ments of the opposite counsel; he then concluded his speech as follows.]

Let me add a few words with respect to the necessity of force, to what has been already said on that subject. According to what has been often observed in the course of this trial, the crime consists of the beginning, the progress, and consummation, in the course of which some force must be exhibited. A man might begin a crime and stop short, and be far from committing the act. He might go on one step still further, without incurring guilt. It is only the completion of the crime that the law punishes. Suppose an army were embodied by Mr. Burr, and they only assembled and separated without having committed any act; what would the government have to complain of? When they punish a man for murdering another, it is because he is dead. When a man

man it may select for its victim? (I do not
pretend to say that such is the disposition of
this government; nay, I am sure that it is not.)
But no child, who could read the constitution,
would suppose that it could be ever so con-
strued. Yet, sir, what babies we were if we
expected the constitution to be thus correctly
construed! If this construction be adopted
and this species of indictment admitted, it will
pervert this very palladium of our safety into
an instrument of destruction. Mr. Hay knows
that I intend nothing offensive to him; but
when he tells me that his indictment fits this
case, he deceives us. He deludes us into a
trial in ignorance of the accusation, and drags
us blindfold to the scaffold. This is the most
intolerable hardship. Examine history from
the beginning of the world, you will find noth-
ing like the character of an American legisla-
ture, who, professing to be the votaries of lib-is
erty, and to admire the principles of a free
constitution, would permit such horrid oppres-
sion of their citizens; to keep them in the
dark, to hold out the semblance of security to
innocence, but to expose it to inevitable de-
struction! Sir, I could mention a thousand
acts of oppression that would not be so severe
as this. The party accused is entrapped and
ensnared. He is taken by surprise, and forced
into a trial with the rope round his neck, with-
out any means of preparation or defence. This
is substance; not a phantom of the imagination. |
The forms of trial, the instruments of nominal
justice, are to be wrought up into an engine of
destruction. We call on you as guardians of
this constitution, as far as depends on your acts,
to preserve it from violation. I ask you to re-
member the difficulty of repairing the mischiefs
of an oppressive construction, and permitting,
unopposed, encroachments on the dearest privi-
leges of the people. If this attempt be success-
ful, where will persecution stop? If this be
correct, fate has sealed it in your mind, and the
law is only to force it. I feel myself so much
roused by the idea of the effect that this doc-
trine would have, that did I not know that it
came from a pure source, without any intention
to injure or oppress, I would be alarmed. I
would say, as Paul said to Agrippa, Believest
thou in the constitution? I know thou dost.
I ask you to save this rock of our salvation.
For myself I do not care. I have not much to
care, with respect to the remainder of my life.
But for my children I feel the affection and so-
licitude natural to a parent; and for my coun-
try, those sentiments of patriotism which be-
come every good citizen. Let not the great
palladium of public liberty be undermined. I
pray you that the rights of the citizen may not
be immolated at the shrine of faction and per-
secution; that innocence may not be ingulfed
by the adoption of the doctrine of the prosecu-
tors. American judges never can do this. I
was going to use language too strong; Ameri-
can judges dare not do it.

[Mr. Randolph here replied to several argu

punished for a robbery, it is because a person has been put in fear and his property taken from him without his consent. So it is with respect to every other crime; while it is in an incipient state it is disregarded. No person is punishable who is only charged with such an inchoate incomplete offence. The intention is never punished. In such cases time is allowed for repentance, at any time before its consummation. Such an offence as this is never punishable, unless in the case of a conspiracy; and even on a prosecution charging that offence specially, the act of conspiring must be satisfactorily established. Here no injury has arisen to the commonwealth. No crime has been perpetrated. The answer to this is, that there were preparations to commit it. As far as communications have been made to the government, there is no possibility of proving a complete act, yet those accused must be punished. Then their rule of law is, that wherever there is a beginning of a crime, it shall be punished lest it should grow to maturity! Is this the spirit of American legislation and American justice? Is it the spirit of its free constitution to consider the germ as the consummation of an offence? the intention, so difficult to be ascertained and so easy to be misrepresented and misunderstood, as the act itself? In such a system it may be a source of lamentation that no more than death can be inflicted on the completion of the crime. Death, death, is to be the universal punishment, the watchword of humane legislation and jurisprudence!

When we mentioned the idea of force, I was not a little amazed at the manner in which they attempted to repel the argument. It was said that they were prepared to show potential force; that fear was used; that an assemblage was drawn together to act on the fears of the people. This fear begins at New Orleans, mounts the Mississippi against the stream, and fixes itself at Blannerhassett's island. Henry IV. fell a sacrifice to the predictions of the Jesuits. They determined to destroy him, and predicted that he would fall; and he did fall. may safely admit that fear really existed at

which was then under the patronage of Governor Livingston anů Enas Douumhol, anu me .................... diate supervision and instruction of Francis Barber, afterwards a distinguished and accomplished