Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 1.
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Matthew L. Davis >> Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 1.
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Give a place to your mamma's health in your journal. Omit the formal
conclusion of your letters, and write your name in a larger hand. I am
just going to Senate, where I hope to meet a letter from you, with a
continuation of your journal down to the 29th inclusive, which, if it
gives a good account of you and mamma, will gladden the heart of
A BURR.
TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 31st December, 1793.
This day's mail has brought me nothing from you. I have but two
letters in three, almost four weeks, and the journal is ten days in
arrear. What--can neither affection nor civility induce you to devote
to me the small portion of time which I have required? Are authority
and compulsion then the only engines by which you can be moved? For
shame, Theo.! Do not give me reason to think so ill of you.
I wrote you this morning, and have nothing to add but the repetition
of my warmest affection.
A. BURR.
TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 4th January, 1794.
At the moment of closing the mail yesterday, I received your letter
enclosing the pills. I cannot refer to it by date, as it has none.
Tell me truly, did you write it without assistance? Is the language
and spelling your own? If so, it does you much honour. The subject of
it obliged me to show it to Dr. Rush, which I did with great pride. He
inquired your age half a dozen times, and paid some handsome
compliments to the handwriting, the style, and the correctness of your
letter.
The account of your mamma's health distresses me extremely. If she
does not get better soon, I will quit Congress altogether and go home.
Doctor Rush says that the pills contain two grains each of pure and
fresh extract of hemlock; that the dose is not too large if the
stomach and head can bear it; that he has known twenty grains given at
a dose with good effect. To determine, however, whether this medicine
has any agency in causing the sick stomach, he thinks it would be well
to take an occasion of omitting it for a day or two, if Doctor Bard
should approve of such an experiment, and entertains any doubts about
the effects of the pills on the stomach. Some further conversation
which I have had with Doctor Rush will be contained in a letter which
I shall write by this post to Doctor Bard.
My last letter to you was almost an angry one, at which you cannot be
much surprised when you recollect the length of time of your silence,
and that you are my only correspondent respecting the concerns of the
family. I expect, on Monday or Tuesday next, to receive the
continuation of your journal for _the fortnight past_.
Mr. Leshlie will tell you that I have given directions for your
commencing Greek. One half hour faithfully applied by yourself at
study, and another at recitation with Mr. Leshlie, will suffice to
advance you rapidly.
Your affectionate,
A. BURR.
TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 7th January, 1794.
When your letters are written with tolerable spirit and correctness, I
read them two or three times before I perceive any fault in them,
being wholly engaged with the pleasure they afford me; but, for your
sake, it is necessary that I should also peruse them with an eye of
criticism. The following are the only mispelled words. You write
_acurate_ for _accurate_; _laudnam_ for _laudanum_; _intirely_ for
_entirely_; this last word, indeed, is spelled both ways, but entirely
is the most usual and the most proper.
Continue to use all these words in your next letter, that I may see
that you know the true spelling. And tell me what is laudanum? Where
and how made? And what are its effects?
"It was what she had long wished for, and was at a loss how to procure
_it_."
Don't you see that this sentence would have been perfect and much more
elegant without the last _it_? Mr. Leshlie will explain to you why.
By-the-by, I took the liberty to erase the redundant _it_ before I
showed the letter.
I am extremely impatient for your farther account of mamma's health.
The necessity of laudanum twice a day is a very disagreeable and
alarming circumstance. Your letter was written a week ago, since which
I have no account. I am just going to the Senate Chamber, where I hope
to meet a journal and letter. Affectionately,
A. BURR.
TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 8th January, 1794
Your two letters of Friday and Saturday came together by yesterday's
mail, which did not arrive till near sunset. Your letter of Friday was
not put into the postoffice until Saturday afternoon. You might have
as well kept it in your own hands till Monday eleven o'clock. Since
the receipt of these letters I have been three times to Doctor Rush to
consult him about a drink for your mamma; but not having had the good
fortune to find him, have written to him on the subject. I shall
undoubtedly procure an answer in the course of this day, and will
forward it by to-morrow's post.
