July 12, 1804

Murder at the Shore

Alexander Hamilton killed in duel with Vice President Burr
The former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, has passed away at about 2 pm yesterday after engaging in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr at the Jersey Shore area around the Hudson River on July 11. The story of the beginnings of this duel are an interesting one. As was seen clearly before Hamilton, the famous federalist, opposed Burr and his policies openly and had supported Jefferson even though he knew all he worked for to further his own political ideals would be swept away. Soon afterwards, Hamiltons own son had died after engaging in a duel of his own with a man that had insulted his father. Hamilton then fell into a depression and earlier this year was enraged when Burr announced that he was switching political parties and was running for governor of New York as a federalist. Though, Aaron Burr lost the federalist nomination, he ran for a governor anyways as an independent nominee. Many malicious and slanderous things were reported by the people and media, which had defamed Burr, causing him to become depressed as well. In an attempt to regain his honor he challenged Hamilton to a duel. He also got evidence to defend himself using the Code of Honor by way of Dr. Charles Coopers letter to him telling Burr that Hamilton had called Burr a dangerous man amongst other negative things. When Aaron wrote a letter to Alexander expressing his anger over those statements, Hamilton was in a difficult position to respond. This is because, as sources tell us, that Hamilton did not want to duel but his pride did not let him apologize either. So, he wrote a letter back to Burr deflecting Burrs concerns and was potentially the worst thing he could have done. Aaron Burr sent another angrily worded letter back. The final note was written by Hamilton and afterwards Burr gave an ultimatum and demanded an apology for everything Hamilton had ever said about him. This exchange of letters caused Hamilton and Burr to both meet up at 7am on July 11th to fight out their issues and defend their honors, though this was kept a secret from their families. The second for Burr was William Van Ness and the second for Hamilton was Judge Nathaniel Pendleton. When time came to fire at each other, Hamiltons bullet did not hit Burr; however, Vice President Burr did fire back at Hamilton, even though he had the choice not to, and shot him in the stomach. As expected, Hamilton was in extreme pain and the doctor at hand could not do much to aid. Meanwhile, Burr was back at home eating a hearty breakfast. Thirty-six hours later, Alexander Hamilton was pronounced dead. According to Judge Pendleton, Hamilton had actually fired at the air and intentionally missed firing at Burr since he believed it would be morally wrong to do so. This seems like the most likely course of action but presents the case that Burr had murdered a completely innocent man. The opinion that Hamilton had just accidentally missed Burr is an opinion that is also in circulation, but it is impossible to know what was going through Alexanders head at the time. I, for one like to believe the best of people and think that Hamilton had intentionally missed, though no one will ever really know. It is known, however, that this is a story that will be going down in history and will be retold for generations to come.