Aaron Burr: Not A Villain

Aaron Burr had been Vice President during the first administration of Thomas Jefferson. In the summer of 1804, Burr killed his rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel, an event that effectively ended Burr’s career in national politics. Three years later, he was on trial, charged with the capital crime of treason by the government headed by Jefferson, his former partner in political office. Presiding over the trial was John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. Finally, there was James Wilkinson, general of the army, once Burr’s associate and at trial his chief accuser. With these principal players, the trial in the U.S. Circuit Court at Richmond was as much high political and personal drama as it was a judicial proceeding

This is the time when George Washington was the president. After college, elementary school and his job, he met George Washington. According to a different article in Newsela Hamilton was George Washington's former aide. They started the first African American school. They also fought for Native Americans equal rights. It is proved just by those sentences that George Washington trusted Alexander Hamilton more than anyone. Judging by history it is clear to say that they won the Revolutionary war together. After the revolutionary war it was the next election. Time for George Washington to leave and for the next president to come up. Hamilton voted for Thomas Jefferson rather than Aaron Burr, sadly this is the part that lead to Hamilton’s

The chapters are titled "The Generation", "The Duel", "The Dinner", "The Silence", "The Farewell", "The Collaborators" and "The Friendship". In "The Duel", the story of the legendary duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is related in its entirety. It was by far the most prominent deadly standoff between two men in history. Ellis relates the background and brief biographies of the two men involved in the duel. He also reveals the context for the duel, a culmination of political and personal jabs at Burrs character by Hamilton. In fact these jabs held a good deal of truth, and finally resulted in Burr challenging Hamilton. Both Hamilton and Burr went to the plains in Weehawken to conduct the duel in defense of their honor and characters. Historically, Hamilton is seen as a martyr in the duel and Burr seen as a treacherous murderer. This Hamiltonian viewpoint is dominant among historians because it is widely believed that Hamilton went into the duel not intending to fire a shot and that Burr fired the first shot. Ellis believes this version of the story to be wrong. He believes that Hamilton honored his bargain of not firing on Burr, wasting his first shot by firing it into the trees. Burr, thinking that Hamilton fired at him, shot and killed Hamilton with his shot.

Though both Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson served as members of President Washington’s cabinet, the two held very different views on the newly founded U.S. government, interpretation of its constitution, and the role of the “masses” in that government. These conflicting views would develop in two political parties, the Federalists led by Hamilton and the Democratic-Republicans led by Jefferson. Although both political parties presented enticing aspects, Hamilton’s views were much more reasonable and fruitful when compared Jefferson’s views; idealistic and too strict in reference to the constitution.

Ellis seems to be biased in his writing. He tries to be objective when explaining the relationship of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, by detailing Hamilton’s concerns about Burr’s character during a time period where it mattered. Unlike the other figures mentioned later it is hard to contort the perspective of Burr into a leader that needs to be revered. Ellis does however show that Burr and Hamilton were very much alike and that many of the other political pioneers had legitimate concerns about Hamilton’s character. That is where the objectivity ends however.

As history is commonly viewed as dull and boring, Miranda changes this perception through the integration of popular music styles, rap and hip-hop, into the musical. While all of the facts are historically accurate, the audience is exposed to the debates through articulated rap battles and charged emotions are expressed through songs. The songs are also accompanied by choreography, which is a writing idea that is taken and exaggerated to an emotional state that is physicalized. Through these methods, the public gets an easier understanding of motives behind certain actions, such as Aaron Burr shooting Alexander Hamilton at a duel, as well as an clearer comprehension on what happened in history. Through rap and the hip hop style, music is used to keep history current, and provide stories the audience hasn’t heard before. In effect, Hamilton has inspired kids who weren’t good at history to look at a different perspective of the characters. In the musical there is no protagonist nor antagonist. Instead, all of the characters are portrayed as flawed, especially Hamilton, as he not only owned slaves, but was the center of the first political sex scandal in the United States. This allows the audience to know the characters on a realistic level, and acknowledge the fact that although Hamilton is one of the nation’s greatest founding fathers, he is also a man capable of

George Washington is painted as an incompetent military commander who has no idea how to win a war, but a keen politician who knows how to play the game of politics well. Throughout the novel, Washington is portrayed as someone who thinks himself a king or god. "I wondered if I should drop to one knee. With each year's new defeats, the ceremony of Washington's court became more royal" (110). ""What was Washington's most notable trait?" I once asked Hamilton...."Oh, Burr, self-love! Self-love! What else makes a god?"" (125). Thomas Jefferson is an unsurpassed self-righteous hypocrite, but still earns Burr’s approval as being the greatest politician and empire builder of his age. James Madison, who was doggedly loyal to his mentor and was aware of Jefferson’s dishonesty, is seen as a complicated figure who was most remarkable in his subtle development of constitutional principles. Alexander Hamilton, bastard-born and therefore not accepted into higher society, despite his status, was brutally ambitious and argumentative, and finally goes too far in accusing Burr of incest with his daughter Theodosia, perhaps to finally send Burr tumbling down the political ladder so he can climb

