Alexander Hamilton Persuasion Essay

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Alexander Hamilton died on the morning of July 12, 1804 in the famous Burr-Hamilton duel at Weehawken, New Jersey. The two had been enemies for a long time, ever since the revolution. When Hamilton started to publicly insult Aaron Burr right before the election of 1800, he started down the road which lead to his fateful duel. To Hamilton and the Federalist party this election was like picking between a cobra or a rattlesnake, both considered very dangerous. This was a tough decision, but Hamilton thought Thomas Jefferson would be the less dangerous of the two, so when he heard that his party was going to vote for Burr he said, "Nothing has given me so much chagrin as the Intelligence that the Federal party were thinking seriously of supporting …show more content…

The two adversaries arrived early in the morning and practiced sighting down the pistols. They started back to back and then walked 9 steps away from each other and fired. Hamilton fired first and missed, on purpose. Burr did not miss though, his shot ricocheted off of Hamilton's 2nd or 3rd, fracturing it and lodging itself in his spine. Our founding fathers organs were ripped opened by the fractured bone. He fell to the ground bleeding profusely. Dr. Hosack and the seconds rowed the dying Hamilton across the Hudson River to a friends house in Greenwich Village. There Governor Morris and several other of Hamilton’s friends and in laws mourned for their friend. Alexander Hamilton was buried at the Trinity Church graveyard, at the corner of famous Wall and Broadway Streets. The entire nation mourned that day for Hamilton. Aaron Burr was accused of murder in New York and New Jersey, but was acquitted after he fled the trial. Several newspapers did interviews with Burr. One of the most memorable was done by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. During the interview, Burr bragged several times of his certainty that he could have killed Hamilton cleanly, saying that if it wasn’t so foggy he wouldn’t have missed the heart. Bentham said that Burr was "little better than a murderer." Another ramification of Hamilton’s death was a movement to end dueling. Churches, most of which Hamilton’s family and friends attended,