Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 14.pdf/496

 The

Vol. XIV.

No. 10.

Green

BOSTON.

Bag.

October, 1902.

AARONByBURR EugeneAS L. A D1d1er. LAWYER.

A GALLANT soldier in the American Rev olution — a brilliant lawyer — a distin guished statesman — a polished gentleman, such was Aaron Burr. For his honorable services, he deserved well of his country; he has received obloquy and insult; and for a century a dark cloud has obscured the bright fame of this once popular hero and statesman. Other hands will lift the pall that has so long darkened the fair name of this most in teresting and picturesque figure in Ameri can history. Other pens will tell the story of his heroism as a soldier, of his services as a senator, and as Vice-President of the United States,— I purpose to write of Aaron Burr as a lawyer. After an unusually brilliant collegiate course, he graduated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), at the age of sixteen. Always a great reader, he continued his studies after graduation, and was in no haste to choose a profession. Even at this early period he had deliberately re jected the religious creed of his ancestors and become a follower of the gospel accord ing to Lord Chesterfield : Honor was his god, and Chesterfield was his prophet. The courtesy, the refinement, the self-pos session, the high sense of worldly honor, which distinguished Aaron Burr through life and in death, was derived from the study of the celebrated Letters of Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield.

In his eighteenth year, Burr decided to adopt the profession of the law, and com menced the study in the office of his brotherin-law, Tappan Reeve. He was thus en gaged when the news of Lexington reached him. His law books were thrown aside, and the ardent young patriot was soon on his way to the camp of Washington, near Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the next four years he was actively employed in the War of the Revolution, having no time for reading or study. In 1779, his health being impaired by his constant and laborious ser vices in the army, he resigned his LieutenantColonel's commission, and, after spending eighteen months in recruiting his health, re sumed the study of the law. With his usual enthusiasm, he read from sixteen to twenty hours a day. At the end of six months he applied for admission to the bar at Albany, New York, and, after triumphantly passing a long and severe examination, was admitted on the nineteenth of January, 1782. He opened an office in Albany. His large ac quaintance among prominent men, his fame as a soldier, his distinguished ancestors, his devotion to business, and his fascinating manners, all combined to make his advance at the bar rapid and brilliant. Three months after opening an office, he had secured so lucrative a practice that he felt able to be married. The lady of his choice was a widow, Theodosia Prevost, ten years older than himself, with two sons by her former