American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America

by David O. Stewart

Overview

In this vivid and brilliant biography, David Stewart describes Aaron Burr, the third vice president, as a daring and perhaps deluded figure who shook the nation’s foundations in its earliest, most vulnerable decade.

In this vivid and brilliant biography, David O. Stewart portrays Aaron Burr, the third vice president, as a daring and perhaps deluded figure who shook the nation’s foundations in its earliest, most vulnerable decade. Stewart’s vivid account of Burr’s tumultuous life offers a rare and eye-opening description of the brand-new nation struggling to define itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439157206
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/16/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	410
Sales rank:	814,746
Product dimensions:	5.66(w) x 8.28(h) x 1.04(d)

About the Author

David O. Stewart is an award-winning author and the president of the Washington Independent Review of Books. He is the author of several acclaimed histories, including Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America; The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution; Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy; and American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America. Stewart’s first novel is The Lincoln Deception.

Table of Contents

Leading Characters xiii

Part I 1

1 The Dark Star of the Founding 3

2 Do Not Play the Fool with His Name 13

3 The Duel 26

4 On the Frontier 44

5 The Restless West 55

6 Vice President Burr 72

7 "I… Shall Seek Another Country" 88

8 The Adventure Begins 97

9 Early Doubts 106

10 On the World Stage 116

11 Burr's Threats 124

12 The Baron of the Ouachita Valley 134

13 The Western World Ignites 143

14 High Water Mark 151

15 Dancing on the Sabine 159

16 The Daveiss Factor 168

17 Escape from Blennerhassett Island 177

18 Wilkinson Unchained 186

19 Burr in Chains 193

Part II 205

20 When Cousins Collide 209

21 What Is Treason? 220

22 Sympathy for Villainy 226

23 A Mammoth of Iniquity 239

24 Searching for an Overt Act 247

25 A Drawn Battle 259

26 To Britain 271

27 On the Continent 284

28 The History of Thy Crimes 294

Acknowledgments 307

Appendix 1 The Cipher Letter 309

Appendix 2 Indictment, United States v. Aaron Burr 313

Appendix 3 United States Constitution, Article III, Section 3 (Treason Clause) 317

Notes 319

Illustration Credits 389

Index 391

Editorial Reviews

American Emperor delivers a colorful narrative of the schemes that carried Burr from one reckless venture to the next. Of inestimable value in following his frenzied recruitment of allies are Stewart's thumbnail sketches of "Leading Characters" at the front of the book.
—The Washington Post

Joyce Appleby

Eschewing recent attempts to rehabilitate Aaron Burr (1756–1836), a brilliant member of the revolutionary generation but remembered mostly as Jefferson's vice-president who killed Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel, D.C. lawyer and historian Stewart (Impeached: The Trial of Andrew Johnson) concentrates on the dramatic years of Burr's life that followed. His career in ruins, in 1806 Burr led an armed band down the Mississippi intending to detach western states from the Union and conquer Spanish-ruled Texas and Florida. Among his raffish coconspirators was Gen. James Wilkinson, commander of the U.S. Army, governor of Louisiana, and a paid Spanish agent. With matters well advanced, Wilkinson thought better of it and betrayed the plot. There followed an extensive pursuit and spectacular treason trial during which a vindictive President Jefferson schemed and failed to convict Burr. Great men behaving badly make for entertaining reading, so readers may roll their eyes, but will keep turning the pages of this meticulous, almost day-by-day account of a plot so bizarre that it's hard to believe it actually happened. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Advance Praise for American Emperor

“A proven storyteller, David O. Stewart takes us on a wonderful journey back to a fascinating chapter of American life: the challenges and controversies embodied in Aaron Burr. American Emperor is a great tale.”
—Jon Meacham, author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

“A luminous portrait of Aaron Burr as well as the first high-definition picture of an endlessly baffling, infuriating, and mesmerizing life.”
—Patricia O’Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt after the White House

“Aaron Burr is the American Lucifer, a figure of immense talents and heroic qualities whose voracious ambition thrust him into a position as adversary to the goodness around him. David Stewart captures this tale in all its drama, treachery, and historical dimension. This is a truly absorbing narrative.”
—Robert W. Merry, author of A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent

“The generation of the Founders produced some intriguing characters, but Aaron Burr has to be the most charismatic, quixotic, and mysterious. David Stewart brings the scheming, brilliant Burr to life in this lively but also judicious portrait of grand and unfulfilled ambition.”
—Evan Thomas, author of The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898

“With remarkable evenhandedness and superb pacing, David O. Stewart has given us a real Aaron Burr and a real Thomas Jefferson in a gripping narrative about a political adventure that might have changed the history of the United States and Mexico.”
—Thomas Fleming, author of Duel: Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and the Future of America

“Stewart’s sympathetic but unapologetic study of the enigmatic Burr…transcends its subject in exposing the frailty of early America’s westward ambitions. Highly recommended for readers of Revolutionary-era biographies and early U.S. history.” –Library Journal

