Much of the climax of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton hinges on the outcome of the presidential election of 1800. As Miranda tells the story, the main candidates are Thomas Jefferson and "Aaron Burr, with his own faction." Jefferson and Burr end up in a tie, "the delegates" have to choose the winner, and, at Hamilton’s urging, they end up backing Jefferson over Burr.
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It's a dramatic and effective number that brings several plot threads together — Hamilton's return to politics, his longtime rivalry with Jefferson, his fear of Burr's ambition — and sets the course for the fatal showdown between the two lead characters.
Yet the actual election of 1800 was far more complex and dramatic — it brought the nation to a constitutional crisis and even, some thought, the brink of open violence.
And Burr's real-life conduct was even more opportunistic and duplicitous than it was in the musical (which features, overall, a toned-down version of the man who'd later be accused of trying to seize American territory to create a new empire for himself). Because Burr was in fact Jefferson's running mate, who was understood by practically everyone to be truly running for vice president.
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