Aaron Burr Shoots Alexander Hamilton
The Vice President Wins a Duel
July 11, 1804
I think most Americans know that Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton fought a duel. They probably know that Aaron Burr won. I knew those two facts from Elementary School.
Facts that I learned while researching this blog post:
Aaron Burr was still Vice President when this duel was fought
The duel was fought over remarks that Hamilton had made in a letter
Burr allegedly could have dueled with many people but Burr chose Hamilton because he thought Hamilton wouldn’t refuse the offer
The duel was fought in New Jersey because New Jersey was less likely to prosecute duelists
No one really knows what happened
If I once knew that Burr was still holding office of Vice President, I don’t recall.
Reasons for the Duel
I don’t think I ever knew the cause of the duel, just that it happened. Wikipedia claims that the nominal claim for the duel was remarks that Hamilton made in a letter to Dr. Charles D. Cooper. The Cooper letter was published in the Albany Register on April 24, 1804. In that letter, Hamilton had called Burr a "dangerous man" unfit for office and hinted at an even "more despicable opinion" of Burr.
Burr demanded satisfaction.
According to Grok, Burr’s letter didn’t reach Hamilton until June 18. When I inquired why, Grok suggested that Burr may have been preoccupied with his New York gubernatorial campaign1 or taken the roughly two months to make a considered response.
Burr Chooses Hamilton
The Book of This Day in History has the claim that Burr selected Hamilton2:
Although Burr had many critics, he felt that Hamilton was the only "gentleman" among them, and therefore the only one who would accept a challenge to a duel. Hamilton felt that he could not turn down the challenge, because he was unwilling to recant his repeated attacks on Burr and because he did ascribe to the gentleman's code of honor.
It’s also possible that Burr was tired of feuding with Hamilton and decided that he wanted to end their dispute once and for all.
No One Knows What Really Happened
According to Wikipedia
[Burr and Hamilton] took steps to give all witnesses plausible deniability in an attempt to shield themselves from prosecution. For example, the pistols were transported to the island in a portmanteau, enabling the rowers to say under oath that they had not seen any pistols. They also stood with their backs to the duelists.
Witnesses couldn’t agree on what happened because they didn’t really witness what happened. There are even conflicting accounts about whether or not lots were drawn for position and which second (meaning which of the duelists’ alternates) should be the one to signal the duel was begun.
However, Joseph Ellis claims that Hamilton had been challenged and therefore had the choice of both weapon and position3.
There’s also a question of how many shots were fired. Some say one, some say two.
Hamilton had written a letter the day before stating his intentions to deliberately miss Burr. I’m not an expert on dueling, but I do wonder if this would have been seen as continuing the insult instead of letting the duel settle the matter once and for all4.
There does seem to be consensus around the idea that Hamilton shot into the trees behind and perhaps above Burr. Since the witnesses backs were turned to the duel, we can’t know for sure.
Aftermath
What we do know for sure is that Burr immediately reacted with horror or guilt as if he thought Hamilton couldn’t have been shot during the duel. And Burr immediately became notorious for fighting the duel.
Hamilton was rowed back across the river, visited his family and died the next day.
As for Burr, Wikipedia tells us
Burr fled to St. Simons Island, Georgia, where he stayed at the plantation of Pierce Butler, but he soon returned to Washington, D.C. to complete his term as vice president.
Burr was charged with murder in New York and New Jersey, but neither charge ever reached trial. In Bergen County, New Jersey in November 1804, a grand jury indicted Burr for murder, but the New Jersey Supreme Court quashed it on a motion from Colonel Ogden…Burr's heartfelt farewell speech to the Senate in March 1805 moved some of his harshest critics to tears.
Burr, unsurprisingly, lost his governor’s race in New York.
Under the un-amended Constitution, whichever person got the most Electoral Votes was to be President and the second most Vice President. However, there was a dead heat when the Electoral Votes were counted in the House of Representatives in 1800. It would take the House thirty-six (36) rounds of voting to finally declare Jefferson President and Burr Vice President.
Since Presidential tickets weren’t combined President and Vice President tickets, it meant that people with vastly different politics could be elected to each of the Executive offices, which is indeed what happened in 1800. Consequently, the Twelfth Amendment was passed and ratified to resolve this problem.
Burr had decided that since Jefferson would be running for a second term, he didn’t want to be Jefferson’s Vice President again and he would be unlikely to win the Presidency outright by challenging Jefferson, so he decided to run for Governor of New York instead.
The book also incorrectly claims the duel happened in 1807 and not 1804.
It’s interesting that Wikipedia appears to be inconsistent here: as a statement of fact, Wikipedia claims that other than position, the other decision left to chance was which second would start the duel, but in Ellis’ account, the choice was for what weapons were to be used. The latter seems unlikely–if pistols were brought in a portmanteau, what other weapons could have been used in the duel?
It’s possible that one could “cheat” during a duel by purposefully missing by aiming close to one’s opponent. This would satisfy honor with plausible deniability, at least facially. However, this duel was fought before barrels were riffled. Since the purpose of a rifled barrel is to make the bullet fly straight and true, this may not have been that viable of a strategy.
Even if it were, I don’t think it would do much to solve the problem because a duelist could always claim that they had intentionally aimed just next to or above their opponent.