"First, Chief Justice M. for a repetition of his X.Y.Z. tricks, which are said to be much aggravated by his felonins [sic] capers in open Court, on the plea of irrelevancy;
"Secondly, His Quid Majesty [Burr], charged with the trifling fault of wishing to divide the Union, and farm Baron Bastrop's grant;
"Thirdly, B[lennerhassett], the chemist, convicted of conspiracy to destroy the tone of the public Fiddle;
"Fourthly, and lastly, but not least, Lawyer Brandy-Bottle, for a false, scandalous, malicious Prophecy, that, before six months, 'Aaron Burr would divide the Union.'
"N.B. The execution of accomplices is postponed to a future day."[1343]
Martin demanded of the Mayor the protection of the law. In response, police were sent to his house and to the Evans Hotel where Blennerhassett was staying. Burr and the faithful Swartwout, who had accompanied his friend and leader, were escorted by a guard to the stage office, where they quickly left for Philadelphia.[1344] Martin's law students and other friends armed themselves to resist violence to him.
A policeman named Goldsmith notified Blennerhassett that a great mob was gathering, "had everything prepared for tarring and feathering and would, ... if disappointed or opposed, tear Martin [and Blennerhassett] to pieces." The manager of the hotel begged Blennerhassett to hide in the garret of the hostelry. This the forlorn Irishman did, and beheld from a window in the attic what passed below.
Shouting and huzzaing men poured by, headed by fifers and drummers playing the "Rogue's march." Midway in the riotous throng were drawn two carts containing effigies of Chief Justice Marshall and the other popularly condemned men "habited for execution.... Two troops of cavalry patrolled the streets, not to disperse the mob, but to follow and behold their conduct." At Martin's house the crowd stopped for a moment, hurling threats and insults, jeering at and defying the armed defenders within and "the cavalry without."
Making "as much noise as if they were about to destroy the city," these devotees of justice and liberty proceeded to the place of public execution. There, amid roars of approval, the effigy of John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, was hanged by the neck until the executioner pronounced the stuffed figure to be dead. About him dangled from the gibbet the forms of the "traitors"—Aaron Burr and Harman Blennerhassett—and also that of Luther Martin, who had dared to defend them and had thus incurred the malediction of Thomas Jefferson and "the people."[1345]
In the Senate Giles reported a bill to punish as traitors persons who permitted or aided in the perpetration of certain acts, "although not personally present when any such act was done"; and he supported it in an argument of notable ability. He powerfully attacked Marshall, analyzed his opinions in the Burr case, contrasted them with those of other National judges, and pointed out the resulting confusion in the interpretation of the law. All this was spoken, however, with careful regard to the rules of parliamentary discussion.[1346]