All time low in American political debate? Maybe not...

I have been hearing on both sides of the political aisle that 2016 is the year where we as a nation have reached an all-time low in American political discussion. Surely, only a bulldozer could move more mud. However, in a lot of ways throughout our nation’s history it has actually been much worse.

Pull out a $10 bill and look at whose face is on it. That is Alexander Hamilton. He was a man of many talents. He was George Washington’s senior aide during the Revolutionary War, the founder of our nation’s coast guard, our country’s first Secretary of State, and one of the founders and promoters of the US Constitution. Not bad for a poor kid from the British West Indies. However, although he was a man of many talents mastering the art of dueling wasn’t one of them.

During the earliest, post-Revolutionary days of American history, although it was falling out of PC fashion, dueling was nevertheless not completely illegal. So, if your speech or backroom dealings caused a political rival to lose position or face, or worse cause the injured gentleman to fall out with his constituency, it wasn’t wholly politically incorrect in the early 1800s to walk across the aisle, call out the name of your antagonist in front of his peers and demand “satisfaction.” It was very much the American Way.

Before reality TV, in 1804, Aaron Burr Jr., third Vice President of the United States, was dropped from the ticket for the up-and-coming 1804 election. Thomas Jefferson dropped him like a hot rock because rumors had damaged his reputation and picked a fellow named George Clinton by the way.

Alexander Hamilton had said, and the press picked up on it, things such as, “ … [Burr] could not be trusted to handle the reins of government.” That was a problem because Burr was the sitting Vice President. He was also a veteran, so we can guess that there was some PTRWSD, or Post Traumatic Revolutionary War Stress Disorder involved in the challenge. Burr demanded an apology and the letters went back and forth, but long story short, Hamilton, in a very polite, early 19th century kind of way, told Burr to go suck 19th century canal water.

Eventually Burr “Demanded Satisfaction.” The exact events are disputed, but they seem to have been disputed right there at the dueling spot too. An interesting historical note is that by 1804 New York was one of the states that had taken a firm legal stance against dueling, so as they were both physically present in New York, they according;y rowed across the Hudson River in their separate boats to duel-friendly New Jersey.

That is where the niceties ended. Hamilton’s second reported that Hamilton changed heart, wished to apologize, and fired his shot in the air. If that was true, there were guidelines for these things, and Rule 20 of the Code Duello, the 1777 popular handbook of the day on these sorts of things reads like this:

“Rule 20: In all cases a miss-fire is equivalent to a shot, and a snap or non-cock is to be considered as a miss-fire.”

Thus, if you suddenly realize that you are in a duel, and you get so nervous that you forget to cock back the hammer to your flint pistol, technically that is a miss-fire. These things happen. Also, if the flint does not cause the pistol to fire that is by definition a miss-fire. However, if there is ignition, the pistol fires, for whatever reason, where the barrel is actually pointed according to Code Duello’s Rule 20 is completely irrelevant. That is a shot. And so, Burr, cognizant that they were both experienced duelists, perhaps with a bit of an ax to grind, claimed Rule 20, pointed his flint pistol at one of the founders of our Constitution and fired for effect. Hamilton got the lead ball in the stomach and we got his picture on our $10 bill.

Hence Trump and Hillary may be slinging mud, but it is not an all-time low. They are still just throwing heated words; they haven’t melted down the lead yet. In the future, however, the way things are going, maybe each political party will return to our roots and add to their campaign staff a drone operator. I hope not. One of the things our nation got right was making political, physical duels illegal. Is this current political mud-slinging an all-time low? Alexander Hamilton died a day after the duel and I would wager that if she were alive today Mrs. Hamilton might even be offended by that and maybe demand satisfaction herself. What? Women didn’t duel? Of course they did …

Timothy Ahern is a resident of Chugiak.