two impeachments were thus closely
connected and their results were similar. In the first place, it was
determined that impeachment was likely to be, in the petulant language
of Jefferson, "a farce" not soon to be used again for partisan
purposes. In the second place, it was probable that henceforth, in the
Commonwealths as well as in the National Government, political power
would be exercised subject to constitutional restraints applied
judicially. In the third place, however, the judges would henceforth
have to be content with the possession of this magnificent prerogative
and dispense with all judicial homilies on "manners and morals." It was
a fair compromise and has on the whole proved a beneficial one.

CHAPTER IV. The Trial Of Aaron Burr

When, on March 30, 1807, Colonel Aaron Burr, late Vice-President of the
United States, was brought before Chief Justice Marshall in the Eagle
Tavern at Richmond on the charge of treason, there began the greatest
criminal trial in American history and one of the notable trials in the
annals of the law.

"The Burr Conspiracy" still remains after a hundred years an unsolved
enigma. Yet whether Burr actually planned treason against the United
States in the year of grace 1806 is after all a question of somewhat
restricted importance. The essential truth is that he was by nature an
adventurer who, in the words of Hamilton, "believed all things possible
to daring and energy," and that in 1806 he was a bankrupt and asocial
outcast to boot. Whether, therefore, his grandiose project of an empire
on the ruins of Spanish dominion in Mexico involved also an effort to
separate some part of the West from the Union is a question which, if
it was ever definitely determined in Burr's own mind, was determined,
we may be sure, quite independently of any moral or patriotic
considerations.

Burr's activities after his term of public office ended in March, 1805,
were devious, complicated, and purposely veiled, involving many men and
spread over a large territory. * Near Marietta on an island in the Ohio
River, Burr came upon Harman Blennerhassett, a genial Irishman living in
a luxurious and hospitable mansion which was making a heavy drain upon
his already diminished resources. Here Burr, by his charm of manner and
engaging conversation, soon won from the simple Irishman his heart
and his remaining funds. He also made the island both a convenient
rendezvous for his adherents in his ambitious s