These letters suggested to some on the jury that Burr had in fact enticed or even forced Hamilton into the duel, pushing the affair over the line from one of settling honor to one of deliberate murder which was a capital offense.
In November, Burr was also indicted for murder—which is to say, not for dueling—by a grand jury in Bergen County, New Jersey, because the duel had taken place there. After the duel, Burr was apparently surprised at the public outrage over the affair.
Fearing imminent arrest, he fled to New Jersey, then to Philadelphia, and then to Georgia. The subject in dispute is, which shall have the honor of hanging the Vice-President. You shall have due notice of time and place. Whenever it may be, you may rely on a great concourse of company, much gayety, and many rare sights. He was still the Vice President, however, and he determined to go back to Washington to act as President of the Senate during its upcoming session and preside over the debate and vote concerning the impeachment of Supreme Court justice Samuel Chase.
The impeachment proceedings were part of a partisan struggle between Jeffersonian Republicans and Federalists, and Burr might be expected to influence the outcome if he were allowed to preside over the Senate. A large group of Congressmen signed a letter to New Jersey Governor Joseph Bloomfield describing the Hamilton-Burr affair as a fair duel and asking him to urge the Bergen County prosecutor to enter a nolle prosequi in the case of the indictment, in other words, to drop the case.
The duel that took place between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is perhaps the most well-known, but it was not uncommon in politics. Freedom of speech and politics were cornerstones of the new country. To besmirch a man because of his beliefs was not taken lightly.
Political rivals such as senators, governors, mayors were challenged. Principally duels were held to defend one's honor, but the duelists were also trying to prove themselves as leaders—brave, determined and single-minded.
A challenge could not be ignored, or a career would be destroyed. Also, the last official duel following the rules of Code Duello was in , in France. Image via Wikimedia Commons. The Bataan D-mnit Carl! Everyone hates "Carl. Reece Lodder 2. For every man who gloried in the duel, there were many others who feared it. A word or two passed in private company on a Friday night could well mean a challenge on Saturday morning and death on Sunday. Avoiding a challenge wasn't easy.
Particularly in the South, where men who refused to duel would be "posted. The post declared "In justice to my character I denounce to the world John Randolph, a member of Congress, as a prevaricating, base, calumniating scoundrel, poltroon, and coward. Randolph lost little by his posting.
By the time of the Civil War, dueling had begun an irreversible decline, even in the South. Not surprisingly, public opinion, not legislation, caused the change. What once had been a formal process designed to avoid violence and amend grievances had deteriorated into cold-blooded murder. People at last were shocked by it, and they showed their disdain. It may have been too late to save Alexander Hamilton. But if American was to become a truly civilized nation, the publicly sanctioned bloodshed would have to end.
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Aaron Burr had traveled West just six months before to carve out his own empire. Now, he would return East to stand trial for treason. The Code Duello, covering the practice of dueling and points of honor, was drawn up and settled at Clonmel Summer Assizes, Support Provided by: Learn More.
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