Theodosia Burr Alston

“ He allowed himself to be involved in a romantic episode with a lady named Celeste and wrote gaily to Theodosia: “If any male friend of yours should be dying of ennui, recommend to him to engage in a duel and a courtship at the same time. Prob. est.”
Burr’s objective at this time was a reunion with Theodosia, who had married Joseph Alston, a wealthy South Carolina planter. The Alstons, and their little son Aaron Burr Alston, had a home in Charleston. Before going there Burr spent a brief vacation at St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. ”

“ Your talent for writing is enviable, and, with cultivation, will be unrivalled (nothing without cultivation, remember) . No one wishes so ardently as I do, not even you, that these advantages should be improved. But these considerations are unimportant compared with those which regard your health.
If you should leave Charleston, give special orders about your letters, for I may write what I should wish no one but you to see. Affectionately adieu.
A. BURR. TO JOSEPH ALSTON. New-York, November 5, 1802.
The cold weather of the last ten days has had a happy effect on Theodosia. ”

“ A letter from Peggy says that Eleonore's boy was well on the 13th. Your icehouse and vaults are finished. Of Annapolis I find the newspapers have anticipated me. They will tell you where I dined, and supped, and whom I saw.
Madame Bonaparte passed a week here. She is a charming little woman; just the size and nearly the figure of Theodosia Burr Alston; by some thought a little like her; perhaps not so well in the shoulders; dresses with taste and simplicity (by some thought too free) ; has sense, and spirit, and sprightliness. A little of the style and manner of Susan Smith. ”

“ For a time she despaired of her life and in one of her melancholy moods she wrote Alston: “Death is not welcome. I confess it is ever dreaded. You have made me too fond of life. Adieu, then, thou kind, thou tender husband. Adieu! friend of my heart. May Heaven prosper you and may we meet hereafter.”
In the fateful summer of 1806 when Colonel Burr departed from the East “never to return,” he was joined in the western country by the Alstons—Theodosia, Joseph, and little Aaron. The Alstons were for a time guests of the Blennerhassetts on their island in the Ohio River. ”

“ There was also a story told by a dying sailor who confessed that he had seen the crew of such a boat walk the plank, and that among them was a beautiful woman who walked into the sea with a Bible or prayer-book in her hand.
The painting is in the possession of the Burr-Alston connection, and is thought by them, on account of its striking family resemblance, to be a picture of Theodosia Burr. The painting story has often been scouted, but there is too much circumstantial evidence to ignore it in treating the legend. ”

“ TIMOTHY GREEN. FROM JOSEPH ALSTON TO THEODOSIA. Columbia, S. C., January 15, 1813.
Another mail, and still no letter! I hear, too, rumours of a gale off Cape Hatteras the beginning of the month! The state of my mind is dreadful. Let no man, wretched as he may be, presume to think himself beyond the reach of another blow. I shall count the hours till noon to-morrow. If I do not hear then, there will be no hope till Tuesday. To feelings like mine, what an interval! May God grant me one word from you to-morrow. Adieu. All that I have left of heart is yours. ”

“ I will not conceal from you that life is a burden, which, heavy as it is, we shall both support, if not with dignity, at least with decency and firmness. Theodosia has endured all that a human being could endure; but her admirable mind will triumph. She supports herself in a manner worthy of your daughter.
We have not yet been able to form any definite plan of life. My present wish is that Theodosia should join you, with or without me, as soon as possible. My command here, as brigadier-general, embarrasses me a good deal in the disposal of myself. I would part with Theodosia reluctantly ”

“ Z. TO THEODOSIA. Washington, February 21, 1802.
Your letter of the 31st, accompanied by a note dated 1st February, came by the mail of yesterday. A few lines from Mr. Alston, received some days before, advised me of your journey to Clifton, and of the distressing occasion. My heart sinks within me when I think of that lovely and disconsolate woman. Your conduct was worthy of you and of my daughter. She must be restored to reason and to life, by being convinced that she has some motive for enduring existence. If no other can be shown, at least she can be persuaded that she is necessary to you. ”

