July 29, 2009 • 28 mins
As political rivals, Hamilton and Burr began a bitter exchange of insults, leading to a duel in 1804 that resulted in Hamilton's death. Learn about the ideas that drove Hamilton and Burr to violence in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm editor Kamis Keenior, joined by fellow editor Katie Lambert. Candice, Hi, there, Katie.
Today we're going to take a leaders suggestion from Alan,
(00:22):
who wrote to Candice to say, I know you really
like Thomas Jefferson, but I read an article in American
History about him versus Hamilton's on banking. It's stated essentially
that our current economic woes can be attributed to Jefferson's
opposition and Jackson's later support for that position. I would
enjoy hearing a podcast on Hamilton Versus Jefferson and the
national bank issue. We'll do a little bit on Hamilton's,
(00:43):
although not necessarily the national banking issue, because today I
think we're going to focus more on his duel with
Aaron Burr, and part of the story leading up to
the duel is who Alexander Hamilton was as a person,
and so we will touch on his points of view.
We should call them on the National Treasury because they
(01:07):
made him quite unpopular and eventually led to his demise,
and according to Ron cheer Now's biography of Alexander Hamilton's.
Jefferson's followers believed that Hamilton's was and I quote, they
demonized him as a slavish pawn of the British crown,
a closet monarchist, a Machiavellian intriguer, a would be Caesar.
(01:28):
And these assessments are really unfair. Actually, um, Jefferson in
Hamilton's were horrible political opponents. They ran smear campaigns and
newspapers against each other after they had hired journalists to
deliberately cast characters versions on the other. At one point
this gossip wore back and forth culminated in one printing
(01:50):
that the other one had died, and because news didn't
travel that fast, it took a little while to get
the word out that no, there was no death. I mean,
it was just asked you between the two of them.
And this is all rooted in the argument between federalists
and republican something that both jefferson in Hamilton's felt very
(02:11):
strongly about their national identities. So to begin with, uh,
the beginning, really. Alexander Hamilton's was born in se On Nevas,
which is a Caribbean island famous for being the place
where Alexander Hamilton was born, and note of that much else,
and his birth was illegitimate, which is something he called
(02:34):
humiliating in his later years, And his beginnings were very
much shrouded in a bit of mystery. He was really
ashamed that that was his birth. When he was ten
years old, his family moved to Saint Croix, and shortly
thereafter his father left, and then his mother died, and
then he went to live with a first cousin who
killed himself. I know, it's not funny, it's just a
(02:56):
string of catastrophes. It was. And I was watching the
PPS American Experienced documentary about Hamilton's and the historians kept
likening him to a tragic Greek figure, which is true.
I mean, he really was. Here's a man who wants
nothing but honor, and everything keeps standing in his way
to keep him from attaining that position that he he's
(03:17):
read about and all the great Greek works, he's read,
all the great statesman and he wants nothing more than
to be esteemed alongside them. But he has no family
named speak of, He has no money, he has no education.
His aunt, uncle and grandmother died also in short succession.
And I mean, seriously, talk about humble beginnings. There was
(03:38):
really nowhere to go from here. And he was only
sixteen by the time that all of these things happened.
And after his cousin died and everyone else died, um,
he was apprenticed to a mercantile house as a clerk
and this import export business. And that's where things get
a little more scandalous, because the rich head of the company,
Thomas Stevens, took him in and was more than kind
(04:01):
to him, and people began to notice how much he
looked like Thomas's son, Edward Stevens, so much so that
they were merely twins. And the rumor became that Thomas
Stevens was actually his real father and not the father
who disappeared and left him and his mother behind. But
despite any scandal that may have resulted from assemblance to
this man, he established a name for himself in his
(04:25):
position as a clerk because he learned the exchange rates,
he learned how to conduct trade and how to make
fair appraisals of imports and exports, and um, he actually
had a period of time in which he took over
the business and he essentially saved it from ruin. He
was very ambitious. He was. He was, and in his
(04:46):
position where he was watching the slaves on the island
engage in the sugar the sugarcane trade, and being beaten
down sometimes in the fields by their masters, he became
determined that he would fight again this type of treatment
of humans. He didn't think it was right that people
would be oppressed if they were working hard. He thought
(05:06):
that hard work would save anyone from any station that
they were born into. And in fact he said, I
would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to
exalt my station. And he did exalt his station. Actually,
in seventeen seventy two, he wrote a letter about a
devastating hurricane that had hit the islands, and it was
(05:28):
published in the Royal Danish American Gazette. And it was
so gripping and so well written that a lot of
people took notice, and a group of businessmen actually got
together some money and sent him to the United States
to be educated. So here's our first big step from
the little island that no one had ever heard of,
the United States. Exactly. So he enrolls at King's College
(05:50):
in New York at eighteen years old. And this is
when the American revolution starts brewing, and you must remember
he's a foreigner, essentially coming to its states. But very
quickly he allowed himself to be swept up in this
revolutionary spirit. And while he maintained that for trade purposes
and for commerce and the colony's ability to uh be
(06:14):
an active part of world politics, they would need to
maintain some sort of alliance with England, he changed his
feelings just a little bit and eventually ended up joining
an artillery unit and fighting against the British soldiers. And
King's College was very much a place of British Orthodoxy.
People there were much more aligned to Britain, and Hamilton's
(06:37):
had an idea that was common at the time was
that the colonists ow loyalty to the English King, but
not to Parliament. So that was sort of the line
he was straddling at the time, and he did hope
that peace could be accomplished with England and maybe we
could have some sort of a limited monarchy. But he
did become rather radicalized when he headed up that artillery company,
(06:58):
and he was very young, i believe, for that kind
of a post, and he liked the idea of being
able to finally put into action the sentiments that he
had been expressing with his pen. And he got noticed
by George Washington pretty early on because he was so
ambitious and such a fervent organizer of people and tasks
(07:20):
and ideas. And once Washington drew him in, he became
a part of Washington's little coterie, and Washington very much
relied upon Hamilton's to do correspondence for him, and historians
note that when you read General Washington's correspondents and his
letters and some of the great things he's noted to
have said, a lot of that is coming from Hamilton's,
(07:42):
the ghostwriter. And this was a very special bond in relationship,
almost like father's son, that would continue to save Hamilton's
throughout his career. I think Washington promoted him to lieutenant colonel,
he made him his aide to camp, and he was
very involved in Washington's little group until leave. They had
a falling out around see Um when Washington said that
(08:03):
Hamilton's was disrespectful toward him, and Hamilton's resigned um and
then came back after Washington apologized. You don't want to
pay George Washington's bad side. I think it's to say
definitely not. And so if we flash forward and the
interest of moving towards the the Aaron Bird duel, which
I know you're all curious about. When the Constitution is
(08:24):
at risk of of not being ratified, Hamilton's steps up
and he ensures that everyone understands the importance of this document,
which will not only unify the currency across the colonies,
but will also establish a sense of order and responsibility
and an identity for all the different states because they
(08:45):
were so different from one another, the Southern States and
the Northern States, and how people lived and what the
cities were like. He knew that in order for everyone
to coexist peacefully after they'd fought so hard for independence,
and not for more skirmishes to break out between the
states themselves, there had to be some sort of centralized government.
(09:05):
And he was known for being really, really convincing, and
you know that at the Constitutional Convention and three states
have ratified it. But that's it. And that's when he
started writing the Federalist Papers um with James Madison and
John Jay and these papers were designed to give almost
a common man's understanding of what was actually in the Constitution.
(09:29):
He wanted to appeal to everyone so that they would
understand why they should support the Constitution. But he was
known for being somewhat elitist because he did use elevated language,
and he did put a lot of faith in the
aristocracy and the intellectuals to actually run the government. But
the Federalist papers really helped garner support finally, because I mean,
(09:52):
when you do look at the Constitution, the languages a
bit stiff, and people were afraid that they were just
creating another little monarchy in the United States, and he
trying to make it clear that that wasn't the case
behind what they were trying to do. And it's funny
to note that, uh, when he was speaking, when he
had the floor, it was almost like no one could
get him to shut his mouth. He would open his
mouth and words would just come pouring out. And he
(10:15):
was a little man. He was his seven five seven
and described as delicately framed. And so I mean, imagine,
I'm trying to think of some sort of comparison to
make Jim. I don't know why, but always envisioned Niles
Crane from for as years always being your Hamilton. He's
just standing there spouting off these big words of radio's ideas,
and no one can get him to be quiet, but
(10:37):
um he was. He was pretty happy with the way
that things turned out in the end. But as much
as the Federalist papers were designed to get popular opinion
to support the Constitution, he was constantly criticized for putting
too much power in a centralized elite government. And he
retorted at one point, and whom would you have representing
(10:58):
us in government? Not the rich, not the wise, not
the learned, And went on to say, would you pluck
some person off the street who was digging in the garbage.
That's where the contrast I think between him and Jefferson started,
because people associated Jefferson with being very democratic and someone
like Hamilton's with being sided with the aristocrats right, and
(11:20):
Hamilton's was making the point that you need people who
understand money, who understand credit and trade to actually make
the country work. He would like him, right, people like
him He was all about the policy, whereas Jefferson envisioned
that people should be allowed to live their own lives
(11:40):
and make their own individual choices, and he envisioned this
type of agrarian paradise where every man toiled in the
earth and built his own estate and supported himself. And
Hamilton's saw, uh, you know, as big as the United
States was maximizing the space, making cities and UH involved
being the country and trade and building up there their
(12:03):
credit line with the rest of the world so that
they could become a superpower. In Hamilton's, as you'd mentioned before,
I had a much darker view of human nature, and
he was also very concerned about things just falling into
complete chaos. He didn't think, basically that the people could
be trusted to govern themselves. And he may have been right,
and that's why it was so interesting when he got
involved in the revolution, because on the one hand he
(12:26):
was terrified of this mob rule. He stopped a mob
from attacking the president of King's College, but on the
other hand he was out captaining infantry, and that he
didn't exactly get his way with all of the ideas
he had for young America. If he'd had his way,
the Constitution would have appointed a president for for life,
and the president would have tapped individual leaders from each state,
(12:49):
and it didn't turn out that way. But he did
think that the United States should accomplish certain feats if
it wanted to become a good respectable nation and one
of the most introversial ones early in his career after
Washington had appointed him Treasury. The secretary was his assumption
plan and was that I think he thought the nation
(13:10):
should assume the debts of the states, right exactly so,
and it was it was pretty political, and Hamilton's had
often been criticized for not being political enough. He didn't
talk like a politician. He couldn't schmooz. He was just
brush and shrill and try to get people on his side.
But this was an incredibly political maneuver because the people
who had the most debt in the individual states, if
(13:33):
he could promise to assume their debt and get them
to align themselves with a new federal government, then essentially
he'd win people's trit he'd win their allegiance. Well, and
he was sneaky. He had a dinner with Thomas Jefferson
and with Madison where he basically struck a deal with
them and said, you know, my needed state support for
(13:54):
this political maneuver. And it worked. And the agreement they
reached was that he would let Jefferson and Madison have
their way and the new capital would be moved to
the region beside the Potomac down in Washington, d C.
Where it is today. It was in New York at
the time, and Hamilton's, you know, he left New York
here was a New Yorker, but to him it was
(14:17):
a bigger win to get the Assumption Bill passed rather
than see the capital moved a couple of states down south.
