A new
taste contracted, seeks companions suited to itself. But pleasures
easiest tasted, though perhaps at first of higher glee, are soonest
past, and, the more they are relied upon, leave the severer sting
behind. One cloudy day despoils the glow-worm of all its glitter.
Should fortune ever frown upon you, Matt.; should those you now call
friends forsake you; should the clouds gather force on every side, and
threaten to burst upon you, think then upon the man who never betrayed
you; rely on the sincerity you never found to fail; and if my heart,
my life, or my fortune can assist you, it is yours.
I go to-morrow to Elizabethtown, where I shall see the best of
women--your wife. Whatever letters or commands she may have for you, I
shall be careful to forward by the safest hands.
Your friend,
AARON BURR.
In the beginning of July, 1776, Major Burr was appointed aid-de-camp
to General Putnam. At this time the headquarters of the general were
in the large brick house, yet standing, at the corner of Broadway and
the Battery. Burr continued occasionally to correspond with his
friends, but was much occupied with his military duties, and those
studies which were calculated to render him scientifically master of
his profession. During the short period that he remained in the family
of General Washington, he was treated with respect and attention; but
soon perceived, as he thought, an unwillingness to afford that
information, and those technical explanations of great historical
military movements, which an inquiring and enlightened mind, like
Burr's, sought with avidity and perseverance.
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