The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-25
XUyHEN Napoleon was at the height AA/ of his glory, five years before w Waterloo there arrived in Paris

vUyHEN Napoleon was at the height A/ of his glory, five years before
 w Waterloo, there arrived in Paris a man of 54, who was wanderer over the face of the earth The day he reached the French capital. Fouche, chief of the secret service of the Great Emperor, put detectives on his trail. Night and day for the 1T months the wanderer remained j in Paris they watched him. Every call he made, every visit he received, was reported. Had he been one of the most dangerous of men he could not have been subjected to a more rigid scrutiny. Every letter he wrote and every letter addressed to him was read by the police. He could Many times in those 1T months the wan derer went hungry. Many times he was reduced to a few sous. He longed to return to America, the land of his birth. but he was not wanted in the United States. and as regularly as he applied for a passport just so regularly was his application ignored. The man was Aaron Burr, who had been attorney general of the state of New York United States senator and vice president. In the war for independence he had played a gallant part. In the attack on Quebec he had behaved magnifcently. Side by side he and Montgomery had climbed the heights, and when Montgomery died he had car ried the generals body back to the Amer ican lines. For few months he had been military secretary to George Wash ington, but lost favor with the command er-in-chief and was succeeded by Alex ander Hamilton.
 After the war he and Hamilton had been rivals in politics, rivals at the bar and rivals in love. Hamilton had become the master spirit of the federalist party and Burr had become the master politi- clan of the anti i-federalists. Bitterly, all most venomously, these two fought each other while on the surface they main tained a pretense of personal good will, if not friendship But for Hamilton Burr might have been President instead of vice president. But for Burr Hamilton's 8 i'll advised letter to his friends attacking President John Adams might not have been made public. The publication of that letter brought confusion and defeat lto thc ASuti oiiStS diu diodslCi tO I1dHili- tons political plans. He had power enough. however, to thwart Burr when Burr, smarting under the sights of Jef- ferson. sought vindication by election as governor of New York. The vice presi- dency, in those days, was considered far below the governorship of New York in importance if not in dignity. The crush ing defeat Burr received in the guberna- torial election meant political eclipse for him. He still retained the empty honor of the vice presidency. but his prestige was gone. Next came the duel. No doubt Burr was eager for some good excuse to challenge Hamilton. It came when Hamilton refused to confirm or repudiate an attack on Burr's character which one of Hamiton's supporters made and cred z ited to Hamilton
 Both Duelists
 Dueling was a practice of the day Duels between political lieutenants of Burr and Hamilton were common. Hamilton's eld- est son had been killed in a duel by one of Burrs followers. Hamilton himself had served as second in one or two en- agreements and had sought a duel with James Madison. Burr was firm believer