modated to the poor as well as to the rich; to the concealed speculator no less than to the avowed libertine. The subdivision of chances is so minute as even to include, among the adventurers, the day-laborer, the apprentice to a trade, and the servant girl. But it does not stop here. With its own undistinguishing spirit, it sacrifices older victims, and ascends into higher walks. It penetrates into situations which would prove impervious to the contaminating influences of ordinary gaming. While, in common gaming, the personal superintendence which is necessary must expose the infamy of participation, the odium of holding tickets may be prevented by committing to another the charge of the purchase. It is thus, that persons claiming respectability have been known to engage in lottery speculations without incurring the disgrace, which, in all well-regulated communities, is attached to the practice of gaming. In truth, want of consideration has sometimes led persons, whose morals were irreproachable, in other respects, to purchase tickets, and thus to countenance a system which has brought multitudes to shame and ruin.

Again, the risks are greater in the lottery than in other gaming. The chance of the latter may be as one to one, or greater, according to the skill of the player; but the hazards of the former are frequently in the proportion of one to a thousand or even more. In the one, the loss of fortune may ensue in a single night; but in the other, the excitements of hope and the agony of disappointment, may alternate in rapid succession, and the unhappy adventurer may have a protracted and most painful struggle, before he can know the result of the contest. In the mean time, he is rendered a useless, not to say a pernicious, member of society; his principles are contaminated by familiar association with infamy and guilt, and his habits debauched by indulging in the excesses into which he has most probably been drawn. The life of a regular gamester may possibly admit of useful occupation in the intervals of play. But the lottery adventurer broods by day and night over his tickets, his imagination is excited with the grand idea of obtaining the capital prize, and his mind is held in that state of anxious suspense, which permits nothing to divert it from the one absorbing object of its contemplation. He is soon incapable of a higher effort than

to discuss the merits of a scheme, or to lounge in a lottery office. Though often the loser, he is sometimes the gainer; new excitement is thereby given to his passion; he is urged on to new adventures; great good fortune only whets his appetite for greater still; and continued ill-luck only nourishes the hope of its speedy termination. Driven, as well by the desperate necessity of ministering to his excitement, as by depraved principles and reckless despair, he is ready for the perpetration of any enormity. The effects of the lottery system, therefore, on the character, are at least as ruinous as the effects of ordinary gaming. What claim, then, has such a system to be cherished and nurtured by the genial sunshine of protective legislation, in a country, with whose entire policy it is directly at war, whose interest consists in presenting every incentive to useful and honorable exertion, and in making wealth the fruit of intelligent and persevering industry?

6. The tendency of this system to raise up and encourage idlers, spendthrifts, and gamesters of every description, ought to be more distinctly brought to view than it has hitherto been. The Philadelphia committee of 1831, before referred to, affirm, that the number of these classes of persons has been daily augmenting in that city; a fact, which, they say, no citizen, not wholly inattentive to what is passing around him, can have failed to notice and deplore. In Philadelphia, the number of lottery offices in 1831 was ascertained to be one hundred and seventy-seven, and in 1833, the number was estimated to be more than two hundred. It was estimated, too, that between five and six hundred persons were employed to attend to the business of these two hundred or more offices. These persons subsist and grow rich by preying upon their deluded fellow-citizens. Boys of the tenderest age are initiated into all the mysteries of the craft, which are those of habitual falsehood and schemes of rapine. The artifices practised to deceive the credulous, allure the unwary, and induce a purchase, and the frauds devised for robbing the wretched victim of his prize, when he happens to draw one, are matter of common notoriety. Then, too, observe the scenes and spectacles at the drawings, which, it is affirmed, occur, in some of our cities, almost every fortnight throughout the year. Hundreds of wretched

persons are collected on these occasions, whose intense anxiety is read in their flushed and distorted countenances. Listen to the loud imprecations and blasphemy, mingled with the scarcely audible whisper of profane, delirious, and intoxicating joy, upon the announcement of a prize. Observe the motley throng upon their dispersion, and witness the agonizing disappointment and despair, which are seen upon the faces of ninety-nine in every hundred. Such is the system, which, though considerably checked within a few years, still exists very extensively, both in Europe and in the United States.

The celebrated French mathematician and physical astronomer, M. Laplace, has summed up the objections to the lottery system, in a manner at once so clear and comprehensive, that I have been anxious to give the close of this chapter the advantage of being enriched by his observations, but my limits render it impossible to gratify this wish.* He sustains me fully in the mathematical, financial, and moral views which I have taken of the subject.†

CHAPTER V.

DUELLING.

DUELLING is accustomed to be defended by very few, even of those who are willing, on certain occasions, to resort to it. They are rather accustomed to rest it on alleged necessity, than on argument; of which necessity they assume to be the exclusive judges. It seems useless, therefore, to treat by argument and protracted discussion, a practice which is scarcely ever vindicated

* See Extrait du Discours prononcé par M. de Laplace, à la Chambre des Pairs, le 16 Juillet, 1819.—Mr. Jefferson's views may be seen in his Works, Vol. IV. pp. 428-438.

