The 1800 Presidential Election and Its Aftermath

To understand this wild story fully it is important to note that the presidential election in 1800 happened before the 12th Amendment. This meant that there were no official tickets, and whoever had the most votes for them won the presidency and the vice president position went to whoever was in second place.

Previous to the 1800 election John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had run against each other with Adams winning the match therefore making Jefferson his vice president. In 1800 it was time for the rematch with Adams on the Federalist side with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Jefferson on the Democratic-Republican side with Aaron Burr. When the votes from the Electoral College came in there were seventy-three votes for both Jefferson and Burr while Adams only had sixty-five. This put Jefferson and Burr in an obvious tie, the solution of which was to bring Congress into the matter.

Alexander Hamilton despite disliking all the candidates decided to back Jefferson and try to persuade the Federalists to vote for him. Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had some history by this point in time. Originally they weren't enemies though, and in fact led similar lives up to a point. They were both orphans, they both joined the colonial army during the Revolutionary War, and they both established themselves as lawyers afterwards. Surprisingly they once even worked together on a murder trial. As they began to enter the world of politics they began to differ in their opinions, but the real problems hadn't started until 1791.

In 1791 Burr used his considerable influence with the state's legislature to become a U.S. Senator, his opponent had been Philip Schuyler. Schuyler was Hamilton's father-in-law and the two were quite close, Hamilton was needless to say very upset.

Fast forward again to 1800 the House chose Jefferson, and Burr became the vice president. Because of Burr's actions during the campaign Jefferson himself didn't care for him, so in 1804 when Jefferson ran for reelection Burr was dropped from the ticket. Burr instead ran in the election for governor of New York which he lost to a relatively unknown politician. Burr blamed Hamilton for his loss.

During the spring a newspaper published remarks that Hamilton had made about Burr including comments saying he was a "dangerous man" who shouldn't be trusted. This angered Burr intensely and the two men started sending heated letters to one another. Eventually their feud left them with no other option than to have a duel. Although Burr had participated in one before, Hamilton had not and in fact had a moral objection to them in the first place. Hamilton's son, Philip, had died in one when he was a teen after accepting a challenge to defend his father's honor.

Hamilton didn't feel he had a choice in this matter however, and agreed to meet Burr for a duel on July 11, 1804, in Weehawken, New Jersey. Historians have theories about what happened during the duel, but we can never really know because the only other people present turned their backs before the shots were fired since duels were technically illegal in New Jersey, and they wanted to maintain some deniability. The existing theories are based off of Hamilton's goodbye letters, and comments he made to the men who took him back to New York.

It is believed that Hamilton shot into the air, while Burr shot him in the hip. Burr's shot was probably never meant to be deadly but it caused a fatal wound that killed Hamilton thirty hours later. Burr never went to prison for Hamilton's death although charges were brought against him in both New York and New Jersey, but his political career was ruined.