f honor, accepted the challenge,
but fired into the air, while Burr with fiendish cruelty took
deliberate revenge. Burr was never forgiven by the citizens of New
York and from that hour walked its streets shunned and despised. Among
the many poetic tributes penned at the time to the memory of Hamilton,
perhaps the best was by a poet whose name is now scarcely remembered,
Mr. Robert C. Sands. A fine picture of Hamilton will be found in the
New York Chamber of Commerce where the writer was recently shown the
following concise paragraph from Talleyrand: "The three greatest men
of my time, in my opinion, were Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles James Fox
and Alexander Hamilton and the greatest of the three was Hamilton."
* * *
Where round yon capes the banks ascend
Long shall the pilgrim's footsteps bend,
There, mirthful heart shall pause to sigh,
There tears shall dim the patriot's eye.
_Robert C. Sands._
* * *
The plain marble slab which stood in the face of the monument is still
preserved by a member of the King family. It is thirty-six inches
long by twenty-six and a half inches wide and bears the following
inscription: "As an expression of their affectionate regard to his
Memory and their deep regret for his loss, the St. Andrew's Society of
the State of New York have erected this Monument."
Quite a history attaches to this stone (graphically condensed by
an old gardener of the King estate): "It stood in the face of the
monument for sixteen years, and was read by thousands, but by 1820 the
pillar had become an eyesore to the enlightened public sentiment of
the age, and an agitation was begun in the public prints for its
removal. It was not, however, organized effort, but the order of one
man, that at length demolished the pillar. This man was Captain Deas,
a peace-loving gentleman, strongly opposed to duelling and brawls,
and on seeing a party approaching the grounds often interposed and
sometimes succeeded in effecting a reconciliation. He became tired of
seeing the pillar in his daily walks, and, in 1820, ordered his men to
remove it and deposit the slab containing the inscription in one
of the outbuildings of the estate. This was done. But a few months
afterward the slab was stolen, and nothing more was heard of it until
thirteen years later, when Mr. Hugh Maxwell, president of the St.
Andrew's Society, discovered it in a junk shop in New York. He at once
purchased it and presented it
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