Meanwhile Burr, pretending preoccupation with the approaching nuptials of his brilliant Theodosia, was suavely simulating, if he did not feel, a distaste for the plan of his ‘intimate friend’ Harper. When the movement in his behalf was first launched, he wrote General Sam Smith that he would ‘disclaim all competition’ with Jefferson, that the Federalists ‘could entertain no wish for such an exchange,’ and that his friends would dishonor his views and insult his feelings ‘by a suspicion that I would submit to be instrumental in counteracting the wishes and expectations of the United States.’ But eight days later, Harper had written him an encouraging letter on the prospects and he appears to have followed the admonition not to reply. After that—silence.

At Conrad’s boarding-house the calmest man at the long table in the dining-room was Jefferson. He knew the plans of the opposition to prevent an election or to elect Burr, and noted the gloom among his friends and the exultation of his enemies. He was quite calm.

III

January found Hamilton still feverishly busy at his writing-desk. His worst fears had, by this time, been confirmed. His bosom friends had smiled incredulously upon his protests against Burr. The conspiracy was spreading ominously. His voice had lost its potency, his sword its shimmer. Grimly he fought against fate. McHenry had been impressed with the propaganda for Burr. A number of the Federalist leaders had escaped from the frog ponds of the capital to enjoy Christmas festivities in Baltimore, and from these he heard but one opinion—Burr should be supported. Burr’s letter to Smith? These worldly Federalists laughed derisively. He would not resent being elected by Federalist votes. Even McHenry thought that with Burr elected ‘we may flatter ourselves that he will not suffer the executive power to be frittered away.’ Still, he had misgivings. ‘Can we promise ourselves that he will not continue to seek and depend upon his own party for support?’[1889] It was with these doubts in his mind that McHenry opened a letter from Hamilton, whom he worshiped. Here he found Burr denounced as ‘a profligate,’ as a ‘voluptuary,’ as ‘an extortionist’ in his profession, as insolvent and dangerous.[1890] A word from Hamilton was enough, and McHenry joined his leader in combating the Federalist plans in Maryland—and not without effect. But with Senator William Hindman, who had been a supporter of Hamilton in the House, nothing could be done. He was aggressively for Burr.[1891] In early January, Pickering, still pitying himself, was not shocked at the idea of Burr’s election. The suggestion that ‘the federalist interest will not be so systematically opposed under Mr. Burr as under Jefferson’ impressed him. Then ‘in case of war with any European power there can be no doubt which of the two would conduct it with most ability and energy.’[1892]

Meanwhile Bayard had sent a non-committal reply to Hamilton. He had found ‘a strong inclination of the majority’ of the Federalists to support Burr with the disposition growing. He ought, therefore, to have strong grounds for separating himself from the others. While their action could not bind him, it would be a painful wrench to leave them. Still, ‘the magnitude of the subject forbids the sacrifice of strong conviction.’ As the pen of Bayard traveled over the page, the conspirators were moving about him, for he wrote in the House of Representatives.[1893] In truth, all Hamilton’s advices were disturbing. Former Senator Gunn of Georgia, in sympathy with him, was afraid ‘some of our friends have committed themselves by writing improperly to Burr.’[1894] Even John Rutledge, while disgusted at the idea of either Jefferson or Burr in the Presidency, found his party associates convinced that ‘Burr will be the least mischief,’ and that his election would be prodigiously afflicting to the Virginia faction and must disjoint the party.[1895]’

It is easy to imagine Hamilton laying down the letter of Rutledge with a frown, to open one which had arrived from Sedgwick in the same mail, to get a greater shock. It was a vigorous plea for Burr. The author found it ‘very evident that the Jacobins dislike Mr. Burr as President’ and that ‘he hates them for the preference given to his rival.’ He had ‘expressed displeasure over the publication of his letter to General Smith.’ Would not ‘this jealousy and distrust and dislike ... every day more and more increase and more and more widen the breach between them?’ Would not the election of Burr by the Federalists cause ‘incurable’ wounds? Then again, ‘to what evils should we expose ourselves by the choice of Burr, which we should escape by the election of Jefferson?’ True, given an opportunity, Burr would be more likely to become a ‘usurper’—but what of that?[1896]

