Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr Click to enlarge

• Born: 6 February 1756
• Birthplace: Newark, New Jersey
• Died: 14 September 1836
• Best Known As: The Vice President who killed Alexander Hamilton

After fighting in the war for American independence, Aaron Burr took up law and politics in New York. He stood for the presidency in 1800, but lost to Thomas Jefferson when the election was decided by the House of Representatives. The way things worked in those days, Burr served as Jefferson's vice president. In 1804 Burr challenged longtime political rival Alexander Hamilton to a duel and fatally shot him. After his term he ventured west and tried to establish a new republic, and was indicted for treason in 1807. He was acquitted, roamed around Europe for a few years, then returned to New York to practice law.

Burr's maternal grandfather was New England theologian Jonathan Edwards.

For more information on Aaron Burr, visit Britannica.com.

(b. Newark, N.J., 6 Feb, 1756; d. New York, N.Y., 14 Sept. 1836), lawyer and statesman. Graduating from the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) in 1772, Burr studied law with Tapping Reeve. During the Revolutionary War, he compiled an impressive record as a Continental Army officer. After the war Burr settled in New York City and embarked on a successful career as a lawyer and politician. A shrewd and opportunistic political strategist, Burr founded the Jeffersonian Republican party of New York and secured that state for the party in 1800—an achievement that earned him a place on the ticket with Thomas Jefferson. He served one term as vice president, in which capacity he presided over the impeachment trial of Justice Samuel Chase (1805). After his duel with Alexander Hamilton (1804), in which Hamilton was killed, Burr faced political ruin. An obscure military expedition down the Ohio River ultimately led to his arrest on a charge of treason for attempting to detach the western country from the United States. United States v. Burr, tried before Chief Justice John Marshall on circuit in 1807, was an episode in the larger story of the Marshall Court's struggle to preserve judicial independence. Though under intense pressure from the Jefferson administration to convict, Marshall rendered a landmark opinion narrowly construing the Constitution's definition of treason, leaving the jury no choice but to acquit. After a four‐year exile in Europe, Burr returned to New York City and resumed the practice of law. His last years were clouded by the death of his daughter and chronic indebtedness.

— Charles F. Hobson

Burr, Aaron (1756-1836) U.S. senator (1791-97), vice president of the United States, and Revolutionary army officer, born in Newark, New Jersey. In the Revolutionary War, as aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Israel Putnam in New York City, Burr played a central role in rescuing American troops trapped at Brooklyn Heights as British troops were landing north of the city (September 1776). In the election of 1800, Burr tied with Thomas Jefferson, but was defeated on the thirty-sixth ballot; he served as vice president under Jefferson (1801-04). Burr is infamous for mortally wounding the Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton in a duel at Weehakwen, New Jersey. (July 11, 1804), for Hamilton's part in depriving Burr of the presidency in 1800 and the New York governorship in 1804.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

American lawyer and politician Aaron Burr (1756-1836) was vice president under Thomas Jefferson. After his term of office he conspired to invade Spanish territory in the Southwest and to separate certain western areas from the United States.

Aaron Burr was born in Newark, N.J., on Feb. 6, 1756, the grandson of the Calvinist theologian Johathan Edwards, and the son of a Presbyterian minister. The family soon moved to Princeton, where the Reverend Burr became president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University). Burr was soon orphaned.

From an early age Burr prepared for an education at the College of New Jersey. Denied admission at the age of age 11, the precocious youth was accepted as a sophomore 2 years later. An eager and industrious student, he graduated with distinction in 3 years. He studied theology for a while but found himself disenchanted with the religious controversies generated by the Great Awakening. He turned instead to the study of law and for a period worked under the famous jurist Tapping Reeve.

Officer in the Revolution

Attracted by the drama and opportunity of the Revolutionary War, Burr secured a letter of recommendation from John Hancock, the president of the Continental Congress, and appeared before Gen. Washington to request a commission in the Continental Army. Washington refused, thus opening the first in a series of conflicts between the two men. Burr, however, persisted. He joined the Army and behaved commendably in the illfated expedition against Quebec. In the spring of 1776 he secured appointment, with the rank of major, to Washington's official household in New York. Mutual distrust quickly deepened between the two men, partly because of Burr's disenchantment with the tedium of administrative duties and partly because of the glaring contrast between his own spontaneous behavior and Washington's stiff and humorless manner.

Again through the intercession of Hancock, Burr transferred to the staff of Gen. Israel Putnam. For the next several years he served effectively in a variety of posts, developing a reputation both for vigilance and the effective disciplining of his troops.

In March 1779, his health impaired by exhaustion and exposure, Burr resigned his commission. By 1780, however, he was ready to launch a heavy program of legal study. Burr was licensed as an attorney in January 1782 and 2 months later was admitted to the bar.

At least equal to Burr's pursuit of fame and fortune was his passion for women. Throughout his long life he carried on numerous affairs. Though he was only 5 feet 6 inches tall, his erect military bearing and graceful manner, his sparkling conversation and elegant appearance made him very attractive to women. In July 1777 he began regular visits to Mrs. Theodosia Prevost, 10 years his senior and wife of a British officer frequently away on duty. In July 1781 she was widowed; 9 months later she and Burr were married. The marriage lasted until her death in 1794, though Burr carried on a number of amours during the interval. In 1783 a daughter, Theodosia, was born, with whom Burr developed a deep and affectionate relationship. Indeed, much of Burr's life came to revolve around his ambitions and concerns for her.

Lawyer in New York

After establishing a successful legal practice in the booming town of Albany, Burr moved in 1783 to New York City. For 6 years he stuck to his practice, generating a substantial reputation and income. He never compiled a large fortune, however, for his generosity and his own lifestyle drained his money away.

Local and National Politics

Gradually during the 1790s Burr worked his way into New York politics. Nominally a member of the emerging Jeffersonian opposition, he took care not to break completely with the Federalists. The results of this were twofold. By carefully balancing group against group, he could present himself as a nonsectarian, coalition candidate. On the other hand, this generated suspicions among both Jeffersonians and Federalists about his "unsettled" political loyalties. In 1791 Burr won election to the U.S. Senate, defeating Philip Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton's father-in-law. Burr and Hamilton had been for some time political and professional antagonists; this election elicited Hamilton's unrelenting hatred. In the Senate, Burr occupied a somewhat ambiguous position, opposing Hamilton's financial program and the Jay Treaty, yet not becoming a full Jeffersonian partisan.

Burr failed to drum up support for the vice presidency in 1796 and also lost his seat in the Senate. From 1797 to 1799 he served in the New York Legislature but was defeated for reelection when he came under fire for promoting legislation to aid a land company and banking corporation in which he had financial interests.

Vice Presidency

Burr's opportunity to fashion a national political career came with the presidential election of 1800. With the support of the Tammany organization (which he never formally joined), he organized New York City and enabled Jefferson to carry the state's crucial electoral votes. Meanwhile Burr had secured a pledge from the Jeffersonians in Congress to support him equally with Jefferson in the election as a way of ensuring that neither of the Federalist candidates would have a chance. (In 1800 presidential electors simply cast two ballots, making no distinction between presidential and vice-presidential preferences.) The result was a tie. Jefferson and Burr each received 73 votes, and the election shifted to the House of Representatives. For 35 ballots neither man received a majority, while rumors circulated that Burr was scheming for Federalist support. A number of Federalists did state their strong preference for him, but Hamilton argued just as strongly that Jefferson was a more honorable man. Finally several Federalists withheld their votes and permitted Jefferson's election, thus ending a major constitutional crisis.

Burr was now vice president, but his political career was near its end. His relations with Jefferson's supporters were further strained during his 4 years in office. In 1804 Burr was passed over by the Jeffersonian congressional caucus and was not renominated for vice president.

Hamilton-Burr Duel

In July 1804 the famous duel with Hamilton took place. Burr had tried to avoid it, but it was forced upon him by Hamilton's mounting public attacks. As word of Hamilton's death spread, the public outcry forced Burr to flee for his safety. His political base, both within New York and in the Jeffersonian party, was now completely gone. To fulfill his obligation as vice president, Burr returned to Washington to preside over the impeachment proceedings against Justice Samuel Chase, a task he carried out with justice and impartiality. The day after the trial was over, Burr left the Senate chamber for the last time.

