Eaton, Stoddart, Wilkinson, and two others whom I must not name, will satisfy the world, if not the judges, of Burr's guilt. And I do suppose the following overt acts will be proved. 1. The enlistment of men, in a regular way. 2. The regular mounting of guard round Blennerhasset's island when they expected Governor Tiffin's men to be on them, modo guerrino arraiati. 3. The rendezvous of Burr with his men at the mouth of Cumberland. 4. His letter to the acting Governor of Mississippi, holding up the prospect of civil war. 5. His capitulation regularly signed with the aids of the Governor, as between two independent and hostile commanders.
But a moment's calculation will show that this evidence cannot be collected under four months, probably five, from the moment of deciding when and where the trial shall be. I desired Mr. Rodney expressly to inform the Chief Justice of this, inofficially. But Mr. Marshall says, "More than five weeks have elapsed since the opinion of the Supreme Court has declared the necessity of proving the overt acts, if they exist. Why are they not proved?" In what terms of decency can we speak of this? As if an express could go to Natchez, or the mouth of Cumberland, and return in five weeks, to do which has never taken less than twelve. Again, "If, in November or December last, a body of troops had been assembled on the Ohio, it is impossible to suppose the affidavits establishing the fact could not have been obtained by the last of March." But I ask the judge where they should have been lodged? At Frankfort? at Cincinnati? at Nashville? St. Louis? Natchez? New Orleans? These were the probable places of apprehension and examination. It was not known at Washington till the 26th of March that Burr would escape from the Western tribunals, be retaken and brought to an Eastern one; and in five days after, (neither five months nor five weeks, as the judge calculated,) he says, it is "impossible to suppose the affidavits could not have been obtained." Where? At Richmond he certainly meant, or meant only to throw dust in the eyes of his audience. But all the principles of law are to be perverted which would bear on the favorite offenders who endeavor to overturn this odious Republic. "I understand," says the judge, "probable cause of guilt to be a case made out by proof furnishing good reason to believe," &c. Speaking as a lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i. e., proof on oath, at least. But this is confounding probability and proof. We had always before understood that where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender must be put on his trial. That guilty intentions were probable, the judge believed. And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of letters of information in Mr. Rodney's hands, the letters and facts published in the local newspapers, Burr's flight, and the universal belief or rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war, or capitulation, so as to put him on trial? Is there a candid man in the United States who does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt acts to have taken place?
If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged them in the present case with more charity. All this, however, will work well. The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves. If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never far distant when the people will remove him. They will see then and amend the error in our Constitution, which makes any branch independent of the nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches of the government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and to the common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class of offenders which endeavors to overturn the Constitution, and are themselves protected in it by the Constitution itself; for impeachment is a farce which will not be tried again. If their protection of Burr produces this amendment, it will do more good than his condemnation would have done. Against Burr, personally, I never had one hostile sentiment. I never indeed thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure of. Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their confidence, and to treat him as if he deserved it; and if his punishment can be commuted now for an useful amendment of the Constitution, I shall rejoice in it. My sheet being full, I perceive it is high time to offer you my friendly salutations, and assure you of my constant and affectionate esteem and respect.
TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE
Dear Sir,—Yours of the 13th came to hand only yesterday, and I now return you the letters of Turreau and Woodward, and Mr. Gallatin's paper on foreign seamen. I retain Monroe and Pinckney's letters, to give them a more deliberate perusal than I can now before the departure of the post. By the next they shall be returned. I should think it best to answer Turreau at once, as he will ascribe delay to a supposed difficulty, and will be sure to force an answer at last. I take the true principle to be, that "for violations of jurisdiction, with the consent of the sovereign, or his voluntary sufferance, indemnification is due; but that for others he is bound only to use all reasonable means to obtain indemnification from the aggressor, which must be calculated on his circumstances, and these endeavors bonâ fide made; and failing, he is no further responsible." It would be extraordinary indeed if we were to be answerable for the conduct of belligerents through our whole coast, whether inhabited or not.
Will you be so good as to send a passport to Julian Y. Niemcewicz, an American citizen, of New Jersey, going to Europe on his private affairs? I have known him intimately for twenty years, the last twelve of which he has resided in the United States, of which he has a certificate of citizenship. He was the companion of Kosciusko. Be so good as to direct it to him at Elizabethtown, and without delay, as he is on his departure. Mr. Gallatin's estimate of the number of foreign seamen in our employ renders it prudent, I think, to suspend all propositions respecting our non-employment of them. As, on a consultation when we were all together, we had made up our minds on every article of the British treaty, and this of not employing their seamen was only mentioned for further inquiry and consideration, we had better let the negociations go on, on the ground then agreed on, and take time to consider this supplementary proposition. Such an addition as this to a treaty already so bad would fill up the measure of public condemnation. It would indeed be making bad worse. I am more and more convinced that our best course is, to let the negotiation take a friendly nap, and endeavor in the meantime to practice on such of its principles as are mutually acceptable. Perhaps we may hereafter barter the stipulation not to employ their seamen for some equivalent to our flag, by way of convention; or perhaps the general treaty of peace may do better for us, if we shall not, in the meantime, have done worse for ourselves. At any rate, it will not be the worse for lying three weeks longer. I salute you with sincere affection.
P. S. Will you be so good as to have me furnished with a copy of Mr. Gallatin's estimate of the number of foreign seamen? I think he overrates the number of officers greatly.
TO MR. GALLATIN
Some very unusual delay has happened to the post, as I received yesterday only my letter from Philadelphia, as far back as April 9th, and Washington, April 11th. Of course yours of the 13th and 16th were then only received, and being overwhelmed with such an accumulated mail, I must be short, as the post goes out in a few hours. I return you Huston's, Findlay's, and Governor Harrison's letters. J. Smith's is retained because it is full of nominations. I had received, a week ago, from a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, a copy of their act for the Western road. I immediately wrote to Mr. Moore that we should consider the question whether the road should pass through Uniontown, as now decided affirmatively, and I referred to the commissioner to reconsider the question whether it should also pass through Brownsville, and to decide it according to their own judgment. I desired him to undertake the superintendence of the execution, to begin the work in time to lay out the whole appropriation this summer, and to employ it in making effectually good the most difficult parts. I approve of Governor Harrison's lease to Taylor, and of the conveying the salt water by pipes to the fuel and navigation, rather than the fuel and navigation to the Saline. I think it our indispensable duty to remove immediately all intruders from the lands, the timber of which will be wanting for the Salines, and will sign any order you will be so good as to prepare for that purpose.
