BURR, AARON (1756-1836). An American politician, Vice-President of the United States from 1801 to 1805. Ile was born in Newark, N. J., February 6, 1756, and was the son of the Rev. Aaron Burr, D.D., second president of Princeton College, and the grandson of Jonathan Edwards (q.v.), the famous theologian. Ills paternal grandfather, according to Hildreth, was a German who had settled originally at Fair field, Conn. Ills father died in 1757 and his mother hi the following year, and he, with his sister, was brought up by his maternal uncle, the Rev. Timothy Edwards, at Elizabethtown, N. J. Ile graduated at Princeton in 1772, studied theology under the Rev. Dr. Bellamy, of Beth lehem, Conn., and then (1774) studied law with Tappan Reeve, his brother-in-law, in Litchfield, Comm. He entered the Continental Army in 1775, soon after the battle of Bunker Pill; took part in Benedict Arnold's Canadian expedition; be came in turn a member of Washington's military family (April, 1776), and an aide to General Putnam (June, 1776) ; served with distinction as lieutenant-colonel at Hackensack and Alon mouth (q.v.), where he commanded a brigade; was placed in command of the American lines in Westchester County (N. Y.)—in the so-called Neutral Ground—in January, 1779; and in It larch of this year resigned from the service. Ile was involved in the opposition to Washington, and at the time of the more serious friction sided with lee and Gates. (See CONNVAY eAltAL. '1'11E. ) ln 1782 he began the practice of the law in Albany, N. Y. In July of the same year lie married :Mrs. Theodosia Prevost, the widow of a British officer who had died in the West Indies, and in the following year their only child, Theo dosia, was born in New York. (See BURR, THEO toosi.k.) ln 1833 Burr, then in his seventy eighth year, married Jumel, the widow Of a French merchant, who had an estate in the northern part of .Alanhattan Island, and who possessed some property. Nuch of this, property was soon spent by Burr, and the couple separated, but were never divorced.
Burr definitely established his home in the city of New York., in December, 1783, soon after his first marriage, and his political activity and advancement there soon hccame marked. Ile was a member of the State Assembly in 1784 85, and again in 1797-99; was Attorney-General of the State in 1789; NVIIS a member of the Unit ed States Senate from 1791 to 1797; and in 1801, just before becoming Vice-President, Wa-S Olairinan of the Constitutional Convention of New York. In 17:12 he declined a nomination to the Supreme Court of New York, lie was an early, zealous, and unscrupulous leader among the Republicans (afterwards Deumerats). and the especial rival of Alexander Hamilton, the prominent leader of the Federalists. In the Presi
dential struggle of 1800. John Adams (then President), Thomas Jefferson, Charles C. Pinck ney, and Burr were the candidates, and the votes for -Jefferson and Burr, the two Republican can didates. were equal-73 for each. As the Con stitution then prof ]led, the person having the largest_ number of electoral votes was to be Presi dent, and the person having the next largest number was to be Vi•e-President. The equal division threw the election into the House of Representatives, where each State had one vote only, the vote of a majority of all the States being necessary for a choice. After a week of balloting JetTerson was chosen President, and Burr therefore became Vice-President. He was charged, unjustly it seems, with having exerted himself to defeat Jefferson, who was the regular Presidential candidate of his party, and his alleged intrigues to this end ruined him politi eally as a Republican. In 1804, however, he ran as an independent candidate for Governor of New York and received the support of some of the Federalists, but was defeated by Morgan Lewis. For this Burr blamed Hamilton, who had undoubtedly used all of his influence against him, both on this occasion and in 1801, and these disappointments and failures, added to the in tens•ly bitter character of the partisan warfare of the time, led to a duel, at Weehawken, N. .T., on July 11, 1804. in which Hamilton, who dis charged his weapon into the air, was killed by Burr. In the spring of 1805 Burr started for the western part of the country, bent upon the conquest of Mexico and the establishment there of a separate government, with himself as chief. It was in the course of these operations that he brought ruin upon his friend Harman Blenner hassett (q.v.). In 1800 President Jefferson was informed, in part, of Burr's schemes by General Wilkinson, in whom Burr had partially confided. and Burr was soon arrested at Frankfort, Ky. He was defended by Henry Clay, and was acquit ted after an exciting trial. He was again ar rested at Natchez in January, 1807. but was released by the Grand Jury, and on February 19, in Alabama. he was a third time arrested. After a long and memorable trial at Mehmond, Va.. first on a charge of treason and then on a charge of misdemeanor, he was again acquitted, and in June. 1808. sailed for Europe to raise means for prosecuting his schemes. Four years of effort in England, Sweden, Germany, and France resulted in nothing but failure, and in 1812 he returned in extreme poverty, and opened a law office in New York; but his course had alienated the people, and he met with only mod erate success.