- The bad blood began in 1790 when Burr defeated Hamilton’s father-in-law for the Senate. Hamilton considered Burr to be a dangerous opportunist and opposed him when he ran for Vice President in 1796. In 1800, Burr leaked a Hamilton letter criticizing John Adams. In the Election of 1800, Jefferson ended up tied with his running mate Burr in the electoral vote. The election was thrown to the House of Representatives where it should have been a formality in choosing Jefferson, but the Federalists decided to back Burr to mess with the Democratic-Republicans. After 35 ballots, Hamilton and other influential Federalist leaders intervened on behalf of Jefferson as the lesser of two evils. After Jefferson dumped Burr for reelection, Burr ran for Governor of New York and Hamilton strongly opposed him. Burr lost badly.
- The last straw was when a letter written by a friend of Hamilton was published in a New York newspaper. It described Hamilton making “despicable” comments about Burr at a party. Hamilton called Burr “a dangerous man”. Burr took umbrage and wrote a letter to Hamilton demanding a retraction. Hamilton answered officiously, arguing the meaning of “despicable”. Further letters added fuel to the fire. In previous situations like this, Hamilton had managed to negotiate his way out of duels. Not his time.
- The duel was held at a popular dueling spot in New Jersey. Although both New York and New Jersey had made dueling illegal, New Jersey was notoriously lax in enforcement. Burr’s nineteen-year old son had been killed in the same spot three years earlier.
- The dueling pistols were the same ones used in his son’s death. They were flintlock pistols that were a hefty .56 caliber. The same pistols had been used in one of Burr’s previous duels. A duel where a bullet had clipped off a suit button.
- Hamilton had probably not fired a pistol since his Revolutionary War service. Burr apparently practiced for the duel.
- Awkwardly, after the challenge had been accepted, the two sat at the same table for a banquet celebrating Independence Day.
- The duel was at 7 A.M. The ten-pace distance had already been marked off so the men took their places without doing that back-to-back thing. There was a pause as Hamilton asked to put on his glasses. Hamilton fired first and missed. Burr’s shot hit his foe in the stomach and the bullet lodged near the spine. Burr took a step toward Hamilton, but his second whisked him away. Hamilton told the doctor that had come along that he felt he was mortally wounded. He died 31 hours later in the company of family and friends. Burr fled to Georgia.
- There is still controversy about the duel. Hamilton’s second insisted he purposely “threw his shot away” (as he had said he would), but Burr’s second insisted Hamilton simply missed. Hamilton’s shot did miss high, clipping a branch of a tree. One thing is for sure, Burr would have known Hamilton had missed before he fired his shot seconds later.
- There is a theory that Hamilton did plan to kill Burr, taking advantage of the hair trigger feature of the pistols, but he accidentally set off the pistol before he could aim properly. This is probably not the explanation of the misfire as Hamilton had stated earlier that he had not engaged this feature.
- Burr’s already shady reputation was ruined by the incident, as the newspapers made a martyr of Hamilton. Burr sealed his historical fate by getting involved in a ridiculous scheme with another disreputable figure, James Wilkinson. They had a plan to seize the Louisiana Territory and create an empire ruled by Burr. In 1806, Burr prepared to lead an armed band to New Orleans. Wilkinson ratted out his partner, but the Supreme Court could not convict Burr due to only one witness – Wilkinson.
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/aaron-burr-alexander-hamilton-duel-real-history/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/burr-slays-hamilton-in-duel
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