“ I am very well, and not without occupation or amusement. Nothing would give me so much pleasure as to hear that your time, or any part of it, is usefully employed.
A. BURR. TO THEODOSIA. Philadelphia, August 3, 1804.
You will have learned, through Mr. Alston, of certain measures pursuing against me in New-York. I absent myself from home merely to give a little time for passions to subside, not from any apprehension of the final effects of proceedings in courts of law. They can, by no possibility, eventually affect my person. You will find the papers filled with all manner of nonsense and lies. ”

“ Burr expresses his opinions on great, but not on minor political questions; letter from Burr to Alston, denouncing the nomination of Monroe for president, and recommending General Jackson; Alston replies, concurring in sentiment with Burr, but ill health prevents his acting; Alston's death; letter from William A. Alston to Burr, explanatory of his late brother's will so far as Burr is interested; from Theodosia to her husband, at a moment when she supposes that death is approaching; Burr's continued zeal in favour of the South American States ”

“ Every one has heard of the mysterious tragedy which is associated with her history. In 1812, when her husband had been elected Governor of his state, her only child—a sturdy boy of eleven—died, and Theodosia's health was shattered by her sorrow. In the same year Burr returned from a sojourn in Europe, and his loving daughter embarked from Charleston on a schooner, the Patriot, to meet her father in New York. When Burr arrived he was met by a letter which told him that his grandson was dead and that Theodosia was coming to him. ”

“ Theodosia argued for a deferment of the marriage, quoting Aristotle, that a man should not marry till he was thirty-six. With convincing eloquence and ardor, Alston replied, winning his suit, notwithstanding Aristotle and other equally eminent authorities.
On February 7, 1801, the New York Commercial Advertiser announced the marriage, which had taken place on the 2d, at Albany, where the Legislature,31 of which Burr was then a member, was in session. It was a period of intense excitement throughout the country, and the names of Jefferson and Burr were in all mouths. ”

“ I am very happy you have chosen chess for your amusement. It keeps you constantly in mind how poor kings fare without their queens. Our little one has been very amiable to-day. Adieu.
THEODOSIA. TO JOSEPH ALSTON. New-York, July 19, 1802.
On Saturday (17th) Mr. and Mrs. Alston, Lady Nisbett, and Charlotte took passage for Red Hook. The wind has been so favourable that they undoubtedly arrived yesterday before dinner. Charlotte had three or four fits of ague and fever, but had escaped two days before she sailed, and was again in health. ”

“ No father ever gave more attention to his daughter's welfare. As to Theodosia's studies he was very strict, making her read Greek and Latin every day, with drawing and music and history, in addition to French. Not long before her marriage to Joseph Allston, of South Carolina, Burr wrote to her:
I really think, my dear Theo, that you will be very soon beyond all verbal criticism, and that my whole attention will be presently directed to the improvement of your style. ”

“ I have called out General Hamilton, and we meet tomorrow morning. Van Ness will give you the particulars. The preceding has been written in contemplation of this event. If it should be my lot to fall, * * * * * * * * yet I shall live in you and your son. I commit to you all that is most dear to me—my reputation and my daughter. Your talents and your attachment will be the guardian of the one—your kindness and your generosity of the other. Let me entreat you to stimulate and aid Theodosia in the cultivation of her mind. It is indispensable to her happiness and essential to yours. ”

“ Smith; answers thereto; reasons why Mr. Latimer was not removed from the office of collector of Philadelphia; answer of Samuel Smith to interrogatories in the suit of Gillespie vs. Smith
CHAPTER IX. Effect of the attacks upon Burr; power of the press in corrupt hands; Mr. Jefferson's malignity towards Burr; his hypocrisy; false entries in his Ana of conversations said to have been held with Burr; letter to Theodosia; ditto; ditto; to Joseph Alston; Theodosia to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; ditto; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia; to Thomas Morris; from P. Butler; to Joseph Alston; to Theodosia ”