Burr's Conspiracy

For at least a year prior to this, Burr had been making plans to recoup in the West some of the power denied him in the East. The precise motive behind his western adventures has never been clarified. There seems to have been two options: to gather a force to invade Spanish-held territory across the Mississippi out of which an independent republic was to be fashioned, or to separate certain southwestern territories (east of the Mississippi) from the United States and incorporate them with the Spanish lands to form an independent nation. Burr's primary goal seems to have been the Spanish venture, though he was clearly interested in including New Orleans and territory along the Mississippi. If his proposals to England to aid in dismembering the Union had met with support, Burr might well have placed separation at the center of his planning. Whatever the case, his western adventure had the gravest implications for the young republic.

Burr's involved intrigue took form in 1804-1805, when he divulged his plans to various persons, among them Gen. James Wilkinson, commander of American forces in the West, and Anthony Merry, British minister to the United States, whom Burr asked for half a million dollars and the promise of aid from the British fleet. After a scouting trip down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Burr returned east and made further attempts to organize support. Failing to secure funds from England, he turned to various private sources.

When Jefferson's purchase of Spanish Florida ended the prospect of the Spanish-American border war that Burr had hoped to use as the occasion for his own invasion of Spanish territory, he decided to launch his enterprise. In August 1806 he started west into the Ohio Valley to rally men and supplies. Increasingly alarmed by rumors of Burr's operations, President Jefferson sent warnings to western officials to keep Burr under careful surveillance. Receiving a communication from Wilkinson (who had now turned against Burr), the President issued a proclamation describing the intended expedition and warning American citizens not to participate. At the beginning of 1807, unaware of Wilkinson's betrayal, Burr started down the Ohio with about 100 men. Within a few weeks the whole thing was over. Behind Burr, units of the Ohio militia organized for pursuit, and ahead of him Wilkinson was frantically arranging New Orleans's defense while preparing a force to intercept Burr. Learning of Wilkinson's opposition, Burr fled toward Mobile, Ala., leaving his force to be placed under detention. Burr was arrested a few miles from Spanish Florida and returned east for trial.

On Trial

Charged with the high misdemeanor of launching a military expedition against Spanish territory and the treasonous act of attempting to separate areas from the United States, Burr stood trial before Chief Justice John Marshall in the U.S. Circuit Court at Richmond, Va. The outcome hung upon Marshall's instructions to the jury concerning the technicalities of American treason law. Burr was acquitted on the treason charge, and the misdemeanor indictment was eventually canceled. The acquittal was extremely unpopular; Marshall was burned in effigy as a result.

Burr's Decline

Although Burr was legally free, his political career was finished. For the next 4 years he wandered through Europe, vainly trying to find support for plans to revolutionize Mexico, free the Spanish colonies, and instigate war between England and the United States. Finally, in 1812, he returned to America, broken in health and financially destitute. After some discreet inquiries, he decided it was safe to return to New York. There he set about the task of reestablishing his legal practice. He was moderately successful, but his final years were not easy. In December 1812 his cherished daughter, Theodosia, was lost at sea. As the years passed, his fortunes again declined. By 1830 he had come to depend heavily upon contributions from a few friends for his survival. In 1833, at the age of 77, Burr married a wealthy widow 20 years his junior who quickly divorced him when it became apparent he would run through her fortune. Over the next several years a series of strokes left him paralyzed and utterly dependent for his care upon a cousin. Burr died on Staten Island, N.Y., on Sept. 14, 1836.

Further Reading

The best modern biography of Burr is Herbert S. Parmet and Marie B. Hecht, Aaron Burr: Portrait of an Ambitious Man (1967). The most detailed biographical study, however, is still James Parton, The Life and Times of Aaron Burr (1858; repr. 1967). Other biographies of Burr include Samuel H. Wandell and Meade Minnigerode, Aaron Burr (2 vols., 1925); Walter Flavius McCaleb, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy (1936); and Nathan Schachner, Aaron Burr (1937). For the fullest treatment of Burr's western adventures see Thomas P. Abernethy, The Burr Conspiracy (1954). Bradley Chapin explains many of the technicalities surrounding the famous trial of Aaron Burr in The American Law of Treason (1964).

Additional Sources

Lomask, Milton, Aaron Burr, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979-c1982.

Keunstler, Laurence S, The unpredictable Mr. Aaron Burr, New York: Vantage Press, 1974.

Chidsey, Donald Barr, The great conspiracy; Aaron Burr and his strange doings in the West, New York: Crown Publishers, 1967.

• Born: Feb. 6, 1756, Newark, N.J.
• Political party: Democratic-Republican
• Education: College of New Jersey (Princeton), B.A., 1772; read law with Tapping Reeve, Litchfield, Conn., 1783
• Military service: Continental Army, 1776–79
• Previous government service: attorney general of New York State, 1789–91; U.S. Senate, 1791–97; New York State Assembly, 1797–98
• Vice President under Thomas Jefferson, 1801–5
• Died: Sept. 14, 1836, Port Richmond, Staten Island, N.Y.

Clever and ambitious, Aaron Burr practiced law in New York City before entering government service. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1790, he led the opposition to Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton's financial programs. “As a public man he is one of the worst sort,” Hamilton complained, “a friend of nothing but as it suits his interest and ambition.”

Burr was defeated for reelection in 1796, then served two terms in the New York State Assembly from 1797 to 1798. He was a founder of the Society of St. Tammany, a political club that won control of the state legislature in 1800. The Republican majority in the legislature delivered New York State's electoral college vote to Thomas Jefferson in 1800 (in those days Presidential electors in New York and some other states were chosen not by the voters, but by the state legislators), and Burr was himself elected Vice President.

Aaron Burr was at the center of two of the most unusual episodes in American political life. One involved the Presidential election of 1800. At that time, electors in the electoral college cast two ballots for President. Jefferson and Burr ran on the same ticket, and so each received the same number of votes in the electoral college. Even though it had been clearly understood by members of their party that Jefferson was running for President and Burr was running for Vice President, the tie vote meant that the election would have to be settled by the House of Representatives, with each state having one vote. Burr then conspired with the opposition Federalists, who controlled a number of state delegations, in an effort to block Jefferson and win the Presidency for himself.

Fortunately for Jefferson, one of his political enemies, Alexander Hamilton, hated Aaron Burr even more—perhaps because Burr had defeated Hamilton's father-in-law in the Senate election of 1790. Hamilton broke the deadlock in the House, and on the 36th ballot Jefferson won the election. Soon afterward, the 12th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted, giving each elector a separate ballot to cast for President and Vice President.

Because of Burr's conspiracy against him in the election, Jefferson gave him nothing to do during his term of office, and he dropped him from the ticket in 1804. The same year, Burr lost the New York gubernatorial election. He fled west after killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel at Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804, over Hamilton's remarks during the election campaign that Burr was “dangerous” and “despicable.”

Burr then became involved in a second bizarre situation. With several hundred armed followers, Burr traveled down the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. No one knew what he intended to do: get Western territories to secede from Union control; attack Mexico or a Central American country and carve out an empire for himself; or charter ships in New Orleans and sail back to the nation's capital and try to seize power. President Jefferson took no chances. He had Burr arrested in the West and transported back to Virginia to face trial for attempting to take some of the Louisiana Territory away from the Union. Although Burr was eventually acquitted of the charges, his political career was finished, and he spent the next several years in Europe before returning to New York City, where he practiced law from 1812 until his death in 1836.

See also Electoral college; Jefferson, Thomas; Ticket; 12th Amendment

Sources

• Thomas J. Fleming, Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America (New York: Basic Books, 1999).
• Roger G. Kennedy, Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
• Milton Lomask, Aaron Burr, 2 vols. (1979; reprint, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1982).
• Herbert S. Parmet and Marie Hecht, Aaron Burr: Portrait of an Ambitious Man (New York: Macmillan, 1967)

(1756-1836), vice president of the United States, revolutionary, soldier, and adventurer. Burr's life began in the age of George II and ended in that of Andrew Jackson. But he achieved his notoriety during little more than a decade of his middle years.

