nd disarmed distrust by avoiding
any false assumption of virtue. His marriage, however, proved happy. He
adored his wife and fairly worshiped his strikingly beautiful daughter
Theodosia.

Burr throve in the atmosphere of intrigue. New York politics afforded
his proper milieu. How he ingratiated himself with politicians of high
and low degree; how he unlocked the doors to political preferment;
how he became one of the first bosses of the city of New York; how he
combined public service with private interest; how he organized the
voters--no documents disclose. Only now and then the enveloping fog
lifts, as, for example, during the memorable election of 1800, when the
ignorant voters of the seventh ward, duly drilled and marshaled, carried
the city for the Republicans, and not even Colonel Hamilton, riding on
his white horse from precinct to precinct, could stay the rout. That
election carried New York for Jefferson and made Burr the logical
candidate of the party for Vice-President.

These political strokes betoken a brilliant if not always a steady
and reliable mind. Burr, it must be said, was not trusted even by his
political associates. It is significant that Washington, a keen judge
of men, refused to appoint Burr as Minister to France to succeed Morris
because he was not convinced of his integrity. And Jefferson shared
these misgivings, though the exigencies of politics made him dissemble
his feelings. It is significant, also, that Burr was always surrounded
by men of more than doubtful intentions--place-hunters and self-seeking
politicians, who had the gambler's instinct.

As Vice-President, Burr could not hope to exert much influence upon the
Administration, since the office in itself conferred little power and
did not even, according to custom, make him a member of the Cabinet;
but as Republican boss of New York who had done more than any one man
to secure the election of the ticket in 1800, he might reasonably expect
Jefferson and his Virginia associates to treat him with consideration in
the distribution of patronage. To his intense chagrin, he was ignored;
not only ignored but discredited, for Jefferson deliberately allied
himself with the Clintons and the Livingstons, the rival factions in New
York which were bent upon driving Burr from the party. This treatment
filled Burr's heart with malice; but he nursed his wounds in secret and
bided his time.

Realizing that he was politically bankrupt, Burr made a h