than four or five of the most indifferent characters, too strong symptoms of the prejudice of party. The character of the Judge has been ransacked with the utmost scrutiny.

You will have seen in the papers the feeble speech of Randolph at the opening of the trial. Yesterday he closed on the part of the managers. We had the mortification for three hours to hear his outrageous invectives against the Judge. . .

We are waiting with much anxiety for the sentence; whether he is acquitted or condemned, we can not refrain from a glimmer of hope that it may have some good effect upon our country. May heaven avert from us the evils that hang over our heads. Let us look with steadfast hope, and humbly trust to that all-wise superintending power which alone can save us from ruin. With kind respects to your lady and family, Accept my sincere affection and friendship, M. CUTLER.

DR. TORREY.

My Dear Sir

WASHINGTON, March 1, 1805.

The day before yesterday, the pleadings on the trial were closed. Never in this country, on any one occasion, has so much ability or professional knowledge been displayed as has been by the Counsel of the Judge. Nor has there ever been a trial of equal importance to be decided. The parts of the defense were very judiciously divided between the five gentlemen, according to their prevailing talents. Mr. Hopkinson and Judge Key have been thought impossible to excel. The impressions from the evidence seems. to have been very uniformly the same on the numerous spectators. Every impartial mind, I believe, has felt the conviction that the Judge has discharged the duties of his office with great ability and legal propriety; that he has been scrupulously impartial on the most trying occasions, and preserved the strictest integrity amidst the tumult of party and passion, and throughout preserved an honorable independence. His whole character has been ransacked with the utmost scrutiny. Jocular conversation in private circles, expressions dropped while traveling in stages, at taverns and boarding-houses, have been brought to condemn him. The violence of persecution has

been extended as far as the circumstances of our country would admit them to go. Most shameful advantage of a naturally social and facetious disposition has been attempted to the utmost. In the concluding pleas by Mr. Nicholson and Rodney, there was no bitterness, and, though feeble, they were unexceptionable. But Randolph, who closed on the part of the managers, has brought upon himself general contempt, and, with his own party, regret and reproach. We had the mortification to sit and hear, for more than three hours, the most outrageous invectives against the Judge, and fulsome panegyrics upon himself and his party. In the midst of his harangue, the fellow cried like a baby, with clear, sheer madness.

But the trial has been conducted with a propriety and solemnity throughout which reflects honor upon the Senate. It must be acknowledged that Burr has displayed much ability, and since the first day I have seen nothing of partiality. But he has heard some things, which it is believed he has sensibly felt. Randolph, in his last speech, undertook to arraign, try, and acquit him for killing Hamilton.

In a few minutes, we go to the Senate Chamber (exactly at 12) to hear the court pronounce the sentence. The Judge is sick, and returned to Baltimore some days past. I leave a blank here to insert the sentence.

The sentence is passed. I took minutes of every vote. The President proposed the question on each article-guilty or not guilty. Each member rose, and pronounced guilty or not guilty. On the first article, guilty, 16; not guilty, 18: second article, guilty, 10; not guilty, 24: third article, guilty, 18; not guilty, 16: fourth article, guilty, 18; not guilty, 16: fifth article, unanimous, not guilty, 34: sixth article, guilty, 4; not guilty, 30: seventh article, guilty, 10; not guilty, 24: eighth article, guilty, 19; not guilty, 15. The President pronounced an acquittal. There were six Democrats who voted not guilty throughout. There was a vast concourse of people, perfect order, and great solemnity.

I expect to set out on Monday.

We expect the

traveling will be much of it excessively bad, but, by the kind

VOL. II.-13

ness of Providence, hope for the pleasure of seeing you in twelve or fifteen days. M. CUTLER.

I would earnestly recommend to you to take the Boston Repository. It is a most excellent paper, and will give you all the trial.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. STILES, PROFESSOR WIGGLESWORTH, GENERAL

LINCOLN.

Dr. Cutler's correspondence was very extensive. Comparatively few of his own letters have been recovered, but more are found of those he received, as it was his custom to preserve all such as were of any importance. In the lapse of years, many have disappeared. A portion of those which remain are given in this volume. They indicate the scope of subjects upon which he thought and wrote. The Rev. Dr. Joseph Torrey, late President of the University of Vermont, a grandson of Dr. Cutler, in a letter written to a friend some years since, says: "I always cherished a profound veneration for the memory of my grandfather. The respect with which I was taught to look up to him when I was too young to appreciate his worth, grew upon me the more I became able to understand what he was and what he had accomplished, and no one regrets more than I do the utter neglect shown to the papers he left behind him. Of the greater part of those papers I know nothing, except that they have been scattered and lost. I took pains once, during a short time of leisure, to copy the first part of the journal of his first journey to New York and Philadelphia, on the business of the Ohio lands, and would have copied the other, but could never get hold of it. I have not to this day learned the fate of his extensive correspondence. The many letters from so many of the eminent men of his age, both in the political and scientific world, had they been carefully preserved and kept together, might have been to his posterity a common and enduring legacy. But, so far as I know, they are scattered to the winds. Nobody knows what has become of them."

The following extract from Dr. Cutler's Diary reveals the fate of some of those manuscripts:

"January 20, 1812. Snowed most of the day; very cold.

When I was called from study to dine, I had very little fire on the hearth, which I took particular care of; but the wood I was burning was split hemlock. Immediately after dinner, the study was found to be filled with thick smoke, and that my writing-desk was on fire. Help soon came, but it was next to impossible to enter the chamber. After some time, the fire was checked. The desk was exceedingly burnt, and most of the contents inside consumed; numerous valuable articles destroyed. A large number of valuable books were on and in the desk, which were consumed or greatly injured. The destruction greater than I can describe. The only way to account for the fire is by the snapping of the hemlock wood. My pocket-book and paper money, about 30 dollars, was consumed. The loss probably 200 dollars. But we have great cause of thankfulness that the house was preserved."

Temple Cutler, Esq., writes of this event: "A fire in his study, one winter day, when he had left it to dine, communicated with his large writing-desk, which contained many valuable papers, among which were a number of manuscript volumes on scientific subjects, which were destroyed; and also many wills and similar instruments he had in keeping. But, fortunately, most of the latter were easily replaced.”

"Book XIV. Descriptions of American Plants. M. Cutler." Such is the title-page of a volume of 344 pages, more than half filled with botanical notes made in 1804-7. It is one of a series of volumes on which Dr. Cutler had been engaged for many years, and from which he hoped to develop an extensive work on Botany; but, at the age of three score years and ten, with feeble health, the loss, by the fire in his study, of so many of these precious volumes, which could not be supplied, prevented the carrying out of this favorite project so nearly accomplished, and was to him a source of life-long regret. Doubtless many choice letters, from distinguished men at this time perished. Little is found of his correspondence with Franklin, Castiglioni, President Adams, Governor Bowdoin, and others with whom he is known to have had frequent communication.

Dr. Cutler's epistolary intercourse, on matters of business and friendship, with General Rufus Putnam, a Director of the