The son of one Princeton president and the grandson of another (Jonathan Edwards), Burr studied at Princeton himself. During the Revolution he was a staff officer under George Washington, participated in the invasion of Canada, and commanded a regiment. He was close to the organizers of the Conway Cabal of 1777-1778, in which discontented officers surrounding the Franco-Irish volunteer Thomas Conway sought to replace Washington as commander in chief with Horatio Gates, the victor of Saratoga. Burr also supported Gen. Charles Lee when Washington dismissed Lee after the Battle of Monmouth. Leaving the army in 1779, he completed his law studies, practiced in New York City, and served one term in the state assembly. At this point his opinions were close to those of Alexander Hamilton.

Burr became the New York attorney general in 1789 and was elected to the U.S. Senate two years later. In 1796 he received thirty electoral votes for the presidency. Returning to the assembly, he parlayed his political following in New York City into the Republican vice-presidential nomination in 1800. At the time the Constitution required presidential electors to cast two votes each for the presidency: whoever came second became vice president. The Republican electors cast their votes for both Jefferson and Burr with the result that they tied. The election then went to the House of Representatives, where Jefferson finally won after thirty-six ballots. Burr did not openly subvert Jefferson's candidacy, but he resented Hamilton's decision to support Jefferson instead of himself, a fellow New Yorker.

Burr was never close to Jefferson, and in 1804 he was rejected for a second vice-presidential term. His major task during his incumbency was to preside at the impeachment trial of Justice Samuel Chase of the Supreme Court. As he prepared to leave the vice presidency he sought the governorship of New York, but once again Hamilton blocked him. Burr took Hamilton's continuing political opposition as a personal insult and challenged him to a duel. It took place at Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. Hamilton fell mortally wounded after firing his own pistol into the air. After Hamilton died Burr fled to Virginia and went into hiding.

By this time Burr had begun to entertain visions of winning fame and power in the West. With Gen. James Wilkinson and agents of Britain and Spain he entered on a series of nebulous intrigues to detach Mexico from Spain, and perhaps Trans-Appalachia from the United States. But the plans were exposed in 1806 and Burr was arrested on charges of treason.

Chief Justice John Marshall presided at his trial in 1807. The trial was notable for its intensely partisan quality and for its twofold constitutional significance. The first was Jefferson's refusal to appear in response to a subpoena, which asserted the independence of the presidency from the courts. Marshall's narrow construction of the constitutional law of treason was the second. Burr was acquitted.

Burr then went to Europe, where he continued his schemes. He returned to the United States in 1812 and practiced law in New York until his death. Burr was an intensely ambitious and highly intelligent man. But he was also deeply cynical and had a way of attaching himself to others of the same sort.

Bibliography:

Milton Lomask, Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to Vice President, 1756-1805 (1979); Dumas Malone, Jefferson the President: Second Term, 1805-1809 (1974).

Author:

Edward Countryman

See also Dueling; Elections: 1800; Hamilton, Alexander; Revolution.

A political leader who served as vice president of the United States in the first term of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1805). After Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in the Burr-Hamilton duel, his career declined. He was later involved in a bizarre conspiracy to sever the western states and territories from the Union. Burr was tried for treason but was acquitted.

Aaron Burr was a soldier, lawyer, and politician and the third vice president of the United States.

Burr was born February 6, 1756, in Newark, New Jersey. His family traced its ancestry to the Pilgrims and through hundreds of years of English gentry with many members who were prominent in government and politics. Both his parents died when he was young and he and his sister were raised in comfortable circumstances by their maternal uncle. Burr was a bright, charming, handsome, and witty boy who was gifted intellectually but decidedly mischievous and difficult to control. From earliest childhood he showed ambition, determination, and leadership.

Burr entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) as a sophomore in 1769 at the age of thirteen and graduated summa cum laude three years later. He then enrolled in Litchfield (Connecticut) Law School, which was run by his brother-in-law and former tutor Tapping Reeve. However, the Revolutionary War and his desire to be a part of it interrupted his studies.

Burr rose swiftly through the ranks of the revolutionary army, displaying daring, energy, courage, and imagination. His small stature and pampered upbringing belied an internal strength that surprised many who knew him. Accompanying Colonel Benedict Arnold's troops in their expedition to Quebec, he endured cold, hunger, and illness. He was made an officer in the Continental Army and soon served with General George Washington.

Burr resigned his Army commission in 1779. He resumed the study of law in 1780 and was admitted to the bar in 1782. Later in 1782 he married Theodosia Prevost, a widow ten years his senior, and the following year their only child, a daughter also named Theodosia, was born.

In 1789 Burr was appointed attorney general of the state of New York and in 1791 he was elected a U.S. senator, defeating General Philip Schuyler, the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton. This was the beginning of a bitter rivalry with Hamilton that would come to a ruinous conclusion years later.

Burr served in the Senate for six years. In 1797, the voters turned against him and elected his former antagonist, General Schuyler. Burr attributed his loss to Hamilton's assiduous efforts to undermine his support and reputation.

After losing his Senate seat, Burr served a short time in the New York assembly, before entering the presidential race of 1800. He and his opponent, Thomas Jefferson, received the same number of votes in the electoral college, and the election went to the House of Representatives for resolution. Burr and his supporters were unabashedly ambitious in their zeal to win the office. Burr's nemesis Hamilton stepped into the fray, announcing his support for Jefferson and criticizing Burr. Finally, through clever manipulation of the voting process, Hamilton secured the presidency for Jefferson and Burr automatically became vice president. As a result of this peculiar election Congress passed the Twelfth Amendment, which mandated separate balloting for president and vice president.

Burr's ruthless and opportunistic ambition caused many of his colleagues to shun him both professionally and socially. President Jefferson held him at arm's length, and others in the administration treated him like an outsider. Burr blamed his failure to secure the top office largely on Hamilton and he brooded over perceived injustices. Having lost his beloved wife in 1794, Burr was left with only his daughter, whom he idolized. He devoted as much time and energy as possible to her education and her grooming. However, the young lady was moving into adulthood and a life of her own. In 1801, against her father's wishes, she married Joseph Alston, of South Carolina, and moved to the Palmetto State, leaving Burr alone in Washington, D.C.

Toward the end of his term as vice president, Burr ran for governor of New York but was defeated. During the campaign Hamilton again expressed his distrust of Burr and made other disparaging comments about him. Feeling that his honor had been impugned, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel. Although Hamilton tried to defuse the conflict, Burr was determined to force a confrontation. The two men met at 7:00 a.m. on July 7, 1804. Burr was an excellent marksman, and he killed Hamilton with the first shot. In an ensuing public outcry, Burr was indicted for murder. He escaped to his daughter's home in South Carolina until the furor died down and eventually returned to Washington, D.C., to complete his term as vice president.

Burr came to realize that his aspirations to the presidency had been destroyed. His political career in ruins, he left Washington, D.C., and traveled west to explore frontier territory. He also concocted an elaborate conspiracy that was to be his final political undoing. Though complete details of the scheme have never been fully discovered, Burr apparently intended to lead the western states in an insurrection against the federal government. After the states seceded, he planned to install himself as the head of a newly created republic. He then intended to conquer Texas and Mexico. In October 1806 President Jefferson issued a proclamation denouncing Burr's venture. On January 14, 1807, Burr was arrested in Mississippi on a charge of treason. He escaped, but was later apprehended in Alabama. Burr's trial began in May 1807, and lasted six months. He was eventually acquitted but his political life was over.

Burr spent the next several years in exile in Europe, where he endured poverty, humiliation, and degradation. In 1812, he quietly returned to the United States, slipping into Boston wearing a disguise and using an assumed name. After a time he resumed a somewhat normal life and opened a law office in New York. Burr's prospects seemed to be brightening when he was dealt two crushing personal blows. First, he learned that his only grandchild, Aaron Burr Alston, had died before Burr returned to the United States. A few months later his beloved daughter perished in a shipwreck while traveling from South Carolina to New York to visit Burr.

