Aaron Burr letter to Theodosia Alston, 7 November 1803

TO THEODOSIA.

New-York, November 7, 1803.

Your letter from Chester was received in due time; that from Washington came only yesterday, having lain there fourteen days before it was put into the office. By this time you must have received all those which I have written to you since your departure--not a single one. This is the first time that I have put pen to paper at you; but I have been too busy, selling. All is sold, and well sold; not all, however. The house, outhouses, and some three or four acres remain. Enough to keep up the appearance, and all the pleasant recollections of your infantine days, and some of your matronly days also, are reserved with interest. This weighty business, however, is completed, and a huge weight it has taken from the head and shoulders, and every other part, animal and intellectual, of A. B.

Mr. M'Kinnon wrote me, last June, a letter, which I received a few days ago, and with it came two shawls or cloaks (a kind of worked muslin, all the rage in Paris and London at that date), some visiting cards, and ornamented message paper. Half his letter is to you and of you. He begs you to accept one of the shawls, and to give Frances the other. I executed his instructions by giving F. one. Surely it is not worth while to send the other to the Oaks for the admiration of your Africans. It is, in my opinion, beautiful; though, at first sight, I thought so little of it that I was going to give it to Peggy or Nancy. Of the cards I enclose a sample.

If little 'gamp' could read, I should write to him volumes. I find my thoughts straying to him every hour in the day, and think more of him twenty fold than of you two together. Mrs. Laight and child are well. They move to town in six or eight days. Anna is well. Cath. C. la la.

A. BURR.