Eighty Years of Ambition*

An infant prodigy who lived to be an octogenarian

The Life. Here are the milestones at the beginning and the end of a remarkable career:

Anno Domini 1756 (Feb. 6) : Esther Edwards Burr, daughter of

Jonathan Edwards and wife of the Rev. Aaron Burr, President of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), was unexpectedly delivered of her second child, a son, christened Aaron. The child was son, grandson, great-grandson, great-great-grandson of clergymen on both sides of his family.

1757-58: When little Aaron was 18 months old, his father died, and his Grandfather Edwards became President of Princeton; when Aaron was 24 months old his grandfather died; when he was 25 months old his mother died. He was brought up by an uncle.

1767: At eleven, little Aaron applied for admission to Princeton, but looked less than his age and was rejected.

1769: At 13, having tutored outside, he applied again for entrance as a junior in Princeton. He was accepted as a sophomore.

1772: At 16, he was graduated from Princeton. He spent a year in graduate study, a few months preparing for the ministry, and then changed to the study of law at Litchfield. He was an attractive youth, especially to the ladies, although he was only five feet six. He admitted to "now and then an affair of petty gallantry."

1775: At the beginning of the

Revolution, Aaron closed his law books and joined the Continental Army before Boston, but the siege was dull, and he set out with 1100 others under Colonel Benedict Arnold to branch up through Maine and capture Quebec. They had terrible hardships on the journey. Before reaching their destination they almost starved. On the last day of the year Captain Burr, 19, on the staff of General Montgomery was at his commander's side when the latter was killed in a storming operation. The young Captain tried to carry the big General off the field but was not strong enough.

1776: Captain Burr was recalled to Manhattan and placed on the staff of General Washington. The General did not like the young whippersnapper. The young Captain had small respect for the abilities of his commander. So at 20 Burr was made a Major on the staff of General Israel Putnam.

1777: On the evacuation of Manhattan, General Knox ordered a brigade into a little fort which was rapidly being surrounded. Major Burr rode up and argued with Knox. Knox was obstinate. So Burr addressed the men and led them out of the closing trap. At 21, Burr was made Lieutenant Colonel and protested to Washington that others were placed over him. He gained a reputation as a disciplinarian and a leader. He was several times given command of troublesome troops. He established the first organized military intelligence for the Continental army.

177.9: At 23, Burr resigned his commission because of ill health (occasioned by hardships), and after a year or two spent in re- covering resumed the study of law.

1782: Burr was admitted to the bar at Albany and six months later, then 26, he married Theodosia Barton Prevost. In spite of his attainments with the ladies, he married a woman, ten years his senior, the widow of a British officer who had died in the West Indies, the mother of five children, but she was one of the most accomplished women in America.

Here follows an interlude in which Burr was 1) a prominent lawyer, 2) a U. S. Senator from New York, 3) Vice President of the U. S. and nearly President, 4) the slayer of Alexander Hamilton in a duel, 5) promoter of a visionary scheme for the conquest of the Southwest, 6) on trial for treason at the instigation of a U. S. General who it is now known was in the pay of Spain, 7) acquitted of treason in a fair court, but convicted in the public mind by newspapers.

1801-12: At 52, to escape persecution and prosecution he fled to England, from there to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France. In the course of four years, discomfited in every way by the U. S. Government, leaving a string of debts behind him everywhere, he intrigued with women in Germany and France and spent a winter in Paris without money to buy fuel. When he borrowed money, he bought presents for his daughter and grandson; when he was poor he sold the presents to feed himself. Finally he sailed home from Holland, was captured by the British and taken again to England, fell sick there, had only two farthings and could not buy medicine. He borrowed enough money, cajoled a passport out of the Government and at last sailed for Boston in disguise. He pawned his books with the President of Harvard College and got money to take passage to Manhattan on a sloop. He arrived at night, had no place to sleep, found a garret where five men were sleeping and paid twelve cents for his lodgings.

1812: At 56, he managed to find a few old friends although many refused to recognize him. Emerging after a few weeks in hiding, he opened a little law office with $10 in cash. In twelve days he made $2,000. As a lawyer Manhattan did not despise him. A few days later his beloved grandson died. Within six months his daughter was lost at sea--coming up from South Carolina to see him. He was alone in the world. His creditors dunned him for large sums. His debts from the southwestern "expedition" alone amounted to $23,000. But his legal fees were large. He won celebrated cases. He paid off many debts. Others he never paid. He paid for the upbringing of several orphans. He gave away money freely to anyone who asked. Once he gave away $1,500 in three days. Socially he was ignored, but he was still very attractive to the ladies. He privately began to support Andrew Jackson for the presidency. Twenty-one years passed.

1833: At 77, he married Eliza Jumel, 64, a widow, with a shady past, who was wealthy by reason of her treatment of her first husband. In four months he spent $13,000 of her money. Then they separated. He had a stroke of apoplexy.

1834: At 78, he was made defendant in her suit for divorce. She charged him with infidelity and he countered with the same charge, but later withdrew his opposition. His will made in this year divided his estate between two illegitimate daughters, one two years, the other six years old. Another stroke of apoplexy.

1836 (Sept. 14) : Having been cared for by various kindly women during his last months, he finally died, aged 80. On the same day the second Mrs. Burr was granted a divorce. He was buried at Princeton with his parents. Twenty years later a stone was erected to mark his grave.

The Significance. No masterful biography, like Strachey's Queen Victoria, or even Bradford's P. T. Barnum, this Aaron Burr is yet a striking story, because of Burr's strange life, because of his extraordinary abilities and shortcomings. It is calculated to upset a great many preconceived ideas, to overturn the century-old story of the "villain Burr,," It throws new light on the characters and careers of Hamilton and Jefferson--not enviable light. Numbers of unpublished letters and manuscripts are produced which all but make Burr shine as a gentleman, as a politician. Some of the usual reflections upon Burr are disproved, others are left in doubt--a doubt increased by Burr's own unwillingness to stoop to answering defamers during his lifetime. Aside from his terrible irresponsibility with money, his ex- travagant schemes (the biographers suggest that he was not completely sound of mind in later years-- there was insanity in his family) the record of Burr's known acts is decidedly in his favor.

The Authors. Meade Minnigerode has been known for some time as a popular biographer. In this book, he was called to the aid of Samuel H. Wandell, who did the laborious work of gathering the deeply buried story of Burr. A scholar may spoil his case by dullness, but he does not always improve it by calling in . literary aides. One has the conviction that Mr. Wandell did his work a great deal better than Mr. Minnigerode, for the story of Aaron Burr rises imperishably above its treatment.

* AARON BURR--Samuel H. Wandell and Meade Minnigerode--Putnam. 2 Vola. ($10).