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The Burr–Hamilton duel was fought at Weehawken, New Jersey, between Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States, and Alexander Hamilton, the first and former Secretary of the Treasury, on the morning of July 11, 1804. The duel was the culmination of a bitter rivalry that had developed between both men who had become high-profile politicians in postcolonial America. In the duel Burr fatally shot Hamilton, while Hamilton fired into a tree branch above and behind Burr's head. Hamilton was taken back across the Hudson River and died the following day in New York.[1]

The death of Hamilton led to the permanent weakening of the Federalist Party and its demise in American domestic politics. It also effectively ended the political career of Burr, who was vilified for shooting Hamilton; he never held another high office after his tenure of Vice President ended in 1805.