Two of the most important men in America faced each other at dawn on July 1, 1804. There were no words of greeting, nor any smiles as they proceeded with their business. Each had taken two of his closest friends with him. A small crowd was beginning to gather as one of the men produced a set of dueling pistols. Both men, in their late thirties, had already achieved great fame, wealth and political success. One, Alexander Hamilton, had been Secretary of the Treasury and at this time headed the Federalist Party; the other, Aaron Burr, was actually Vice President of the United States.
What prompted these two men to a duel? Why would they risk their lives here on this dismal morning? To find the answer we have to take a good look at these two personalities. Both men were about the same age, both had taken an active part in the Revolutionary War, and both had achieved high office in the army under George Washington, despite the fact that they were very young. These similarities did not make friends of them, however, as there was bitterness and rivalry from the start. Some historians believe that both may have loved the same woman, Elizabeth Schuyler. In 1780, Miss Schuyler became Mrs. Alexander Hamilton.
Another factor that contributed to the bitterness was the fact that the two men were very influential in opposing political parties. Hamilton was without doubt the leader of the Federalist Party. He had contributed largely to the ideas that were put forth in our Constitution and had been very helpful in seeing that the Constitution was accepted by the people of New York. Later, as the Secretary of the Treasury, the ideas of Hamilton were put into effect and helped the country get off to a good financial start. Hamilton's ideas on government were adopted by many. These people became known as the Federalist Party.
Because America is a free country and because we are the type of people we are, those who opposed Hamilton could make their views known. One such man was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson started a group to oppose the ideas of Hamilton and The Federalists, and one of the first leaders of the group was Aaron Burr. These people were at first called Anti-Federalists, then Democratic-Republicans, and later Democrats. This party had been successful in defeating the Federalists in the Election of 1800.
It was in this election that the bitterness between Hamilton and Burr really came to the surface. Under our old system of election, the person who received the greatest number of votes, cast by a group called the Electoral College, became the President; the person getting the next largest number of votes became the Vice President. We were a new country then and not experienced in the art of politics. What happened was that many Electors cast their votes for Thomas Jefferson for President. The same number then cast a vote for Aaron Burr. The result, they both had the same number of votes. It is usually accepted that these Electors had meant to vote for Jefferson for President and Burr for Vice President, but legally it was a tie. Fortunately, our Constitution provided for such an occurrence or we might have had chaos and revolution as has been the case in many other countries. According to our law, however, if a tie occurs between the two top vote-getters, then the House of Representatives decides. Here it seemed Burr had a chance to be President. Many of his closest friends were in the House, and many Federalists who disliked Jefferson and his ideas might be persuaded to vote for Burr.
This is where Hamilton stepped in. Although he had quarreled a great deal with Jefferson over ideals, he thought that Jefferson was a great American and would make a much better President than would Burr. Hamilton hurried to Washington and used all his influence to get the Federalist members of the House to vote for Jefferson. Hamilton was successful. By a narrow majority Burr was defeated and Thomas Jeffer
A．Washington,D.C.
B．New York
C．New Jersey
D．Pennsylvania
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