has a certain
prestige in New England on account of his father and Jonathan Edwards,
and his agents have been promoting discussion of this ancestry for some
time past. Do the Federalists of New York endorse him, this prestige
will have received its fine finish; and New Englanders have winked his
vices out of sight because Jefferson's treatment of him makes him almost
virtuous in their eyes. The moment he is Governor he will foment the
unrest of New England until it secedes, and then, being the first
officer of the leading State of the North, he will claim a higher office
that will end in sovereignty. He fancies himself another Bonaparte, he
who is utterly devoid of even that desire for fame, and that
magnificence, which would make the Corsican a great man without his
genius. That he is in communication with his idol, I happen to know, for
he has been seen in secret conversation with fresh Jacobin spies. Now is
the time to crush Burr once for all. Jefferson has intrigued the
Livingstons and Clinton away from him again; the party he patched
together out of hating factions is in a state of incohesion. If the
Federals--"

"That is just it," interrupted Troup; "the man is desperate. So are his
followers, his 'little band.' They were sick and gasping after Burr's
failure to receive one vote in the Republican caucus for even the
Vice-Presidency, and they know that the Louisiana Purchase has made
Jefferson invincible with the Democrats--or the Republicans, as
Jefferson still persists in calling them. They know that Burr's chance
for the Presidency has gone for ever. So New York is their only hope.
Secession and empire or not, their hope, like his, is in the spoils of
office; they are lean and desperate. If you balk them--"

"What a spectacle is this!" cried Hamilton, gaily. He threw himself back
on the grass, and clasped his hands behind his head. "Troup, of all men,
reproaching me for keeping a vow he once was ready to annihilate me for
having broken. That offence was insignificant to the crime of supinely
permitting our Catiline to accomplish his designs."

"If I could agree with you, I should be the last to counsel
indifference; no, not if your life were the forfeit. But I never
believed in Burr's talent for conspiracy. He is too sanguine and
visionary. He desires power, office, and emolument--rewards for his
henchmen before they desert him; but I believe he'd go--or get--no
farther, and the country is strong enough to st