I beg, Miss Prissy, that you will be pleased to name a single
"_unsuccessful effort_" which you have made to please me. As to the
letters and journals which you _did_ write, surely you have reason
abundant to believe that they gave me pleasure; and how the deuse I am
to be pleased with those you _did not_ write, and how an omission to
write can be called an "_effort_," remains for your ingenuity to
disclose.
You improve much in journalizing. Your last is far more sprightly than
any of the preceding. Fifty-six lines sola was, I admit, _an effort_
worthy of yourself, and which I hope will be often repeated. But pray,
when you have got up to two hundred lines a lesson, why do you go back
again to one hundred and twenty, and one hundred and twenty-five? You
should strive never to diminish; but I suppose that _vis inertia_,
which is often so troublesome to you, does some times preponderate. So
it is now and then even with your
A. BURR.
Learn the difference between _then_ and _than_. You will soonest
perceive it by translating them into Latin.
Let me see how handsomely you can subscribe your name to your next
letter, about this size,
A. BURR.
TO HIS DAUGHTER THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 10th of January, 1794.
I fear that you will imagine that I have been inattentive to your last
request about Dr. Rush; but the truth is, I can get nothing
satisfactory out of him. He enumerates over to me all the articles
which have been repeatedly tried, and some of which did never agree
with your mamma. He is, however, particularly desirous that she should
again try milk--a spoonful only at a time: another attempt, he thinks,
should be made with porter, in some shape or other. Sweet oil,
molasses, and milk, in equal proportions, he has known to agree with
stomachs which had rejected every thing else. Yet he says, and with
show of reason, that these things depend so much on the taste, the
habits of life, the peculiarity of constitution, that she and her
attending physician can be the best, if not the only advisers. It
gives me very great pleasure to learn that she is now better. I shall
write you again on Sunday, having always much to say to you
Adieu.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 13th January, 1794.
Your letter of the 9th, my dear Theo., was a most agreeable surprise
to me. I had not dared even to hope for one until to-morrow. In one
instance, at least, an attempt to please me has not been
"unsuccessful." You see I do not forget that piece of impudence.
Doctor Rush says that he cannot conceive animal food to be
particularly necessary; nourishment is the great object. He approves
much of the milk punch and chocolate. The stomach must on no account
be offended. The intermission of the pills for a few days (not however
for a whole week) he thinks not amiss to aid in determining its
effects. The quantity may yet be increased without danger, but the
present dose is in his opinion sufficient; but after some days
continual use, a small increase might be useful.
I was yesterday thronged with company from eight in the morning till
eleven at night. The Greek signature, though a little mistaken, was
not lost upon me. I have a letter from Mr. Leshlie, which pays you
many compliments. He has also ventured to promise that you will every
day get a lesson in Terence by yourself. You know how grateful this
will be to
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 14th January, 1794.
I really think, my dear Theo., that you will be very soon beyond all
verbal criticism, and that my whole attention will be presently
directed to the improvement of your style. Your letter of the 9th is
remarkably correct in point of spelling. That word rec_ie_ved still
escapes your attention. Try again. The words _wold_ and _shold_ are
mere carelessness; necess_e_ry instead of necess_a_ry, belongs, I
suspect to the same class.
"Dr. B. called here, but did not speak of his having rec_ie_ved a
letter from you, but desired," &c.
When I copied the foregoing, I intended to have shown you how to
improve it; but, upon second thought, determine to leave it to
yourself. Do me the favour to _endorse_ it on, or _subjoin_ it to,
your next letter, corrected and varied according to the best of your
skill.
"Ma begs you will omit the thoughts of leaving Congress," &c.; "omit"
is improperly used here. You mean "_abandon, relinquish, renounce_, or
_abjure_ the thoughts," &c. Your mamma, Mr. Leshlie, or your
dictionary (Johnson's folio), will teach you the force of this
observation. The last of these words would have been too strong for
the occasion. You have used with _propriety_ the words "encomium" and
"adopted." I hope you may have frequent occasion for the former, with
the like application.
"Cannot be committed to paper," is well expressed.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 16th January, 1794.
I hope the mercury, if tried, will be used with the most vigilant
caution and the most attentive observation of its first effects. I am
extremely anxious and apprehensive about the event of such an
experiment.
I fear, my dear little girl, that my letter of the 13th imposed too
much upon you; if so, dispense with what you may find too troublesome.
