The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1901-07-19
AARON BURR

tAeN Know ILlL@ OF "HtLhtt tncA
don't. When they think they do. they
are almost certain to be told that they
don't. We spend years at school learn
ing things. and years Of research
afterwards to disprove them. That
may be the underlying sub-stratum
Of the christian science hallucinatiOn.
If so. it follows. or rather we think it
follows, that they will hallucinate
themselves out Of that so-called science
soon or late.
But we do not mean to accuse Aaron
Burr Of ever having been christian
scientist He has been accused of
crimes enough already. However, like
old Ben Butler. he was never accused Of
being a fool, and we do not wish to
be the first to put that upon his mem
ory.
But we had fixed it in our minds
that Mr.. Burr was on the shady side
of several important transactions. We
had read it 50 early in life, and heard
ii with such damnable iteration.
from press and pulpit and platform,
that our minds had gone to rest upon
that subject and we were disposed to
permit Aaron Burr to do likewise.
when comes the Memphis Commercial
Appeal with the following, charging
it all to lying newspapers and his
political enemies. To-wit:
Aaron Burr has always been one of
the most interesting figures in Ameri-
can history; but for some inscrutable
reason he presents himself to the aver
age American as a sort of suspicious
character The admirers of Hamilton
are largely responsible for this. They
have held him up as libertine, a
murderer and traitor. Yet Hamilton
has left letter in which he himself
stands confessed as hbertine Ham
ilton accepted Burr's challenge to fight
duel, and duelllng was in vogue
then. Clay, Jacks IN, and some of our
greatest men having engaged in it.
The charge of treason against Burr
was simply ludicrous.
Recently no less than three TO-
mances have been written with Aaron
Burr as the protagonist. One of them
entitled 'Blennerhassett, is by Charles
FELTON, Pidgin. This writer comes
calamity to the defense of Burr in the
following style: For hunderd years
one of the most remarkable of Ameri-
cans has borne a weight of obloquy
and calumny such as has been heaped
upon no other man, and unlike any
other man, during his lifetime he
never by voice or pen made answer to
charges brought against him, or pre-
scented either to friends or foes any ar
gument or evidence to refute them.
The American public makes idols Of
its great men; but when from any
cause those great men fall from their
high estates, the American public has
no mercy for its fallen heroes. I will
not speak longer in general terms, of
uncertain application, but declare at
once that the remarkable man have in
mind is Aaron Burr; a man who
fought bravely to secure the independ-
ence of the colonies; man who rose
to the highest position at the bar, and
who was offered a seat upon the
bench man who was elected to the
highest position in the gift of the
American people, and who filled the
second place with dignity and grace
that have never been equalled man
who avenged the wrongs inflicted up
ON him, during a period of thirty
years, on the fatal field at Weehawken
man who contemplated a conquest, and
who was tried for high treason by the
members of the party which after
wards carried out exactly the pro
gramme of conquest that he had out
lined a man who bore his downfall
with patience and dignity mar
whom neither political persecution,
nor poverty, nor perfdy of his friend:
could force to speak one word of re.
elimination or complaint; man who
bore the loss of daughter and grandson,
the dearest ties that bound him 10 tbs
human race. with resignation mar
who for twenty-five years thereafter
toiled ON without complaint to supply
the means for an humble living; d
man who, although he killed his 70,
according to the rules of the code of
honor then in force. has been called
either assassin or murderer by tn,
makers of school books, thus Installing
into infant minds a prejudice which
only research and study in after year
could effectually remove.
This gives an admirable idea Of th,
new view of Aaron Burr. Judged by
the latter day standards, Burr wOulC
possibly fall short; bat he must b
measured according 70 the age he liveC
in. and it does not appear that he wa
better or worse than his contempt
Taries. II is high time that we wer,
doing justice 70 such picturesque
Americans as Aaron Burr. and wer'