10, when the expedition put into Bayou
Pierre, in the Mississippi Territory. There Burr was put under arrest
and brought before a grand jury. Luck again favored him. As in Kentucky,
so here the jurors failed to find any ground for indictment.
Nevertheless, the judge bound Burr over to appear from day to day.
Holding this proceeding unauthorized by law, Burr forfeited his bond and
made his escape; but near Fort Stoddert, he was again apprehended. On
March 5, 1807, he was sent with a guard of six men from Fort Stoddert to
Richmond, Virginia.

The commitment, indictment, and trial of Aaron Burr form a fittingly
inconclusive sequel to a strange tale of intrigue and misadventure. Not
merely the fate of the accused man, but the personalities involved, gave
a spectacular character to the legal proceedings at Richmond. Arrayed as
counsel on the side of Burr were three notable attorneys from Virginia,
and Luther Martin of Maryland. The foreman of the grand jury was John
Randolph. The chief witness for the prosecution was General Wilkinson.
The presiding judge was Chief Justice John Marshall, within whose
circuit Blennerhassett's Island lay. And behind the prosecution,
straining every nerve to secure the conviction of the conspirators, was
President Thomas Jefferson.

From first to last the Chief Justice made the task of the prosecution
exceedingly difficult by a rigorous definition of treason. Treason
involved an overt act, he insisted; the actual levying of war by an
assembling of armed men. To convict of treason, the testimony of two
witnesses was required by the Constitution. Now, Burr was hundreds of
miles away from Blennerhassett's Island when the alleged overt act of
treason was committed. The court would not admit any testimony relative
to the conduct and declarations of Burr elsewhere and subsequent to the
transactions on Blennerhassett's Island. Such testimony was in its
nature merely corroborative, the Chief Justice ruled, and inadequate to
prove the overt act in itself, and therefore irrelevant until the overt
act was proved by the testimony of two witnesses. On September 1, the
prosecution abandoned the case, and the jury returned a verdict of not
guilty. The Government now sought to secure the conviction of Burr on
the charge of misdemeanor; but less than a week was needed to reveal the
weakness of the testimony put forward by the prosecution. On September
15, Burr was again acquitted.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOT