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

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

[nopardons]

Only because Burr was shunned and excoriated, did he finally grow up and realize what a jerk he had been.

[billbears]

Burr is a POS who killed the true genius of the American Founding.

Right. Burr did something that was 30 years overdue. Burr should have received a medal instead. Hamilton's ideals bred Clay's American System. Clay's sycophant lackey (the 16th President) destroyed the ideal of the Republic the Framers envisioned. Hamilton envisioned a President and Senate for life, much as the British system of the time. Some genius...

[Pharmboy]

Nope--lower abdomen.

[RobbyS]

Guess we will have to look for sources.

[Pharmboy]

From Wikipedia:

Hamilton and Burr agreed to cross the Hudson River at dawn to take the duel to a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, because dueling had been outlawed in New York. Both men's seconds were instructed to look away as the dueling began, lest they be charged as accomplices to the crime. Hamilton fired first and missed, most likely intentionally. Burr, possibly hoping to merely wound Hamilton in the leg, instead shot Hamilton in the lower abdomen above the right hip. The bullet ricocheted off Hamilton's rib and caused considerable damage to his internal organs, particularly his liver and spine.

Emphasis added.

[RobbyS]

That sounds reasonable. I remembered that Hamilton suffered from a wound to the liver. Hamilton is said to have fired into the air. Burr could have satisfied his honor by discharging his weapon to the side but chose not to.Burr, of course, was guilty of no crime in NY. although I think, a DA tried to make up some charges. Burr returned to the capitol to president over the Senate. Since his career in the east was busted he soon left to try his foprtune in the West.

[Pharmboy]

There has always been a controversy over whether Alex's weapon discharged early because the trigger was set too lightly, or he intentionally discharged high, cracking a branch with the ball. We shall never know.

The devastating thing Alex was to have said is that Burr slept with his own beloved daughter.

Burr eventually came back to New York and lived in the Morris-Jumel Mansion in NYC.

[RobbyS]

I think she drowned crossing the Atlantic. He was certainly close to her, and it is said that he was never the same man again.

[binkdeville]

I agree..Burr was due a shot at Hamilton . Hamilton had been after him for years in a totally relentless smear campaign of lies and personal attacks..

[Pharmboy]

Yes--Theodosia met a tragic end in the Atlantic going from South Carolina to NY (from a geneology web site):

BURR, Theodosia [1783-1813]
Daughter of U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr. She is remembered for her devoted support of her father.

Hers is a tragic story: Following her 1801 marriage to Joseph Alston, scion of a prominent South Carolina family, Theodosia became chronically ill. She lost her 10-year-old son to malaria and was traveling to New York to visit her father when her ship was lost at sea. It is said that her ghost still walks their plantation.