BURR, Aaron, American statesman: b. Newark, N. J. (son of the preceding), 6 Feb. 1756; d. Port Richmond, Staten Island, 14 Sept. 1836. Before he was three years old his parents died, leaving him a considerable estate. He entered the sophomore class of Princeton College in 1769, and was graduated in 1772. At the outbreak of the Revolution Burr enlisted as a private andjoined the force before Boston. He volunteered for the expedition against Can ada and took part in the attack upon Quebec. For this service he was raised to the rank of major. As aide-de-camp to General Putnam, Burr was engaged in the defense of New York, and shortly after (1777) was promoted lieuten ant-colonel with the command of his regiment, the colonel being a civilian. He was at Valley Forge, and distinguished himself at the battle of Monmouth, where he commanded a brigade in Lord Stirling's division. During the .winter of 1778 he was stationed in Westchester County, N. Y., but early in the following spring he resigned his commission, partly on account of ill health, and partly through disappointment at not being more rapidly promoted. Burr be longed to the Lee and Gates factions; he always affected to despise the military talents of Gen eral Washington; and it is not improbable that these circumstances interfered with his profes sional career. In 1782 he was admitted to the bar in Albany, and in July of the same year he married Mrs. Provost, the widow of a British officer who had died in the West Indies. In 1783 he began to practise in New York, and soon obtained a lucrative business. In politics his success was rapid and brilliant. In 1784 he was elected to the State legislature; he was appointed attorney-general of New York in 1789 and United States senator in 1791. While in the Senate several influential members of Congress recommended him for the mission to France, but Washington, with marked emphasis, refused to appoint him. He left the Senate in 1797, and the following year was returned to the State legislature. Some aspersions upon his conduct while in that body, which were thrown out by John B. Church, led to a duel between Burr and that gentleman, in which, however, neither party was injured. Burr was very efficient in the presidential can vass of 1800. To his efforts may be attributed the success of the Republicans in New York, upon the action of which State the resuk in the Union depended. On account of the prom inence he thus obtained the friends of Jefferson brought him forward for the Vice-Presidency. An equal number of votes having been thrown for Jeffer4on and Burr in the Electoral College, the election of a President devolved upon the House of Representatives. Most of the Federal members, taking advantage of the singular turn in affairs, supported Burr. The contest lasted several days. Upon the 36th ballot Jefferson was chosen President, arid, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution at that time, Burr became Vice-President. His conduct in
permitting himself to be used by his political opponents in order to defeat the candidate of his party, whom he himself had supported, dis solved his connection with the Republicans and destroyed his political influence, The Federal ists nominated him for governor of New York in 1804. Some of the leading men of that party refused to support him, and he was defeated. The contest was bitter and led to a duel between Burr and Alexander Hamilton (q.v.), 11 July 1804, in which the latter was killed. Burr was compelled to give up his residence in New York. After his retirement from the Vice-Presidency in April 1805, he made a journey to the South west. His conduct rise to the suspicion that he was organizing an expedition to invade Mexico, with the purpose of establishing an empire there which should embrace some of the southwestern States of the Union. He was arrested in Mississippi and taken to Richmond, Va., for upon an indictment for treason. After a protracted investigation before Chief Justice Marshall the prosecution was abandoned and Burr was acquitted in September 1807. In 1808 he went to Europe, expecting to get means to carry out his Mexican design. He was dis appointed; and after being ahroad four years, part of the time in extreme poverty, he returned to America in 1812. He resumed his profession in New York, but never regained his former position at the bar. In 1833 he married Mme. Jumel, a wealthy widow, but they soon sep arated Mr. Burr had but one child, the ac complished Theodosia Allston. (See BURR, THEODOSIA). In person he was below the me dium height, but his manners and presence were very attractive. He was an adroit, persevering but not a great lawyer. He cannot be said to have been an orator, yet he was an effective and ready speaker. It has been usual to regard Burr as a brilliant, and even a great, man, who was led astray by moral obliquity. . In regard to the looseness of his principles, there can be no doubt; but there is a growing tendency to relieve his name of much of the odium that for merly attached to it. He survived nearly all his contemporaries. His body was laid beside his father's at Princeton. Consult Adams, 'His tory of the United States' (9 vols., New York 1889-91) ; Davis, 'Memoirs of Aaron Burr' (2 vols., New York 1836) ; Orth, S. R., 'Five American Politicians: A. Burr' (Cleveland 1906) ; • Parton, 'Life of Aaron Burr' (New York 1858) • • Sehouler, 'History of the United States of America under the Constitution' (6 vols., last ed., New York 1899) • Tompkins, 'Burr Bibliography' (Brooklyn 1892) Todd, 'The True Aaron Burr' (ih. 1902) ; McCaleb, 'The Aaron Burr Conspiracy' (ib. 1903).