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07/14/2004: Thought for the Day:
200 years after the incident, descendants of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton staged a re-enactment of their ancestors' famous duel....
Those were the days. The quality of political violence has really declined in this country, when you think about how long ago it was before something on the level of the Vice-President (Burr - setting the bar for the office so low Spiro Agnew would have a tough time stooping to it) squaring off with a signer of the Constitution (Hamilton)
I'm also fond of Preston Brook's Congressional cane-whipping of Charles Sumner in 1856.
Nowadays, we have to check out other countries like Russia and Indonesia for our political brawls. But not to worry, for I'm sure we Americans can look forward - in about 180 years - to descendants of Linda Evans and Joan Collins bringing the Krystle-Alexia catfights of Dynasty back to life. I'll take what I can get.
--Pete Vonder Haar [A Perfectly Cromulent Blog]
Len on 07.14.04 @ 07:54 AM CST
Replies: 1 comment
on Wednesday, July 14th, 2004 at 8:32 AM CST, Roboto said
The NY Times has an interesting article on the duel, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/05/nyregion/05duel.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=e7d41484b0d2dd25&ex=1246766400&partner=rssuserland.
That article chronicles the town's struggle with its shameful history, and how descendants of Burr asked that the events be modified, so that Burr takes his bullet with more grace. Plus, the Burr family is a little jealous for the lack of attention their guy gets. Sadly, there had been no interest in this historical footnote, but the article notes that the growing Hispanic population has an interest in local history and is contributing to the revival. Interesting.