Politics is ugly, New Jersey politics is uglier, and Hudson County politics is downright savage.
Hudson’s reputation for public sector brutality began 217 years ago today, Save Jerseyans, when on July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel held in Weehawken, New Jersey.
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The duel was politically momentous beyond the obvious (the death of one of the young country’s best-known founding/framing fathers, albeit an extremely controversial one).
Hamilton’s demise catalyzed the collapse of the formerly dominant Federalist Party. 1816 was the last time the now-defunct party put forth a presidential candidate.
Burr’s career was effectively over. The rest of his life was consumed by financial troubles, an extended exile overseas, legal woes, divorce, a debilitating stroke and general national infamy for killing Hamilton.
You can still visit the scene of the crime today; there’s a bust of Hamilton overlooking the contemporary Manhattan skyline.
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