Blood Brothers: The Founding Brothers

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.

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton had quite a difficult relationship. There were many instances where the two were greatly opposing each other. Due to these instances and others in which Burr had felt completely insulted by Hamilton, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. At the Duel, Burr shot Hamilton in the stomach. Hamilton died the next day. Burr was never charged for the murder of Hamilton, but some still consider Burr completely unjust in his actions of challenging and killing Hamilton.

Hamilton laughs at them because he is wrong, but he goes on to further taunt them “If I can prove that I never broke the law/Do you promise not to tell another soul what you saw?”. He does this in order for no one else to find out about the affair. It shows that Hamilton cares more about his work and reputation rather than his family. Hamilton tells Burr, Madison and Jefferson about his affair, “I may have mortally wounded my prospects/ But my papers are orderly!”. He finally reveals the details to another person, upon hearing this Burr promises not to tell anyone else. Hamilton says “As you can see I have done nothing to provoke legal action/Are my answers to your satisfaction?” He is trying to prevent a lawsuit against himself. It moves the plot forward, Burr doesn’t have any evidence against Hamilton. Burr stops trying to incriminate Hamilton at least for

On July 11, 1804, a bullet from Aaron Burr’s pistol put an end to the life of Alexander Hamilton. However, it did not put an end to Hamilton’s vision for America. In 1806, a twenty-nine year old Kentuckian entered the U.S Senate and breathed life into Hamilton’s vision. His name was Henry Clay. For the next forty years, the man whom Abraham Lincoln called “My beau-ideal of a statesman” to natiously strove to implement a federal economic policy that closely followed

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

The main reason that rise to conflict between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson is their contradict ideas about the government. As a federalist supporter, Hamilton find favor in a strong central government, meanwhile, Jefferson believe in a limited government. Because his fear of mod rules, HaMilton distrusted that a government should be ruled by everyone. He acknowledge that a strong central government

5. According to Ellis’s explanation, why did Hamilton and Burr duel in the first place?

Washington resented it, and punished Burr for the rest of his life” (Aaron Burr Association). The 1791 US Senate race brought up a growing enemy for Burr, Alexander Hamilton. When Aaron Burr won the Senate seat from Federalist Philip Schuyler, who happened to be Hamilton’s father-in-law, Hamilton began resenting Aaron Burr for taking the seat. Hamilton started hating Burr for selfish reasons. Burr attempted writing a book on the Revolutionary War, but Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State denied him access of the library. In the presidential election of 1800, Burr tied with Thomas Jefferson who both received 73 electoral votes. Alexander Hamilton repeatedly tried convincing the House of Representatives to elect Jefferson over Burr, on account of Aaron Burr beating Hamilton’s father–in-law for a seat in the Senate (Senate). Hamilton’s scheme works and Burr is elected Vice President, and this is Aaron Burr’s stressor or breaking point. Thomas Jefferson once said, “I never, indeed thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or stroke you could never be sure of”(Senate). When Burr was Jefferson’s Vice President he could tell that Aaron Burr’s mind was not all there, and Thomas Jefferson knew that Burr could go off at anytime yet no one knew when.

Whose side would you have been on in the 1790s, Thomas Jefferson’s or Alexander Hamilton’s? Both of these men served under George Washington in the first presidential cabinet, yet they had very different views of what government should be (Davis 86). My objective in this research essay is to inform the reader of why there was so much controversy between these two founding fathers, and to determine which side had the better views for our newly forming country.

In the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s, the emergence of opposing styles of governing became a prominent issue in the new nation of the United States of America. Once being citizens of Britain, the new Americans knew only of one main way of settling these issues: duels. Many examples of duels are accounted: Gwinnett and McIntosh, Philip Hamilton and Eacker, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, Jackson and Dickinson, Griswold and Lyon, Clay and Randolph, Sumner and Brooks, and many others. The use of these examples shows the notability of dueling in America. This use of fighting, however, correlated strongly to the emergence of the Civil War, for they saw combat as the only means of solving issues. However, upon the end of the Civil War and

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.

Alexander Hamilton’s vision came closer to becoming a reality in the 1820’s. By the 1820’s, the Embargo Act, War of 1812 and the Panic of 1819 played a very important role in the reshaping of our countries economic development and scope and power of the American government. The conflict between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton visions was necessary and made a huge impact on the American development. The main topics of conflict between Thomas Jefferson was the type economy, how much of a role the government played in the lives of the people and how they felt about slavery and the growing black population in America.

1 Joseph J. Ellis, “The Duel,” in Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, (New York, NY: