Chainsaw History - The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

{ Discover more at ChainsawHistory.com — access our full episode list, delve into bonus content, and click the logo in the center of the page to support our show with a paid subscription! }Apologies for the lower audio quality of this recording. This episode was thrown together in a hurry and recorded on cheap microphones in Bambi’s car! Things should be back to normal for next time.Thanks to Broadway a lot of people know about Aaron Burr—third Vice President of the United States and first member of the executive branch to shoot a former Secretary of the Treasury. But fewer people know that he was arrested and tried for treason after attempting to form a secret army to steal western territory for himself. President Thomas Jefferson was personally determined to see his former Veep rot in prison. To quote the musical version of the Marquis de Lafayette: “You are the worst, Burr!” The podcasting siblings Jamie and Bambi Chambers rip into the later life and highly ironic death of Aaron Burr (Sir).

Hey folks, this is Jamie at the editing desk. Wanted to give you a heads up that the audio quality on the episode you're about to listen to is way lower than normal because we did this in a hurry on cheap microphones hooked up to my phone and recorded in my sister's car. But things should be back to normal next time when the studio is back together again. Anyway, enjoy the story of Aaron Burr. Greetings from Bambi's Greetings from Bambi's car, everybody. Hello.

I'm sure the neighbors are only what the fuck we're doing, just sitting here talking randomly. No, because it's hard as fuck outside, and sometimes you don't want to chill with the dogs. I guess so. So welcome to chainsaw history, a mini episode that we're recording once again in my sister's car while Kevin is tearing the recording studio apart and putting it back together again.

So that's why instead of professional broadcast mics and a nice studio, you're getting stuff we recorded on my phone with microphones I bought on the TikTok shop. Nice. While that still exists. This just kind of reminds me of our little old renegade recordings we did back in the day. You know, I enjoyed that to a point. It was such a learning experience. No idea what we were doing.

So I've ambushed you with this one I've never not even told you what we're talking about So you're coming in at colder than ever Yeah, no, I didn't even know we were going to record today Yeah, well, when you said you were going to come over yesterday And you didn't I actually sat down and banged out a script in like two hours So this is about half of the length of a typical topic But yeah, it's because it was inspired by the news cycle

Have you been having fun with the news lately No. Nobody has. I mean, except for the Jeffrey Epstein stuff. That's funny. Yeah. It's like, well, like the exception of the Epstein thing, which isn't going away, mostly one news item that would have dominated the entire news cycle for like a month back when we were young is now just like a blip before the next insane thing happens and we're overwhelmed by it and it just keeps on going. Well, I mean, to a point. Yeah, with so much going on, one thing that dropped recently, and some people might have missed, is that the former president of the United States, one Barack Hussein Obama, is being accused of the crime of treason by the current president, won Donald John Trump. Yeah, no, that dominated the news cycle for about 30 seconds because everybody realized it was complete and total horseshit, and he's just trying to distract from the obscene files. Yeah, we all kind of realize that, but let's just take this at face value for a second. So taking questions from reporters about the accusations flying from his administration

that we're saying that reports about attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump says amounts to a severe crime, quote. They tried to rig the election, and they got caught, and there should be very severe consequences for that. But it's time to start after what they did to me. and whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people. Obama's been caught directly, and Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper. The whole group was there. Brennan, they were all there in a room, but the leader of the gang was President Obama.

Barack Hussein Obama, have you heard of him? This was treason. This was every word you can think of. Yeah, I mean You know, word salad Yeah None of this Surprises me

And even You know, Barack Obama Was like Got a chuckle out of it It's like, yeah, go for it, you fucking asshole Actually released a statement on it But it's interesting Because treason is literally the only crime

That's actually directly defined In the Constitution of these United States Yes, but he was president So everything he does as president is completely legal. As long as it was an official act. And so fucking... So it's even horseshit anyway, but let's just...

It's all, like, if you... Every single part of it is fucking bullshit. We're going to steal man Trump's argument here for a second and just for a moment, consider what it says in the Constitution. So this is Article 3, Section 3, treason. We're not lawyers, but we can fucking read. Clause 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.

