Van Ness fills a glass of Cape, and settles himself to hear; he sees that this is but the beginning.
Aaron proceeds: “As we sit here to-night, Napoleon has been declared hereditary Emperor of the French. It has been on its way for months, and the next packet will bring us the news.”
“And what have the Corsican and his empire to do with us?”
“A President,” continues Aaron, ignoring the question, “is not comparable to an emperor. The Presidential term is but a stunted thing—in four years, eight at the most, your President comes to his end. And what is an ex-President? Look at Adams, peevish, disgruntled—unhappy in what he is, because he remembers what he was. To be a President is well enough. To be an ex-President is to seek to satisfy present hunger with the memories of banquets eaten years ago. For myself, I would sooner be an emperor; his throne is his for life, and becomes his son’s or his grandson’s after him.”
“What does this lead to?” asks Van Ness, vastly puzzled. “Admitting your imperial preferences, how are they applicable here and now?”
“Let me show you,” responds Aaron, still slow and measured and impressive. “What is possible in the East is possible in the West; what has been done in Europe may be done in America. Napoleon comes to Paris—lean, epileptic, poor, unknown, not even French. To-day he is emperor. Also”—this with a laugh which, however, does not prevent Van Ness from seeing that Aaron is deeply serious—“also, he is two inches shorter than myself.”
Van Ness leans back and makes a little gesture with his hand, as who should say: “Continue!”
“Very well! Would it be a stranger story if I, Aaron Burr, were to found an empire in the West—if I became Aaron I, as the Corsican has become Napoleon I?”
“You do not talk of overturning our government?” This in tones of wonder, and not without some flash of angry horror.
“Don’t hold me so dull. The people of this country are unfitted for king or emperor. They would throw down a thousand thrones while you set up one. I’ve studied races and peoples. Let me give you a word; it will serve should you go to nation building. Never talk of crowns or thrones to blue-eyed or gray-eyed men. They are inimical, in the very seeds of their natures, to thrones and crowns.”