thereafter in public life would be greatly
lessened, should he not fight. In the paper he drew up, giving his
reasons for the course he pursued, he says,--"The ability to be in
future useful, whether in resisting mischief or in effecting good, in
those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would
probably be inseparable from a conformity with public prejudice in this
particular." He was particularly thinking of his power to contend
against a scheme for a dissolution of the Union which had been formed in
the North, the existence of which he knew, and also that it was known to
Burr, who, had he not committed suicide by the same act which made him a
murderer, would soon have been seen at the head of a rebellion. The
result of the duel was to deprive Burr of all power and influence. He
killed Hamilton, but he fell himself by the same shot that carried death
to his opponent; and so complete was his fall that he never could rise
again, though he continued to cumber the earth for more than thirty-two
years. Hamilton's quarrel with Burr, as his son and biographer truly
observes, "was the quarrel of his country. It was the last act in the
great drama of his life. It was the deliberate sacrifice of that life
for his country's welfare,--a sacrifice which, by overwhelming his
antagonist with the execrations of the American people, prevented a
civil war, and saved from 'dismemberment' this great republic."

What strikes us most forcibly, in considering Hamilton's career, is the
remarkably, early development of his powers. At thirteen, he was found
competent to take charge of a mercantile establishment. At fifteen, his
writings win for him public applause and the aid of friends. At
seventeen, he addresses with success a great public meeting. At
eighteen, his anonymous productions are attributed to some of the
leading men of America. At nineteen, he has thought out that principle
of government which is indelibly associated with his name. At twenty, he
has not only approved himself a skilful and courageous soldier, but he
has won the esteem of the grave and reserved Washington, and is placed
by that great man in a post of the closest confidence, and which really
makes him the second man in the American service. At twenty-three, he
has shown that he is master of the intricate subject of finance. At
twenty-five, after an active military life that had allowed no time for
study, he is known as a lawyer of the first order.