AARON BURR 47 



he had killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Why 

 did he do it? It is a long story. 



To make it intelligent, his life must be reviewed. 

 After a brilliant military career, which began when 

 he was nineteen and left him an heroic colonel, he 

 studied law and practiced in Albany. At the age 

 of twenty-eight he was a leader in the New York 

 legislature, and was chairman of the most import- 

 ant committees, always with the people, against 

 the aristocracy an unpardonable mistake in those 

 times. At thirty-four he was attorney-general of the 

 state, and his great decisions were accepted by all 

 other states. At thirty-four he established the 

 Manhattan bank of New York city. He was the 

 only man with the ability or courage to find a way 

 to establish a bank for the people, and the solidity 

 of that institution for a hundred years is an all- 

 sufficient vindication of his plan. At thirty-five he 

 was appointed and confirmed as a supreme court 

 judge of New York state, but he declined the 

 honor, and was the same year elected to the United 

 States senate. He was re-elected, serving in all 

 fourteen years. 



At the second presidential election Senator Burr 

 received one vote in the electoral college, at the 

 the third he received thirty, and in the fourth 

 received seventy-three. Jefferson also received 

 seventy-three and the election was thrown into the 

 house. This was in 1800 and Mr. Burr was forty- 

 years of age. The choice lay with New York, 

 which could be carried by no man but Aaron Burr. 



