new and useful. How often, and how truly, individual, or how insignificant the subject. With Mr. Jefferson this was a sacred law, and as he always wrote at a polygraphic desk, copies have been preserved of every letter. His correspondence travelled far beyond his own country, and embraced within its circle many of the most distinguished men of his age in Europe. What a feast for the mind may we not expect from the published letters of these excellent Shall I follow him to the table of his elegant men! They were both masters in this way, hospitality, and show him to you in the bosom though somewhat contrasted. Mr. Adams, of his enchanting family? Alas! those attic plain, nervous, and emphatic, the thought days are gone; that sparkling eye is quenched; couched in the fewest and strongest words, that voice of pure and delicate affection, which and striking with a kind of epigrammatic force. ran with such brilliancy and effect through the Mr. Jefferson, flowing with easy and careless whole compass of colloquial music, now bright melody, the language at the same time pruned with wit, now melting with tenderness, is of every redundant word, and giving the thought hushed for ever in the grave! But let me leave with the happiest precision, the aptest words a theme on which friendship and gratitude have, dropping unbidden and unsought into their I fear, already been tempted to linger too long. places, as if they had fallen from the skies; There was one solace of the declining years and so beautiful, so felicitous, as to fill the mind of both these great men, which must not be with a succession of delightful surprises, while passed. It is that correspondence which arose the judgment is, at the same time, made captive between them, after their retirement from pub- by the closely compacted energy of the argulic life. That correspondence, it is to be hoped, ment. Mr. Jefferson's style is so easy and harwill be given to the world. If it ever shall, I monious, as to have led superficial readers to speak from knowledge when I say it will be remark that he was deficient in strength; as if found to be one of the most interesting and af- ruggedness and abruptness were essential to fecting that the world has ever seen. That strength. Mr. Jefferson's strength was inherent "cold cloud" which had hung for a time over in the thoughts and conceptions, though hidden their friendship, passed away with the conflict by the light and graceful vestments which he out of which it had grown, and the attachment threw over them. The internal divinity existof their early life returned in all its force. They ed and was felt, though concealed under the had both now bid adieu, a final adieu, to all finely harmonized form of a man; and if he did public employments, and were done with all not exhibit himself in his compositions with the the agitating passions of life. They were dead insignia of Hercules, the shaggy lion's skin and to the ambitious world; and this correspond- the knotted club; he bore the full quiver and ence resembles, more than any thing else, one the silver bow of Apollo; and every polished of those conversations in the Elysium of the an-shaft that he loosened from the string told with cients, which the shades of the departed great unerring and fatal precision : were supposed by them to hold, with regard to the affairs of the world they had left. There are the same playful allusions to the points of difference that had divided their parties; the same mutual, and light, and unimpassioned raillery on their own past misconceptions and mistakes; the same mutual and just admiration and respect for their many virtues and services to mankind. That correspondence was, to them both, one of the most genial employments of their old age; and it reads a lesson of wisdom on the bitterness of party spirit, by which the wise and the good will not fail to profit. Besides this affectionate intercourse between them, you are aware of the extensive correspondence which they maintained with others, and of which some idea may be formed by those letters which, since their death, have already broken upon us through the press, from quarters so entirely unexpected. They were considered as the living historians of the Revolution, and of the past age, as well as oracles of wisdom to all who consulted them. Their habit in this particular seems to have been the same; never to omit answering any respectful letter they received, no matter how obscure the Δείνη δε κλαγγή γενετ' αργυρεοιο βιοιο. These two great men, so eminently distinguished among the patriots of the Revolution, and so illustrious by their subsequent services, became still more so, by having so long survived all that were most highly conspicuous among their coevals. All the stars of first magnitude, in the equatorial and tropical regions, had long since gone down, and still they remained. Still they stood full in view, like those two resplendent constellations near the opposite poles, which never