Burr
Burr names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Burr AARON, an American statesman
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
AARON, an American statesman, and third Vice-President of the United States, born in Newark, N. J., Feb. 5, 1756. His father was the President of Princeton College. He entered Princeton College at the age of 12 and graduated at 16. While in his 20th year, before he had completed his preparation for the bar, to which he had determined to devote himself, he joined, in 1775, the American army, under Washington, at Cambridge. His ardor in behalf of the Revolutionary cause was such that he was induced to join Arnold as a volunteer in the expedition against Quebec. After his arrival there he was appointed aide-de-camp to Montgomery, and was by the side of that officer when he fell. Subsequently, in 1776, he was received by General Washington as one of his military family, but was soon cast off in consequence of his debauchery. He never forgave Washington this act. Burr's military talents, however, secured for him the post of Lieutenant-Colonel, in 1777, which he retained until 1779, AARON BURR when he was obliged to relinquish it in consequence of ill health. Upon Burr's retirement from military life, he resumed the study of law, and commenced its practice in Albany, in 1782, but soon removed to New York, where he early acquired a prominent position as a great lawyer. In 1789 he was made attorneygeneral of New York. From 1791 to 1797, he was a member of the United States Senate, where he was distinguished as a leader of the Republican party. In 1800 he was a candidate for the Presidency, and received the same number of votes as Thomas Jefferson (79), and the choice was thus left to the decision of Congress, which, on the 36th ballot, elected Jefferson as President and Burr as Vice-President. In 1804 was fought the famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Burr, in which the 17-Vol. former was killed and the latter forever lost the public esteem. In 1807 he was apprehended, taken to Richmond, Va., and tried on a c charge of a treasonable design upon Mexico; he was, however, after a long trial acquitted. His public life was now at an end, as his country had no faith in his integrity; he, however, resumed the practice of law, but lived in comparative obscurity until his death on Staten Island, Sept. 14, 1836.
Burr GEORGE WASHINGTON, an American soldier
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
GEORGE WASHINGTON, an American soldier, born in Tolono, Ill., in 1865. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1888 and the same year was appointed first lieutenant of the artillery. He rose to various grades, reaching that of temporary brigadier-general in 1918. In the following year he was appointed majorgeneral. He served as instructor in several military colleges and in the Philippines, where for a time he was chief ordnance officer of the Philippines Division. He was appointed chief ordnance officer of the Central Department in 1911, serving until 1918. In the latter year, he became chief ordnance officer for the American forces in England. In October of that year he was appointed chief of the engineering division of the Ordnance Department, and later became assistant director of the purchase, storage, and traffic departments of the General Staff. He was a member of the War Department Claims Board from January, 1919.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 gave the standard verdict: Burr was dropped from Washington's staff "in consequence of his debauchery," and after the 1804 duel "forever lost the public esteem." Modern biographers, notably Nancy Isenberg in Fallen Founder (2007), read much of that picture as the work of Burr's political enemies — the break with Washington is undocumented as to cause, and Burr's support for women's education and his legal skill get weight the older sketch never gave them. The 1807 acquittal that Collier's records in one line is now taught as a landmark: Chief Justice Marshall's insistence on an overt act proved by two witnesses still narrows American treason prosecutions. And the electoral deadlock of 1800 that made Burr Vice-President was fixed in 1804 by the Twelfth Amendment, which separated the presidential and vice-presidential ballots; since Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton opened in 2015, Burr has been a leading role rather than a byword for infamy.
Written for this edition, 2026.