In the song, “The Adams Administration” it consists mainly of Burr, Madison and Jefferson discussing how Hamilton will no longer be a public figure when they ruin his reputation. We learn the events prior that will add to Hamilton’s backlash. The public are already hesitant of his actions due to “Adams fires Hamilton” and “Hamilton publishes his response” which is a public display of his hatred for Adams. It shows how Hamilton has a short temper since he made a private argument into a public discussion. Burr, Madison and Jefferson hope that Hamilton will have another outrageous outburst, which will leave Hamilton humiliated and out of power. A small part of the song talks about how the Federalist party is destroyed, “Adams, the only

These men had self-serving agendas themselves just like Aaron Burr did but they are hardly criticized for it. Wood says that Jefferson and Hamilton embody the "democratic world of progress, Providence and innumerable isolated but equal individuals, there could be little place for the kind of extraordinary political and intellectual leadership the revolutionary generation had demonstrated," and that these men had “politeness, taste, sociability, learning, compassion, and benevolence-and what it meant to be good political leaders” (22). On the other hand was Burr who was demonized for his selfish actions in this book. Wood says he embodied "what most American politicians would eventually become — pragmatic, get-along men."

“Hamilton: An American Musical” is a musical which has caused a massive uproar in both fans and historians alike due to the play’s beautiful illustration of the life of Alexander Hamilton and his contributions to American history. The song, “Cabinet Battle #2”, illustrates the differing views of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson in the debate of the French Revolution. Thomas Jefferson’s position on the matter is that the United States should honor its treaty with France while Hamilton’s opinion, however, is that the treaty between the United States and France is now null and void since the King has died. Hamilton’s argument seemed to provide the most evidence and was more persuading compared to Jefferson’s argument. Hamilton’s argument was much stronger than Jefferson’s since his viewpoint relies on the current events at the time such as the king’s death, and America’s lack of power should they assist, along with the fact that assisting would be completely unnecessary.

When one thinks about the founding fathers of America, one thinks of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, etc. These men contributed to the creation of the America we know today. One also thinks about Paul Revere, and his famous saying: “The British are coming!” However, one man is forgotten by many young people who are required study the American Revolution. This man is known as Aaron Burr. His subject brings up a rather negative and obscure argument. People think of him as a traitor, murderer and double crosser. This is because when Aaron Burr is brought up in conversation, his most significant action is discussed: the duel with Alexander Hamilton. Where Burr shot and killed him. However, Burr had an interesting life and contributed greatly to the American revolution. And although Burr murdered one of his fellow Americans, which was an unforgivable crime,

More than two centuries have passed since American icon, Alexander Hamilton, famously engaged his political rival, Aaron Burr, in the fateful duel that ultimately cost him his life. Although the 12th day of July 1804 robbed Hamilton of his last breath, it, more importantly, commenced an era of remembrance and representation of his legacy in American popular culture that continues today. Most interesting is the current heightened period of popularity Hamilton’s legacy is experiencing now, 213 years after his violent death. From a massively popular Broadway musical (See Figure 1), adapted from an equally renown historical biography (See Figure 2), as well as an HBO miniseries (See Figure 3), the personification of America’s “ten-dollar father” has erupted onto the American popular culture landscape over the last fifteen years.

One of Hamilton’s first friends and mortal enemy, Aaron Burr was nearly the complete opposite of him. He was born to a wealthy family from New Jersey in 1756. As intellectually gifted as Hamilton, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton) when he was 17. They were good friends for a while, until their friendship was torn apart by their conflicting political pursuits.

On the other hand, Hamilton’s self-righteousness sometimes helped him and his country. When the Constitution was under fire by many in Congress and in the public, Hamilton took it upon himself to defend it and make sure it stayed in place even with a few amendments. In the song “Non-Stop,” Hamilton puts so much effort into defending the Constitution. This attitude led him to rise to his highest points in the cabinet. At the beginning of the song, he tries to convince Burr to help him in the middle of the night, as Burr puts it, “How do you write like you’re running out of time?” (Miranda and McCarter 143). Hamilton ends up leaving his wife home against her wishes to go and be the secretary of the treasury. From here on, Hamilton joined forces with one of his political opponents, Madison, to write The Federalist Papers. On that topic, the narrator Burr states, “The plan was to write a total of 25 essays work divided evenly among the three men. In the end, they wrote 85 essays, in the span of six months. John Jay got sick after writing 5. James Madison wrote 29. Hamilton wrote the other 51.” This shows the positive impact of Hamilton’s self-righteousness and describes the reason that he became secretary of the treasury and a founding father. His love to write and his attitude brought him far in his line of work and has impacted his life positively by making him a high official in the government and a respected person.

Hamilton decided that the duel was morally wrong and shoots in the air, missing Burr on purpose, while Burr’s intention was to kill, wounding Hamilton in his stomach which leads to his death the next day. Aaron Burr was later charged with murder he serves no time but, he’s political career is ruined. The ending of the musical was the most moving for me, specially the song “The World Was Wide Enough” indeed it was for the both. When Burr screamed “WAIT!” I could tell the regret in his voice. This musical was inspiring and the way it portrayed an important part of US history makes me think what would’ve or could’ve happened if Hamilton was here today? I did not know what I was signing up for at the beginning but it was definitely a moving and memorable experience I will share with others. Oh stubborn Hamilton, one lost his life, the other his name, politics truly is a dangerous