I stand ready to avow or disavow promptly and explicitly any precise or definite opinion which I may be charged with having declared of any gentleman. More than this cannot fitly be expected of me. I trust, on more reflection, that you will see the matter in the same light with me. If not I can only regret the circumstance and must abide the consequences. The pul)lication of Dr. Cooper was never seen by me till after the receipt of your letter.

76 The Hudson River

Burr found neither " sincerity nor dehcacy " in Hamilton's letter. He particularly objected to the charge being treated "as a matter of syntax," and again insisted upon a definite avowal or denial of Dr. Cooper's statements. It was not until the receipt of this letter that Hamilton saw his friend, Mr. Pendleton, and placed the correspondence before him. He told Pendleton that he considered the letter from Burr rude and offensive, and that he had expressed that opinion to Van Ness. The latter gentleman was a strong partisan, a warm personal friend of Burr's and a bitter political enemy of Hamilton's. His antipathies were pronounced, and his language w^ould be considered in this day of greater restraint as intemperate. There can be no doubt that his inclination, if not his efforts, was adverse to a peaceful solution of the difficulty. The correspondence culminated, as might naturally be expected, in a challenge delivered by Mr. Van Ness in Ijehalf of his princi|xd in the affair. From the Lijc of Aaron Burr, by Samuel Lorenze Knapp, published in 1835, we may quote a brief account. The ])articulars of what then took place will appear from the following statement, as agreed upon and corrected by the seconds of the parties: