prospective candidate for Governor of
New York. This candidacy was the immediate cause of the correspondence
which resulted in the fatal encounter. Four letters passed between
Burr and Hamilton prior to the formal challenge. The first was
from Burr, and bears date June 18, 1804. In it attention is directed
to a published letter of Dr. Cooper containing the words, "General
Hamilton and Judge Kent have declared in substance that they
look upon Mr. Burr to be a dangerous man, and one who ought not to
be trusted with the reins of government. And I could detail to you
a still more deplorable opinion which General Hamilton has expressed
of Mr. Burr."

It was to the last sentence that the attention of Hamilton was
especially directed by Mr. Van Ness, the bearer of the letter,
which closed with the demand upon the part of Burr of "a prompt
and unqualified acknowledgment or denial, of the use of any expression
which would warrant the assertion of Dr. Cooper."

In his reply the next day Hamilton said:

"I cannot reconcile it with propriety to make the acknowledgment
or denial you desire. I will add that I deem it inadmissable on
principle to consent to be interrogated as to the justness of
the inferences which may be drawn from others, from whatever I may
have said of a political opponent in the course of fifteen
years' competition. I stand ready to avow, or disavow promptly
and explicitly, any precise or definite opinion which I may be
charged with having declared of any gentleman. More than this
cannot be fitly expected from me; and especially it cannot be
reasonably expected that I shall enter into an explanation upon
a basis so vague as that which you have adopted. I trust on
more reflection, you will see the matter in the same light with
me. If not, I can only regret the circumstance, and must abide
the consequences."

The immediate response of Burr to the above, after repeating his
former demand, contained the following:

"Political opposition can never absolve gentlemen from the necessity
of a rigid adherence to the laws of honor and the rules of decorum.
I neither claim such privilege, nor indulge it in others."

Hamilton's reply being unsatisfactory, the formal challenge of Burr
was soon thereafter handed to him by W. P. Van Ness. The last
named was the second of Burr, and Nathaniel Pendleton was the friend
of Hamilton.

Some days elapsed after the formal acceptance of the challenge
before the fatal