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=_James Parton, 1822-._= (Manual, pp. 490, 532.)

From “Life and Times of Aaron Burr.”

=_109._= CAREER AND CHARACTER OF BURR.

To judge this man, to decide how far he was unfortunate, and how far guilty; how much we ought to pity, and how much to blame him,—­is a task beyond my powers.  And what occasion is there for judging him, or for judging any one?  We all know that his life was an unhappy failure.  He failed to gain the small honors at which he aimed; he failed to live a life worthy of his opportunities; he failed to achieve a character worthy of his powers.  It was a great, great pity.  And any one is to be pitied, who, in thinking of it, has any other feelings than those of compassion—­compassion for the man whose life was so much less a blessing to him than it might have been, and compassion for the country, which after producing so rare and excellent a kind of man, lost a great part of the good he might have done her.

The great error of his career, as before remarked, was his turning politician.  He was too good for a politician, and not great enough for a statesman.

If his expedition had succeeded, it was in him, I think, to have run a career in Spanish America similar to that of Napoleon in Europe.  Like Napoleon, he would have been one of the most amiable despots, and one of the most destructive.  Like Napoleon, he would have been sure, at last, to have been overwhelmed in a prodigious ruin.  Like Napoleon, he would have been idolized and execrated.  Like Napoleon, he would, have had his half dozen friends to go with him to St. Helena.  Like Napoleon, he would have justified to the last, with the utmost sincerity, nearly every action of his life.

We live in a better day than he did.  Nearly every thing is better now in the United States than it was fifty years ago, and a much larger proportion of the people possess the means of enjoying and improving life.  If some evils are more obvious and rampant than they were, they are also better known, and the remedy is nearer ...

Politics, apart from the pursuit of office, have again become real and interesting.  The issue is distinct and important enough to justify the intense concern of a nation.  To a young man coming upon the stage of life with the opportunities of Aaron Burr, a glorious and genuine political career is possible.  The dainty keeping aloof from the discussion of public affairs, which has been the fashion until lately, will not again find favor with any but the very stupid, for a long time to come.  The intellect of the United States once roused to the consideration of political questions, will doubtless be found competent to the work demanded of it.

The career of Aaron Burr can never be repeated in the United States.  That of itself is a proof of progress.  The game of politics which he played is left, in these better days, to far inferior men, and the moral license which he and Hamilton permitted themselves, is not known in the circles they frequented.  But the graver errors, the radical vices, of both men belong to human nature, and will always exist to be shunned and battled.