Aaron Burr, The Opportunistic Patriot

On this episode of Our American Stories, Bill Bryk tells the story of America's first practical politician, Aaron Burr, in a tale of skill, bravery, honor, deception, and memory. Burr was so much more than the man who shot Alexander Hamilton.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American stories and our next story, well,
it's a bit of American history. It's the story of
Aaron Burr. And you know him, perhaps from your high
school American history classes, what little you may remember from them,
or maybe from the Broadway musical Hamilton. But who was
Aaron Burr? Well, Bill Brake is here to tell us

(00:31):
a little bit more about the often reviled politician. Here's
Bill Lyn. Manuel Miranda in his extraordinary Hamilton, an American musical,
brilliantly captures Aaron Burr in three lines. The free advice
he has Burr offer to Alexander Hamilton when they first

(00:52):
meet in seventeen seventy six. Talk less, smile more, don't
let them know what you're against or what you were for.
Around twilight on June seventh, eighteen twelve, a fifty six
year old man returned from six years self imposed European exile.

(01:14):
He landed New York somewhere near today's South Street Seaport.
He hastened to a friend's house at sixty six Water Street,
only to find no one at home. Only around midnight
did he find a room already occupied by five other
men in a plain house along at Dark Alley. In
the morning, he returned to find his friend Samuel Swartout

(01:36):
at home, and after an affectionate welcome, the Swarthout brothers
lodged him. The charm that had borne Burr up throughout
his life remained potent. A boyhood friend and longtime political opponent,
Robert Troupe, lent him ten dollars in a law library.
Then ten dollars was real money then, as now, a

(01:56):
law library is essential to one's practice. Rnted space at
nine Nassau Street. He took out some newspaper advertisements. He
ordered a small tin sign brightly Lacquert, bearing his name,
and tacked it to the outside wall. When he arrived
to open his office on the morning of July fifth,
eighteen twelve, a line of clients awaited him. Hundreds more

(02:19):
would follow within twelve days. His receipts totaled what was
then a staggering two thousand dollars. However, the inhabitants of
New York viewed the man. Milton Lomask wrote, they had
not forgotten the skills of the advocate. Thus Aaron Burr,
former colonel in the Army of the Revolution, former Attorney

(02:42):
General of New York, former United States Senator and former
Vice President of the United States, resumed the practice of law.
He had been born February sixth, seventeen fifty six, in Newark,
New Jersey. He entered Princeton in the sophomore class at thirteen,
took his degree with distinction at sixteen, and even spoke

(03:04):
at commencement. He was elegant from youth, small, slender, broad shouldered,
and handsome. He had fine taste and clothes to which
dozens of unpaid tailors on two continents would attest. His
manners were exquisite, his conversation never palled, and whether in
the courtroom or the Senate, he spoke quietly and conversationally,

(03:26):
without bombast or literary allusion. He strove to see things
as they are, not as they ought to be, and
possessed a massive savoisfare dexterity enough to conceal the truth
without telling a lie, sagacity enough to read other people's countenances,
and serenity enough not to let them discover anything by yours.

(03:50):
He was also, throughout his life much pursued by women,
and they never had to run very far or very fast.
He fought for American Independence at Quebec Brooklyn Morningside Heights.
He was a lieutenant colonel at twenty two, wintered at
Valley Forge, and had a horse shot from under him
at Monmouth on June twenty eighth, seventeen seventy eight. That

(04:12):
means he had gone in harm's way, for he might
have been hit by the shot that killed his charger.
Only one who has been thrown from a horse can
understand what that means, the pains of having the wind
knocked out of you, if not muscles sprained and bones broken.
The Man of Pleasure One single handedly suppressed mutiny and

(04:32):
his regiment. A ringleader leveled his musket at Burr, shouting
now as the time my brave boys. The last syllable
had barely left his lips when Burr, having drawn his sword,
severed the man's arm just above the elbow. The regiment
knew no more mutinies. During his service, he met Theodosia Prevost,

(04:52):
the wife of a British officers serving in the West Indies.
Burr later wrote that she possessed the truest heart, the
ripest intellect, and the most winning manners of any woman
he had ever met. She spoke French fluently, frequently quoted
the Latin poets, and read avidly. Burr admired and wanted her.

