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secution. I know he calculates on soon being in a situation to defy courts, and their process. No wonder, therefore, that he is impatient of delay. But the gentlemen are mistaken with regard to the facts of the case. They have not accurately surveyed the ground they have taken. There is yet no indictment; the jury are not sworn as to any particular person; they are to inquire into such matters as shall be given them in charge; they have yet no case given them. Suppose I may have ten indictments to lay before them; and the nature of conspiracy admits it reasonable-will Colonel Burr insist that he shall be first indicted, or else the grand jury shall be discharged; for, that his business abroad is urgent, and he cannot wait? Certainly he could not urge such a consideration. And why? Plainly, because he is not indicted; and therefore, not entitled to any privilege of a defendant. A like reason excludes him now. He is not yet a defendant. Allu sion has been made to the affidavit filed; but that has been misapplied-it has performed its office, in effecting the order for the grand jury, and for process. It is not to go to the grand jury-it can have no influence in the cause. Colonel Burr, does not want witnesses.

The point to be decided, is this: Will the court compel me to proceed without the witnesses, and thereby ensure an acquittal, for want of evidence; without giving time to coerce the attendance of those who have contemned its subpoenas; and when it is in the power of the judge by compulsory process to force their attendance? He could not anticipate such a decision. He had already declared that he could not safely sub mit the case without the absent witnesses-at least, General Adair: and he resided in the next county, about thirty miles. from court. He should insist on a postponement, until the witness could be produced in court. That to dismiss the jury, was a discharge of the witnesses now attending, and would render it utterly useless to award compulsory process for those who were absent; and equivalent to an acquittal, or discharge of Colonel Burr, and any others he might find it proper to in dict. But the matter is with the judge.

The court decided, that the attorney must proceed with some case, else the grand jury would not be kept in attendance, but discharged.

The officer in a short time took the jury to their roomwhere they did not remain very long before they returned into court, and said they had nothing before them. The attorney replied, that it was late, and that he would lay an indictment before them in the morning: they were then adjourned, to meet the next day.

An attachment was moved for, against General Adair, by the attorney for the United States, to be forthwith issued; in order that it might be immediately placed in the hands of the proper officer. It was opposed by Colonel Burr's counsel, on the ground that the motion was premature-the witness not being required to appear at any particular hour, but on that day generally; and the day not yet being exhausted, he was not in contumacy.

The court refused the attachment.

The next day, it is believed, the attorney delivered to the grand jury, an indictment against John Adair; charging him substantially with the same offence set out in the affidavit. The jury considered of it, and found, "Not a true bill." It is thought, that it was not much attended to; that although General Adair was suspected, and doubtless privy to Burr's pro ject, and connived at it, that he was nevertheless cautious, and probably had not fully engaged in it, or but conditionally. He has averred his knowledge; but denied his participation. More of this hereafter. At present the case of Colonel Burr demands attention.

The attorney for the United States, having had a conversation with the judge, out of court, on the question, whether he would have a right to attend the grand jury in their room, to examine the witnesses, and to explain to the jury, the applica tion of their testimony, and receiving from his honour, an an swer in the affirmative, conceived as a consequence, that he could, by the witnesses present, prove a true bill: and there fore determined to proceed with the examination of Colonel D**

VOL. II.

Burr's case. Accordingly he was indicted, and the jury sent to their room. The witnesses, or some of them, being sworn, the attorney proposed to execute his plan of attending the jury. This he found immediately opposed, by Colonel Burr, and his aids, with the most positive denial of any existing right to the effect proposed. And after some argument, the judge observed, that he had been attorney general for the district of Kentucky, and that he had never claimed or exercised, the privilege now contended for by the attorney for the United States. Upon which the attorney remarked: "Sir, you admitted I had the right to do, what I have now proposed doing." "Yes," says the judge, with more than his usual vivacity, "that was out of court." True sir, rejoined the attorney, this is the first of my knowing that you had two opinions on the subject; "the one private and confidential, the other public and official." He was overruled by the court: and thenceforth considered his cause lost.

On the 5th of the month, the grand jury came into court, with their finding on each indictment, "Not a true bill." To which they added:

"The grand jury are happy to inform the court, that no violent disturbance of the public tranquillity, or breach of the laws, has come to their knowledge.

