In May, 1774, he left the Rev. Mr. Bellamy's, and went to the house of
his brother-in-law, Tappan Reeve, where his time was occupied in
reading, principally history; but especially those portions of it
which related to wars, and battles, and sieges, which tended to
inflame his natural military ardour. The absorbing topics of taxation
and the rights of the people were agitating the then British colonies
from one extreme to the other. These subjects, therefore, could not
pass unnoticed by a youth of the inquiring mind and ardent feelings of
Burr. Constitutional law, and the relative rights of the crown and the
colonists, were examined with all the acumen which he possessed, and
he became a Whig from reflection and conviction, as well as from
feeling.
At this period, Burr's most intimate and confidential correspondent
was Matthias Ogden, of New-Jersey, subsequently Colonel Ogden, a
gallant and distinguished revolutionary officer. He writes to Burr,
dated
"Elizabethtown, August 9th, 1774.
"DEAR AARON,
"I received yours by Mr. Beach, dated Sunday. I am not a little
pleased that you have the doctor (Bellamy) so completely under your
thumb. Last Saturday I went a crabbing. Being in want of a thole-pin,
I substituted a large jackknife in its stead, with the blade open and
sticking up. It answered the purpose of rowing very well; but it seems
that was not the only purpose it had to answer; for, after we had been
some time on the flats, running on the mud, as the devil would have
it, in getting into the boat I threw my leg directly across the edge
of the knife, which left a decent mark of nearly four inches long, and
more than one inch deep.
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