Tag: Aaron Burr

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“Characters Pre-eminent for Virtue and Ability”: The First Partisan Application of the Electoral College

Scholars typically cast the outcome of the second presidential election as either a forgone conclusion or a non-event.[1] After all, George Washington ran unchallenged and once again received unanimous support from the Electoral College.[2] Shifting academic focus from the first magistrate to the second, however, reframes the 1792 contest as a struggle for the soul […]

by Shawn David McGhee
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Searching for Samuel’s Service: Stories of the Revolution Revealed Through One Man

The American Revolution was perhaps America’s first civil war—a dispute that forced neighbors to choose between country and King; to declare themselves Patriots or Loyalists. Modern Americans might be tempted to only focus on the Patriots’ side of events, but I have discovered that by investigating the Loyalists, an ensemble of characters with connections to […]

by Sarah Swift
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Justice, Mercy, and Treason: John Marshall’s and Mercy Otis Warren’s Treatments of Benedict Arnold

In the early years of the nineteenth century, the founders of the new American Republic were lurching forward from the shockingly successful outcome of their increasingly remote Revolution, and finding themselves immersed in the uncharted waters of nation-building. The political landscape was inflamed by passionate partisanship and varying, often vituperatively expressed visions of what course […]

by Rand Mirante
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Thomas Knowlton’s Revolution

The story of Thomas Knowlton in the American Revolution is brief but meaningful. He was only thirty-five at his death, arguably a full-fledged hero in what George Washington termed “the “glorious Cause”[1] of American independence. The Connecticut colonel remains largely obscure in our collective historical consciousness but has been long recognized by serious students of […]

by David Price
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Review: Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr

Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr: The Revolutionary War Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Arthur S. Lefkowitz (Stackpole Books, 2020) Students of history (and fans of Broadway) know Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton as one of America’s fiercest political rivalries. What began as an intense competition in the hurly-burly of New York politics […]

by Geoff Smock
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Thomas Jefferson’s Lives: Biographers and the Battle for History

Thomas Jefferson’s Lives:  Biographers and the Battle for History edited by Robert M. S. McDonald.  (Charlottesville, VA:  University of Virginia Press, 2019) Robert M. S. McDonald’s previous book, Confounding Father:  Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time (2016), portrays the Virginian as a multifaceted character who is extraordinarily difficult to understand. Thomas Jefferson’s Lives: Biographers and the […]

by Timothy Symington
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This Week on Dispatches: Geoff Smock on Alexander Hamilton’s Childhood in the Caribbean

In this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and Seattle-area middle school history teacher Geoff Smock about how Alexander Hamilton’s difficult childhood experiences in the Caribbean helped shape his future political ideology. As your host Brady Crytzer says, “Sit back, relax, and enjoy the interview. . . .” New episodes of Dispatches are available […]

by Editors
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Hamilton’s Revenge

Having just attained his thirteenth (or eleventh) birthday, he found himself confined to a bed on the second floor of a small two-story house on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, gripped by a violent fever now in its second week.[1] Next to him was his mother, who had been the first to come down […]

by Geoff Smock
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Contributor Question: Best Strategic Defeat?

This month, we asked our contributors to consider the many changes of fortune that occurred over the tumultuous four decades that transformed thirteen British colonies into the nascent United States: What was the best strategic defeat, whether political or military, of the American Revolution and the founding era (roughly 1765 thru 1805)? That is, what […]

by Editors
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Duels of Honor

Dear Mr. History: I’ve read about some duels of honor involving senior Continental Army officers and something doesn’t make sense to me; why were they dueling in the middle of a war? Signed, At Your Service, Sir. Dear Service: Some officers took to dueling like ducks to water. Here’s an example. In the summer of […]

by Michael Schellhammer