Burr was a typical Jeffersonian Democrat corrupt and concerned only with self-advancement helping to form the Axis of Evil between the Southern slavers and Big City bosses which almost destroyed the Union and still plagues us today. His pique at Hamilton thwarting his career produced the killing. He would have been president but for the great man.
Like most crooks Jefferson and Burr fell out when a Constitutional anomaly produced a tie for the Presidency in 1800. Jefferson was upset that Burr would not concede that the voters' intention had been to elect Jefferson and after Hamilton (typically putting the Union above personal or party advantage) ensured his presidency turned on Burr with a fury and destroyed what was left of him after his killing of Hamilton had turned the public upon him.
It was beautiful to watch those vipers go after each other while the greatest patriot of that generation after Washington lay in the grave.
Hamilton was the man most responsible for the growth of capitalism in America rather than the Jeffersonian economic system. The latter would have condemned the US to dependence on European manufactures and cultural backwardness. His statecraft in establishing a strong foundation for the modern economy is rarely equalled in history. It assures his eternal fame and regard among those who have studied these issues further than the superficial hatred the Left has generated against him.
Hamilton's legal ideas triumphed over Jefferson's at every point culminating in the Marshall Court's iron intrepretation of the Constitution Hamilton had helped as much as ANY man to create. Hamilton's argument for the constitutionality of National Banks compared to Jefferson's against was like a man toying with a boy's argument for more candy. Jefferson's superficial and absurd argument was easily ripped to shreds and showed either a lack of understanding of the Constitution or an opportunistic venality in using arguments he could not have believed valid. I give him too much credit for intelligence to believe it was the first.
General Hamilton was, as Jefferson had to concede, "A Colossus", "A Host Within Himself". A True Lover of Liberty who fought from the earliest beginnings of the Revolution for independence. A patriot who influenced public opinion as much as any American from 1775 until his death Hamilton had no equal in the legal, financial or geo-political realms.
Jefferson's early rhetorical contributions were not matched by his later career of power. At the end of his life Washington (Hamilton's closest ally) had had so much of Jefferson's perfidy and treachery that he would not allow the name be mentioned in his presence. Washington's 20+ yr regard for Hamilton stood as high as ever and no man was ever closer to or more loved by the President than the great Alexander, the Son he never had.
2. Jefferson was by far the better man than and also had the interests of all Americans at heart not just the interests of New York commercial manipulators.
3. Burr's marksmanship on the field of honor was a wonderful service to the U.S. whatever his motivations.
4. I'll take Boss Tweed over Averill Harriman anytime. Andrew Jackson over John Quincy Adams. Stephen Douglas (or Bell or Breckenridge or Seward most of all) over Lincoln. Grover Cleveland over Blaine. Chief Justice Tawney over Chief Justice Marshall, the Dred Scott decision notwithstanding. Charles Manson did less damage than Marshall. Jesse James over General Sherman or Kenny Lay or other neo-Federalist criminals.
5. Whose brainstorm was it to federally tax frontier whiskey production rather than New York shipping and to back it up with a federal army suppressing the frontier small business folks?
6. Stalin and Hitler might also be described as "Colossus" but you will forgive me for not wanting them running our country.
7. Burr was also Jonathan Edwards's grandson.
8. It was beautiful that Hamilton was in his grave. You cannot seriously mean that his commercial obsessions amounted to great patriotism, though.
9. Nicholas Biddle's National Bank was a slush fund for corrupt interests to manipulate events, investments and elections. Fortunately it was squashed by Andrew Jackson after a lengthy war against it on behalf of America.
10. As to Chief Justice John Marshall and his remarkable discovery of the non-existent SCOTUS power to overturn legislation as "unconstitutional", it is a great misfortune that Burr did not get an opportunity to apply his marksmanship on the field of honor to miscreant Marshall before Marshall had a chance to do such damage. As Chief Justice, he was the very embodiment of the idea of the dead hand of the discredited Federalist past until he finally croaked. It was not for nothing that the Federalists were extinguished or the Whigs after them. Each of those parties richly deserved extermination and got it.
11. If you dislike "slavers," is it not inconsistent to favor centralized power slavers like Hamilton????
12. I note that the public did not so sympathize with Hamilton as to restore Federalists to even public notice much less power. Consider that the Hartford Convention (motivated by a treasonous desire to restore commerce with England while the US was at war with England) was merely the last gasp of the Federalistas infuriated that their game was up.
As a side note, one snippet I remember from the Hamilton bio is the description of Burr. The author described him as an empty, working refridgerator - cold and empty inside.