So far as I could judge, his
only apprehensions were that "_kind friends_," as he sometimes termed
them, by attempts at explanation, might unintentionally misrepresent
acts which they did not understand.
I devoted the summer of 1835 to an examination of his letters and
papers, of which there is an immense quantity. The whole of them were
placed in my hands, to be used at my discretion. I was authorized to
take from among them whatever I supposed would aid me in preparing the
contemplated book.
I have undertaken the work, aware of the delicacy and responsibility
of the task. But, if I know myself, it has been performed with the
most scrupulous regard to my own reputation for correctness. I have
aimed to state facts, and the fair deductions from them, without the
slightest intermixture of personal feeling. I am very desirous that a
knowledge of Mr. Burr's character and conduct should be derived from
his miscellaneous correspondence, and not from what his biographer
might write, unsupported by documentary testimony. With this view many
of his private letters are selected for publication.
I entertain a hope that I shall escape the charge of egotism. I have
endeavoured to avoid _that_ ground of offence, whatever may have been
my literary sins in other respects. It is proper for me, however, in
this place, and for a single purpose, to depart from the course
pursued in the body of the work. It is a matter of perfect notoriety,
that among the papers left in my possession by the late Colonel Burr,
there was a mass of letters and copies of letters written or received
by him, from time to time, during a long life, indicating no very
strict morality in some of his female correspondents.
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