Vice Presidents - # 3 – Aaron Burr

We welcome a new Vice President and will sprinkle the next few grave posts with quotes from people who have occupied the position. John Adams, VP # 1, who later became President # 2 said, "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived."

This is the second vice president’s grave to be presented. In April 2019, VP # 5, Elbridge Gerry was posted because the Supreme Court then was considering gerrymandering issues and I had a picture of the namesake’s grave. As noted in that post, I won’t be chasing down forty-eight mostly unknown VP’s but I already have some incidental grave portraits taken while hunting other figures and some of these guys may have stories to tell.

Last summer, my sister visited and we used her ‘Disney Plus’ subscription so I could finally see the magnificent stage production of ‘Hamilton.’ The talented original Broadway cast and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s amazing score made history come alive in a new and exciting way. It also reminded this grave hunter that he had a shot of the villain Aaron Burr’s last resting place.

Aaron Burr’s Grave, Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, NJ (27 November 2006) 

The plaque added in 1995 reproduces the 

grave marker’s weathered words – 

AARON BURR 

Born February 6, 1756. 

Died September 14, 1836. 

A Colonel in the Army of the Revolution. 

Vice-President of the United States from 1801-1804. 

My ‘Dead Presidents Quest’ took me to New Jersey in 2006. Number 23 & 24, Grover Cleveland, is buried in Princeton Cemetery, near the Ivy League university that Burr’s father, Aaron Burr, Sr., co-founded in 1746. The four sarcophagi behind Burr’s grave contain the early presidents of the college including Burr, Sr.

Born in New Jersey in 1756, Burr was orphaned by age two after his parents and grandparents all died. That explains a lot. After serving in the Revolution, he became a lawyer and New York senator who helped found the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party. Pretty good so far.

Presidents Row, Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, NJ (27 November 2006) 

Aaron Burr, Sr. was a Presbyterian minister, co-founder and 

second president of the College of New Jersey, which became 

Princeton University. He is buried behind his son in 

‘Presidents Row,’ the concentration of early university leaders. 

For our first two presidential elections, the popular vote mattered little and there were no competing political parties and platforms. The Electoral College voters decided the winner and the presidential candidate who came in second became the vice president…the job Adams pioneered during Washington’s two terms.

By the third election in 1796, the Federalists had Jefferson’s new Democratic-Republican Party to contend with, but the old rules still gave the Number Two spot to the guy with the next highest Electoral votes. Hence, Jefferson served as John Adams’ VP. Not the best time for either of them. By the end of that term, the great friendship we remember from their later years was on the rocks. Adams left Washington without attending Jefferson’s inauguration and they didn’t correspond for eleven years.

A Vice President Scorned, Aaron Burr 

Museum of American Finance, New York City (2 June 2011) 

Built during the Roaring Twenties, the Bank of New York Building at 

48 Wall Street now houses the Museum of American Finance. 

In a special exhibit for local hero Alexander Hamilton there 

were two life-size statues. Facing each other across 

the room were the Founding Father and the guy who killed him. 

Then came the election of 1800. In those days, Electoral College members cast two votes. Even though Burr was Jefferson’s VP candidate, the vote counting process did not address that distinction. Since Jefferson and Burr each received 73 votes and both had more than Adams, John was out and the tie had to be broken by the House of Representatives.

This was when the ever-ambitious Burr decided he wanted to be president instead…which didn’t endear him to Jefferson. After thirty-five, strict party-line tie votes, it is believed that Alexander Hamilton persuaded a couple of Federalists to vote the other way. Aaron was Number Two and the Burr-Hamilton’s relationship went further downhill from there. He killed Hamilton on July 11, 1804…while still serving as vice president. Although dueling was illegal by that time, Burr was never tried for the offense but his political career was toast after that.

What Alexander Hamilton Saw Last, 

Museum of American Finance, New York City (2 June 2011) 

After the election fiasco, the states quickly ratified the 12th Amendment to make each vote count for BOTH the presidential candidate AND running mate.

The disgraced pol then moved west and was eventually charged with treason following alleged schemes with rival colonial nations in the western frontier…also not convicted. After that, Burr flew the coop. He was an ex-pat in Europe for a few years. A scandal sheet to the end, he remarried at age 77 to the wealthy Widow Jumel. She filed for divorce after he used her assets to pay his land speculation losses. The juicy irony there is that her divorce lawyer was Alexander Hamilton, Jr. Burr died in a Staten Island boarding house at age 80 on the day his divorce was granted.