“ Theodosia Burr was born in New York in 1783 and educated under the unflagging solicitude and careful personal direction of her distinguished father, who wanted her to be, as he testifies in his letters, the equal of any woman on earth. ”

“ Edwards's, two miles from the Red Lion, or at the Red Lion, which is twelve miles from this city. Your first stage will be to Brunswick, your second Trenton, and your third here.
I expressed myself ill if I led you to believe that I wished any evidence or criterion of Theodosia's understanding. I desire only to promote its growth by its application and exercise. Her present employments have no such tendency, unless arithmetic engages a part of her attention. Than this, nothing can be more useful, or better advance the object I have in view. ”

“ The household is a hive of happiness. Aaron, who takes the pedagogue instinct from sire and grandsire, puts in his leisure drilling the small Prévost boys in their lessons. He will have them talking Latin and reading Greek like little priests, before he is done with them. As for baby Theodosia, she reigns the chubby queen of all their hearts; it is to her credit not theirs that she isn’t hopelessly spoiled. ”

“ Parton very fitly dedicates to the memory of Theodosia his highly readable and charitable life of her father. That brilliant lawyer, the late Rufus Choate, remarked, on reading this life, that there did not seem to have been in Burr a single glimpse of so much as the last and poorest tribute vice pays to virtue, not even the affectation of a noble sentiment. But we may claim with justice, that the friendship with his daughter is one bright place in that frightfully stained, one golden gleam on that dismally mutilated, career. ”

“ It has always been supposed that this intrepid girl may have been Theodosia Allston. If so, she only acted as her father would have done and in strict accordance with his teachings.
This resolute courage, this stern joy in danger, this perfect equanimity, made Burr especially attractive to women, who love courage, the more so when it is coupled with gentleness and generosity.
Perhaps no man in our country has been so vehemently accused regarding his relations with the other sex. ”

“ Have you forgotten the mad project of going to England? the anxiety and misery it cost us for some days? I should have thanked the man who had thus treated my child. Indeed, my dear Theodosia, such things sink into my soul. They seem to invade the very sanctuary of happiness. Had I any thing so much at heart as to render him happy? That I love him, you best know. God bless my dear Theodosia.
A. BURR. TO THEODOSIA. Providence, R. I., August 1, 1803.
I left New-York two days after you, that is, on Saturday, and had a pretty little passage of forty-eight hours. ”

“ With a woman's tact he combined an adroit intellect equal to any emergency.
He conducted his own defence, supported by the best legal talent in the country. His son-in-law sat beside him every day in court, and Theodosia, the beautiful, noble Theodosia, with sublime faith in her father, inspired a confidence in him in other breasts.34 She appealed to the poetic fancy of Washington Irving, then a young barrister, who was sent from New York to report the trial for his brother's paper, and whose letters evince an unmistakable sympathy for Burr. ”

“ Both intellectual 144companions of their only parents, both ardently attached to fathers they deemed the wisest and greatest of earth—they have become forever linked with the life and times of each, and covers for the one a multitude of faults, and has made the other dear to his people. Both were great men, adored by daughters gifted and good. Theodosia Burr has thrown around her father’s name a romantic interest which veils many infirmities, and adds lustre to the traits which in the eyes of the world redeemed him. ”

“ The home of Theodosia presents to us a pleasing scene of virtuous industry. The master of the house, always an indomitable worker, was in the full tide of a successful career at the bar. His two step-sons were employed in his office, and one of them frequently accompanied him in his journeys to distant courts as clerk or amanuensis. No father could have been more generous or more thoughtful than he was for these fatherless youths, and they appeared to have cherished for him the liveliest affection. Mrs. Burr shared in the labors of the office during the absence of her lord. ”