And he also garnered more controversy that same year when
he wanted to charter a national bank and Madison, Jefferson
and a whole bunch of other people said it was
unconstitutional and that was the federal government going way too far,
(14:38):
and Hamilton's and Washington got it passed. And this is
where you really start to see that division between the
Jeffersonian Republicans, who wanted it to be very much a
republic right and the federalists who wanted the power in
the federal government. Jefferson was saying no, no, no to
ideas of urbanization and standing army, and essentially a what
(15:00):
he saw as a federalist was someone who was a
monarch guest, whereas Hamilton's was arguing, if you want order
and you want power, you have to agree to these things.
And this is where our two party system came into
play there you have it around this time is when
Aaron Burr makes an appearance in Alexander Hamilton's life. UM,
when they were running an election for the New York
(15:22):
Senate seat and Aaron Burr defeated UM Philip Schuyler, who
was related to Hamilton's wife, I believe Elizabeth Skyler, and
that's when things between them started to heat up. He
asked Hamilton's at one point in time, if you have
power as Treasury as secretary to work the system to
(15:44):
benefit you, why wouldn't you It was unbelievable to Aaron
Burr that a man who had Hamilton's authoritative position wouldn't
use it for personal gain. And Hamilton's had always been
horrified by the idea of doing work just for money.
He believed in doing work for the honesty of it
(16:05):
and for the pride of winning a case in court.
He was a successful lawyer, but he would refuse to
take some cases if he didn't agree with the plaintiff.
He would only take the cases that he believed wholeheartedly in.
And so this meant, you know, almost a lifetime of
destitution for him, and certainly a great deal of debt
for his family. But you see that the differences in
(16:28):
morals and principles between Burn Hamilton's would would cause not
just a professional distaste for one another, but a very
personal one, and their dislike of each other went on,
I think for a good years, and it got very personal.
Insults were flung back and forth um on each other's character,
(16:50):
which you know, it was a pretty serious thing. It
wasn't just saying, oh, his ideas are bad. It was like, no,
he he has a person isn't worthy of your consideration
for the position of saying governor of he arc precisely so.
In the eight hundred presidential race rolls around. The two
contenders for the office are Jefferson R. Hamilton can't stand
(17:10):
and Burr, another of his enemies. So here, no, you
can't win either way, and he's torn between the two choices,
but he has to decide who would be best for
the country, and ultimately he decides Jefferson. And because there
had been a tied election, Hamilton's was the one who
finally pushed the congressman over the edge and got him
(17:34):
to agree to vote for Jefferson. So the final deciding vote,
while it didn't come from Hamilton's came from his influence.
And there's a quote I keep seeing in all the
stories I look at um with Hamilton and Burr, where
Hamilton's said, if there be a man in the world
I ought to hate, it is Jefferson. With Burr I
have always been personally well, but I think this is
about the time when he stopped feeling that way. So
(17:55):
in eighteen o one it's official. Jefferson is the third
president and Burr is his vice president. And in that
same year, Alexander's oldest son, Philip Hamilton's, was killed in
a duel attempting to defend the honor of the family,
and the grief of it drove their daughter Angelica insane.
So eighteen no ones not so great a good year.
(18:17):
And Hamilton's himself was very distraught over his son's death
because his son had actually consulted with him as to
whether or not he should accept the dual challenge. And
at this point in time, the code of honor was
structured so that you could get out of a duel
if you're willing to make a public apology and sort
of prostrate yourself before the person whom you've become embroiled
in this conflict with and Hamilton's knew that if his
(18:40):
son was going to have a future in politics, like
he'd hoped ever since he was a baby, really, that
he had to take on this duel and he had
to save face. And unfortunately it didn't work out that way.
It didn't. And so Hamilton's not only because of his
son's death due to dueling, but because of his religious
ideas and his morals and and really his respect for
(19:03):
the law, he was very much opposed to dueling. And
before the famous Burr Hamilton's duel, Hamiltons had actually been
involved in ten other disputes, it had never escalated to
the point of becoming a full fledged duel. He managed
to work himself out of them, exactly. And when we
think of that now, like we picture, I guess, two people,
you know, getting angry and meeting it you know, high
(19:25):
noon and drawing their guns. And that's not how political
duels worked in the day. There's a really interesting history
behind them, and it all starts off with some sort
of disgrace to someone's honor, say an election or some
other political controversy, and one person has lost face and
therefore lost that a little bit of tarnish on their
(19:48):
good name. And I believe it usually started with a letter,
and say I would write a letter to Candice and
say that you know you had offended me and be
smirched my honor, and perhaps you would make a public
apology for what you've done. And so the person who's
being challenged or put on the spot, if you will,
is the principle. And the principle has a second, who
(20:11):
is a friend or a confidant, who's going to back
up that person. I would be your second. Thank you,
thank you. And once they they send this this notice
of the issue, then it's up to the second to
help the principle. I guess mediate in the public eye,
what is going on. So the two principles could have
(20:33):
a beef with each other, but in order to save
face in a public way, the seconds come into explain
the situation, what's happening, And if the insult or is
willing to make an apology to the insultee, then the
whole thing can be called off. But if the insultee
(20:53):
doesn't accept that apology, then things escalating exactly, and the
acceptance and apologies known as satisfaction. But one thing that
you could do if you didn't really want to have
it end, and you really did want to have the duel,
was to ask for an absolutely ridiculous apology. And this
is what Aaron Burgin. Yeah, he I just I don't
(21:17):
get Burr to be perfectly candid. He was a strange
man to me, and just understanding. He was a descendant
of Jonathan Edwards, the preacher who's known for the sermon
centers in the Hand of an Angry God. Came from
a very religious family background, and his father was an
important man in academia, and he had all the money
(21:39):
that he could possibly want. And I suppose he was
just that power hungry and he really wanted to be president,
and he was so mad at Hamilton's and furthermore, Hamilton's
had also alluded to the fact that Burr had had
his way with his daughter, which we don't know if
it's to enough he had, just Hamilton's had been and
(22:00):
much as they did in the days, making all sorts
of accusations towards Burr again on his character, because he
genuinely truly believed that Burr was a really unscrupulous, just
unpleasant man. He was, and so Burr told Hamilton's that
he wouldn't be satisfied unless Hamilton's agreed to apologize for
(22:22):
every single horrible thing that hamilton has said about him
in the past fifteen years, when what had really set
him off was a letter that was published in an
actual newspaper where Hamilton's had expressed a quote unquote despicable
opinion of Burr, according to the editor of the paper.
