Burr professed love.  Such men too frequently win upon the regards of women, and occupy high and enviable positions in female society; but their love is diffusive, and for the individual only for a time.  In truth, they are incapable of a deep and sincere affection.  The suspicion of woman’s purity forbids an abiding love; it is a momentary passion, and not an elevated and enduring sentiment—­not the embalming with the heart’s riches a pure and innocent being who yields everything to love.

“Colonel Burr was an indifferent husband toward one of the most accomplished and lovable women I ever knew, and who was devoted to him, and whose heart he broke.  She was the widow of a British officer named Provost, I believe, who died in the West Indies; and a more deserving woman, or one more lovely, never went to the arms of a roue, to be kissed and killed.

“Burr hated Washington, and united himself politically with his enemies.  There was a close political intimacy between him and Jefferson, but never anything like confidence.  In their party they were rivals; and after the election which made Jefferson President, there was no semblance of intimacy or friendship between them.

“Burr believed he was really elected President, and that Jefferson had defrauded him in the count of the ballots.  He was disappointed and dissatisfied with his position and with his party, and immediately commenced an intrigue to separate the Western States from the Union, and on the west of the mountains and along the waters of the Mississippi to establish a separate government, where he hoped to fill the measure of his ambition, and destroy the power of the Union—­thus at the same time to crush both the Federal and Republican parties, for now he hated both alike.

“Hamilton had been his early rival; he had, as he believed, destroyed him with Washington, and that he had been mainly instrumental in defeating him with Jefferson for the Presidency.  There can be no doubt of the fact, that Jefferson had been voted for by the colleges for President, and Burr for Vice-President; but they were not so designated on the ballots.  They received an equal number of votes, and had to be elected, owing to a defect in the law at that time, by the House.  The balloting continued several days.  There were sixteen States, and each received eight.  Jefferson was especially obnoxious to the hatred of the Federal party; Burr, though belonging to the Republican party, less so; and many of the leading men in Congress of the Federal party determined to take Burr in preference.  The strength of this party was mainly in the North, and Burr was a Northern man; and they felt more might be expected of him, from Northern interest, than from Jefferson.  But the main cause of the effort was the animosity to Jefferson.  Washington was viewed as the representative man of the Federal party.  Jefferson, though he had been a Cabinet minister in his Administration, had made no secret of his opposition to the views of Washington; and had aided a clerk in his department to establish a newspaper, especially to attack Washington, and to oppose the Administration, which he did, in the most bitter and offensive manner.