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Show me Irxal of ion JiiiSJ ; Aaron Burr fjit By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (ff'xV' 4 V 1 f nAM NE HUNDIIED AND TWENTY- 1 U O? V 1- i T five years ago the eyes of the whole Oflj Jly. il-fS -V ly'. f I nation were turned toward Rich- fj iy . ij ' y ffj Jv fv ( j V'3 mond, Va., for there was taking 13 $ j-f .i"' ' ''A-P' 5" i V 1 K'a place one of the most dramatic IHI A; t fJ f 1 JS S-tVt ' i l! events in American history what fid ?V 11 J V ? I v ?J. ' f , j-, s "'l has heen called "the greatest crim- M fHt'lh; 1 w inal trial in American history and fl s'V. 1L - V ht f H V V one of the notah.e trials in the an- fvJtti . & X i JV - K X 1 f T nals of the law." No less a person lH $ s4 r VV V ' ' 1 . V ' V I than Aaron Lurr, but lately Vice C s ( -Si V, . 1:' 4 irtl, - f Is.H 1 President of the United States, was ! f I on trial for his life and the charge against him & w ' K C v f V 1 was that of committing a crime which was a ViA i, U - iJiU f &t " V threat to the safety of not Just one person or a ,& v f v V , 1 group of persons but to the safely of the whole ' N V J ! nation, the crime of high treason. P , V 4 ' i -C v 2 Although Burr was acquitted by what was KVK fAVVA JiDOAlj- j&g, tJflg substantially a Scotch verdict of "not proven, t , ft.qlieBaMEES5L3ftflBaM my lord," and historians are still doubtful as to & V V aW.CSnf!S5? 1 : p T J whether or not the famous "Burr Conspiracy" 1 Ul JUfZZ OlWtrOOm OCCne xt Burr's Trial was actually a treasonable scheme, the name of a3ggESgSBSigMata51 Cf RON THE PAINT1N& by CW.JEfFERYS Aaron Burr has come down In popular belief ""s in "THE PAGEANT of AMERICA1,' among our "galaxy of scoundrels" second only r COURTESY YALE UNIVERSITY PRE5S) to Benedict Arnold. Whether or not he has been jHUri'-''. . f assigned such a place justly or unjustly is a j, ( V,' ? VAk " matter over which again historians disagree. '''r' ' t. -S " I In the Presidential election of 1S(W Burr and V " 1 r ' y dV I Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican J f A I III fk candidates, each received 73 electoral votes, a f v v S. II It lw tie which tlirew the election into the house of f v V, 3 III representatives, which was strongly Federalist. ff I V ( II d?0 After balloting for a week, ten votes were cast f.J ,ev v. A J TSV for Jefferson and four for Burr, and under the ii V "D. I aW& S feji I Constitution as it stood then this made Jeffer- f ' f'f son President and Burr, Vice President. Be- V j3 I cause of political jobbery with the Federalists, 5 ii ' Burr lost whatever regard the leaders among V - y jfSE" rfySfflK i the new party held for him. Then he became J; J MjSofe' " Slj$M$ftk I Involved In a bitter struggle for supremacy in ' St'nVNL rMWK I New Tork politics and because of the antagon- A t-Vi-nMR;,!. f Mjf0iS i ism of Jefferson all the patronage was thrown lii , 5 WPWBa to Burr's rivals, the Clintons and the Living- A' Jt2?. vVV Wml stons. Accordingly he accepted Federalist sup- & JZ-f ?V port In the gubernatorial race of 1S04, an alii- A'Zl scE V ""A VV. fSj' ance which was fought bitterly by Alexander J' u"3 jSit M,fei' T1 6 y - Hamilton. The result was the defeat of Burr, JS.& T1 E&ti JbSjVLJji who held Hamilton chiefly responsible for his fcgsjggjjjij tToTin humiliation. Then followed the famous Burr- Thnm n v . X--,, T,. InlWU ' " r Hamilton duel in which Burr's pistols ended the Thomas dcfferSOTl Randolph By ELMO SCOTT WATSON jff HUNDIIED AND TWENTY- ! Ve years as t'le eJ'es tne wrllle I I nation were turned toward Rich- I f '3 moll('' 'a- fr there was taking V ' -a place one of the most dramatic L 1 events in American history what 'Srf'' has been called "the greutest crim- lnal trial in American history and W one of the notable trials in the an- nals of the law." No less a person T7 than Aaron Burr, but lately Vice President of the United States, was on trial for his life and the charge against him was that of committing a crime which was a threat to the safety of not just one person or a group of persons but to the safety of the whole nation, the crime of high treason. Although Burr was acquitted by what was substantially a Scotch verdict of "not proven, my lord," and historians are still doubtful as to whether or not the famous "Burr Conspiracy" was actually a treasonable scheme, the name of Aaron Burr has come down In popular belief among our "galaxy of scoundrels" second only to Benedict Arnold. Whether or not he has been assigned such a place justly or unjustly is a matter over which again historians disagree. In the Presidential election of 1S00 Burr and Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic-Republican candidates, each received 73 electoral votes, a tie which tlirew the election into the house of representatives, which was strongly Federalist. After balloting for a week, ten votes were cast for Jefferson aud four for Burr, and under the Constitution as it stood then this made Jefferson Jeffer-son President and Burr, Vice President. Because Be-cause of political jobbery with the Federalists, Burr lost whatever regard the leaders among the new party held for him. Then he became Involved In a bitter struggle for supremacy in New York politics and because of the antagonism antagon-ism of Jefferson all the patronage was thrown to Burr's rivals, the Clintons and the Livingstons. Living-stons. Accordingly he accepted Federalist support sup-port In the gubernatorial race of 1S04, an alliance alli-ance which was fought bitterly by Alexander Hamilton. The result was the defeat of Burr, who held Hamilton chiefly responsible for his humiliation. Then followed the famous Burr-Hamilton Burr-Hamilton duel in which Burr's pistols ended the great career of Washington's secretary of the treasury and made Burr a political and social pariah. Discredited In the East where he had been a leader, Burr turned to the West to recoup his fortunes, hoping to capitalize on the unrest among the Westerners where talk of disunion was rife. Crossing the Alleghenles he