1804 In duel,
Burr fatally shoots Hamilton
^top^
In a duel held near Weehawken,
New Jersey, Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shoots his long-time
political antagonist Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, a leading
Federalist and former secretary of the treasury under President
George Washington, died the following day.
In 1801, in an election conducted
before presidential and vice presidential candidates shared
a single ticket, Thomas Jefferson and his running mate Aaron
Burr had defeated Federalist incumbent John Adams with seventy-three
electoral votes each. The tie vote then went to the House to
be decided, and Alexander Hamilton was instrumental in breaking
the deadlock in Jefferson's favor. Burr, because he finished
second, became vice president, but Jefferson grew apart from
Burr, and did not support his nomination to a second term in
1804.
A faction of the Federalists,
who had found their fortunes drastically diminished after the
ascendance of Jefferson, sought to enlist the disgruntled Burr
into their party. However, Hamilton opposed such a move, and
was quoted by a New York newspaper saying that he "looked upon
Mr. Burr to be a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be
trusted with the reins of government." The article also referred
to occasions when Hamilton had expressed an even "more despicable
opinion of Burr." Burr demanded an apology, Hamilton refused,
so Burr challenged his old political enemy to a duel.
On 11 July 1804, the pair met
at a remote spot in Weehawken Heights, New Jersey. Hamilton,
whose son was killed in a duel three years earlier, deliberately
fired into the air, but Burr fired with intent to kill. Hamilton,
fatally wounded, died in New York City the next day. The questionable
circumstances of Hamilton's death effectively brought Burr's
political career to an end.
Fleeing to Virginia, he traveled
to New Orleans after finishing his term as vice president, and
met with US General James Wilkinson, who was an agent for the
Spanish. The exact nature of what the two plotted is unknown,
but speculation ranges from the establishment of an independent
republic in the American Southwest to the seizure of territory
in Spanish America for the same purpose.
In the fall of 1806, Burr led
a group of well-armed colonists toward New Orleans, prompting
an immediate investigation by US authorities. General Wilkinson,
in an effort to save himself, turned against Burr and sent dispatches
to Washington accusing Burr of treason. On February 19, 1807,
Burr was arrested in Alabama for treason and sent to Richmond,
Virginia, to be tried in a US circuit court. On September
1, 1807, he was acquitted on the grounds that, although he had
conspired against the United States, he was not guilty of treason
because he had not engaged in an "overt act," a requirement
of treason as specified by the US Constitution. Nevertheless,
public opinion condemned him as a traitor and he was forced
to retire to a private life.
Burr and Hamilton were both New
Yorkers. The reason they crossed the Hudson is that New Jersey
did not have a law against dueling at the time. New York had
banned the practice earlier, partly due to Hamilton's own campaign
efforts after his son was killed in a duel. Dueling was outlawed
in the North much earlier than it was in the South. The state
of Massachusetts declared it "detestable and infamous." Duelists
in that state could be punished even if they both survived the
duel. A typical penalty would be to stand an hour with a rope
around their neck at the gallows and then to spend a year in
prison. Transgressors might also receive lashes from a whip.
For duelists who died, there was still a civic penalty to be
paid. The loser was buried without a coffin near the spot of
the duel with a stake driven through his body. The winner could
be prosecuted for murder, executed, and buried in the same manner.
Even the mere threat of a duel
had serious consequences: In 1818, George Norton challenged
someone to a duel in New York for insulting his honor and was
sentenced to a month in prison for his dare. In the South, dueling
was much more popular and accepted, especially among upper-class
society. The practice was so common that legislators were asked
to take an oath to declare that they had never been in a duel.
Even after dueling became illegal, the law was rarely enforced.
The Burr-Hamilton duel was not
the last high-profile case. In 1809, future senator Henry Clay
and Humphrey Marshall were arguing over legislation in Kentucky's
state house when Clay called Marshall a demagogue and Marshall
responded by calling Clay a liar. Their subsequent duel was
fought with pistols at a length of ten paces. Luckily for both,
neither was a good shot (nor were the weapons particularly accurate),
and they both recovered from their injuries.
In a duel held in Weehawken, New
Jersey, Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shoots his long-time
political antagonist Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, a leading
Federalist and the chief architect of the US's political economy,
died the following day. Alexander Hamilton, born on the Caribbean
island of Nevis in 1757, came to the American colonies in 1773
as a poor immigrant. In 1776, he joined the Continental Army
in the American Revolution, and his relentless energy and remarkable
intelligence brought him to the attention of General George
Washington, who took him on as an aid. Ten years later, Hamilton
served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and he
led the fight to win ratification of the final document, which
created the kind of strong, centralized government that he favored.
