41. Error often is to be preferred
to indecision.
–Aaron Burr, Jr.
Photo
by Dino Palomares
Aaron Burr, Jr. ’1772 was the son of Princeton’s second president, the late Aaron Burr, Sr., and the grandson of its third president, the late Jonathan Edwards. Graduating from the College with distinction at age 16, Burr was considered one of the most brilliant Princeton students in the eighteenth century. This Cliosophic Society member served New York state as an assemblyman and attorney general before rising to the U.S. Senate. In the presidential election of 1800, Burr and Thomas Jefferson received equal electoral votes, but the House of Representatives selected Jefferson, rendering Burr vice-president. Alexander Hamilton’s opposition to Burr’s candidacy for the 1804 NY gubernatorial race brought about the infamous duel in which Burr mortally wounded his enemy. Eventually tried for and acquitted of treason for his suspicious activities in the American west, Burr lived until 1836, when he was buried with full military honors near his forefathers’ graves in the President’s Lot of the Princeton cemetery.
- To learn more about Aaron Burr, see Café
Vivian picture #74.
- To learn more about Princetonians in national service,
see quotation #3, 8, 11,
17, 19, 20,
21, 25, and 33,
and Café Vivian picture #5,
15, 35, 41,
42, 74, 107,
110, and 119.
- To learn more about Princeton University presidents,
see quotation #9, 11,
and 33, and Café Vivian picture #33,
40, 95, 98,
105, 113, 122,
and 125.
- To learn more about notable Princeton undergraduate alumni, see icon #4, 5, and 10, quotation #3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 33, 36, and 37, and Café Vivian picture #1, 5, 7, 15, 17, 39, 41, 55, 57, 59, 74, 76, 84, 88, 99, 101, 102, 107, 110, and 123.