On a July morning in 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton rowed across the Hudson River to a ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey, to settle a years-long rivalry with pistols. This episode traces how political conflict, wounded pride and the rigid code of honor turned two architects of the republic into mortal enemies.

We follow the feud from Burr’s 1791 Senate victory over Hamilton’s father-in-law Philip Schuyler, through Hamilton’s campaign against Burr in the deadlocked election of 1800, to the 1804 New York governor’s race and the word “despicable” that sparked the challenge. We also examine the code duello, the death of Hamilton’s son Philip at the same dueling ground, and the debate over what happened when the shots were fired.

• Why Hamilton refused to deny or apologize for the reported insult
• The theater of legal deniability, from rowers with turned backs to hidden pistols
• The smoothbore pistols and their controversial hair trigger
• Evidence that Hamilton deliberately fired into the trees
• Hamilton’s death and Burr’s murder indictments and political ruin