The Life of John Marshall Volume III Part 48

[991] _Burr Trials_, I, 20. His "property," however, represented borrowed money.

[992] Burr to his daughter, May 15, 1807, Davis, II, 405-06.

[993] Burr to his daughter, May 15, 1807, Davis, II, 405-06.

[994] Giles to Jefferson, April 6, 1807, Anderson, 110. The date is given in Jefferson to Giles, April 20, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 383.

[995] Parton: _Burr_, 455.

[996] "Altho' at first he proposed a separation of the Western country, ... yet he very early saw that the fidelity of the Western country was not to be shaken and turned himself wholly towards Mexico and so popular is an enterprize on that country in this, that we had only to be still, & he could have had followers enough to have been in the city of Mexico in 6. weeks." (Jefferson to James Bowdoin, U.S.

Minister to Spain, April 2, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 381-82.)

In this same letter Jefferson makes this amazing statement: "If we have kept our hands off her [Spain] till now, it has been purely out of respect for France.... We expect therefore from the friends.h.i.+p of the emperor [Napoleon] that he will either compel Spain to do us justice, or abandon her to us. We ask but one month to be in ... the city of Mexico."

[997] McCaleb, 325.

[998] See _infra_, 476-77; also vol. IV, chap. I, of this work.

[999] See Nicholson to Monroe, April 12, 1807, Adams: _Randolph_, 216-18. Plumer notes "the rancor of his personal and political animosities." (Plumer, 356.)

[1000] Jefferson to James Bowdoin, U.S. Minister to Spain, April 2, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 382.

[1001] This was flatly untrue. No process to obtain evidence or to aid the prosecution in any way was ever denied the Administration. This statement of the President was, however, a well-merited reflection on the tyrannical conduct of the National judges in the trials of men for offenses under the Sedition Law and even under the common law. (See _supra_, chap. I.) But, on the one hand, Marshall had not then been appointed to the bench and was himself against the Sedition Law (see vol. II, chap. XI, of this work); and, on the other hand, Jefferson had now become as ruthless a prosecutor as Chase or Addison ever was.

[1002] These were: "1. The enlistment of men in a regular way; 2. the regular mounting of guard round Blennerha.s.sett's island; ... 3. the rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth of the c.u.mberland; 4. his letter to the acting Governor of Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war; 5. his capitulation, regularly signed, with the aides of the Governor, as between two independent and hostile commanders."

[1003] The affidavits in regard to what happened on Blennerha.s.sett's island would necessarily be lodged in Richmond, since the island was in Virginia and the United States Court for the District of that State alone had jurisdiction to try anybody for a crime committed within its borders.

Even had there been any doubt as to where the trial would take place, the Attorney-General would have held the affidavits pending the settlement of that point; and when the place of trial was determined upon, promptly dispatched the doc.u.ments to the proper district attorney.

[1004] The reference is to the amendment to the Const.i.tution urged by Jefferson, and offered by Randolph in the House, providing that a judge should be removed by the President on the address of both Houses of Congress. (See _supra_, chap. IV, 221.)

[1005] Jefferson to Giles, April 20, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 383-88.

[1006] See Parton: _Burr_, 456-57. "The real prosecutor of Aaron Burr, throughout this business, was Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, who was made President of the United States by Aaron Burr's tact and vigilance, and who was able therefore to wield against Aaron Burr the power and resources of the United States." (_Ib._ 457.) And see McCaleb, 361.

[1007] Jefferson to the Secretary of State, April 14, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 383.

[1008] Jenkinson: _Aaron Burr_, 282-83.

[1009] Jefferson to "Bollman," Jan. 25, 1807, Davis, II, 388.

[1010] Bollmann's narrative, Davis, II, 389.

[1011] McCaleb, 331.

[1012] Jefferson to the United States District Attorney for Virginia, May 20, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 394-401.

Bollmann, in open court, scornfully declined to accept the pardon. (See _infra_, 452.)

[1013] Wilkinson was then _en route_ by sea to testify against Burr before the grand jury.

[1014] Mordecai: _Richmond in By-Gone Days_, 68.

[1015] According to a story, told more than a century after the incident occurred, Marshall did not know, when he accepted Wickham's invitation, that Burr was to be a guest, but heard of that fact before the dinner.

His wife, thereupon, advised him not to go, but, out of regard for Wickham, he attended. (Thayer: _John Marshall_, 80-81.)