You perceive by this license the entire confidence which I place in
your discretion.
Your journal still advances towards perfection. But the letter which
accompanied it is, I remark with regret, rather a falling off. I have
received none more carelessly written, or with more numerous omissions
of words. I am sensible that many apologies are at hand; but you,
perhaps, would not be sensible that any were necessary, if I should
omit to remind you.
On Sunday se'nnight (I think the 26th) I shall, unless baffled or
delayed by ice or weather, be with you at Richmond Hill. I will not
bid you adieu till the Friday preceding. In the interim, we shall
often in this way converse.
I continue the practice of scoring words for our mutual improvement.
The use, as applicable to you, was indicated in a former letter.
I am sure you will be charmed with the Greek language above all
others. Adieu.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 23d January, 1794.
Io, triumphe! There is not a word mispelled either in your journal or
letter, which cannot be said of a single page you ever before wrote.
The fable is quite classical, and, if not very much corrected by Mr.
Leshlie, is truly a surprising performance, and written most
beautifully. But what has become of poor Alpha Beta? Discouraged? That
is impossible. Laid aside for the present? That, indeed, is possible,
but by no means probable. Shall I guess again? Yes; you mean to
surprise me with some astonishing progress. And yet, to confess the
truth, your lessons in Terence, Exercises, and "music" (without a _k_,
observe) seem to leave little time for any other study. I must remain
in suspense for four days longer.
Doctor Rush thinks that bark would not be amiss, but may be beneficial
if the stomach does not rebuke it, which must be constantly the first
object of attention. He recommends either the cold infusion or
substance as least likely to offend the stomach.
Be able, upon my arrival, to tell me the difference between an
_infusion_ and _decoction_; and the history, the virtues, and the
_botanical_ or medical name of the bark. Chambers will tell you more
perhaps than you will wish to read of it. Your little mercurial
disquisition is ingenious, and prettily told.
I have a most dreary prospect of weather and roads for my journey. I
set off on Saturday morning, and much fear that it will take two or
three days to get to Now-York.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 13th February, 1794.
I received your letter and enclosures yesterday in Senate. I stopped
reading the letter, and took up the story in the place you directed;
was really affected by the interesting little tale, faithfully
believing it to have been taken from the Mag. D'Enf., and was
astonished and delighted when I recurred to the letter and found the
little deception you had played upon me. It is concisely and
handsomely told, and is indeed a performance above your years.
Mr. Leshlie is not, I am afraid, a competent judge of what you are
capable of learning; you must convince him that you can, when you set
in earnest about it, accomplish wonders.
Do you mean that the forty lines which you construed in Virgil were in
a part you had not before learned?
I despair of getting genuine Tent wine in this city. There never was a
bottle of real unadulterated Tent imported here for sale. Mr.
Jefferson, who had some for his own use, has left town. Good Burgundy
and Muscat, mixed in equal parts, make a better Tent than can be
bought. But by Bartow's return you shall have what I can get--sooner
if I find a conveyance.
Bartow is the most perfect gossip I ever knew; though, I must say, it
is the kind of life I have advised him to while he stays here. Adieu.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 7th March, 1794.
Your letter of the 4th was three days on the road. I am certain that I
have answered punctually all which have come to hand. True, I have not
written to you as frequently as during the first few weeks of my
residence here. For the last month I have been very much occupied by
public business. You will need no other proof of it when I tell you
that near twenty unanswered letters are now on my desk, not one of
yours among them, however, except that received last evening. I have
not even been to the theatre except about an hour, and then it was
more an errand of business than amusement.
Poor Tom, [3] I hope you take good care of him. If he is confined by
his leg, &c., he must pay the greater attention to his reading and
writing.
I shall run off to see you about Sunday or Monday; but the roads are
so extremely bad that I expect to be three days getting through. I
will bring with me the cherry sweetmeats, and something for _Augusta
Louisa Matilda Theodosia Van Horne_. I believe I have not recollected
all her names.
Affectionately,
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 31st March, 1794.