No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court. Clause 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the life of the person attained. unquote. So first clause, they very strictly defined treason, which makes sense, considering the people who wrote it were complete traitors to their original country. And it's like, so they're like making sure that you know, you can't just go throwing around treason and accusation. We're going to make

sure that the crime is strictly defining. Clause 2 was talking all about the punishment side and making sure. So like the whole corruption of blood and forfeiture thing was making sure that you can only punish the actual individual, not like the old days, the king could say, oh, you're a traitor in your entire bloodline will now be marked and essentially they are pre-guilty and have penalties and then like they would find estates even long after the traitor was executed or wherever. And this is just the Constitution saying no. You can only do, you can only punish the actual person and not their families or their

estate after their, after the sentence is carried out. Because we wanted less insane laws. Yeah. So the whole idea was to be pretty strict about how you define. fine treason. So, even though there were earlier treason trials from like the whiskey rebellion, do you know who the first famous and important person that you definitely know about who has tried for treason in the United States? He's come up on our pod before. I'm assuming it's, um, fucking burr. You are correct. Ding, ding, ding. And they were just like, no, everything's fine. We're not going to, we're not going to do that. It is in fact, Aaron Burr, sir, and that's who we're going to talk about

for the rest of this old minisodes. Oh, okay. So, yeah. Let's get into it. I think we actually did mention it back during our groundbreaking Eliza Hamilton episodes. Excellent job on that, by the way. Thank you. We mentioned that Mr. Burr got up to some shit after his most famous crime.

Yeah, he did. So, but even then, like, what a crazy newsday that was when the sitting vice president gunned down the former secretary of the treasury. It'd be like J.D. Vance busting a cap and Janet Yow. Ellen's ass. I'm assuming you don't want me to skip ahead. No, we're going to get that. We're right in for the moment we're talking about just how insane that initial thing was. We're the vice president's fucking shot somebody. He was so bad shit at that point.

So just a quick rundown for anybody who isn't up on their Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr trivia. So after blowing away the shady and crooked Alexander Hamilton, the even more shady and crooked Aaron Burr went on the lamb slinking down to the south to avoid a murder charge waiting for him in New Jersey I think there was also an indictment in New York as well but eventually those were dropped and he quietly returned to D.C. to finish his term.

Which is horseshit, but continue. Yeah, this political career was over. Everyone hated his ass. Yes. Everyone fucking hated him because, I mean, you can't just do that. So from Smithsonian Magazine. I mean, even if you're not, you didn't like

fucking Alexander Hamilton nobody believed he should be gunned down in cold blood yeah and the fact that all the reports said that Hamilton was not actually firing to at Burr just made it even worse that he was just basically

murdered from Smithsonian Magazine which enjoy that while President Trump allows it to exist well it'll still be allowed to exist it just won't have that We'll just edit out all the real stuff. So, quote, in July 1804, Burr famously shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in the duel.

Later that year, Jefferson ran for re-election with a different running mate, and by March 1805, Burr was out of office. Now a political exile and accused murderer, Burr turned his gaze toward the Western frontier, unquote. So the musical Hamilton may have depicted Burr as a wait for it, wait for it kind of guy. But honestly, he really, really wasn't. Seems pretty bold to me. Besides all his previous shady-ass ventures in New York, what comes next, I would call barely a bull. He decided if he couldn't hold power in the United States, he would head west and build a little kingdom of his own.

I know where it's going, so I'm... So Burr buddied up to General James Wilkinson, a raging alcoholic and senior officer of the United States Army, and also governor of a little territory named Louisiana. Recently purchased from the French by Mr. Jefferson. Yep. So Burr traveled up from Louisiana all the way up to your birthplace of St. Louis, recruiting men and local leaders and trying to establish lines of supply. Yeah, he basically started like forming a tiny army. Yeah, from Monticello.org.