Burr was devastated by these losses. A wave of sympathy tempered public opinion toward him, but he was still shunned by those in prominence. He continued his law practice, enjoyed a small circle of supportive friends, and even remarried, though the union was short-lived and unhappy. He quietly and unobtrusively engaged in numerous altruistic and philanthropic ventures, including providing for the education of young men and women of limited resources and adopting an orphan who lived with him until late adolescence.

During the last few years of his life, Burr suffered a series of strokes. At first, he rebounded completely, but each successive episode left him weaker. He died September 14, 1836, and was buried beside his parents and grandfather in Princeton, New Jersey.

Quotes:

"The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure, and pleasure my business."

"Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow. Delay may give clearer light as to what is best to be done."

Aaron Burr
3rd Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1805
President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	Thomas Jefferson
Succeeded by	George Clinton
United States Senator from New York
In office March 4, 1791 – March 3, 1797
Preceded by	Philip Schuyler
Succeeded by	Philip Schuyler
3rd New York State Attorney General
In office September 29, 1789 – November 8, 1791
Governor	George Clinton
Preceded by	Richard Varick
Succeeded by	Morgan Lewis
Member of the New York State Assembly from New York County
In office 1784 – 1785
Born	February 6, 1756(1756-02-06) Newark, New Jersey
Died	September 14, 1836 (aged 80) Staten Island, New York
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s)	Theodosia Bartow Prevost Eliza Bowen Jemel
Alma mater	Princeton University
Religion	Presbyterian
Signature
Military service
Service/branch	Continental Army
Years of service	1775–1779
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War

This article is about the U.S. politician. For his father, see Aaron Burr, Sr..

Aaron Burr, Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician, Revolutionary War participant, and adventurer. He served as the third Vice President of the United States (1801–1805), under Thomas Jefferson, and was the first vice president to never serve as president.

A formative member of the Democratic-Republican Party with a political base in New York, Burr served in the New York State Assembly (1784–1785, 1798–1799^[1]), as New York State Attorney General (1789–1791), United States Senator (1791–1797), and for one term as vice-president under Jefferson. A candidate for President in 1800, Burr tied Jefferson with 73 electoral votes, making him eligible for one of the country's two highest offices and sending the election into the U.S. House of Representatives. After 36 ballots, Jefferson was elected President and Burr elected vice-president. As vice-president, Burr was president of the Senate, and in this role presided over the impeachment trial of Samuel Chase.

During an unsuccessful campaign for governor of New York in 1804, Burr was often referred to in published articles written by Alexander Hamilton, a longtime political rival and son-in-law of Philip Schuyler, the first U.S. senator from New York, whom Burr defeated in Schuyler's bid for re-election in 1791. Taking umbrage at remarks made by Hamilton at a dinner party and Hamilton's subsequent failure to account for the remarks, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel on July 11, 1804, at the Heights of Weehawken in New Jersey, in which he mortally wounded Hamilton. Easily the most famous duel in U.S. history, it had immense political ramifications. Burr was indicted for murder in both New York and New Jersey (though these charges were either later dismissed or resulted in acquittal), and the harsh criticism and animosity directed towards him brought an end to his political career in the East, though he remained a popular figure in the West and South. Further, Hamilton's untimely death would fatally weaken the remnants of the Federalist Party.

After Burr left the vice-presidency at the end of his term in 1805, he journeyed into what was then the West, particularly the Ohio River Valley and the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Burr was preparing to lead a filibuster into Spanish possessions in Mexico in case of war with Spain, which would have been of dubious legality considering the Neutrality Act of 1794. Due to the rumors and the sullying of Burr's name by means of claims as far-fetched as Burr's desire to secede from the United States and form his own monarchy in the western half of North America, Burr was arrested in 1807 and brought to trial on charges of treason, for which he was acquitted.^[2] After several years in self-imposed exile in Europe, Burr returned to practicing law in New York City and lived a largely reclusive existence until his death.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Military service 1.3 Marriage 1.4 Legal and early political career 1.5 Vice Presidency 1.6 Duel with Alexander Hamilton 1.7 Conspiracy and trial 1.8 Later life 1.9 Death 2 Character 3 Legacy 4 Notes 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External links

Biography

Early life

Burr's grandfather, Jonathan Edwards

Burr was born in Newark, New Jersey, to the Reverend Aaron Burr, Sr., who was a Presbyterian minister and the second president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University; his mother, Esther Edwards, was the daughter of Jonathan Edwards, the famous Calvinist theologian. The Burrs also had a daughter, Sarah, who married Tapping Reeve.

In 1772, he received his A.B. at Princeton University, but changed his career path two years later and began the study of law with Reeve at Litchfield, Connecticut. His studies were put on hold while he served during the American Revolutionary War, under Generals Benedict Arnold, George Washington (for two weeks), and Israel Putnam.

Military service

During the Revolutionary War, Burr took part in Colonel Benedict Arnold's expedition to Quebec, an arduous trek of over 300 miles through the wilderness of Maine. Upon arriving before the city of Quebec, Burr was sent up the Saint Lawrence River to reach General Richard Montgomery, who had taken Montreal, and escorted him to Quebec. Montgomery promoted Burr to captain and made him an aide-de-camp. Although Montgomery was killed while attempting to capture the city of Quebec during a fierce snow storm on December 31, 1775, Burr distinguished himself with brave actions against the British.

Burr's courage made him a national hero and earned him a place on Washington's staff in Manhattan, but he quit after two weeks because he wanted to return to the battlefield. Never hesitant to voice his opinions, Burr may have set Washington against him; however, rumors that Washington then distrusted Burr have never been documented.

General Israel Putnam took Burr under his wing; by his vigilance in the retreat from lower Manhattan to Harlem, Burr saved an entire brigade (including Alexander Hamilton, who was one of its officers) from capture. In a stark departure from common practice, Washington failed to commend Burr's actions in the next day's General Orders (the fastest way to obtain a promotion in rank). Although Burr was already a nationally known hero, he never received a commendation. According to Burr's stepbrother Mathias Ogden, Burr was infuriated by the incident, which may have led to the eventual estrangement between him and Washington.^[3][4]

On becoming a lieutenant colonel in July 1777, Burr assumed virtual leadership of Malcolm's Additional Continental Regiment. There were approximately 300 men under Colonel William Malcolm's command. The regiment successfully fought off continuous nighttime raids into central New Jersey by English troops sailing over from Manhattan, crushing those forces. During the harsh winter encampment at Valley Forge, Burr was put in charge of a small contingent guarding the "Gulph", an isolated pass commanding the approach to the camp, and necessarily the first point that would be attacked. Burr enforced discipline there, successfully defeating a mutiny by some of the troops.

On June 28, 1778, at the Battle of Monmouth, his regiment was devastated by British artillery, and in the day's terrible heat, Burr suffered heat stroke from which he would never quite recover. In January 1779, Burr was assigned to the command of the lines of Westchester County, a region between the British post at Kingsbridge and that of the rebels about 15 miles (24 km) to the north. In this district there was much turbulence and plundering by lawless elements of both Whigs and Tories, and by bands of ill-disciplined soldiers from both armies. Burr established a thorough patrol system, rigorously enforced martial law, and quickly restored order.

He resigned from the Continental Army in March 1779 due to bad health and renewed his study of law. Though technically no longer in the service, he remained active in the war: he was assigned by General Washington to perform occasional intelligence missions for Continental generals such as Arthur St. Clair, and on July 5, 1779, he rallied a group of Yale students at New Haven along with Capt. James Hillhouse and the Second Connecticut Governors Foot Guard in a skirmish with the British at the West River. The British advance was repulsed, having to enter New Haven from Hamden.

Despite these activities, Burr was able to finish his studies and was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1782. He began to practice in New York City after the British evacuated the city the following year. He lived in Richmond Hill, Manhattan, an area just outside of Greenwich Village.

