You may know about the duel with Alexander Hamilton that made Aaron Burr infamous, but did you know about his treason trial? Join the Litchfield Historical Society on Sunday, March 23 at 3:00 pm as Professor R. Kent Newmyer discusses his book The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr: Law, Politics, and the Character Wars of a New Nation.
After stepping down from the vice presidency in 1805, Burr began to prepare for a military expedition to invade and capture Spanish holdings in the southwest, or perhaps encourage the western states to secede from the United States. Burr set off down the Ohio River on a special boat prepared for his mission, meeting with his co-conspirators along the way to New Orleans and gathering support. A suspicious President Jefferson later demanded Burr’s arrest on the grounds of treason, and the ensuing trial became one of the most significant criminal hearings in the history of the United States.
In his widely acclaimed book on Burr’s trial, R. Kent Newmyer explores this dramatic and important moment in legal history, and the public figures and controversies involved in the case that exposed the political and cultural climate of the new republic. Of The Treason Trial of Aaron Burr, the Weekly Standard writes, “R. Kent Newmyer… has quite a story to tell, and he tells it well.”
R. Kent Newmyer is currently a professor of law and history at the University of Connecticut School of Law, specializing in the constitutional and legal history of the early American republic. He served as a professor of history at UConn from 1960 to 1997. He is the author of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story: Statesman of the Old Republic (1985) and John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court (2001).
This lecture is free for members and $5 for non-members; registration is required. To register, please call (860) 567-4501 or email registration@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.
The Litchfield History Museum is located at 7 South Street, Litchfield, CT. For more information about this or other programs, please call (860) 567-4501 or see www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.