"Alexander Hamilton's Last Duel" by David Aldus U.A

£3,500.00

 

                "Alexander Hamilton's Last Duel" by David Aldus U.A

 

  Founding Father of the United States of America!!!

 

This beautiful painting capturing the duel between Alexander Hamilton & Aaron Burr!!!

 

 

 

 

The duel began at dawn on July 11, 1804, along the west bank of the Hudson River on a rocky ledge in Weehawken, New Jersey. Sadly the duel took place as the same place where Alexander Hamilton's Son Phillip had also died in a duel when he was only in his 20s some say Alexander never got over this terrible event only 3 years earlier!!!!

 

Both opponents were rowed over from Manhattan separately from different locations, since the location of the duel was not accessible from the west due to the steepness of the adjoining cliffs.

 

 

 Lots were cast for the choice of position and which second should start the duel. Both were won by Hamilton's second, who chose the upper edge of the ledge for Hamilton facing the city and the rising sun to the east.

 

 

After the seconds measured the paces, Hamilton, according to both William P. Van Ness and Burr, raised his pistol "as if to try the light" and had to wear his glasses to prevent his vision from being obscured.

 

 

 

Hamilton also refused the more sensitive hairspring setting for the dueling pistols offered by Nathaniel Pendleton, and Burr was unaware of the option.

 

 

Burr shot Hamilton, delivering what proved to be a fatal wound, while Hamilton apparently "deloped", as he had indicated was his intention in his letter beforehand; and his shot went well above Burr's head, breaking a tree branch.

 

 

The shot hit Hamilton in the lower abdomen above his right hip. The ball ricocheted off Hamilton's second or third false rib, fracturing it and causing considerable damage to his internal organs, particularly his liver and diaphragm, before becoming lodged in his first or second lumbar vertebra.

 

 

The paralyzed Hamilton was immediately attended by the same surgeon who tended to Hamilton's son Philip. Hamilton was ferried to Greenwich Village and the boarding house of his friend William Bayard Jr., who was waiting on the dock.

 

 

On his deathbed, Hamilton asked the Episcopal Bishop of New York, Benjamin Moore, to give him holy communion. Moore initially declined to do so on the grounds that participating in a duel was a mortal sin and that Hamilton, although undoubtedly sincere in his faith, was not a member of the Episcopalian denomination.

 

 

 

After leaving, Moore was persuaded to return that afternoon by the urgent pleas of Hamilton's friends. After hearing Hamilton's solemn assurance that he repented his role in the duel, Moore gave him communion.

 

 

After final visits from his family, friends, and considerable suffering for at least 31 hours, Hamilton died at two o'clock the following afternoon, July 12, 1804, at Bayard's home just below present-day Gansevoort Street in Greenwich Village, New York City.

 

 

 

The city fathers halted all business at noon two days later for Hamilton's funeral. The procession route of about two miles organized by the Society of the Cincinnati had so many participants of every class of citizen that it took hours to complete and was widely reported nationwide by newspapers.

 

 

Moore conducted Hamilton's funeral service at Trinity Church at present-day 89 Broadway in Manhattan. Governor Morris gave the eulogy and secretly established a fund to support his widow and children.

 

 

Hamilton was buried in the church's cemetery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Background to the Duel.

 

 

Soon after Lewis' gubernatorial victory, the Albany Register published Charles D. Cooper's letters, citing Hamilton's opposition to Burr and alleging that Hamilton had expressed "a still more despicable opinion" of the vice president at an Upstate New York dinner party.

 

Sensing an attack on his honor, and recovering from his defeat, Burr demanded an apology in the form of a letter. Hamilton wrote a letter in response and ultimately refused because he could not recall the instance of insulting Burr.

 

 

Hamilton was also accused of recanting Cooper's letter out of cowardice. After a series of attempts to reconcile differences between the two failed, a duel was arranged through liaisons on June 27, 1804.

 

 

The concept of honor was fundamental to Hamilton's vision of himself and of the nation. As evidence of the importance that honour held in Hamilton's value system, historians observe that Hamilton previously was a party to seven "affairs of honor" as a principal, and to three as an advisor or second.

 

 

Such affairs of honor were often concluded prior to reaching the final stage of a duel. Before the duel, Hamilton wrote an explanation of his decision to participate while at the same time intending to "throw away" his shot. His desire to be available for future political matters also played a factor.

 

 

A week before the duel, Hamilton and Burr both attended an annual Independence Day dinner held by the Society of the Cincinnati. Separate accounts confirm that Hamilton was uncharacteristically effusive while Burr was, by contrast, uncharacteristically withdrawn.

 

 

Accounts also agree that Burr became roused when Hamilton, again uncharacteristically, sang a favourite song, which recent scholarship indicates was "How Stands the Glass Around", an anthem sung by military troops about fighting and dying in war.

 

 

 

Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 – July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 under the presidency of George Washington,

 

 

He also founded America's first political party, the Federalist Party, in 1791. Born out of wedlock in Charlestown on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Hamilton was orphaned as a child and taken in by a prosperous merchant. He was given a scholarship and pursued his education at King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City where, despite his young age, he was an anonymous but prolific and widely read pamphleteer and advocate for the American Revolution.

 

 

He then served as an artillery officer in the American Revolutionary War, where he saw military action against the British Army in the New York and New Jersey campaign, served for four years as aide-de-camp to Continental Army commander-in-chief George Washington, and fought under Washington's command in the war's climactic battle, the Siege of Yorktown, which secured American victory in the war and with it the independence of the United States.

