way to any weakness and temper, as
represented by Notes and Queries Nor
could Burr have been guilty of such
fiendish conduct as it describes, without
belying his whole life and character,
which we're noted for gallantry and cour-
age. His friendships, for he had strong
friends among the best men of his day,
contradict it,
AS for his reasonable designs upon
Mexico, they are as yet unknown, a
careful secrecy guarding that diplomatic
and political project. But enough has
leaked through the crevices of private
memoirs to lead to the impression that
it was one of Pitts grand schemes to
fight Spain in America, when all Europe
was on the back of England; and that
the plan proposed was to wrest Mexico
from Spain and establish a republic
there, Pitt was for q constitutional
monarchy, England furnishing the fleet
and the United States the men. Pitts
death in 1906 exploded the plan,
Fox declining to carry it
out. And Misrepresentation having
poisoned the public mind, the principals,
who were men of high political and
military prominence, made Burr the
scapegoat of what was ignorantly stig-
matted as "a reasonable conspiracy. :"
Wirt's fancied picture of Blennerhasset
was so sympathetic AMI vivid that it de-
stroyed Burr more than the evidence
brought against him, and has given too
false an impression of a character unfor-
tunately open to reprOach. He was not
worse than many men of his and our
day, but his brilliant talents made him a
conspicuous mark for SANDER, but never
before SO vile as "Notes and Queries" has
given birth to. H. G. w.
What q vrnndarfl1l thinn the rnnnnn Of