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The “Little Emperor”: Aaron Burr, Dandyism, and the Sexual Politics of Treason

Nancy Isenberg

in Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic

This chapter focuses on Aaron Burr's political identity and the dismal turn of his career after 1800. Nicknamed the “little emperor,” Burr, the first presidential candidate tried for treason, was ... More

This chapter focuses on Aaron Burr's political identity and the dismal turn of his career after 1800. Nicknamed the “little emperor,” Burr, the first presidential candidate tried for treason, was also known for his unquenchable ambition and sexual exploits. The chapter argues that his career reveals the role of gendered, sexualized discourses in creating public identities and destroying political reputations. Burr left a legacy that shows how gender insinuated itself into the vocabulary of treason and created a new definition of party loyalty.Less

Chapter 17

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

John Adams was not an unpopular president. He probably received more popular votes for reelection in 1800 than did his challenger, Thomas Jefferson, whom he had defeated for the office four years ... More

John Adams was not an unpopular president. He probably received more popular votes for reelection in 1800 than did his challenger, Thomas Jefferson, whom he had defeated for the office four years earlier. The nomination of Aaron Burr to be Jefferson's companion on the ticket proceeded from a calculation that without him the party could not gain New York and that without that state the Republicans would lose. By 1802, however, Jefferson rid himself of Burr and chose George Clinton as his new vice president. Clinton went on to beat Burr in the 1805 election. This chapter also discusses the trial of John Smith, who was brought before the Senate on charges of conspiring with Burr, but was acquitted in a proceeding managed by John Quincy Adams and Jesse Franklin; Burr's decision to leave Kentucky and moved to Louisiana and Texas; his stop in New Orleans, where the clergy mattered; his meeting with the marquis de Casa Calvo, Carlos de Grand Pré, and Juan Ventura Morales; and his rustication at La Chaumiere du Prairie.Less

The Punishing of Aaron Burr

in The Trial in American Life

Unresolved communal anxieties magnify courtroom events, and no trial illustrates this phenomenon better than the first one to capture the national imagination, the trial of Aaron Burr for high ... More

Unresolved communal anxieties magnify courtroom events, and no trial illustrates this phenomenon better than the first one to capture the national imagination, the trial of Aaron Burr for high misdemeanor and treason in 1807. Held in the Circuit Court of the United States in the District of Virginia, the trial would have been notorious anyway given the personality at the center of it. Burr, fifty-one years old, had been a Revolutionary War hero, a senator of the United States, and, three years before, the country's third vice president. Presiding was John Marshall, U.S. Chief Justice. Around him, arguing the case, were the principal lawyers of the Virginia bar, men with national reputations and connections that allowed Virginia to dominate the executive branch of the federal government for a quarter of a century. An even greater personality loomed just beyond the courtroom. Burr's prime accuser and the man who orchestrated the prosecution was the president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. This chapter discusses the politics of Burr's trial and the related concept of public justice.Less

Chapter 20

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

There was another judge to sit beside Peter Bruin at any trial of Aaron Burr: Thomas Rodney. Rodney had become peculiarly desirous of avoiding offense to Thomas Jefferson. Rodney was aware that ... More

There was another judge to sit beside Peter Bruin at any trial of Aaron Burr: Thomas Rodney. Rodney had become peculiarly desirous of avoiding offense to Thomas Jefferson. Rodney was aware that Wilkinson had turned upon Burr and, having served with James Wilkinson during the Revolution, knew he was not to be trusted. In a small brick building on the campus of Jefferson College, east of Natchez, during the first week of February 1807, Judges Bruin and Rodney assembled a grand jury of the Territory of Mississippi to hear Jefferson's charges and his evidence against Burr. As these events were transpiring, Senator William Plumer of New Hampshire was keeping a diary in the District of Columbia. The Mississippi grand jury eventually acquitted Burr. This chapter looks at other personalities involved in the trial of Burr, including Silas Dinsmoor, Major Robert Ashley, and Colonel John McKee.Less

