I
hate to break it to you, but America's founding fathers were the most
argumentative bunch of back stabbing duplictious ego maniacs on the
North American continent. Just look at what they thought of each
other. Thomas Jefferson called President John Adams a senile fool and a hideous
hermaphroditic. Adams called his fellow Federalist Alexander
Hamilton, “That bastard brat of a Scottish peddler!”, accusing him of possessing "a
superabundance of secretions, which he couldn't find enough whores to
absorb!” And Adams described Thomas Jefferson, leader and
founder of opposition Democratic- Republicans, as a man whose “soul
is poisoned with ambition.” Hamilton called Jefferson a
“howling atheist”. And then there was New York's Aaron Burr.
Nobody trusted Burr.
“Politics
is a great game for fun, honor, and profit.”
Aaron
Burr
The
always charming Aaron Burr (above) was urbane and witty, with a healthy
disrespect for his own legal profession, asserting “Law is
whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained.” He loved
politics so much he converted the Tammany Hall social club into the
bulwark of New York State Democratic politics for the next 200 years,
while still maintaining alliances with moderate Federalists. Aaron's
only child, Theodosia, paid him probably the greatest compliment I
have ever heard, when she said, “I had rather not live than not to
be the daughter of such a man.” The only problem was Aaron Burr
kept out smarting the smartest men in America.
“As
to Burr...he is a man of extreme and irregular ambition; that he is
selfish to a degree which excludes all social affections, and that he
is decidedly profligate. “
Alexander
Hamilton
In
early 1799 the Democrat Aaron Burr offered a plan to bring water into
Manhattan, and convinced the impulsive and arrogant Federalist
leader Alexander Hamilton (above) to support the bill But buried in the
minutia was authorization to charter the Bank of Manhattan. And once
the bill passed the water project was quickly dropped, and what would
one day be Chase Manhattan Bank started moving money for Democratic
politicians. Hamilton, “the little lion”, never forgave Burr for
fooling him. But the belligerent Hamilton would never admit his
grudge with Burr was anything but a matter of principle Federalists
like Hamilton favored an active government, and Thomas Jefferson's
Democrats preferred a government small enough not to threaten
slavery or the bankers.
“It
has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among
[my] opponents who... transferred at once to the person, the hatred
they bore to his political opinions.”
Thomas
Jefferson
"Mad Tom" Thomas
Jefferson didn't trust Burrr either. But he needed New York's
electoral votes. Under the new constitution each “Presidental
Elector” was required to vote for two candidates - at least one
from outside his home state - with the second highest vote getter
becoming Vice-President. Four years earlier, in 1796, Democrat
Jefferson got 60 electoral votes and became Vice President. He then
spent the next four years undermining the Federalist Adams
administration from the inside. This time the two parties tried to
coordinate their votes to ensure the “P” and the “VP” would
both be from the same party. But as the secret ballots trickled in to
Washington during December of 1800, it “leaked” that the
Democrats in South Carolina – the last state in which electors were
chosen - had screwed up. Both Jefferson and Burr ended up with 73
votes for President – both one vote short of the required 74 vote majority. It was
presumed that most Democrats wanted Jefferson to take the top office.
Jefferson certainly thought so.
“Slander
has slain more than the sword.”
Aaron
Burr
As
designed just 12 years earlier (Article II, Section 1, clause 3 of
the Constitution), if two candidates were tied for Presidency,
“then the House of Representatives shall immediately chose by
ballot one of them for President...each state having one vote.”
So, having trudged to the capital through heavy snow on Wednesday 11
February, 1801, the Electoral votes were officially counted. They
confirmed the Democrat's worst nightmare. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron
Burr were tied, with 73 votes each for the Presidency. The lame duck
House of Representatives (56 Federalists to 49 Democrats), voting by
state, could only choose between those two Democrats. And most all of
the Federalists voted for the New Yorker, just to spit in Thomas
Jefferson's eye.
“Men
of energy of character must have enemies”
Thomas
Jefferson
Everybody
knew "Mad Tom" Jefferson would have to swallow a deal. Burr expected it. In December, Burr
had written to a supporter in Philadelphia that he would not compete
.with Jefferson. “Be
assured that the Federal party can entertain no such wish...” Hamilton
had offered a deal to the sage of Monticello in January, saying that
if Jefferson would promise to preserve Hamilton's First National Bank
and to not to fire every Federalist working for the government, then
a few Federalists would vote for Jefferson. The principled Jefferson
refused. So the process would have to play itself out.
“The
rule of my life is to make business a pleasure and pleasure my
business.”
Aaron
Burr
It
would only take nine votes to choose a President, with Congress meeting in the dome-less capital (above). But on the first
ballot Thomas Jefferson received just eight votes, with the Federalists
giving Burr six. The Vermont and Maryland delegations were
split and handed in blank ballots. Immediately the House began a
second vote, with the same result. After 19 duplicate votes, at 3
a..m the next morning, Thursday 12 February, the exhausted House
decided to adjourn until daylight. But nothing changed, not on
Thursday, not on Friday the 13th and not on Saturday.