About this time, in the middle of the month, the Federalists met to determine on their course. The caucus was not entirely harmonious, but the Burr sentiment was overwhelming. Shocked and inwardly enraged at the disaffection of his friends, Hamilton now redoubled his efforts, and in a ‘very, very confidential’ letter to Bayard dissected the character of Burr, demolished the arguments of his Federalist supporters, and pronounced Jefferson far superior in real ability. To this he gave a personal touch—something he had hitherto held back. ‘It is past all doubt,’ he said, ‘that he has blamed me for not having improved the situation I once was in to change the government; that when answered that this could not have been done without guilt, he replied, “Les grandes âmes se soucient peu des petits moraux”; and when told that the thing was never practical from the genius and situation of the country, he answered, “That depends on the estimate we form of the human passions, and of the means of influencing them.” Does this prove that Mr. Burr would consider a scheme of usurpation as visionary?’[1897] Four days after sending this letter to Bayard, Hamilton was writing Morris of the inability of the conspirators to get assurances from Burr, who complained that it would injure him with his friends. ‘Depend upon it,’ he warned, ‘men never played a more foolish game than will do the Federalists if they support Burr.’[1898] But Hamilton was striving against the basest, lowest instincts of his party. One of his Boston followers was writing King at this very time that he favored Burr because ‘his opposition heretofore’ had ‘arisen from ambitious motives,’ and because he was ‘not as honest in his politics as Jefferson.’[1899] No one was a stouter contender against Hamilton’s decent patriotic impulses than Sedgwick, who was moved by the motives just indicated.[1900] No one knew it better than Hamilton, but he persisted. ‘I never was so much mistaken,’ he wrote Sedgwick, ‘as I shall be if our friends in the event of their success do not rue the preference they will give to that Catiline.’[1901] Fighting desperately, Hamilton looked clear-eyed upon the repudiation of his leadership of the party into which he had breathed the breath of life and given the dignity of power by the prestige of his genius. Among his friends he made no secret of his depression, admitting to them that his ‘influence with the federal party was wholly gone’ and that he ‘could no longer be useful.’[1902] Had he created a Frankenstein to destroy not only himself but his policies and country? he wondered.

All through that month there was only serenity at Conrad’s boarding-house in Washington. Thoroughly informed of every move made by the enemy, Jefferson discussed the situation in the evenings with Gallatin, the Nicholases, and General Smith. Such was his imperturbable temperament that in the midst of the intense excitement he was able to write to one friend of a meteorological diary from Quebec, and to another on a similar one from Natchez.[1903] His cause was in the keeping of Gallatin, who was quietly checking up on all members of the House, closing his own ranks, preparing for every possible contingency, and concluding that ‘the intention of the desperate leaders must be absolute usurpation and the overthrow of our Constitution.’[1904] Thus January passed, and February came with its fateful possibilities.

IV

As the time for the contest approached, the village capital overflowed with visitors of stern visage. The boarding-houses packed with members of Congress, these onlookers found lodgment in Georgetown and in Alexandria. Notwithstanding the bitterness of the fight there was no trouble—due to stern repression. A little spark would have caused an explosion. The American people had determined on Jefferson, and it was no longer a secret that forces were at work to defeat the public will. Some of the Federalist papers deprecated the attempt to elect Burr with Federalist votes. The New York ‘Commercial Advertiser’ made vigorous protest in denunciation of the conspirators. ‘They are now taking the ground which the Democrats have occupied and descending to the baseness of supporting their cause by railing, abuse and scurrility. Nothing can be less politic or honorable. It is the duty of good citizens to acquiesce in the election and be tranquil. It is proper that Mr. Jefferson should be made Chief Magistrate.’[1905] The same note was struck by the New York ‘Gazette.’ ‘Many advocate the support of Mr. Burr,’ it said. ‘In matters of such importance it is idle to suffer our passions to get the better of our reason; and in statesmanship it would be particularly culpable from such puerile motives to risk the welfare of the nation.... Bad as both these men [Jefferson and Burr] are, there is no comparison between them.’[1906] But the organ of the Essex Junto was openly advocating Burr’s election. The ‘Centinel’ of Boston teemed with Burr propaganda. ‘The people of New England have yet faith to believe that a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit, nor vice versa,’ it said. ‘They think the stock from which Mr. Jefferson has sprung to be bad because his works are known to be so; and ... that whatever Mr. Burr may be reported to be he will eventually turn out good; as he is the grandson of the dignified Edwards, the great American luminary of Divinity, and a son of President Burr who was also a burning and shining light in the churches.’[1907] At times it fell into verse: