CHAPTER  XIX.

THE   DUEL.

Thj General Peovooation — The Paeticulae Peovooation.— The Hostile Cob

bespondenoe — tlie challenge given and acceptbi) — hamilton's condttot..
AND Buee's Lettees befoee the Meeting—The Banquet of the Cincinnati —
The Last Weitings or Hamilton and Buee—The Dueling Geound — Thb
Duel — Effect on the Public Mind — The Cokonee's Veedict — De. Nott"6
Sbemon — The Monument to Hamilton on the Geottnd.

As habit is second nature, dueling must formerly have
seemed a very natural mode of settling personal disputes, for
few public men passed through life without being concerned
in, at least, one " affair of honor." Gates, De Witt Clinton,
Randolph, Benton, Clay, Jackson, Decatur, Arnold, Walpole,
Pitt, Wellington, Canning, Peel, Grattan, Fox, Sheridan, Jef¬
frey, Wilkes, D'Israeli, Lamartine, Thiers, and scores of less
famous names, are found in Mr. Sabine's* list of duelists.

In all that curious catalogue, there is not the name of one
politician who received provocation so often-repeated, so irri¬
tating, and so injurious, as that which Aaron Burr had re¬
ceived from Alexander Hamilton,

Burr was not a man to resent promptly a personal injury,
even when what he called his " honor" impelled him to do so.
The infidelity of a comrade cut him to the heart; to be
doubted by a friend, was, as he once said, " to have the very
sanctuary of happiness invaded ;" the disapproval of his own
set he would have felt acutely. But, to the outcry of the
outer world he was comparatively indifferent, and the inju¬
rious attempts of enemies he usually disregarded. Aaron
Burr, whatever faults he may have had — and he had grievous
and radical faulfs — was not a revengeful man ; there has sel
dom lived one who was less so. He had to be much persuaded
* " Notes on Duels and Dueling."   By Lorenzo Sabine.