The Third Challenge
Aaron Burr had challenged Alexander Hamilton to meet him on "the field of honor" twice before the fatal duel of 1804. The first two times Hamilton apologized, but Hamilton refused to back down the third time, angered by Burr's manner of demanding a retraction. Burr had heard a "despicable opinion" that Hamilton uttered, but the opinion itself is still a mystery. It is possible that the offensive statement went beyond politics. Hamilton himself said he had made "very unfavorable criticisms" about Burr's private conduct.
Novelists can invent where historians must speculate. Gore Vidal wrote that Hamilton spoke of Burr's incest with his beloved daughter Theodosia.
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