tile meeting was
deferred until Wednesday, July 11th. In the meantime the principals
went about their vocations with apparent indifference to the coming
event. On the evening of July 4th, Hamilton and Burr attended the
annual dinner of the Society of the Cincinnati, of which the former
had succeeded Washington as president. The occasion was remembered as
the gayest and most hilarious in the society's history. Hamilton
leaped upon the table and sang "The Drum," an old camp song that
became historic because of his frequent rendition of it. It was
recalled afterward that Burr withdrew before the festivities had
ended. On Saturday evening Hamilton dined Colonel Trumbull, one of
Washington's first aides, and on Monday attended a reception given by
Oliver Wolcott, John Adams' secretary of the treasury. Tuesday evening
he prepared the paper already quoted, and addressed a letter to
Theodore Sedgwick, one of Pickering's sternest conspirators, warning
him against disunion. "Dismemberment of our empire," he said, "will be
a clear sacrifice of great positive advantages, without any
counterbalancing good; administering no relief to our real disease,
which is democracy--the poison of which, by a subdivision, will only
be the more concentred in each part, and consequently the more
virulent."[148]

[Footnote 148: _Hamilton's Works_ (Lodge), Vol. 8, p. 615. Letter to
Theo. Sedgwick.]

Meantime the secret had been confined to less than a dozen persons,
and to none of Hamilton's intimate friends. Troup remained with him
until a late hour Monday night without suspecting anything, the gaiety
of his manner leading his friend to think his health was mending. Had
Troup divined the hostile meeting, it might not have occurred. When
John Swartout entered Burr's room at daylight on that fatal 11th of
July, he found him sound asleep.

It was seven o'clock Wednesday morning, a hot July day, that Hamilton
crossed the Hudson to Weehawken, with Pendleton, his second, and Dr.
Hosack, Burr and Van Ness having preceded them. It took but a moment
to measure ten paces, load the pistols, and place the principals in
position. As the word was given, Burr took deliberate aim and fired.
Instantly Hamilton reeled and fell forward headlong upon his face,
involuntarily discharging his pistol. "This is a mortal wound,
Doctor," he gasped, and immediately sank into a swoon. An examination
showed that the ball had penetrated the right side. Burr, sheltered by
Van