APPENDIX. The following paper, in the hand writing of Gen. HAMILTON, was inclosed with his Will, and some other papers, in a packet, addressed to one of his executors, which was of course not to have been delivered but in case of the melancholy event that has happened. As it contains his motives and reflections on the causes that have led to this fatal catastrophe, it is deemed proper to communicate it to the public. ON my expected interview with Col. Burr, I think it proper to make some remarks explanatory of my conduct, motives and views. 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, by the forced sale of my property, may 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 Col. 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 Col. BURR. Intrinsic, because it is not to be denied, that my animadversions on the political principles, char. acter and views of Col. 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 appear to me com |