The musical Hamilton introduced theatregoers to Aaron Burr, the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. But Burr’s place in history goes far beyond that.
He was a tall, handsome man, fond of the ladies, but ambitious to a fault, and he came within one vote of becoming our 3d President.
He was Thomas Jefferson’s running mate in the presidential election of 1800 and would help carry the state of New York. Their Republican ticket was supposed to easily defeat John Adam’s reelection efforts but there was a glitch…a big glitch.
It seems that the same group of brilliant men who did such a thorough job writing the Constitution got a little lazy when they wrote the section on how Presidents got elected. The top vote-getter from the Electoral College would be President, the runner-up Vice-President. In 1796, the previous election, they realized their error. Jefferson had become John Adams Vice-President even though they had opposed one another.
And now, in 1800, when the votes were counted, it happened again. Jefferson and Burr received the same number of votes. Machiavellian forces arose. The Federalists, Adams party, controlled the House of Representatives where this was all playing out. They detested Tom Jefferson; the man was too radical. Better to choose the more pliable Burr.
The vote on who would be President in 1800 was deadlocked and after 35 ballots and weeks of shouting, it remained so. Burr was ecstatic. He might actually win. Why settle for the Vice-Presidency when the real power was almost his?
Burr had been a hero in the Revolutionary war, but he was spurned by General Washington for being overly ambitious. After the war he became a Senator from New York supported by its influential Governor Clinton. But he was equally disliked by the other New York power, the Schuylers, a family counting Alexander Hamilton among its members.
And there the dislike festered, two brilliant men, both needing the patronage of wealthy families, finding themselves always on different sides.
The deadlock in Congress continued. Hamilton disliked Jefferson but he hated Burr. It was easy to choose the lesser of two evils. He stepped in and swung enough Federalist votes to support Jefferson and resolve the impasse. Aaron Burr never forgot!
Neither did Thomas Jefferson! He isolated his traitorous Vice-President from any involvement in government. The man had tried to steal his election.
When Jefferson chose James Madison as his running mate in 1804, Burr was furious. He ran and lost the election for Governor of New York and continued to blame Hamilton for his misfortunes. Their mutual frustrations and accusations continued. It was too much. Burr challenged his adversary to a duel. On an early morning in a pastoral field in Weehawken, New Jersey, the men confronted one another. Each man fired a single shot. Hamilton’s missed, Burr’s did not. Burr was charged with murder but never tried. He traveled west, still filled with ambition, eventually charged with treason. There was inadequate evidence, but the stain of his actions followed him the remainder of his life.