August 9, 1998

By DAVID WALTON

A FATAL FRIENDSHIP

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.

By Arnold A. Rogow.

Hill & Wang, $27.50.



n July 11, 1804, Aaron Burr, the Vice President of the United States, shot and fatally wounded Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the Treasury, in a duel in Weehawken, N.J. Their ''interview,'' as a duel was sometimes called then, is one of the famous episodes in American history, yet no one has ever revealed exactly what Hamilton said about Burr at an Albany political gathering that compelled Burr to challenge him. ''A Fatal Friendship'' is probably not the best title for Arnold A. Rogow's very readable and engaging history of these two lives, which appeared to cross in almost every way except in friendship. Hamilton and Burr were strikingly similar in age, height and appearance, and were both renowned for their ''susceptibility to female wiles'' (Martha Washington named her tomcat Hamilton). The instigator in their quarrel was clearly Hamilton, who for years obsessively pursued ''a ruthless and relentless effort to destroy Burr politically.'' Twice before, Hamilton had averted a duel by apologizing for remarks against Burr's character, and just three years earlier his son Philip had died in a duel using one of the same pair of pistols, whose specially designed hair trigger may in each instance have caused an unintentional discharge, drawing the fatal answering shot. Rogow has written a fascinating case study of the ''tangle of contradictory facts, statements and interpretations'' that make up history, and of the ''multiple versions of the truth'' that all politicians generate. One possible source of Hamilton's enmity may have been Burr's creation in 1799 of the Manhattan Company, chartered to deliver water to the city, but quickly, and in competition with Hamilton's Bank of New York, evolving into the Manhattan Bank -- which today, as the Chase Manhattan, owns Alexander Hamilton's dueling pistol.

