In 1800, the Democratic-Republicans again chose Burr as Jefferson's running mate. Under the electoral procedure then prevailing, president and vice president were not voted for distinctly; the candidate who received the most votes was elected president, and the second in line, vice president. Jefferson and Burr each won 73 votes, and the election was sent to the House of Representatives. What at first seemed but an electoral technicality–handing Jefferson victory over his running mate–developed into a major constitutional crisis when Federalists in the lame-duck Congress threw their support behind Burr. After a remarkable 35 tie votes, a small group of Federalists changed sides and voted in Jefferson’s favor.
Burr became vice president, but Jefferson grew apart from him, and he did not support Burr’s renomination to a second term in 1804. That year, a faction of New York Federalists, who had found their fortunes drastically diminished after the ascendance of Jefferson, sought to enlist the disgruntled Burr into their party and elect him governor. Burr’s old political antagonist Alexander Hamilton campaigned against him with great fervor, and he lost the Federalist nomination and then, running as an independent for governor, the election. In the campaign, Burr’s character was savagely attacked by Hamilton and others, and after the election he resolved to restore his reputation by challenging Hamilton to a duel, or an “affair of honor,” as they were known.
Affairs of honor were commonplace in America at the time, and the complex rules governing them usually led to a resolution before any actual firing of weapons. In fact, the outspoken Hamilton had been involved in several affairs of honor in his life, and he had resolved most of them peaceably. No such recourse was found with Burr, however, and on July 11, 1804, the enemies met at 7 a.m. at the dueling grounds near Weehawken, New Jersey.
There are conflicting accounts of what happened next. According to Hamilton’s “second”—his assistant and witness in the duel—Hamilton decided the duel was morally wrong and deliberately fired into the air. Burr’s second claimed that Hamilton fired at Burr and missed. What happened next is agreed upon: Burr shot Hamilton in the stomach, and the bullet lodged next to his spine. Hamilton was taken back to New York, and he died the next afternoon.
Few affairs of honor actually resulted in deaths, and the nation was outraged by the killing of a man as eminent as Alexander Hamilton. Charged with murder in New York and New Jersey, Burr, still vice president, returned to Washington, D.C., where he finished his term immune from prosecution.
In 1805, Burr, thoroughly discredited, concocted a plot with James Wilkinson, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army, to seize the Louisiana Territory and establish an independent empire, which Burr, presumably, would lead. He contacted the British government and unsuccessfully pleaded for assistance in the scheme. Later, when border trouble with Spanish Mexico heated up, Burr and Wilkinson conspired to seize territory in Spanish America for the same purpose.
In the fall of 1806, Burr led a group of well-armed colonists toward New Orleans. However, General James Wilkinson decided he no longer wanted to be involved and turned against Burr, sending dispatches to Washington accusing him of treason. In February 1807, Burr was arrested and eventually sent to Virginia to stand trial in federal court.
Chief Justice John Marshall presided over the sensational trial. The Constitution narrowly defines treason as levying war against the United States or giving aid and comfort to its enemies, and requires testimony from two witnesses to the same overt act. Prosecutors argued that Burr’s supporters had committed such an act by assembling for a military expedition on Blennerhassett’s Island in the Ohio River. But Burr himself was roughly 100 miles away at the time. Marshall ruled that evidence of Burr’s actions and statements elsewhere could not substitute for proof that he had participated in the alleged overt act on the island. With prosecutors unable to produce the constitutionally required evidence tying Burr to that act of treason, the jury acquitted him on September 1, 1807.
The verdict did little to restore Burr’s reputation. Widely condemned as a traitor despite his acquittal, he left the United States for Europe in 1808. He returned in 1812 and resumed practicing law in New York, where he lived until his death in 1836.
