[908] "We have been, & still are, both amused & perplexed with the rumours, reports, & conjectures respecting Aaron Burr. They are numerous, various, & contradictory.... I must have plenary evidence before I believe him capable of committing the hundredth part of the absurd & foolish things that are ascribed to him.... The president of the United States, a day or two since, informed me that he knew of no evidence sufficient to convict him of either high crimes or misdemeanors." (Plumer to Jeremiah Mason, Jan. 4, 1807, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.) See also Plumer to Langdon, Dec. 1806, and to Livermore, Jan. 19, 1807, Plumer MSS. loc. cit.
These letters of Plumer's are most important. They state the general opinion of public men, especially Federalists, as expressed in their private conversations.
"I never believed him to be a Fool," wrote John Adams to his most intimate friend. "But he must be an Idiot or a Lunatick if he has really planned and attempted to execute such a Project as is imputed to him." Politicians have "no more regard to Truth than the Devil.... I suspect that this Lying Spirit has been at Work concerning Burr.... But if his guilt is as clear as the Noon day Sun, the first Magistrate ought not to have pronounced it so before a Jury had tryed him." (Adams to Rush, Feb. 2, 1807, Old Family Letters, 128-29.) See also Adams to Pickering, Jan. 1, 1807, Pickering MSS. Mass. Hist. Soc.; and Peters to Pickering, Feb. 1807, Pickering MSS. loc. cit.
Marshall undoubtedly shared the common judgment, as his conduct at Burr's trial abundantly shows.
[909] Annals, 9th Cong. 2d Sess. 336.
[910] Ib. 347.
[911] Ib. 357-58.
[912] Annals, 9th Cong. 2d Sess. 39-41. Jefferson's Message, Jan. 22, 1807, Richardson, i, 412-17.
[913] Annals, 9th Cong. 2d Sess. 43; Richardson, i, 416.
[914] Annals, 9th Cong. 2d Sess. 40. (Italics the author's.)