While the idea of two politicians- one of whom was the sitting vice president- settling their argument with a duel seems insane now, it was actually pretty common at the time. The duel was a way for people who were prickly about their honor to show that they were willing to defend it to the death. But while duels still went on in the 1800’s (both Hamilton and Burr were actually involved in several of them before 1804), they were seen by many people as old-fashioned.And of course, duels weren’t really even supposed to be to the death.
Usually, the duelers would show up and then try to work out the disagreement. If they couldn’t make up, the first man would usually fire his gun into the ground. This showed that while they were willing to die to defend their honor, they didn’t really want to kill the other person. And usually, this meant that the other person would shoot his gun into the ground as well. That way no one looked like a coward, no one died, and both people got to defend their honor.
By 1804, dueling was illegal in New York. Deuling was also illegal in New Jersey. But the authorities didn’t punish it as often, which is why Burr and Hamilton decided to hold the duel there. And in the early hours of July 11, 1804, the two men met at a popular dueling spot to settle their dispute one way or the other. And by the end of the day, Alexander Hamilton was dying. But that’s about the last thing we know about the event with any certainty. What we don’t know is whether or not Burr had meant to kill him.
Both men brought friends called “seconds” to the duel. These men were traditionally supposed to help the men dueling by making sure that no one broke the rules of the duel. But Burr and Hamilton’s seconds couldn’t agree on what exactly happened. All of the seconds had their backs to the dueling men so they could claim in court that they hadn’t actually seen the duel, but that also meant no one was really sure what happened. We know that Hamilton’s shot didn’t hit Burr. But we don’t know if that’s because Hamilton was signaling he didn’t want to kill Burr, or if he just missed. But Burr’s shot struck home, lodging inside Hamilton’s torso.
One of Hamilton’s seconds claimed that Burr dropped his gun and rushed towards Hamilton, which he thought meant that Burr hadn’t actually meant to kill him. But it’s also very possible that Burr did. And according to the agreement behind the duel, he was justified in killing Hamilton. Whatever Burr meant to do, Hamilton died the next day. And the nation now had to deal with the news. The seconds gave different accounts to the press about who fired first. And that was just the beginning of the many mysteries surrounding the duel that have confused historians ever since, including whether or not Hamilton may have actually wanted to die.