nd accomplishments, married Joseph
Alston of South Carolina [v.04 p.0862] in 1801, and was lost at sea in
1813. Burr was a member of the state assembly (1784-1785), attorney-general
of the state (1789-1791), United States senator (1791-1797), and again a
member of the assembly (1798-1799 and 1800-1801). As national parties
became clearly defined, he associated himself with the
Democratic-Republicans. Although he was not the founder of Tammany Hall, he
began the construction of the political machine upon which the power of
that organization is based. In the election of 1800 he was placed on the
Democratic-Republican presidential ticket with Thomas Jefferson, and each
received the same number of electoral votes. It was well understood that
the party intended that Jefferson should be president and Burr
vice-president, but owing to a defect (later remedied) in the Constitution
the responsibility for the final choice was thrown upon the House of
Representatives. The attempts of a powerful faction among the Federalists
to secure the election of Burr failed, partly because of the opposition of
Alexander Hamilton and partly, it would seem, because Burr himself would
make no efforts to obtain votes in his own favour. On Jefferson's election,
Burr of course became vice-president. His fair and judicial manner as
president of the Senate, recognized even by his bitterest enemies, helped
to foster traditions in regard to that position quite different from those
which have become associated with the speakership of the House of
Representatives.

Hamilton had opposed Burr's aspirations for the vice-presidency in 1792,
and had exerted influence through Washington to prevent his appointment as
brigadier-general in 1798, at the time of the threatened war between the
United States and France. It was also in a measure his efforts which led to
Burr's lack of success in the New York gubernatorial campaign of 1804;
moreover the two had long been rivals at the bar. Smarting under defeat and
angered by Hamilton's criticisms, Burr sent the challenge which resulted in
the famous duel at Weehawken, N.J., on the 11th of July 1804, and the death
of Hamilton (_q.v._) on the following day. After the expiration of his term
as vice-president (March 4, 1805), broken in fortune and virtually an exile
from New York, where, as in New Jersey, he had been indicted for murder
after the duel with Hamilton, Burr visited the South-west and became
involved in the so-