“A fresh, vivid exploration of the exploits and trial of Aaron Burr… Two parts adventure story and one part courtroom thriller… A persuasive, engaging examination of the post-political career of a shadowy and much-maligned figure from the era of the Founders.” –Kirkus Reviews (Starred)

“Great men behaving badly makes for entertaining reading…[this book] will keep [readers] turning the pages of this meticulous, almost day-by-day account of a plot so bizarre that it’s hard to believe it actually happened.” –Publishers Weekly

“Stewart strives admirably to sort through the maze of facts and speculations about the nature of the conspiracy and Burr’s place in it. This is also a personality study of Burr, in whom Stewart sees an extraordinary combination of talent, vision, arrogance, and insatiable ambition….readers should enjoy this account of a dangerous episode that threatened our young republic.” –Booklist

“American Emperor offers a compelling, provocative portrait of Aaron Burr….a skilled historian and a splendid storyteller, Stewart makes the most of the episode and its…cast of characters.” —Kansas City Star

"American Emperor" is a rousing book (who can turn down a quixotic rebellion?) with a cast of characters that could slip comfortably into a three-volume melodrama of the 19th century.“ —Richmond Times-Dispatch

“Thoughtful, stylishly written and splendidly researched…. Adds valuable dimensions to our appreciation of the world we inherited from the Founders.… A page-turner as well!” —Washington Independent Review of Books

“A rattling tale… While most readers know the broad outlines of the Aaron Burr story…, the tale still retains ample suspense. I won’t spoil the ending.” —Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher

While most assessments of the life of Aaron Burr (1765–1836) center on the disputed presidential election of 1800 and his deadly duel with Alexander Hamilton in 1804, Stewart (The Summer of 1787) provides an outstanding account concerned primarily with Burr's suspicious western exploits thereafter and his subsequent trial for treason. Burr's trial played out on a national stage, included an impressive cast of characters from Chief Justice John Marshall to the traitorous Gen. James Wilkinson, and ultimately provided federal courts with a procedural definition of treason. Drawing on his experience in constitutional law, attorney Stewart explains how such an iconic character, standing outside the reign of power, could provoke "generations of speculation and wonder." His gripping narrative reveals a founder driven by ambition, with a passion for expansion into Central and South American. VERDICT Stewart's sympathetic but unapologetic study of the enigmatic Burr, most recently given a full biography in Nancy Isenberg's Fallen Founder, transcends its subject in exposing the frailty of early America's westward ambitions. Highly recommended for readers of Revolutionary-era biographies and early U.S. history. [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/11.]—Brian Odom Pelham P.L., AL

Library Journal

The life of "the inconvenient survivor of America's founding era," Aaron Burr, was changed by his famous duel with Alexander Hamilton, which sent Burr, the third vice president of the U.S., westward in search of new challenges. David O. Stewart does a lot to humanize this early American historical figure, and Andrew Garman's narration emphasizes those human moments, making Burr into a human being rather than a caricature and a footnote. The book explains the circumstances of the duel and Burr's love for his daughter, Theodesia, and shares the wry humor in some of Burr's own writings. There are some passages about Burr's treason trial that bog down, but for the most part this is an interesting account of an interesting life. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2012 - AudioFile

A fresh, vivid exploration of the exploits and trial of Aaron Burr (1756–1836), the most notorious figure of the early American republic.

In 1800, Burr came within one electoral vote of becoming president of the United States. Instead, as originally intended, he became Thomas Jefferson's vice president, serenely presiding over the Senate while under indictment for the murder of Alexander Hamilton in a duel, an unpleasantness with which Stewart (Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy, 2009, etc.) rapidly dispenses in satisfying detail. Dumped by Jefferson in 1804 and frozen out of national political influence, Burr turned to a fantastic scheme. In league with the odious Gen. James Wilkinson, commander of America's tiny army and a lavishly paid secret agent for the Spanish crown, Burr undertook to assemble a private army and redraw the map of North America by uniting the Spanish Floridas, Mexico and whatever American states and territories west of the Appalachians wished to join him, into a new nation under his own leadership. Burr's men were headed downriver for New Orleans when he was betrayed by Wilkinson, arrested and packed off to Richmond to stand trial for treason. Jefferson desperately wanted this conviction and actively meddled in the prosecution's trial strategy, but the presiding judge was Chief Justice John Marshall, a political foe determined to insist on due process for the widely despised defendant. A practicing attorney, Stewart works the miracle of making even early-19th-century legal opinions and argument accessible and vital to modern readers. Two parts adventure story and one part courtroom thriller, Burr's saga unfolds in "a North America of possibilities, not certainties," where borders shifted frequently. The author makes it all sound plausible and lays out this complicated story with admirable clarity, while also explaining the long-term significance of its outcome for individual rights, the judiciary and the stability of the young nation.

A persuasive, engaging examination of the post-political career of a shadowy and much-maligned figure from the era of the Founders.

Kirkus Reviews