Existing comment:
July 11, 1804
Aaron Burr's campaign for governor of New York in 1804 set in motion the events that led to his duel with Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton feared that Burr would try to ally New York with New England and secede from the Union over the Louisiana Purchase controversy. Most Federalists -- but not Hamilton -- opposed the purchase, predicting that the new territory would expand slavery and their political rivals' power. Hamilton abhorred the idea of secession: "If they break this union, they will break my heart," he had written. When Burr lost the election in April, he blamed Hamilton for his surprising defeat and the end of his political career. Two months later, they traded contentious letters on Hamilton's supposed attacks on Burr's character. As both men became increasingly obstinate and concerned about restoring their honor, they agreed to a duel to settle the dispute.
Just one week before their scheduled duel, Hamilton and Burr dined with the New York State Society of the Cincinnati, of which they were both members. "Burr, contrary to his wont, was silent, gloomy, sour; while Hamilton entered with glee into all the gaiety of a convivial party, and even sung an old military song," reported the artist John Trumbull, who also attended the annual gathering of veterans of the Revolution.
At 7 a.m. on July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr faced each other on a small dueling ground in Weehawken, New Jersey, overlooking the Hudson River. They fired their pistols within seconds of each other. Hamilton's shot hit a tree twelve feet off the ground. Burr's shot did not miss, striking Hamilton above his right hip. Hamilton was immediately rowed back to New York and taken to a friend's house, where he died the next day. It was a heartbreaking scene -- "his wife almost frantic with grief, his children in tears, every person present deeply afflicted." "Thus has perished one of the greatest men of this or any age," declared Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Hamilton's successor as secretary of the treasury. |