"Claims relative to sequestration, and property taken by orders of the Convention.
"These persons were voluntarily within the British lines, and their property was therefore liable to sequestration under the acts of the Convention. They produce a certificate of their attachment to the American cause, signed by some respectable characters. But being within the resolutions of the Convention, the commissioners cannot advise a recompense.
"GERARD BANCKER, Treasurer.
"PETER T. CURTENIUS, State Auditor.
"AARON BURR, Attorney-general."
On the 19th of January, 1791, Colonel Burr was appointed a senator of the United States, in the place of General Schuyler, whose term of service would expire on the 4th of March following. Until about this period he was but little known as a partisan politician. After the organization of the federal government under the new constitution, he appears to have felt a great interest in its operations. In the French revolution also, his feelings were embarked; and he was among the number of those who condemned the cold and repulsive neutrality which characterized the administration of that day. That he was now about to launch into the troubled ocean of politics was evident to Mrs. Burr, and therefore, in a letter to him under date of the 23d of July, 1791, she says, "It is of serious consequence to you to establish your health before you commence politician," &c.
In the autumn of 1791 Congress convened at Philadelphia, and Colonel Burr took his seat in the Senate of the United States. It has often been remarked of him, and truly, that no man was ever more cautious or more guarded in his correspondence. A disposition, from the earliest period of his life, to write in cipher, has already been noticed. To this may be added an unwillingness, on all important questions, to commit himself in writing. As soon as he entered the political arena, this characteristic was visible even in his letters to Mrs. Burr. On the 14th of November, 1791, he writes her—"To the subject of politics I can at present make no reply. The mode of communication would not permit, did no other reason oppose." And again, December 21st, he says—"You will perhaps admire that I cannot leave Congress as well as others. This, if a problem, can only be solved at a personal interview."
At the commencement of the revolutionary war, the State of New-York held an extensive tract of wild and unimproved lands. Sundry laws were passed in the years 1779, 1780, 1784, 1785, and 1786, providing for their sale and settlement. A board was created, entitled "the Commissioners of the Land Office." It was composed of the governor, the secretary of state, the attorney-general, the treasurer, and the auditor. The powers conferred by the several acts above referred to having been found inadequate to the proposed object, the legislature, on the 22d of March, 1791, gave unlimited powers to the commissioners, authorizing them to "dispose of any of the waste and unappropriated lands in the state, in such parcels, and on such terms, and in such manner as they shall judge most conducive to the interests of the state." In pursuance of this authority, the commissioners sold during the year 1791, by estimate, five millions five hundred and forty-two thousand one hundred and seventy acres of waste land, for the sum of one million and thirty thousand four hundred and thirty-three dollars; leaving in the possession of the state, yet to be disposed of, about two millions of acres. Among the sales was one to Alexander Macomb, for three millions six hundred and thirty-five thousand two hundred acres. The magnitude of this sale, and the price at which it was sold, created a great excitement throughout the state, and at the session of the legislature which commenced on the 4th of January, 1792, the subject was brought before the assembly.
The price at which Mr. Macomb made his purchase was eight pence per acre, payable in five annual instalments, without interest, with permission to discount for prompt payment at six per cent. per annum, which made the price about equal to seven cents per acre cash. Colonel Burr, as attorney-general, was a member of the board. On the 9th of April, 1792, the report of the commissioners being the order of the day, the subject was taken up in the house. Mr. Talbot, from Montgomery county, moved sundry resolutions. They were intended as the foundation for an impeachment of a part of the commissioners of the land office. They assumed to contain a statement of facts, evidencing on the part of the commissioners great indiscretion and want of judgment, if not corruption, in the sale of the public lands, and they charged the commissioners with a willful violation of the law. These resolutions, however, excepted Colonel Burr from any participation in the maleconduct complained of, inasmuch as the minutes of the board proved that he was not present at the meetings (being absent on official duty as attorney-general) when these contracts, so ruinous, as they alleged, to the interests of the state, were made: nor did it appear that he (Colonel Burr) was ever consulted in relation to them. These resolutions elicited a heated debate; in the progress of which all the commissioners, except the attorney-general, were assailed with great bitterness; and charges of corruption by innuendo were unceremoniously made. At a late hour the house adjourned without decision until the next day.
On the 10th of April, 1792, Mr. Melancton Smith moved the following resolution, with a preamble as a substitute:—
"Resolved, That this house do highly approve of the conduct of the commissioners of the land office in the judicious sales by them, as aforesaid, which have been productive of the before mentioned beneficial effects."
This resolution was adopted by a vote of ays 35—noes 20.