Posted on 07/11/2004 7:01:54 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
WEEHAWKEN, N.J. (AP) -- The bitter grudge between their ancestors has long faded, but on Sunday descendants of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr marked their paces with pistols in hand.
Antonio Burr, a descendant of Burr's cousin, arrived by rowboat in period costume and fired a replica of the .54-caliber pistol that mortally wounded Hamilton 200 years ago in the July 11, 1804 duel. Douglas Hamilton, a fifth-great-grandson of Hamilton, feigned the historic hip wound, dropping to one knee and then falling to the ground in a sitting position.
The event was the families' first meeting in two centuries.
"It wasn't something on my top 100 list, but it was nice to meet Antonio Burr," Douglas Hamilton said afterward. "He seems to be a very nice man, though I'm not sure I'm going to be on his Christmas card list."
Still, Douglas Hamilton noted his famous ancestor had forgiven Aaron Burr on his deathbed and so could he.
"Just being shot 31 hours earlier, if he could forgive Burr, far be it for me not to honor that," said Hamilton, an IBM salesman from suburban Columbus, Ohio.
More than 1,000 people attended the re-enactment near the Hudson River. The original duel's exact site is unknown because the waterfront area is so dramatically different than it was 200 years ago, historians said Sunday.
An estimated 60 descendants of Hamilton attended the event, as did 40 members of the Aaron Burr Association.
Hamilton, a signer of the Constitution and the nation's first treasury secretary, had a simmering feud with his longtime rival Burr, the vice president under Thomas Jefferson.
Even today, some relatives question how the feud between the two began.
"There was an animosity on the part of Alexander Hamilton toward Aaron Burr for which there was nothing in Aaron Burr's record that could be justified," Antonio Burr, a psychologist from New York, said Sunday.
When Burr ran for governor of New York in early 1804, Hamilton denounced him as untrustworthy. Burr lost. Burr later complained about a newspaper article that reported Hamilton had expressed a "despicable opinion" of him.
Dissatisfied with Hamilton's explanation, Burr, then the sitting vice president, challenged him to the duel.
Shot by Burr, Hamilton returned to New York, where he died the next day. Burr was indicted on murder charges in New York and New Jersey but was never tried, and finished his term as vice president in 1805.
After Sunday's highly orchestrated event, Douglas Hamilton and Antonio Burr and their families headed to Hamilton Park where two new plaques honoring Burr and Hamilton were to be dedicated.
Yet 90% of the cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny are no longer considered "PC".
Thanks for the photos. My thoughts exactly, re bugs bunny, how did this ever get the ok in our pc world?
As I recall last week, there was a thread describing the event to take place, and the "Hamiltons" refuse to let the guy playing Hamilton lie flat on a nearby rock to be examined by his doctor after the shooting (this is how it actually occured), because it was not dignified....
Thanks for the pictures. I will say that Alexander Hamilton had great ideas for the Jersey side of the Hudson, and they are finally coming to fruition. I do not want him taken off the currency for Reagan or for anyone. Other than the father of our country he's the most appropriate person to be on our $.
hole_n_one posted the pictures.
I love that they are pointing out that the event was "highly orchestrated".
Had they not told me I would have assumed that a descendant of Burr, and a descendant of Hamilton, who happened to be dressed in period costumes, and happened to be carrying replicas of dueling pistols, happened to end up at the same place on the 200th anniversary of the duel, one by rowboat, and, on a whim, decided to reenact the duel.
LOLOLOL! It was a burr of the moment thing.
I hate Fox News on the weekends.
Now that's funny.
Better than CNN on weekdays.... think of the alternatives.
But it doesn't mean that Fox cannot be better. Their weekend line-up and programming really is bad.
You know, I rarely watch tv (except the history channel, they were excellent over the 4th btw), I get 99% of my news here, the other stuff is just passing by kind of information, or skimming the local paper.
I had a conversation with a friend tonight, who, prior to 911, watched CNN almost exclusively. He told me tonight, how horrid CNN had become, and he singled out Wolf Blitzer as one of the most biased reporters he had ever seen.
I was fortunate to catch it on C-SPAN, which showed it without interruption or embellishment. A wonderful bit of history, nicely presented by the duel re-enactment organizers.
Burr was bald. This guy has hair.
You mean that's not a wig?
Glad nobody slipped real balls into the breeches.
Y'know, since we're on the subject, just to add some details to accepted history....and to set the record straight...
....Muttly's great, great, great, great.......grandfather was minding his own business back at the rowboat, "testing" the oarsman's mutton and cheese sandwich, just for safety's sake..when all of a sudden the ball from Hamilton's pistol knocked the thing right out of his mouth. He was so startled that he could hardly swallow what was left. Oh..and just to clear up a little matter while we're at it...my ancestor did not, contrary to popular opinion, accept a bribe from Burr to "water" Hamilton's powder.
So if it did happen...it was an honest mistake.
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