On July 11, 1804, around six in the morning, a boat carrying
Alexander Hamilton, two additional gentlemen, and the rower, reached the shores
of Weehawken. The gentlemen discharged, and immediately starting clearing the
brush and debris from around the shore. A portmanteau concealing pistols was
carried ashore. Thirty minutes later, a second boat from Manhattan reached the
sandy shore under the colossal cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades. Current Vice
President, and NY gubernatorial candidate, Aaron Burr, alighted with his two
seconds, and the rower.
Once the gentlemen acknowledged each other, and the seconds did
their duty, according to the code
duello, Messrs. Burr and Hamilton went to the portmanteau to retrieve their
weapons and the rowers turned their back to face the water in order to maintain
under oath that they 1) never saw weapons, and 2) never saw fire. What proceeded has colored American politics for 208 years.
By 1804, the ‘gentlemen’s-duel’ had lost fashion
politically, and many states in the North, particularly New York and New
Jersey, had made the practice an illegal activity. Nonetheless, among men who felt
their honor had been publicly tarnished, the duel remained the only alternative to preserve conjoined dignity and to settle long-held grudges and disputes. Since the antique duel between the Horatii and the Curiatii of Rome, the rules of dueling have remained similar for men of noble birth; while the number of seconds and weapons have changed with the times, the duties of each man for his fellows has remained unchanged: a challenger must confront his mark in public, respectfully, amid a select company of honorable individuals, by briefly expounding his reasons for the charge of disrespect, and challenging, either with a white glove, or a bow, the other to make a public apology, or to select the mode of combat. Once seconds are selected, their tasks (on the day of the duel) are: to devise a method for deciding which side selects the first weapon and which side chooses the advantage of side, to serve as witnesses to the bravery or cowardice of each side, trying first to settle the dispute with compromise and words of apology. If reconciliation cannot be reached, the seconds aim to ensure the fairness of the duel, and to assure loved ones and interested parties (i.e., the law) that their account of the fray is accurate and impartial.
What is interesting about the Burr-Hamilton duel is that so much is unknown. Hamilton wrote a letter the night before, outlining his "disgust" at the practice of dueling and detailing a pledge he made with his seconds that he would not shoot to wound Mr. Burr. Neither Burr, nor his seconds, knew of his pledge, of course, and thus, when Hamilton's gun sent a bullet whizzing past Burr's ear (Hamilton having reconsidered his thoughts and missing? Hamilton's gun misfiring? Hamilton warning Burr?), Burr took aim to defend himself.
The 'Code duello' also maintained that both sides decide on an 'until' point: the moment both parties would cease fire in satisfaction that mutual honor had been avenged. When friends quarreled with pistols by the 18th century, this was often a shot upon the ground by one side, a practice that caused so much unforeseen injury that the Irish Code duello forbade it. When sides dueled with swords, the idea of "first-blood" was practiced until people began to find it cowardly as pricking one's finger in accident could stopped a duel. Thus, a doctor (and this was the case in Burr v. Hamilton) was nearby, and a duel was fought--with guns or pistols-- until either the doctor called a cease-fire, one side was wounded or disoriented such as to be incapable of going on, or a second called a halt.
What is clear is that by 2pm the following day, July 12, Hamilton died, and Burr an even more despised personage than he was before. An Oudin bust of Hamilton was placed in Thomas Jefferson's entrance-hall of Monticello, along with Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, and the Marquis de Lafayette, across from Jefferson's own portrait by Thomas Sully: "Both Respected and revered, but opposed in death, as they were in Life" as we say in Virginia.