And that's what Burr picked up on as this thing like, okay,
(22:44):
you know it was, It's it's in print now, so
I have something to use against you. And that's when
he asked Hamilton's for the sweeping apology that Hamilton's just
couldn't give. No. And by this time to Hamilton's had
fallen out of public favor because he'd gotten at all
little crazy with a smear campaign that he ran against
Adams and his own party even thought that he wasn't
(23:07):
quite right in the head anymore. And so and he
had an affair that he publicly admitted to, and his
reputation was never quite the same. Yeah, things weren't looking
good for Hamilton's and he had every reason in the
world not to duel and um Joanne Freeman, who writes
about the Burr Hamilton duel outlines those reasons as this,
(23:28):
the duel violated his religious and moral principles and defied
the law, threatened the welfare of his family, put his
creditors at risk, and ultimately compelled him to and in
Hamilton's own words, to hazard much and possibly gain nothing.
But again, he's in this really tight position where he
(23:49):
can either lose more face or defend what honor he
has left. And he's certainly not going to grovel before
bur especially because those are things he truly believed in.
He was his conviction that Burr was not worthy of
these positions of public service. And if we recall how
Hamilton's started out as a young boy, he had nothing,
and he worked himself into a great position of influence
(24:11):
and power, and he thought, if follow along the one
thing that I've been getting by on all my life
is honor, then by gollah, you know what do I
have to risk at this point? I'll defend my honor.
That's all I've got. So he did write this whole
letter with all of his reasons for being in the
stool because he knew that it would seem strange to people,
because it was so out of character for him. But
he also said that he wasn't going to shoot that
(24:34):
first time. He would shoot in the air and he
would let Bird do what he will and he would
be there, you know, in the semblance of a duel,
but he would not aim for Burr. And he was
counseled against it. You know, it's it's self defense. You
should shoot him, Alexander, and he wouldn't. So the date
arrived Auly eleventh, eighteen o four, and they'd agreed to
circumvent the law. They would fight in we Hawk and
(24:57):
New Jersey and they would arrive separately, and there would
be a doctor on the scene, but they would march
into the woods so there'd be no witnesses aside when
the principles and the seconds, because they didn't want to
turn at anyone else's name for being involved with this
jewel because it was illegal, and they were very tricky
about it, like they hid their guns under I think
some sort of cloak when they were going across, so
(25:18):
the people who were in the boat could truly and
honestly say that they had seen no guns because they
were covered. I mean, they knew what was going on,
but every step had been taken to reassure that they
would be able to speak truthfully if pressed for the truth.
So they walked into the woods and they mark off
the ten paces, and then they cast lots to decide
(25:39):
who was going to pick what position to fire from,
and you second will call the command. In Hamilton's very
fortuitously won both. But it wasn't for tuitous and it
wasn't going to do him any good because he wasn't
going to fire, and he didn't. So Burr aimed and
he shot, and Hamilton's fell yes, And later it was
(25:59):
to turn meant that the shot went through his liver
and his diaphragm, and even though a doctor was there
to attend to him, Hamilton knew immediately that it was
a mortal wound and a painful one at that thirty
one hours later when he died, and he was he
was in an incredible amount of pain. And it was
the largest funeral in New York then that anyone had
(26:23):
ever turned out for, because Hamilton's was such a fixture
of New York City and he had done so much
for the government and made such strides for his nation.
And not only that, but you know, he had been
a bit of a tom cat in his day, so
he had a lot of admirers, but people very much
more into his loss. He was buried July fourteenth at
(26:44):
Trinity Church in Manhattan, leaving Elizabeth, a widow who lived
until the age of nineties seven and was poor for
most of that time and missed him to her dying day.
She would always talk about going to see her Hamilton's
and Burr meanwhile, he was, Oh, my goodness, what a scoundrel.
People were furious with him. He loved New York for
(27:04):
eight years. And even though the duel itself is designed
to help a man regain his honor, that didn't work
in Burr's case, because he lost all of his honor.
People were furious that he had killed Hamilton's. And so
goes the story of the famous jewel between Aaron Burr
and Alexander Hamilton's. And uh, today we don't honor Hamilton's
(27:26):
in the same way as we honor the other founding fathers.
And this is something that you'll probably read. And every
biographical assessment of Hamilton's people always comment that he doesn't have,
you know, a great monument. People don't think of him
in the warm and fuzzy way that we think of
someone like Jefferson or Lincoln or Washington, and really every
goal he was trying to achieve with urbanization and the
(27:48):
treasury and lines of credit, these things came to fruition.
So we tip our hats to Alexander Hamilton's we do
we do? Even if I do still love Jefferson, There's
there's room in my my academic heart for both of them,
and I do appreciate his attributions to So if you
want to learn even more about Alexander Hamilton's The Bird
Rule and the National Treasury, be sure to check out
the website at how stuff works dot com. For more
(28:11):
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in History Class blog on the how stuff works dot
com home page
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm editor Kamis Keenior, joined by fellow editor Katie Lambert. Candice, Hi, there, Katie.
