BRIAN DAVON HARDISON

Personal Statement

            After starting my law career fifteen years ago, I began collecting contemporary works of and about famous lawyers in United States history, such as Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Alexander H. Stephens and others.   My passion of collecting grew to include books, manuscripts, autograph letters and documents, newspapers, paintings and relics.  My favorite books in my collection are those previously owned by famous Americans. 

           One of the central themes of my collecting concerns the Revolutionary War hero and noted New York lawyer and politician, Aaron Burr and his contemporaries.  “Burr was personally acquainted with a wider range of Americans, and of the American Continent, than any other Founder except George Washington.”  Roger G. Kennedy.  Burr, Hamilton and Jefferson, A Study in Character.  New York, Oxford University Press, 2000.  In the Election of 1800, Burr tied Jefferson for the Presidency of the United States.  In 1804, Burr killed Hamilton in the most famous duel in United States history.  This year is the 200^th anniversary of one of the most important courtroom dramas in the United States history, Burr’s Trial for Treason.  I find Burr to be one of the most interesting individuals in the history of our country.

           Having two daughters of my own I consider Burr’s relationship with his daughter, Theodosia, an example to be followed by all parents.  As a feminist, Burr spent a great deal of his time and spared no expense to insure that his daughter received a thorough education.  Studying under tutors such as Washington Irving, Theodosia received an education of history and literature unheard of for women in the late 1700s.  She learned to speak several languages and was fluent in French.  By the time she married Joseph Alston, the future Governor of South Carolina, Theodosia was one of the most educated woman in the United States.  She was the pride and joy of her father.  I especially like the written correspondence between them.  A personal letter from Burr to his daughter encouraging her to spend time wisely studying her lessons hangs on a wall in our home as a reminder to me to be constantly involved in the education of my daughters.

1.

Unknown artist.  The Pocket Watch of Aaron Burr with the Enameled Portrait of this Wife.  1790.

Aaron Burr commissioned an artist to paint facing miniature portraits of himself and his wife on the face of this pocket watch as a gift to himself and as a token of affection for his wife.  The portrait of Burr’s wife on the watch is the only likeness of her known to exist. 

After Burr left the United States in 1808, Burr’s kitchen chef seized the watch and other valuables in payment for earned wages.  For nearly two hundred years the watch was handed down by descendents of Burr’s chef.  I acquired it in 2002.  Most recently Dr. Ray Swick, historian for Blennerhassett Island, WV, the alleged site of Burr’s conspiracy, has declared the watch to be the holy grail of Burr collecting.  It was recently pictured in the new biography of Burr by Nancy Isenberg, The Fallen Founder, the Life of Aaron Burr, published May 10, 2007.

2.

[William Coleman].  Report of the Trial of Levi Weeks, on an Indictment for the Murder of Gulielma Sands, on Monday the Thirty-first day of March, and Tuesday the First of April, 1800.  Taken in short hand by the Clerk of Court.   New York:  Printed by John Furman, and sold at his Blank, Stamp & Stationary Shop, opposite the City-Hall, 1800, first edition.

This was the first recording of a murder trial in the history of the United States.  The victim’s body was found at the bottom of a Manhattan well.  Aaron Burr was one of the three lawyers who successfully defended Weeks along with Alexander Hamilton and Brockholst Livingston. 

This copy of the book was previously owned and autographed by Theodore Dwight, an American lawyer, congressman and journalist, and cousin of Aaron Burr.

3.

Aaron Burr.  Autographed Note Signed by Burr as Vice President of the United States to the Treasurer of the United States, dated in New York, July 22, 1801. 

This brief note written in Burr’s hand is his request to the Treasurer of the United States that the payment of his services as Vice President of the United States be paid to Daniel Ludlow, who endorses the verso. 

Both Burr and Ludlow were two of the original Founders of the Bank of Manhattan Company (presently Chase Manhattan Bank part of JP Morgan Chase).  Ludlow served as the first President of the Bank from 1799-1808.

4.

William Coleman.   Particulars of the Late Duel, fought at Hoboken, July 11, between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, Esqrs. In which the latter unfortunately fell.  Containing all the Papers related to that event, together with the Will of Gen. Hamilton, and the Letters of Bishop Moore, and Rev. J.M. Mason. New York:  Printed by A. Forum, 91 Beekman Street, 1804, first edition.

Coleman, the Court Reporter in the Weeks Murder Trial, was first a law partner with Burr and later a close friend of Hamilton.  He eventually became the owner and editor of the Evening Post.  In this brief pamphlet, Coleman complied all of the written correspondence between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton and their seconds that eventually led to the most famous duel in the history of the United States.

