farther and with fincerity and truth aver, that I was friendly to his election to the office of Vice-Prefident. And yet had I then known that portion of his character which relates to the period antecedent to his elevation, I should have viewed myself as a wretch unworthy to inspire the breath of freedom, had I not zealously and with all my might oppofed it. I fhould have viewed Mr. Burr as a dangerous man; as one truly unfit for the exalted station he now fills. For I hold it to be a maxim from which departures cannot with fafety be made, that public agents, efpecially the highest officers of state, ought to be men of steadiness and re&itude of principle, and of morals fpotlefs. I hesitate not to fay, on a full view of the fubject, that Mr. Burr had no title to any of these good qualities. If our public agents be corrupt, the malady will spread like a peftilence; and when morals fhall become only a name to varnish over crimes, the folid bafis of freedom will be removed, and the structure must inevitably fall.

This may tend to fhow the neceffity there is for infor mation, as well as its energy in a free ftate. In a defpotic one, it may make a flave miferable by making him fenfible of his condition; but in our country, it is the foul that anmates, and which is alone competent to uphold, the body politic.

It will give no offence to the Majefty of truth to fay, that the PEOPLE, the great mass, were, like myself, strangers to the conduct of Mr. Burr. It is doubtless to this ignorance of character that he owes his elevation. The people cannot, wittingly, be guilty of a fe lo de fe.

But the conduct of Mr. Burr muft have been known to those whofe fituations in life enabled them to obferve it.

Of this not a doubt can be entertained; and it would seem criminal for such to conceal it. Yet, while hopes of reformation were cherished, while Mr. Burr did not appear incorrigible, it might have seemed to them expedient to abftain from a public expofition of his character. Indeed, it is in extreme cafes only that such a procedure can be justifiable. The present is one of them. His defects now appear to be inveterate and incurable; and their obftinacy, without a timely and falutary remedy, may endanger the tranquili ty and freedom of the states.

I have endeavoured to reprefent the character of Mr. Burr in its true light. In doing this I have been actuated only by those considerations for the public welfare which every good citizen muft feel. My opinion may be erroneous; it may be the effect of an over-ardent zeal for public liberty; I hope it is so, though I am perfuaded it is not. I have done, however, what appeared to me to be my duty, without fear or the expectation of felfifa reward. I have warned the people of an evil of great magnitude: it is for them to apply a remedy.

New-York, June 22d, 1802.

" "When you fhall these unlucky Deeds relate,
Speak of them as they are; nothing extenuate
Nor fet down aught in Malice.”

MR. BURR commenced his public career in the revolutionary army. He accompanied the illuftrious MONTGOMERY in his attack on Quebec. At that period he was quite a youth. In the revolutionary service he filled, at different times, subordinate posts; but he retired from it fome years previous to the ceffation of hoftilities. Although not distinguished by the brilliancy of his military exploits, he left the army, it is believed, with unsullied reputation.

mant.

For many years pofterior to the peace of 1783, Mr. Burr appears to have been an indifferent fpectator of paffing events. During the memorable difcuffions which took place on the acceptance, by the States, of the Federal Constitution, and which excited in Europe, as well as in America, the most lively fenfibility; Mr. BURR was dorIn an event fo momentous, which laid the foundation of this flourishing empire, warmed the hearts of the hoary, and commanded the attention of the unconcerned, to behold fuch extreme infenfibility, is a phenomenon. Cupidity, however, appears to have been an attribute of Mr. BURR from his youth upwards. He contemplated, in filence, the two conflicting parties. Afpiring to power and diftinction, he meditated on which fide of the political

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Scales he could throw his weight with most advantage to himself. In this ftate of irrefolution he continued until the year 1789, when he made his election, and ranked himself among those who had then, and who have ever fince, denominated themselves Federalifts. Mr. BURR therefore began his political life in oppofition to the Republican party.

Such was his Debut: henceforward we fhall view him on the theatre of politics, acting and being acted upon.

At an early period the Mechanics of the City of NewYork, petitioned the State Legislature for an act of incorporation. Mr. BURR's oppofition in the Legiflature, to the petition, was the firft part of his political conduct which excited public attention. His reasons for that oppofition are not exactly known; but it is prefumed that he antici pated dangerous confequences from an affociation of men whofe political fentiments were adverfe to those which he at that time efpoused.

We next fee Mr. BURR acting a prominent part in a more extended sphere, and avowing his fentiments with great explicitness, In the year 1789, the triennial Election for Governor of this State recurred. Emphatically in the State of New-York, the two great parties who now devided the Union, were, at the early period of our existence as an Independent Nation, diftinctly and indelibly marked, The political animofities to which the difcuffions of the Federal Conftitution gave birth, were frefh, lively, and vigorous. In the State Convention the line of demarkation between the two oppofite parties, was accurately drawn and difinitively fettled. The federal