The affair of the duel ought not to
be brought up. It was a silly affair. Clinton ought to have declined
the challenge of the bully, and have challenged the principal, who was
Burr. There were five shots, the antagonist wounded twice, and fell.
C. behaved with cool courage, and after the affair was over challenged
Burr on the field."--_Harper's Magazine_, Vol. 50, p. 565. "How
Clinton should have challenged Burr on the field," writes John
Bigelow, in _Harper's New Monthly Magazine_ for May, 1875, "without
its resulting in a meeting is not quite intelligible to us now. Though
not much given to the redress of personal grievances in that way, Burr
was the last man to leave a hostile message from an adversary like
Clinton, then a Senator of the United States, unanswered."]

Out of this quarrel grew another, in which Robert Swartout, John's
younger brother, fought Riker, wounding him severely. William Coleman
of the _Evening Post_, in letting fly some poisoned arrows, also got
tangled up with Cheetham. "Lie on Duane, lie on for pay, and Cheetham,
lie thou too; more against truth you cannot say, than truth can say
'gainst you." The spicy epigrams ended in a challenge, but Cheetham
made such haste to adjust matters that a report got abroad of his
having shown the white feather. Harbour-Master Thompson, an appointee
of Clinton, now championed Cheetham's cause, declaring that Coleman
had weakened. Immediately the young editor sent him a challenge, and,
without much ado, they fought on the outskirts of the city, now the
foot of Twenty-first Street, in the twilight of a cold winter day,
exchanging two shots without effect. Meantime, the growing darkness
compelled the determined combatants to move closer together, and at
the next shot Thompson, mortally wounded, fell forward into the
snow.[129]

[Footnote 129: "Thompson was brought," says William Cullen Bryant in
_Reminiscences of the Evening Post_, "to his sister's house in town;
he was laid at the door; the bell was rung; the family came out and
found him bleeding and near his death. He refused to name his
antagonist, or give any account of the affair, declaring that
everything which had been done was honourably done, and desired that
no attempt should be made to seek out or molest his adversary."]

CHAPTER XII

DEFEAT OF BURR AND DEATH OF HAMILTON

1804

The campaign for governor in 1804 was destined to become historic.
Burr was driven from his party; George Clin