Aaron Burr

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Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and advocate.

He was the third vice president of the United States (1801–1805), serving during President Thomas Jefferson's first term. Burr served as a Continental Army soldier in the American Revolutionary War, after which he became a respected lawyer and politician.

He was elected twice to the New York State Assembly (1784–1799), and served as the state's senator (1791–1797) and hit the apex of his career as vice president.

He oversaw Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase's 1805 impeachment trial in the waning months of his Senate tenure as president. Burr, accompanied by his unofficial campaign staff, nicknamed the Little Band, was responsible for the first open, public political campaign during his first year as Vice President George Hamilton in an 1804 duel.

Hamilton was never charged with the unlawful duel and all charges against him were eventually dropped, but Burr's political career was ended due to Hamilton's death. Burr left Washington, D.C., and travelled west in search of new opportunities, both economic and political, as well as escaping from the controversies surrounding him in the remainder of the country.

In 1807, his activities culminated in his capture on suspicion of treason.

He was tried and cleared multiple times, but the fallout left him with a lot of debt and few influential people.

He left the United States for Europe in order to prevent vigilante execution and additional charges brought by the state.

He remained in foreign affairs until 1812, when he returned to the United States to practice law in New York City.

He spent the remainder of his life in relative anonymity.

Early life

Aaron Burr Jr. was born in 1756 in Newark, New Jersey, as the second child of Reverend Aaron Burr Sr., a Presbyterian minister and second president of Princeton University. Esther Edwards Burr's mother was the daughter of noted theologian Jonathan Edwards and his wife Sarah. Burr had an older sister Sarah ("Sally") who was named for her maternal grandmother. She married Tapping Reeve, the founder of the Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Although serving as president of Princeton University in 1757, Burr's father died in 1757. Jonathan Edwards, Burr's great-grandfather, succeeded Burr's father as president and moved to Burr and his mother in December 1757. Edwards died in March 1758 and Burr's mother and grandmother died within the year, leaving Burr and his sister orphanage when he was two years old. Young Aaron and Sally were then reunited with the William Shippen family in Philadelphia. The children's guardianship was assumed by their 21-year-old maternal uncle Timothy Edwards in 1759. Edwards married Rhoda Ogden and moved the family to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where Burr attended the Elizabethtown Academy. Burr had a tense relationship with his uncle, who was often verbally assaulted. He made several attempts to flee from home as an infant.

Burr was admitted to Princeton as a sophomore, where he belonged to the American Whig Society and the Cliosophic Society, the college's literary and debating societies. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at age 16, but he continued studying theology at Princeton for a year. Joseph Bellamy, a Presbyterian, received rigorous theological education, but he changed direction after two years. He and his brother-in-law, Tapping Reeve, moved to Connecticut to study law at the age of 19. Burr put his studies on hold in 1775 until the clashes with British troops at Lexington and Concord, and he became a Continental Army soldier.

Burr took part in Colonel Benedict Arnold's return to Quebec, an arduous trek of more than 300 miles (480 km) through Maine's frontier during the American Revolutionary War. During the long march, Arnold was struck by Burr's "great spirit and resolve." He took him up the Saint Lawrence River to talk with General Richard Montgomery, who had taken Montreal, and escort him to Quebec. Burr was promoted to captain and made aide de camp by Montgomery. On December 31, 1775, Burr distinguished himself during the Battle of Quebec, where he attempted to recover Montgomery's body after he had been wounded.

Burr's stepbrother Matthias Ogden helped him to land a job with George Washington's New York staff in Manhattan in the spring of 1776, but he resigned on June 26 to be on the battlefield on June 26. Burr was brought to a halt by GM Putnam's zealance in Manhattan's flight from lower Manhattan to Harlem. Washington failed to recognize his efforts in the upcoming General Orders, which was the fastest route to receive a promotion. Burr had already been a national hero, but he never received a citation. According to Ogden, he was enraged by the occurrence, which may have resulted in the eventual separation of him and Washington. However, Burr defended Washington's decision to move New York as a "necessary effect." The two men did not discover themselves on opposing sides of politics until the 1790s.

Burr was briefly posted in Kingsbridge in 1776, at the time, he was charged with safeguarding 14-year-old Margaret Moncrieffe, the niece of Staten Island-based British Major Thomas Moncrieffe. Miss Moncrieffe was in Manhattan "behind enemy lines" and Major Moncrieffe asked Washington to ensure her safe return there. Burr fell in love with Margaret, and Margaret's attempts to stay with Burr were fruitless.

Burr attempted to secure Washington's permission to retake fortifications on Staten Island in late 1776, citing his extensive knowledge of the area. Washington delayed taking such steps until later in the war (which ultimately were not attempted). The British learned of Burr's plans and took extra precautions later.

In July 1777, Burr was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assumed virtual control of Malcolm's Additional Continental Regiment. There were around 300 men under Colonel William Malcolm's nominal command, but Malcolm was often called on to do other duties, leaving Burr in charge. The regiment was able to combat several night raids carried by sea into central New Jersey by Manhattan-based British troops arriving by sea. During the harsh winter encampment at Valley Forge, Burr commanded a small contingent guarding "the Goph," an isolated pass that controlled one approach to the camp. He put discipline on his troops and ended an attempted mutiny.

Burr's regiment was devastated by British artillery at the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey on June 28, 1778, and Burr's regiment suffered heatstroke. He was sent to Westchester County, New York, in January 1779, in command of Malcolm's Regiment, a stretch between the British post in Kingsbridge, Bronx, and the American one about 15 miles (24 km) to the north. This district was part of GM's more prominent command, and there was a lot of turbulence and plundering by lawless bands of civilians and raiding parties of poorly disciplined troops from both armies.