set to the inhabitants of the neighboring zones. But they, too, were doomed at length to set; and such was their setting as no American bosom can ever forget! In the midst of their fast decaying strength, and when it was seen that the approach of death was certain, their country and its glory still occupied their thoughts, and circulated with the last blood that was ebbing to their hearts. Those who surrounded the death-bed of Mr. Jefferson report, that in the few short intervals of delirium that occurred, his mind manifestly relapsed to the age of the Revolu- | affairs! Philosophy, recovered of her surprise, tion. He talked, in broken sentences, of the committees of safety, and the rest of that great machinery, which he imagined to be still in action. One of his exclamations was, "Warn the committee to be on their guard;" and he instantly rose in his bed, with the help of his attendants, and went through the act of writing a hurried note. But these intervals were few and short. His reason was almost constantly upon her throne, and the only aspiration he was heard to breathe, was the prayer, that he might live to see the fourth of July. When that day came, all that he was heard to whisper was the repeated ejaculation-"Nunc Domine dimittas "-Now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace! And the prayer of the patriot was heard and answered. "O save my country-Heaven! he said and died!" Hitherto, fellow-citizens, the fourth of July had been celebrated among us, only as the anniversary of our independence, and its votaries had been merely human beings. But at its last recurrence the great jubilee of the nation-the anniversary, it may well be termed, of the liberty of man-Heaven, itself, mingled visibly in the celebration, and hallowed the day anew by a double apotheosis. Is there one among us to whom this language seems too strong? Let him recall his own feelings, and the objection will vanish. When the report first reached us, of the death of the great man whose residence was nearest, who among us was not struck with the circumstance that he should have been removed on the day of his own highest glory? And who, after the first shock of the intelligence had passed, did not feel a thrill of mournful delight at the characteristic beauty of the close of such a life. But while our bosoms were yet swelling with admiration at this singularly beautiful coincidence, when the second report immediately followed, of the death of the great sage of Quincy, on the same day-I appeal to yourselves is there a voice that was not hushed, is there a heart that did not quail, at this close manifestation of the hand of Heaven in our may affect to treat the coincidence as fortuitous. But philosophy herself was mute, at the moment, under the pressure of the feeling that these illustrious men had rather been translated, than had died. It is in vain to tell us that men die by thousands every day in the year, all over the world. The wonder is, not that two men have died on the same day, but that two such men, after having performed so many and such splendid services in the cause of liberty-after the multitude of other coincidences which seem to have linked their destinies together-after having lived so long together, the objects of their country's joint veneration-after having been spared to witness the great triumph of their toils at home-and looked together from Pisgah's top, on the sublime effect of that grand impulse which they had given to the same glorious cause throughout the world, should, on this fiftieth anniversary of the day on which they had ushered that cause into light, be both caught up to Heaven, together, in the midst of their raptures! Is there a being, of heart so obdurate and sceptical, as not to feel the hand and hear the voice of Heaven in this wonderful dispensation! And may we not, with reverence, interpret its language? Is it not this? "These are my beloved servants, in whom I am well pleased. They have finished the work for which I sent them into the world; and are now called to their reward. Go ye, and do likewise!" One circumstance, alone, remains to be noticed. In a private memorandum found among some other obituary papers and relics of Mr. Jefferson, is a suggestion, in case a memorial over him should ever be thought of, that a granite obelisk, of small dimensions, should be erected, with the following inscription: HERE LIES BURIED THOMAS JEFFERSON, Author of the Declaration of Independence, All the long catalogue of his great, and splendid, and glorious services, reduced to this brief and modest summary! Thus lived and thus died our sainted Patriots! May their spirits still continue to hover over their countrymen, inspire all their counsels, and guide them in the same virtuous and noble path? And may that God, in whose hands are the issues of all things, confirm and perpetuate to us the inestimable boon, which through their agency he has bestowed; and make our Columbia the bright exemplar for all