circumstances will, it is trusted, furnish ample justification. No
sooner had the newspapers announced the fact that the Memoirs of
Colonel Burr were to be written by me, than I received letters from
various quarters of the country, inquiring into the nature of the
revelations that the book would make, and deprecating the introduction
of individual cases. These letters came to hand both anonymously and
under known signatures, expressing intense solicitude for suppression.

Under such circumstances, am I not only warranted in these remarks,
but imperiously called upon to make them? What other mode remained to
set the public mind at ease? I have now stated what must for ever
hereafter preclude all possibility for cavil on one part, or anxiety
on the other. I _alone_ have possessed the private and important
papers of Colonel Burr; and I pledge my honour that every one of them,
so far as I know and believe, that could have injured the feelings of
a female or those of her friends, is destroyed. In order to leave no
chance for distrust, I will add, that I never took, or permitted to be
taken, a single copy of any of these letters; and, of course, it is
quite impossible that any publication hereafter, if any should be made
of such papers or letters, can have even the pretence of authenticity.

THE AUTHOR.

New-York, November 15th, 1836.

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CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.