HAMILTON-BURR. 559 XLI. that other vessels were on their way, and a further attack CHAP. was postponed. Before the arrival of this reinforcement the Baslaw came to terms, and desired to make peace; 1804. other causes aided in hastening this event. He had driven his elder brother, Hamet, into exile, and usurped his throne. Captain William Eaton, American Consul at Tunis, concerted measures with the exiled brother to drive the usurper from Tripoli. With four hundred troops, only nine of whom were Americans, Eaton and Hamet marched a thousand miles across the Libyan desert, and suddenly appeared before Derne, which place, with the aid of the American fleet, they captured in a few days. The Bashaw sent troops against the invaders; these troops were also defeated, then to save himself he made proposals to negotiate. Peace was concluded by Lear, the American 1805. consul at Tripoli, but not on as favorable terms as justice 3. demanded. After an exchange of prisoners, man for man, there still remained two hundred Americans; for these a heavy ransom was paid. Thus, conceding the point in dispute, that the Bashaw had a right to receive ransoms for prisoners taken by his pirates. June Jefferson was re-elected President, and, instead of Burr, George Clinton, of New York, Vice-President. Burr's intrigues had become known to both parties, and he experienced the just fate of the insincere-he was suspected by all, and trusted by none. Rejected by his own State, his political prospects ruined, and overwhelmed by debts, the result of unsuccessful speculations, his cold and unrelenting spirit panted for revenge. He looked upon the influence of Alexander Hamilton, as one cause of his political failure. To retrieve his political fortunes Burr was willing to risk his own life, if he could but kill the man whose patriotism and integrity he well knew, and whose influence he dreaded. He laid his plans to force Hamilton into a duel. They met on the banks of the Hudson, opposite New York, Hamilton previously de- 1805. XLI. CHAP. claring that to fight a duel was contrary to his judgment and his sense of moral duty; that he wished Burr no ill, 1804. and should make no effort to injure him. Burr took deliberate aim, and Hamilton was mortally wounded; as he fell his own pistol went off accidentally. When the surJuly geon approached he said, "Doctor, this is a mortal 11. wound." In twenty-four hours he was no more. Thus 1805. fell one of the brightest intellects, and purest, self-sacrificing patriots of the country-a victim to an unchristian custom, the relic of a barbarous age. His loss to the country was second only to that of Washington. The most imposing funeral ceremony the city ever saw revealed the depth of feeling in the public mind. Presently the correspondence between the parties was published; this made known the designing manner in which Hamilton had been entrapped, and the disclosure produced in the public mind still greater indignation against Burr. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against him. Fearful of violence he was fain to conceal himself for a few days in New York, and then to flee to Philadelphia, and finally to Georgia, until, as he expressed it, "the storm would blow over." The sacrifice of a man so eminent, merely to appease the honor of a consummate villain, turned the minds of the people more directly to the moral turpitude, as well as the absurdity of the custom of duelling. Public opinion on this subject became, henceforth, embodied in laws, which banished the custom from some of the States, and will, it may be hoped, eventually banish it from all the others. The remaining history of Aaron Burr may be told in a few words. His intriguing and restless nature impelled him to other enterprises. The year following the death of Hamilton he went west. That section of the country contained many turbulent spirits, and had, moreover, manifested much dissatisfaction with the General Govern. THE MYSTERIOUS MOVEMENTS OF BURR-HIS DEATH. 561 XLI. ment. It was thought Burr had some designs for his own CHAP. aggrandizement; either to seize upon New Orleans and draw off the people of the valley of the Mississippi from 1805. their allegiance to the Union, or to make a foray into Mexico, overturn the existing government, and put himself at the head of the one he should establish. His mysterious movements from place to place, and the hints concerning his projects, which he threw out to those whom he wished to enlist, excited the suspicion of the federal government. After being permitted to plan and counter-plan for a year or more, he was finally arrested and brought to trial. But so cunningly had he managed the affair, that no decisive proof could be obtained of his designs. After a prolonged trial, he was acquitted of the charge of treason against the United States. Though acquitted by the jury, public opinion treated him as guilty. Turned