In preparing this chapter, much use has been made of a well-written and otherwise very valuable pamphlet of 105 pages, on the evils of the lottery system in the United States, published by Job R. Tyson, Esq., at the request of a meeting of the citizens of Philadelphia, on the 22d of November, 1833.

in that way. * Still, I am unwilling to leave an evil so dangerous

and so pernicious, without giving it some further consideration. † Under these circumstances, I can think of no way which promises to be more useful, than to take one of the most celebrated cases of duelling on record, and carefully analyze it, and consider its moral character and complexion. To this end, I am unhappily furnished with an instance as well suited to my purpose as

could be desired.

In the year 1804, the celebrated Alexander Hamilton and Colonel Aaron Burr met in personal combat, occasioned by a difference arising out of the political relations which subsisted between them. General Hamilton had been Secretary of the Treasury during President Washington's administration, and Colonel Burr had been Vice-President of the United States. General Hamilton was mortally wounded in the combat, and died the next day. Previous to the meeting, he drew up a paper to be left behind him in the event of his falling, which makes us fully acquainted with his views on duelling. It is subjoined in the note. The

* Boswell's Life of Johnson, Vol. I. p. 294. † See above, pp. 109, 303, 304. "I was certainly desirous of avoiding this interview, for the most cogent reasons. 1. My religious and moral principles are strongly opposed to the practice of duelling; and it would ever give me pain to be obliged to shed the blood of a fellow-creature in a private combat forbidden by the laws. 2. My wife and children are extremely dear to me, and my life is of the utmost importance to them in various views. 3. I feel a sense of obligation towards my creditors, who, in case of accident to me, may, by the forced sale of my property, be in some degree sufferers. I did not think myself at liberty, as a man of probity, lightly to expose them to this hazard. 4. I am conscious of no ill-will to Colonel Burr, distinct from political opposition, which, as I trust, has proceeded from pure and upright motives. Lastly, I shall hazard much, and can possibly gain nothing by the issue of the interview.

"But it was, as I conceive, impossible for me to avoid it. There were intrinsic difficulties in the thing, and artificial embarrassments from the manner of proceeding on the part of Colonel Burr. Intrinsic, because it is not to be denied, that my animadversions on the political principles, character, and views of Colonel Burr have been extremely severe; and on different occasions, I, in common with many others, have made very unfavorable criticisms on particular instances of the private conduct of this gentleman.

"In proportion as these impressions were entertained with sincerity, and uttered with motives and for purposes, which might to me appear commendable, would be the difficulty (until they could be removed by evidence of their being erroneous) of explanation or apology. The disavowal required of me by Colo

following brief but careful analysis and observations on this transaction are submitted without amplification.

1. General Hamilton unequivocally condemns, nay, "abhors

nel Burr, in a general and indefinite form, was out of my power, if it had been really proper for me to submit to be questioned; but I was sincerely of opinion, that this could not be; and in this opinion I was confirmed by a very moderate and judicious friend, whom I consulted. Besides that Colonel Burr appeared to me to assume, in the first instance, a tone unnecessarily peremptory and menacing; and in the second, positively offensive. Yet I wished, as far as might be practicable, to leave a door open for accommodation. This, I think, will be inferred from the written communications made by me and by my direction; and would be confirmed by the conversation between Mr. Van Ness and myself, which arose out of the subject. I am not sure whether, under all the circumstances, I did not go further in the attempt to accommodate, than a punctilious delicacy will justify. If so, I hope the motives I have stated will

excuse me.

"It is not my design, in what I have said, to affix any odium on the conduct of Colonel Burr, in this case. He doubtless has heard of animadversions of mine, which bore very hard upon him; and it is probable, that, as usual, they were accompanied by some falsehoods. He may have supposed himself under a necessity of acting as he has done. I hope the grounds of his proceeding have been such as ought to satisfy his own conscience.

"I trust, at the same time, that the world will do me the justice to believe, that I have not censured him on light grounds, nor from unworthy inducements. I certainly have had strong reasons for what I may have said; though it is possible, that, in some particulars, I may have been influenced by misconstruction or misinformation. It is also my ardent wish, that I may have been more mistaken than I think I have been; and that he, by his future conduct, may show himself worthy of all confidence and esteem, and prove an ornament and blessing to the country.

“As well because it is possible, that I may have injured Colonel Burr, however convinced myself, that my opinions and declarations have been well founded, as from my general principles and temper in relation to such affairs, 1 have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and throw away my first fire; and I have thoughts even of reserving my second fire, and thus giving a double opportunity to Colonel Burr to pause and reflect. It is not, however, my intention to enter into any explanation on the ground. Apology (from principle, I hope, rather than pride) is out of the question.

"To those, who, with me, abhorring the practice of duelling, may think, that I ought on no account to have added to the number of bad examples, I answer, that my relative situation, as well in public as private, enforcing all the considerations which constitute what men of the world denominate honor, imposed on me (as I thought) a peculiar necessity not to decline the call. The ability to be, in future, useful, whether in resisting mischief, or effecting good, in those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would, probably, be inseparable from a conformity to public prejudice in this particular.

"A. H."