to a duel, you cannot decline. >> the feud explodes when the founding father and the sitting vice president meet at a popular dueling ground -- across the hudson in new jersey, where the punishment for dueling is less severe. >> each man felt that his political star was in decline. if they had been on the ascent, if they saw that things were getting better, then they just could've brushed it off. but duels were the kinds of things that men, who saw themselves as less than they once had been, engaged in to remind the world that they were important. >> gentlemen, are you ready? >> ready.