upon the world a penniless wanderer, suspected everywhere, even in foreign lands, where he lived in the greatest poverty, a pensioner upon the pittance doled out by a few friends. Ordered out of England as a French spy, and treated in France as a British emissary; finally, he returned home, to find his family ties all broken, his daughter, an only and beloved child, having, under trying circumstances, recently perished at sea. 1807. Feb. He made no advances to renew former friendships or acquaintance, and would gladly have shunned the public gaze, but he was compelled in his old age to resume the practice of the law as a means of support. With a ban resting upon him, he went down in loneliness to the grave, in his eighty-first year-a melancholy instance of 1836. prostituted talents. The country continued to be very prosperous; the public expences were lessened, and the finances were leaving every year an increasing surplus; the belligerents XLI. CHAP. in Europe had not yet interfered much with American commerce, the great source of the federal revenue. The 1805. facilities for making money exchanges afforded by the banks had a beneficial effect upon the internal trade of the country. The exportation of domestic produce had tripled in value since the adoption of the Constitution, amounting to forty-two millions. There was also a rapidlyincreasing, and immensely profitable trade in the import and export of foreign merchandise, exclusively for the supply of foreign nations. Internal improvements were not overlooked, and companies were formed for the construction of roads and bridges, and others for insurance. Washington and Adams, in their administrations, both endeavored to place the force of the country on a footing to command the respect of other nations. Hence they strongly urged the creation of a navy to protect American commerce, and the policy of fortifying important places along the coast. But Jefferson looked upon this as a useless expense. He would prefer to have the public ships hauled out of harm's way into harbors; instead of prosecuting trade upon the ocean, where a cruiser of one of the belligerents might occasionally search a vessel for goods contraband of war, he would lay an embargo, and cut off all trade. Harbor fortifications were subjected to the same policy, falsely named economical; gun-boats were to take the place of other defences. Even the frames of the six ships of the line, commenced by the previous administration, were cut up to make gun-boats. For more than six years not a single vessel was added to the navy, though there were indications that war might speedily occur. The hostility in Congress to that branch of the service was confined principally to the southern members. It was avowed that in case of war it would be good policy to abandon the harbors and sea-coast, and retire into the interior; that it would be better to give up commerce altogether than protect it by a navy. ENGLISH AND FRENCH DECREES. 563 XLI. The war between France and England had driven CHAP. from the ocean all the merchant vessels of those nations. This trade passed into the hands of neutrals, the United 1806. States securing much the largest share. The cruisers of the belligerent powers continued to infringe upon the rights of the neutrals. The battle of Trafalgar annihilated the fleets of Spain and France. The dread of French cruisers had passed away; and the British merchants began to complain of the vast profits made by the Americans in the neutral trade, whose emoluments they wished to secure to themselves. It was suspected that the vast amount of property carried by the Americans did not belong to them, but that it was taken to a neutral port merely to acquire a neutral character, and then transhipped to the ports belonging to those nations which were at war,-a charge no doubt true in many instances. On this ground American vessels were seized and condemned. 21. The English government passed a decree which declared the coast of Europe from the mouth of the river Elbe to Brest, to be in a state of blockade ;-thus forbidding neutrals to trade within these prescribed limits. Napo- May. leon, unable to contend with England upon the ocean, now issued the famous Berlin decree, which declared the coast of Great Britain to be in a state of blockade. In addition, he prohibited all trade in English merchandise. Nov. Two months later, Great Britain forbade all trade with France whatever. Thus these two nations wantonly disregarded the interests and rights of the commerce of the world. Both French and British cruisers, now captured American trading ships, and the commerce which extended to every sea, gradually dwindled down to a coasting trade. Owing to the government's policy-fondly cherished as the very essence of economy-the commerce of the nation was left to the tender mercies of ocean despots; there was no navy to give it protection, except |