Posted on 02/15/2006 9:48:13 AM PST by Ben Mugged
~Clip~ Think of the most famous duel in American history: The shooting of Alexander Hamilton by a pistol-wielding Aaron Burr, vice president to Thomas Jefferson, on the New Jersey banks of the Hudson River in 1804. Hamilton died the next day.
Burr and Hamilton had a long-standing political rivalry, and Hamilton made no secret of his distrust for Burr when Burr, who had narrowly missed beating Jefferson, ran for governor of New York in early 1804.
When Burr got wind of a newspaper article that reported Hamilton had a "despicable opinion" of him, he challenged Hamilton to a duel near Weehawken, N.J. - and won, firing a .54-caliber pistol.
Hamilton, from his deathbed, forgave Burr, who was indicted on murder charges but never brought to trial.
The duel remains in some ways a just subject to some members of the Aaron Burr Association, who believe Burr - who himself was unhappy as vice president because he disagreed with Jefferson about slavery - hasn't gotten a fair shake from history.
"Hamilton is thought to be the victim and the hero, while Burr is found to be a foe," said Peter Tavino, a civil engineer who has published articles for the group. "And we don't believe it. "Most people are ignorant and just like to paint people as guilty or someone that we should hate."
He said the Cheney shooting has spurred discussion within his group - but quickly brought the conversation back to defending its hero.
"Cheney's was clearly an accident," Tavino said. "Burr's was a matter of Hamilton drawing him into the duel and Hamilton bringing hair-trigger pistols for a slight advantage."
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I don't believe this.
Then why did Hamilton purposely shoot above Burr as not to hit him? I've researched this whole thing a while back and Burr was dogging Hamilton for years trying to get Hamilton on the field of honor.
G H W Bush bombed people, Teddy Roosevelt shot people, but both were in wars. This is a tragic accident, but it is much to do about nothing.
While VP Al Gore used to shoot of his own mouth all the time.
Why, Algore shoots himself in the foot regularly.
Aaron Burr is an ancestor of my family, family lore has it that the story about Hamilton shooting over the head is nonsense. The shot by Hamilton was wide to the left.
I have read accounts that the triggers on the dualing pistols used had 'no slack' in the draw of their triggers and Hamilton was used to a little slop in his pistols. Supposidly when he put his index finger on the trigger and went to 'take up slack' had no idea that it would have none, thus firing early.
I saw the whole thing - Hamilton missed because Burr's bullet hit him just as he was firing.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
"purposely"? And this is known how? As opposed to missing.
At any rate, I've read the comparison between Cheney and Burr several times now, and wonder who in their right minds confuses an accidental shooting with a duel? Or is the implication that Burr wasn't planning on hitting Hamilton, but accidentally did. (Kind of the way Barnabas Collins accidentally shot his brother in a duel -- at least in the 80s remake.)
TS
There is ZERO correlation.
JFK became a hero by letting his boat get run over by a destroyer.
Oh you saw that too, didn't you! LOL! I saw that duel scene in both the 60s and 90s version("Dark Shadows"). However, in the 60s version, the victim(Jeremiah) was his slightly-older uncle. Of course, all of we viewers of both versions know what happened after that, don't we?
Hard to believe that it's been two years or so since SciFi stopped showing the episodes (about 10 episodes shy of the series ending!). Harder to believe that I taped it for about 2 1/2 years so I could watch them!
Ah, a fellow fan! I did watch some of the 1990 series. It wasn't bad at all. However, I still was more partial to the old one, I'm afraid! I know that they sometimes feel that they need to update some old series. The trouble is, they change things around too much sometimes!
In the new one, I believe, the two young children were both his younger brother and sister.(Sarah and Daniel)But in the old one, Sarah was really a much-younger sister, and Daniel was his cousin. Daniel was the younger brother of cousin Milicent. But as I said before, it still wasn't bad. I liked many parts of the new one, as well!
I think that some of my fondness for the old one now, is a nostalgia thing! I started watching it in 1968, and watched it almost until the end in 1971. Some of my cousins, and many of my friends were fans of "Dark Shadows". When I watched it on videotape(I haven't got a DVD yet), or on Sci-fi; it brings back memories of those years when I was younger. That was when I and my friends watched a lot of the programs on then. It's like listening to old pop/rock music!
Aaron Burr was a political opportunist and one nasty cur, whom Jefferson loathed, even though he was his VEEP.
And Cheney's hunting accident has less than nothing whatsoever in common with the Hamilton/Burr duel!
Is anyone surprised?
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