 

 

After the Revolutionary War, Hamilton served as a delegate from New York to the Congress of the Confederation in Philadelphia. He resigned to practice law and founded the Bank of New York. In 1786, Hamilton led the Annapolis Convention, which sought to strengthen the power of the loose confederation of independent states under the limited authorities granted the Congress by the Articles of Confederation.

 

 

The following year he was a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, which drafted the U.S. Constitution creating a more centralized federal national government. He then authored 51 of the 85 installments of The Federalist Papers, which proved persuasive in securing its ratification by the states and remains the preeminent interpretation of Constitutional intent.

 

 

 

As a trusted member of President Washington's first cabinet, Hamilton served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. He envisioned a central government led by an energetic executive, a strong national defense, and a more diversified economy with significantly expanded industry.

 

 

 

 

He successfully argued that the implied powers of the U.S. Constitution provided the federal government the legal basis to create the First Bank of the United States as a fiscal agent to assume the states' war debts, a bank that was funded by a tariff on imports and a whiskey tax.

 

 

Hamilton opposed American entanglement with the succession of unstable French revolutionary governments. In 1790, he persuaded the U.S. Congress to establish the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service to protect American shipping. In 1793, he advocated in support of the Jay Treaty under which the U.S. resumed friendly trade relations with the British Empire. Hamilton's views became the basis for the Federalist Party, which was opposed by the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton and other Federalists supported the Haitian Revolution, and Hamilton helped draft Haiti's constitution in 1801.

 

 

After resigning as the nation's secretary of the treasury in 1795, Hamilton resumed his legal and business activities and helped lead the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.

 

 

In the Quasi-War, fought at sea between 1798 and 1800, Hamilton called for mobilization against France, and President John Adams appointed him major general. The U.S. Army, however, did not see combat in the conflict. Outraged by Adams' response to the crisis, Hamilton opposed his 1800 presidential re-election. Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied for the presidency in the electoral college and, despite philosophical differences, Hamilton endorsed Jefferson over Burr, whom he found unprincipled. When Burr ran for Governor of New York in 1804, Hamilton again opposed his candidacy, arguing that he was unfit for the office. Taking offense, Burr challenged Hamilton to a pistol duel, which took place in Weehawken, New Jersey, on July 11, 1804. Hamilton was mortally wounded and immediately transported back across the Hudson River in a delirious state to the home of William Bayard Jr. in Greenwich Village, New York, for medical attention. The following day, on July 12, 1804, Hamilton succumbed to his wounds. Scholars generally regard Hamilton as an astute and intellectually brilliant administrator, politician, and financier who was sometimes impetuous. His ideas are credited with influencing the founding principles of American finance and government.

 

 

 

In 1997, the historian Paul Johnson wrote that Hamilton was a "genius—the only one of the Founding Fathers fully entitled to that accolade—and he had the elusive, indefinable characteristics of genius."

 

 

 

    Signed by Aldus

 

Highest price received for one of his paintings is £20,000. "Armada under attack from the English Fleet". Also £14,000 "Lot's Wife" Absolute investment opportunity!

 

 

 

 Measurements; 16 inches x 20 inches

(40.6 cms x 50.8 cms) 

 

Oil on Canvas.

 

 

 

Investment 

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Asgard Arts offers works of art which will not only look fantastic in your home or offices (One Investment Bank in particular has purchased paintings from us for their offices see Bull paintings) but will also be a sound financial investment for the future.  Art has long been regarded as a strong and safe investment.  Investment in paintings was discussed recently on Bloomberg television as a sound investment as a hard asset like Gold, Platinum Silver etc. Also Ellen Kelleher a personal finance journalist for The Financial Times recently wrote an article recommending the purchase of Art, particularly in the $500 - $50,000 range as a sound long term investment with an impressive current average annual increase of 9.7 percent.  Go to Latest Art news on Asgard Arts and see Hang your investments on the wall by Ellen Kelleher Published October 22 2010 in the Financial Times.

 

 

 

                                 Ref only;Wikipedia; david aldus                          davidaldus.com                       

 

 

 

David Aldus the artist has exhibited with the Royal Society of British Artists (R.B.A); the Royal Institute of Oils (R.O.I); and the Royal Society of Marine Artists (R.S.M.A)  He has been nominated twice as a finalist in the Garrick/Milne prize exhibition held at Christies LONDON. His work has been selected for the Discerning Eye Exhibition by Art Critic, Edward Lucie Smith, where all his work was sold. At the same  Exhibition  he was awarded a special commendation for his brushwork. He also sold all his work at the Lambeth Palace when exhibiting under the auspices of the Royal Society of Marine Artists. At the Westminster Central Hall United Artists' Exhibition he won first prize for the best Oil painting!! Highest price received for one of his paintings is £20,000 "Armada attack from the English Fleet". Also £14,000. "Lot's wife"  see davidaldus.com . This painting was the same size as Turner's Hannibal crossing the Alps 5 foot by 8 foot. David Aldus also sold "A tribute to the people of Malta" that sold for £10,000. The same painting was the subject of a congratulatory letter from Queen Elizabeth II. Lord Lewin, Admiral of the Fleet also sent a letter of congratulations. He has held one or two-man shows at Knightsbridge; South Kensington; Windsor and numerous other venues. He has exhibited in Westminster Central Hall; Royal Festival Hall; Birmingham’s Royal British Artists exhibition; Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; Rooksmoor Gallery, Bath; London Guildhall; Mann Island, Liverpool; Christies, the London Auction House, etc.

 

 

GUARANTEED TO BE 100% ORIGINAL AND GENUINE WITH C.O.A.

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