@Review 36.3 Pp 1-24

1n~ St. 0 'sReview KCHTUCKYW\l.sapart of Vtrgmia unttl_11dmtU~d 115 a Srlparall! statli!' m 1791 jsu Plate 6.f). Wt.st Yt"9Lnlll dtd ru>t t.ttst TENNE.SS£I was apart of North Carolina until admitted as a .statli!' m 1796- (Ju Plat~t84). for tt"' W•st.rrn Land claims of South Carolina and Gtor91a,su Plates 88-89 Summer, 1985 Editor: Cover: The United States, 1783-1802. J. Walter Sterling Managing Editor: Maria Coughlin Poetry Editor: Richard Freis Editorial Board: Eva Brann S. Richard Freis, Alumni representative Joe Sachs Cary Stickney Curtis A. Wilson Unsolicited articles, stories, and poems are welcome, but should be accom panied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope in each instance. Re~soned comments are also welcome. The St. John's Review (formerly The Col lege) is published by the Office of the Dean, St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland 21404. William Dyal, Presi dent, Thomas Slakey, Dean. Published thrice yearly, in the winter, spring, and summer. For those not on the distribu tion list, subscriptions: $12.00 yearly, $24.00 for two years, or $36.00 for three years, payable in advance. Address all correspondence to The St. John's Review, St.· John's College, Annapolis, Maryland 21404. Volume XXXVI, Number 3 Summer, 1985 © 1986 St. John's College; All rights reserved. Reproduction in whOle or in part without permission is prohibited. ISSN 0277-4720 Composition: Best Impressions, Inc. Printing: St. fohn's College Press THE ST. JoHN's REVIEW Summer 1985 Publius 1804 A Play in Two Acts John Alvis Act I and ennui. Yet combined with this prevailing impression of languor are movements of extraordinary alertness and decisiveness as indica tive of substantial resources of energy and will. Scene 1 Burr. [extending his hand to Van Ness] Never postpone, my dear The morning of June 18, 1804. Vice-President Aaron Burr's private William. [mock sententiouslyl''Night cometh and then no man study in his townhouse in New York City. The furnishing of the library can work." is a matter of indifference as long as there are many books precisely Van Ness. [takes Burr's offered hand] Mr. Vice-President ... arranged. A crystal vase containing a single red rose is set on a small commode and at stage center on the wall a large framed picture which Burr. William, we needn't bore each other with ceremony; we're not in Washington, thank God. This nation should shut will be identified as a portrait of Burr's daughter, Theodosia, and her down at the beginning of June. The Virginia river-bottoms husband, Charles Alston. in summer are no fit habitation for civilized men, nor even At rise enter from right accompanied by a seroant-woman William P. Van Ness, middle-aged, rather formally dressed in the style of the for Southerners, I should think, though they seem somehow to have inured themselves to it; times, fanning himself with his top hat. Throughout the scene Van Ness is obviously agitated. Van Ness. I trust the salubrious sea breezes of the Battery have begun to clear· your brain of the marshy miasmas. You ap Van Ness. [hands hat to servant-woman] Or rather, infernally hot pear to enjoy better health, sir, than the last time we met. I should I say, Mrs. Mulroy. The Vice-President expects me? Burr. ['m indifferent refreshed, thank you, William. I think I'd Seroant-Wdman. Yes, sir. Colonel Burr instructed me to see you be recovered altogether could I clear my head of the latest ful into the library. The Vice-President should be down directly. minations of that fool Jefferson. Our President resents impu Van Ness. Thank you, Mrs. Mulroy. Thafs very fine. [Turns tations of inconsistency as an old maid aspersions upon the to look at the portrait] cleanliness of her linen. Now he iS claiming that his defense Servant-Woman. Might I bring you a cup of coffee, Mr. Van of "the great principle of freedom of the press" never com Ness? Or tea? prehended what he is now pleased to call"license"-to wit, Van Ness. [somewhat absently] Er, yes, that would be quite ac- the recent critiCisms of Mr, Jefferson's rougher tactics by one ceptable. ... ah-Crosby? Servant-Woman. Which? Van Ness. CroswelL Van Ness. [turns to her abruptly] Beg pardon? Oh, ah, coffee Burr. Croswell, yes. Upstate smalltown newspaper. You . no . tea, excuse me. defended him, did you not? Servant-Woman. Tea, Mr. Van Ness? Van Ness. I was one of his attorneys. Along with Hamilton. Van Ness. Yes, thank you ... Er, Mrs. Mulroy? I wonder, if Burr. Hamilton, of course. One of Hamilton's few defeats. the Colonel is