Today we're going to take a leaders suggestion from Alan,
(00:22):
who wrote to Candice to say, I know you really
like Thomas Jefferson, but I read an article in American
History about him versus Hamilton's on banking. It's stated essentially
that our current economic woes can be attributed to Jefferson's
opposition and Jackson's later support for that position. I would
enjoy hearing a podcast on Hamilton Versus Jefferson and the
national bank issue. We'll do a little bit on Hamilton's,
(00:43):
although not necessarily the national banking issue, because today I
think we're going to focus more on his duel with
Aaron Burr, and part of the story leading up to
the duel is who Alexander Hamilton was as a person,
and so we will touch on his points of view.
We should call them on the National Treasury because they
(01:07):
made him quite unpopular and eventually led to his demise,
and according to Ron cheer Now's biography of Alexander Hamilton's.
Jefferson's followers believed that Hamilton's was and I quote, they
demonized him as a slavish pawn of the British crown,
a closet monarchist, a Machiavellian intriguer, a would be Caesar.
(01:28):
And these assessments are really unfair. Actually, um, Jefferson in
Hamilton's were horrible political opponents. They ran smear campaigns and
newspapers against each other after they had hired journalists to
deliberately cast characters versions on the other. At one point
this gossip wore back and forth culminated in one printing
(01:50):
that the other one had died, and because news didn't
travel that fast, it took a little while to get
the word out that no, there was no death. I mean,
it was just asked you between the two of them.
And this is all rooted in the argument between federalists
and republican something that both jefferson in Hamilton's felt very
(02:11):
strongly about their national identities. So to begin with, uh,
the beginning, really. Alexander Hamilton's was born in se On Nevas,
which is a Caribbean island famous for being the place
where Alexander Hamilton was born, and note of that much else,
and his birth was illegitimate, which is something he called
(02:34):
humiliating in his later years, And his beginnings were very
much shrouded in a bit of mystery. He was really
ashamed that that was his birth. When he was ten
years old, his family moved to Saint Croix, and shortly
thereafter his father left, and then his mother died, and
then he went to live with a first cousin who
killed himself. I know, it's not funny, it's just a
(02:56):
string of catastrophes. It was. And I was watching the
PPS American Experienced documentary about Hamilton's and the historians kept
likening him to a tragic Greek figure, which is true.
I mean, he really was. Here's a man who wants
nothing but honor, and everything keeps standing in his way
to keep him from attaining that position that he he's
(03:17):
read about and all the great Greek works, he's read,
all the great statesman and he wants nothing more than
to be esteemed alongside them. But he has no family
named speak of, He has no money, he has no education.
His aunt, uncle and grandmother died also in short succession.
And I mean, seriously, talk about humble beginnings. There was
(03:38):
really nowhere to go from here. And he was only
sixteen by the time that all of these things happened.
And after his cousin died and everyone else died, um,
he was apprenticed to a mercantile house as a clerk
and this import export business. And that's where things get
a little more scandalous, because the rich head of the company,
Thomas Stevens, took him in and was more than kind
(04:01):
to him, and people began to notice how much he
looked like Thomas's son, Edward Stevens, so much so that
they were merely twins. And the rumor became that Thomas
Stevens was actually his real father and not the father
who disappeared and left him and his mother behind. But
despite any scandal that may have resulted from assemblance to
this man, he established a name for himself in his
(04:25):
position as a clerk because he learned the exchange rates,
he learned how to conduct trade and how to make
fair appraisals of imports and exports, and um, he actually
had a period of time in which he took over
the business and he essentially saved it from ruin. He
was very ambitious. He was. He was, and in his
(04:46):
position where he was watching the slaves on the island
engage in the sugar the sugarcane trade, and being beaten
down sometimes in the fields by their masters, he became
determined that he would fight again this type of treatment
of humans. He didn't think it was right that people
would be oppressed if they were working hard. He thought
(05:06):
that hard work would save anyone from any station that
they were born into. And in fact he said, I
would willingly risk my life, though not my character, to
exalt my station. And he did exalt his station. Actually,
in seventeen seventy two, he wrote a letter about a
devastating hurricane that had hit the islands, and it was
(05:28):
published in the Royal Danish American Gazette. And it was
so gripping and so well written that a lot of
people took notice, and a group of businessmen actually got
together some money and sent him to the United States
to be educated. So here's our first big step from
the little island that no one had ever heard of,
the United States. Exactly. So he enrolls at King's College
(05:50):
in New York at eighteen years old. And this is
when the American revolution starts brewing, and you must remember
he's a foreigner, essentially coming to its states. But very
quickly he allowed himself to be swept up in this
revolutionary spirit. And while he maintained that for trade purposes
and for commerce and the colony's ability to uh be
(06:14):
an active part of world politics, they would need to
maintain some sort of alliance with England, he changed his
feelings just a little bit and eventually ended up joining
an artillery unit and fighting against the British soldiers. And
King's College was very much a place of British Orthodoxy.
