Posted on 07/11/2004 1:37:17 AM PDT by GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY
After two centuries, it's still a sore point. Descendants of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr will reenact the nation's most famous duel when they meet today in Weehawken, N.J., on the 200th anniversary of that sordid event.
Alexander Hamilton, a brilliant secretary of the treasury under George Washington but his career on the skids, took one bullet in the midsection from a dueling pistol fired by his bitter foe, Aaron Burr.
The mortally wounded Hamilton fell to the ground and died the next day at age 50. Burr, 48, was unscathed.
Burr, an equally brilliant politician and vice president under Thomas Jefferson, became a marked man after the combat and later fled the country amid charges he conspired to overthrow the American government.
History is uncertain whether Hamilton ever fired to kill. Descendants of both men still have mixed feelings.
Doug Hamilton, 53, an IBM executive from Ohio and the fifth great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, plans to go down only to one knee as he recreates the death scene.
"Both families are sensitive to how it's portrayed," explained Linda Verdon, spokeswoman for the Weehawken Township Historical Commission, which is sponsoring the bicentennial commemorative.
Verdon said Hamilton did not want to glorify the gruesome act.
Dr. Antonio Burr, 51, a Burr cousin, will re-create firing the shot that's often said to have altered the course of history.
But Dr. Burr thinks the original duel could have been avoided if only Hamilton had apologized.
"I don't have any animosity toward the Hamiltons," said Burr, a Manhattan forensic psychologist and Burr historian, "But Aaron was the aggrieved party. He couldn't go to court for defamation. He was defending his reputation when Hamilton broke a code of honor."
Hamilton and Burr had been intense rivals for years, and the two went head-to-head in the controversial presidential election of 1800. Hamilton threw his support behind Jefferson because he hated Burr.
While the two combatants were grievous foes, historians say the final slight remains unclear.
Dr. Burr refers to Hamilton's use of the word "despicable" in comments made about Burr in 1804 when the latter was bidding to be New York governor. Hamilton never retracted his comment. Others believe Burr, on the outs with Jefferson, needed something dramatic to revive his fading career.
Hamilton, a Founding Father born in the British West Indies, was a Revolutionary War hero. He was the nation's first secretary of the treasury. But after an indiscreet affair with a married woman, Hamilton's last breaths were devoted to dooming Burr's ambitions.
Today, the two contemporary men will appear in costume with their staffs and row along the Hudson before arriving at Weehawken's Lincoln Harbor Park. The PBS film, "The Duel," will be shown hourly through the day until 4 p.m.
Weehawken, just across the Hudson from Hell's Kitchen, was the accepted dueling ground to settle private quarrels because New York had banned combat with deadly weapons.
Hamiltonians can gloat that there's no portrait of Burr on the $10 bill.
The bastard had it coming!
Will they have the "Got Milk" guy there, trying to shout out, "AHRUNN BUHH"????
"Will they have the "Got Milk" guy there, trying to shout out, "AHRUNN BUHH"????"
LOL, I remember that!
Poor Al Hamilton, what a handsome man he was. And we can thank him, each and every one of us, for setting America on her course of fiscal responsibility. Plus he founded the Bank of New York and also the NY Post.
Am at least right on that count?
Don't tell us it's JohnBoy Edwards.
ping
He wasn't one of these sober-minded statesmen, with his high-flown rhetoric and nice petticoats.
This was BURR!
C'mon, did Alexander Hamilton ever have a cool novel written about him by a strange, pseudo-Marxist, expatriate puff by the name of Gore Vidal?
I don't think so!
She does happen to be my favorite contributor-with the possible exception of editor Christopher Caldwell-to The Weekly Standard.
Despite his odious personality, hideously warped ego and contemptible politics, I've always wanted to read some of Gore Vidal's earlier novels.
Never seem to have gotten around to it, for some reason.
Oh well.
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