Burr: The Rivalry Between Burr And Hamilton

Improved Essays
Burr's father was a Presbyterian minister and the president of the College of New Jersey. After the loss of both of his parents, Burr and his sister went to live with their wealthy uncle.

In 1769, at the age of 13, Burr enrolled at the College of New Jersey.

After graduating from the College of New Jersey, Burr began attending Litchfield Law School in Connecticut. His studies were soon put on hold because of the Revolutionary War.

Burr joined Benedict Arnold's men in their expedition to Quebec. By the spring of 1776, Burr had achieved the rank of major, and was appointed to serve under George Washington at his home in New York.

The next year, Burr went back to studying law. In 1782, he became a licensed attorney. After opening a successful
…show more content…
In 1783, Theodosia gave birth to the couple's only child, a little girl. Burr and Theodosia would remain happily married until her death in 1794. Later, in 1812, Burr would experience a tragic loss of his daughter, who was killed in a shipwreck.

In 1791, Burr beat General Philip Schuyler, Alexander Hamilton's father-in-law, to be in the U.S. Senate. This was the start of the rivalry between Burr and Hamilton. After six years in the Senate, Burr lost the re-election to Schuyler. Burr blamed Hamilton for ruining his reputation and turning voters against him.

In 1800, Burr ran for the U.S. presidency with Thomas Jefferson. Because they each received the same amount of electoral votes, members of the House of Representatives were left to determine the winner. When the House met to discuss the election, Burr's rival, Hamilton, expressed his support for Jefferson. In the end, Jefferson became the president and Burr became vice president. Burr was angry believing that Hamilton had changed the vote in Jefferson's
…show more content…
Again, he blamed Hamilton for doing something bad to his reputation and eager to defend the morning of July 11, 1804. The duel ended when Burr shot Hamilton to death. The public was outraged. Burr fled New York and New Jersey but eventually went back to Washington, DC where he completed his term safe from prosecution. The indictments in the case never reached

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    As revenge burr challanged hamilton to a duel and killed him. Sadly, honestly burr and hamilton could have been friends however politics can make even the most inteliigent of men evil. Despite the quarrels they had Burr and Hamilton shared many similarities. Both were highly respected military officials, in boatloads of debt, and politically hard headed.…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He was thwarted when Hamilton published his opinions on burr and his plot so people would not support him in the election.\ 6. Jefferson responded to the impressment by imposing an embargo and banning trade activity, leading to disastrous economic…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jefferson was a strong believer in strict construction, which was abiding to what the Constitution specifically states, and not stretching its boundaries. This belief would affect the choices he made for this country. Hamilton believed in loose construction, which is the complete opposite of Jefferson’s idea, and was also pro-British, where Jefferson was pro-French. These disagreements would cause these two men to clash, causing Jefferson to step down since Washington was more influenced…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the election of 1800, Jefferson, as well as Aaron Burr, received 73 electoral votes. Consequently, the election ended in a tie. Usually, in the past elections, the person with the most votes became the President and the runner up became the Vice President. Since the votes were a tie, it was up to the House of Representatives to decide who would be the president. Thomas Jefferson won the higher amount of electoral votes, 36, and started his presidency.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Adams and Hamilton led the Federalists, who believed the public should not get involved with politics, and that there were powers not listed in the constitution the national government was entitled to. Madison and Jefferson led the Republicans, who believed that citizens (and states) should make the important decisions. With the election of 1796 coming up, Adams and Jefferson were nominated. Following the laws of that time, Adams won by three electoral votes, Jefferson becoming vice president. Under president Adams, the Federalists vegan to lose ground, encouraging Adams to go to war with France, and paving the way for Jefferson's 1800…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aaron Burr was President Thomas Jefferson's vice president. Both Hamilton and Burr had events in their lives that had unfolded along curiously parallel lines. Both were orphaned at an early age;…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    General Burr

