Aaron Burr - Moments of Reflection

Aaron Burr

Chernow writes: On June 18, seven weeks after Burr's election defeat (in his effort to become Governor of New York), he received a copy of the upstate paper...Burr learned that Alexander Hamilton had been maligning him for years. On two previous occasions, they had nearly entered into affairs of honor over Hamilton's statements... to prevent Burr from becoming president during the 1801 elections...calling Burr profligate, bankrupt, corrupt, and unprincipled. 

These were Burr's words as he paced from room to room during the interminable evening prior to his duel with Hamilton. The anger of his words betrays his state of mind and his desire for vengeance. On more than one occasion he knew that Hamilton had sought to destroy his life.
I have no fear of this man. He is a venomous snake, trapped under my foot. Under other circumstances, I might have let him go. But this scoundrel needs to die. How he wiggled in fear these past days hoping to mitigate his injury to me. Could he have refused my challenge of a duel? Of course, but that would mean the life he had gained would be that of a coward.

How would that look on his exalted career?  A general in the army. It was bad enough to have him as a comrade-in-arms who devoured grapes while his men faced the British Army. His fast-talking arguments convinced Washington to make him his chief of staff. Being a colonel was not enough. He pushed America into a war it did not need with France. This war never took place on dry land where he might be asked to show up for duty. For this ridiculous role, Washington made him a general.

When his protector died in 1799, Hamilton had the audacity to think he could replace George Washington as leader of this nation. With his other conspirator John Jay, he talked of a greater future for the federalists and a stronger central government. But this man who will raise his pistol to me tomorrow is not only a coward but an incurable dreamer. Never would federalism become more prominent than it was at the end of the 1700s. Never would Alexander Hamilton be more prominent than he was while serving as Secretary of the Treasury and leader of the federalist party.

How humiliating it must have been for him to resign from the cabinet and go back to practicing law. His star had burned out, without his ever knowing it. Hamilton's abuse of John Adams was embarrassing to us all. Much of Jefferson's attitude towards me, his vice president was the result of slanderous whispers from Hamilton. How could I thrive in my position knowing that Jefferson would not select me for a second term?

Not even with his dear wife, Elizabeth was he loyal. It was common knowledge that he carried on an illicit affair with his sister-in-law and others behind the scenes. This was the man I challenged to a duel. I had reached my limit of patience. Not to slap his wrist soundly or draw blood from his cheek, I would be killed by him or I would end his life.  


Now, since it was I who made the challenge, it was he to select the weapons. Not succeeding in having me withdraw my challenge, he selected pistols. Is he hoping that I will draw a mere smidgen of blood and be satisfied that my honor has been restored? If I don't miss my guess, this street urchin from the West Indies will, when given the the right of first fire, aim far above my head. Hoping to signal to me that gentlemen do not kill each other in duels, he will wait bravely for me to fire. And I shall.

 On the morning of July 11, 1804 in Weehawken, New Jersey, the two men and their seconds met.