so into this fluid situation we find aaron burr. burr came from a very distinguished family, not a wealthy family but they distinguish one. his father was president of the college of new jersey which is now princeton university. his grandfather had been president of the same college and his grandfather was jonathan edwards, the great theologian who told us that we were all sinners in the hands of an angry god, rather unsettling. burr is a very young man, still a teenager, ran off to join the continental army when it was camped in front of boston. he joined an expedition into canada, in the dead of winter, one of the most difficult and unsuccessful expeditions in american military history. he won great distinction although he was a small, slight man and it turned out he was extremely tough and hard and. and he had a real military disposition. and by the age of 21, he was a colonel in the hot metal army. and he commanded a regiment in the battle of mountainous -- monmouth and men that served with him decades thereafter viewed him with

now, 1804 was aaron burr's very bad year. i apologize, i mention to show you theodocia burr, his daughter. 1804 went very badly in a number of ways. first, he learned that he was not going to be a candidate for vice president in the 1804 election. jefferson had him dropped from the ticket. this couldn't have been a terrible surprise, but it certainly was a disappointment. burr decided that what he would do is rebuild his political fortunes, establish his -- [inaudible] by running for governor of new york which he did in the spring of that year, and he got beat. he lost rather badly, actually. so while sulking over that, he learned of some very rude remarks that had been made about him by alexander hamilton during that campaign. he sent hamilton a note demanding that he either retract the remarks or explain them. hamilton wrote a rather mealy-mouthed response. things devolved from there, and they ended up fighting the famous duel in new jersey. it ended very badly for hamilton. he died. i always love this illustration. i put it

burr and would not bring charges record jefferson became convinced it was not a good idea to try aaron burr out less than they could not trust them. so they wanted to bring a case in virginia because that would be the jefferson's people the jeffersonian republicans would want to convict burr and when they picked the jury that cannot have a neutral juror. after days of trying to pick the jury burr just said i will take the next four and they said you cannot take meat. i think you should bed hanged. he said i don't care.e the reason is he was trying nikkei's to the judge he fry knew in the jury room fry him but he just needed to win with a judge. and the indictment was w written to get the case in virginia they claimed that the trees in happened on the island. that was the western edge of virginia now part of west virginia and burr was not there. it was a rookie mistake and it made it on answerable after 14 madrassas chiefst justice marshall shut down the case and sent it to the jurors. that did not stop the lawyers from speaking in extraordinary languages. when of the lawyers through the mar

and the author said, everybody said aaron burr was charming. what did that mean? you met him. what was his charm? the man said it was the way he listened. he listened to you as if what you were saying was more important to him than it was to you. snu when now when i read that i said, that's it. that explains conspiracy. no one has ever been able to figure out what his agenda was. i thought, he didn't have one. he was vam ping. he was going around everybody he knew, bunch of mall contents, a lot of them. they'd talk and talk. he'd listen. >> he agrees with me. >> he's going to make it happen. >> the british, they will pay you this money. they say, thank you. the spanish will pay you this money. >>'s kind of like vamping, maybe this will work, maybe that will work. who knows what he's thinking. i don't think he knew what he was thinking either, but he listen listened. another question. back there. >> there's a whole bunch of burr people who love burr. there's burr societies and stuff like that. >> they came here for the hamilton show. >> there's a new book by a woman at the univ

when that war came, aaron burr faded in the shadows but many others who had played a role in the match nations of what came to be called the burr conspiracy would be center stage, including andrew jackson, henry clay and general wilkinson. let's talk about the reasons for this war. i think there were probably threefold. one was this issue of impressment. the royal navy at this point is really engaged in a battle for the high seas with napolean's france and all of europe is really tied up in this huge struggle. what the royal navy is doing, they need sailors for their ships. so what they're doing is stopping american ships and seizing basically kidnapping the terms impressment, kidnapping american sailors who have just the faintest degree of british blood in their vains off of those american ships and forcing them to serve in the royal navy. at the same time the united states is trying to trade with france was is gray britain going to allow that? no. they are seizing american ships and are trying to trade with france. at the same time, france is saying, well, wait, we don't want the ame

. >> james, you're forgetting aaron burr. come on. aaron burr was far worst of a presidential candidate. >> can't have been the worst candidate in american history. if he had been, i would have worked for him. >> probably been a democrat. >> james. >> remember, talking about him getting in and out. remember ross perot. he got in the race and got out of the race. he said the reason he got out was the president tried to mess up his daughter's wedding. someone said how can you mess up a texas wedding? someone show up in a sedan? >> james carville, thank you. >>> let us know what you think. facebook, google plus, follow me on anderson cooper. >>> still ahead, evangelical voters in south carolina and those stunning new poll numbers. if they're right, big if, the candidate you'd expect evangelicals to back may not get their vote after all in south carolina. >>> later in the program, crime and punishment. it was all joran van der sloot could do to stay awake in court. he seemed bored today. then he sprang a huge surprise on everyone. tell yo

. >> james, you're forgetting aaron burr. come on. aaron burr was far worst of a presidential candidate. >> can't have been the worst candidate in american history. if he had been, i would have worked for him. >> probably been a democrat. >> james. >> remember, talking about him getting in and out. remember ross perot. he got in the race and got out of the race. he said the reason he got out was the president tried to mess up his daughter's wedding. someone said how can you mess up a texas wedding? someone show up in a sedan? >> james carville, thank you. >>> let us know what you think. facebook, google plus, follow me on anderson cooper. >>> still ahead, evangelical voters in south carolina and those stunning new poll numbers. if they're right, big if, the candidate you'd expect evangelicals to back may not get their vote after all in south carolina. >>> later in the program, crime and punishment. it was all joran van der sloot could do to stay awake in court. he seemed bored today. then he sprang a huge surprise on everyone. tell yo

there is a list of people they do this to, robert livingston, aaron burr, george clinton, jefferson secondsh and madison's first vice- president. -- and then who runs against madison for president in 1812. i mean, you know, you just go down the list. and they're very good at finding these guys and then getting rid of them. >> host: in your american history magazine piece, richard brookhiser, you write madison's most important contribution may have been figuring out how to make politics workday in, day out. he was the first founding father to understand the importance of public opinion and that marked a new stage in his thinking. >> guest: public opinion was a new phrase in the eighteenth century. it's hard to imagine that but it was a new concept that had been first used in france, in french. madison is one of the first people in the english-speaking world to use the phrase "public opinion." and he writes some essays for this newspaper he helps found, the national gazette, in 1791/1792 where he talks about public opinion. and he says there should be one empire of reason over the whole coun