Note 60 — SIXTH CONGRESS.—SECOND SESSION. (continued 3)

This result was due, more than to any other, to General Hamilton, as the majority of the federal party were strongly disposed to support Colonel Burr—from doing which, they were impressively and successfully counselled by him. He was personally well with Burr, and ill with Jefferson, but took the public good, and not his own feelings, for his guide. He said of them, and of his own duty between them: "If there be a man in the world I ought to hate, it is Jefferson. With Burr I have always been personally well. But the public good must be paramount to every private consideration." The danger of Burr's election was imminent, as appears from a letter of Bayard's to General Hamilton, wherein he says: "I assure you, sir, there appears to be a strong inclination in the Federal party to support Mr. Burr. The current has already (January 7th) acquired considerable force, and is manifestly increasing. The vote which the representation of a State enables me to give would decide the question in favor of Mr. Jefferson. At present I am by no means decided as to the object of preference. If the Federal Party should take up Mr. Burr, I ought certainly to be impressed with the most undoubting conviction before I separate myself from them." This passage from a letter of Mr. Bayard, (who afterwards decided the election,) shows the imminence of the danger of Burr's election; and the answer to it, (with letters to other federal members,) shows that that danger was averted by General Hamilton. In these letters he depicted Burr as morally and politically a bad man, utterly unfit and unsafe to be trusted with the Presidency, and in circumstances to make crime his necessity as well as his inclination, and implored him to save the country from the "calamity" of his election. The sting of these letters, rankling in the bosom of Burr, produced the duel in which General Hamilton afterwards lost his life. A singularly hard fate! to die for serving his country, and that in the person of an enemy.

This election in the House of Representatives, protracted through four days and to the 36th ballot, produced the most intense excitement throughout the United States, and filled the minds of all good men with alarm for the safety of the Union. The conclusion, however, showing ten States to have voted for Mr. Jefferson, and only four for Mr. Burr, shows that there were many members duly impressed with the solemnity of the crisis, and patriotically coming forward to sacrifice private and political feeling on the altar of public safety. The following detail of the 36 ballotings, all alike but the last, appeared in the National Intelligencer at the time, and shows the name and the vote of the different members in this most arduous and eventful struggle.

[From the National Intelligencer, of Feb. 17 and 18, 1801.]

That the people may know how the votes of their Representatives have been given, we present a statement:

New Hampshire.—4 for Burr, viz: Mr. Foster, Mr. Sheafe, Mr. Tenney, and Mr. Freeman.

Massachusetts.—11 for Burr, viz: Mr. S. Lee, Mr. Otis, Mr. N. Read, Mr. Shepard, Mr. Thatcher, Mr. Wadsworth, Mr. L. Williams, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Mattoon, Mr. J. Read, Mr. Sedgwick.

Three for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Bishop, Mr. Varnum, Mr. Lincoln.

Rhode Island.—2 for Burr, viz: Mr. Champlin, and Mr. J. Brown.

Connecticut.—7 for Burr, viz: Mr. C. Goodrich, Mr. E. Goodrich, Griswold, Mr. Dana, Mr. J. Davenport, Mr. Edmond, Mr. J. C. Smith.

Vermont.—1 for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Lyon.

One for Burr, viz: Mr. Morris.

New York.—6 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Bailey, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Elmendorph, Mr. Van Cortlandt, Mr. J. Smith.

Four for Mr. Burr, viz: Mr. Bird, Mr. Glenn, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Platt.

New Jersey.—3 for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Kitchell, Mr. Condit, Mr. Linn.

Two for Burr, viz: Mr. F. Davenport, Mr. Imlay.

Pennsylvania.—9 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Hanna, Mr. Leib, Mr. Smilie, Mr. Muhlenberg, Mr. Heister, Mr. Stewart, Mr. R. Brown.

Four for Burr, viz: Mr. Waln, Mr. Kittera, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Woods.

Delaware.—1 for Mr. Burr, viz: Mr. Bayard.

Maryland.—4 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. S. Smith, Mr. Dent, Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Christie.

Four for Mr. Burr, viz: Mr. J. C. Thomas, Mr. Craik, Mr. Dennis, and Mr. Baer.

Virginia.—14 invariably for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Nicholas, Mr. Clay, Mr. Cabell, Mr. Dawson, Mr. Eggleston, Mr. Goode, Mr. Gray, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Jackson, Mr. New, Mr. Randolph, Mr. A. Trigg, Mr. J. Trigg, Mr. Tazewell.

Five for Mr. Burr on the same ballots, (two of whom on the first ballot voted for Mr. Jefferson,) viz: Mr. Evans, Mr. H. Lee, Mr. Page, Mr. Parker, Mr. Powell.

North Carolina.—6 invariably for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Alston, Mr. Macon, Mr. Stanford, Mr. Stone, Mr. R. Williams, Mr. Spaight.

Four for Burr on some ballots, (3 of whom on the first ballot voted for Mr. Jefferson,) viz: Mr. Henderson, Mr. Hill, Mr. Dickson, Mr. Grove.

South Carolina.—Mr. Sumter being sick has not attended, but will attend, at every hazard, the moment his vote can be of any avail. The individual votes of the Representatives of this State are not accurately known, but it is generally believed that Mr. Huger votes for Mr. Jefferson; and Mr. Rutledge, Mr. Pinckney, and Mr. Harper, vote for Mr. Burr. Mr. Nott's vote is doubtful. He has gone home.

Georgia.—1 for Jefferson, viz: Mr. Taliaferro—Mr. Jones, who is dead, would have voted the same way.

Kentucky.—2 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Davis and Mr. Fowler.

Tennessee.—1 for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Mr. Claiborne.

On Saturday last a memorial was presented to John Chew Thomas, representative in Congress for this District, from a respectable number of his constituents, recommending him to vote for Thomas Jefferson, and declaring that at least two-thirds of his constituents were in favor of the election of Mr. Jefferson.

The memorial was signed by the most respectable Federal gentlemen of the City of Washington.

[From the National Intelligencer, of Feb. 18.]

On Tuesday at 12 o'clock the 35th ballot was taken; the result the same with that of the preceding ballots.

At one o'clock the 36th ballot was taken which issued in the election of Thomas Jefferson.

On this ballot there were,

Ten States for Mr. Jefferson, viz: Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Four States for Mr. Burr, viz: Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

Two States voted by blank ballots, viz: Delaware and South Carolina.

In the instance of Vermont, Mr. Morris withdrew.

In that of South Carolina, Mr. Huger, who is understood previously uniformly to have voted for Mr. Jefferson, also withdrew, from a spirit of accommodation, which enabled South Carolina to give a blank vote.

And in the instance of Maryland, four votes were for Jefferson and four blank.