(05:14):
She responded with warmth and friendship. Her husband died in
seventeen eighty one. She married Burr the following year. Nothing
so testifies to Theodosia Prevost's character, charm, and intelligence than
that this sensual, cynical man was throughout their marriage her loving,

(05:34):
faithful husband. More though Burr was effeminist by instinct, he
admired Mary Wolstuncraft's a Vindication of the rights of women,
and kept a print of Missus Wolstuncraft's portrait on his wall.
His marriage made those beliefs heart felt. He was among
the first practical politicians, and Burr was nothing if not practical,

(05:56):
to work for women's education on a par with men.
It was a knowledge of your mind, he wrote to Theodosia,
which first inspired me. The ideas which you have often
heard me express in favor of female intellectual powers are
founded on what I have seen in you. She died
in seventeen ninety four, after twelve years of marriage. He

(06:19):
never ceased to mourn her. Perhaps their relationship was the
noblest achievement of his life. In Hamilton, BurrH has asked,
if you stand for nothing, BurrH, what will you fall for? Clearly,
at least in his love for Theodosia and his passion
for human rights, he stood for something. In seventeen eighty two,

(06:43):
he was admitted to the New York Bar at the
age of twenty six. He was elected to the legislature
in seventeen eighty four at twenty eight, where he fought
to abolish slavery, and appointed Attorney General in seventeen eighty
nine when he was thirty three. In seventeen ninety one,
he defeated Philip's Sky father in law of Alexander Hamilton
for the United States Senate. Thus the feud between Hamilton

(07:05):
and Burr began. The new senator worked hard without taking
politics seriously. For him, it was the pursuit of fun
and honor and profit. This earned him the antipathy of
Thomas Jefferson, who took politics almost as seriously as he
did himself. To be fair, perhaps that is not entirely true.
We know Jefferson had red hair and part because he

(07:28):
preserved a letter addressed to him, as you redheaded son
of a Yet the Virginian and Burr needed one another.
Burr controlled the country's first mass party organization, the Society
of Saint Tammany. If Thomas Jefferson was the democrats first ideologue,
Burr was their first mechanic. In eighteen hundred, the Jeffersonians

(07:51):
nominated Senator Burr for vice president, and his troubles began.
Presidential electors then voted for two candidates without specifying a
reference for president and for vice president. The candidate receiving
the most votes became president. The second place candidate became
vice president. Jefferson and Burr tied with seventy three votes each.

(08:13):
The election went to the House of Representatives. The Federalists,
who detested Jefferson, sought to elect Burr instead. After thirty
six ballots, the House finally elected Jefferson president and Burr
vice president. There is no evidence that Burr had plotted
with the Federalists to win the presidency. Nonetheless, Jefferson, who

(08:35):
always had a slight touch of paranoia, froze him out
and withheld patronage from his followers. And you're listening to
the remarkable story of Aaron Burr and my goodness, Princeton
at thirteen. And we often talk about the fact that boy,
in earlier days, people grew up faster, and maybe it
wasn't a bad thing. And my goodness, knowing the sting

(08:57):
of battle, which Aaron Burr did know twenty two, Lieutenant Colonel,
he wintered at Valley Forge, his horse was shot out
from underneath him in the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey.
And my goodness, the man new battle, new politics, and
new love. When we come back more of the story
of Hamilton's chief antagonist, telling his side of the story.

(09:20):
Aaron Burr's story peer on our American stories. And we're
back with our American stories and the story of Aaron Burr.

