Today in History--July 11

Who remembers anything about Aaron Burr? Other than he shot and killed brilliant Alexander Hamilton on this day in 1804, on the dueling grounds in Weehawken, New Jersey? 

Hamilton was a proponent of a strong central government and creator of our monetary system in the United States, the illegitmate son of a rich planter in the British West Indies. Among other things, he was Washington's aide-de-camp, a wonderful writer and thinker who contributed to creating the Constitution and a successful politician.

Burr was the grandson of the Calvinist preacher Jonathan Edwards and the son of Aaron Burr, Sr., the first president of the College of New Jersey (which later became Princeton University). Like Hamilton, Burr was intelligent and charismatic and was interested in politics. He served as the U.S. Senator from New York, as the attorney general of New York and Thomas Jefferson's Vice President during his first Presidency.

As political rivals, Hamilton and Burr despised each other, and eventually, Burr demanded an apology for the many derogatory remarks Hamilton had said about him. When Hamilton refused, Burr challenged him to a duel and shot him, inflicting a mortal wound. Though Burr wasn't charged for killing Hamilton, the duel effectively ended his political career and crippled his life.

Burr was a great believer in education for women and in women's rights. He had a picture of Mary Wollstonecraft over his mantle. He died in New York in relative obscurity when he was 80.