People there were much more aligned to Britain, and Hamilton's
(06:37):
had an idea that was common at the time was
that the colonists ow loyalty to the English King, but
not to Parliament. So that was sort of the line
he was straddling at the time, and he did hope
that peace could be accomplished with England and maybe we
could have some sort of a limited monarchy. But he
did become rather radicalized when he headed up that artillery company,
(06:58):
and he was very young, i believe, for that kind
of a post, and he liked the idea of being
able to finally put into action the sentiments that he
had been expressing with his pen. And he got noticed
by George Washington pretty early on because he was so
ambitious and such a fervent organizer of people and tasks
(07:20):
and ideas. And once Washington drew him in, he became
a part of Washington's little coterie, and Washington very much
relied upon Hamilton's to do correspondence for him, and historians
note that when you read General Washington's correspondents and his
letters and some of the great things he's noted to
have said, a lot of that is coming from Hamilton's,
(07:42):
the ghostwriter. And this was a very special bond in relationship,
almost like father's son, that would continue to save Hamilton's
throughout his career. I think Washington promoted him to lieutenant colonel,
he made him his aide to camp, and he was
very involved in Washington's little group until leave. They had
a falling out around see Um when Washington said that
(08:03):
Hamilton's was disrespectful toward him, and Hamilton's resigned um and
then came back after Washington apologized. You don't want to
pay George Washington's bad side. I think it's to say
definitely not. And so if we flash forward and the
interest of moving towards the the Aaron Bird duel, which
I know you're all curious about. When the Constitution is
(08:24):
at risk of of not being ratified, Hamilton's steps up
and he ensures that everyone understands the importance of this document,
which will not only unify the currency across the colonies,
but will also establish a sense of order and responsibility
and an identity for all the different states because they
(08:45):
were so different from one another, the Southern States and
the Northern States, and how people lived and what the
cities were like. He knew that in order for everyone
to coexist peacefully after they'd fought so hard for independence,
and not for more skirmishes to break out between the
states themselves, there had to be some sort of centralized government.
(09:05):
And he was known for being really, really convincing, and
you know that at the Constitutional Convention and three states
have ratified it. But that's it. And that's when he
started writing the Federalist Papers um with James Madison and
John Jay and these papers were designed to give almost
a common man's understanding of what was actually in the Constitution.
(09:29):
He wanted to appeal to everyone so that they would
understand why they should support the Constitution. But he was
known for being somewhat elitist because he did use elevated language,
and he did put a lot of faith in the
aristocracy and the intellectuals to actually run the government. But
the Federalist papers really helped garner support finally, because I mean,
(09:52):
when you do look at the Constitution, the languages a
bit stiff, and people were afraid that they were just
creating another little monarchy in the United States, and he
trying to make it clear that that wasn't the case
behind what they were trying to do. And it's funny
to note that, uh, when he was speaking, when he
had the floor, it was almost like no one could
get him to shut his mouth. He would open his
mouth and words would just come pouring out. And he
(10:15):
was a little man. He was his seven five seven
and described as delicately framed. And so I mean, imagine,
I'm trying to think of some sort of comparison to
make Jim. I don't know why, but always envisioned Niles
Crane from for as years always being your Hamilton. He's
just standing there spouting off these big words of radio's ideas,
and no one can get him to be quiet, but
(10:37):
um he was. He was pretty happy with the way
that things turned out in the end. But as much
as the Federalist papers were designed to get popular opinion
to support the Constitution, he was constantly criticized for putting
too much power in a centralized elite government. And he
retorted at one point, and whom would you have representing
(10:58):
us in government? Not the rich, not the wise, not
the learned, And went on to say, would you pluck
some person off the street who was digging in the garbage.
That's where the contrast I think between him and Jefferson started,
because people associated Jefferson with being very democratic and someone
like Hamilton's with being sided with the aristocrats right, and
(11:20):
Hamilton's was making the point that you need people who
understand money, who understand credit and trade to actually make
the country work. He would like him, right, people like
him He was all about the policy, whereas Jefferson envisioned
that people should be allowed to live their own lives
(11:40):
and make their own individual choices, and he envisioned this
type of agrarian paradise where every man toiled in the
earth and built his own estate and supported himself. And
Hamilton's saw, uh, you know, as big as the United
States was maximizing the space, making cities and UH involved
being the country and trade and building up there their
(12:03):
credit line with the rest of the world so that
they could become a superpower. In Hamilton's, as you'd mentioned before,
I had a much darker view of human nature, and
he was also very concerned about things just falling into
complete chaos. He didn't think, basically that the people could
be trusted to govern themselves. And he may have been right,
and that's why it was so interesting when he got
involved in the revolution, because on the one hand he
(12:26):
was terrified of this mob rule. He stopped a mob
from attacking the president of King's College, but on the
other hand he was out captaining infantry, and that he
didn't exactly get his way with all of the ideas
he had for young America. If he'd had his way,
the Constitution would have appointed a president for for life,
and the president would have tapped individual leaders from each state,
(12:49):
and it didn't turn out that way. But he did
think that the United States should accomplish certain feats if
it wanted to become a good respectable nation and one
of the most introversial ones early in his career after
Washington had appointed him Treasury. The secretary was his assumption
plan and was that I think he thought the nation
(13:10):
should assume the debts of the states, right exactly so,
and it was it was pretty political, and Hamilton's had
often been criticized for not being political enough. He didn't
talk like a politician. He couldn't schmooz. He was just
brush and shrill and try to get people on his side.
But this was an incredibly political maneuver because the people
who had the most debt in the individual states, if
(13:33):
he could promise to assume their debt and get them
to align themselves with a new federal government, then essentially
he'd win people's trit he'd win their allegiance. Well, and
he was sneaky. He had a dinner with Thomas Jefferson
and with Madison where he basically struck a deal with
them and said, you know, my needed state support for
(13:54):
this political maneuver. And it worked. And the agreement they
reached was that he would let Jefferson and Madison have
their way and the new capital would be moved to
the region beside the Potomac down in Washington, d C.
Where it is today. It was in New York at
the time, and Hamilton's, you know, he left New York
here was a New Yorker, but to him it was
(14:17):
a bigger win to get the Assumption Bill passed rather
than see the capital moved a couple of states down south.
