me of one more gentleman, Mr. Edward
Livingston of New York. I knew well--full well I knew--the consequence
of this gentleman. His means were not limited to his own vote; nay, I
always considered more than the vote of New York within his power. Mr.
Livingston has been made the attorney for the district of New York;
the road of preferment has been opened to him, and his brother has
been raised to the distinguished place of minister plenipotentiary to
the French Republic."[125]

[Footnote 125: Henry Adams, _History of the United States_, Vol. 1,
pp. 294-5.]

Albert Gallatin, Jefferson's secretary of the treasury, thought Burr
less selfish than either the Clintons or the Livingstons, and, on the
score of office-seeking, Gallatin was probably correct. But Burr, if
without relatives, had several devoted friends whom he pressed for
appointment, among them John Swartout for marshal, Daniel Gelston for
collector, Theodorus Bailey for naval officer, and Matthew L. Davis
for supervisor. Swartout succeeded, but DeWitt Clinton, getting wind
of the scheme, entered an heroic protest to Jefferson, who quickly
concurred in Clinton's wishes without so much as a conference with
Gallatin or Burr. The latter, hearing rumours of the secret
understanding, sent a sharp letter to Gallatin, pressing Davis'
appointment on the ground of good faith, with a threat that he would
no longer be trifled with; but Gallatin was helpless as well as
ignorant, and the President silent. Davis' journey to Monticello
developed nothing but Jefferson's insincerity, and on his return to
New York the press laughed at his credulity.

This ended Burr's pretended loyalty to the Administration. On his
return to Washington, in January, 1802, he quietly watched his
opportunity, and two weeks later gave the casting vote which sent
Jefferson's pet measure, the repeal of the judiciary act of 1801, to a
select committee for delay, instead of to the President for approval.
Soon after, at a Federalist banquet celebrating Washington's birthday,
Burr proposed the toast, "The union of all honest men." This was the
fatal stab. The country didn't understand it, but to Jefferson and the
Clintons it meant all that Burr intended, and from that moment DeWitt
Clinton's newspaper, the _American Citizen and Watchtower_, owned by
his cousin and edited by James Cheetham, an English refugee, took up
the challenge thus thrown down, and began its famous attack upon the
Vice President.

B