I cannot help believing that the household gods of a man take a very
special interest and a very personal part in what fortunes befall him.
More than any deities of old, they live with and in him; they at once
go forth with him to battle, and welcome him home. I can conceive of
some hushed and gracious home-spirit walking restless by night
because the heart and head of the house was afar or in danger. And a
house so charged with personality as that on Richmond Hall must have
had many a ghost,--of fireside and of garden close,--who wept for
fallen fortunes as they had rejoiced for gaiety and bright enterprise.
Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were born antagonists: their
personalities, their ideals, their methods, were as diverse and as
implacably divergent as the poles. Hamilton, as a statesman, believed
that Burr was dangerous; and so he was: sky rockets and geniuses
usually are. Hamilton did his brilliant best to destroy the other's
power (it was chiefly due to his efforts that Burr missed the
Presidency), and, being a notably courageous man, he was not afraid to
go on warning America against him.
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