Aaron Burr was the third Vice President of the United States; he served during President Thomas Jefferson's first term. In 1804 Burr killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel. Burr was never tried for the illegal duel, and all charges against him were eventually dropped, but Hamilton's death ended Burr's political career.
(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "M" is for "madness")
As you may be painfully
aware, the U S political races seem to be in full swing. TV screens present the usual eager candidates
claiming that their opponents are listless, incompetent blackguards, among other things.
Of course, this is
nothing new; such vituperation has been more or less normal for generations. It got me to thinking of a couple of our
political figures of the past.
I thought of two chaps
especially. As far as they were
concerned, they proceeded normally with their careers; in other words they each
spent a lot of the time trash-talking, as we say today, the other.
There was a slight
difference, however.
In our time quite a
number of folks have made derogatory remarks about our Vice-President and he
has done what he could to respond to his critics.
Politicians generally are accused of being moody, talking a lot
and doing nothing. So it’s fascinating that
there was a part of our history when we had one Veep who did plenty.
As to whether this turned out to be good or bad,
there is no question. It was bad.
He stepped over the line. He broke the rule.
Written or unwritten – or both - it was a solid
rule, and politicians then and now did not break it.
You see, he shot the guy who was responsible for
most of the trash talk against him, shot him and killed him.
If this was a story happening in our time and
written as a farce, the Vice President would have been cheered by many, or at
least by the NRA, and perhaps he would have gone on to be featured on TV talk
shows as a successful celebrity, later appearing on “Dancing With the Stars.” J
However, in those benighted days there was no
television and many folks, including even those who had been his most ardent
supporters, turned against him. "Politicians shooting each other; it's horrible, it's madness!" they cried. "It's got to stop!"
Well, that’s the story. I guess I should cut this short; I don’t want
to incite any political types of our time into similar action.
As for the weekly quiz question, what was the name
of the Veep?
