He was not brave enough to stand that. So he fought.
Early one July morning in 1804, the two men met. Burr took steady
aim and fired, Hamilton, firing wildly into the air, fell forward
dying.
Hamilton had been selfish and autocratic, and many people disliked
him. Now when they heard of his death, they forgot that. They only
remembered how much the nation owed to the man who had put their
money matters right. The whole country rose in anger against Burr,
and called him a murderer.
Seeing the outcry against him becoming so great, Burr fled to
Philadelphia. But even there, people looked at him askance, so he
decided to go for a tour in the West.
His travels took him to Marietta, Ohio, the little town which had
been founded by Rufus Putnam; then to Cincinnati and Louisville,
and so southward till he reached New Orleans.
There he began to have secret meetings with all the chief men, for
Burr was now full of a great idea.
He had failed to get into power in the United States, and his
failure had made him bitter. He had killed the man who he thought
was his greatest enemy. And that, instead of helping him, had caused
the people to cast him out altogether. Now he determined to own
an empire for himself, and have nothing more to do with the United
States. He had in fact made up his mind to divide the West from
the East, and make himself Emperor of the West under the title of
Aron I.
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