Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Alexander Hamilton Didn't Die There


202 years before former (love typing that word, former) Vice-President Dick Cheney blasted one of his hunting pals in the face with buckshot, one his his predecessors, Aaron Burr (VP to President Thomas Jefferson) infamously killed Alexander Hamilton -- our nation's first Secretary of the Treasury and the father of modern American capitalism.

Both were New Yorkers with big egos and got into a tiff and decided to settle the tiff with a duel. (Why they dueled is a long, long story involving politics, power, personalities, and peccadilloes. Sound familiar?). Anyhoo, they decided to their dirty business in a place where doing dirty business -- even 200 years later -- is most appropriate: New Jersey (Weehawken exactly).

So early on the morn' of July 11, 1804, these two titans of America fired upon each other with .56 caliber dueling pistol. Burr was fine. Hamilton ... not so much.

Now this is where the history gets screwy. Allegedly he was rushed to the home of William Bayard who lived at 82 Jane Street in Greenwich Village where he died the next. There's even a plaque, which I have seen, consecrating this fact.

But it's a lie! William Bayard's house was NOT at this location. His house, and Hamilton's deathbed, were elsewhere (nearby but not there) and the house was torn down a long, long time ago. This house belonged to someone else. Thus we do not actually know exactly AH died and this plaque is misleading.

So if you're walking on Jane Street (perhaps going to and fro from the Highline) and you pass this plaque, you can show off and say "Yeah, it's not true!"

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