And please note Monticello being Jefferson's home. Quote, in the summer of 1805, Philadelphia's Gazette questioned the activities of the former or vice president. Was he playing an invasion of Mexico, or perhaps plotting a revolution to separate the Western states from the Union? Revolution would be treasonous. Under the right conditions, however, the man who liberated Mexico from Spanish rule could become an American hero. Unquote. Yeah, he's basically just trying to steal the Louisiana. American hero. No. No. No. Oh, no, you're right. If there was any doubt to where Aaron Burr's loyalties are probably put to rest

by the fact that he went to our very recent enemy. Jolly Old England with an offer from pbs.org another website enjoy it while it still exists quote the vice president contacted Anthony Mary Britain's minister to the United States

Burr offered to help Britain take Western territory from the United States Mary immediately sent a dispatch to Britain detailing Burr's offer to affect a separation of the Western part of the United States from the rest of the country. In return, Burr wanted money and ships

to carry out his conquest, unquote. And ships? Yeah. Sorry. Yes, please. The guns and ships, England, so we can fight the United fucking States. That sure sounds kind of treasonous

to my uneducated ass. No, that was definitely treason. It was all the treason. It may not be the legal definition of treason that we'll get into, but it certainly was not exactly i mean it definitely was cozying up uh you know to try to take action against the united states uh he also was uh kind of playing around with military assistance from spain and meanwhile while he also was mounting a reconnaissance mission into the west now remind me this what year is this

uh right now we're in like 1805 yep okay continue so uh he continued recruiting people to the cause building up necessary cash and supplies and then he also got his most important disciple in other words the guy with the most money and a place to do some planning a man named Harmon Blennerhassett a rich Irish lunatic who owned a

small island in the middle of the Ohio River and apparently just live in the fucking dream there with his wife and his kids until Aaron Burr showed up and just ruined his goddamn life because this guy went all in on this plan and wanted to fund it and

offer his little island as a place for meetings. It turned out to be a real bad fucking idea. I hope he loses everything. Fuck this guy. Continue. So, we jump up to November 1806. There was enough news about Burr's bullshit that President Jefferson issued a proclamation

declaring military expeditions against Spain a total no-no. Quote. So this is after the beginning of the proclamation he describes all of the shenanigans in detail. They He goes, I have therefore thought fit to issue this my proclamation, warning and enjoining all faithful citizens who have been led without due knowledge or consideration to participate in said unlawful enterprise, to withdraw from the same without delay, and commanding all persons whatsoever engaged or concerned in the same, to cease all further proceedings therein, as they will answer the contrary at their peril, and incur prosecution with all the rigors of the law, unquote. So Jefferson's like, knock this shit off or you're going to jail.

Yeah. And even though Burr was convinced it was right around the corner, there was no foreign assistance coming. And enough people were running their mouths about the conspiracy. The papers back east started running and more and more talk about this Burr conspiracy. Yeah, I mean, he has a T-Tiny army and we still have, you know. He had concepts of a plan. Actually had more than that.

He actually had a plan. He had a fucking solid-ass plan. It just got out. The news got out before he wanted it to. My impression is that the plan was always deeply unrealistic, even if it had gone as well as it could have. However, it didn't even do that. So anyway, in the middle of this one, everybody's already talking about this,

and Jefferson's literally saying, uh-uh, knock this shit off, former vice president, but undeterred, bird. drafted a coded letter to General Wilkinson, the drunk, with detailed instructions, a letter that was later used at trial was evidence. So from the deposition of James Wilkinson dated December 1806, where he's reading from this letter that had been written in code and then translated. So, quote, I, Aaron Burr, have obtained funds and have actually commenced the enterprise. Detachment from different points and under different pretenses will rendezvous on the Ohio

1st November, everything internal and external favors views. Protection of England is secure. T. Thomas Truxton is going to Jamaica to arrange with the admiral on that station. It will meet on the Mississippi, England, Navy of the United States are ready to join, and final orders are given to my friends and followers, unquote. So then the letter goes on to describe the criminal conspiracy in some detail. You know, and this, so this whole thing, the letter going out, and all these people talking.

