Word: burrs
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...BURR...
...will be especially galling to those who hate and envy Gore Vidal to pick up Burr and discover that the gods of Julian the Apostate once again seem to have smiled broadly in his direction. Burr, a novel stretched tightly over the historical bones of Aaron Burr, could not have been published at a better time. There is scandal in the highest places. A constitutional storm is gathering in Washington, and interest in historical precedent is rising fast...
...Aaron Burr seems particularly pertinent. The Burr-Jefferson Electoral College tie in 1800 led to the Twelfth Amendment, which revised the process of electing the President and Vice President.* After killing Alexander Hamilton in the Weehawken duel in 1804, Burr became the first Vice President to be indicted-a precedent that has lately been dusted off by constitutional experts...
...Burr dealt with the indictment by leaving town. There followed his premature adventures in empire building and manifest destiny in the Southwest. These eventually led to a charge of treason brought by President Jefferson, a trial that saw Jefferson invoke Executive privilege to withhold documents. The far-reaching effect of Burr's eventual acquittal was to help define what constitutes a treasonable...
Besides being a revolutionary, Burr was a New York lawyer, and his ideas on education, especially for women, were far ahead of his time. Yet enlightened views did not stop him, at age 77, from marrying a rich widow and selling her assets under property laws that had been written for and by husbands. Burr always had his way with women. In addition to fathering one legitimate, beautiful and brilliant daughter, he has been credited with numerous "foundlings." Though there is no evidence, it was even whispered that the eighth President, Martin Van Buren, was an adulterous plum...