Was Alexander Hamilton assassinated

Answer 1

No. Hamilton lost a duel with the Vice President of the US, Aaron Burr. Hamilton had said something about Burr at a dinner party, which got back to Burr. Hamilton refused to retract the statement or apologize, so Burr challenged him to a duel.

Exactly what Hamilton said is not completely clear. Polite histories and biographies try to claim that the dispute grew from their rivalry in New York state politics. Others say that what Hamilton said was that Burr was having an incestuous sexual relationship with his adult daughter, Theodosia Burr.

Hamilton had been acting strangely for several years before the duel. In 1797 or thereabouts he publicly confessed, by publishing long, detailed letters in newspapers across America, to having an extra-marital affair with Mrs. Reynolds. He did this even though he had not been caught at it. This very public confession must have been extremely mortifying to his wife, a rich heiress of the New York Schuyler family, and their eight children.

Hamilton lingered for a day and a half after being shot in the duel. The night before the duel he had written another long letter, which newspapers published in full, which made him seem somehow like a victim to the people. That, coupled with Jefferson's vendetta against Burr a few years later, attempting to get Burr convicted of treason, have branded Burr a villain in the eyes of most historians. Jefferson could never forgive that Burr had tied him in the electoral college vote totals in the election of 1800. At that time the candidate who got the most votes became president and the second place finisher became vice president. Because the electoral college was tied, the selection of the next president went into the Congress, where Burr had many more friends than Jefferson. People were afraid of Jefferson, who seemed just a little bit crazy. All Burr would have had to do was say the word and he would have been selected president instead of Jefferson. But Burr had given his promise to Jefferson to run as vice president, and would not say the word. Nevertheless, Jefferson thought Burr a dangerous rival and dumped him from the ticket in 1804.