the struggling sons of liberty around the globe! SPEECH IN THE TRIAL OF AARON BURR. people of this country, and subject them to a usurper and a despot, we are obliged to use the terms which convey those ideas. Why then are gentlemen so sensitive? Why on these occasions, so necessary, so unavoidable, do they shrink back with so much agony of nerve, as if, instead of a hall of justice, we were in a drawing-room with Colonel Burr, and were barbarously violating towards him every principle of decorum and humanity? In May, 1807, Aaron Burr was arraigned in | dermine the liberties of a great portion of the the Circuit Court of the United States, held at Richmond, Virginia, for treason, in preparing the means of a military expedition against the possessions of the King of Spain, with whom the United States were at peace.* Under the direction of President Jefferson, Mr. Wirt was retained, to assist the United States Attorney in the prosecution, and in the course of the trial, he spoke as follows: Mr. Wickham has, indeed, invited us to consider the subject abstractedly; and we have been told that it is expected to be so considered; but sir, if this were practicable, would there be no danger in it? Would there be no danger, while we were mooting points, pursuing ingenious hypotheses, chasing elementary principles over the wide extended plains and Alpine heights of abstracted law, that we should lose sight of the great question before the court? This may suit the purposes of the counsel for the prisoner; but it does not, therefore, necessarily suit the purposes of truth and justice. It will be proper, when we have derived a principle from law or argument, that we should bring it to the case before the court, in order to test its application and its practical truth. In doing which, we are driven into the nature of the case, and must speak of it as we find it. But, besides, the gentlemen have themselves rendered this totally abstracted argument completely impossible; for one of their positions is, that there is no overt act proven at all. Now, that an overt act consists of fact and intention, has been so often repeated here, that it has a fair title to Justice Vaughan's epithet of a "decantatum." In speaking then of this overt act, we are compelled to inquire, not merely into the fact of the assemblage, but the intention of it; in doing which, we must examine and develope the whole project of the prisoner. It is obvious, therefore, that an abstract examination of this point cannot be made; and since the gentlemen drive us into the examination, they cannot complain, if, without any softening of lights or deepening of shades, we exhibit the picture in its true and natural state. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONORS: It is my duty to proceed, on the part of the United States, in opposing this motion. But I should not deem it my duty to oppose it, if it were founded on correct principles. I stand here with the same independence of action, which belongs to the Attorney of the United States; and as he would certainly relinquish the prosecution the moment he became convinced of its injustice, so The humanity also most certainly would I. and justice of this nation would revolt at the idea of a prosecution, pushed on against a life which stood protected by the laws; but whether they would or not, I would not plant a thorn, to rankle for life in my heart, by opening my lips in support of a prosecution which I felt and believed to be unjust. But believing, as I do, that this motion is not founded in justice, that it is a mere manœuvre to obstruct the inquiry, to turn it from the proper course, to wrest the trial of the facts from the proper tribunal, the jury, and embarrass the court with a responsibility which it ought not to feel, I hold it my duty to proceed-for the sake of the court, for the sake of vindicating the trial by jury, now sought to be violated, for the sake of full and ample justice in this particular case, for the sake of the future peace, union, and independence of these States, I feel it my bounden duty to proceed. In doing which, I beg that the prisoner and his counsel will recollect the extreme difficulty of clothing my argument in terms which may be congenial with their feelings. The gentlemen appear to me to feel a very extraordinary and unreasonable degree of sensibility on this occasion. They seem to forget the nature of the charge, and that we are the prosecutors. We do not stand here to pronounce a panegyric on the prisoner, but to urge on him the crime of treason against his country. When we speak of treason, we must call it treason. When we speak of a traitor, we must call him a traitor. When we speak of a plot to dismember the Union, to un-prosecution all that evidence which goes to * A full report of this extraordinary trial was taken in connect the prisoner with the assemblage on short hand by Mr. T. Carpenter, and published in three the island, to explain the destination and