George Eacker

{{short description|American lawyer (1774-1804)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = George I. Eacker | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{circa | {{birth date text|1774}} }} | birth_place = Palatine, Province of New York, British America | death_date = {{Death date and age|1804|1|4|1774}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | resting_place = New York City | education = Columbia College (1793) | occupation = New York lawyer | parents = Jacob Eacker<br />Anna Margaret Finck }}

'''George I. Eacker''' ({{circa}} 1774 – January 4, 1804) was a New York lawyer. He is best known for having fatally shot Philip Hamilton, the eldest son of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, in a duel on November 23, 1801, in Weehawken, New Jersey.<ref name=PBS/><ref name=WashPost/>

== Early life and education == Eacker was born in Palatine in what was then the colonial-era Province of New York.<ref name=Winfield203/> He was the son of Jacob Eacker, a German immigrant who fought in the American Revolution, served as a county judge, and a member of the New York State Assembly, and Anna Margaret Finck, daughter of Andreas Finck and the sister of Andrew Fink Jr, who rose to the rank of Major during the war.<ref name=Simms1882/><ref name=Frothingham1892/> George had one younger brother, Jacob I., and four sisters.<ref name=Frothingham1892/>

He attended a preparatory school in Schenectady, New York,<ref name=Frothingham1892/> and graduated from Columbia College in 1793.<ref name=Columbia1888/> He then studied law under Henry Brockholst Livingston, a future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

== Career == Eacker was admitted to the New York bar at 21 and quickly established himself as one of New York City’s premier attorneys. He soon built his practice in Manhattan into a lucrative business, which allowed him to take a house on Wall Street and to employ a married couple as his valet and housekeeper.<ref name=Simms1882/> He gained popularity in New York City's well-to-do social circles as a lawyer, Freemason, cavalry captain, and fire brigade inspector.<ref name=Simms1882/>

For an unknown offense in 1798, which the historian Eric Henry Monkkonen interprets as an earlier duel or conflict, Eacker appeared in court and paid a recognizance, likely as a bond for good behavior.<ref name=Monkkonen2001/>

In 1801, Eacker was appointed as a master in the New York Court of Chancery, which was the highest court in the state.<ref name=Frothingham1892/>

== Duels with Stephen Price and Philip Hamilton ==  Eacker was selected in 1801 to deliver the Fourth of July oration at an Independence Day celebration held in New York City by a brigade of the New York State Militia, the Tammany Society, and two of the city's labor organizations: the Mechanics' Society and Coopers' Society.<ref name=Frothingham1892/><ref name=Eacker1801/> The Tammany Society, better known as Tammany Hall, was a Democratic-Republican Party political organization that Aaron Burr had built into a political machine.<ref name=Golway2014/> In politics, Eacker was known to be aligned with Burr,<ref name=Winfield203/> which automatically placed him at odds with Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists.

According to a supporter, the speech that Eacker delivered was commended by "nearly everybody" except for Federalist partisans, who were "blinded... to every virtue" by "party spirit, which at that time was very bitter",<ref name=Winfield203/> and believed it implied that Hamilton sought power at any cost, while Thomas Jefferson upheld the Constitution. Some accounts questioned whether the speech was critical of Alexander Hamilton, as was later characterized. According to a 19th-century historian who relied on Eacker's younger brother as a source, the speech was entirely patriotic and did not name or allude to Hamilton.<ref name=Simms1882/>

On November 20, 1801, a Friday night,<ref name=Winfield203/> Eacker attended a play at the Park Theatre with his fiancée Harriet Livingston, a daughter of Walter Livingston and Cornelia Schuyler.<ref name=Simms1882/> Philip Hamilton, the eldest son of Alexander Hamilton, and Stephen Price<ref name=Rush1801/> approached or entered Eacker's box together and loudly ridiculed him.<ref name=Simms1882/><ref name=Dawson/> Eacker called them "damned rascals"—a severe insult at the time. In response to that insult, as was then common, both challenged Eacker to a duel.<ref name=PBS/>

Price faced the 27-year-old Eacker in a duel in Weehawken, New Jersey, on November 22, 1801. Four shots were exchanged, but neither party was injured, and the matter was settled.<ref name=Winfield203/>

At the same location on the following day, Eacker fatally shot the 19-year-old Hamilton in a second duel.<ref name=PBS/><ref name=Harrison1896/> Hamilton refused to raise his pistol to fire after he and Eacker had counted ten paces and faced each other, following his father's instructions to reserve his fire. Eacker, determined to fire second, did not shoot. After a minute, Eacker finally raised his pistol, and Hamilton did the same. Eacker shot and struck Philip above his right hip. The bullet went through his body and lodged in his left arm. In what may have been an involuntary spasm, Hamilton fired his pistol in the air.<ref name=Harrison1896/>

In a letter to Rufus King, Robert Troup wrote of Alexander Hamilton, "Never did I see a man so completely overwhelmed with grief as Hamilton had been."<ref name=King/> Nevertheless, he was said to be civil and professional in his later relationship with Eacker.<ref name=Simms1882/> Hamilton would die in a duel with Aaron Burr only a few years later, on July 11, 1804, on the same dueling ground in Weehawken.

==Death and legacy== Following the duel, Eacker resumed his life as a prominent lawyer and active community member. However, according to Eacker's brother, George Eacker fought a raging fire as part of his fire brigade duties on a bitterly cold night in January 1802, two months after the duel. He was soaked to the skin, and his clothes froze. This severe exposure led to a lingering illness that developed into tuberculosis (then known as consumption).<ref name="Winfield203" />

As his health deteriorated, some speculated that grief over the duel had contributed to his decline, but his brother later stated that George never regretted his actions and would have dueled again under the same circumstances.