(09:43):
When we last left off with Bill Brike. After being
elected President, Thomas Jefferson froze Burr and his constituents out.
We returned to Bill Brike with the rest of this story.
In April eighteen oh four, Burr, knowing Jeffers would not
allow his renomination later that year, ran for Governor of

(10:04):
New York. Hamilton had come to hate Burr, and Hamilton's
rage was reflected in his intensely personal campaigning, which included
indiscreet personal remarks reported in the newspapers. Burr was heavily defeated.
Burr seized upon correspondence published in the Albany Register, Doctor
Charles Cooper wrote, General Hamilton and Judge can't have declared

(10:28):
in substance that they looked upon mister Burr to be
a dangerous man. And I could detail to you a
still more despicable opinion which General Hamilton has expressed of Burr.
Burr requested an acknowledgment or denial of the still more
despicable opinion of himself attributed to Hamilton. Two days later,

(10:50):
Hamilton replied with a lengthy dissertation on the meaning of despicable.
Burr responded, the common sense of mankind fixed to the
word the idea of dishonor. He then demanded Hamilton generally
disavow any intention to convey impressions derogatory to the honor

(11:10):
of mister Hamilton was trapped. This would have meant denying
a great deal of his political conversations, speeches and correspondence
over two decades. Hamilton now feebly offered that he could
not recall using any term that would justify doctor Cooper's construction.
Burr again demanded a disclaimer. Hamilton refused. On June twenty seventh,

(11:35):
eighteen o four, Burr challenged and Hamilton accepted. On Wednesday,
July eleventh, eighteen o four, at seven am, the two
men stood ten paces apart on the Weehawken Shore in
New Jersey, pistols in hand. Hamilton, perhaps a second before

(11:58):
his opponent fired into the air, Burr shot true. He
was indicted for murder in New York and in New Jersey.
While his lawyers and friends worked to quash the indictments,
he returned to Washington, d C. Where he resumed his
duties as Vice president. On March second, eighteen oh five,

(12:20):
his last day in public office, Burr rose from the chair.
He stood before a hall of professional politicians, familiar with
every rhetorical device, many of whom hated him. Without changing
his customary conversational tone, he spoke briefly of the United
States and the Senate itself. The Senate, he said, is

(12:40):
a sanctuary, a citadel of law, of order, and of liberty.
And it is here, it is here, in this exalted refuge. Here,
if anywhere, will resistance be made to the storms of
political frenzy and the silent arts of corruption, And if
the Constitution be destined ever to perish by the sacrilegious

(13:00):
hands of the demagogue or the usurper, which God avert
its expiring agonies, will be witnessed on this floor. Then,
having spoken for once from the heart, he stepped down,
walked across the chamber, and went out the door. He
was only forty nine years old. Behind him, the Senate

(13:26):
sat in silence. Senator Samuel Mitchell of New York wrote,
my colleague General Smith stout, and manly as he is,
wept as profusely as I did. He did not recover
for a quarter of an hour. Even before leaving office,
Burr had begun a conspiracy. Precisely what Burr planned remains

(13:51):
a mystery, a puzzle, a lock without a key. He
told his first biographer, Matthew L. Davis. The scheme he
called X was intended to revolutionize Mexico and settlesome lands
he had in Texas. Perhaps it was, but the legends remain,
and the papers tantalize, the maps of New Orleans, Vera Cruz,

(14:14):
and the roads to Mexico City, and the correspondents hinting
he would not liberate, but seize Mexico, draw the Western
States from the Union, and combining them into one nation.
Stand at the throne of the Aztecs, and crown himself
Emperor of the West. The gods invite us to glory
and fortune. Ber wrote to his co conspirator, General James Wilkinson,

(14:38):
then General in Chief of the United States Army. John
Randolph of Roanoke, most ferocious of politicians, called Wilkinson the
mammoth of iniquity. The only man I ever saw who
was from the bark to the very core of villain. Wilkinson,
whose self designed uniforms encrusted with gold braid and frogging

