differences with pistols in Weehawken, New Jersey
On July 11, 1804, two leading U.S. politicians overreacted to personal insults between them. That doesn't sound out of the ordinary considering the divisiveness among politicians in today's government, except then-Vice President Aaron Burr and former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton settled the issue with an armed duel to the death.
Since both New Yorkers belonged to opposing political parties, Burr a Republican and Hamilton a Federalist, they developed an adversarial political relationship, according to the Library of Congress. The two were at odds in the controversial presidential election of 1800, when Hamilton helped secure Thomas Jefferson's victory at the expense of Burr, who became vice president. (In those days, the runner-up in presidential elections became vice president.) Hamilton wrote then that Burr's "public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandizement," according to David Stewart, writing for the Constitution Daily blog.
Over the years Hamilton had also called Burr "embryo-Caesar" and remarked that he was "unprincipled both as a public and private man." In 1804, Burr lost an election for New York governor and blamed Hamilton for more personal insults.
By then, Burr was fed up with repeated public attacks on his personal character and demanded that Hamilton retract his comments. His outspoken critic refused but did agree to a duel with Burr based on a code of honor known then as "code duello."
There were rumors that Hamilton actually had no intention of shooting at Burr during the duel. "Contemptible, if true," said Burr in response to such rumors, demonstrating his firm commitment to the duel.
Strangely, Hamilton helped pass legislation in New York making it illegal to challenge or accept a challenge for a duel, following the death of Hamilton's 18-year-old son in an 1802 duel, according to historian John Buescher's explanation of the duel on teachinghistory.org.
Despite the passage of that law, the public continued to support dueling as a means of defending one's honor, and no one had been prosecuted for a duel in New York when the Hamilton-Burr duel took place.
