The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-03-13

! pear9. Tie particular charge referred TO by
! our correspondent las been sIb.tantiated more
! than once The late 1hurloW Weed, man
( who did not ordinarily hctray tic comInuniCa-
/ tive spirit upon being interviewed some years
/ before his death, said
when knew him burr best he was wei
I advanced in years. lie was one OF the worst
/ men that ever lived. He had 40 Sctuple.
! Whatever about betraying woman and he
4 chose the lovcliest in the land a. his victims.
/ About the time of the duel with Hamilton he
+ had dis2raceiul intrigues witha dozen or twenty
/ ladies at once in New York, Albany, New
/ Haven, Providence, Boston, Baltimore, Rich
mOud, and smaller towns between them. Some
Of these were kept up for years, but most OF
the ladies' had speedy successors. speak of
! them as 'ladies'-they were the wives OF bril-
liant lawyers, or wealthy merchants, or the
young daughters Of the fashionable old fami-
lies. There was an agony OF fear among these
when the duel was fought lest the guilty gal
laEt should fall and their terrible secrets be
betrayed. and this fear deepened to cOnsterna-
ton when he died at last. Many OF the oldest
families Of New York, Pennsylvania, and
New England trembled then, and well they
might"
''Whot could they have feared there, so
many years after"
"Why, you see, it had been rumored around
that Burr had never destroyed any letters
from ladies'. And this shows better than any
thing else his lack of any moral sense what
ever, for he refused to protect those whom he
been protected without a moments thought"
DID he usually keep all those letters, Mr..
Weed? o"
"He did, probably. every one. He used to
boast that he had never destroyed one. And
with deylisl method he had folded them all
carefully, and filed them regularly in packages
each lady's letters by themselves. When
Burr died, Matthew \. Davis. about his only
friend, who became his administrator, sent for
me. | went oyer There was nothing TO adj
minister but the expressions OF tenderness
which the scoundreI had ca ioled from respecta-
Bile women and filed away. There was the will
which he made the day bstorc his duel with
hamilton. In it 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 regret That blue trunk, which he
thus bequeathed to his only child, and that
fully treasured love letters-irom dozen
women at ti1ne-proofs of her fathers de-
pravity. Does not that show that Burr was
without any moral sense whatever? Iheodosia
was swallowed up by the waves and never
saw the blue trunk We opened that trunk,
which Davis had partly examined, and shall
mover forget my establishment and disgust
at what saw. 1t was nearly full
OF letters from women, tied IN pack
ages. We looked at the individual letters.
Most of them had been originally signed with
initials only, or oftener without any name or
with some pet name but Burr, with malg
nifty whose motive L cannot yet understand,
had written out each name in full. He seemed
resolved that others should share his irfamy.
Some of the names belonged to the most hon
ored families in the land. To have revealed
them would have been to cause terrible anguish,
and in several cases probably the breaking up
OF families"
"Did you read many of them?"
"Not very many. L used to 20 over and look
at them when l had spare time They were
strictly guarded by Davis. He was a queer
man, but lie had high sense of personal
honor. Why, Mordecai NJ Noah offered Davis
S20,000 for that blue trunk and its contents,
but, of course, the offer was spurned and the
insult resented"