Over
the course of about two decades the Livingston family destroyed two men. By the
end of 1804 one of the men was dead and the other was a shell of his former
self who would never return to the political power he once had. The two men
were, of course, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
 |
| Robert R. Livingston, Not a good guy to mess with |
|
Chancellor
Robert R. Livingston disliked Alexander Hamilton for a long time. Possibly as
far back as 1777 when Hamilton insisted there was no way the British would
attack the Hudson River Valley from New York City and discouraged Washington
from sending troops to aid in the defense of the River despite the Chancellor’s
belief that the redcoats would march north. The British army of course did
march north and they burned down the Chancellor’s house.
 |
Alexander Hamilton
messed with Robert R. Livingston |
In
1784 with the war over and the difficult process of building a nation ahead of
them the Chancellor and Hamilton once again found themselves at odds. Hamilton
was pushing a national bank based on purchasing the debt accumulated by the
states during the recently ended war. Livingston opposed the plan. He favored a
land bank in which capital would be provided to people based on mortgages. I
don’t really want to delve deep into the economic theory of the two ideas
because that is the job of an economist so to put it simply Hamilton favored an
economy based on credit and Livingston favored an economy based on land. The
Chancellor mustered all his influence in 1784 and again in 1786 and managed to
have Hamilton’s plans blocked.
 |
| George Washington's first inauguration |
In
1789 after the Chancellor swore George Washington into office as President he
expected a high ranking position in the federal government, possibly a Supreme
Court position or a cabinet post. He was sorely disappointed. Hamilton, who
still held Washington’s ear, managed things so that the Chancellor was only
considered for the post of minister to Great Britain which Livingston could not
accept because he did not want to leave the country while it was still in its
infancy or a fairly low ranking loan officer position which the Chancellor
could not take as it was below him.
This
one
was of many cracks that developed in the relationship between
Livingston
and Federalist leaders. In 1790 when Hamilton pushed his economic plans
again,
Livingston once again stood against him. Livingston even went so far as
to pull out his old pen name "Cato". In December of that year he called
the
plan a “public injustice” although the plan was eventually approved.
 |
| Aaron Burr, sir. |
 |
Philip Schuyler
Caught in the crossfire |
The following year when Aaron Burr ran for the
Senate as a Democratic Republican against the Federalist incumbent Philip
Schuyler, he had the vigorous support of Chancellor Livingston who sided with
the emerging New York Democratic Republican party. Schuyler was Hamilton’s
father-in-law, a former general in the Continental Army and a former ally of
Livingston’s. The Chancellor had actually supported Schuyler in the first gubernatorial
election that he lost to George Clinton. Schuyler became a victim of Livingston’s
anger at Hamilton. Many people in New York assumed that Burr’s election was
“the fruit of the Chancellor’s coalition with the Governor [George Clinton]”.
By punishing the Chancellor in 1789, Hamilton had created a powerful enemy in
New York.
 |
| Not that George Clinton |
 |
| This George Clinton |
Over
the next few years the Chancellor slid even more into the Democratic Republican
camp. In 1791 he met with Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in New York City
before the pair set out on a trip through New York ostentatiously to study the
flora and fauna but in reality shoring up political support. A correspondent
reported to Hamilton that “There was every appearance of a passionate courtship
between the Chancellor, Burr, Jefferson and Madison” In fact the Chancellor fell so far to that
side that Washington would not consider him as Secretary of State when
Jefferson resigned despite the fact that Jefferson was pushing for his
nomination. He had become too critical of the administration, particularly of
Hamilton.
 |
The Reynolds Pamphlet: Have you read this!?
Never gonna be President now. |
Hamilton
also helped damage his own reputation over the next several years. In 1795 he
resigned as Treasury Secretary although he was still a close friend and advisor
of Washington. In 1797 much of his
public standing dissolved with the publication of the Reynolds Pamphlet, in
which Hamilton divulged information about an affair he had had in 1791 and 1792
with a married woman named Maria Reynolds and her husband’s subsequent blackmailing
of Hamilton.
 |
John Adams
Guys can I be president again?
Sit down John. |
Soon
the election of 1800 rolled around. The Federalist Party ran incumbent
president John Adams and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Hamilton was not a fan of
Adams and still had enough power to draw enough votes away from Adams that he
would not be returned to the presidency despite the fact they were nominally of
the same party. However this
 |
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Was also there in 1800. |
completely destroyed his reputation among
Federalists. He would never hold another important office. The Democratic
Republicans ran Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr with the idea that Burr would
come in second to Jefferson and they would serve as president and vice
president. They had considered running the Chancellor for the vice presidential
spot because he would almost certainly draw votes away from Adams, but they
chose Burr because it was felt he would garner more support in the south. When
the electoral votes were counted Burr and Jefferson were tied for first. The decision
then went to the House of Representatives, where Edward Livingston served. Burr
asked Edward to carry a message to Congress that he would in fact like to be
president. Many found this open campaigning for the position distasteful and
after thirty six ballots Jefferson was chosen as president and Burr vice president.