indisposed, perhaps I should postpone my Van Ness. Yet he was brilliant in the summing up. call ... Burr. Is he not always? Van Ness. In a good cause or a bad. Enter Burr in a dressing gown, lightly powdered hair clubbed and Burr. So I have reason, sadly, to agree. bound with a black band. He carries a small volume in his left hand, Van Ness. I trust I shall not now be the cause of yet more sad his index finger inserted to mark the place. Burr's movements are slow, ness for you but , . dignified, and somewhat feline; his characteristic gesture is to close Burr. [seats himself carefully and motions to Van Ness to take a both eyes and to press the lids with thumb and second finger of his chair] I seem to have lived the better part of my life within right hand. The movement is expressive of prodigious world-weariness earshot of Hamilton's lurid eloquence. What does Milton say? THE ST. JOHN'S REVIEW 1 ''his tongue/Dropped manna, and could make the worse ap Van Ness. And yourself out of the Presidency. pear/ The better reason." Burr. Thereby propelling myself into that ungainly super£! Van Ness. Yes, well, his tongue may have dropped you, sir, the office of the Vice-President of these United States right out of the governor's race. office which one might have thought Hamlet had some Burr. Ah, William, such is my fate. We must not kick against occupied from the melancholy of his dry complaint, " the pricks. Speaking of which ... dear Mr. Jefferson has the air promise-crammed.'' [one voracious ingestion of a gt cooled toward me of late. I seem not so worthy now of his air] tender solicitations as some years hence when I could afford Van Ness. And only your poor pride prevented the full f, him my votes. In fact, I have concluded that His Sapience of Burr. [softly} Not only my poor pride. Monticello has now determined to drive me out of his politi Van Ness. Pardon? cal party. He never believed I was truly a republican and in Burr. [quite softly} Not only my poor pride. that one judgment almost alone, my estimable William, he Van Ness. [also abruptly lowering his voice] To be sure, not is correct. that. There was indeed, Hamilton. Van Ness. [bitterly] You could have had the Presidency ... Burr. There is always, to be sure, Hamilton. Burr. Ah, William . Van Ness. He could have brought around Bayard, and al Van Ness. You could have had it, sir. Nay, but it cannot be Federalist minions. denied! That smooth fellow Bayard. He all but begged you Burr. "Thou sayest it." to offer him the bribe that would have opened the door. Van Ness. You, my best of captains, know it to be so. Burr. Yes. And I think of all the good reasons Mr. Jefferson Burr. [once more rapt in meditation] As I know the abscest has to dislike me, that, above anything, festers on the rind der my tongue, I know it, William. Once, just once, I i of his dear, compendious conscience. That I should decline known the sweet relish of triumph over that man. It what he could not, for the life of him, could not for all his almost the first time I collided with him. At the very 01 protestations of Olympian toploftiness. of the Revolution, Howe's first campaign against Wasl Van Ness. And what did he use to buy Bayard's machination? ton-the summer of '76 on Long Island. Howe had jus Burr. I must say I never cared to seek the bottom of that mys us up pretty badly on Brooklyn Heights and we were tr tery. There are too many plausible bribes that would have to join the main body of the army where Washington served. Though I should not be surprised to learn that Thomas stayed, in upper Manhattan. I was riding towards Wasl Jefferson became third President of these benighted states at ton's headquarters when I came upon a little fort cram the cost of no more than a promise to keep certain Federalists with confused, fear-bedazed rebels. They were milling a in the posts they had gotten themselves well accustomed to a great stout fellow, General Knox, who kept swiping a under Washington and Adams. forehead and looking stupidly at everything and nothing VanNess. And that was toomuchforyou to pay? You to whom a steer who's just been polled between the eyes. the same bid was first made? Van Ness. Henry Knox. Hamilton propped him up as VI Burr. Bayard had a kind of unctuous effluvia to him ... ington's Secretary of War. Van Ness. [sadly and wistfully} That odor was the fleeting aro Burr. [busies himself with the fire, speaking with his back to ma of a power more lasting, I fear, than ariy, my good pa Ness] The same.

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