Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-10
MIGHTY. IN DEFEAT.
Few Candidates for the Presi.
dency Kept Their Fame
After Failure.
BOTH BLAINE AND TILDEN
Displayed the Greatest Coolness After
the Story Of the Ballot
BURR LEFT A TARNISHED NAME.
Bis Deprsvity Of Heart Evidenced In
Letters He Left Behind.
CLEVELAND AND C0NKLING IN LAW
BOTH BLAINE AND TILDEN
BURR LEFT A TARNIsHED NAME.
Bis Deprsvity Of Heart Evidenced In
Letters He Left Behind.
CLEVELAND AND CoNKLING IN LAW
WRITTEN FOR THE prsPArca.I

L Ine pOllblclans ana statesmen VINO nave
been unsuccessful candidates for the Presi-
dency illustrate the brevity of political
repute. Such of them as are remembered
owe the fact that they are not forgotten
either to peculiar personality or to careers
which were so dramatic and brilliant az to
have made impress upon the times suf-
fciently great to become traditionary. It il
not likely that many persons could tell of
hand who the rival candidates were from
the time of the Inauguration of George
Washington up to 1840-that is, those can
didates who were defeated. Yet most in
teresting and instructive lesson can be
learned by the study of the subsequent
careers of the disappointed and defeated.
Therein are contained stories of politics
| which are in themselves fascinating narra-
| tives, and by them are also suggested hints
that may be valuable to the aspiring young
politician of the present day.
The two men who came nearest to the
Presidency without reaching it were Aaron
Burr and Samuel j. Tilden, the one Fed
eralist, the other Democrat of the Jeffer-
sonian stamp. But Burr is better known
as the politician who slew Alexander Ham,
ilton in duel than man who received q
vote for the Presidency which tied that
which Jefferson obtained, thereby throwing
the election into the House of Representa-
tives, and compelling change In the Con-
stitution altering the manner Of chosing
Presidents and Vice Presidents
The Blennerhassett Conspiracy.
Burr became Vice President with Jeffer-
- = xl
after his duel with Hamilton he was engaged
in an alleged conspiracy with Blennerhas-
sett to create great empire in the South
west, of which he should be monarch, and
that b. was arrested and indicted for trea-
son, but never successfully prosecuted. II
is also known that he practiced law in New
York and died at such an extreme old age
that men are now living who knew him and
conyersed with him, and it is only recently
that his law partner died in New York
City. About year before his death he
narrated to the writer many interesting
anecdotes of his life.
WillianNH. Seward used to tell of Q visit
he made to Rurr in New York City in 1882,
and Of his samazement as he saw this
withered old man dressed In q shabby dou-
BILE gown with slippesarun down at the
heels with an unstarched lfEefH Shj< vt which
was not over clean and with other evidences
of poverty or carelessness about his person.
There was nothing in his appearance to
suggest the fiery young soldier who had
made with Arnold the memorable march
through the Maine wilderness to Quebec and
who participated in the assault on that
city in which Montgomery lost his
life. His feeble and husky speech
had no hint IN it of the oratorical
power which had once charmed the
Senate, and his mannerism none of that
grace or Difference which had in the early
days made him most fascinating and in
fuential politician. Nor was there any
such charm of manner as suggested the gal
liant who had the reputation of gaining the
affections of many women. Nothing OF his
old spirit was manifest except the fierce
light which was in his eye. He was .
withered, feeble, impecunious old man,
with no friends, with no sweet recollections
and with nothing but enmities in his heart.
He told Mr.. Seward that Washington was
man of small talent, who was completely
under the influence of Hamilton, and that
Hamilton was his parasite. He started to
tell Mr. Seward about the duel with Hsmil,
ton, but :he conversation was interrupted
He Became an Ishmaeiite.
Mr. Seward gave it as his opinion that
Burr's nature was changed, not only by his
disappointment over his failure to secure
the Presidency when he vas matched evenly
in the Electoral College with Jefferson, but
that his entire disposition had been changed
BY his belief that he had been treacherously
treated by Hamilton and other Federalista
"It is the only case in our history" said
Mr. Seward, 'twhere the failure to obtain
the Presidency caused man to become an
and it is nv opinion that if
Burr had been elected President he would
have revealed only those brilliant powers
which made him of such great influence dur
ing and Immediately after the Revolution,
and that his heart would have been softened
instead of hardened - it was"
That Burr was an Isfhnaelite is made evil
dent bv certain things which were narrated
to the writer by those who knew whereof
they spoke General Thomas L. James says
that Thurlow Weed once told him that he
met Burr on a Hudson river steamboat
standing solitary upon the deck with his
cloak wrapped about him, stunned BY
every person who was on the boat Mr..
Weed, pitying him, invited him to his state
room, and there Governor Morgan Lewis
met him. Mr. Weed knew that the Gov
ernor and Burr had been officers and friends
during the Revolutionary War, but some
thing in the manner of each indicated that
it would not be well to introduce them.
After some conversation Burr retired and
then Governor Lewis said: 81 am glad you
lid not introduce US; it would not have
been pleasant, because 1 have not spoken to
he reptile tor rs years.
Aaron Burr's Infamy of Heart.
The only friend except his young partner
vhom Mr.. Burr had in New York was Mat,
hew L. Davis, and him Burr made big
literary executor. The infamy of heart OF
which Burr had grown to be capable was
made manifest in his dying instructions to
Mr.. Davis, and it is probably unprecs-
Tented that q man who has betrayed 30
many women, and who possessed the evi
Iences of the betrayal, should have cons
ented to leave these documents at the dis.
,osal of his executor.
Mr.. Weed has told the story to his friends,
Tor he was invited by Mr.. Davis to aid him .
n the preparation of Burr's literary re-
Mains They found in Burr's chest grest
lumber of letters, almost every one Of them
rom women whose standing in society wa
rood, and some of them members of families
# great social prominence. There were LETT
ers from social leaders In New York, in
Trenton, Philadelphia, Richmond, New
Haven, Albany and Troy. Many Of these
romen were dead. Some of them had left
appy tamiliea A few were still living.
lost of the letters, while beginning tho
cries in terms OF endearment and affection,
nded them with pitiful charges of betrayal
nd desertion.
1t became known that Mr.. Davis poe