It was just a little bit too much, and that was the tipping point. General Wilkinson decided to save his own ass by turning on his buddy Burr and going states' evidence. That's why this letter was admitted into the evidence of that deposition. The Virginia militia and a bunch of rowdy locals raided Blinnor Hossett's Island and trashed the place and stole all his shit and they ruined his life. That's about right.

Yeah, when you were near a rich Irish guy living in your own private island, maybe just chill and not get involved in conspiracies to, you know, carve out a kingdom in the western territories. I mean, it's a basic small overthrow of the government. Yeah, and so the raid on Blennerhausets Island caused panic to run from everybody in the conspiracy, you know it, from the lowliest little soldier all the way up to the top. And, yeah, by 1807, it was all over, Burr turning himself into the authorities of the Mississippi territory in January. But now the Mississippi Territory had their own little, their grand jury, and they failed to indict him. So Burr's like, I know the feds are coming for me, so he ran off into the alabal of the wilderness and tried to make his way to Spanish-controlled Florida.

Yeah, because that's where the crazies go. It's always to Florida. Quoting again from PBS.org, quote, the soldiers from Fort Stoddard captured the fugitive Aaron Burr on a February morning in 1807 on a muddy field near the hamlet of Wakefield. Burr's fall from grace seemed total. The former vice president, who had dressed as magnificently as any head of state, were a battered beaver hat and a ragged wool coat. The dandy who had charmed women by the score sported a scruffy crop of whiskers. Aaron Burr had traveled west just six months before to carve out his own empire.

Now he would return east to stand trial for treason, unquote. Yeah, fuck that guy. Now, one thing Trump has in common with Thomas Jefferson, besides being a coward or racist and a sex creep is that Tommy Boy was perfectly happy to declare Burr a traitor to Congress and anyone else who would listen

before there was a grand jury indictment or anything he just said this guy is a traitor fuck Burr he was fuck this guy he had less good things to say about his former vice president than our current president does about his

yeah he tried to have a murder yeah the trial of Aaron Burr was so important to Thomas Jefferson that he was micromanaging the trial from the White House. Not a good thing. Yeah, from the NEH.gov, which is the National Endowment of Humanities. Another website, I'm sure, will have be taken down eventually. RIP!

God damn it. Now I'm singing because we're all doing Hamilton. Okay. Continue. Quote, Jefferson's numerous letters to George Hay, the federal attorney who was nominally in charge, contained detailed instructions about trial strategy, evidence, and witness interrogation. Jefferson even forwarded a batch of blank pardons to be used at Hayes discretion to elicit evidence from reluctant witnesses." Unquote.

Burr's lawyers were able to use the heavy involvement of the President of the United States as part of the defense. Not good. Yeah, again from the same article, quote, one of Burr's lawyers denounced the author of the Declaration of Independence for behaving like a King of Great Britain and for unleashing the dogs of war, the hellhounds of persons, persecution against an innocent name for personal reasons, unquote. Well, I mean, if you make it look that way. Nobody's behaving well. Nobody, yeah, I mean, the problem is all these men kind of stuff.

Yeah, I mean, it's not like Taufford and Jeff. That much ever since a great person thing. He's just better than Aaron Burr. Yeah, and you also got to remember that Burr himself was a successful trial attorney. In fact, Eleanor Hamilton at least in the musicals like, you're a better lawyer than me. Which is bullshit. He would have never said that, ever. Egot maniac.

And so Burr was heavily involved in planning his own defense. It's also worth noting that the chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall, was a federalist, like Hamilton and Adams and George Washington, and he couldn't stand Thomas Jefferson in his state's rights policies. Things got so bad between the two that Jefferson was looking into impeaching Marshall before the trial was even over. You know, back when Supreme Court. justices might be impeached for something. Not a thing we worry about anymore. Yeah. Well, you know what? I have like kind of an itchy place about states rights, however, considering we might need to like flee. We might need states rights to protect us. Right now we do need stage rights to protect us

from the federal government. At least we have safe zones, I suppose. Saper. All right. for the ones they're trying to militarize and fucking take over, it's, okay, continue. So the trial was highly political and popular opinion was totally on Jefferson's side because Americans as a general rule hated Aaron Burr. Yeah, and, you know, the treason. Don't forget the treason. If you, if they hadn't have made it personal and made it about the treason. So Marshall forced the other side to argue against the actual indictment. which is levying war against the United States rather than a conspiracy to do so, which is where you get into this legal zone, which I am not qualified to talk about a lot,

