d to the Vice-Presidency. It is well to know
these circumstances in connection with subsequent events. Mr. Jefferson
annihilated the minority of the republic. He had as much contempt for
them as Sir James Craig or Mr. Ryland could have had for the conquered
Canadians. He swept them from every office of profit or emolument under
the State. When remonstrated with, by the merchants of New Haven,
respecting the removal of the Collector of Customs at that port, merely
because he was a Federalist or tory, the President quietly replied,
that time and accident would give the Tories their just share. Had he
found a moderate participation of office in the hands of the Democratic
party with whom he acted, his removals and substitutions would have
been less sweeping. But their total exclusion called for a more prompt
corrective. And he would correct the error. When the error was fully
corrected then he would only ask himself concerning an applicant for
office, these questions:--"Is he honest?" "Is he capable?" and "Is he
faithful to the Constitution?" The Tories were almost inclined to burn
the White House.

Ohio was admitted into the Union in 1802; in 1804, Colonel Burr, the
Vice-President of the United States, killed General Hamilton in a duel;
Mr. Jefferson was re-elected President in 1804, and Mr. George Clinton,
of New York, instead of Burr, now deservedly unpopular with all but the
filibustering classes, Vice-President; in 1805, Michigan became a
territorial government of the United States; and in the autumn of 1805
the outcast President Burr was detected at the head of a project for
revolutionizing the territory west of the Alleghanies, and of
establishing an independent empire there, of which New Orleans was to
be the capital, and himself the chief. To the accomplishment of this
scheme, Burr brought into play all the skill and cunning of which he
was possessed. And it was not a little. He had his design long in
contemplation. He pretended to have purchased a large tract of
territory, of which he conceded to his adherents considerable slices.
He collected together, from all quarters where either he himself, or
his agents, possessed influence, the ardent, the restless, and the
desperate, persons ready for any enterprise analogous to their
characters. He also seduced good and well-meaning citizens, by
assurances that he possessed the confidence of the government, and was
acting under its secret patronage. He had another projec