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Diving Doc
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« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2007, 09:59:14 PM »
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http://library.advanced.org/11683/ABurr.html
Aaron Burr, (1756-1836), American politician and adventurer. Dynamic and ambitious, he built a strong political following and rose to the office of VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (1801-1805). But he is remembered more for his duel with Alexander Hamilton, which resulted in the latter's death, and for his schemes of empire, which resulted in his trial and acquittal on charges of treason. Burr was born in Newark, N.J., on Feb. 6, 1756. Of distinguished ancestry, he was the son of the Reverend Aaron Burr, the cofounder and second president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), and Esther Edwards Burr, the daughter of the New England theologian Jonathan Edwards. Both parents died before he was three years old, and his early training was assumed by an uncle, the Reverend Timothy Edwards. A precocious youth who would rebel against authority throughout his life, Burr escaped the strict discipline of his uncle's home to enter Princeton as a sophomore in 1769 at the age of 13. Graduating with honors in 1772, he studied theology and then abandoned it for law, but he had not progressed far when the Revolutionary War changed his plans. Burr served on Benedict Arnold's staff, where he met James Wilkinson, who was to figure in his later plans; he then served briefly with George WASHINGTON and later with Gen. Israel Putnam. In July 1777, as a lieutenant colonel, he took over command of a regiment. He fought in the Battle of Monmouth the next year and resigned because of ill health in 1779. When fully recovered, Burr resumed his law studies and was admitted to the New York bar early in 1782. A few months later he married Theodosia Prevost, a widow with five children. Theodosia was 10 years Burr's senior, but he seems to have been devoted to her until her death in 1794. She bore him a daughter, also named Theodosia, whom he idolized. Political Career In the bustling, commercial city of New York, Burr soon was competing with Alexander Hamilton for supremacy at the bar. He was adroit rather than profound, with a magnetic personality and a quick mind not overburdened with scruples. Before the rise of POLITICAL PARTIES, New York state was divided between Hamilton and Clinton factions. Burr became politically active in 1789, when Gov. George Clinton appointed him attorney general. Two years later he defeated Gen. Philip Schuyler, Hamilton's father-in-law, for a seat in the U.S. SENATE. Failing reelection in 1797, he entered the New York legislature. The immediate instrument of his political success was the Tammany Society, founded in 1789 as a social club but converted by Burr into a powerful urban machine. By 1800, Burr controlled the legislature and thereby the choice of presidential electors in a state whose vote was likely to decide the outcome. To assure his support he was placed on the Republican ticket for vice president. The Republicans won, but in the electoral college Burr and Thomas JEFFERSON (the intended presidential candidate) tied with 73 votes each, throwing the choice between them into the U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
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