ilkinson, and peddles them round in that
dung-cart, _The Western World_, which his man Friday, John Wood,
drives."

"You'd best not talk too loud, Hadley; Wood is at the door."

"Who wants John Wood?" bawled the bearer of that name. "Hadley, you?"

"No; I avoid you and your paper. You ought to be sued for libel. I say
to you as I just now said to Ogden, that Jo Hamilton Daviess is making
this fuss, not for furtherance of law and justice, but to blacken the
name of Burr."

"Burr blackened it himself," retorted Wood, "with the blood of
Hamilton."

"Black blood it was, from a black heart. Don't say anything against
that duel here in Kentucky!" said Hadley.

The wrangle, of which the foregoing speeches were a part, took place
in Frankfort, Kentucky, on the morning of December 2, 1806. The town
was thronged with zealous partisans, Federalists and Republicans, from
near and far. Scores of sturdy ploughmen and cavalcades of
stock-raisers had ridden from their Blue Grass farms to the State
capital, on horses of a breed and beauty unsurpassed in the world.
Every tavern, blacksmith-shop, and grocery drew its crowd, for the
weather was cold, and the country folks were glad of a chance to warm
themselves while they boisterously discussed the latest phases of the
legal proceeding then in progress, involving the reputation of Aaron
Burr, and threatening his personal liberty.

Daviess, a staunch Federalist, controlled a political newspaper, the
avowed purpose of which was "to drag to light the men who had been
concerned with Miro in the Spanish conspiracy of 1787." Daviess had
written to Jefferson accusing General Wilkinson of having been in
Spanish pay, and later had charged both Wilkinson and Burr with the
grossest disloyalty. These two men were openly and repeatedly attacked
in the paper, a copy of which Wood held in hand when he confronted
Hadley.

"You can't smutch the character of Daviess," said Wood. "His name is
above suspicion. He performs his duty as United States District
Attorney without fear or favor."

"You are not competent to give an unbiased opinion; your
bread-and-butter depends upon the man who set you up in business."

The sneer drew applause from a majority of those in the store. Burr
had won the heart of the populace. Wood returned a sharp rejoinder.

"What a pity that some good man has not set Hadley up in a better
business than pettifogging. Apply to your patron, Judge Innes. Lick
his foot. There