In 1800, Jefferson again chose Burr as his running mate.
Under the electoral procedure then prevailing, president and vice president
were not voted for distinctly; the candidate who received the most votes was
elected president, and the second in line, vice president. Jefferson and Burr
each won 73 votes, and the election was sent to the House of Representatives.
What at first seemed but an electoral technicality--handing Jefferson victory
over his running mate--developed into a major constitutional crisis when
Federalists in the lame-duck Congress threw their support behind Burr. After a
remarkable 35 tie votes, a small group of Federalists changed sides and voted
in Jefferson's favor.
Burr became vice president, but Jefferson grew apart from
him, and he did not support Burr's election to a second term in 1804. That
year, a faction of New York Federalists, who had found their fortunes
drastically diminished after the ascendance of Jefferson, sought to enlist the
disgruntled Burr into their party and elect him governor. Burr's old political
antagonist Alexander Hamilton campaigned against him with great fervor, and he
lost the Federalist nomination and then, running as an independent for
governor, the election. In the campaign, Burr's character was savagely attacked
by Hamilton and others, and after the election he resolved to restore his
reputation by challenging Hamilton to a duel, or an "affair of
honor," as they were known. Affairs of honor were commonplace in America
at the time, and the complex rules governing them usually led to a resolution
before any actual firing of weapons. In fact, the outspoken Hamilton had been
involved in several affairs of honor in his life, and he had resolved most of
them peaceably. No such recourse was found with Burr, however, and on July 11,
1804, the enemies met at 7 a.m. at the dueling grounds near Weehawken, New
Jersey.
There are conflicting accounts of what happened next.
According to Hamilton's "second" his assistant and witness in the
duel, Hamilton decided the duel was morally wrong and deliberately fired into
the air. Burr's second claimed that Hamilton fired at Burr and missed. What
happened next is agreed upon: Burr shot Hamilton in the stomach, and the bullet
lodged next to his spine. Hamilton was taken back to New York, and he died the
next afternoon. Few affairs of honor actually resulted in deaths, and the
nation was outraged by the killing of a man as eminent as Alexander Hamilton.
Charged with murder in New York and New Jersey, Burr, still vice president,
returned to Washington, D.C., where he finished his term immune from
prosecution. In 1805, Burr, thoroughly discredited, concocted a plot with James
Wilkinson, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army, to seize the Louisiana
Territory and establish an independent empire, which Burr, presumably, would
lead. He contacted the British government and unsuccessfully pleaded for assistance
in the scheme. Later, when border trouble with Spanish Mexico heated up, Burr
and Wilkinson conspired to seize territory in Spanish America for the same
purpose. In the fall of 1806, Burr led a group of well-armed colonists toward
New Orleans, prompting an immediate U.S. investigation. General Wilkinson, in
an effort to save himself, turned against Burr and sent dispatches to
Washington accusing Burr of treason. In February 1807, Burr was arrested in
Louisiana for treason and sent to Virginia to be tried in a U.S. court. On
September 1, he was acquitted on a technicality. Nevertheless, the public
condemned him as a traitor, and he went into exile to Europe. He later returned
to private life in New York, the murder charges against him forgotten. He died
in 1836.
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