I am distressed at your loss of time. I do not, indeed, wholly blame
you for it, but this does not diminish my regret. When you want
punctuality in your letters, I am sure you want it in every thing; for
you will constantly observe that you have the most leisure when you do
the most business. Negligence of one's duty produces a
self-dissatisfaction which unfits the mind for every thing, and
_ennui_ and peevishness are the never-failing consequences. You will
readily discover the truth of these remarks by reflecting on your own
conduct, and the different feelings which have flowed from a
persevering attention to study, or a restless neglect of it.
I shall in a few days (this week) send you a most beautiful assortment
of flower-seeds and flowering shrubs. If I do not receive a letter
from you to-morrow, I shall be out of all patience. Every day's
journal will, I hope, say something of mamma.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Philadelphia, 7th June, 1794.
I have received my dear Theo.'s two little, very little, French
letters. The last left you tormented with headache and toothache, too
much for one poor little girl to suffer at one time, I am sure: you
had doubtless taken solue sudden cold. You must fight them as well as
you can till I come, and then I will engage to keep them at bay.
I remark that you do not acknowledge the receipt of a long letter
which I wrote you on the road the night after I left New-York. I hope
it has not missed you; but it is needless now to ask about it, for I
shall certainly see you before I could receive your answer to this.
Whatever you shall translate of Terence, I beg you to have copied in a
book in a very fair handwriting.
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Albany, 4th August, 1794.
MY DEAR THEO.,
We arrived here yesterday, after a hot, tedious passage of _seven
days_. We were delayed as well by accidents as by calms and contrary
winds, The first evening, being under full sail, we ran ashore at
Tappan, and lay there aground, in a very uncomfortable situation,
twenty-four hours. With great labour and fatigue we got off on the
following night, and had scarce got under sail before we missed our
longboat. We lost the whole tide in hunting for it, and so lay till
the morning of Wednesday. Having then made sail again, with a pretty
strong head wind, at the very first tack the Dutch horse fell
overboard. The poor devil was at the time tied about the neck with a
rope, so that he seemed to have only the alternatives of hanging or
drowning (for the river is here about four miles wide, and the water
was very rough); fortunately for him, the rope broke, and he went
souse into the water. His weight sunk him so deep that we were at
least fifty yards from him before he came up. He snorted off the
water, and turning round once or twice, as if to see where he was,
then recollecting the way to New-York, he immediately swam off down
the river with all force. We fitted out our longboat in pursuit of
him, and at length drove him on shore on the Westchester side, where I
hired a man to take him to Frederick's. All this delayed us nearly a
whole tide more. The residue of the voyage was without accident,
except such as you may picture to yourself in a small cabin, with
seven men, seven women, and two crying children--two of the women
being the most splenetic, ill-humoured animals you can imagine.
On my arrival here I was delighted to receive your letter of the 30th,
with the journal of that and the preceding days. Your history of those
three days is very full and satisfactory, and has induced me, by way
of return, to enlarge on the particulars of my journey. I am quite
gratified that you have secured Mrs. Penn's (observe how it is
spelled) good opinion, and content with your reasons for not saying
the civil things you intended. In case you should dine in company with
her, I will apprize you of one circumstance, by a trifling attention
to which you may elevate yourself in her esteem. She is a great
advocate for a very plain, rather abstemious diet in children, as you
may see by her conduct with Miss Elizabeth. Be careful, therefore, to
eat of but one dish; that a plain roast or boiled: little or no gravy
or butter, and very sparingly of dessert or fruit: not more than half
a glass of wine; and if more of any thing to eat or drink is offered,
decline it. If they ask a reason--Papa thinks it not good for me, is
the best that can be given.
It was with great pain and reluctance that I made this journey without
you. But your manners are not yet quite sufficiently formed to enable
you to do justice to your own character, [4] and the expectations
which are formed of you, or to my wishes. Improve, therefore, to the
utmost the present opportunity; inquire of every point of behaviour
about which you are embarrassed; imitate as much as you can the
manners of Madame De S., and observe also every thing which Mrs. Penn
says and does.
You should direct your own breakfast. Send Cesar every morning for a
pint of milk for you; and, to save trouble to Madame De S., let her
know that you eat at breakfast only bread and butter.
I wish you would read over your letters after you have written them;
for so many words are omitted, that in some places I cannot make out
the sense, _if any they contain_. Make your figures or ciphers in your
letters, but write out the numbers at length, except dates. Adieu,
affectionately adieu,
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Albany, 14th August, 17 94.