This tale is almost certainly a myth. Professor Thayer, to whom it was told by an unnamed descendant of Marshall, indicates plainly that he had little faith in it.

The facts that, at the time, even the _Enquirer_ acquitted Marshall of any knowledge that Burr was to be present; that the prudence of the Chief Justice was admitted by his bitterest enemies; that so gross an indiscretion would have been obvious to the most reckless; that Marshall, of all men, would not have embarra.s.sed himself in such fas.h.i.+on, particularly at a time when public suspicion was so keen and excitement so intense--render it most improbable that he knew that Burr was to be at the Wickham dinner.

[1016] _Enquirer_, April 10 and 28, 1807.

CHAPTER VIII

ADMINISTRATION VERSUS COURT

In substance Jefferson said that if Marshall should suffer Burr to escape, Marshall himself should be removed from office.

(Henry Adams.)

It becomes our duty to lay the evidence before the public. Go into any expense necessary for this purpose. (Jefferson.)

The President has let slip the dogs of war, the h.e.l.l-hounds of persecution, to hunt down my friend. (Luther Martin.)

If you cannot exorcise the demon of prejudice, you can chain him down to law and reason. (Edmund Randolph.)

On May 22, 1807, the hall of the House of Delegates at Richmond was densely crowded long before the hour of half-past twelve, when John Marshall took his seat upon the bench and opened court. So occupied was every foot of s.p.a.ce that it was with difficulty that a pa.s.sage was opened through which the tall, awkwardly moving, and negligently clad Chief Justice could make his way. By Marshall's side sat Cyrus Griffin, Judge of the District Court, who throughout the proceedings was negligible.

The closely packed spectators accurately portrayed the dress, manners, and trend of thought of the American people of that period. Gentlemen in elegant attire--hair powdered and queues tied in silk, knee breeches and silver buckles, long rich cloth coats cut half away at the waist, ruffled s.h.i.+rts and high stocks--were conspicuous against the background of the majority of the auditors, whose apparel, however, was no less picturesque.

This audience was largely made up of men from the smaller plantations, men from the mountains, men from the backwoods, men from the frontiers.

Red woolen s.h.i.+rts; rough homespun or corduroy trousers, held up by "galluses"; fringed deerskin coats and "leggings" of the same material kept in place by leather belts; hair sometimes tied by strings in uncouth queues, but more often hanging long and unconfined--in such garb appeared the greater part of the attendance at the trial of Aaron Burr.

In forty years there had been but little change in the general appearance of Virginians[1017] except that fewer wore the old dignified and becoming attire of well-dressed men.

Nearly all of them were Republicans, plain men, devoted to Jefferson as the exponent of democracy and the heaven-sent leader of the people.

Among these Jeffersonians, however, were several who, quite as much as the stiffest Federalists, prided themselves upon members.h.i.+p in the "upper cla.s.ses."

Nearly all of the Republicans present, whether of the commonalty or the gentry, were against Aaron Burr. Scattered here and there were a few Federalists--men who were convinced that democracy meant the ruin of the Republic, and who profoundly believed that Jefferson was nothing more than an intriguing, malicious demagogue--most of whom looked upon Burr with an indulgent eye. So did an occasional Republican, as now and then a lone Federalist denounced Burr's villainy.

The good-sized square boxes filled with sand that were placed at infrequent intervals upon the floor of the improvised court-room were too few to receive the tobacco juice that filled the mouths of most of the spectators before it was squirted freely upon the floor and wall.

Those who did not chew the weed either smoked big cigars and fat pipes or contented themselves with taking snuff.[1018] Upon recess or adjournment of court, all, regularly and without loss of time, repaired to the nearest saloons or taverns and strengthened themselves, with generous draughts of whiskey or brandy, taken "straight," for a firmer, clearer grasp of the points made by counsel.

Never, in its history, had Richmond been so crowded with strangers.

Nearly five thousand people now dwelt in the Virginia Capital, the site of which was still "untamed and broken" by "inaccessible heights and deep ravines."[1019] Thousands of visitors had come from all over the country to witness the prosecution of that fallen angel whose dark deeds, they had been made to believe, had been in a fair way to destroy the Nation. The inns could shelter but an insignificant fraction of them, and few were the private houses that did not take in men whom the taverns could not accommodate. Hundreds brought covered wagons or tents and camped under the trees or on the river-banks near the city.

Correspondents of the press of the larger cities were present, among them the youthful[1020] Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, who wrote one or two articles for a New York paper.