# Aaron Burr Aaron Burr (1756–1836) was the 3rd Vice President of the United States (1801–1805) under [[Thomas Jefferson]], a [[Revolutionary War]] officer, U.S. Senator from New York, and the figure whose three-act political collapse — the 1800 electoral-vote deadlock with Jefferson, the 1804 killing of [[Alexander Hamilton]] in the Weehawken duel, and the 1807 treason trial — became one of the most spectacular falls from political grace in American history. The 1800 election produced the Jefferson-Burr 73–73 electoral-vote tie that threw the contest to the House of Representatives. Hamilton's lobbying for Jefferson over Burr — Hamilton regarded Burr as the more dangerous of two ideologically opposed candidates — delivered Jefferson the presidency on the 36th ballot and produced the personal-political enmity that ended at Weehawken on July 11, 1804. Burr shot Hamilton; Hamilton died the next day. Burr was indicted in New Jersey and New York but never tried for the killing. He completed his term as Vice President. In 1806-1807 he was arrested for an alleged conspiracy to seize western territory and establish an independent state; the 1807 treason trial in Richmond, presided over by Chief Justice John Marshall, ended in acquittal on a strict reading of the constitutional treason clause's "overt act" requirement. He spent the next 20 years in legal-and-financial scrape, dying in obscurity in 1836. ## Right-wing relevance Burr's right-wing relevance is minimal. His historical-political significance is principally procedural — the 1800 Jefferson-Burr tie produced the **[[12th Amendment]]** that separated presidential and vice-presidential electoral balloting; the Marshall-presided 1807 treason trial produced the operative constitutional standard for treason prosecutions that has constrained subsequent federal treason charges (a standard that came into political-cultural play in post-January-6 commentary about whether to prosecute Trump for treason — historically rare, partly because of the 1807 Burr standard). The contemporary right-wing canon does not invoke Burr by name. ## Connections - [[Thomas Jefferson]] — Presidential running mate 1800; tied Burr in the EC; defeated him in the House contingent. - [[Alexander Hamilton]] — Federalist rival; killed by Burr in the 1804 duel. - [[George Washington]] — Burr served under Washington in the Revolution; relationship was distant. ## See also - [[1800 Presidential Election]] — The deadlock that defined Burr's place in history. ---