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Aaron Burr

Also Known As Aaron Burr Jr.

Former Vice President of the United States

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts degree -

Overview

Aaron Burr Jr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805. His legacy is defined by his famous personal conflict with Alexander Hamilton that culminated with Burr killing Hamilton in a duel in 1804, while Burr was vice president.

Burr was born to a prominent family in what was then the Province of New Jersey. After studying theology at Princeton University, he began his career as a lawyer before joining the Continental Army as an officer in the American Revolutionary War in 1775. After leaving military service in 1779, Burr practiced law in New York City, where he became a leading politician and helped form the new Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party. As a New York assemblyman in 1785, he supported a bill to end slavery, despite having owned slaves himself.

In 1791, Burr was elected to the United States Senate, where he served until 1797. He would later run as the Democratic-Republican presidential candidate in the 1800 election. An electoral college tie between Burr and Thomas Jefferson resulted in the House of Representatives voting in Jefferson's favor, with Burr becoming Jefferson's vice president due to receiving the second-highest share of the votes. Although Burr maintained that he supported Jefferson, the president was highly suspicious of Burr, who was relegated to the sidelines of the administration during his vice presidency and was not selected as Jefferson's running mate in 1804 after the ratification of the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

During his last year as vice president, Burr engaged in the duel in which he fatally shot Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury and his political rival, near where Hamilton's son Philip Hamilton had died three years prior. Although dueling was illegal, Burr was never tried and all charges against him were eventually dropped. Nevertheless, Hamilton's death ended Burr's political career.

Burr traveled west to the American frontier, seeking new economic and political opportunities. His secretive activities led to his 1807 arrest in Alabama on charges of treason. He was brought to trial more than once for what became known as the Burr conspiracy, an alleged plot to create an independent country led by Burr, but was acquitted each time. With large debts and few influential friends, Burr left the United States to live as an expatriate in Europe. He returned in 1812 and resumed practicing law in New York City. Burr's brief second marriage resulted in divorce and further scandal. Handicapped by a stroke and financially ruined, Burr died in a boarding house in 1836.

Early Life

Aaron Burr Jr. was born in February 6, 1756 in Newark, located in what was then the Province of New Jersey. He was the second child of the Reverend Aaron Burr Sr., a Presbyterian minister and second president of the College of New Jersey, which became Princeton University. His mother, Esther Edwards Burr, was the daughter of noted theologian Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah. Burr had an older sister, Sarah ("Sally"), who was named for her maternal grandmother. She married Tapping Reeve, founder of the Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Burr's father died in 1757 while serving as president of the college at Princeton. His grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, succeeded his father as president and came to live with Burr and his mother in December 1757. Edwards died in March 1758, and Burr's mother and grandmother died within the same year, leaving Burr and his sister orphaned when he was two years old. Young Burr and his sister were then placed with the William Shippen family in Philadelphia. In 1759, the children's guardianship was assumed by their 21-year-old maternal uncle Timothy Edwards. The next year, Edwards married Rhoda Ogden and moved the family to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Burr attended the Elizabethtown Academy. Burr had a very strained relationship with his uncle, who was often physically abusive. As a child, he made several attempts to run away from home.

At age 13, Burr was admitted to Princeton as a sophomore, where he joined the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, the college's literary and debating societies. In 1772, at age 16, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree, but continued studying theology at Princeton for an additional year. He then undertook rigorous theological training with Joseph Bellamy, a Presbyterian, but changed his career path after two years. At age 19, he moved to Connecticut to study law with his brother-in-law Tapping Reeve. In 1775, news reached Litchfield of the clashes with British troops at Lexington and Concord, and Burr put his studies on hold to enlist in the Continental Army.

Career

  • United States - Former Vice President

Reference

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