Previously, we looked at some of the political duels that were fought when they were a common occurrence in the United States.

Certainly, the most famous of those took place in New Jersey in 1804 when Aaron Burr, then serving as the vice-president of the United States, killed Alexander Hamilton, the former secretary of the treasury.

Having taught U.S. history for several years at the college level, I have noticed that this is one event in the American past with which most students are familiar before we discuss it in class.

The Burr-Hamilton duel was the culmination of a long-standing feud between the two political leaders. For one thing, they were members of opposing parties with Hamilton being the founder of the Federalist Party while Burr was a member of the Jeffersonian Republicans.

Both men were residents of New York City, and both tried to help garner New York state’s electoral votes for their party.

The Jefferson-Burr ticket lost in 1796 before winning the election of 1800, tossing Hamilton’s party out of power for the first time since the U.S. constitution had gone into effect in 1789.

Previously, Burr had served from 1791 to 1797 in the U.S. Senate during the era when senators were elected by state legislatures. The man Burr defeated in that election was the incumbent senator, Philip Schuyler, who just happened to be Hamilton’s father-in-law.

So the Burr-Hamilton feud had been going on for years when Burr decided to run for governor of New York in April 1804. Hamilton openly campaigned against him, calling him a traitor and generally disparaging his character.

Burr lost the election decisively and blamed Hamilton for it. Thus, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel – and the rest, as they say, is history.

So, while most people are somewhat familiar with the Burr-Hamilton duel, few seem to know that it was the second political duel in which a member of the Hamilton family was involved. We will look at the other Hamilton duel next week in part 2 of this story.