Vice-President Burr Kills Hamilton (history primer for upcoming Cheney comparisons)

http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/B/aburr/burr.htm ^

[southernnorthcarolina]

Aaron Burr's fortunes may have waned after the duel, but his great- great- (etc.) nephew did OK. Richard Burr is now my Senator. The linked article, written during the 2004 campaign, was rather pessimistic on his chances, but he actually won rather comfortably.

[Eagle of Liberty]

The libbies are licking their chops hoping that Mr Whittington dies so they can brand Cheney a murderer. Get well soon Mr Whittington. Our prayers are with you.

Jack Bauer, please go guard Whittington's room!

[clawrence3]

Let's just hope the press is not as vicious toward Cheney as the Federalists were to Burr ; )

[clawrence3]

I certainly hope there is SOME kind of federal protection at that room.

[Cyclopean Squid]

Not to mention that Hamilton was in truth what the DUmmies claim Rove is--a powermad manipulator bent on controlling the entire workings of government and making himself king in all but name. Gotta like the guy.

[isom35]

"call us Aaron Burr the way we're droppin' Hamiltons!"

[alisasny]

There is a restaurant in NYC named One if by Land, Two if by Sea, in Greenwich Village. It at one time was a home to Aaron Burr. I had dinner there this past year and inside is so much memorabilia including documents and such.

Besides that the food and service for my group was awesome. A Beef Wellington to die for.

Nice little bit of history served with dinner.

[colorado tanker]

Hamilton fully participated in the rough and tumble of polemics in those days, as did Burr. I fault Hamilton for dueling with a scoundrel like Burr.

[ZGuy]

He didn't throw it away intentionally. Biographies and other research I read 15 years ago proved that Hamilton had the hair trigger set on the gun to get his shot off first. The result was that the gun went off early. There is still some question as to whether or not this was considered "cheating" at the time.

[HeadOn]

I'd rather go hunting with Dick Cheney than ride acorss a bridge with Ted Kennedy.

Not mine - Heard it from a caller on local radio yesterday...

[Restorer]

It was no "gentleman's duel".

Actually, it was. A duelist who chose to intentionally miss was thereby voluntarily taking the chance that his opponent would not choose to do the same. A duelist had no moral or ethical obligation to miss simply because his opponent did.

Were this not true, any lousy shot could just fire his pistol into the sky and thereby obligate his opponent to do the same. Kind of takes the point out of dueling.

[ZGuy]

Found it. The article that got me interested in this was "Pistols shed light on famed duel" from the November, 1976 Smithsonian magazine.

[KarlInOhio]

Well, FRiends, the libs have already gotten to the Wikipedia entry and have tied Cheney to Burr:

Where? I searched for "Cheney" and didn't find anything on that page.

[the lone haranguer]

I believe you are correct. As the story goes, way back in 1976, as the country was celebrating its bicentennial, the two pistols were being examined before being placed in the Smithsonian. Upon close inspection, Hamilton's pistol was rigged with a hair trigger, requiring only 1 to 1.5 pounds of pressure to pull, unlike the 10 to 15 pounds of pull required to fire a normal (unaltered) pistol. As a result, a duelist would have an incredible advantage over his opponent. In this case, it seems, Mr. Hamilton held the gun a bit too tight and triggered it before he had aimed, hitting the leaves above Burr's head. So, it would seem that although the fix was in, Mr. Burr's luck overcame it. Hamilton's nobility is, in my mind at least, somewhat suspect.

[clawrence3]

Burr wanted to make himself king of the entire Louisiana Purchase - hardly a difference there.

[clawrence3]

Down at the bottom, under trivia.

[Cyclopean Squid]

Well, FRiends, the libs have already gotten to the Wikipedia entry and have tied Cheney to Burr:

Where? I searched for "Cheney" and didn't find anything on that page.

hmmm. Down the memory hole for now. It was under a "Trivia" section at the bottom. It seems someone erased it. I'm sure it will be back later.

[Cyclopean Squid]

It's gone now. Interesting bit about Burr and the Louisiana purchase. I've been meaning to read more on the Founding fathers and get some more knowledge of American history. I've had the Chernow Hamilton bio on my Amazon wish list forever.

[clawrence3]

The 'trivia" was fairly innocuous - something like "On February 11, 2006, Richard B. Cheney became the second sitting Vice-President to shoot a human being . . ." Of course, it was a subtle attempt to make the connection to Burr - there was nothing factually incorrect about the entry.

[PBRSTREETGANG]