Marriage

In 1782, Aaron Burr married Theodosia Bartow Prevost, the widow of Jacques Marcus Prevost (see The Hermitage), a British army officer who had died in the West Indies during the Revolutionary War. They moved to New York City, where Burr's reputation as a brilliant trial lawyer was well known. They had a daughter who survived birth, named Theodosia, after her mother. Burr was one of the first Feminists, and raised his daughter in the classics, horsemanship and music. The marriage lasted until the elder Theodosia's death from stomach cancer twelve years later. Born in 1783, his daughter Theodosia became widely known for her education and accomplishments. She married Joseph Alston of South Carolina in 1801, and bore a son who died of fever at ten years of age. She died either due to piracy or in a shipwreck off the Carolinas in the winter of 1812 or early 1813.

In 1833, at age 77, Burr married again, this time to Eliza Jumel, the extremely wealthy widow of Stephen Jumel. When she realized her fortune was dwindling from her husband's land speculation, they separated after only four months. The divorce between Burr and Jumel was completed on September 14, 1836, the day of Burr's death.

Legal and early political career

Burr served in the New York State Assembly from 1784 to 1785, but became seriously involved in politics in 1789, when George Clinton appointed him New York State Attorney General. He was also Commissioner of Revolutionary War Claims in 1791. In 1791, he was elected a U.S. Senator from New York, defeating the incumbent, General Philip Schuyler, and served there until 1797.

While Burr and Jefferson served during the Washington administration, the Federal Government was resident in Philadelphia. They both roomed for a time at the boarding house of a Mrs. Payne. Her daughter Dolley, an attractive young widow, was introduced by Burr to James Madison, whom she subsequently married.

Although Hamilton and Burr had long been on good personal terms, often dining with one another^{[citation needed]}, Burr's defeat of General Schuyler, Hamilton's father-in-law, probably drove the first major wedge into their friendship. Nevertheless, their relationship took a decade to reach a status of enmity.

As a U.S. senator, Burr was not a favorite in President George Washington's eyes. Burr sought to write an official Revolutionary history, but Washington blocked his access to the archives, possibly because the former colonel had been a noted critic of his leadership, and possibly because he regarded Burr as a schemer. Washington also passed over Burr for the ministry to France. Hamilton, who by then despised Burr, still had Washington's ear at this time. Burr is said to have despised Washington "as a man of no talents and one who could not spell a sentence of common English." However, Washington's wartime strategies may have colored Burr's opinion of the General. (Sources: Schachner; Lomask.)

After being appointed commanding general of U.S. forces by President John Adams in 1798, Washington turned down Burr's application for a brigadier general's commission during the Quasi-War with France. Washington wrote, "By all that I have known and heard, Colonel Burr is a brave and able officer, but the question is whether he has not equal talents at intrigue." John Adams later put this situation in perspective by writing in 1815 that Washington's response was startling given his promotion of Hamilton, "the most restless, impatient, artful, indefatigable, and unprincipled intriguer in the United States, if not in the world, to be second in command under himself, and now [Washington] dreaded an intriguer in a poor brigadier."^[5]

Bored with the inactivity of the new U.S. Senate^{[dubious – discuss]}, Burr ran for and was elected to the New York State Assembly, serving from 1798 through 1799.^[1] During John Adams' term as President, national parties became clearly defined. Burr loosely associated himself with the Democratic-Republicans, though he had moderate Federalist allies, such as Sen. Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey. Burr quickly became a key player in New York politics, more powerful in time than Hamilton, largely because of the Tammany Society, later to become the infamous Tammany Hall, which Burr converted from a social club into a political machine to help Jefferson reach the presidency. In 1799, Burr founded the Bank of the Manhattan Company, which in later years evolved into the Chase Manhattan Bank and later JPMorgan Chase.

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In 1800, New York presidential electors were to be chosen by the state legislature as they had been in 1796 (for John Adams). The state assembly was controlled by the Federalists going into the April 1800 legislative elections. In the city of New York, assembly members were to be selected on an at-large basis. Burr and Hamilton were the key campaigners for their respective parties. Burr's Republican slate of assemblymen for New York City was elected, gaining control of the legislature and in due course giving New York's electoral votes to Jefferson and helping to win the 1800 presidential election for him. This drove another wedge between Hamilton and Burr. Burr became Vice President during Jefferson's first term (1801–1805).

During the French Revolution, French diplomat Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, in need of sanctuary to escape the Terror, stayed in Burr's home in New York City, but also spent much time at Hamilton's house. When Burr, after the Hamilton duel and treason trial, traveled Europe in an attempt to recoup his fortunes, Talleyrand-Périgord refused him entrance into France. Talleyrand was an ardent admirer of Alexander Hamilton and had even once written: "I consider Napoleon, Fox, and Hamilton, the three greatest men of our epoch, and if I were forced to decide between the three, I would give without hesitation the first place to Hamilton. He had divined Europe."

Vice Presidency

Because of his influence in New York City and the New York legislature, Burr was asked by Jefferson and Madison to help the Jeffersonians in the election of 1800. Burr sponsored a bill through the New York Assembly that established a water utility company that also allowed the Democratic-Republicans to create a bank for Jefferson's campaign. Another crucial move was Burr's success in getting his slate of New York City and nearby Electors to win election, thus defeating the Federalist slate, which was chosen and backed by Alexander Hamilton. This event drove a further wedge between the former friends.

Burr is known as the father of modern political campaigning. He enlisted the help of members of Tammany Hall, a social club, and won the election. He was then placed on the Democratic-Republican presidential ticket in the 1800 election with Jefferson. At the time, state legislatures chose the members of the U.S. Electoral College, and New York was crucial to Jefferson. Though Jefferson did win New York, he and Burr tied for the presidency with 73 electoral votes each.

It was well understood that the party intended that Jefferson should be president and Burr vice president, but the responsibility for the final choice belonged to the House of Representatives. The attempts of a powerful faction among the Federalists to secure the election of Burr failed, partly due to opposition by Alexander Hamilton and partly due to Burr himself, who did little to obtain votes in his own favor. He wrote to Jefferson underscoring his promise to be vice president, and again during the voting stalemate in the Congress wrote again that he would give it up entirely if Jefferson so demanded. Ultimately, the election devolved to the point where it took 36 ballots before James A. Bayard, a Delaware Federalist, submitted a blank vote. Federalist abstentions in the Vermont and Maryland delegations led to Jefferson's election as President, and Burr’s moderate Federalist supporters conceded his defeat.

Upon confirmation of Jefferson’s election, Burr became Vice President of the United States, but despite his letters and his shunning of any political activity during the balloting (he never left Albany) he lost Jefferson's trust after that, and was effectively shut out of party matters. Some historians conjecture that the reason for this was Burr's casual regard for politics, and that he didn't act aggressively enough during the election tie. Jefferson was tight-lipped in private about Burr, so his reasons are still not entirely clear. However, Burr's even-handed fairness and his judicial manner as President of the Senate were praised even by some of his enemies, and he fostered some time-honored traditions regarding that office. Historian Forrest MacDonald has credited Burr's judicial manner in presiding over the impeachment trial of Justice Samuel Chase with helping to preserve the principle of judicial independence that was established by Marbury v. Madison in 1803. It was written by one Senator that Burr had conducted the proceedings with the "impartiality of an angel and the rigor of a devil."

Burr's farewell in March 1805 moved some of his harshest critics in the Senate to tears. However, except for short quotes and descriptions of the address, which defended America's system of government, it was never recorded in full.

Duel with Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton fights his fatal duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.

Main article: Burr–Hamilton duel

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. Burr lost the election, and blamed his loss on a personal smear campaign believed to have been orchestrated by his own party rivals, including New York governor George Clinton. Hamilton also opposed Burr, due to his belief that Burr had entertained a Federalist secession movement in New York and called Burr "a dangerous man, and one who ought not be trusted with the reins of government." Burr, however, felt that Hamilton went too far at one political dinner, where he said that he could express a "still more despicable opinion" of Burr. After a letter regarding the incident written by Dr. Charles D. Cooper was published in the Albany Register, Burr sought an explanation from Hamilton.

