and a quack or two;
while, if we lose you--"

"You will live to see every prophecy I have made in regard to Burr
fulfilled. I will not, because so long as I am alive he shall not even
attempt to split the Union, to whose accomplishment and maintenance I
pledged every faculty and my last vital spark. Sanguine and visionary he
may be, but he is also cunning and quick, and there is a condition ready
to his hand at the present moment. Jefferson is bad enough, Heaven
knows. He has retained our machinery, but I sometimes fancy I can hear
the crumbling of the foundations; the demoralizing and the
disintegrating process began even sooner than I expected. He is
appealing to the meanest passion of mankind, vanity; and the United
States, which we tried to make the ideal Republic, is galloping toward
the most mischievous of all establishments, Democracy. Every cowherd
hopes to be President. What is the meaning of civilization, pray, if the
educated, enlightened, broad-minded, are not to rule? Is man permitted
to advance, progress, embellish his understanding, for his own selfish
benefit, or for the benefit of mankind? And how can his superiority
avail his fellows unless he be permitted to occupy the high offices of
responsibility? God knows, he is not happy in his power; he is, indeed,
a sacrifice to the mass. But so it was intended. He is the only
sufferer, and mankind is happier."

"Jefferson and Burr both have a consummate knowledge of the limited
understanding; they know how to tickle it with painted straws and bait
it with lies. Bonaparte is not a greater autocrat than Jefferson, but
our tyrant fools the world with his dirty old clothes and his
familiarities. But I am not to be diverted. I want to keep you for my
old age. I believe that you have done your part. It has been a
magnificent part; there is no greater in history. Your friends are
satisfied. So should you be. I want you to give up politics before it is
too late. I fear more than one evil, and it has kept me awake many
nights. Burr is not the only one who wishes you under ground. His
'little band' is composed of men who are worse than himself without one
of his talents. Any one of them is capable of stabbing you in the dark.
The Virginia Junta know that the Federalist party will exist as long as
you do, and that some external menace might cohere and augment it again
under your leadership. At every Federalist banquet last Fourth you were
toasted as the greatest man i