who wielded much
influence in the House, is typical of many.

... Another subject. _Jefferson or Burr_? The former beyond a
doubt. The latter in my judgement has no principle, public or
private; could be bound by no agreement; will listen to no monitor
but his ambition; and for this purpose will use the worst portion
of the community as a ladder to climb to permanent power, and an
instrument to crush the better part. He is bankrupt beyond
redemption, except by the resources that grow out of war and
disorder; or by a sale to a foreign power, or by great peculation.
War with Great Britain would be the immediate instrument. He is
sanguine enough to hope everything, daring enough to attempt
everything, wicked enough to scruple nothing. From the elevation of
such a man may heaven preserve the country.

Let our situation be improved to obtain from Jefferson assurances
on certain points: the maintenance of the present system,
especially on the cardinal articles of public credit--a navy,
neutrality. Make any discreet use you may think fit of this letter.

He was deeply alarmed at the tendency of the excited House, which sat in
continuous session from the 11th to the 17th, members sleeping on the
floor and sick men brought thither on cots, one with his wife in
attendance. The South was threatening civil war, and Burr's subsequent
career justified his alarm and his warnings; but in spite of his great
influence he won his case with his followers by a very small margin.
They were under no delusions regarding the character of Burr, their
letters to Hamilton abound in strictures almost as severe as his own,
but their argument was that he was the less of two evils, that every
move he made could be sharply watched. It is quite true that he would
have had Federalists and Democrats in both Houses to frustrate him; but
it does not seem to have occurred to the former that impeachment would
have been inevitable, and Jefferson President but a year or two later
than the will of the people decreed. But it was a time of terrible
excitement, and for the matter of that their brains must have been a
trifle clouded by the unvarying excitement of their lives. Bayard of
Delaware, with whom Hamilton had fought over point by point, winning one
or more with each letter, changed his vote on the last ballot from Burr
to a blank. Hamilton's friends knew that Burr would kill