Instead Hamilton responded casually by educating Burr on the many possible meanings of despicable, enraging and embarrassing Burr. Burr then demanded that Hamilton recant or deny anything he might have said regarding Burr’s character over the past 15 years, but Hamilton, having already been disgraced by the Maria Reynolds scandal and ever mindful of his own reputation and honor, did not. Burr responded by challenging Hamilton to personal combat under the code duello, the formalized rules of dueling. Hamilton's eldest son, Philip, had died in a duel in 1801.

Although still quite common, dueling had been outlawed in New York, and the punishment for conviction of dueling was death. It was illegal in New Jersey as well, but the consequences were less severe. On July 11, 1804, the enemies met outside of Weehawken, New Jersey, and following the code duello Hamilton was mortally wounded. There has been some controversy as to the claims of Burr and Hamilton's seconds. While one party indicates Hamilton fired only because of the shock of being struck by Burr's shot—the implication being that Hamilton's shot was unintentional—the other claims that Hamilton fired first. The two sides do, however, agree that there was a 3 to 4 second interval between the first and the second shot, raising difficult questions in evaluating the two camps' versions.^[6] In any event, Hamilton's shot missed Burr, but Burr's shot was fatal. The bullet entered Hamilton's abdomen above his right hip, piercing Hamilton's liver and spine. Hamilton was evacuated to Manhattan where he lay in the house of a friend, receiving visitors until he died the following day. Burr was later charged with multiple crimes, including murder, in New York and New Jersey, but was never tried in either jurisdiction. He fled to South Carolina, where his daughter lived with her family, but soon returned to Philadelphia and then on to Washington to complete his term as Vice President.

Conspiracy and trial

Main article: Burr conspiracy

Burr had leased 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land in the Texas part of Mexico, in the "Bastrop" lands from the Spanish government. His "conspiracy," he always avowed, was that if he settled there with a large group of (armed) "farmers" and war broke out, he would have an army with which to fight and claim land for himself, thus recouping his fortunes. However, that war in Texas didn't occur until 1836, the year of Burr's death.

In 1805, General James Wilkinson was chosen by Jefferson to be the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army at New Orleans and Governor of the Louisiana Territory. It was revealed years later that at the time he was a spy, secretly in the pay of the Kingdom of Spain. Wilkinson had his own reasons for aiding the Burr Conspiracy. As Territorial Governor, he could have seized power for himself, as he had attempted in earlier plots in Kentucky. Ignorant of the General's treason, Burr enlisted Wilkinson and others to his plan in a reconnaissance mission to the West in April 1805.

Another member of the Burr conspiracy was the Anglo-Irish aristocrat Harman Blennerhassett. After marrying his niece, Blennerhassett had been forced out of Ireland. He came to live as a quasi-feudal lord, owning an island now bearing his name in the Ohio River. Highly educated, Blennerhassett maintained a scientific laboratory and an impressive villa on the island. It was there that he met Burr and agreed to help finance the ambitions of Burr's group.

Like many of his countrymen, including Jefferson, Burr anticipated a war with Spain a distinct possibility. In case of a war declaration, Andrew Jackson stood ready to help Colonel Burr, who had already purchased the land shares in Texas. Burr's expedition of perhaps eighty men carried modest arms for hunting, and no war materiel was ever revealed, even when Blennerhassett Island was seized by Virginia militia (the island was just off shore from modern Parkersburg, West Virginia).

After a near-incident with Spanish forces at Natchitoches, Wilkinson decided he could best serve his conflicting interests by betraying Burr's plans to President Jefferson and to his Spanish paymasters. Jefferson's passivity throughout most of 1806 remains baffling to this day, but he finally issued an order for Burr's arrest, declaring him a traitor even before an indictment. Burr read this in a newspaper in the Territory of Orleans on January 10, 1807. Jefferson's warrant put Federal agents on his trail. He turned himself in to the Federal authorities twice. Two judges found his actions legal and released him. Jefferson's warrant, however, followed Burr, who then fled for Spanish Florida; he was intercepted near the Missouri and Alabama Territories on February 19, 1807, and confined to Fort Stoddert after being arrested on charges of treason.^[7]

Burr was treated well at Fort Stoddert. For example, in the evening of February 20, 1807, Burr appeared at the dinner table, and was introduced to Frances Gaines, the wife of the commandant Edmund P. Gaines and the daughter of Judge Harry Toulmin, the man responsible for the legal arrest of Burr. Frances and Burr played chess that evening and continued this entertainment during his confinement at the fort.

Burr's secret correspondence with Anthony Merry and the Marquis of Casa Yrujo, the British and Spanish ministers at Washington, was eventually revealed. It had been, it would seem, to secure money and to conceal his real designs, which were probably to help Mexico to overthrow Spanish power in the Southwest, and perhaps to found a dynasty in what would have become former Mexican territory. This seems to have been a misdemeanor, based on the Neutrality Act of 1794 passed to block filibuster expeditions like those questionable enterprises of George Rogers Clark and William Blount. Jefferson, however, sought the highest charges against Burr. It seems that both Jefferson and Burr gravely misjudged Wilkinson's character – Jefferson had personally put him in charge of the Army at New Orleans.

In 1807, on a charge of treason, Burr was brought to trial before the United States Circuit Court at Richmond, Virginia. His defense lawyers were John Wickham and Luther Martin. Burr's senior court was Edmund Randolph. Burr was arraigned four times for treason before a grand jury indicted him. This is surprising, because the only physical evidence presented to the Grand Jury was Wilkinson's so-called letter from Burr, proposing stealing land in the Louisiana Purchase. During the Jury's examination it was discovered that the letter was in Wilkinson's own handwriting – a "copy," he said, because he had "lost" the original. The Grand Jury threw the letter out, and the news made a laughingstock of the General for the rest of the proceedings. The trial, presided over by Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, began on August 3.

Article 3, Section 3 of the United States Constitution requires that treason either be admitted in open court, or proved by an overt act witnessed by two people. Since no two witnesses came forward, Burr was acquitted on September 1, in spite of the full force of the Jefferson administration's political influence thrown against him. Immediately afterward, he was tried on a more appropriate misdemeanor charge, but was again acquitted.

The trial was a major test of the Constitution. It was carefully watched drama (Henry Adams gives a full account in The History of the United States of America (1801-1817)) as Thomas Jefferson wanted a conviction. He challenged the authority of the Supreme Court and its Chief Justice John Marshall – an Adams appointee who clashed with Jefferson over Adams' last-minute judicial appointments. Thomas Jefferson believed that Aaron Burr's treason was obvious, and warranted a conviction.The actual case hinged on whether Aaron Burr was present at certain events at certain times and in certain capacities. Thomas Jefferson used all of his influence to get Marshall to move to conviction, but Marshall was not swayed.

Later life

A later portrait of Burr

By this point all of Burr's hopes for a political comeback had been dashed, and he fled America and his creditors for Europe, where he tried to regain his fortunes. He lived abroad from 1808 to 1812, passing most of his time in England where he occupied a house on Craven Street in London. He became a good friend, even confidant, of the English Utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, even living at Bentham's home on occasion. He also spent time in Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and France. It was during this period he is known for remarking, "In the past even I was afraid of my own greatness, therefore I could not stand in front of mirrors." Ever hopeful, he solicited funding for renewing his plans for Mexico, but was rebuffed. He was ordered out of England and Napoleon Bonaparte refused to receive him – although one of his ministers held an interview concerning Burr's aims for Spanish Florida or British possessions in the Caribbean. After returning from Europe, Burr used the surname "Edwards," his mother's maiden name, for a while to avoid creditors.

Death

Burr suffered a debilitating stroke in 1834, which rendered him immobile. In 1836, Burr died on Staten Island in the village of Port Richmond. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery near his father and grandfather in Princeton, New Jersey.

Character

According to his detractors, Burr could be unscrupulous, insincere, devious and amoral. Towards his friends and family, he was a man of firm principles, a kind man who, during his tenure in the Senate, was pleasing in his manners and generous to a fault.^{[citation needed]}

Burr believed women to be intellectually equal to men, and hung a portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft over his mantle. The Burrs' daughter, Theodosia, was taught dance, music, several languages and learned to shoot from horseback. Until her death at sea in 1813, she remained devoted to her father. Not only did Burr advocate education for women, upon his election to the New York State Legislature, he submitted a bill to allow women to vote.