This will make a whole lot more if you read Part 1 first!
At
this point another Livingston in-law stepped in to make Aaron Burr’s life
miserable. John Armstrong who was married to the Chancellor’s sister Alida, and
was a lifelong trouble maker. During his time in the army Armstrong had been
responsible for writing the letters that became known as the Newburgh
Conspiracy. They called for the officers of the army to assemble and demand
their missing back pay from Congress. Only an emotionally devastating speech by
George Washington kept this from becoming a full on mutiny. In 1792 he
published a series of satirical essays about his own brother-in-law, the Chancellor,
when Robert was running for governor.
 |
To reitterate this is a man who made a room full of
angry, hardened army officers weep by putting on his glasses |
Armstrong
and his ally DeWitt Clinton began viciously attacking Burr. In New York they
worked to ensure that Burr’s friends and allies did not receive government jobs
handed out by the Council of Appointment. It soon became very dangerous to be
associated with the Burr name. Even the Chancellor who was used to political maneuverings
was a bit shocked at how thoroughly Armstrong and Clinton destroyed Burr.
 |
| DeWitt Clinton, George Clinton's nephew |
 |
| Not that George Clinton! Go read Part 1. |
In
1804 the two men arranged a deal to drive Burr out of politics completely.
Through a series of negotiations and favors it was arranged that George Clinton
would run for both vice president and governor that year. He would win the
governor’s seat and then resign it when he was elected vice president. The
state Senate would then fill the vacant chair with the Chancellor who would
return from France to take the job. On February 25, 1804 the plan started to go
into action. At the Democratic Republican caucus Aaron Burr received exactly
zero votes to be returned as a vice-presidential candidate.
The
plan was put in danger though when George Clinton refused to run for governor
of New York. He was replaced by Morgan Lewis, another brother-in-law of the
Chancellor’s. Lewis had been a soldier, fighting in several iterations of the
Northern Army throughout the Revolutionary War. He married Gertrude Livingston
during the war and became a lawyer after the war. By 1801 he had become the
Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court but was largely unknown outside of
legal circles.
 |
Morgan Lewis
Third choice of his party but still whooped
Aaron Burr. |
Nevertheless, when the votes were counted Lewis had won by more
than 8,700 votes, the largest margin of victory in a New York gubernatorial race
to that point.
Burr
found himself facing the apparent end of his political career. When his term
ended in March of 1805 he would have nowhere to go. He began to search about
for someone to blame for his failures over the course of the last year. He
focused on Hamilton and in particular a letter in the Albany Register in which Dr. Charles DeKay Cooper claimed to have
heard Hamilton express a “despicable opinion” of Burr. A series of letter
passed between Burr and Hamilton which lead to the anger between the two men
only growing. Burr demanded a public apology for what Hamilton had said but
Hamilton feared that apologizing would take away the last shred of respect
anyone held for him. On June 11, 1804 the two broken but proud men faced each
other, rather than any of the members of the Livingston faction who had played
important roles in both of their downfalls, across the dueling grounds of
Weehawken, New Jersey. There guns barked.
 |
| The exact moment Hamilton realized he had thrown away his shot |
The
next day Hamilton was dead and Burr was on his way to South Carolina. He eventually
returned and finished his term in Washington. He then went into the Louisiana
Purchase (recently completed by the Chancellor) and managed to get himself into
trouble there. He went to Europe briefly but returned and lived the last few
years of his life in New York City, never holding any type of political office
again and occasionally having to use an alias.
 |
| The alias worked but he was never a master of disguise |
The
Livingston’s were nonplussed by the duel. The Chancellor returned from France
the following year having doubled the size of the country. He went on to great success
in agricultural pursuits and with the invention of the steamboat. Edward
Livingston went on to be mayor of New York, a congressman and senator from
Louisiana, Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson and Minister to France. John
Armstrong was a senator and later became Secretary of War during the War of
1812. Morgan Lewis served out his term as governor. When the War of 1812 broke
out he returned to the army and was promoted to major general. After the war he
found success in more intellectual pursuits, serving as the president of the
Historical Society of New York and helping to found New York University.
The role that
Hamilton and Burr’s personalities played in their duel cannot be over stated.
Both were very proud and stubborn men. Ultimately it was their personalities
that brought them to Weehawken. Events of the time contributed significantly to
their dispute, events which were in part orchestrated by the Livingston family.
Perhaps if Burr had not been so rash in challenging Hamilton he would have
found himself facing Armstrong or another Livingston who had helped to end his
time in government.
For more information see:
Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg
The Democratic Republicans of New York by Alfred F. Young
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
