Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-10-09
WEIGHED AND FOUND WANTING.

The reading of "Blennerhassett"
would cause those whose judgment is
apt to be obscured by sentiment, to
regard Aaron Burr as a much malign-
ed angel, But after reading the novel
and The Climax (Mr Pidgin's latest
contribution to the hero worship of
BURR, it is good and profitable to read
Champ Clark's brilliant and balanced
Grafton on Aaron Burr. which grafton
is to be found in Modern Eloquence."
That Burr is judged fairly and not ma
llgned, can be seen from the following
excerpts
1T is with pity unspeakable that
one reads the story of Aaron Burr. 1t
is the saddest chapter in the annals of
the human race. We turn from the
perusal of that checkered life-of so
much glory and so much shame-with
a settled conviction that there was but
one thing needful to have made him
one of the most Respondent figures in
American history-a moral sense. OF
that be was as destitute as the beasts
which perish. And for this fatal de-
ficiency nothing can compensate
neither brilliant talents nor lofty elo--
quence, nor profound learning, nor
leonine courage nor winsome man.
ners, nor sparkling wit, nor handsome
presence, nor amiable qualities, nor
renowned ancestry. With all of these
good within themselves and univer--
sally coveted by the children of men
Aaron Burr was layishly endowed by
nature in her most prodigal of moods;
but she withheld from him the most
precious of her gifts-a pure and hon.
est heart On the contrary she placed
in his bosom, one, which in the lam
guage of the Holy Writ, was 'deceitfuf
above all things and desperately wick.
ed or, as the law books say, regard
less OF social duty and fatally bent ON
mischief" That he did many things
which We're right, there can be no ca.
VII; but after reading all the biograph.
les ever written of him, and all that
history has to TELL do not believe that
it can be truthfully asserted that he
ever did anything because it was right
or left anything undone because 1t was
wrong. To fill a long felt want, the
lawyers have invented the phrase
moral insanity" the incurable defect
IN Burr's makeup was ''moral-idiocy.a
so to speak; that is to say he was con-
stltutionally and utterly void of moral
principle and wholly incapable of dis.
cerning or approaching it in others.
Morally, he was totally color-blind.
Whether outstripping all his fellows
at Princeton; deliberately scouting the
religion of his fathers; fighting VAL
lantly as soldier of the reyolution:I
making love to all women, bewitchin,E
many and marrying a widow older tho "a
himself; standing proudly at the he;Al
or the New York bar; filling the great
offices of attorney-general, senator ar
the United States and vice presided. :.
remaining silent or motionless when a
word or motion would have made him
president; killing Alexander Hamiu ON
in a duel; fleeing in disgrace a fugitive
from Justice, dreaming of an empire.
himself the emperor; plotting the .ruin
and ACKNOWLEDGMENT of his country on
trial for his life on a charge of high
treason; vagabond In Europe tr,day.
dancing with ladies of the blood ROYAL
tomorrow starving in a garnet: steal.
ing back muffied incognito to Ills ma.
tive land; cut by his old atsuuaint-
|ances, repulsed by his uuondam
friends: at the age of nearly fonr
score, wedding Madame JumeB against
her will; carrying for forty years .
load OF obloquy sufficient to have
damned half the world; at East on the
banks Of the River Styx. cracking
Jokes With the grim ferryn IAN himself
anywhere, everywhere. iii nall places
at all times, and under nh circum.
stances, he is the same; blind. bold
brilliant, amiable, seduetiAe, plausible
sanviter in moffo fortiet- in re. ana
5attar.las without track OF casiSeirnas.N