It is true there is likely to be no better account of the trial than that of Albert J. Beveridge, on whom this author has leaned heavily in feeling his way through legal technicalities and to whom he makes grateful acknowledgment. This scholarly treatment, however, is buried in the middle of Senator Beveridge’s life of John Marshall where it cannot attract the attention it deserves from a larger audience both because of the trial’s historical importance and its human and spectacular qualities. It was with the idea of reaching the general reader that this work, striving for historical accuracy but relieved of confusing technicalities, was undertaken.
For valuable assistance in its preparation thanks are due the staffs of the Virginia Historical Society and the Valentine Museum, of Richmond; of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Peabody Library and the Maryland Historical Society, of Baltimore; and of the manuscript room of the Library of Congress. I am indebted to my wife, Rosamond Randall Beirne, for her patience and encouragement over the years the work was in progress and for the many hours of research she devoted to it; and to my sister, Lisa Beirne Leake, who made available her library rich in material on old Richmond. Mention should be made of the courtesy of Mr. John S. Stanley, former president of the Maryland State Bar Association, and of Mr. Douglas H. Gordon, also of that Association, in providing copies of their papers respectively on Luther Martin and John Marshall; and of Mr. Henry G. Alsberg, chief editor of Hastings House, for revealing notes on General Wilkinson.
For answering specific questions thanks are due Judge Brockenbrough Lamb, of the Chancery Court of Richmond, Mr. Arthur W. Machen Jr., of the Maryland Bar, and Mr. Walkley E. Johnson, Clerk of the United States Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The last named gentlemen, however, did not see the manuscript and are not responsible for any technical errors that may appear in it.
FRANCIS F. BEIRNE
SHOUT TREASON
The Trial of Aaron Burr
Prologue
In his Critical and Historical Essays Lord Macaulay has left to posterity a vivid account of the opening of the impeachment proceedings against Warren Hastings, late Governor-General of India, before the House of Lords, for high crimes and misdemeanors allegedly committed during his incumbency.
The event took place on February 13, 1788. The scene was Westminster Hall, London, where thirty kings had been crowned and where Charles I faced his accusers. Macaulay tells us that the avenues were lined with grenadiers and kept clear by cavalry, for a great throng had assembled to view the spectacle.
Some 170 Lords, robed in gold and ermine, and marshaled by heralds under Garter King-at-Arms, marched in solemn order from their House to the tribunal. In the procession also were the judges in their vestments of state. Bringing up the rear were the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal, the brothers and sons of King George III, and, last of all, the Prince of Wales, “conspicuous for his fine person and noble bearing.”