In 1789, he was appointed the first secretary of the treasury
by President Washington, and during the next six years he crafted
a sophisticated monetary policy that saved the young US government
from collapse. With the emergence of political parties, Hamilton
was regarded as a leader of the Federalists. Aaron Burr, born
into a prestigious New Jersey family in 1756, was also intellectually
gifted, and he graduated from the College of New Jersey (later
Princeton) at the age of 17. He joined the Continental Army
in 1775 and distinguished himself during the Patriot attack
on Quebec.
A masterful politician, he was
elected to the New State Assembly in 1783 and later served as
state attorney. In 1790, he defeated Alexander Hamilton's father-in-law
in a race for the US Senate. Hamilton came to detest Burr, whom
he regarded as a dangerous opportunist, and he often spoke ill
of him. When Burr ran for the vice presidency in 1796 on Thomas
Jefferson's Democratic-Republican ticket (the forerunner of
the Democratic Party), Hamilton launched a series of public
attacks against Burr, stating, "I feel it is a religious duty
to oppose his career." John Adams won the presidency, and in
1797 Burr left the Senate and returned to the New York Assembly.
In 1800, Jefferson chose Burr again as his running mate. Burr
aided the Democratic-Republican ticket by publishing a confidential
document that Hamilton had written criticizing his fellow Federalist
President John Adams. This caused a rift in the Federalists
and helped Jefferson and Burr win the election with 73 electoral
votes each. Under the electoral procedure then prevailing, president
and vice president were not voted for separately; the candidate
who received the most votes was elected president, and the second
in line, vice president. The vote then went to the House of
Representatives. What at first seemed but an electoral technicality--handing
Jefferson victory over his running mate--developed into a major
constitutional crisis when Federalists in the lame-duck Congress
threw their support behind Burr. After a remarkable 35 tie votes,
a small group of Federalists changed sides and voted in Jefferson's
favor. Alexander Hamilton, who had supported Jefferson as the
lesser of two evils, was instrumental in breaking the deadlock.
Burr became vice president, but
Jefferson grew apart from him, and he did not support Burr's
renomination to a second term in 1804. That year, a faction
of New York Federalists, who had found their fortunes drastically
diminished after the ascendance of Jefferson, sought to enlist
the disgruntled Burr into their party and elect him governor.
Hamilton campaigned against Burr with great fervor, and Burr
lost the Federalist nomination and then, running as an independent
for governor, the election. In the campaign, Burr's character
was savagely attacked by Hamilton and others, and after the
election he resolved to restore his reputation by challenging
Hamilton to a duel, or an "affair of honor," as they were known.
Affairs of honor were commonplace in America at the time, and
the complex rules governing them usually led to an honorable
resolution before any actual firing of weapons. In fact, the
outspoken Hamilton had been involved in several affairs of honor
in his life, and he had resolved most of them peaceably. No
such recourse was found with Burr, however, and on 11 July 1804,
the enemies met at 7 a.m. at the dueling grounds near Weehawken,
New Jersey. It was the same spot where Hamilton's son had died
defending his father's honor two years before. There are conflicting
accounts of what happened next. According to Hamilton's "second"--his
assistant and witness in the duel--Hamilton decided the duel
was morally wrong and deliberately fired into the air. Burr's
second claimed that Hamilton fired at Burr and missed. What
happened next is agreed upon: Burr shot Hamilton in the stomach,
and the bullet lodged next to his spine. Hamilton was taken
back to New York, and he died the next afternoon. Few affairs
of honor actually resulted in deaths, and the nation was outraged
by the killing of a man as eminent as Alexander Hamilton.
Charged with murder in New York
and New Jersey, Burr, still vice president, returned to Washington
DC, where he finished his term immune from prosecution. In 1805,
Burr, thoroughly discredited, concocted a plot with James Wilkinson,
commander-in-chief of the US Army, to seize the Louisiana Territory
and establish an independent empire, which Burr, presumably,
would lead. He contacted the British government and unsuccessfully
pleaded for assistance in the scheme. Later, when border trouble
with Spanish Mexico heated up, Burr and Wilkinson conspired
to seize territory in Spanish America for the same purpose.
In the fall of 1806, Burr led a group of well-armed colonists
toward New Orleans, prompting an immediate US investigation.
General Wilkinson, in an effort to save himself, turned against
Burr and sent dispatches to Washington accusing Burr of treason.
In February 1807, Burr was arrested in Louisiana for treason
and sent to Virginia to be tried in a US court. In September,
he was acquitted on a technicality. Nevertheless, public opinion
condemned him as a traitor, and he fled to Europe. He later
returned to private life in New York, the murder charges against
him forgotten. He died in 1836. |
On
a 11 July: 
2002
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1940
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