"We have no hesitation in declaring, that having carefully examined and scrutinized all the testimony which has come before us, as well on the charges against Aaron Burr, as those contained, in the indictment preferred to us against John Adair, that there has been no testimony before us, which does in the smallest degree criminate the conduct of either of those persons; nor can we from all the inquiry and investigations of the subject discover that any thing improper or injurious to the government of the United States or contrary to the laws thereof is designed or contemplated by either of them."

This MANIFESTO was subscribed by the whole jury, consisting of twenty-two persons; then, and since, considered respectable, and intelligent. That such a paper was formed among them, or produced by them, were the only circumstances of

reproach that was cast on them. It speaks for itself. If it had been drawn up by Colonel Burr, or one of his attornies, and put into the hands of the jury, for the purpose of public deception, it could not have answered the purpose more effectually. It was truly mortifying to find the jury become the dupes and instruments of Burr, and his lawyers, unsuspectingly no doubt, to exalt him, and depress the public attorney.

The effect was immediate and extensive. Beyond this, it was to lull suspicion, and to hoodwink jealousy, as to any illicit enterprise, or impending expedition: and it did so, to a great extent. It gave Colonel Burr, an eclat, and an elevation in the country, which he could not, had he been innocent, ever aspired to. The former efforts to open the eyes of the people were the more execrated, as they had been successful, with many.

His attornies, aware of all this, and triumphing at their own victory, through the prejudices of the judge, the craft of the witnesses, and the gullibility of the jury, could scarcely contain their joy.

Mr. Allin, moved the court forthwith that a copy of the report of the grand jury, might be taken, and published. This was allowed by the judge without hesitation. Which was just as good for Burr's partisans as a proclamation from himself. In court, the impression made on a crowded audience was immediately visible. On the one side, the greatest exultation; on the other, astonishment, and mortification. To men of intelligence, whose ears and whose eyes had been opened to recent occurrences in the legislature, it was a moment of awful reflection, upon the past, the present, and the future! while suspicion magnified herself.

Colonel Burr was at large, hailed and huzzaed by the undersized, caressed and feasted by the higher order. A ball was given in Frankfort to Colonel Burr; and rendered the more imposing by the presence of public characters. This however, had its reaction; and another was given in honour of the attorney, more numerously attended, it was said, and especially, by the ladies. If these are individual matters, they

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are not the less evidence of sentiment. At one of the parties about that time, Mr. Street, of genteel person and deportment, accustomed to attend at such places, was beset by some of the connexions of Judge Innis, with the view of putting him out of the room; but he resisted, until he was rescued. In some short time, John Wood, his partner, was seduced from him; principally by the address and solicitation of Henry Clay.

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By this epoch, the president's proclamation had arrived; Colonel Burr's friends in Ohio had been routed, his boats and provisions seized, and himself gone to Nashville; where he, and General Adair, arrived about the middle of December; and after lodging together a night, the general proceeded by land towards New Orleans, the colonel by water with a few boats to the mouth of Cumberland, to meet his forces descending the Ohio. But these had met with a sad disaster in the state of Ohio: about ten of the boats, a part of their arms, and a large proportion of their provisions, had been seized; and many of "the choice spirits," who had intended to embark in the flotilla, had disappeared. The remaining boats, &c. passed the falls of Ohio about the 20th of the month; and were at the point of rendezvous by the 22d. At this place, the would-be emperor surveyed the remnant of his shattered host, found a beggarly account of renegadoes, and himself an abandoned outcast and vagrant. The guilty multitude, if ever numerous, whom he had deluded and seduced, had slunk from him like troubled ghosts at the dawn of day; and not over two hundred were to be found. Their leader had been exposed, the conspiracy detected, and the expedition defeated; by means part unfolded, and still further to be detailed.

From the mouth of Cumberland, the colonel proceeded to New Madrid or its vicinity, with a faint hope that he should meet some recruits coming down the Mississippi; here again he experienced disappointment. The last hope was now turned on New Orleans and that region; Bayou Pierre was named as 'a point of reunion; and the party dispersed. Burr and others landed in the Mississippi territory. It was now rumoured, that General Wilkinson had betrayed Burr, and occupied the city of Orleans in military array against him.

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