Page images
PDF
EPUB

crats and four Federalists," the Colonel told Theodosia. Among them Mr. Nicholas, his bitterest personal enemy. "The most indefatigable industry is used by the agents of government, and they have money at command without stint. If I were possessed of the same means, I could not only foil the prosecutors, but render them ridiculous and infamous. The democratic papers teem with abuse of me and my counsel, and even against the Chief Justice. Nothing is left undone or unsaid which can tend to prejudice the public mind, and produce a conviction without evidence. Machinations

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

. are practised against me. . not only with impunity but with applause; and the authors and abettors suppose, with reason, that they are acquiring favour with the administration."

And Senator Giles-he was a member of the Grand Jury-was urging Mr. Jefferson to bestir himself; any lack of evidence "would implicate the character of the administration." And Mr. Jefferson was writing back that witnesses would be produced who would "satisfy the world if not the judges;" and asking if "the bundle of letters in Mr. Rodney's hands, the letters and facts published in the local newspapers, Burr's flight and the universal belief or rumor of his guilt" were not "probable ground for presuming the facts so as to put him on trial?" Probable ground for presuming the facts of Colonel Burr's guilt-then it was no longer "placed beyond question," after weeks of the most painstaking research?

And in Richmond Colonel Burr was giving dinners, attended by all the elegant world of Federalist

society. Superb dinners, "abounding in all the luxuries in which Virginia's generous soil yields in lavish abundance." Magnificent dinners at some of which "twenty ladies and gentlemen of rank, fortune and fashion graced the festive board," while the Colonel's "fascinating flatteries were lavished indiscriminately on the sex in general." And the lawyers were giving dinners-these legal banquets were a feature of Richmond life-and finally Mr. Wickham gave a dinner to which he invited his friend and neighbor John Marshall, forgetful of the fact that he had also invited Colonel Burr. And so the two of them "feasted" together "at the same convivial board," in the words of a Republican press roaring its condemnation of this "treason rejoicing dinner." As John Randolph was writing to Mr. Monroe, "the federalists have quenched the last ray of hope by their inconsistent and unprincipled support of Burr."

But on May 22, John Marshall was not thinking of the dinner any more, as he settled his long, loosejointed frame into a seat on the bench beside Judge Griffin.

[ocr errors]

CHAPTER II

A TRUE BILL

I

RICHMOND was packed, the court was jammed, the weather was sweltering. Thousands of persons, come from all over the country, were sleeping in tents, or in the wagons in which they had travelled, encamped along the river bank and on the hillsides. In the town, great throngs streamed up and down the Brick Row, elbowing each other in and out of tavern doors; up on the hill, hundreds waited for news on the green, while other hundreds fought and squeezed their way into the Hall, to stand on the window ledges, or on the big lock of the front door like young Winfield Scott, in order to catch a glimpse of the Chief Justice, of the great lawyers, of that celebrated Virginia jury, and of the quiet, dignified little gentleman in black silk and powdered hair. A great mob of men, sweating, smoking, spitting into the square sand boxes or wherever convenience might dictate; gentlemen in stocks and ruffled linen, in buckled breeches and silken queues; backwoodsmen, farmers, mountaineers, frontiersmen, in long

hair, and deerskin coats, and red woolen shirts; almost all of them Republicans come to see a traitor convicted, aggressively partisan, inflamed by a screaming official press, bitterly hostile to the accused, clamorous and menacing.

As soon as the court had been formally opened, at half past twelve, May 22, Colonel Burr objected to certain irregularities in the Grand Jury. The Marshal had excused two gentlemen and substituted two others, contrary to law. They were ordered removed. Colonel Burr then claimed a right to challenge the jury "for favour," and the point was finally conceded by Mr. Hay. Colonel Burr challenged Senator Giles and Mr. Nicholas, as having expressed views hostile to him. They were, as everyone knew, numbered among Mr. Jefferson's closest and most trusted adherents. After considerable discussion these gentlemen were permitted to withdraw; Doctor Foushee was excused; new jurymen were called, and, in spite of the fact that the majority of the gentlemen were notoriously prejudiced against the accused, Colonel Burr pronounced himself satisfied, since "the industry which has been used through this country to prejudice my cause leaves me very little chance indeed of an impartial jury."

The jury, as finally sworn, was perhaps one of the most distinguished ever assembled in America, a future Secretary of War, several Senators and three Governors-to-be of Virginia appearing upon its roster. John Randolph of Roanoke was appointed foreman; and if his known enmity for Mr. Jefferson might have given to his selection by Mr.

[graphic][merged small]
« EelmineJätka »