Skip to main content

The Duel

The Duel

200 Years Ago

On June 18 Alexander Hamilton—a Revolutionary leader, then a Framer of the Constitution and a farsighted Treasury Secretary, and now a successful New York lawyer and politician—received a polite but peremptory note from Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States. Burr called Hamilton’s attention to a letter that had been published in an Albany newspaper two months earlier. That letter, from a physician named Charles D. Cooper, said that Hamilton had called Burr “a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government” (Burr had been running unsuccessfully for governor of New York at the time) and that he had privately expressed “a still more despicable opinion” of the Vice President. Burr demanded to know: Was this true?

In his reply two days later, Hamilton declined to answer Burr’s question. Without being told exactly what he was accused of saying, Hamilton explained, he could not confirm or deny the charge. Burr was not satisfied with this response, and the two men’s correspondence grew increasingly testy. Burr issued a challenge; seconds were recruited; an appointment was made.

As the appointed day approached, both men put their affairs in order and drafted letters to their loved ones. On July 4 both Burr and Hamilton attended a festive meeting of the Society of the Cincinnati, a patriotic organization. Hamilton, the group’s president, drank heartily and sang an old military song, while Burr was quiet and withdrawn.

On the morning of July 11 Burr and Hamilton met in a field in Weehawken, New Jersey, the same place where Hamilton’s son Philip had been mortally wounded in a duel three years before. At a signal from the seconds, Burr fired. A split second later Hamilton fired, too, but very wildly; his friends attributed it to an involuntary spasm after being hit. Hamilton died the next day.

Although Burr faced considerable hostility for the killing, as well as indictments in New York and New Jersey, many deemed it justified under the social code of the time. As late as 1857 the historian James Parton called it “as near an approach to a reasonable and inevitable action, as an action can be which is intrinsically wrong and absurd.” Still, Burr’s political career was clearly over, and subsequent events confirmed Hamilton’s assessment of him. In 1805 he got involved with a group of men hoping to establish a new nation in the Southwest, possibly by starting a war with Spain over the territory of Mexico. A few years later he offered to help France reclaim Canada from the British. When neither scheme panned out, he returned to the practice of law, which he pursued successfully (though his expenses always seemed to outpace his income) until his death in 1836.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Featured Articles

Famous writers including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts turned Sleepy Hollow Cemetery into our country’s first conservation project.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.

Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.

Born during Jim Crow, Belle da Costa Greene perfected the art of "passing" while working for one of the most powerful men in America.