5.

Trustees of the Estate of Alexander Hamilton.   Certificate of the Hamilton Fund to William Rogers, No. 279.   New York: November 29, 1804.

This document is a direct result of the Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton duel.  It is autographed by Gouvernor Morris, Egbert Benson, Rufus King, Oliver Wolcott and Charles Wilkes as Trustees of Hamilton’s Estate. 

Hamilton died deeply in debt.  “The Hamilton Fund, as it came to be called, was a trust fund established by Morris, King and others, subscriptions to which were in the form of four hundred shares worth $200.00 each, or a total of $80,000.00 ($960,000.00) if all shares were bought.  … While it is not known if the fund was fully subscribed, and if so by when, the undated list of subscribers in the possession of the Bank of New York indicates that at least 367 shares worth $72,000.00 ($880,000.00) were purchased by 126 individuals in amounts ranging from one to ten shares.” Arnold A. Rogow.   A Fatal Friendship, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, New York, Hill and Wang, 1998, pg. 275.

6.

Thomas Jefferson.  Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Information touching an Illegal Combination of Private Individuals against the Peace and Safety of the Union, and a Military Expedition Planned by then against the Territory of a Power in Amity with the United States; with the Measures Pursued for Suppressing the same; in pursuance to a Resolution of the House of Representatives of the Sixteenth Instant.  January 22, 1807.  [Washington, 1807], first edition.

“Here President Jefferson discloses to Congress the Burr Conspiracy communicated to him from New Orleans by General Wilkinson, charging that Burr planned to seize on New Orleans, plunder the bank there, possess himself of the military and naval stores, and proceed on his expedition.”  The Thomas Winthrop Streeter Collection of Americana, Eighth Session, 1967, pg. 1283.

This copy of the pamphlet was previously owned by Senator John Smith of the State of Ohio.  Smith was later indicted as a co-conspirator of Aaron Burr regarding the same alleged conspiracy but never tried.  After Burr’s acquittal, a Senate censure of Smith’s activities with Burr failed to pass.  Smith ultimately resigned his seat.  

7.

William Marshall, Clerk of the Court of the United States, for the 5^th Circuit, in the Virginia District.   A Witness Subpoena regarding the Motion to Commit following the Trial for High Treason of former Vice President Aaron Burr.  Richmond, Virginia, September 15, 1807.

This original subpoena was issued by the Clerk of Court in the name of the presiding judge, John Marshall, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to Littleton Waller Tazewell to testify on behalf of the Defendant, Aaron Burr.  Evidence of the service of the subpoena by the local sheriff is on the verso.  Tazewell’s testimony was used by the Defense to impeach the testimony of the Government’s chief witness, General James Wilkinson.  Burr was acquitted of all charges, but committed to stand trial for a misdemeanor in Kentucky.  Tazewell would later serve as Governor of the State of Virginia.

Burr’s Trial for Treason was one of the most important trials in the history of the United States.  The lawyers involved for the Defense included Edmond Randolph, the first Attorney General of the United States and Charles Lee, the third Attorney General of the United States both having served under President George Washington.  One of the lawyers representing the United States was William Wirt, who would later serve as the ninth Attorney General of the United States under both Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams.

A Defense pretrial motion to subpoena the papers of President Thomas Jefferson was submitted and successfully argued by Burr himself.  This precedent established in Burr’s Trial was later used to subpoena President Richard Nixon’s tape recordings in the case of the United States v. Richard M. Nixon.

8.

William Godwin.  Essay on Sepulchers:  or, a Proposal for Erecting Some Memorial of the Illustrious Dead in all Ages on the Spot Where Their Remains have been Interred.   London:  Printed for W. Miller, Albemarle Street, 1809, first edition.

This copy of the book was previously owned by Theodosia Burr Alston, daughter of Aaron Burr.  It is inscribed on the title page by the author as follows:  “From the author to the daughter of A. Burr.”

Following his trial for treason, Burr spent the next four years in self-exile in Europe.  While there he met and spent time with several philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham, William Godwin and others.  Godwin presented this copy of his book to Burr as a gift for Burr’s daughter Theodosia, the wife of Joseph Alston, Governor of South Carolina.  Burr mailed the book from Gravesend, England to his daughter in Charleston, SC.  According to her letter to her father dated August 1, 1809, Theodosia received the book.  Burr would return to the United States in 1812 and resumed his practice of law in New York until his death in 1836.  Unfortunately, he would never see his daughter again.  Theodosia was lost at sea on a trip from Charleston to New York to visit her father in 1813.    

End