but here's what I got. The trial itself could be a whole podcast, but, you know, as again, with no legal expertise, we'll just give the overview. The trial of lower-level conspirators brought a Supreme Court ruling that was crucial to Burr's case. Quote, to constitute a levying of war, there must be an assemblage of persons for the purpose of affecting by force a treasonable purpose. Enlistment of men to serve against government is not sufficient, unquote. So that's from an actual Supreme Court opinion.

And so that it basically was able to severely limit what they could admit in Burr's case. So the prosecution strategy was just like throw the entire pot of spaghetti at the wall. Tons of witnesses, the evidence of planning and logistics, all the shit from the raid they did against the meetings. on the island of the rich Irish guy and then the fact they were using presidential pardons to flip witnesses. Meanwhile for the defense

Marshall demanded the proof laid out by the Constitution. There needs to be an overt act with at least two witnesses and where was Burr? A lot of the evidence came from that raid on the island but Burr wasn't there and the way things were it made the things a little bit harder to stick

to him. Marshall also picked apart the sloppy drunk General Wilkins who wasn't exactly revealed to be reliable about his handling of the coded letter so the letter itself came under question whether the version that entered the court was legit well I mean if you're a good lawyer the first thing you need to do is throughout the evidence

it's the O.J. Simpson trial and while it didn't come up at trial it was later revealed that Wilkinson was a paid fucking agent of Spain whoopsie while he was at it Marshall decided to subpoena the president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, in a flex of judicial branch power. Quote, you are hereby commanded to appear before the judges of the circuit court

of the United States for the Fifth Circuit in the Virginia district in the city of Richmond at the court now setting forthwith to testify in behalf of Aaron Burr in a controversy now depending between the United States and the said Aaron Burr. And to bring with you the letter from General James Wilkinson dated the 21st day of October 1806 mentioned in the message of the President of the 22nd of January 1807 unquote

It's like, bitch, it doesn't matter you're the president, you are called before the court Yeah, yeah I mean, that's fair Which is the way it should be. I mean, because if you're going to fucking get yourself involved you have to be prepared to give a statement.

Indeed. And there's a lot Jefferson could say about Burr. So there was a lot of papers in there and conspiracy talk to go through, but ultimately the jury heard no admissible overt act that proved that Burr was levying war against the United States. Despite intense public pressure and a messy-ass trial, Marshall stuck to his guns and Burr was acquitted. The verdict literally reads, quote, not proved to be guilty under this indictment by any evidence submitted to us, unquote. Boo! So Bird got away with it. Boo!

Proving, once again, that if you are rich and powerful enough, you can get away with literally fucking anything. Welcome to America. This was a fight over, like, constitutional interpretation. This is, like, such an early test case. And I'm still, like, even though I don't think it's cool that Aaron Burr got away with shit that he did, but sort of, like, as terms of, like, the law and the ruling, I still kind of agree with it. In terms of principle, I just think Aaron Burr sucks and deserve to go to prison.

He did deserve to go to prison. And, you know, half the time when you're getting off for things, it's 90% of the time, it's because the prosecutor decided to aim too high. And if they would have given lesser charges that could have stick. They flew too close to the sun. Yeah, absolutely. Jefferson ordered for more charges to be gathered up from earlier parts of the conspiracy, desperate to get Burr in fucking prison. And so Burr was ordered to show up for federal court in Ohio to step in front of another grand jury.

But he never showed. In Ohio, just kind of let the case fizzle out. Other jurisdictions took runs at him, but nothing stuck. Yet everywhere he turned, everyone hated Aaron Burr. Tufflon Burr. So from PBS.org, quote, if Burr was victorious in court, he lost in the court of public opinion. Across America, he was burned in effigy.