Eacker died on January 4, 1804, at the age of 30. His funeral was a grand event, featuring military honors<ref name="Simms1882" /> and participation from the fire brigade, the Howard Lodge of Freemasons, and various civic leaders. His remains were interred in the graveyard behind St. Paul’s Chapel, and a volley of musketry was fired over his grave.

Eacker and his fiancée never married. In January 1808, Harriet Livingston married the steamboat inventor Robert Fulton with whom she had four children.<ref name=Reynolds1911>{{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Cuyler |title=Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: A Record of Achievements of the People of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys in New York State, Included Within the Present Counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Columbia and Greene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b4k-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA302 |year=1911 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |pages=302–303}}</ref><ref name=Lancaster1909>{{cite book |title=Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PP47AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA227 |year=1909 |pages=227–228}}</ref>

== In popular culture == Eacker appears as a minor character in the 2015 Broadway musical ''Hamilton'' in which the musical number "Blow Us All Away" dramatizes his duel with Philip Hamilton. The role of Eacker originated on Broadway by a member of the show's ensemble, Ephraim M. Sykes, who also appears as Eacker on the original cast recording.

== See also == * List of people killed in duels

== References == {{Reflist|30em|refs= <ref name=Columbia1888>{{cite book |author=Columbia University |title=Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Columbia College (originally King's College) in the City of New York, 1754–1888 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CWPOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA67 |year=1888 |page=67 }}</ref> <ref name=Dawson>{{cite magazine |title=The Duels Between — Price and Philip Hamilton, and George I. Eacker |editor-first=Henry B. |editor-last=Dawson |magazine=The Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries, Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America |volume=II |series=2nd |number=4 |date=October 1867 |pages=193–204 |location=Morrisania, N.Y. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wCl6d0zBBXAC&pg=PA193 }}</ref> <ref name=Eacker1801>{{cite book |last=Eacker |first=George I. |title=An Oration, Delivered at the Request of the Officers of the Brigade of the City and County of New-York, and of the County of Richmond: Before Them, and the Mechanic, Tammany, and Coopers' Societies, on the Fourth of July, 1801, in Commemoration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of American Independence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lIOvDQEACAAJ |year=1801 |publisher=William Durell }}</ref> <ref name=Frothingham1892>{{cite book |editor-last=Frothingham |editor-first=Washington |chapter=Town of Palatine |title=History of Montgomery County: Embracing Early Discoveries, the Advance of Civilization, the Labors and Triumphs of Sir William Johnson, the Inception and Development of Manufactures, with Town and Local Records, Also Military Achievements of Montgomery Patriots |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MeopAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA326 |year=1892 |publisher=D. Mason & Co. |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |pages=326–327}}</ref> <ref name=Golway2014>{{cite book |last=Golway |first=Terry |title=Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Um7nAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |year=2014 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-87140-375-9 |page=6 }}</ref> <ref name=Harrison1896>{{cite book |last1=Lamb |first1=Martha J. |last2=Harrison |first2=Mrs. Burton |title=History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress |volume=III |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WtFm4qA0eJQC&pg=PA477 |year=1877 |location=New York |publisher=A. S. Barnes Co. |pages=477–478 }}</ref> <ref name=King>{{cite book |last=King |first=Rufus |editor-last=King |editor-first=Charles R. |title=The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King: Comprising His Letters, Private and Official, His Public Documents, and His Speeches |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gi96zixOkloC&pg=PA28 |volume=IV (1801–1806) |year=1897 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |page=28 |isbn=9780608415383 }}</ref> <ref name=Monkkonen2001>{{cite book |last=Monkkonen |first=Eric H. |authorlink=Eric Henry Monkkonen |title=Murder in New York City |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ru1VDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 |year=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-22188-8 |page=45 }}</ref> <ref name=PBS>{{cite web |publisher=PBS/WGBH |series=American Experience |work=The Duel |title=Philip Hamilton's Duel |year=2000 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande16.html |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711164217/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/peopleevents/pande16.html |archivedate=2015-07-11 }}</ref> <ref name=Rush1801>{{cite web |title=To Alexander Hamilton from Benjamin Rush, 26 November 1801 |website=Founders Online |publisher=National Archives |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0258 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615191251/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-25-02-0258 |archivedate=2018-06-15 }}</ref> <ref name=Simms1882>{{cite book |last=Simms |first=Jeptha Root |title=The Frontiersmen of New York: Showing Customs of the Indians, Vicissitudes of the Pioneer White Settlers, and Border Strife in Two Wars |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Un0RAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA414 |volume=1 |year=1882 |publisher=Geo. C. Riggs |location=Albany, N.Y. |isbn=978-5-87803-765-5 |pages=414–420}} Excerpt at {{cite web |title=The Frontiersmen of New York |website=Three Rivers: Hudson, Mohawk, Schoharie |url=http://threerivershms.com/simmssports.htm }}</ref> <ref name=WashPost>{{cite book |last=Fleming |first=Thomas J. |title=Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Hp2AAAAMAAJ |year=1999 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-01736-2 |pages=1–22 }} Excerpt at {{cite news |title=Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America (excerpt) |date=March 31, 2000 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/duel.htm |newspaper=Washington Post }}</ref> <ref name=Winfield203>{{cite book |last=Winfield |first=Charles H. |title=History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey: From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time |year=1874 |location=New York |publisher=Kennard & Hay Stationery M'fg and Printing Co. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5cA_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA203 |pages=203–206 |isbn=9781548767525 }}</ref> }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eacker, George}} Category:New York (state) lawyers Category:1804 deaths Category:1770s births Category:American duellists Category:American Freemasons Category:Members of the New York State Assembly Category:American fire chiefs Category:People from the Province of New York Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Category:People from Palatine, New York Category:Tuberculosis deaths in New York (state)