In the year 1799, a Council of Appointment were to be chosen. The Republicans elected Mr. Denning, (a Republican) one of its members. John Addison and Ebenezer Foote, were the next two candidates; the former a Republican, the latter a Federalist. In the election of Mr. Denning, it was apparent that the Republicans had a majority; and with proper attention, this majority might have been preserved in the election of every member of the Council. It was a favorite point to prevent the election of Foote, whose hatred of the Republicans was keen and im placable. Between Mr. Burr and Mr. Foote, however, a cordial interchange of sentiment had not in the least been interrupted by the passing events of the day. Their inti macy had been long, their friendship apparently mutually warm and sincere. Foote was always a strenuous supporter of Mr. Burr. In 1792 he was one of those who nominated him for the executive office in opposition to Governor Clinton. This was the period when Mr. Burr, after his name had been announced for the office, and after it was ascertained that neither the Republicans nor Federaliste would give him support, caused his unwillingness to be held up as a candidate-first discovered at the consultation had at Princeton to be declared in the public papers! In 1795, Foote again came forward in support of Mr. Burr, and at a meeting at Newburgh, got him nominated for Governor in opposition to Judge Yates, the Republican candidate. It was not to be supposed, that so much zeal and activity would be readily forgotten by Mr. Burr, who felt a lively recollection of them in the house," on the question of Foote's elec tion to the Council of Appointment. Mr. Burr, however, was delicately situated. On the one hand he could not with pro

priety vote against the party to whom he had generally bedr attached; and on the other, he thought it not expedient to disoblige Foote, who had been, and who might on future occasions be, useful to him. There was only one expedient to which Mr. Burr could have recourse to get rid of the difficulty, and to his perspicacity this was palpable, it was simply to absent himself from the house till the question on the two candidates were taken, which he accordingly did, and Foote prevailed, 49 to 47 votes. * This conduct of Mr. Burr did not escape the notice of the Republican members, who were generally of opinion that he was the principal cause of the defeat of the Republican candidate. + Foote was the main instrument in the Council of the persecutions subsequently sustained by the Republicans.

The next item in the catalogue of Mr. Barr's double dealing, concerned the appointment of a state treasurer. Young Philip, the son of Gen. Schuyler, was mentioned by the Federalists for the important office. He was a young man who had no claim but that of connection. Mr. Burr employed every mean of which he was master, to induce the Republicans to vote for him. His former conduct however had ex cited much suspicion, and his proposition was accordingly rejected with suitable disdain. It was thought that Mr. Burr had been tampering with the General, in the hope of gaining something from his influence in the State.

In August, 1798, Mr. Jay called an extra meeting of the
Legislature, for the double purpose of promoting the reign..

See Journal of the Assembly for 1799.

of terror, and seconding the mad operations of John Adams. To combat the spectres raised by the ex-administration, fortifications were to be erected, and the country at once converted into a camp. Mr. Burr felt or feigned to feel the tremulations of the Federal concussion. He entered into the war-measures of the general and state administrations, with a zeal worthy of the most infuriate Federalist of the times. His ardour for expending the money of the State on the war-projects of the day, was excessive. In the Assembly he moved for an appropriation of twelve hundred thousand dollars, to put the city he represented in a good state of defence. The motion, however, did not succeed; two hundred thousand dollars only were appropriated.

It will hardly be believed that Mr. Burr partook of the general alarm which had been artfully excited. Recourse therefore to this pretence will not be had to justify his conduct. Even his enemies allow him to be a man of coolness and calculation; not much liable to female caprice or childish fear. He doubtless knew that the care of the general defence appertained solely to the general government: and that it was not only the duty but the interest of that government, to put in the best state of defence the port of New-York, which pays into the National Treasury upwards of three millions of dollars annually. Beside, it ought to have been considered by Mr. Burr, that the General Government brought us into the situation in which we were placed, and that it was their exclusive business to get us out of it. Twelve hundred thousand dollars would have entailed on our citizens endless taxation.

This dashing proposition of Mr. Burr, however, was not supposed to have been made without an eye to himself. It was believed at the time, that the gratuity was not offered to the general government without a view to a commensu、 rate return. It was rumoured that Mr. Burr was to be appointed a Major General in the service of the United States, and it was supposed that he wished to be a Commissioner to superintend the expenditure of the twelve hundred thousand dollars!

The erection of a new office to superintend the exaction' of escheats on the part of the state, was an object which now attracted the attention of the Legislature. This would have been a lucrative object, if rigidly attended to. It might comprehend cases where a man died without heirs-where his relations were aliens-where an alien held lands without legislative authority-where the conditions of a patent, such as a settlement, within a given time, were not performed, and where a corporation hold more property than is allowed by the grant, or fail to comply with the prescriptions of the charter. Well intentioned men wished to confine the powers and duties of the escheator to the two first points only. But Mr. Burr's plan comprehended them all. This would have shaken almost all the new landed property of the state, and much of the old. Charters would have vanished like enchanted ground before the magic rod of the escheator. Trinity Church would have been shaken by this political earthquake, and all the rich corporations whose incomes exceed their prescribed sums, would have been at the mercy of this state inquisitor.

The more the escheator sacrificed the greater would be his profits; for the plan was to give him the eighth of the avails after paying all expences. Such was the scheme of Mr. Burr. And whom do you think he intended for the escheator? Himself! Yes, reader, himself! The selfishness of the plan however transpired; the inexpediency of the act in so comprehensive a sense was apparent, and it was consequently rejected.

These proceedings were but poorly calculated to inspire confidence, or establish popularity.

It is, however, admitted that the conduct of Mr. Burr was in some respects, meritorious. But this was more the effect of incidental circumstances, than of a righteous principle steady and unbending in the pursuit of what is good.

On the proposed amendment of the state of Massachusetts to the federal constitu ion, Mr. Burr distinguished himself in the legislature of this state. The amendment, as it was termed, went to disqualify persons naturalized from holding seats in congress. A measure so illiberal, and inexpedient, could hardly be justified by any event. None certainly existed in the United States to render it even plausible. It seemed more the effect of jealousy than of internal danger. It was an attempt of a narrow minded legislature, worthy only of modern Massachusetts, to deprive others of those privileges which they themselves or their ancestors had enjoyed; which by them were once deemed an important branch of genuine freedom, and which can never be recalled without great