    • 1003 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Burr’s strong sense of determination secured his admission to Princeton at the age of thirteen as a junior and went on to graduate at the age of sixteen. Burr continued his studies and enjoyed reading about military history and as a result of colonial unrest in 1774, he took an interest in Constitutional Law. Burr had a promising career in practicing law until he learned of the Battle of Lexington and how the British shed the blood of his fellow countrymen. Burr had an overwhelming desire to do his part and serve in the Continental Army. Aaron Burr’s military career began and would be filled with defeat, victories and disappointment in his fellow officers and commanders.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    President Thomas Jefferson defeated President John Adams for a reason. In the revolution of 1800 Vice president thomas jefferson defeated president john adams. The election was a realigning election ushered in a general of Democratic-Republican party rule and the eventual demise of the federalist party in the first system. The people who were involved are the American citizens,congress voting,thomas jefferson and john adams. They are talking about thomas jefferson and john adams going against each other to be president.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The duel on the morning of July 11, 1804 between Alexander Hamilton, an honorary, willful, and popular individual in the Federalist party, and his polar opposite, Aaron Burr, the natural aristocrat and second in command of the United States, introduces itself as one of the most captivating and mysterious manifestations in American history. Coming from two completely different backgrounds, Burr and Hamilton allegedly 1met at Weehawken, to settle their disputes in an honorable, yet illegal way. The shots fired resulted in a fatally wounded Hamilton, due to the ricocheting of Burr’s bullet on his ribs and its final stop in Hamilton’s spine. He died the next day surrounded by his family. Burr was not wounded, for Hamilton’s shot went astray and…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    For whatever reason, the two men detested each other personally, a scorn that went far beyond the political disagreements that Hamilton and Jefferson had. And so when Hamilton saw that Burr had a chance of becoming President, he jumped in to stop it from happening. Choosing to argue for the election of one political rival over another, Hamilton…

    • 188 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Jefferson vs Hamilton). Jefferson did not like the idea that a president should be re-elected several times, he preferred that the President should be allowed to serve only for a few terms. Like he states, if permitted by the constitution that person is an officer for life, because he can continuously be re-elected. Although he wanted a government he feared the idea of the government having too much power seeing that it could lead to monarchy. “Jefferson expressed his fear that monarchial Federalists sought to use the new government as a stepping stone to monarchy.”…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Why did these men have such a strong dispute that made them to take up such extreme measures? Burr had just served as vice president to Jefferson, and Hamilton was the most prominent member of the Federalist Party behind Washington. What were the factors and causes that prompted Burr to challenge Hamilton, and why had he accepted it? In order to answer these questions, Ellis guides us back through the history of their tension. In June of 1804, a letter…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Aaron Burr was known as a “Benedict Arnold” in the politics of the United States of America as he constantly switched from political party to another as a helper, aiding depleting political parties. At the same time, though, many saw him as a political backstabber. One of these people included Alexander Hamilton, who constantly criticized Burr calling him “unprincipled”. This eventually resulted in a duel, declared by Burr, against Hamilton, since Burr was upset from the degradation he received and the only way to handle this was through dueling. Burr ended up murdering Hamilton, and straight away, he faced cruel backlash.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout this all-encompassing novel, Joseph J. Ellis is depicting what truly happened in prominent political events rather than the common ideas. He extensively goes into great depths rather than merely scraping the surface of these phenomenal affairs. Specifically, he elaborates on events such as the Duel between Hamilton and Burr, The Compromise of 1790, the plague of slavery, George Washington 's presidency, and the rocky friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It is more than apparent that Ellis wrote this novel to provide great insight as to what really occurred on some of the most monumental days of American History. On a July morning of 1804, renowned politicians Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton met near the modern-day…

    • 1183 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Aaron Burr's Career Path

    • 2556 Words
    • 11 Pages

    He increased his importance when he became the Vice President of Thomas Jefferson in 1800. Although, he did not fill this position during Jefferson’s second term, because of issues between the two. So, within a year or so of being replaced, Burr turned to a secessionist scheme, which he had been planning for a fair amount of time. This scheme involved breaking western states away from the union, and creating his own independent state. His partner in the scheme, General James Wilkinson, ended up getting cold feet, and gave up Burr to…

    • 2556 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays