Aaron Burr: Not A Villain

Chapter One: The Duel was a well-known duel in American history. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. July 11, 1804 is the exact date when the duel took place. It was presumed to have taken place in Weehawken, New Jersey; when in actuality, the duel really took place on a ledge above the water near Weehawken. This isolated spot was foolproof for illegal acts like this. Hamilton ends up dying because of Burr. Burr shot him from a distance. The bullet hit a rib and then ricocheted off into his spine mortally wounding Hamilton. Hamilton was the one that chose the position and the weapons for the duel, but the public thought that Burr killed him in cold blood. The public also started to call Burr the new Benedict Arnold. (Benedict Arnold was considered a traitor.) Burr was never harmed in the whole incident. Because everyone thought Burr was the initiator, he had to leave the city and this was the decline of his political power. Both of these men’s reputations were failing by 1804. Hamilton was appointed the first Secretary of Treasury under George Washington after the Revolutionary War. The Federalist Party was in decline and Hamilton did not hold office for approximately ten years. Burr lost the support

The chapters are titled "The Generation", "The Duel", "The Dinner", "The Silence", "The Farewell", "The Collaborators" and "The Friendship". In "The Duel", the story of the legendary duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is related in its entirety. It was by far the most prominent deadly standoff between two men in history. Ellis relates the background and brief biographies of the two men involved in the duel. He also reveals the context for the duel, a culmination of political and personal jabs at Burrs character by Hamilton. In fact these jabs held a good deal of truth, and finally resulted in Burr challenging Hamilton. Both Hamilton and Burr went to the plains in Weehawken to conduct the duel in defense of their honor and characters. Historically, Hamilton is seen as a martyr in the duel and Burr seen as a treacherous murderer. This Hamiltonian viewpoint is dominant among historians because it is widely believed that Hamilton went into the duel not intending to fire a shot and that Burr fired the first shot. Ellis believes this version of the story to be wrong. He believes that Hamilton honored his bargain of not firing on Burr, wasting his first shot by firing it into the trees. Burr, thinking that Hamilton fired at him, shot and killed Hamilton with his shot.

As history is commonly viewed as dull and boring, Miranda changes this perception through the integration of popular music styles, rap and hip-hop, into the musical. While all of the facts are historically accurate, the audience is exposed to the debates through articulated rap battles and charged emotions are expressed through songs. The songs are also accompanied by choreography, which is a writing idea that is taken and exaggerated to an emotional state that is physicalized. Through these methods, the public gets an easier understanding of motives behind certain actions, such as Aaron Burr shooting Alexander Hamilton at a duel, as well as an clearer comprehension on what happened in history. Through rap and the hip hop style, music is used to keep history current, and provide stories the audience hasn’t heard before. In effect, Hamilton has inspired kids who weren’t good at history to look at a different perspective of the characters. In the musical there is no protagonist nor antagonist. Instead, all of the characters are portrayed as flawed, especially Hamilton, as he not only owned slaves, but was the center of the first political sex scandal in the United States. This allows the audience to know the characters on a realistic level, and acknowledge the fact that although Hamilton is one of the nation’s greatest founding fathers, he is also a man capable of

Instead of using his education like he originally planned, he demonstrates his newfound deviance by doing “whatever it takes to get my plan on the congress floor”. Hamilton is afraid that he will not reach historical fame and political importance and thus conducts business behind closed doors. The song “Burn” iterates what other people think of Alexander Hamilton: “Be careful with that one, love. / He will do what it takes to survive/… You and your words, obsessed with your/ legacy” (II.15).

In the song, “The Adams Administration” it consists mainly of Burr, Madison and Jefferson discussing how Hamilton will no longer be a public figure when they ruin his reputation. We learn the events prior that will add to Hamilton’s backlash. The public are already hesitant of his actions due to “Adams fires Hamilton” and “Hamilton publishes his response” which is a public display of his hatred for Adams. It shows how Hamilton has a short temper since he made a private argument into a public discussion. Burr, Madison and Jefferson hope that Hamilton will have another outrageous outburst, which will leave Hamilton humiliated and out of power. A small part of the song talks about how the Federalist party is destroyed, “Adams, the only

On the other hand, Hamilton’s self-righteousness sometimes helped him and his country. When the Constitution was under fire by many in Congress and in the public, Hamilton took it upon himself to defend it and make sure it stayed in place even with a few amendments. In the song “Non-Stop,” Hamilton puts so much effort into defending the Constitution. This attitude led him to rise to his highest points in the cabinet. At the beginning of the song, he tries to convince Burr to help him in the middle of the night, as Burr puts it, “How do you write like you’re running out of time?” (Miranda and McCarter 143). Hamilton ends up leaving his wife home against her wishes to go and be the secretary of the treasury. From here on, Hamilton joined forces with one of his political opponents, Madison, to write The Federalist Papers. On that topic, the narrator Burr states, “The plan was to write a total of 25 essays work divided evenly among the three men. In the end, they wrote 85 essays, in the span of six months. John Jay got sick after writing 5. James Madison wrote 29. Hamilton wrote the other 51.” This shows the positive impact of Hamilton’s self-righteousness and describes the reason that he became secretary of the treasury and a founding father. His love to write and his attitude brought him far in his line of work and has impacted his life positively by making him a high official in the government and a respected person.

