29918-American Emperor Facebook-Scrib Excerpt3

8/3/2019 29918-American Emperor Facebook-Scrib Excerpt3

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AN EXCLUSIVE

Q&A WITH

DAVID O. S TEWART

author of

emperor

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When did you decide to use/write Aaron Burr as your central character?

I toyed with the idea o writing a book about Burr’s Western expedition orseveral years beore taking it on. I kept eeling rustrated when good books wouldreer to Burr’s Western expedition and add with a bemused shrug something

like, “whatever he was up to out there.” Tis man, I would think to mysel, was the third vice president o the United States and was tried or treason orthat expedition! Tere had to be some way to gure out what he was really up to. Tat central riddle—which has vexed writers or two centuries—lies atthe core o the book and drove me to write it. Tere is, in act, a good deal o ambiguity about what Burr was really intending to accomplish. Te witnessesclosest to Burr had big credibility problems: either they had a track record o

telling lies, or they had powerul incentives to lie to save their own skins (amotive Burr shared). So solving the central riddle was a ascinating exercise inerreting out the evidence and siting it. I concluded that Burr ostered much o the conusion about his goals both to protect himsel i the plan went awry (asit did) and so he could adjust the plan in mid-ight as opportunities shited. Inshort, he was hoping to do as much, or as little, as he could get away with. I itinvolved creating a new American empire, then so be it.

When most people think of Aaron Burr, they likely think of his duel with

Alexander Hamilton. What would surprise people most about Burr?

Much about Burr turns out to be surprising, beginning with the act that thereis no record that he ever uttered or wrote a harsh word about Hamilton beoretheir duel! Te historical image o Burr portrays him as an implacable, vindictiveadversary who murdered Hamilton. Te truth is that he behaved with real

restraint in public dialogue and Hamilton was the intemperate provocateur. Another surprising eature o Burr’s character was his strong belie that women were the equals o men and should have equal rights and opportunities. He wasdismayed by the poor education given to young women and made sure that hisdaughter was the best-educated woman in America. He kept a portrait o Mary Wollstonecrat, the English advocate o women’s rights, over his replace.



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What was Burr’s vision for America?

Burr oresaw a country that would stretch across the North American continentand take its place among the great nations o the globe. Others in his generationshared that view, but Burr was unique in his willingness to do something about

it—that’s what the Western expedition was all about. Burr was not contentto wait or the Spanish empire to decay and or its colonies break o throughinsurrection; he wanted to liberate Spanish colonies by orce o arms and takethem! Having a pragmatic turn o mind, Burr avoided much o the politicaltheorizing that surrounded the Revolution and the ounding o the UnitedStates. As a New Yorker, though, he was sympathetic to business interests andthought the nation should support them. Indeed, he ounded the ancestor o

Chase Manhattan bank.

What were some of his greatest achievements?

Burr never became president (or emperor), so he was unable to leave the sorto legacy he hoped to create. His ocus on the possibilities o the West helpedto orient Americans to the potential o that region and the opportunities orexpansion. Indeed, later leaders achieved much o the expansion he envisioned.

Also, Burr proved adept at retail-level electoral politics, extending the principleso electioneering beyond the drawing rooms o the elite. His activities in New York during the presidential election o 1800 were a laboratory or the new artso attracting votes on a mass basis.

Why does Aaron Burr command attention today?

I would cite three eatures that make Burr worth a close look. He dreamed hugedreams and actually tried to make them come true. In some ways, he embodiedthe American dream on steroids: Go West, conquer huge territories, and launchyour own new nation! Tere is an outrageousness to Burr which is compellingand must be explored to be believed. In addition, he serves as a corrective tothe widespread deication o the other Founding Fathers. Burr was not shy



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about pointing out the limitations o contemporaries like George Washington,Tomas Jeerson, and Alexander Hamilton, and he helps us to see them inhuman scale. Finally, when he was in mortal peril in his treason trial, acingexecution, Burr conducted a masterul deense that reafrmed basic values o the American legal system and political culture. In response to Burr’s arguments

in that case, Chie Justice Marshall handed down opinions that limited thescope o treason prosecutions, that allowed access to presidential papers in courtcases when warranted, and that emphasized the importance o the rights o criminal deendants. Tese are powerul lessons that need to be relearned by every generation o Americans.

Aaron Burr or Thomas Jefferson?

Burr and Jeerson were very dierent men who disliked each other intensely. Jeerson thought Burr was too ambitious and untrustworthy. Burr thought Jeerson was a moral and political weakling. Both men could point to evidencesupporting their views. Burr lacked Jeerson’s philosophical bent, and certainly lacked the Virginian’s ability to inspire with the written word. Yet Burr had aar more “executive” personality than Jeerson did and might have been a moreeective president. Te principal challenge that Jeerson aced as president wassteering the nation saely through the world war that raged between NapoleonicFrance and Great Britain. Because his policy was to keep the military small and weak, Jeerson had ew tools with which to resist European abuse o Americantrade, and nally resorted to shutting down that trade altogether. But Jeerson’sembargo hurt the United States ar more than either France or Britain. HadBurr been president, he likely would have avoided that catastrophic policy, builtup the military, and could well have brought the nation more happily through

a very trying time.

29918-American Emperor Facebook-Scrib Excerpt3

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