Burr–Hamilton duel
The Hamilton-Burr duel was a duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in Weehawken, New Jersey on July 11, 1804. Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton.
Causes of the duel
The duel was the final skirmish of a long-lived conflict between Republicans and Federalists. The conflict began in 1791, when Burr captured a Senate seat from Philip Schuyler, Hamilton's father-in-law who would have supported his federalist policies (Alexander Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury at the time). When the electoral college deadlocked in the election of 1800, Hamilton's maneuvering in the House of Representatives caused Thomas Jefferson to be named President and Burr Vice President. In 1800, Burr published "The Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, Esq., President of the United States," a document highly critical of Adams, which had actually been authored by Hamilton but intended only for private circulation. When it became clear that Jefferson would drop Burr from his ticket in the 1804 election, the Vice President ran for the governorship of New York instead. Hamilton viciously campaigned against Burr, who was running as an independent, causing him to lose to Morgan Lewis, a Republican endorsed by Hamilton. Some say Hamilton believed that Burr had entertained a Federalist secession movement in New York. After a vitriolic letter by Dr. Charles D. Cooper was published in the Albany Register, quoting Hamilton's expression of a "despicable opinion" of Burr at a political dinner, Burr demanded an apology. Hamilton refused, claiming he could not remember the specific comments he had made in private (presumably because he made so many derogatory comments against Burr). Burr demanded that Hamilton recant or deny everything he had ever said regarding Burr’s character, but Hamilton, having already been disgraced by the Maria Reynolds scandal, could not afford to make this gesture. Although both men had been involved in duels in the past, usually on the periphery, Hamilton had particular qualms because his beloved son, Philip, had rashly entered into a fatal duel in 1802. Burr challenged Hamilton to the duel via letter, which Hamilton accepted despite attempts by mutual friends to avert conflict, to preserve his honor.
The duel
Hamilton and Burr agreed to cross the Hudson River at dawn to take the duel to a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, because dueling had been outlawed in New York. Hamilton and Burr's seconds were instructed to look away as the dueling began, lest they be charged as accomplices to the crime. Hamilton fired first and missed, most likely intentionally. Burr, possibly hoping to merely wound Hamilton in the leg, instead shot Hamilton in the lower abdomen above the right hip. The bullet ricocheted off Hamilton's rib and caused considerable damage to his internal organs, particularly his liver and spine.
Hamilton's intentions
A letter that Hamilton wrote the night before the duel states:
"I have resolved, if our interview is conducted in the usual manner, and it pleases God to give me the opportunity, to reserve and throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my second fire."
When Burr later learned of this, he responded: "Contemptible, if true."
Others have attributed Hamilton's apparent misfire to the hair-triggered design of one of the Wogdon dueling pistols, both of which survive today. One of the pistols has a flint-lock firing mechanism and the other has a percussion firing mechanism which had been converted from the original flint. The pistols belonged to Hamilton's brother-in-law, John B. Church, who was a mutual business partner of both Hamilton and Burr. In 1930 the pistols were sold to the Chase Manhattan Bank, now preserved by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
External Links
- American Experience - The Duel - Official PBS Hamilton-Burr Duel Documentary site
- Duel 2004 - A site dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the duel.