Chapter 5

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

This book so far has been observing Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson as they responded to circumstances created in large measure by Alexander Hamilton, as Hamilton removed John Adams as an impediment ... More

This book so far has been observing Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson as they responded to circumstances created in large measure by Alexander Hamilton, as Hamilton removed John Adams as an impediment to Jefferson's ascent to the presidency and stood in the way of any contention for that eminence by Burr. In 1784, the embarrassments of Virginia's wartime government retreated behind the glorious tableau of the Virginian commander-in-chief receiving the British surrender at Yorktown, on Virginia soil. A somewhat subdued Thomas Jefferson returned to the Congress as Hamilton and Burr turned to the practice of law. The two young men often displayed their respective skills as cocounsel in celebrated cases, in the sponsorship of rival banks, and in politics. Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton, died in 1782, the same year Burr was married to Theodosia Bartow, a widow ten years his senior. In 1791, Burr had taken his seat in the Senate. Hamilton was already in the national capital, serving as George Washington's principal adviser. Henry Knox was the president's counsel on military matters.Less

Chapter 1

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

The problem for historians assessing the character of Thomas Jefferson is that they have too much accessible information. As to Aaron Burr, they have the opposite problem; after his trial, his exile, ... More

The problem for historians assessing the character of Thomas Jefferson is that they have too much accessible information. As to Aaron Burr, they have the opposite problem; after his trial, his exile, and the loss of his beloved daughter and grandchild, he made no significant effort to present his own case, while Alexander Hamilton, in his final hours, made an effort to set things straight, but only in anticipation of death, and so desperately that not even his most admiring friends accept his self-disclosure as reliable. Burr's lies were to foreigners concerning politics, and perhaps to creditors concerning money, though it is possible that neither he, nor Jefferson, nor Hamilton, three chronic debtors, deliberately stated an untruth to those they owed. Corruption was incompatible with “character,” as these men used the term. Our use of the term “integrity” reminds us that for them a person of character manifested a harmonious wholeness out of which correct behavior ensued. This book argues that it is high time to restore Burr to the Pantheon of the Founding Fathers of America.Less

Chapter 7

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

The battle against race-based slavery and racial discrimination began in New York at the White Plains Convention of 1776, at which the colony's revolutionaries gathered to create their new ... More

The battle against race-based slavery and racial discrimination began in New York at the White Plains Convention of 1776, at which the colony's revolutionaries gathered to create their new government, guided toward abolition by John Jay and Gouverneur Morris. Aaron Burr entered into his first working alliance with the Federalists during the 1790s to free New York's slaves and to protect refugee slaves from recapture by slave-stealing gangs operating on the streets of New York. After proposing abolition in New York in 1775, Jay organized the Manumission Society a decade later and joined Burr in the long fight for emancipation in the state government of New York. As for George Washington, in 1782 he assented to the formation of a “Black Corps” and began the slow progression toward manumission which ultimately led him to free his slaves and to endow them to remain in Virginia. For this implication that a multiracial society was possible, Washington was charged with irresponsibility to his class and section; resident free blacks, like resident Indians, would impede a policy of removal.Less

Postscript

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

This extended postscript is added to bring together the two themes of Aaron Burr's private character as it fascinated Alexander Hamilton and his public character as it obsessed, for a time, Thomas ... More

This extended postscript is added to bring together the two themes of Aaron Burr's private character as it fascinated Alexander Hamilton and his public character as it obsessed, for a time, Thomas Jefferson. The goal is to bring to bear upon these two studies the opinions of their contemporaries, especially their female contemporaries. The sustained power of the derogatory view of Burr expressed by Hamilton and Jefferson may well be due to the late adherence to the Hamilton-Jefferson position taken by two influential people of the next two generations, Harriet Beecher Stowe and John Quincy Adams. James Parton took Burr seriously and sought out those who could tell him whether or not Burr's behavior squared better with his professions of belief than Jefferson's or Hamilton's. Burr, in old age, remained sly, charming, implying mischief, and even in his seventies it once again became conventional to call him a gallant, even a cold, Chesterfieldian, exploiter of women.Less

