Where this was said
The Road to the Duel: Burr's Humiliation and the 'Despicable' Letter
At 31:43 · chapter starts 29:40
With Jefferson planning to drop Burr from the 1804 presidential ticket, Burr makes a last-ditch bid for the New York governorship, switching to run as a de-facto Federalist candidate. Hamilton opposes him again, and Burr is routed by the Democratic-Republican Morgan Lewis. Seven weeks after the election, Burr is shown the Albany Register from 24 April 1804, which reports that a Dr. Charles D. Cooper heard Hamilton describe Burr as 'a dangerous man' and hint at holding an even more 'despicable' opinion. Burr fires off a letter demanding Hamilton avow or disavow the word. Hamilton's reply — a long, pedantic, slightly smug meditation on the 'infinite shades' of the word 'despicable' — fails to give Burr the retraction he seeks. Tom thinks it's a great letter; Dominic thinks it's goading. The exchange of letters continues, and when Hamilton refuses a definitive apology, the logic of the Code Duello makes a duel unavoidable.
Dueling in early America was far more ritualized than most people realise. The Code Duello demanded an exchange of letters, seconds, and formal challenge before any pistols were drawn — and roughly 9 out of 10 duels were settled before a shot was fired. Hamilton himself had six prior affairs of honor and none reached the trigger.
An estimate suggests that one in five men who served in the Senate from Southern states in the years before the American Civil War had taken part in duels.
Before the fatal duel with Burr, Hamilton had been involved in at least six affairs of honor, none of which had reached the point of actual gunfire — all were settled by compromise.
