Henry Adams. after showing how Burr had "endeavored by the foul means of a Federal alli once to acquire the Presidency," goes on to say, with a vehemence which is really partisan, that "a more gross betrayal of confidence could hardly be conceived, even in political life. He had made it clear that his heart was set upon personal aggrandizement, and not upon a Ilepnb lican success. His untrustworthiness appeared the more despicable by comparison with the strictly honorable conduct of Jefferson, who might have excused endeavors on his own be half upon the plausible ground that he was only forwarding the avowed will of the party. The antipathy with which many persons had long since learned to regard Burr now became the sentiment of all honest and intelligent men in the nation." Selloffler, after referring to the brilliant and captivating manners of Burr, de scribes him as "one whose restless and romantic ambition was the more dangerous because of his utter want of conscience and generosity. lle seas socially well connected, and had, like Hamil ton, won a fair military reputation in the war for a young officer. gaining on its close later distinction as an advocate at the New York bar, where these two were professional competi tors under an act which disqualified all Tory practitioners." Hildreth designates Burr as "artful, affable, and fascinating." and he thus sums up the closing years of his life: "Arriving in New York, he found himself, in his old age, and still harassed by his creditors, obliged to resume the practice of the law for support. The
death of his only daughter, lost at sea on a voy age from Charleston to meet him, left him with out family ties. Yet, amid all this loneliness and embarrassment, his remarkable equanimity did not desert him, and he lived twenty-four years longer. shrouding himself with that mystery and obscurity which he so much affected, and dying at last (1836) after surviving almost all his con temporaries, at the age of eighty—a remarkable example of the mutability of political fortune." His death occurred, September 14, 1836, at Port Richmond, on Staten Island, N. Y., and his body was placed with his father's in the bur• ing-ground at Princeton. Consult: Parton. Life of Aaron Burr (New York, 1858) ; Davis, Memoirs of Aaron Burr (2 vols., New York. 1.836); the interesting Private Journals of Aaron Burr during his Residence in. Europe (2 vols., New York, )838), edited by Davis; and the brief sketch by Alerwin• Aaron Burr (Boston. 1899). one of the Biographies:" Adams. History of the United States (9 vols., New York, 1889-91), has much useful material: also Schouler. History of the United States of Amer ica Under the Constitution (6 vols.. last. edition. New York, 1899). For a strongly favorable view of Burr's life and character, consult Todd. The True Aaron Burr (New York, 1902). and for a bibliography virtually complete to (late of publication, consult Tompkins, Burr Bibliogra phy (Brooklyn, 1892).