Note 128 — Chapter XI · SPOILS AND BROILS OF VICTORY 1801-1803

Ibid., 332.

Writing to Henry Post of the duel, Clinton (using the name, "Clinton," instead of the pronoun "I") said: "The affair of the duel ought not to be brought up. It was a silly affair. Clinton ought to have declined the challenge of the bully, and have challenged the principal, who was Burr. There were five shots, the antagonist wounded twice, and fell. C. behaved with cool courage, and after the affair was over challenged Burr on the field."—Harper's Magazine, Vol. 50, p. 565. "How Clinton should have challenged Burr on the field," writes John Bigelow, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine for May, 1875, "without its resulting in a meeting is not quite intelligible to us now. Though not much given to the redress of personal grievances in that way, Burr was the last man to leave a hostile message from an adversary like Clinton, then a Senator of the United States, unanswered."