Saturday night, Federalist James Asheton Bayard, the single
congressman from Delaware, decided somebody had to do something. So
he did it.
“Never
do today what you can do tomorrow. Something may occur to make you
regret your premature action.”
Congressman
Bayard (above) offered Jefferson the same deal Hamilton had offered a month
earlier – keep the National Bank – forerunner of the Federal
Reserve system – and don't replace the Federalist custom officials in
Philadelphia and Wilmington. If Jefferson would promise
that, then Bayard (and Delaware) would abstain on the next vote. That
would still leave Jefferson with just eight votes, but that would now
be a majority "of those states voting". On Sunday, 15 February, while
the offer was transmitted to Jefferson in Monticello, Bayard broke
the news of his offer to the Federalist caucus.
According to Bayard, the
resulting cries of “traitor” were loud and “prodigious, the
reproaches vehement.” Bayard finally agreed to wait until Burr
could respond to the same deal.
“Great
souls have little use for small morals.”
Aaron
Burr
Jefferson's
response arrived Monday morning, 16 February – a quite impressive
less than 24 hour turn around, given that Monticello (above) was ninety miles
each way by terrible roads from the new “Federal District.”
Jefferson would later claim to have turned down the deal But once in the White House he kept
the National bank, despite his campaign promises to dismantle it. And
he kept most of the Federalists officials in Baltimore, Maryland and
Wilmington, Delaware. And when Aaron Burr's response arrived later that same
morning, the deal was sealed. Someone destroyed Burr's letter, but
Congressman Bayard wrote later, “Burr has acted a miserable paltry
part. The election was in his power.” Whatever Aaron Burr's
sentiments, there is no evidence he had lifted a finger to challenge
Jefferson for the Presidency. And for that, Thomas Jefferson never
forgave him.
“I
fear Mr. Burr is unprincipled, both as a public and a private man. In
fact, I take it he is for or against nothing but as it suits his
interest and ambition.”
Alexander
Hamilton
At
noon on Monday, 17 February 1801, the House cast its 36th
ballot. Delaware abstained, and Thomas Jefferson became the third
President of the United States. Aaron Burr (above) became Vice President.
Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton had been writing his allies for
two months that they should be accept Jefferson, telling one, “Mr.
Jefferson, though too revolutionary...is yet a lover of liberty...Mr.
Burr loves nothing but himself.” It seems that the Secretary of
the Treasury hated Burr more than he loved his own politics.
“A
fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to
abuse it, when acquired.”
Alexander
Hamilton
And
where was “the most restless, impatient, artful...and unprincipled
intriguer in the United States” (according to Hamilton) during the
week that he could have become the third President of the United
States? During the first half of February, 1801, Aaron Burr was in
Albany, New York, supervising and attending the wedding of his
daughter, Theodosia Burr (above) , to Mr. Joseph Alston, a plantation owner
from South Carolina. The newlyweds were the first couple known to
have honeymooned at Niagara Falls. The proud father of the bride did
not leave Albany until well after the election was settled. It seems
that most of the intrigue and duplicity attributed to Aaron Burr,
existed mostly in the imaginations of his political opponents..
“Hamilton
was indeed a singular character. Of acute understanding...honest, and
honorable in all private transactions...yet so bewitched and
perverted...as to be... (convinced) that corruption was essential to
the government of a nation.”
Thomas
Jefferson
Distrusted
by Jefferson, Aaron Burr served only one term as Vice President.
Instead, in 1804 he ran for Governor of New York but fell victim to
a nasty smear campaign directed by Alexander Hamilton. On Wednesday,
11 July, 1804, the two old enemies met on the same field in Weehawken,
New Jersey, where Hamilton's son had been killed in a duel ten years
earlier. (above) Hamilton's shot missed. Burr's shot hit Hamilton in the
abdomen and the Federalist leader died the next day. And that was
the end of Aaron Burr's political life. He exiled himself to Europe
for two years.
“A
morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always
valuable.”
Thomas
Jefferson
In
1807, on the direct orders of President Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr
was arrested and charged with treason. With Theodosia at his side,
and after a month long trial (above), Aaron Burr was acquitted, after no
wittiness could testify to any act of treason on his part. Burr then
returned to New York City , where, in December of 1812, he was
expecting Theodosia to arrive for a visit. Her ship, The Patriot, was
assumed to have sunk in a hurricane off Cape Hatteras, with all hands
lost. Burr continued to wait on piers in New York City, never fully recovering from her death. In 1834 Aaron Burr
suffered a stroke and died two years later.
“Remember
democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders
itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
John
Adams
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