Several states filed additional charges against him, and he lived in fear for his life. Wisely, Burr fled again, this time to Europe, where he tried without success to convince Britain and France to support other North American invasion of plots. So he just kept on trying. It's just more, more weakly and ineptly as the next few years went on.

The man became a monster. He was always a narcissist, and when his dreams were thwarted, he became a fucking monster. And I originally had thought about ending it right there because that's kind of the relevant part to the whole treason chart. But the end of Burr's life is amusing enough

that we should definitely talk about it. So, well, we have a few more pages to go. So Burr spent a few years in exile, But in 1812, there was a whole new war with the British Empire to worry about. And Burr, he was able to quietly return to New York and once again found war as a successful attorney. There was more tragedy waiting for him because after being apart for years, his daughter, Theadoja, booked passage on a ship to travel from South Carolina to New York to finally reunite with her father, despite concerns about pirates, British warships, and foul weather. from an article titled The Unsolved Mystery of Aaron Burr's

daughter. Quote After saying goodbye to her husband at Georgetown on December 31, 1812, Theodosia The Patriot, the name of the ship, and all aboard disappeared and were never seen again. After weeks passed without word of her safe arrival

in New York, her concerned father and husband began to fear the worst. Burr and Alston chose to believe that Theodosia had met her death by drowning after a severe storm sunk the Patriot. however as word of the disaster filtered through news channels a stream of rumors and stories emerged about her mysterious fate and the conjecture would continue for decades unquote yeah because you know killed by pirates is good yeah there was like some like deathbed confessions of some pirates who said that you know she was taken prisoner and bad stuff happened which again she didn't deserve she was just a girl she was just a girl and well i guess at that point she was a woman oh yeah she was a woman and of course she was a woman and of course All of Burr's faults, one of the interesting things about him was he was an early feminist. He believed that women should have the right to vote.

He made sure his daughter had an education. And, you know, there's several writings where he basically thought that his daughter was superior than most men. They knew and thought that she should have an equal standing in society like everybody else. And, you know, honestly, he probably wasn't real. Maybe she really was fucking awesome. And you know what? From someone who was also a daddy's girl. And so she either drowned or was, you know.

I hope that she drowned. murdered by pirates, yes. I hope that if she was murdered by pirates, she was just murdered. Yeah, it sucks. But, you know, it's like as much fun as we like to make piracy. It's not a good thing. And you just know that Aaron Burr wasn't just going to go out quietly or normally, but perhaps hilariously.

What happened next could easily be another full podcast episode by itself. So it's 77 years old. Aaron Burr managed to marry a wealthy widow, decades younger than himself. Yep. And this was basically at our marriage of convenience. Because even though his name was personally mud, he still was like part of New York High Society. She had money from her dead husband, but she like literally strategically married Aaron Burr just to have access to the right social circles and all that because he was, you know, New York royalty because his parents were rich. Yeah.

And he fucked her. over and she got he immediately started spending all her fucking money and shamelessly cheating on her like I looked at the figure and it's like basically is like within the first six months of them being married he'd spent the equivalent of like what now

would be like $400,000 just like what the fuck dude like and then you know and yeah and he spin it on his mistresses it's like it was very humiliating so what did she do she took him to court because we talked about this in my

from a book about this famous estate the book titled Morris Jumel Mansion and talking about Eliza Jumel was the name of this lady before she became old Mrs. Aaron Burr. Quote, Eliza was one of the wealthiest widows in New York.

However, she sought additional security in terms of her place in society. Her marriage to former Vice President Aaron Burr in 1833 bolstered her footing among the New York elite. The marriage was solely out of convenience for both sides. Aaron Burr was 77 when they married, and he was looking for a source of funds to assist him to cover his expenses.