MY DEAR THEO.,
Last evening's mail brought me your letter and journal from the 1st to
the 11th of August, according to your dates, which, however, are
wrong.
The account of your time is very satisfactory. You really get along
much better than I expected, which is infinitely to the credit of your
good sense, that being your only guide. From the attentions you
receive from Mrs. Penn and her family, I judge you have been so
fortunate as to gain her esteem, and that her prejudices are turned
into prepossessions, which I assure you gratified me not a little.
Your invitation to the Z.'s was, I confess, a very embarrassing
dilemma, and one from which it was not easy to extricate yourself. For
the future, take it as your rule to visit only the families which you
have known me to visit; and if Madame De S. should propose to you to
visit any other, you may tell her what are my instructions on the
subject. To the young ladies, you may pretend business or engagements:
avoid, however, giving any offence to your companions. It is the
manner of a refusal, much more than the refusal, which gives offence.
This direction about your visits applies only to the citizens or
English families. You may, indeed it is my wish, that you should visit
with Madame De S. all her French acquaintance.
I go this afternoon to attend a court at Ballston, and shall, on
Monday, attend one at Troy, which will probably last about three days;
after which I shall take passage for New-York, proposing, however, to
pass a day at Kingston, and another at Poughkeepsie, with citizen
Hauterieve, so that I may be expected home some time in the week after
next; but you will hear often from me before that time. You must not
send me any letter after those which will come by the mail leaving
New-York on Monday next; yet you must continue your letters and
journal as usual, for my amusement on my return.
In future, write no more on the little paper, but let the letters and
journal be together on paper of this size, or common letter-paper. Set
apart every day half an hour or an hour to write to me, and I must
again entreat you to write at least legibly: after great pains, I am
wholly unable to decipher some of the hieroglyphics contained in your
last.
Four pages in Lucian was a great lesson; and why, my dear Theo., can't
this be done a little oftener? You must, by this time, I think, have
gone through Lucian. I wish you to begin and go through it again; for
it would be shameful to pretend to have read a book of which you could
not construe a page. At the second reading you will, I suppose, be
able to double your lessons; so that you may go through it in three
weeks. You say nothing of writing or learning Greek verbs;--is this
practice discontinued? and why?
I wish you to go oftener to the house. You may, if you like, go any
morning, to take an early breakfast there, giving notice the day
before to Mr. Leshlie, that he may attend at the hour of your return,
when I know you can readily make up the lost time.
Do you continue to preserve Madame De S.'s good opinion of your
talents for the harp? And do you find that you converse with more
facility in the French? These are interesting questions, and your
answer to this will, I hope, answer fully, all the questions it
contains. Vale, vale.
A. BURR
TO THEODOSIA,
Albany, 16th August, 1704.
Another post has arrived, and brought me no letter from you. It is the
last omission which I shall readily pardon, and this only in
consideration of your not having then received my last. I returned
this day from Ballston, and my principal business to this city was to
receive and answer your letters. Judge, therefore, of my
disappointment.
Mr. and Mrs. Witbeck made many inquiries about you, and appeared much
mortified that you did not accompany me.
I hope you will, before this can reach you, have answered J. Yates's
letter. Once more I place my expectations on the arrival of the next
post.
Let me know whether Mrs. Penn has left town, how often you have been
with her, and what passed. I need not repeat my anxiety to know how
you and Madame de S. agree, and what progress you make in music,
dancing, and speaking French. She promised to give you now and then a
lesson on the forte-piano; is she as good as her word?
Having failed in your promise to write by every post, you cannot
expect me to return within the month--one promise being founded on the
other.
Your affectionate papa,
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Albany, 18th August, 1794.
Yesterday I received your letter and journal to the 13th inclusive. On
the 13th you say you got nine pages in Lucian. It was, to be sure, a
most surprising lesson. I suspect it must have been the second time
going over; and even then it would have been great, and at the same
rate you will be through a second time before my month is up. I should
be delighted to find it so. I have not told you directly that I should
stay longer than a month, but I was angry enough with you to stay
three months when you neglected to write to me for two successive
posts.
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