e exciting political contests of those days. When the
Presidential election of 1801 devolved upon the House of
Representatives, he exerted his influence against Burr, whom the
Federalists were inclined to support, preferring him to Jefferson. In
1804 he again labored to defeat Burr's political aspirations, and
prevented his being chosen Governor of New York. Burr was then on the
verge of ruin, and he resolved upon being revenged, and on the
destruction of so powerful a political foe. He required from Hamilton
the disavowal of language which there was no evidence that he
ever had used, and so managed the dispute that a duel became
inevitable,--reference being had to the state of public sentiment then
prevalent on the subject of honor, and to the circumstance that duelling
was almost as common in New York at that time as it was in any Southern
State just before the Secession War.

The death of Alexander Hamilton was as much the work of assassination as
was that of Abraham Lincoln, in all save the forms that were observed on
the occasion. Aaron Burr, of whose actions he had sometimes spoken with
severity,--but not with more severity than is common in all high party
times,[I]--was determined that so bold and able an enemy should be
removed from his political path; and to that end he fastened a duel upon
him, and in the meeting that ensued deliberately shot him. It has been
said, that Burr, who was "a good shot" from his youth, and whose nerves
were as brazen as his brow, practised with the pistol for some days
before the fatal encounter took place; and the story is perfectly in
character, and helps sustain the position that Hamilton was
assassinated. That Hamilton should have consented to meet such a man,
knowing as he did what was his purpose, and that he was capable of any
crime, has often been remarked upon; and probably his decision will
serve to point many a moral for ages, and all the more emphatically when
the force of that opinion in regard to duelling which once was so strong
shall not only have utterly passed away, but have been forgotten, and
have become quite incomprehensible to men who shall live in the light of
sounder opinion than prevailed at the beginning of this century. A
soldier, it was reasonable that Hamilton should feel very differently on
the point of honor from a mere civilian, and that he should not have
felt himself at liberty to decline Burr's challenge. He believed that
his ability to be useful