Colonel Aaron Burr was born on the 6th of February 1756, at Newark, in
New Jersey. His father, the Rev. Aaron Burr, was the first president
of the College of New Jersey, which was opened at Newark, but was
subsequently removed to Princeton; his mother was the daughter of the
Rev. Jonathan Edwards, so distinguished as a metaphysician and divine,
and who succeeded his son-in-law in the presidency of the College. The
former died in 1757, and the latter in the following year, leaving
only two children, Aaron and a daughter, afterwards the wife of Judge
Tappan Reeve, of Conneticut. Colonel Burr inherited from his father a
considerable property. He was graduated at Princeton when only 16
years old. When in his 20th year he joined the American army, after
the battle of Bunker’s Hill, in the neighborhood of Boston. Here he
volunteered to accompany General Arnold in the expedition against
Quebec. This officer led the detachment under his command into Canada,
by way of the Kennebec, and through the wilderness between the St.
Lawrence and the settlements in the regions now constituting the state
of Maine. On his arrival at Chaudière pond, Burr was sent with a
communication to General Montgomery, who was advancing from the state
of New York with the forces under his immediate orders; and who was so
much pleased with the young messenger as to appoint him to be one of
his aids-de-camp. In this capacity Burr was present at the battle of
Quebec, and near the person of the General when he was killed. On his
return from Canada, in May, 1776, he proceeded to the city of New
York, on being ‘notified verbally, that it would be agreeable to the
commander-in-chief’ that he should do so. But it would seem that
Colonel (then already Major) Burr, for some reason or other, failed to
make a favorable impression personally on General Washington. He, in
consequence, became, in his turn, dissatisfied, and even inclined to
quit the service; when through the instrumentality of Governor
Hancock, he obtained the appointment of aid-de-camp to General
Putnam,――an appointment which he gladly accepted.
In July 1777, he was promoted to the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel; but
was obliged, in March 1779, to resign his commission in the army, on
account of the impaired state of his health. He had, on various
occasions, during the war, highly distinguished himself by his
bravery, vigilance, and skill, and had been repeatedly selected by
Washington to execute his commands on important emergencies, although
that great man and admirable judge of character, had formed but a low
estimate of his principles and morals. On retiring from the army, and
after an interval of repose required for the restoration of his
health, Colonel Burr applied himself to the study of the law, as well
to provide himself with an adequate field for distinction among his
countrymen in his future life, as to repair the pecuniary losses which
he had incurred, during the period of his military service, by the
liberality and extravagance of his expenditure. He commenced the
practice of his profession at Albany, in the month of April, 1782, and
married in July following. As soon as the British troops had evacuated
the city of New York, at the conclusion of the war, in November, 1783,
he removed thither, where he speedily acquired an extensive and
lucrative practice. He was a member of the Legislature during the
sessions of 1784 and 1785; but as that body met in the city where he
resided, and as he took part in its deliberations only on a few of the
most important questions which came before it for its decision, his
professional avocations suffered scarcely any interruption; and it was
only after the existing constitution of the Union went into operation
that he became prominent as a party politician. In 1789, he was
appointed attorney-general of the state. In January, 1791, he was
elected a senator of the United States; and he took his seat in that
body in the autumn of that year. He was appointed, in October, 1792,
to be a judge of the supreme court of the state of New York, but
declined the appointment; preferring to hold his position in the
United States Senate, as one of the most prominent leaders of the
party (the democratic) to which he belonged. At the presidential
election which took place in the autumn of 1800, an equal number of
votes were found to have been given for the two highest candidates on
the list, Mr. Jefferson and Colonel Burr; and it, in consequence,
devolved on the members of the House of Representatives, voting by
states, to decide which of these gentlemen should hold the office of
president, and which of them that of vice-president. Notwithstanding
that, prior to the choice of electors, Mr. Jefferson was alone
intended, by the party that nominated him, as their candidate for the
_presidency_, it was not until after 36 ballotings that the contest
was decided in his favor. From this time forth, as from the
circumstances of the case might naturally have been expected, Colonel
Burr lost the confidence of the majority of his former political
friends; and the attempts which he made to ingratiate himself with
those to whom he had been heretofore opposed were only partially
successful. In 1804, he was a candidate for the office of governor of
New York, but failed of being elected. He was supported by a portion
of both the political parties; by a minority of the democrats, and a
majority of the federalists. Of the latter party, General Hamilton had
been one of those who most earnestly opposed him; and a duel took
place, on the 11th of July, between these distinguished men, growing
out of their rivalship and adverse relation to each other. Burr was
the challenger, conceiving himself to have been injuriously spoken of
at the period of the preceding election by Hamilton, who was mortally
wounded in the encounter. Colonel Burr continued at his post in the
Senate of the United States till within two days of the expiration of
his term of service as vice-president; the last public duty of any
importance performed by him having been to preside at the trial of
Judge Chase, who was impeached by the House of Representatives for
‘high crimes and misdemeanors.’ It was not very long afterwards that
he formed the scheme of his singular, and even yet not satisfactorily
explained, western expedition, which led to his arrest, and trials at
Richmond, in Virginia, in August and September, 1807, for treason
first, and then for a misdemeanor. He was acquitted or both these
charges. In June, 1808, he embarked from New York for England; induced
to take this step, in a certain degree, by the personal and political
prejudices that had been excited against him, by the death of
Hamilton, and by the equivocal course he had pursued in the western
country, but, in a degree also, by an expectation of being able to
obtain encouragement and assistance from some of the European
governments, for attempting the emancipation of the Spanish American
colonies from the oppressive domination of the mother country,――a
project which he had long contemplated. His efforts in this respect
were, however, entirely unsuccessful; and he returned to the United
States in June, 1812, after an absence abroad of 4 years. He opened an
office in the city of New York, and practiced the law there, but
without attracting the attention of the public to any considerable
extent. In 1816, General Toledo, then in the city of New York, and
whose object in visiting the United States was ‘not only to obtain the
means of continuing the war (of Mexico against Spain), but to seek the
person best capable of employing them,’ invited him to ‘assume the
management’ of the ‘political and military affairs’ of the Mexican
republic. Colonel Burr declined this invitation. But again, in 1819,
he received a commission from the government of Venezuela, authorizing
him to raise troops for the sea and land service of that republic, and
pledging itself to pay all debts of his contracting in the exercise of
the authority granted him. Colonel Burr died on the 14th of September,
1836, in the 81st year of his age, on Staten Island, where he had
passed the summer for the benefit of the pure air. Agreeably to his
own request, his body was conveyed to Princeton, to be there buried.