Hamilton and Burr- Clash of the Titans
Hamilton and Burr- Clash of the Titans In post-revolutionary America, the founders were all scrambling to find their place. As Joseph Ellis describes it in Founding Brothers, they were all classically educated and were comparing their Great Experiment to the glory days of the Republic of Rome. Everyone jostled for the title of Cincinnatus, Cato, Solon or Cicero. However, they all waited with baited breath to see who would be America’s Catiline. The name may not mean anything to our modern ears, but to those with familiarity with the history of the Roman Republic know that the Catiline conspiracy nearly brought it down. In the aftermath of the election of 1800, Alexander Hamilton thought he had found the American Catiline. It had been a bitter campaign between sitting president John Adams and his former friend and vice president Thomas Jefferson. The voting exposed a flaw in the Constitution. The founders had not anticipated the rise of pol...