obvolumes, 1807. See note at page 174, in the first volume of jects of the assemblage, and to stamp beyond controversy the character of treason upon it. this work; also the speech of Mr. Randolph, at the same Connect this motion with that which was made place. This motion is a bold and original stroke in It marks the the noble science of defence. genius and hand of a master. For it gives to the prisoner every possible advantage, while it gives him the full benefit of his legal defencethe sole defence which he would be able to make to the jury, if the evidence were all inIt cuts off from the troduced before them. opened it. I will treat that gentleman with candor. If I misrepresent him, it will not be intentionally. I will not follow the example, which he has set me, on a very recent occasion. I will not complain of flowers and graces, where none exist. I will not, like him, in reply to an argument as naked as a sleeping Venus, but certainly not half so beautiful, complain of the the other day, to compel us to begin with the proof of the overt act, in which, from their zeal, gentlemen were equally sanguine, and observe what would have been the effect of success in both motions. We should have been reduced to the single fact, the individual fact, of the assemblage on the island, without any of the evidence which explains the intention and object of that assemblage. Thus gentle-painful necessity I am under, in the weakness men would have cut off all the evidence, which and decrepitude of logical vigor, of lifting first carries up the plot almost to its conception, this flounce, and then than furbelow, before I which, at all events, describes the first motion can reach the wished for point of attack. I which quickened it into life, and follows its keep no flounces or furbelows ready manufacprogress until it attained such strength and ma- tured and hung up for use in the millinery of turity as to throw the whole western country my fancy, and if I did, I think I should not be into consternation. Thus, of the world of evi- so indiscreetly impatient to get rid of my wares, dence which we have, we should have been re- as to put them off on improper occasions. I duced to the speck, the atom which relates to cannot promise to interest you by any classical Blannerhassett's Island. General Eaton's de- and elegant allusions to the pure pages of Trisposition, (hitherto so much and so justly re- tram Shandy. I cannot give you a squib or a vered as to its subject,) standing by itself would rocket in every period. For my own part, I have been without the powerful fortification have always thought these flashes of wit, ( derived from the corroborative evidence of they deserve that name,) I have always thought Commodore Truxton, and the still stronger these meteors of the brain, which spring up and most extraordinary coincidence of the Mor- with such exuberant abundance in the speeches gans. Standing alone, gentlemen would have of that gentleman, which play on each side of still proceeded to speak of that affidavit, as the path of reason, or sporting across it with they have heretofore done; not declaring that fantastic motion, decoy the mind from the true what General Eaton had sworn was not the point in debate, no better evidence of the soundtruth, but that it was a most marvellous story! ness of the argument with which they are cona most wonderful tale! and thus would they nected, nor, give me leave to add, the vigor of have continued to seek, in the bold and wild the brain from which they spring, than those extravagance of the project itself, an argument vapors which start from our marshes and blaze against its existence and a refuge from public with a momentary combustion, and which, floatindignation. But that refuge is taken away. ing on the undulations of the atmosphere, beGeneral Eaton's narration stands confirmed be- guile the traveller into bogs and brainbles, are yond the possibility of rational doubt. But I evidences of the firmness and solidity of the ask what inference is to be drawn from these earth from which they proceed. I will enrepeated attempts to stifle the prosecution and deavor to meet the gentleman's propositions in smother the evidence? If the views of the their full force, and to answer them fairly. I prisoner were, as they have been so often will not, as I am advancing towards thein with represented by one of his counsel, highly hon- my mind's eye, measure the height, breadth and orable to himself and glorious to his country, power of the proposition; if I find it beyond why not permit the evidence to disclose these my strength, halve it; if still beyond my views? Accused as he is of high treason, he strength, quarter it; if still necessary, subdiwould certainly stand acquitted, not only in vide it into eighths; and when, by this process reason and justice, but by the maxims of the I have reduced it to the proper standard, take most squeamish modesty, in showing us by evi- one of these sections and toss