|
|
Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate
Contents:
Aaron Burr’s Farewell to the Senate
On March 2, 1805, the Senate witnessed a moment of extraordinary drama. In the final hours of the Eighth Congress, Vice President Aaron Burr delivered a farewell address that remains a classic in the Senate’s history. Less than eight months earlier, he had killed former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a duel at Weehawken, New Jersey. Following that tragic event, Burr fled southward to escape indictment.
In his address, the vice president apologized for any offense that his actions as the Senate’s presiding officer might have given to senators. Burr asserted that during the past four years, he had followed his belief that error was preferable to indecision and that his errors, "whatever they might have been, were those of rule and principle, and not of caprice."
Burr concluded his address with the following stirring remarks about the nature of the Senate. He said :
Quote
This House is a sanctuary; a citadel of law, of order, and of liberty; and it is here—it is here, in this exalted refuge; here, if anywhere, [that] resistance [will] be made to the storms of political phrensy and the silent arts of corruption; and if the Constitution be destined ever to perish by the sacrilegious hands of the demagogue or the usurper, which God avert, its expiring agonies will be witnessed on this floor.
Senator Samuel Mitchill recorded what happened immediately following Burr’s address:
Quote
When Mr. Burr had concluded he descended from the chair, and in a dignified manner walked to the door, which resounded as he with some force shut it after him. On this the firmness and resolution of many of the Senators gave way, and they burst into tears. There was a solemn and silent weeping for perhaps five minutes.
Contents:
Chicago: Robert J. Dole, "Aaron Burr’s Farewell to the Senate," Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate: A Series of Bicentennial Minutes Presented to the Senate During the One Hundredth Congress (Washington, D.C.: U.S Government Printing Office, 1989), in Original Sources, accessed January 21, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8SZRGBPWDUT4GMY.
MLA: Dole, Robert J. "Aaron Burr’s Farewell to the Senate." Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate: A Series of Bicentennial Minutes Presented to the Senate During the One Hundredth Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S Government Printing Office, 1989, in , Original Sources. 21 Jan. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8SZRGBPWDUT4GMY.
Harvard: Dole, RJ 1989, 'Aaron Burr’s Farewell to the Senate' in Historical Almanac of the U.S. Senate: A Series of Bicentennial Minutes Presented to the Senate During the One Hundredth Congress, U.S Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.. cited in , . Original Sources, retrieved 21 January 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8SZRGBPWDUT4GMY.
|