Chapter 14

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

In his December 17, 1803, letter to Aaron Burr extolling the glories of Florida, Jacob Lewis urged him to seek out John McQueen as the source of “the necessary information”. In 1797 and 1798, McQueen ... More

In his December 17, 1803, letter to Aaron Burr extolling the glories of Florida, Jacob Lewis urged him to seek out John McQueen as the source of “the necessary information”. In 1797 and 1798, McQueen opposed British privateers by installing the Queseda Battery. McQueen was one of the operators of slavedriven plantations across the border in the United States, though in justice to him, he seems to have had his own ideas about slavery, albeit none so radical as those of William Augustus Bowles or Burr. This chapter discusses Burr's arrival at Fort George Island in 1804; his meeting with John Houstoun McIntosh and his lady, Eliza Bayard; his travel through Campbelltown whose hinterland, Cumberland and Scotland counties, had manifested their preference for him over Thomas Jefferson in the previous three presidential elections; Burr's time in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia; and his participation in the impeachment trial of Samuel Chase of Maryland, whom the Republicans in the House of Representatives had voted to impeach.Less

“Some Dark Mysterious Business”

Robert V. Haynes

in The Mississippi Territory and the Southwest Frontier 1795–1817

This chapter discusses the final and third visit of Aaron Burr to Natchez District. He was considered to be the most illustrious visitor to the territory. He had also been linked to an assortment of ... More

This chapter discusses the final and third visit of Aaron Burr to Natchez District. He was considered to be the most illustrious visitor to the territory. He had also been linked to an assortment of schemes ranging from establishing a settlement in Louisiana to heading a conspiracy to dismantle the Union and seize Spanish Mexico. However, in the midst of the war against the Spanish, many considered Burr's activities in the district to be rather mystifying. After several accusations, one of which was planning to seize the Union, Burr appeared in court and insisted that he only intended to seize Spanish West Florida and then Mexico.Less

Chapter 9

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson learned from Edmund-Charles Genêt on July 5, 1793, that French agents of sedition were headed for Kentucky. Jefferson had taken an oath of office to a United ... More

Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson learned from Edmund-Charles Genêt on July 5, 1793, that French agents of sedition were headed for Kentucky. Jefferson had taken an oath of office to a United States government led by George Washington, who had made clear his opposition to filibustering irruptions anywhere. Alexander Hamilton in 1798 and Aaron Burr in 1806 insisted that they would prefer to take up arms against Spain only after the United States had declared war. As others were in complicity with France's plots of the 1790s and wept for the failure of the Whiskey Rebellion, as William Blount conspired with Britain and John Sevier with Spain, as Harry Innes and James Wilkinson encouraged the Kentucky separatists and Jefferson said nothing, Burr never took Jefferson's acquiescent posture toward separatism. In 1804, when it was the Federalists' turn, he rebuffed them. Jefferson, on the other hand, was a centrifugal force while out of power, and he invented the doctrine of nullification, and ultimately came to espouse a strong central government only when he was president.Less

Chapter 22

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

Thomas Jefferson's charges against the character of Aaron Burr were to be placed before judge and jury in a courtroom in Richmond, Virginia, in March and April 1807. Three of Jefferson's Virginian ... More

Thomas Jefferson's charges against the character of Aaron Burr were to be placed before judge and jury in a courtroom in Richmond, Virginia, in March and April 1807. Three of Jefferson's Virginian kinsmen were to take key roles in settling it. The judge was John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. The foreman of the grand jury was Representative John Randolph of Roanoke. A cousin, Edmond Randolph, formerly Attorney General of the United States, was one of Burr's attorneys. The then current Attorney General, Caesar Augustus Rodney, had achieved that eminence on January 20, 1807. When Burr was finally brought to trial on May 22 of that year, Rodney's appearance against him was remarkably brief and tepid. James Wilkinson was there as star witness against Burr. It was important to recall to everyone in the courtroom who Justice William Paterson was and enough of the circumstances of the Whiskey Rebellion to permit a comparison of those before Paterson to those before Marshall. Jefferson's case fell apart; for the third time Burr was acquitted of treason.Less

