Burr, Aaron

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Aaron (1756-1836), an American politician. His father was an eminent Presbyterian clergyman and was for a short time president of Princeton College, now University, from which the son was graduated in 1772. His mother was a daughter of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards. Aaron is cited as an example of unaccountable moral degeneracy. In the Revolutionary War he joined the Continental forces before Boston, and took part in the assault on Quebec. Later he joined the Lee and Gates faction against Washington. At the close of the war he married a wealthy widow, and engaged in the practice of law in New York City. He rose rapidly in politics until he reached the United States Senate. Washington refused to appoint him minister to France. When the presidential election of 1800 drew near, the Federalist members of Congress met in caucus and nominated John Adams and C. C. Pinckney of South Carolina . The Democratic-Republican members in like manner nominated Thomas Jefferson for the presidency and Aaron Burr for vice-president. The election went against the Federalists 73 to 65. The constitution provided that each presidential elector should vote for two candidates: The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the president, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for president. . . . But in choosing the president, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote. The Republican electors sitting far apart in their several states made the mistake of casting a solid vote for Burr. Jefferson and Burr received seventy-three votes each. This tie threw the election into the House of Representatives in which the Federalists controlled the majority of the states. As the constitution then stood the House had the power only to select one of the two men whose names were tied. The Federalists were barred from voting for Adams. All they could do was to decide between Jefferson and Burr. Burr and his friends were eager to betray Jefferson and make Burr president. They tried to form a coalition with the Federalists. The friends of Jefferson were furious. The Federalists were not partial to Jefferson, but they did not trust Burr. On the thirty-sixth ballot ten states voted for Jefferson; four voted for Burr and two states cast blank ballots. Jefferson, the undoubted choice of the people, so nearly lost the presidency that the manner of election was changed by the adoption of the Twelfth Amendment. Burr served out his four years as vice-president, after which he ran for the governorship of New York and was defeated. Burr had always been a bitter opponent of Alexander Hamilton. He charged up his present defeat against Hamilton and drew him into a duel in which Hamilton was killed, July 11, 1804. Burr then went to the Ohio Valley and to the southwest. He was arrested on a charge of treason, his accusers claiming that he designed detaching the Mississippi Valley from the Union and erecting a new empire for his own benefit. He was discharged finally for want of proof, but henceforth he was a discredited man. Many doubt his treasonable purpose, but none hesitate to say that he was brilliant, unscrupulous, and dangerous. In 1833 Burr married a second widow, but the marriage was an unhappy one and they soon separated. Burr had but one child, a daughter, Theodosia. She kept house for her father in New York City until, in 1801, she married Governor Joseph Allston of South Carolina. In 1812 she sailed from Charleston on the ship Patriot for New York. The ship was never heard from. Some thought it had fallen into the hands of pirates, others that it foundered at sea. See Hamilton ; Blennerhasset