And he also garnered more controversy that same year when
he wanted to charter a national bank and Madison, Jefferson
and a whole bunch of other people said it was
unconstitutional and that was the federal government going way too far,
(14:38):
and Hamilton's and Washington got it passed. And this is
where you really start to see that division between the
Jeffersonian Republicans, who wanted it to be very much a
republic right and the federalists who wanted the power in
the federal government. Jefferson was saying no, no, no to
ideas of urbanization and standing army, and essentially a what
(15:00):
he saw as a federalist was someone who was a
monarch guest, whereas Hamilton's was arguing, if you want order
and you want power, you have to agree to these things.
And this is where our two party system came into
play there you have it around this time is when
Aaron Burr makes an appearance in Alexander Hamilton's life. UM,
when they were running an election for the New York
(15:22):
Senate seat and Aaron Burr defeated UM Philip Schuyler, who
was related to Hamilton's wife, I believe Elizabeth Skyler, and
that's when things between them started to heat up. He
asked Hamilton's at one point in time, if you have
power as Treasury as secretary to work the system to
(15:44):
benefit you, why wouldn't you It was unbelievable to Aaron
Burr that a man who had Hamilton's authoritative position wouldn't
use it for personal gain. And Hamilton's had always been
horrified by the idea of doing work just for money.
He believed in doing work for the honesty of it
(16:05):
and for the pride of winning a case in court.
He was a successful lawyer, but he would refuse to
take some cases if he didn't agree with the plaintiff.
He would only take the cases that he believed wholeheartedly in.
And so this meant, you know, almost a lifetime of
destitution for him, and certainly a great deal of debt
for his family. But you see that the differences in
(16:28):
morals and principles between Burn Hamilton's would would cause not
just a professional distaste for one another, but a very
personal one, and their dislike of each other went on,
I think for a good years, and it got very personal.
Insults were flung back and forth um on each other's character,
(16:50):
which you know, it was a pretty serious thing. It
wasn't just saying, oh, his ideas are bad. It was like, no,
he he has a person isn't worthy of your consideration
for the position of saying governor of he arc precisely so.
In the eight hundred presidential race rolls around. The two
contenders for the office are Jefferson R. Hamilton can't stand
(17:10):
and Burr, another of his enemies. So here, no, you
can't win either way, and he's torn between the two choices,
but he has to decide who would be best for
the country, and ultimately he decides Jefferson. And because there
had been a tied election, Hamilton's was the one who
finally pushed the congressman over the edge and got him
(17:34):
to agree to vote for Jefferson. So the final deciding vote,
while it didn't come from Hamilton's came from his influence.
And there's a quote I keep seeing in all the
stories I look at um with Hamilton and Burr, where
Hamilton's said, if there be a man in the world
I ought to hate, it is Jefferson. With Burr I
have always been personally well, but I think this is
about the time when he stopped feeling that way. So
(17:55):
in eighteen o one it's official. Jefferson is the third
president and Burr is his vice president. And in that
same year, Alexander's oldest son, Philip Hamilton's, was killed in
a duel attempting to defend the honor of the family,
and the grief of it drove their daughter Angelica insane.
So eighteen no ones not so great a good year.
(18:17):
And Hamilton's himself was very distraught over his son's death
because his son had actually consulted with him as to
whether or not he should accept the dual challenge. And
at this point in time, the code of honor was
structured so that you could get out of a duel
if you're willing to make a public apology and sort
of prostrate yourself before the person whom you've become embroiled
in this conflict with and Hamilton's knew that if his
(18:40):
son was going to have a future in politics, like
he'd hoped ever since he was a baby, really, that
he had to take on this duel and he had
to save face. And unfortunately it didn't work out that way.
It didn't. And so Hamilton's not only because of his
son's death due to dueling, but because of his religious
ideas and his morals and and really his respect for
(19:03):
the law, he was very much opposed to dueling. And
before the famous Burr Hamilton's duel, Hamiltons had actually been
involved in ten other disputes, it had never escalated to
the point of becoming a full fledged duel. He managed
to work himself out of them, exactly. And when we
think of that now, like we picture, I guess, two people,
you know, getting angry and meeting it you know, high
(19:25):
noon and drawing their guns. And that's not how political
duels worked in the day. There's a really interesting history
behind them, and it all starts off with some sort
of disgrace to someone's honor, say an election or some
other political controversy, and one person has lost face and
therefore lost that a little bit of tarnish on their
(19:48):
good name. And I believe it usually started with a letter,
and say I would write a letter to Candice and
say that you know you had offended me and be
smirched my honor, and perhaps you would make a public
apology for what you've done. And so the person who's
being challenged or put on the spot, if you will,
is the principle. And the principle has a second, who
(20:11):
is a friend or a confidant, who's going to back
up that person. I would be your second. Thank you,
thank you. And once they they send this this notice
of the issue, then it's up to the second to
help the principle. I guess mediate in the public eye,
what is going on. So the two principles could have
(20:33):
a beef with each other, but in order to save
face in a public way, the seconds come into explain
the situation, what's happening, And if the insult or is
willing to make an apology to the insultee, then the
whole thing can be called off. But if the insultee
(20:53):
doesn't accept that apology, then things escalating exactly, and the
acceptance and apologies known as satisfaction. But one thing that
you could do if you didn't really want to have
it end, and you really did want to have the duel,
was to ask for an absolutely ridiculous apology. And this
is what Aaron Burgin. Yeah, he I just I don't
(21:17):
get Burr to be perfectly candid. He was a strange
man to me, and just understanding. He was a descendant
of Jonathan Edwards, the preacher who's known for the sermon
centers in the Hand of an Angry God. Came from
a very religious family background, and his father was an
important man in academia, and he had all the money
(21:39):
that he could possibly want. And I suppose he was
just that power hungry and he really wanted to be president,
and he was so mad at Hamilton's and furthermore, Hamilton's
had also alluded to the fact that Burr had had
his way with his daughter, which we don't know if
it's to enough he had, just Hamilton's had been and
(22:00):
much as they did in the days, making all sorts
of accusations towards Burr again on his character, because he
genuinely truly believed that Burr was a really unscrupulous, just
unpleasant man. He was, and so Burr told Hamilton's that
he wouldn't be satisfied unless Hamilton's agreed to apologize for
(22:22):
every single horrible thing that hamilton has said about him
in the past fifteen years, when what had really set
him off was a letter that was published in an
actual newspaper where Hamilton's had expressed a quote unquote despicable
opinion of Burr, according to the editor of the paper.
