Despite historical innuendos, Aaron Burr was not a suitor for Dolley Payne’s hand.
The Promising Burr
Aaron Burr (1756-1836) had a childhood mix of tragedy and blessings. His NJ family was reasonably prosperous; his grandfather was the well-known Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards.
Alas, Burr’s father, grandfather, mother and grandmother all died by the time baby Aaron was two. He was raised by relatives and guardians. It is said the relationships were strained, and young Aaron tried to run away at various times. Nevertheless, he received an excellent education at the Elizabethtown Academy, and excelled.
At thirteen, he was admitted to the College of New Jersey (Princeton), and became a classmate of James Madison, five years his senior. He showed promise, graduating in 1772, at sixteen. He stayed on to study theology, but lost interest, and went to Connecticut to read law with a relative. Then the Revolutionary War interfered. Burr enlisted, served bravely and commendably, and eventually became Lieutenant Colonel. Then he was severely wounded.
Continuing his legal studies during his recuperation, Aaron Burr entered the political arena in New York, and again showed promise. He opened a successful legal practice and was elected to the NY Legislature. By 1791, he was elected to the United States Senate. Life was definitely promising, although there were hints from some of his peers that his greatest “talents” were for intrigue.
When the USA Capital was in Philadelphia, Senator Burr boarded with Mary Coles Payne, Dolley’s mother, who had opened her house to boarders when her husband’s business failed.
Senator Burr and The Widow Todd
Dolley Payne was a young Quaker bride when Senator Burr lived in Philadelphia, but since her house was only a short distance from her parents’ home, they became pleasantly acquainted.
1793 was a horrible year for both Dolley Payne Todd and Aaron Burr. A yellow fever epidemic raged, decimating nearly 25% of Philadelphia’s population. Dying on the same day was Dolley’s husband John Todd and her newborn son William Temple. Only days earlier, both her husband’s parents had died.
In New York, Aaron Burr lost his wife Theodosia Provost, who succumbed after a long battle with cancer. His closest relative now was his ten-year-old daughter Theodosia.
The recent Widow Dolley Todd now faced another problem: her brother-in-law was conniving to prevent her from inheriting the modest estate left by her late husband. This included their house – and John Todd’s law books!
Senator Burr was one of the attorneys she consulted in order to claim her rightful property. In addition, when she was advised to make a will, the twenty-five year old widow’s first responsibility was to name a guardian for her surviving son. Her father had died; three older brothers had died. She had no available male kin, and her son, John Payne Todd was only two-years-old.
Dolley named Senator Aaron Burr as Payne’s guardian, should anything happen to her.
Both of them were now newly widowed, but there does not appear to be any romance.
The Introduction
Meanwhile, the Widow Todd having weathered a recent childbirth, an epidemic of huge proportions, the loss of her in-laws, followed by the loss of her husband and her infant son, followed by legal wrangling over her lawful inheritance, tried to pick up the pieces of her life.
It is said that she was “noticed” shopping at the market stalls by Virginia Congressman James Madison, one of the key members of the Constitutional Convention held a few years earlier to chart the governmental direction of the new country. Dolley was a fine-looking woman, and it appears that she was “noticed” by many people.
It is not documented, but Madison may also have noticed her some time earlier at one of President and Mrs. Washington’s levees. Mistress Todd was kin-by-marriage to the Washingtons. Her sister had married one of GW’s nephews.
What is known, however, is that Madison wanted to meet this charming young woman whose bright eyes and warm smile seemed to attract everyone she met. He asked Senator Burr, his Princeton classmate, to arrange the introduction.
Only four or five months after Todd’s death, Dolley sent a note to her closest friend Eliza Collins, “Thee must come to me at once. Senator Burr says the Great Little Madison wants to meet me.”
The introduction was successful, and five months later Dolley Payne Todd married James Madison, and they lived happily for the next forty years.
Promises Broken
All the promise shown by young Aaron Burr, whether academically, militarily, legally, politically and even financially… was destroyed by Burr himself in a series of self-inflicted miscalculations – and his penchant for grandiose intrigue.
When he ran for the position of Vice President (so he claimed) in 1800, the electoral vote was a tie between him and Thomas Jefferson. (According to the Constitution, the winner became President, and the first-runner-up became the Vice President.) But the wily Burr declared that the “tie” permitted him to claim the Presidency for himself, and the election was thrust into the House of Representatives. Perhaps sensing Burr’s deficiency of character, they voted for Jefferson. Burr became Vice President, and generally non-grata in the new capital of Washington DC. Congress promptly amended the Constitution to prevent a repeat of that situation.
In early 1804, his long bitter rivalry with Alexander Hamilton, George Washington’s Treasury secretary, NY lawyer, businessman and entrepreneur, culminated in a duel. Burr fired the fatal bullet, and became non-grata in most of the country.
As ex-Vice President (replaced by Jefferson in 1804), Burr devised grandiose plans to claim a substantial part of the recent Louisiana Territory for his own fiefdom. It resulted in a trial for treason, but he was acquitted for lack of evidence. He self-exiled himself in Europe, where he was generally non-grata by everyone.
Both Dolley and James Madison were deeply disappointed by their old “friend.” He had played an important role in both their lives.
But for good or ill, they never spoke publicly about him.
Sources:
Cote, Richard N – Strength and Honor: The Life of Dolley Madison – Corinthian Books, 2005
Moore, Virginia – The Madisons: A Biography, 1979, McGraw Hill
https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-great-trial-that-tested-the-constitutions-treason-clause
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