Burr resigned from the Continental Army in March 1779 due to continued poor health. He revived his law school studies. He was no longer in service, but he stayed involved in the war; he was sent by GM to conduct occasional intelligence missions for Continental generals, such as Arthur St. Clair. In a skirmish with the British at the West River on July 5, 1779, he rallied a group of Yale students at New Haven, Connecticut, as well as Captain James Hillhouse and the Second Connecticut Governor's Guards. The British advance was stifled, causing them to arrive in New Haven from Hamden, Connecticut.

When Burr married Jacques Marcus Prevost, a Swiss-born British soldier serving in the Royal American Regiment, she met Theodosia Bartow Prevost in August 1778. Burr began visiting Theodosia in Prevost's absence, visiting The Hermitage, her home in New Jersey, on a daily basis. Despite being ten years older than Burr, the regular visits sparked rumors, and by 1780, the two were officially lovers. He discovered that Prevost died of yellow fever in Jamaica in December 1781.

In 1782, Theodosia and Aaron Burr were married, and they later moved to a house on Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. Theodosia died in 1794 from stomach or uterine cancer after several years of chronic illness. Theodosia Burr Alston, 1783, was their only child to live to adulthood.

Personal life

Burr, in addition to his daughter Theodosia, was the father of at least three other children and he adopted two sons. Burr was also a parent to his two stepsons by his wife's first marriage, and he later served as a mentor or tutor to many protégés who lived in his house.

Theodosia Burr was born in 1783 and was named after her mother. She was the only child of Burr's union with Theodosia Bartow Prevost, who lived to adulthood. Sally, Sally's second daughter, lived to the age of three.

Burr was a devoted and caring father to Theodosia. Burr recommended a rigorous program of research for her, believing that a young woman should have the same education as a young man. According to their surviving correspondence, he fondly treated his daughter as a close friend and confidante as long as she lived.

Theodosia's fame was quickly acclaimed for her education and achievements. Joseph Alston of South Carolina married her in 1801. Aaron Burr Alston, who died of fever at the age of ten, was their son together. Theodosia was missing at sea with the schooner Patriot off the coast of Carolinas, either as a result of pirates or shipwrecked in a hurricane during the winter of 1812-1813.

He became stepfather to the two teenage sons of his wife's first marriage following Burr's marriage. Both Augustine James Frederick Prevost (called Frederick) and John Bartow Prevost had joined their father in the Royal American Regiment in December 1780, between the ages of 16 and 14. When they returned to the United States in 1783, Burr acted as a father to them: he assumed responsibility for their education, gave both of them clerkships in his law office, and often took them as an assistant when he traveled. John was later appointed by Thomas Jefferson to a post in Orleans as the first judge of the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Burr served as a guard to Nathalie de Volude (1782–1841) from 1794 to 1801, during the life of Theodosia. Nathalie's teenage daughter of a French marquis had been taken to New York for protection during the French Revolution by her governes Caroline de Senat. Burr welcomed them, allowing Madame Senat and his daughter to tutor private students at the University, and Nathalie became a companion and close friend of Theodosia. Thomas Sumter Jr., a diplomat and the son of General Thomas Sumter, was traveling to France for a long visit in 1801. They married in Paris in March 1802, before returning to South Carolina. They lived in Rio de Janeiro, where Sumter served as the American ambassador to Portugal during the Portuguese Court's transfer to Brazil in 1810. Thomas De Lage Sumter, one of their children, was a congressman from South Carolina.

Burr took painter John Vanderlyn into his home as a protégé in the 1790s and gave him financial assistance and patronage for 20 years. He arranged Vanderlyn's education in Philadelphia and sent him in 1796 to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he stayed for six years.

After the death of his daughter Theodosia, Burr adopted two sons, Aaron Columbus Burr and Charles Burdett, in the 1810s and 1820s. Aaron Burr Columbe was born in Paris in 1808 and died in America about 1815, and Charles was born in 1814.

Both of the boys were rumored to be Burr's biological sons. Aaron Burr was described as "the product of a Paris adventure," according to a Burr biographer, who was exile from the United States between 1808 and 1814.

Burr acknowledged two teenage daughters who died before his death in 1835, the year before his son's. In a will dated January 11, 1835, Burr made specific provisions for his surviving daughters, in which he left "all the remainder and traces" of his estate, to six-year-old Frances Ann (born 1829), and two-year-old Elizabeth (born 1833).

Burr formed an acquaintance with Mary Emmons, also known as Eugenie, who may have been East Indian, in 1787 or earlier. During his first marriage, she served as a servant in his household. Before heading to America, Emmons may have migrated from Calcutta to Haiti or Saint-Domingue. Two children with Emmons were born in Burr's "Free Negro" neighborhood, in which their families became famous:

In a published biography, one contemporary of John Pierre Burr called him a natural son of Burr, but Burr never admitted his relationship or children with Emmons during his lifetime, in contrast to his adoption or acknowledgment of other children born later in his life.

The Aaron Burr Association recognized Louisa and John as the children of Burr in 2018 after Sherri Burr, a descendant of John Pierre, announced both documentary and genetic evidence to establish a familial link between Burr and descendants of John Pierre. To indicate his ancestry, the Association erected a headstone at John Pierre's grave. "A few people didn't want to go into it because Aaron's first wife, Theodosia, was still alive and dying of cancer [when Aaron fathered John Pierre]. However, the shame is not as relevant as it is to acknowledge and embrace real life, healthy, accomplished children."

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