Aaron Burr

(noun)

The third vice president of the United States under President Thomas Jefferson.

Related Terms

Examples of Aaron Burr in the following topics:

  • The Burr Conspiracy

    • The Burr Conspiracy was a suspected act of treason led by former U.S.
    • Vice President Aaron Burr to take possession of the Texas Territory.
    • Vice President Aaron Burr.
    • Burr's true intentions are still unclear to historians.
    • Burr—Revolutionary War hero, U.S.

  • The Republican Victory

    • Other decisive factors in the Jefferson victory were Jefferson's popularity in the South, and the effective campaigning of Aaron Burr in New York State, where the legislature (which selected the electoral college) shifted from Federalist to Democratic-Republican and cast the deciding vote.
    • While Democratic-Republicans were firmly aligned behind Jefferson and Burr, the Federalists began to fracture.
    • However the Republicans neglected to have one of their electors abstain from voting for Burr, which created a tie.
    • The members of the House of Representatives balloted as states to determine whether Jefferson or Burr would become president.
    • In the process, Hamilton's personal attacks on Burr's character would eventually lead to their duel .

  • The Election of 1800 and the Federalist Legacy

    • In the presidential election of 1800, incumbent President John Adams and his fellow Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, challenged the Republican duo of incumbent Vice President Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
    • While Democratic-Republicans were firmly aligned behind Jefferson and Burr, the Federalists began to fracture.
    • Other decisive factors in the Jefferson victory were Jefferson's popularity in the South and the effective campaigning of Aaron Burr in New York State, where the legislature (which selected the Electoral College) shifted from Federalist to Democratic-Republican and cast the deciding vote.
    • An unexpected glitch occurred, however, that led to a tie between Jefferson and Burr.
    • In order to spite the Democratic-Republicans, a number of congressional Federalists kept Burr's chances alive.

  • In Quest of Freedom

    • The latter was headed by powerful politicians: John Jay, Alexander Hamilton (who were later Federalists), and Aaron Burr (who later served as the Democratic-Republican Vice-President of the United States).

  • The Federalists

    • However, with the defeat of Adams in the election of 1800 and the death of Hamilton in a duel with Aaron Burr, the Federalist Party began a long decline from which it never recovered.

  • The Election of 1796

    • Their opponents on the Democratic-Republican ticket were former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Senator Aaron Burr.  

  • A New Nation

    • The animosity between the political parties exploded into open violence in 1804, when Aaron Burr, Jefferson’s first vice president, and Alexander Hamilton engaged in a duel.
    • When Democratic-Republican Burr lost his bid for the office of governor of New York, he was quick to blame Hamilton, who had long disliked him and had done everything in his power to discredit him.
    • On July 11, the two antagonists met in Weehawken, New Jersey, to exchange bullets in a duel in which Burr shot and mortally wounded Hamilton.

  • The Republican Alternative

    • However the Republicans neglected to have one of their electors abstain from voting for Burr, which created a tie.
    • While the Federalists arranged for one of their electors to abstain for voting for Pinckney (to give Adams the presidential seat), Republicans failed to do the same, and the ensuing tie between Jefferson and Burr threw the election into the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives.
    • The members of the Federalist-dominated House of Representatives balloted to determine whether Jefferson or Burr would become president.
    • During the contest, Hamilton wrote a frenzy of letters to Federalists representatives arguing that they should support Jefferson over Burr (Hamilton considered Jefferson the lesser evil of the two) and his campaign led to Jefferson's election to the presidency.
    • In the process, Hamilton's personal attacks on Burr's character would eventually lead to their ill-fated Weehawken duel.

  • Hamilton's Legacy

    • Furthermore, Hamilton intensified this split through his public criticisms of Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Burr in the elections of 1796 and 1800.
    • After he maligned Burr in the 1800 presidential election, Hamilton and Burr fought a fatal duel that resulted in Hamilton's death in Weehawken, New Jersey.
    • The Burr-Hamilton duel has since become an event emblematic of the violent political divisions between Federalists and Democratic-Repuclicans in the early years of the republic.

  • American Modernism

    • Influential Modernist painters included Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove and Aaron Douglas.
    • African-American painter Aaron Douglas is one of the best-known and most influential African-American modernist painters.