From the Vaults: Death of Alexander Hamilton
Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Season 1, Episode 98 , Segment 5
Teen Summer Jobs, Nature and Mental Health, National Parks
Episode: Teen Summer Jobs, Nature and Mental Health, National Parks
- Jul 8, 2015 9:00 pm
- 26:50 mins
This weekend marks the two hundred and eleventh anniversary of one of history’s most famous, or infamous, duels. On July 11, 1804, the Vice President of the United States, Aaron Burr, fatally shot his long-time political rival Alexander Hamilton, a noted Federalist who had been the first Secretary of the Treasury in the US. Here at Brigham Young University, we have in our library’s Special Collections an original letter written by Dirck ten Broeck, a former law clerk under Hamilton, who, in fact, had an appointment to see Hamilton on that fateful afternoon. The meeting never happened, but ten Broeck was there with Hamilton when he died and he wrote this letter to tell his father what happened. Russ Taylor is the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Dr. Matt Mason is an Associate Professor of History here at BYU. See a scan of the letter here Correction. July 9, 2015. The audio and previous web text state that the duel and death happened on a weekend, but they, in fact, happened on Wednesday and Thursday, July 11 and 12, 1804.