Eliza quickly saw his endgame and also learned of his infidelity with a much younger woman. Eliza sued for divorce. In an interesting turn of events, her lawyer was Alexander Hamilton's son. Yeah, it was. Perhaps this was delayed karma for Aaron Burr, who had shot and killed Hamilton 30 years prior, unquote. Yes, it was. So, yeah, Burr had to literally face Alexander Hamilton Jr., in court and they file i want to say they filed the petition on the like either

Alexander hamilton's birthday or the day that he died it was very it was a significant date i didn't catch that here but i do remember that yeah i think it was like the date that Alexander hamilton died it was the day they filed it was a big fuck you yeah and it kept coming so this was a incredibly big public costly trial this is another one where it's like like this cost this woman what would now be hundreds of thousands of dollars and it was scandalous but she didn't give a fuck i so respect her and love her for this he counter accused her of like having like multiple male lovers because if she was found like in the new york law if she was found guilty of adultery then she couldn't even file for divorce you're just stuck with your husband but in the end though she probably

thought the money was well spent because during all of this three years of this divorce dragging on and on, Burr's health declined just threw out the whole thing. He suffered multiple. Yes, it did. He suffered multiple stress. Yep, he was partially paralyzed. And finally, on September 14th, 1836, Judge Philo T. Ruggles,

what a name, signed the divorce decree. And on that same day, Aaron Burr dropped dead. Alexander Hamilton Jr., victorious, and this woman free of him and America finally done with Aaron Burr.

the end. Yay. So, yeah. It's like on one hand, it's like she could have possibly just waited it out. But at the same time, it also probably stopped him from being able to spend her money. So fuck that guy. Yeah, just the fact that he got, I mean, I don't even know if he knew that he was officially divorced the day he died, but it didn't matter. It just made her feel good.

It was a very chef's kiss to her. And it's just kind of another one. It's like, I'm divorced and you're done. Fuck you. And that just sort of bizarre, carmic thing where it's like, you know, he files the, the files for divorce. You know, Alexander Hamilton Jr. does it on the day his father died. And then he wins the case on the day Aaron Burr dies. So it's just, just poetry.

Chef's Kiss. Yep. I like it. But I don't like Aaron Burr. No, he was a total piece of shit. He was a piece of shit where it's like not the not the sympathetic anti-hero of the musical. Of course, Alexander Hamilton, not the flawed hero either, but also a crooked bastard. Oh, yeah, for sure.

I mean, again, the musical isn't history. It's just fun. It's a good story. The musical is great, but just don't think you're seeing who these people really were. C.R. George Washington episodes at the very beginning to get a clue what that guy was like. When Manuel Miranda, he wanted people, he was like, look, if this gets you interested, you know, lead you to the, history of it. It's like, that's more of what he wanted. It's like, I want to entertain you, but he was telling a story inspired by history. If you think you're going to see a stage play of any

kind that's going to teach you real history, then I got, I got, it's like, yeah, don't watch movies either. That's a whole other, like, genre. But anyway, that art is art. That is how everything old is new again. We got a president of the United States, uh, accusing a, um, someone of treason, this time a former president instead of a vice president, and it's also not going to stick. Well, it's not going to stick because it's bullshit. Not because it's like, well, you should have just got, you should have aimed for lesser charges.

Jefferson should have taken a Trump route and just sent an angry mob after Aaron Burr to hang him. Because back then it totally would have happened. And that's the question, too, is why didn't it? I guess by the time he got, Back to New York, everybody just kind of went, forgot. Yeah, well, they were busy at war again, so. That is true.

After that, he was just an old-ass lawyer. He did die kind of penniless because he did get cut off before. Yeah, mommy's money got cut off, and all of his old funds were long gone. The reason why he married in the first place. Yeah. He was in debt, and all of his financial schemes had gone tits up. And she was able to freeze the money from him. Yep, no, he...

So when he did have fucking... So that last three years of his life was fucking rough. If I remember I read very briefly when I was doing research, but I'd include this in my notes. But I think there is a place you can go or the house that he was staying in. And there's a room where you can still say to this day, and it says, Aaron Burr died here. So look that up, have fun with that.

All right, well, that's enough about Aaron Burr. He's dead. Fuck him. Yeah. Fuck him. And I guess fuck this episode. We're done. Yeah.

I'm going to predict that the treason charge against Obama is going to be less successful than the one on Aaron Burr, which also was a total failure. Okay. All right, guys. We'll have fun, you know, living in the end of America. We'll catch you soon. Bye.