In the evolving partisan US politics of the early 19th century, Alexander Hamilton feared the rise of politicians like Aaron Burr.
Below is a quote from a letter Hamilton wrote in 1800 while Burr was running for President against Thomas Jefferson.
Four years later, in 1804, Hamilton and Burr engaged in a duel. Hamilton shot first. He deliberately missed Burr, as he had promised before the duel. Then, Burr shot Hamilton in the abdomen. Hamilton died the next day.
Here is Hamilton’s quote:
“As to Burr there is nothing in his favour. His private character is not defended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt beyond redemption except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own aggrandisement per fas et nefas1. If he can, he will certainly disturb our institutions to secure to himself permanent power and with it wealth. He is truly the Cataline2 of America . . .”3
Sound familiar?
Trump is not new. He is just the worst. He is Our Cataline.
per fas et nefas: Latin for “through right and wrong”
Lucius Sergius Catilina (c. 108 BC – January 62 BC), known in English as Catiline, was a Roman politician and soldier best known for instigating the Catilinarian conspiracy, a failed attempt to seize control of the Roman state in 63 BC
In early January 62 BC, at the head of a rebel army near Pistoria (modern-day Pistoia in Tuscany), Catiline fought the Battle of Pistoria against republican forces. He was killed and his army annihilated.
Catiline's name became a byword for doomed and treasonous rebellion in the years after his death
“From Alexander Hamilton to Oliver Wolcott, Junior, 16 December 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0131. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 25, July 1800 – April 1802, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. 257–259.]