Beschreibung:

BURR, Aaron (1756-1836). Autograph letter signed ("Aaron Burr") to Jacob de Lamater, New York, 15 June 1792. Six pages, 254 x 199mm, bifolia, with integral address leaf attached (losses and tears from seal to address panel). Burr writes on his controversial opinion that resulted in George Client's re-election as governor in 1792: a move that exacerbated his rivalry with Alexander Hamilton: "I did not seek to gratify any wish or interest of my own." The hotly-contested election in New York State was marred by election irregularities in three northern counties resulting in a stalemate among the twelve canvassers charged with counting the vote—in particular the results in Otsego County, where Republican George Clinton's rival, Federalist John Jay, had performed particularly well. Unwilling to make the decision themselves, the canvassers appealed to the state's two Senators, Rufus King, a Federalist, and Burr, who until this point had tried to avoid joining one faction or the other, for their recommendations on how to proceed. Burr and King, according to Burr, "conferred and unfortunately differed, particularly as to the questions upon the Otsego return. I therefore proposed that we should decline giving any opinion being for my own part much averse to interfere in the business. Mr. King however determined to give his separate opinion, from what motives you may judge - this laid me under the necessity of giving mine also, which I did." Whereas King recommended that every vote be counted, even where there were irregularities, Burr counseled a strict interpretation of New York election laws. The canvassers, most of whom were loyal to George Clinton, chose to heed Burr's advice and threw out the ballots of the three offending counties, which resulted in Clinton's victory over Jay. Burr, appreciating the inevitable charges of partisanship, defended his recommendation: "I did not seek to gratify any wish or interest of my own - I took no part in the election. I never gave to any person the most distant intimation that I supposed you engaged to support Mr. C[linton] - or to take any other part than that which your Inclination and judgment should direct - I felt no disposition to influence your Conduct on that occasion." Burr's role in the affair brought him to the notice of New York Republicans, who began mentioning his name as a potential Vice-Presidential contender in the national election that fall. Upon hearing of this, Alexander Hamilton spun into action. Already upset that Burr had defeated his father-in-law in 1790 for the U.S. Senate, and steaming over Jay's defeat for the New York governorship, Hamilton resolved to oppose Burr. Confiding to an unidentified correspondent, he wrote that he feared that Burr "is unprincipled both as a public and a private man […] I take it he is for or against nothing, but as it suits his interest or ambition." Hamilton concluded that he felt "it to be a religious duty to oppose his career." (21 September 1792). Quoted in Milton Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to Vice President, 1756-1805 (1979), pp. 171-172.