The Chief Justice expressed regret that the question of producing the letter had arisen. It was irksome to him, he declared, and it was with considerable reluctance that he must insist on its being produced. He did only what his duty prescribed. However, Judge Marshall concluded, though he did not know what the letter contained he saw no need for it to be read aloud.
Now the tables were turned by the prosecution. They had contended all along that there was nothing in the letter which reflected against the President. So MacRae stated that the prosecution preferred to read the letter to the Court as being “the only way to avert the misrepresentations of its contents.”
No sooner had the argument over this one letter been settled than Wickham was up again demanding that the whole of another letter from the President to Wilkinson be produced. The Chief Justice reminded him that the President had certified his reasons for communicating only certain parts of the letter. He believed that the withheld parts had no application to the present prosecution.
Mr. Martin was on his feet again protesting. He hoped the Court had not definitely decided the point. Once more he displayed his personal animosity toward Mr. Jefferson. “Has not the Court already declared that the President has no more power here than any other man? If this be law, for which gentlemen now contend, God forbid that I should remain a citizen of the United States.
“And is Mr. Jefferson to be the judge of the relevancy of evidence, in a prosecution in which he has taken so active a part against the accused? Mr. Jefferson, Sir, is a man of no legal knowledge. He was of no celebrity as a lawyer before the Revolution, and he has since been so much engaged in political pursuits that he has had time enough to unlearn the little law he ever knew.”
Hay rose to the defense of the President against Martin’s vituperation. “The only end of this conversation is abuse of Mr. Jefferson,” he declared.
“Sir,” retorted Martin, “we shall use Mr. Jefferson so as not to abuse him. Remember that the life and liberty of Colonel Burr are shown to be no longer dependent on Virginians, and therefore I am free from any restraint in declaring what I think.” In this scornful thrust at Virginians might be discerned a reply to Editor Ritchie’s belittlement of the capacity of a certain Maryland lawyer.
It now came General Wilkinson’s turn to take the offensive in explaining his actions in New Orleans by presenting the warning letter dispatched by Andrew Jackson to Governor Claiborne. He also offered a deposition stating that Burr’s stepson, Judge Prevost of New Orleans, had saluted a public officer there and congratulated him on the arrival of General John Adair, of Kentucky, as second in command to Burr. The Chief Justice ruled that it would not be correct to permit the deposition to be read. The episode nevertheless set the stage for another of Wilkinson’s patriotic outbursts. Striking an attitude, he declared: “I was prompted by that pure patriotism which has always influenced my conduct and my character which I trust will never be tarnished. I shall continue to defy the utmost art, fraud, deception and villainy that my enemies can practice toward me.” Never was the General more eloquent than when he was proclaiming his virtue.
The proceedings now and then were enlivened by verbal exchanges between Martin and Wirt. General Wilkinson offered a letter that Mr. Martin had requested the day before. Mr. Martin looked at it and remarked that it was “only an extract.” The General replied that he had no other.
“We take no extracts,” retorted Mr. Martin, returning the paper to Wilkinson.