Chapter 2

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

Aaron Burr saw more of the world than any of the other Founding Fathers of America. His adventures took him as far as Quebec, the Missouri, the verge of the Gulf of Mexico, Jacksonville, and Mobile. ... More

Aaron Burr saw more of the world than any of the other Founding Fathers of America. His adventures took him as far as Quebec, the Missouri, the verge of the Gulf of Mexico, Jacksonville, and Mobile. With Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, Burr was among the leaders of the battle to end slavery in New York. Neither Hamilton nor Thomas Jefferson served throughout George Washington's two terms (1788–96), but, while they were in office, both made use of their time to begin the organization of those who agreed with them in clusters that later evolved into political factions—and only factions, not political parties. It is likely that the contest in law and politics between Hamilton and Burr eventuating in their famous duel was already gnawing at Hamilton well before 1792. It may be asked: Why is so much more of this book devoted to Burr than to either Hamilton or Jefferson? Because a reevaluation of the character of Burr is necessary to piece out an informed estimate of the others.Less

Chapter 3

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

There was never a possibility that Alexander Hamilton would be president of America. He received not a single vote in the electoral college in any election. In 1800, Aaron Burr received as many votes ... More

There was never a possibility that Alexander Hamilton would be president of America. He received not a single vote in the electoral college in any election. In 1800, Aaron Burr received as many votes as Thomas Jefferson. He had a loyal following in his own party, and a sufficient number of Federalist electors preferred him to Jefferson. As it was, he did not respond to their urging, never departing from an insistence that the electorate intended Jefferson to be president. This part of the story is familiar, but the brilliance of its familiarity has left in the shadow the significance of the votes given him by many who wanted him to be president, as they had desired in the two preceding presidential elections. The death of George Washington in 1799 deprived Hamilton of his sponsor; he withdrew from the stage for the wings, where he continued to coach others. Though he had the intellect and interest for politics, he had not the temperament for it. Hamilton was not coy on the subject of religion.Less

Chapter 10

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

In the early spring of 1794, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, once a bishop and stockjobber, then an ambassador, left France, bearing a letter of introduction from Lord Shelborne to George Washington ... More

In the early spring of 1794, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, once a bishop and stockjobber, then an ambassador, left France, bearing a letter of introduction from Lord Shelborne to George Washington and thus to the new Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton succeeded Thomas Jefferson at the turn of the year as the government's chief theoretician. Washington declined to meet Talleyrand, but Hamilton did not, and the two became cronies. Talleyrand knew both Hamilton and Aaron Burr, whom he refused to see. This chapter discusses John Jay's failure to open Mississippi by diplomacy and the westerners' allegation that he caved in to Spain; Albert Gallatin's role in the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania; the incident at Braddock's Field; Hamilton's appearance at the head of the army to prevent the secession of western Pennsylvania; the despatch of General Georges Collot in March 1796 to see if there was any further hope of secessionism in Pennsylvania; and the election of 1800.Less

Chapter 21

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

In the final days of 1806, Robert Ashley and Aaron Burr departed Natchez, riding eastward in disguise. Dr. John Cummins, the son-in-law of Peter Bruin, came along a few days later, entrusted with ... More