In her Autobiography of Jane Fairfield, the wife of the struggling poet Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, she relates how their friend Burr saved the lives of her two children, who were left with their grandmother in New York while the parents were in Boston. The grandmother was unable to provide adequate food or heat for the children and was in fear for their very lives. She sought out Burr, as the only one that might be able and willing to help her. Burr "wept and replied, 'Though I am poor and have not a dollar, the children of such a mother shall not suffer while I have a watch.' He hastened on this errand, and quickly returned, having pawned the article for twenty dollars, which he gave to make comfortable my precious babies."^[8] In his later years in New York, he practiced estate law and provided money and education for several children, earning their lifelong affection.

Although he proved irresistible to many women, few historians doubt Burr's devotion to his first wife while she lived. He was profligate in his personal finances, and gave lip service to abolitionism even though he owned one or two slaves for a time. John Quincy Adams (who was a great admirer of Jefferson) said after the former vice president's death, "Burr's life, take it all together, was such as in any country of sound morals his friends would be desirous of burying in quiet oblivion." This was his own opinion: his father, President John Adams, was an admirer and frequent defender of Burr. John Adams wrote that Burr "had served in the army, and came out of it with the character of a knight without fear and an able officer."^[9]

Gordon S. Wood, a leading scholar of the Revolutionary period, holds that it was Burr’s character that put him at odds with the rest of the “founding fathers,” especially Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton, leading to his personal and political defeats and, ultimately, to his place outside the golden circle of revered revolutionary figures. Because of his habit of placing self-interest above the good of the whole, those men felt Burr represented a serious threat to the very ideals for which they had fought the Revolution. Their ideal, as particularly embodied in Washington and Jefferson, was that of “disinterested politics,” a government led by educated gentlemen who would fulfill their duties in a spirit of public virtue and without regard to personal interests or pursuits. This was the core of an Enlightenment gentleman, and Burr, his political enemies felt, lacked that essential core. Indeed, it was Hamilton’s belief that Burr’s self-serving nature made him unfit to hold office – especially the presidency. Jefferson, though one of Hamilton’s bitterest enemies, was at least a man of public virtue. This belief led Hamilton to launch his unrelenting campaign in the House of Representatives to prevent Burr’s election to the presidency, favoring his erstwhile enemy Jefferson, instead. Later in Burr’s life, Jefferson, in turn, would go so far as to push the boundaries of the Constitution in his attempt – in the charging and trying of Burr for treason – to eliminate Burr.^[10]

Legacy

This section requires expansion.

A lasting consequence of Burr's role in the election of 1800 was the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which changed the way in which vice presidents were chosen.

In public and in private, Burr's behavior, even by his political foes, was labelled as considerate and gracious and he was often commended as a great listener. Although much took place in Burr's life, he is remembered by many only for the deadly duel with Hamilton. However, his establishment of guides and rules for the first Senate impeachment trial set a high moral bar for behavior and procedures in that chamber, many of which are followed today. His silence and refusal to engage in defending himself from his political critics either in legislatures or in the press, plus the fact that most of his personal papers disappeared with his daughter's death at sea and with his biographer, Matthew Davis, has left an air of mystery over his reputation.

Gore Vidal chose to write about the controversial founding father in 1973 with his historical fiction novel, Burr.

In the comic book The Flash, a 1975 backup story featuring Green Lantern stars Burr.^[11] "The Man of Destiny," written by Dennis O'Neil and drawn by Dick Dillin, reveals that Burr was recruited by aliens to act as a leader for an interplanetary society in chaos. (The alliance cloned Burr, sending the clone back to earth to duel with Hamilton and live out of the rest of "Burr"'s life on earth.)

A famous "Got Milk?" commercial directed by Michael Bay features a historian obsessed with the study of Hamilton (to the point of owning the guns and the bullet from the duel). He is called by a radio station while he has peanut butter in his mouth and asked who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel to win a large prize. The historian is out of milk and cannot manage to say the "Aaron Burr" clearly enough to be heard before his time runs out.

In the Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg Saturday Night Live digital short "Lazy Sunday," Parnell raps "You can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're droppin' Hamiltons," referring to spending ten dollar bills (which have Hamilton's portrait on them).

A boss in Super Mario Galaxy, Baron Brrr, is a reference to Aaron Burr.

In Alexander C. Irvine's 2002 novel A Scattering of Jades, Burr takes part in a plot to bring an ancient Aztec deity into power, explaining his interest in Mexico.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Collection of U.S. House of Representatives. "BURR, Aaron". http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B001133. Retrieved 2009-11-26. 
2. ^ Isenberg, p. 245–288
3. ^ Lomask, 82
4. ^ Shachner, 37
5. ^ The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States By John Adams, Charles Francis Adams, Letter to James Lloyd, 17 Feb 1815, pp. 123–124
6. ^ Ellis, 20–47
7. ^ Pickett, 488–502
8. ^ Fairfield, 89
9. ^ The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States By John Adams, Charles Francis Adams, Letter to James Lloyd, 17 Feb 1815, pp. 123
10. ^ Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters, What Made the Founding Fathers Different. (New York: Penguin Books, 2007) 225–242.
11. ^ The Flash vol. 26, #231, January/February 1975.

References

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Burr, Aaron.

• Burr, Aaron. Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr. Mary-Jo Kline and Joanne W. Ryan, eds. 2 vol. Princeton University Press, 1983. 1311 pp.
• Cheetham, James. Nine Letters on the Subject of Aaron Burrs Political Defection. Reprint by Kessinger Publishing, 2007.
• Cheetham, James. A view of the political conduct of Aaron Burr, esq., vice-president of the United States. (1802)
• Clark, Daniel. Proofs of the Corruption of Gen. James Wilkinson, and of His Connexion With Aaron Burr: A Full Refutation of His Slanderous Allegations in Relation to ... of the Principal Witness Against Him (1809). Reprinted by University Press of the Pacific, 2005.
• Robertson, David. Reports of the Trials of Colonel Aaron Burr (Late Vice President of the United States) for Treason and for Misdemeanor...Two Volumes (report taken in shorthand) (1808)
• Missouri History Museum Archives. Aaron Burr Papers
• Van Ness, William Peter. An Examination of the Various Charges Exhibited Against Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States: and a Development of the Characters and Views of His Political Opponents. (1803) Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2007.
• Adams, John, and Charles Francis Adams. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations. Boston: Little, Brown, 1850. googlebooks Retrieved October 4, 2008
• Burr, Aaron, and Matthew L. Davis. Memoirs of Aaron Burr. With Miscellaneous Selections from His Correspondence. 2 Vols. New York: Harper & Bros, 1837. Project Gutenberg: Vol. 1, Vol. 2
• Lomask, Milton. Aaron Burr. 2 Vols. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1979.
• Ellis, Joseph. "The Founding Brothers." (2000).
• Fairfield, Jane Frazee, and Sumner Lincoln Fairfield. The Autobiography of Jane Fairfield; Embracing a Few Select Poems by Sumner Lincoln Fairfield. Boston: Bazin and Ellsworth, 1860. googlebooks.com Accessed September 5, 2007
• Pickett, Albert James. "The Arrest of Aaron Burr in Alabama." History of Alabama, and amazingly, deeply, and scaraficed Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period. Charleston: Walker and James, 1851. googlebooks.com Accessed September 27, 2007
• Schachner, Nathan, Aaron Burr, A Biography, New York, 1937. online edition
• Isenberg, Nancy. Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr, New York, 2007. [1]
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Further reading

