Oh, may these pages one day meet the eye of him who subdued my virgin heart, whom the immutable, unerring laws of nature had pointed out for my husband, but whose sacred decree the barbarous customs of society fatally violated!

Commenting on this paragraph, Mr. H. C. Merwin justly remarks that, whatever may have been Burr’s conduct toward Margaret Moncrieffe, the lady herself, who was the person chiefly concerned, had no complaint to make of it.  It certainly was no very serious affair, since in the following year Burr met a lady who, while she lived, was the only woman for whom he ever really cared.

This was Theodosia Prevost, the wife of a major in the British army.  Burr met her first in 1777, while she was living with her sister in Westchester County.  Burr’s command was fifteen miles across the river, but distance and danger made no difference to him.  He used to mount a swift horse, inspect his sentinels and outposts, and then gallop to the Hudson, where a barge rowed by six soldiers awaited him.  The barge was well supplied with buffalo-skins, upon which the horse was thrown with his legs bound, and then half an hour’s rowing brought them to the other side.  There Burr resumed his horse, galloped to the house of Mrs. Prevost, and, after spending a few hours with her, returned in the same way.

Mrs. Prevost was by no means beautiful, but she had an attractiveness of her own.  She was well educated and possessed charming manners, with a disposition both gentle and affectionate.  Her husband died soon after the beginning of the war, and then Burr married her.  No more ideal family life could be conceived than his, and the letters which passed between the two are full of adoration.  Thus she wrote to him: 

Tell me, why do I grow every day more tenacious of your regard?  Is it because each revolving day proves you more deserving?

And thus Burr answered her: 

Continue to multiply your letters to me.  They are all my solace.  The last six are constantly within my reach.  I read them once a day at least.  Write me all that I have asked, and a hundred things which I have not.

When it is remembered that these letters were written after nine years of marriage it is hard to believe all the evil things that have been said of Burr.

His wife died in 1794, and he then gave a double affection to his daughter Theodosia, whose beauty and accomplishments were known throughout the country.  Burr took the greatest pains in her education, and believed that she should be trained, as he had been, to be brave, industrious, and patient.  He himself, who has been described as a voluptuary, delighted in the endurance of cold and heat and of severe labor.

After his death one of his younger admirers was asked what Burr had done for him.  The reply was characteristic.

“He made me iron,” was the answer.

No father ever gave more attention to his daughter’s welfare.  As to Theodosia’s studies he was very strict, making her read Greek and Latin every day, with drawing and music and history, in addition to French.  Not long before her marriage to Joseph Allston, of South Carolina, Burr wrote to her: