[117] "When the Senate met at ten o'clock on the morning of March 4, 1801, Aaron Burr stood at the desk, and having duly sworn to support the Constitution took his seat in the chair as Vice President. This quiet, gentlemanly and rather dignified figure, hardly taller than Madison, and dressed in much the same manner, impressed with favour all who first met him. An aristocrat imbued in the morality of Lord Chesterfield and Napoleon Bonaparte, Colonel Burr was the chosen head of Northern democracy, idol of the wards of New York City, and aspirant to the highest offices he could reach by means legal or beyond the law; for, as he pleased himself with saying after the manner of the First Consul of the French Republic, 'great souls care little for small morals.'"—Henry Adams, History of the United States, Vol. 1, p. 195.
[118] "Mr. Oswald returned to Paris on the fourth of May (1782), having been absent sixteen days; during which Dr. Franklin informed each of his colleagues of what had occurred—Mr. Jay, at Madrid, Mr. Adams, in Holland—Mr. Laurens, on parole, in London."—James Parton, Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 2, p. 461. Franklin wrote to Adams and Laurens on April 20, suggesting that he had "hinted that, if England should make us a voluntary offer of Canada, expressly for that purpose, it might have a good effect." Works of Franklin (Sparks), Vol. 9, pp. 253-256. But his letter to Jay simply urged the latter's coming to Paris at once. Works of Franklin (Bigelow), Vol. 8, p. 48. Also, Works of Franklin (Sparks), Vol. 9, p. 254.
[119] George Clinton, 24,808; Stephen Van Rensselaer, 20,843.—Civil List, State of New York (1887), p. 166.
[120] "Young DeWitt Clinton and his friend Ambrose Spencer controlled this Council, and they were not persons who affected scruple in matters of political self-interest. They swept the Federalists out of every office even down to that of auctioneer, and without regard to appearances, even against the protests of the Governor, installed their own friends and family connections in power."—Henry Adams, History of the United States, Vol. 1, pp. 228, 229. "DeWitt Clinton was hardly less responsible than Burr himself for lowering the standard of New York politics, and indirectly that of the nation."—Ibid., p. 112.
[121] Letters of "Aristides", p. 42.
[122] Letters of "Aristides", p. 42.
[123] Letters of "Aristides", p. 69.
[124] Jabez D. Hammond, Political History of New York, Vol. 1, p. 177.
[125] Henry Adams, History of the United States, Vol. 1, pp. 294-5.
[126] "All the world knew that not Cheetham, but DeWitt Clinton, thus dragged the Vice President from his chair, and that not Burr's vices but his influence made his crimes heinous; that behind DeWitt Clinton stood the Virginia dynasty, dangling Burr's office in the eyes of the Clinton family, and lavishing honours and money on the Livingstons. All this was as clear to Burr and his friends as though it was embodied in an Act of Congress."—Henry Adams, History of the United States, Vol. 1, pp. 331, 332.