• Abernethy, Thomas Perkins. "Aaron Burr in Mississippi." Journal of Southern History 1949 15(1): 9–21. Issn: 0022-4642 Fulltext: in Jstor
• Adams, Henry, History of the United States, vol. iii. New York, 1890. (For the traditional view of Burr's conspiracy.)
• Barbagallo, Tricia (March 10, 2007). "Fellow Citizens Read a Horrid Tale" (PDF). http://www.archives.nysed.gov/apt/magazine/archivesmag_sum07.pdf. Retrieved 2008-06-04. 
• Burdett, Charles. Margaret Moncrieffee: The First Love Of Aaron Burr (). Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2007.
• Clark, Alan J., Cipher Code of Dishonor: Aaron Burr, an American Enigma. (2005)
• Clemens, Jere. (Hon.), The Rivals: A Tale of the Times of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. (1860)
• Cohalan, John P., The Saga of Aaron Burr (1986)
• Cote, Richard N., Theodosia - Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy. (2002)
• Davis, Matthew L., Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete. (2007)
• Faulkner, Robert K. "John Marshall and the Burr Trial." Journal of American History 1966 53(2): 247–258. Issn: 0021-8723 Fulltext: in Jstor
• Fleming, Thomas. Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America (1999)
• Ford, Worthington Chauncey. "Some Papers of Aaron Burr", in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1919.
• Freeman, Joanne B. "Dueling as Politics: Reinterpreting the Burr-Hamilton Duel," in William and Mary Quarterly 1996 53(2): 289–318. Issn: 0043-5597 Fulltext: in Jstor
• Isenberg, Nancy. Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr (May 2008) Penguin Books ISBN 0143113712 – ISBN 9780143113713
• Jenkinson, Isaac. Aaron Burr: His Personal and Political Relations with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. (1902)
• Kennedy, Roger G. Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character (2000).
• Künstler, Laurence S. The Unpredictable Mr. Aaron Burr (1974).
• Larson, Edward J. A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign (2007).
• Lomask, Milton, "Aaron Burr," 2 Vols. New York, 1979, 1983.Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
• McCaleb, Walter Flavius, The Aaron Burr Conspiracy: A History Largely from Original and Hitherto Unused Sources, New York, 1903.
• McCaleb, Walter Flavius, A New Light on Aaron Burr (date unknown)
• Melton, Buckner F., Jr. Aaron Burr: Conspiracy to Treason. New York: John Wiley, 2002. 278 pp. online edition
• Parmet, Herbert S. and Marie B. Hecht; Aaron Burr; Portrait of an Ambitious Man (1967). online edition
• Parton, James, The Life and Times of Aaron Burr, Boston and New York, 1898. (2 vols.)
• Rogow, Arnold A. A Fatal Friendship: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (1998).
• Rorabaugh, William J. "The Political Duel in the Early Republic: Burr v. Hamilton." Journal of the Early Republic 1995 15(1): 1–23. Issn: 0275-1275 Fulltext: in Jstor
• Seton, Anya. My Theodosia (1948).
• Todd, Charles Burr. The True Aaron Burr: A Biographical Sketch (1902). Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, 2007.
• Vail, Philip. The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr (1973).
• Vidal, Gore, "Burr". New York. (For a fictionalized view of Burr's life during and after the U.S. Revolution)
• Wandell, Samuel H. and Meade Minngerode. Aaron Burr (1925). Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing.
• Wheelan, Joseph. Jefferson's Vendetta: The Pursuit of Aaron Burr and the Judiciary., 2005. 344 pp.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Aaron Burr

• Did Aaron Burr Really Try to Take Over Half of America?
• The Political Graveyard: Edwards family
• Photographic tour of Aaron Burr's grave at Princeton Cemetery.
• Find-A-Grave profile for Aaron Burr
• Harry Toulmin Biography
• The Arrest of Aaron Burr in Alabama
• The Aaron Burr Association
• Letters of Aaron Burr
• Aaron Burr at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2009-02-26

Political offices
Preceded by Thomas Jefferson	Vice President of the United States March 4, 1801 – March 4, 1805	Succeeded by George Clinton
Legal offices
Preceded by Richard Varick	Attorney General of New York September 29, 1789 – November 8, 1791	Succeeded by Morgan Lewis
United States Senate
Preceded by Philip Schuyler	United States Senator (Class 1) from New York March 4, 1791 – March 4, 1797 Served alongside: Rufus King, John Laurance	Succeeded by Philip Schuyler
Party political offices
Preceded by George Clinton(a)	Democratic-Republican Vice Presidential candidate(1) 1796(b), 1800(b)	Succeeded by George Clinton
Notes and references
1. Prior to the passage of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, each presidential elector would cast two votes; the highest vote-getter with a majority would become President and the runner-up would become Vice President. a. In 1792, with George Washington as the prohibitive favorite to be elected President, the Democratic-Republican Party fielded George Clinton with the intention that he be elected Vice President. b. Burr was a presidential candidate in both 1796 and 1800, although the Democratic-Republican Party also fielded Thomas Jefferson with the intention that Jefferson be elected President and Burr be elected Vice President.

v • d • e Vice Presidents of the United States John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · Aaron Burr · George Clinton · Elbridge Gerry · Daniel D. Tompkins · John C. Calhoun · Martin Van Buren · Richard Mentor Johnson · John Tyler · George M. Dallas · Millard Fillmore · William R. King · John C. Breckinridge · Hannibal Hamlin · Andrew Johnson · Schuyler Colfax · Henry Wilson · William A. Wheeler · Chester A. Arthur · Thomas A. Hendricks · Levi P. Morton · Adlai E. Stevenson I · Garret Hobart · Theodore Roosevelt · Charles W. Fairbanks · James S. Sherman · Thomas R. Marshall · Calvin Coolidge · Charles G. Dawes · Charles Curtis · John Nance Garner · Henry A. Wallace · Harry S. Truman · Alben W. Barkley · Richard Nixon · Lyndon B. Johnson · Hubert Humphrey · Spiro Agnew · Gerald Ford · Nelson Rockefeller · Walter Mondale · George H. W. Bush · Dan Quayle · Al Gore · Dick Cheney · Joe Biden

v • d • e United States Senators from New York Class 1 Schuyler • Burr • Schuyler • Hobart • North • Watson • Morris • Bailey • Armstrong • Mitchill • German • Sanford • Van Buren • Dudley • Tallmadge • Dickinson • Fish • P. King • Morgan • Fenton • Kernan • Platt • Miller • Hiscock • Murphy • Depew • O'Gorman • Calder • Copeland • Mead • Ives • Keating • Kennedy • Goodell • Buckley • Moynihan • H. Clinton • Gillibrand Class 3 R. King • Laurance • Armstrong • D. Clinton • Armstrong • Smith • R. King • Sanford • Marcy • Wright • Foster • Dix • Seward • Harris • Conkling • Lapham • Evarts • Hill • Platt • Root • Wadsworth • Wagner • Dulles • Lehman • Javits • D'Amato • Schumer

v • d • e Attorneys General of New York Benson · Varick · Burr · M Lewis · Lawrence · J Hoffman · Spencer · Woodworth · Hildreth · Van Vechten · Hildreth · Emmet · Van Vechten · M Van Buren · Oakley · Talcott · Bronson · Beardsley · Hall · Barker · J Van Buren · Jordan · Chatfield · Stow · O Hoffman · Cushing · Tremain · Myers · Dickinson · Cochrane · Martindale · Champlain · Barlow · Pratt · Fairchild · Schoonmaker · Ward Sr · Russell · O'Brien · Tabor · Rosendale · Hancock · Davies · Cunneen · Mayer · Jackson · O'Malley · Carmody · Parsons · Woodbury · M E Lewis · Newton · Sherman · Ottinger · Ward Jr · Bennett · Goldstein · Javits · Lefkowitz · Abrams · Koppell · Vacco · Spitzer · Cuomo

v • d • e Cabinet of President Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809) Vice President Aaron Burr (1801–1805) · George Clinton (1805–1809) Secretary of State James Madison (1801–1809) Secretary of the Treasury Samuel Dexter (1801) · Albert Gallatin (1801–1809) Secretary of War Henry Dearborn (1801–1809) Attorney General Levi Lincoln, Sr. (1801–1804) · Robert Smith (1805) · John Breckinridge (1805–1806) · Caesar A. Rodney (1807–1809) Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert (1801) · Robert Smith (1801–1809)

Persondata
NAME	Burr, Aaron
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American politician
DATE OF BIRTH	February 6, 1756
PLACE OF BIRTH	Newark, New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH	September 14, 1836
PLACE OF DEATH	Staten Island, New York, United States

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