General Wilkinson’s presence in court was brief. The Grand Jury, which had been waiting so long, was impatient to hear him. Grand jury proceedings are customarily regarded as sacred and what goes on behind closed doors is supposedly held in the strictest confidence. But the Grand Jury in the Burr case, like so many other features of that strange performance, refused to conform to the normal pattern. At least one serious leak led to a controversy in the press. In his continued correspondence with Judge Nicholson the jury’s foreman set down some salty observations. Nor was the star witness silent. His experience gave him another chance to unburden himself to his patron in Washington.
Wilkinson brought with him into the jury room the original of the famous letter in cipher which he had received from Burr by the hand of Samuel Swartwout. It was a complicated cipher which baffled the jury, with one exception. That exception was John Randolph of Roanoke who gave a demonstration of his remarkable intellect by mastering the key at once and explaining the solution to his less astute fellow jurymen.
The General’s reception was less than cordial. To a man who claimed to have saved his country through his bold and patriotic actions the militant attitude of the Grand Jury was painful indeed. The General made his lament to Jefferson: “I dreamt not of the importance attached to my presence before I reached Hampton ... for I had anticipated that a deluge of testimony would have been poured forth from all quarters to overwhelm him [Burr] with guilt and dishonor.” That, perhaps, to excuse his having kept the Grand Jury waiting. “Sadly, indeed, was I mistaken, and to my astonishment I found the traitor vindicated and myself condemned by a mass of wealth, character, influence and talents. Merciful God, what a spectacle did I behold—integrity and truth perverted and trampled under foot by turpitude and guilt, patriotism appalled and usurpation triumphant. Did I ever expect it would depend on my humble self to stop the current of such a polluted stream? Never, never.”
Why the Grand Jury did not overwhelm Wilkinson with manifestations of appreciation and gratitude is revealed by John Randolph in a letter to Nicholson reporting on the indictments: “But,” said Randolph, “the mammoth of iniquity escaped. Not that any man pretended to think him innocent, but upon certain drawn distinctions that I will not pester you with.
“Wilkinson is the only man that I ever saw who was from the bark to the very core a villain. I cannot enter upon it here. Suffice it to say that I have seen it—so that it is not susceptible of misconstruction.... Perhaps you never saw human nature in so degraded a situation as in the person of W. before the G. J., & yet this man stands on the very summit and pinnacle of executive favor—whilst Jas. M—e [James Monroe] denounced....” Just then Monroe stood in Randolph’s good graces. But like so many others he soon was to incur that inconstant gentleman’s displeasure.
A few days later Randolph wrote again: “W— is the most finished scoundrel that ever lived. A ream of paper would not contain all the proofs—but what of that? He is ‘the man whom the king delighteth to honor’ & all who are in search of promotion find it to their interest to shut their eyes and ears to the evidence of the guilt—among them I could name some, whom I blush to think upon.”
Randolph then described in detail the scratches with a pen-knife and restorations in the Burr letter which he claimed were made in Wilkinson’s own handwriting. He concludes: “Let me know what the opinion is with you of this redoubtable thief taker (set a thief etc.) who commands our armies.”
In another of his emotional letters to the President, Wilkinson confessed his perplexity at the direction the case had taken: “You are doubtless well aware,” he wrote, “of the proceedings here in the case of Burr. To me they are incomprehensible as I am no jurist. The Grand Jury actually made an attempt to present me for suspicion [Wilkinson meant “misprision”] of treason on the ground of having failed to report Dayton to you. I feel myself between Scylla and Charybdis. The jury would dishonor me for failing in my duty, and Burr and his conspirators for performing it.”
The jury’s treatment of Wilkinson provided the subject for a bitter dispute that ran for days in the pages of the Enquirer. Under the heading “Drowning Men Catch At Straws,” Editor Ritchie set forth that he was authorized to contradict the slander uttered in Davis’s Virginia Gazette and Daily Advertiser (The Enquirer’s Federalist rival) that a motion had been made before the Grand Jury to present the General for high treason and that on the question the jury had divided equally.
The Enquirer traced the story to “Mumford Beverly Esq., an unworthy member of the jury, of whose attachment to monarchy and sympathy for Burr no doubts are admitted.” A few days later Mr. John Brockenbrough, cashier of the Bank of Virginia and a juryman, entered the controversy. Mr. Brockenbrough said he felt no disposition to interfere in the controversy between General Wilkinson and his friends and Mr. Beverly, but he deemed it his duty to state the facts. He said he had not voted for presenting General Wilkinson for high treason, for no such vote was taken, to his knowledge.