arrived at Blennerhassett's island In the Ohio river where lived Harman Blennerhassett, a wealthy Irishman, who had settled there In 170S. To Blennerhassett Burr proposed a wild scheme of raising an armed force In the Old Southwest, driving the Spaniards out of Mexico and establishing estab-lishing a great southern confederacy composed of these conquered Mexican possessions and the American territory west of the Alleghenies where the sentiment for disunion seemed so strong. Blennerhassett was enough impressed by Burr's scheme to mortgage his vast possessions to furnish the necessary money. They also hoped to gain the aid of Great Britain in carrying car-rying out their scheme and, further to Insure the success of the plan, Burr won the support of General Wilkinson, then governor of Louisi- ana territory, commander of the United States army and "as two-faced a villain as ever served the United States government" Throughout 1S05 and 1806 Burr developed his plot which became well known throughout the West. The federal authorities, however, seem to have been strangely blind to what was taking tak-ing place until at last Wilkinson betrayed the scheme to Jefferson who on November 27, 1S0G, Issued a Presidential proclamation calling for the arrest of all those involved. Wilkinson and the others, to save their own skins, deserted Burr and. In the modern parlance, he was made the goat of the whole affair. Attempting to flee, Burr was arrested. In Alabama and brought back to Virginia for trial on the charge of treason. trea-son. His case was tried in the United States cir cnit court sitting at Richmond and never, per haps, in American history has there been gathered gath-ered together In a courtroom such a gnlaxy of notables as assembled In that little room In t Richmond. John Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme court of the United States presided over the trial. Luther Martin and Edmund Randolph Ran-dolph were counsel for the accused and William W7irt was counsel for the government. The foreman of the grand jury which brought the Indictment against Burr was the waspish but brilliant John Randolph of Roanoke. And not the least of the great figures in this case was Burr's charming daughter, Theodosia, of tragic fame later. Although Aaron Burr was upon trial on the most serious charge which can be placed against the citizen of a country, in reality he was little more than a pawn in what was at the trme regarded as a test of strength between the Republican Re-publican President Jefferson and the Federalist Chief Justice Marshall. The trial lasted from March 27 to, September 7, 1S07, and the full story of the legal maneuvers executed by the two clashing forces would require a book for the telling. Under the Constitution, treason against the United States consists "only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort," and no person may be convicted of it "unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court." The crux of the whole case against Burr was whether or not on a certain cer-tain date (December 10, 1SOC) Burr had actually actual-ly "levied war against the United States" by assembling an armed force on Blennerhassett's island and on the day following had set in motion mo-tion this same armed force in an expedition against the Oiry of New Orleans. The prosecution produced a series of witnesses, wit-nesses, mainly servants of Elennerhassett, to prove tliis point. Then it announced its intention inten-tion of introducing evidence to show Burr's connection with the assemblage on the island, whereupon the defense sprang a surprise which turned the tide in Burr's favor. Develnping the fact that on the night of December 10 Burr had not been present at the island, but bad been 00 miles away in Kentucky, they contended that under the Constitution the assemblage on Blen nerhassett's island could not be regarded as his act, even granting that lie had advised It, for, said they, advising war is one thing but levying it Is quite another. If this interpretation was correct, then no overt act of levying war, either within the jurisdiction of the court or stated in the indictment, had been or could be shown against Burr. Next Chief Justice Marshall handed down an opinion accepting virtually the contention of Burr's attrneys and when the prosecution was unable to produce two witnesses who had actually actual-ly seen Burr procure the assemblage on the island, is-land, it allowed the case to go to the jury. Shortly thereafter the following verdict was returned : "We of the jury say that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under this Indictment by any evidence submitted to us. We therefore find him not guilty." At the order of the chief justice this Scotch verdict was entered on the records of the court as a simple "not guilty." Acquitted, Burr became an exile and an outcast. out-cast. The man who came within one vote of be lng President of the United States wandered about Europe for four years, borrowing small amounts, attempting dubious promotions, urging urg-ing the French to seize Louisiana in 1S10. and finally returning to his own land with a false wig and whiskers. Shortly after his arrival he encountered the breaking of the one tie that held him to the earth when his beloved Theodosia, Theo-dosia, who had stood by him when the whole world seemed to have turned against him took ship from the South to meet him In New York. The ship on which she sailed never reached port and what her fate was Is to this day an unsolved mystery. One of the most tragic pictures pic-tures in all American history is that of the broken, disgraced Aaron Burr, a devoted father fa-ther whatever else he m:;y have been, going down to the battery every day for years, searching search-ing the horizon for the sail of a ship which never came the ship bringing back to him his long-lost daughter. And then as a final touch t to an ill-fated career was his unfortunate marriage mar-riage to the famous Madame Jiimel who divorced him on the day he died. i(B by Western Newspaper Ln!on. |