The first story is the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton was wounded and died on the next day, but Aaron’s political career was hurt too much that it would forever not be recovered. Understanding their personalities gives the answer for their fateful ending and legacy. Burr’s philosophy was more democratic than Hamilton, and he supported for slavery abolishing and for spreading land ownership. These ideas of Burr, which had been the foundation for the Civil War in the middle of 19th century, come from the root of his characteristic, as Ellis drew “Whereas Burr’s overall demeanor seemed subdued, as if the compressed energies of New England Puritanism were coiled up inside him, waiting for the opportunity to explode, Hamilton conveyed kinetic energy incessantly expressing itself in burst of conspicuous brilliance” (p.22). History has been considered Burr as a progressive and aggressive person, even

Aaron Burr had been Vice President during the first administration of Thomas Jefferson. In the summer of 1804, Burr killed his rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel, an event that effectively ended Burr’s career in national politics. Three years later, he was on trial, charged with the capital crime of treason by the government headed by Jefferson, his former partner in political office. Presiding over the trial was John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. Finally, there was James Wilkinson, general of the army, once Burr’s associate and at trial his chief accuser. With these principal players, the trial in the U.S. Circuit Court at Richmond was as much high political and personal drama as it was a judicial proceeding

Though both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson served as members of President Washington’s cabinet, the two held very different views on the newly founded U.S. government, interpretation of its constitution, and the role of the “masses” in that government. These conflicting views would develop in two political parties, the Federalists led by Hamilton and the Democratic-Republicans led by Jefferson. Although both political parties presented enticing aspects, Hamilton’s views were much more reasonable and fruitful when compared Jefferson’s views; idealistic and too strict in reference to the constitution.

When one thinks about the founding fathers of America, one thinks of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, etc. These men contributed to the creation of the America we know today. One also thinks about Paul Revere, and his famous saying: “The British are coming!” However, one man is forgotten by many young people who are required study the American Revolution. This man is known as Aaron Burr. His subject brings up a rather negative and obscure argument. People think of him as a traitor, murderer and double crosser. This is because when Aaron Burr is brought up in conversation, his most significant action is discussed: the duel with Alexander Hamilton. Where Burr shot and killed him. However, Burr had an interesting life and contributed greatly to the American revolution. And although Burr murdered one of his fellow Americans, which was an unforgivable crime,

These men had self-serving agendas themselves just like Aaron Burr did but they are hardly criticized for it. Wood says that Jefferson and Hamilton embody the "democratic world of progress, Providence and innumerable isolated but equal individuals, there could be little place for the kind of extraordinary political and intellectual leadership the revolutionary generation had demonstrated," and that these men had “politeness, taste, sociability, learning, compassion, and benevolence-and what it meant to be good political leaders” (22). On the other hand was Burr who was demonized for his selfish actions in this book. Wood says he embodied "what most American politicians would eventually become — pragmatic, get-along men."

One of Hamilton’s first friends and mortal enemy, Aaron Burr was nearly the complete opposite of him. He was born to a wealthy family from New Jersey in 1756. As intellectually gifted as Hamilton, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton) when he was 17. They were good friends for a while, until their friendship was torn apart by their conflicting political pursuits.

Another notable piece of evidence of Hamilton’s involvement in getting these infamous laws to the president’s signing is his response to a fellow politician’s letter regarding the topic of the Alien and Sedition Acts, further driving the point home that perhaps Adams isn’t the one who deserves full responsibility for these disgusting laws being passed,  “Hamilton’s surviving reply signaled his specific approval of the immigration measure, ‘I agree that the President ought to have the power to send out of the country suspected foreigners,’ he answered Dayton, noting only that the law should provide an exception for ‘merchants who have six months by Treaty.’ Hamilton further consented that ‘the suspension of the naturalization act will also be prudent’-a reference to the existing five-year residency requirement that the Federalists wished to extend to fourteen years. ‘I always wished that our naturalization acts had been distinguished between the right to hold property and political privileges,’ he added,” (Magness, 12). This to me is undeniable proof that Hamilton indefinitely supported these acts, and that he is the exact opposite of what a symbol for equality and justice should be in this day and age.

In order to fully understand the actual letters and how they are connected, it is important to look at the actual events that occurred that led to the final written interactions between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Burr and Hamilton are casually connected throughout their lives, first meeting each other at the Elizabethtown Academy

politics. The recent historiography of the incident provides us with a complex, evolving web of