Why do you
jeopardize your life? I'd rather give him his plum and choke him with
it--"
"What?" cried Hamilton, erect and alert. "Permit Burr to become Governor
of New York? Do you realize that the New England States are talking of
secession, that even the Democrats of the North are disgusted and
alarmed at the influence and arrogance of Virginia? Burr has a certain
prestige in New England on account of his father and Jonathan Edwards,
and his agents have been promoting discussion of this ancestry for some
time past. Do the Federalists of New York endorse him, this prestige
will have received its fine finish; and New Englanders have winked his
vices out of sight because Jefferson's treatment of him makes him almost
virtuous in their eyes. The moment he is Governor he will foment the
unrest of New England until it secedes, and then, being the first
officer of the leading State of the North, he will claim a higher office
that will end in sovereignty. He fancies himself another Bonaparte, he
who is utterly devoid of even that desire for fame, and that
magnificence, which would make the Corsican a great man without his
genius.
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