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Aaron Burr has been trapped in amber as an American icon for almost 200 years: the face of villainy in the early republic, Hamilton’s killer, a master of political intrigue who plunged his country into war with his reckless schemes, and ended his life a fugitive from justice, indicted for treason. To this day Burr is much easier to caricature than understand, and post-Hamilton pop culture has made the myth only more resilient. The truth, though, is that the real Aaron Burr was more complex, more brilliant, and far more misunderstood than most people realize. To get to the truth, you have to look beyond the duel.

A War Hero

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One of the myths surrounding Aaron Burr is that he fell into politics on the strength of ego alone. Not so. Before Burr ran for office, he had the résumé of a wunderkind.

He was orphaned at age 2 and raised by his uncle with his sister. Gifted and a child prodigy, Burr applied to the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) at 11 years old and was rejected; he reapplied at 13 and was admitted. He entered Princeton four years younger than his peers and quickly distinguished himself. Nicknamed “Little Burr,” he graduated with honors at age 16.

When the American Revolution began, Burr didn’t spend it poring over documents as a desk jockey. He served as an officer on the front lines. First under the command of Benedict Arnold and later under General Israel Putnam, Burr gained a reputation as a cool customer and a daredevil. He became a lieutenant colonel before resigning, citing illness. Far from the conniving bureaucrat he is made out to be, Burr had a reputation as a brave and decisive leader, which was where his political career started.

The Washington Factor

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Burr has often been portrayed as untrustworthy, or even subversive. This may have been because of his famously icy relationship with George Washington. However, the mutual animosity had less to do with patriotism than it did with personality.

Burr briefly served on Washington’s staff and quickly asked to be transferred. He felt his skills were being wasted on clerical work. Washington, in turn, never forgave him for what he saw as arrogance. Years later, he called Burr “talented at intrigue.” Burr called him a man “of no talents,” in private. These insults have been taken as evidence that Burr was disloyal at heart.

In fact, personal animosity was common in the founding era. By his own admission, Burr was a brave, capable man, effective in the field. Their feud had more to do with mutual dislike and mismatched expectations than treason.

A Political Innovator

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The popular view of him is as an ideologically vacant political opportunist, but Burr was one of the most innovative political thinkers of his era.

A case in point: the Manhattan Company swindle. New York banks were in Federalist hands, the ultra-wealthy, who denied loans to Democratic-Republicans. Burr found a loophole. He petitioned the legislature for a charter to form a water utility, an uncontroversial cause even Alexander Hamilton supported. Buried in the charter, though, was a clause allowing the company to make “monied transactions.”

That clause was Burr’s ace in the hole. He didn’t build a water system, but a Democratic-Republican bank instead, thereby ending the Federalist financial monopoly in New York. It was nakedly exploitative, yes. But also clever, shrewd, and politically revolutionary.