In the final days of 1806, Robert Ashley and Aaron Burr departed Natchez, riding eastward in disguise. Dr. John Cummins, the son-in-law of Peter Bruin, came along a few days later, entrusted with Burr's precious maps of the Gulf Coast, and began a long career vindicating Mississippi's judgment in favor of Burr. A disguise was necessary, because Thomas Jefferson had made Burr a hunted man. Believing that Burr had knowingly violated Judge Thomas Rodney's post-hoc parole, Cowles Mead joined the pack against him, adding an additional two thousand dollars to James Wilkinson's bounty. As Burr and Ashley rode through the winter woods of the Choctaw Cession toward the McIntosh Bluffs on the Tombigbee, they were also riding into the ambitions of Nicholas Perkins and Edmund Gaines. This chapter also discusses the attempt by Benjamin Hawkins, the government's chief representative among the Muskogee, to capture Burr; imprisonment of Justus Eric Bollmann, a physician, for helping Burr; the role of Elijah Clarke as a proto-Burr; and Fort Wilkinson.Less

Chapter 23

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

In 1808, Thomas Jefferson rid himself of Aaron Burr. He had never liked Burr from the start. Alexander Hamilton, who is often placed as the statue opposite Jefferson, really was not fully ... More

In 1808, Thomas Jefferson rid himself of Aaron Burr. He had never liked Burr from the start. Alexander Hamilton, who is often placed as the statue opposite Jefferson, really was not fully competitive. Though John Jay once considered appointing him to the US Senate, he was never elected to an office under the Constitution he so ably advocated. Hamilton would not have been a rival to Jefferson in real politics even if he had not been a foreigner, like Albert Gallatin. There is no way for us to learn whether or not Jefferson actually believed what Gideon Granger and James Wilkinson told him of Burr's plans to free the slaves in Louisiana. Yet even if he did not accept their story, their stating it was useful to him in rallying opposition to Burr in the South and detaching from Burr Wade Hampton, as much a power in Louisiana as in South Carolina. It is noteworthy that though Hampton loathed Wilkinson, he did not assist Burr.Less

Chapter 13

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

During his retreat, Burr probably rode around Philadelphia. Though Benjamin Rush, Alexander Dallas, and the Biddles provided support, it would become obvious to everyone that a place at greater ... More

During his retreat, Burr probably rode around Philadelphia. Though Benjamin Rush, Alexander Dallas, and the Biddles provided support, it would become obvious to everyone that a place at greater remove from Weehawken might be more convenient. Owen Biddle suggested Norfolk, a port city in which both he and Burr had many friends. But letters of introduction and pills had to be procured. The letters were to placate Spanish officials of Florida, and pills were needed because Georgia and Florida were even more notorious as a miasma of tropical disease than the lowlands of the Carolinas. Jacob Lewis and Pierce Butler directed Burr's energies toward Florida. This chapter chronicles Burr's travel to Florida, the cotton industry and Baron von Steuben, General Nathaniel Greene, Eli Whitney and his invention of the cotton gin, and Burr's encounters with the McIntosh clan including Lachlan McIntosh and John Houstoun McIntosh. Both Burr and Lachlan McIntosh opposed slavery, and both held other opinions which set them apart from those of the next generation of McIntoshes.Less

Chapter 12

Roger G. Kennedy

in Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

As soon as it became known on the streets of New York that Alexander Hamilton had been killed by Aaron Burr in their duel, the latter's political enemies raised a great clamor. Leading the pious pack ... More

As soon as it became known on the streets of New York that Alexander Hamilton had been killed by Aaron Burr in their duel, the latter's political enemies raised a great clamor. Leading the pious pack were the Clintons, with some of the Livingstons close behind, professing to be appalled at dueling and suddenly full of admiration for the fallen hero. Though there was much noise from preachers and the minions of the Clintons, Thomas Jefferson did not quickly show his hand, and the dueling gentry south and west of New England were slow to execrate Burr for dueling. The Federalists among them felt the loss of Hamilton, but they did not blame Burr for the manner of his death. Depressed, Burr decided to retreat southward. Along the way, he met Commodore and Mrs. Thomas Truxton, US Attorney (later Secretary of the Treasury) Alexander Dallas, perhaps General Victor Marie Moreau, and finally Clement Biddle and Nicholas Biddle.Less