Burr-Hamilton Duel

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

When Burr was running for president against Thomas Jefferson, it came down to Hamilton’s opinion for the Federalists. Hamilton chose to indorse Jefferson because he had beliefs about the government, while Burr kept quiet about his opinions so he could sneak his way into office without angering anybody. Thomas Jefferson won by a landslide, and Burr was so angry at Hamilton that he challenged him to a duel. Not only was the duel a horrible idea, it was also cruel. The location of the duel was in the same spot Hamilton’s son died, in the exact same way, a duel. When the duel commenced Hamilton aimed his gun for the sky, while Burr shot him. Burr was smart enough to know that Hamilton was not going to shoot him, when his son was in that position he told him to aim his gun toward the sky because “to take a man’s life is something you can’t

In the battle between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton was one of the most famous duels in the early 19th century. Both men were very significant political leaders of the United States. The men had clashes throughout the 1790’s which lead to a duel between the two and Alexander Hamilton lost his life.

According to the first draft of the Constitution, electors voted for two presidents, at least one of which was from a different state than the elector was representing. Whichever candidate received the most votes would become president and the runner-up would be vice-president. This method worked for several years until, in 1800, the unforeseen effect of political parties resulted in a tie for the presidency between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, both of the same party. The resulting dispute over who the president would be led to the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.

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.

The main result of the election of 1800 was the peaceful transition of political power and the tie between the two democratic-republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr with seventy-three votes each. The decision was then to be made by the House of Representatives. Due to Alexander Hamilton's help and persuasion by choosing Thomas Jefferson as the lesser of two evils, the House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson as president and Aaron Burr as vice president. As a result of the 1800 election, the Congress and the states passed the Twelfth Amendment in 1804 separating the ballots for the president and for the vice president to prevent the same crisis in the future.

Election of 1800 was between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It was one of the emotional and hard-fought campaign. James Madison joined Jefferson in leading the opposition Republican Party. The two parties were endorsing different platforms. John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney ran for the Federalist Party. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran as Republicans. Both these Democratic-Republicans defeated Federalist John Adams but tied with each other. They ended up tiring because party discipline was so excellent. The Republicans were so well organized that everybody voted for the two men.

Before the Revolutionary War had occurred, many people were coming to the new colonies to start a new life; one of the people was Alexander Hamilton. He had come to the colonies after impressing people in the Caribbean and who then sent him to America to get a better education (“Alexander Hamilton”). Hamilton was an important figure in American history, but very few today remember who he was and what he did. Alexander Hamilton took a stand against traditional government by writing against and battling the British, fighting for the new U.S. Treasury, and arguing for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

The Federalists no longer held power in the presidency and in Congress and as a whole, were “destined never to regain national power” (Tindall and Shi 317). The defeat of Adams was the beginning of the Federalists’ decline and their party would gradually fade over time into obscurity. Even more important was that the election of 1800 demonstrated the success of the so-called experimental republican government. Jefferson’s victory showed that it was possible for the government handle the transfer of power from the in-power party to the out-of-power party. Even though the period leading up to the election was filled with conflict between the political parties, after the election the presidency was transferred from Adams to Jefferson without bloodshed or legal issues. Jefferson was unanimously recognized as the president and the government was established as a legitimate political body that could handle change, not just a dynasty of Federalists (Mr. Weisend). The election of 1800 and subsequent deadlock between Jefferson and Burr also exposed a flaw in the U.S. Constitution that the original Founders did not expect. The Founders originally gave each elector in the Electoral College two ballots to cast for a President and a Vice President. They had hoped that the two candidates with the most votes would set aside their differences and assume the roles of President and Vice President,

John Ferling, the author, began by describing the events that occurred just prior to the election, and painted the picture of John Adams travelling to Washington D.C. from his Massachusetts farm and Thomas Jefferson from his hilltop lair of Monticello in Virginia—symbolizing the differences among Adam’s northeastern simple farming roots and Jefferson’s extravagant southern slave-owning background. From the start, the author explains (without tipping his hat to the debacle the system would cause in the 1800 election) how in the 1796 and 1800 elections, the Constitution required the practice of each political party nominating two presidential candidates, with the candidates with the most votes becoming President and the second most becoming Vice-President. The Federalists nominated Adams and Charles Pinckney from South Carolina;

Northeastern Federalists, who were afraid of what western expansion would do to them, were among the highest supporters of succession; they found a proponent of the idea in Vice President Aaron Burr. This however did not set with Alexander Hamilton, and it led to the gun duel which cost Hamilton his life. When his term was over, Burr fled to avoid facing the music and plotted to create a new country of the Louisiana Territory along with the assistance of James Wilkinson without realizing that his accomplice was not only a traitor like him, but that Wilkinson was a spy. Wilkinson took Aaron Burr into custody, but Burr was cleared of treason shortly afterwards.

Vice President Thomas Jefferson defeated President John Adams. The main political issue of the election of 1800 was the fallout from the French Revolution, including the opposition to the tax made enforced by Congress to pay for the mobilization of the new army and navy in the Quasi War. The Federalists were struggling due to a dispute between their two major leaders, President Adams and Alexander Hamilton. The election exposed some of the flaws in the original Constitution; members of the electoral college were able to vote for two names for President. The candidate with the most votes would become President and the candidate with the second most would be Vice President, according to the Constitution. The Democratic-Republicans -planned for

The previous election had an unusual end result. He was running against John Adams and had Aaron Burr to run as his vice president. During his campaign, Jefferson stated that he would run a very provident, and straightforward government. Many thought that Jefferson was being an atheist, which was highly offensive. They thought he would take away religion and have no principles. But it was when the votes were counted, the real troubles started. The result was a tie. Because it was a tie, the House of Representatives voted and the outcome was another tie. After a 6 day wait, Alexander Hamilton persuaded his supporters to vote for Jefferson very easily, and broke the tie. Jefferson had won the election of 1800. This election not only gave the U.S a good president, but also proved the peacefulness of the new government. Power had been transferred without war, unlike other

published in a 1980 edition of the Journal of Psychohistory, represents the first example of

On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton in a duel battle. Hamilton had made comment regarding Burr, stating that he believed his honor was offended and Burr had challenged him to a duel in which he was mortally wounded. Burr was indicted for Hamilton's murder in New York and New Jersey which resulted in him fleeing to Georgia. He would still however remain the President of the Senate during Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase's impeachment trial. The two Burr indictments were "quietly allowed to die [2]. For Jefferson this was a matter that his actions would be watched closely since he did not have a great relationship with Hamilton and his relationship with Burr. But the government ability to take the proper actions and prosecute Burr allowed Jefferson to have less involvement showing a true balance of powers. A balance of power in the government was something that the US was thriving had to acquire and the Burr conspiracy was one of the first real test. If the balance of power was not there a Jefferson alone had to act the matter it may have played out