Complete Works. Hamilton AlexanderЧитать онлайн книгу.
actually made, yet it has not been extended to me.
A. H.
After Hamilton's death a law was passed by Congress, in 1816, giving his widow back pay and she received about ten thousand dollars.1 Among his papers was found a small land allotment of a quarter section for which he had never applied. It is a matter of fact that many of his expenses incurred in the equipment of his company of artillery, and his visits to Annapolis to attend the meetings of the Constitutional Conventions, and other places, were unpaid by the government.
In 1810 Mrs. Hamilton heard from her sister, Mrs. Church, who said, "we had the pleasure to hear that you were safe arrived at Philadelphia, and your letter of yesterday from Washington removed all apprehensions; if anything is to be done, your presence is better than twenty agents and I sincerely hope that for your case and for the honor of my native country," a liberal allowance will be made." The sum allowed enabled her to provide in measure for the support and education of her growing family, the property left by her father having been greatly depleted.
Burr's indifference regarding the duel seems to have impressed so biassed a biographer as Parton, who ventures the opinion that he did not know what he had done.1 As has been stated, when Burr landed in New York on the morning of July 11, he proceeded to his home, and was there found by one of his young relations who had just come from Connecticut to visit him. When shown into the library he found Burr. The latter was engaged in his "usual avocations," and showed no indication of what had occurred an hour or two previously. He was, in every respect, as usual, and did not manifest in his "manner or conversation any concern." The guest was surprised, when he left the house and went to another part of the city, to find all the existing excitement and to learn, for the first time, that Hamilton had been killed by his imperturbable cousin.
Burr himself was hardly prepared for the attitude of the public, for, secure in his office as Vice-President, which he had gained after discomfiting the very man he had shot, he felt he was more popular than the departed Hamilton, who, after all, in his opinion, was only a dead Federalist.
Even Burr's own friends were shocked and horrified, and John Adams is reported to have said, "No one wished to get rid of Hamilton in that way." Two days afterward Burr wrote to Alston, his son-in-law: "General Hamilton died yesterday. The malignant Federalists or Tories, and the embittered Clintonians, unite in endeavoring to excite public sympathy in his favor, and indignation against his antagonist. . . . I propose leaving town for a few days, and meditate also a journey of some weeks, but whither is not resolved. . . . Our most unprincipled Jacobins are the loudest in their lamentations for the death of General Hamilton, whom, for many years, they have uniformly represented as the most detestable and unprincipled of men -- the motives are obvious. Every sort of persecution is to be exercised against me. A Coroner's jury will sit this evening, being the fourth time. The object of this unexampled measure is to obtain an inquest of murder. Upon this a warrant will be issued to apprehend me, and if I should be taken, no bail would probably be allowed. You know enough of the temper and principle of the generality of the officers of our State Government to form a judgment of my position." He also complained that the statement of his second, Van Ness, had not been shown him, and intimated that the publication in the Morning Chronicle was garbled, and "several circumstances not very favorable to the deceased are suppressed -- I presume for holy reverence for the dead."
So bitter and excited were the feelings of every one that he did not leave Richmond Hill for eleven days. Meanwhile it was suggested that Bishop Moore and Dr. Mason or Dr. Hosack should give the needed testimony, and the coroner's jury brought in a true bill.
CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK ss. :
An Inquisition indented, taken for the People of the State of New York at the Third Ward of the City of New York, the thirteenth day of July, in the year of Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and four, and contained by adjournment until the second day of August in the year aforesaid, before me, JOHN BURGER, Coroner for the said City and County of New York, on view of the body of Alexander Hamilton, then and there to wit, on the said thirteenth day of July, in the year last aforesaid, at the Ward, City and County aforesaid, lying dead. Upon the oath of Alexander Anderson, George Minuse, John A. Hardenbrook, Peter Bonnett, Elam Williams, John Coffin, John Mildeberger, David A. Brown, David Lydig, Abraham Bloodgood, Samuel Cummings, Amos Curtis, Isaac Burr, Benjamin Strong and John D. Miller, good and lawful men of the said City and County of New York, duly chosen, and who being then and there duly sworn and charged to inquire for the People of the State of New York, when, where and by what means the said Alexander Hamilton came to his death, do, upon their oath, say that Aaron Burr, late of the Eighth Ward of the said City, in the said County, Esquire, and Vice- President of the United States, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil, on the eleventh day of July, in the year last aforesaid, with force and arms, in the County of Bergen and State of New Jersey, in and upon the said Alexander Hamilton, in the peace of God and of the People of the said State of New Jersey, then and there being feloniously, wilfully and of his malice aforethought, did make an assault and that the said Aaron Burr a certain pistol of the value of One Dollar charged and loaded with gun-powder and a leaden bullet which he, the said Aaron Burr, then and there had held in his right hand, to, at and against the right side of the belly of the said Alexander Hamilton, did then and there shoot off and discharge, by means whereof he, the said Aaron Burr, feloniously wilfully and of malice aforethought did then and there give unto him, the said Alexander Hamilton, with the leaden bullet aforesaid, so as aforesaid, shot off and discharged out of the pistol aforesaid by the force of the gunpowder aforesaid, upon the right side of the belly of him, the said Alexander Hamilton, a little above the hip, one mortal wound penetrating the belly of him, the said Alexander Hamilton, of which said mortal wound he, the said Alexander Hamilton, from the said eleventh day of July, in the year aforesaid, until the twelfth day of July in the same year, as well in the County of Bergen in the State of New Jersey aforesaid, as also at the Eighth Ward of the City of New York, in the County of New York aforesaid, did languish and languishing did live, on which twelfth day of July in the said year the said Alexander Hamilton, at the said Eighth Ward of the said City in the said County of New York, of the mortal wound aforesaid died, and the Jurors aforesaid, on their oath aforesaid, do further say that William P. Van Ness, late of the First Ward of the City of New York, in the County of New York aforesaid, attorney at law, and Nathaniel Pendleton, late of the same place, counsellor at law at the time of committing the felony and murder aforesaid, feloniously, wilfully and of their malice aforethought were present, abetting, aiding, assisting, comforting and maintaining the said Aaron Burr to kill and murder the said Alexander Hamilton in manner aforesaid. And so the Jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do say the said Aaron Burr, and the said William P. Van Ness and Nathaniel Pendleton, him, the said Alexander Hamilton, in manner and by the means aforesaid, feloniously, wilfully and of their malice aforethought, did kill and murder against the peace of the People of the State of New York and their dignity.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, as well the aforesaid Coroner as the Jurors aforesaid, have to this Inquisition put their seals on the second day of August, and in the year One thousand eight hundred and four and at the place aforesaid.
| JOHN BURGER, Coroner. L.S. | ||||
| ALEXR. ANDERSON. | L.S. | |||
| GEO. MINUSE. | L.S. | |||
| JOHN A. HARDENBROOK. | L.S. | |||
| PETER BONNETT. | L.S. | |||
| ELAM WILLIAMS. | L.S. | |||
| JOHN COFFIN. | L.S. | |||
| JOHN MILDEBERGER. | L.S. | |||
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