And that's what Burr picked up on as this thing like, okay,
(22:44):
you know it was, It's it's in print now, so
I have something to use against you. And that's when
he asked Hamilton's for the sweeping apology that Hamilton's just
couldn't give. No. And by this time to Hamilton's had
fallen out of public favor because he'd gotten at all
little crazy with a smear campaign that he ran against
Adams and his own party even thought that he wasn't
(23:07):
quite right in the head anymore. And so and he
had an affair that he publicly admitted to, and his
reputation was never quite the same. Yeah, things weren't looking
good for Hamilton's and he had every reason in the
world not to duel and um Joanne Freeman, who writes
about the Burr Hamilton duel outlines those reasons as this,
(23:28):
the duel violated his religious and moral principles and defied
the law, threatened the welfare of his family, put his
creditors at risk, and ultimately compelled him to and in
Hamilton's own words, to hazard much and possibly gain nothing.
But again, he's in this really tight position where he
(23:49):
can either lose more face or defend what honor he
has left. And he's certainly not going to grovel before
bur especially because those are things he truly believed in.
He was his conviction that Burr was not worthy of
these positions of public service. And if we recall how
Hamilton's started out as a young boy, he had nothing,
and he worked himself into a great position of influence
(24:11):
and power, and he thought, if follow along the one
thing that I've been getting by on all my life
is honor, then by gollah, you know what do I
have to risk at this point? I'll defend my honor.
That's all I've got. So he did write this whole
letter with all of his reasons for being in the
stool because he knew that it would seem strange to people,
because it was so out of character for him. But
he also said that he wasn't going to shoot that
(24:34):
first time. He would shoot in the air and he
would let Bird do what he will and he would
be there, you know, in the semblance of a duel,
but he would not aim for Burr. And he was
counseled against it. You know, it's it's self defense. You
should shoot him, Alexander, and he wouldn't. So the date
arrived Auly eleventh, eighteen o four, and they'd agreed to
circumvent the law. They would fight in we Hawk and
(24:57):
New Jersey and they would arrive separately, and there would
be a doctor on the scene, but they would march
into the woods so there'd be no witnesses aside when
the principles and the seconds, because they didn't want to
turn at anyone else's name for being involved with this
jewel because it was illegal, and they were very tricky
about it, like they hid their guns under I think
some sort of cloak when they were going across, so
(25:18):
the people who were in the boat could truly and
honestly say that they had seen no guns because they
were covered. I mean, they knew what was going on,
but every step had been taken to reassure that they
would be able to speak truthfully if pressed for the truth.
So they walked into the woods and they mark off
the ten paces, and then they cast lots to decide
(25:39):
who was going to pick what position to fire from,
and you second will call the command. In Hamilton's very
fortuitously won both. But it wasn't for tuitous and it
wasn't going to do him any good because he wasn't
going to fire, and he didn't. So Burr aimed and
he shot, and Hamilton's fell yes, And later it was
(25:59):
to turn meant that the shot went through his liver
and his diaphragm, and even though a doctor was there
to attend to him, Hamilton knew immediately that it was
a mortal wound and a painful one at that thirty
one hours later when he died, and he was he
was in an incredible amount of pain. And it was
the largest funeral in New York then that anyone had
(26:23):
ever turned out for, because Hamilton's was such a fixture
of New York City and he had done so much
for the government and made such strides for his nation.
And not only that, but you know, he had been
a bit of a tom cat in his day, so
he had a lot of admirers, but people very much
more into his loss. He was buried July fourteenth at
(26:44):
Trinity Church in Manhattan, leaving Elizabeth, a widow who lived
until the age of nineties seven and was poor for
most of that time and missed him to her dying day.
She would always talk about going to see her Hamilton's
and Burr meanwhile, he was, Oh, my goodness, what a scoundrel.
People were furious with him. He loved New York for
(27:04):
eight years. And even though the duel itself is designed
to help a man regain his honor, that didn't work
in Burr's case, because he lost all of his honor.
People were furious that he had killed Hamilton's. And so
goes the story of the famous jewel between Aaron Burr
and Alexander Hamilton's. And uh, today we don't honor Hamilton's
(27:26):
in the same way as we honor the other founding fathers.
And this is something that you'll probably read. And every
biographical assessment of Hamilton's people always comment that he doesn't have,
you know, a great monument. People don't think of him
in the warm and fuzzy way that we think of
someone like Jefferson or Lincoln or Washington, and really every
goal he was trying to achieve with urbanization and the
(27:48):
treasury and lines of credit, these things came to fruition.
So we tip our hats to Alexander Hamilton's we do
we do? Even if I do still love Jefferson, There's
there's room in my my academic heart for both of them,
and I do appreciate his attributions to So if you
want to learn even more about Alexander Hamilton's The Bird
Rule and the National Treasury, be sure to check out
the website at how stuff works dot com. For more
(28:11):
on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff
works dot com. Let us know what you think, Send
an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com,
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