it, with an air of dence all this honor and this glory which his elephantine strength and superiority. If I find scheme contained. No, sir, it is not squeamish myself capable of conducting, by a fair course modesty; it is not fastidious delicacy that of reasoning, any one of his propositions to an prompts these repeated efforts to keep back the absurd conclusion, I will not begin by stating evidence; it is apprehension; it is alarm; it is that absurd conclusion as the proposition itself fear; or rather it is the certainty that the evi- which I am going to encounter. I will not, in dence, whenever it shall come forward, will fix commenting on the gentleman's authorities, the charge; and if such shall appear to the court thank the gentleman, with sarcastic politeness, to be the motive of this motion, your Honors, I for introducing them, declare that they conwell know, will not be disposed to sacrifice clude directly against him, read just so much public justice, committed to your charge, by of the authority as serves the purpose of that aiding this stratagem to elude the sentence of declaration, omitting that which contains the the law; you will yield to the motion no fur- true point of the case which makes against me; ther than the rigor of legal rules shall imperious-nor, if forced by a direct call to read that part ly constrain you. I shall proceed now to examine the merits of the motion itself, and to answer the argument of the gentleman, (Mr. Wickham,) who also, will I content myself by running over it as rapidly and inarticulately as I can, throw down the book with a theatrical air, and exclaim, "just as I said," when I know it is just 463 as I had not said. I know that, by adopting | succession, and to give them those answers these arts, I might raise a laugh at the gentle- which to my mind are satisfactory. Let us exman's expense; but I should be very little amine the first: it is because Aaron Burr, not pleased with myself, if I were capable of enjoy-being present on the island at the time of the I know, assemblage, cannot be a principal in the treason, ing a laugh procured by such means. too, that by adopting such arts, there will al- within the constitutional definition or the laws ways be those standing around us, who have of England. not comprehended the whole merits of the legal discussion, with whom I might shake the character of the gentleman's science and judgment as a lawyer. I hope I shall never be capable of such a wish, and I had hoped that the gentleman himself felt so strongly that proud, that high, aspiring and ennobling magnanimity, which I had been told conscious talents rarely fail to inspire, that he would have disdained asion; and that the constitution is to be interpoor and fleeting triumph, gained by means like these. I proceed now to answer the several points of his argument, so far as they could be collected from the general course of his speech. I say, so far as they could be collected; for the gentleman, although requested before he began, refused to reduce his motion to writing. It suited better his partisan style of warfare to be perfectly at large; to change his ground as often as he pleased; on the plains of Monmouth to-day, at the Eutaw Springs to-morrow. He will not censure me, therefore, if I have not been correct in gathering his points from a desultory discourse of four or five hours' length, as it would not have been wonderful if I had misunderstood him. I trust, therefore, that I have been correct; it was my intention to be so; for I can neither see pleasure nor interest in misrepresenting any gentleman; and I now beg the court, and the gentleman, if he will vouchsafe it, to set me right if I have misconceived him. I understood him, then, sir, to resist the introduction of further evidence, under this indictment, by making four propositions. First. Because Aaron Burr, not being on the island, at the time of the assemblage, cannot be a principal in the treason, according to the constitutional definition or the laws of England. Second. Because the indictment must be proved as laid; and as the indictment charges the prisoner with levying war, with an assemblage on the island, no evidence to charge him with that act, by relation, is relevant to this indictment. Third. Because, if he be a principal in the treason at all, he is a principal in the second degree; and his guilt being of that kind which is termed derivative, no parol evidence can be let in to charge him, until we shall show a record of the conviction of the principals in the first degree. Fourth. Because no evidence is relevant to connect the prisoner with others, and thus to make him a traitor by relation, until we shall previously show an act of treason in these others; and the assemblage on the island was not an act of treason. I beg leave to take up these propositions in In many of the gentleman's general proposi- preted by the rules of reason and moral right. Having read to us the constitutional defini- |