Burr slays Hamilton in duel 1804
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
America’s political economy, died the following day.
Alexander Hamilton, born on the Caribbean island of Nevis, came to
the American colonies in 1773 as a poor immigrant. (There is some
controversy as to the year of his birth, but it was either 1755 or
1757.) 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 July 11, 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 in 1801.
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, D.C., where he finished his term
immune from prosecution.
In 1805, Burr, thoroughly discredited, concocted a plot with James
Wilkinson, commander-in-chief of the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
(More Events on This Day in History)
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American Revolution
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Automotive
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Civil War
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Cold War
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Crime
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Disaster
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General Interest
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Hollywood
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Literary
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Music
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Old West
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Presidential
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Sports
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Vietnam War
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- 1967 Senators debate U.S. policy in Vietnam
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World War I
- 1918 German command makes final plans for renewed offensive on the Western Front
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World War II
- 1944 Hitler is paid a visit by his would-be assassin
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