t in the original Constitution and
so led to its amendment, but because it introduces here, for the first
time, the dubious but not unfascinating figure of Aaron Burr.

Burr was a politician of a type which democracies will always produce,
and which those who dislike democracy will always use for its reproach.
Yet the reproach is evidently unjust. In all societies, most of those
who meddle with the government of men will do so in pursuit of their own
interests, and in all societies the professional politician will reveal
himself as a somewhat debased type. In a despotism he will become a
courtier and obtain favour by obsequious and often dishonourable
services to a prince. In an old-fashioned oligarchy he will adopt the
same attitude towards some powerful noble. In a parliamentary
plutocracy, like our own, he will proceed in fashion with which we are
only too familiar, will make himself the paid servant of those wealthy
men who finance politicians, and will enrich himself by means of "tips"
from financiers and bribes from Government contractors. In a democracy,
the same sort of man will try to obtain his ends by flattering and
cajoling the populace. It is not obvious that he is more mischievous as
demagogue than he was as courtier, lackey, or parliamentary intriguer.
Indeed, he is almost certainly less so, for he must at least in some
fashion serve, even if only that he may deceive them, those whose
servant he should be. At any rate, the purely self-seeking demagogue is
certainly a recurrent figure in democratic politics, and of the
self-seeking demagogue Aaron Burr was an excellent specimen.

He had been a soldier not without distinction, and to the last he
retained a single virtue--the grand virtue of courage. For the rest, he
was the Tammany Boss writ large. An able political organizer, possessed
of much personal charm, he had made himself master of the powerful
organization of the Democratic party in New York State, and as such was
able to bring valuable support to the party which was opposing the
administration of Adams. As a reward for his services, it was determined
that he should be Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency. But here
the machinery devised by the Convention played a strange trick. When the
votes of the Electoral College came to be counted, it was found that
instead of Jefferson leading and yet leaving enough votes to give Burr
the second place, the votes for the two were exactly equal. This, u