BURR, AARON, an American states man, and third Vice-President of the United States, born in Newark, N. J., Feb. 5, 1756. His father was the Presi dent of Princeton College. He entered Princeton College at the age of 12 and graduated at 16. While in his 20th year, before he had completed his prepara tion for the bar, to which he had deter mined to devote himself, he joined, in 1775, the American army, under Wash ington, at Cambridge. His ardor in be half of the Revolutionary cause was such that he was induced to join Arnold as a volunteer in the expedition against Quebec. After his arrival there he was appointed aide-de-camp to Montgomery, and was by the side of that officer when he fell. Subsequently, in 1776, he was received by General Washington as one of his military family, but was soon cast off in consequence of his debauchery. He never forgave Washington this act. Burr's military talents, however, secured for him the post of Lieutenant-Colonel, in 1777, which he retained until 1779, when he was obliged to relinquish it in consequence of ill health. Upon Burr's retirement from military life, he re sumed the study of law, and commenced its practice in Albany, in 1782, but soon removed to New York, where he early acquired a prominent position as a great lawyer. In 1789 he was made attorney
general of New York. From 1791 to 1797, he was a member of the United States Senate, where he was distin guished as a leader of the Republican party. In 1800 he was a candidate for the Presidency, and received the same number of votes as Thomas Jefferson (79), and the choice was thus left to the decision of Congress, which, on the 36th ballot, elected Jefferson as President and Burr as Vice-President. In 1804 was fought the famous duel between Alex ander Hamilton and Burr, in which the former was killed and the latter forever lost the public esteem. In 1807 he was apprehended, taken to Richmond, Va., and tried on a charge of a treasonable design upon Mexico; he was, however, after a long trial acquitted. His public life was now at an end, as his country had no faith in his integrity; he, how ever, resumed the practice of law, but lived in comparative obscurity until his death on Staten Island, Sept. 14, 1836.