(15:00):
to conceal his enormous girth. He was, as we now know,
a paid agent of Spain, a man on the take.
At some point, Wilkinson rated out burs Jefferson. On November
twenty seventh, eighteen oh six, Jefferson issued a proclamation that
led to the collapse of the plot, Burr's arrest and

(15:21):
Burr's indictment for treason by levying war against the United States.
Wilkinson was not the subject of prosecution, though we now
know that Jefferson too knew Wilkinson was taking money from
the Spanish. Perhaps Wilkinson knew too much in an age
not yet so cruel as to eliminate those who knew
too much. Burr was tried in Richmond, Virginia, before Chief

(15:43):
Justice John Marshall, Jefferson's third cousin. The cousins detested one another.
The prosecutor insinuated that Marshall would be impeached if he
did not rule for the prosecution on the evidentiary emotions.
Marshall noted the threat in his decision. He also noted
the Constitution requires treason to be proven by the testimony

(16:04):
of two witnesses, though the same overt act of treason.
Of the dozens of witnesses presented by the government, none
had testified to an overt act. Marshall then excluded all
evidence presented by the government as merely corroborative and incompetent.
Within twenty five minutes, the jury found burn Out guilty. Now,

(16:26):
in a self imposed exercise and discretion, BurrH left for Europe.
At first, Burr's sought financial support for x from the
British and then the French. Nothing came of it. From
the exile's beginning, BurrH recorded his experiences in his private journal.
Perhaps its saddest revelations are that this vital, charming man

(16:49):
was so easily bored. Yet, as Lamasque writes, there was
a limit to how many parties he could attend, how
many ceremonies he could watch, how many books he could read,
how many bright and articulate people he could draw within
the radiant circle of his charm. He devoted his energies
to fornication with prostitutes a necessary, and other women when possible.

(17:14):
Lomasque notes he described his amatory encounters as muse, a
French hunting term meaning the beginning of the rutting season
in animals. This suggests that he despised himself for treating
sex in this way, Yet some principles remained uncompromised. Despite
boredom and the lack of money. He never descended to

(17:36):
drinking cheap wine. After his return to the United States,
he only dabbled in politics. In eighteen twelve, he was
pulling strings from an unknown man in the West named
Andrew Jackson, who will do credit to a commission in
the army if conferred upon him. When Jackson became president
in eighteen twenty nine, Samuel sword Out, whose hospitality Burr

(17:58):
had enjoyed on his return from exile, was appointed collector
of the Port of New York with Burr's help. As
Mr Werner relates in his History of Tammany Hall, swart
Out later hurried to Europe when his accounts showed that
he had borrowed from the government's funds the sum of
one million, two hundred twenty five thousand, seven hundred five

(18:19):
dollars and sixty nine cents. The public, with that charming
levity that has always characterized its attitude toward wholesale plunder,
made the best of a bad situation by coining a
new term. When a man put the government's money into
his own pocket, it was said he had sword out it.
In eighteen thirty three, Burr married Eliza Jumel, perhaps the

(18:43):
richest American woman of the time. She had after what
may have been the most successful career of her age,
as shall we say, a working girl married an extremely
wealthy man. By the time she married Burr, Madame Jumel
was a widow, probably married her for her money. Within
the year, she began divorce proceedings on the grounds of adultery,

(19:07):
a remarkable even heartening accusation against a man of seventy eight.
On September fourteenth, eighteen thirty six, the day on which
the decree of divorce from Madame Jumel was entered by
the Court, Arinburd died in a second floor room at
Blinon's Inn two zero four zero Richmond Terrace in Port Richmond,

(19:29):
Staten Island. Two days later he was buried beside his
father and grandfather in Princeton, New Jersey. Lomasque wrote, for
nearly twenty years the grave went unmarked. Then a relative
arranged for the installation of a simple marble slab. In
nineteen ninety five, the Arinburgh Association placed a bronze plaque

(19:52):
on the grave that recites his services to the Republic
and great job on that by Robbie, our producer, and
Bill Brike Aaron Burgh's story. Here are our American Stories.