These terms were accepted. The installations were inspected and declared secure by none other than Benjamin H. Latrobe, the country’s leading architect and at the moment President Jefferson’s Surveyor of Public Buildings, who was then busily employed in redesigning the national Capitol. Latrobe had been approached by Burr with a proposal to take part in building a canal around the falls of the Ohio at Cincinnati and was among the many persons hauled in by the Government to give testimony.
Burr and the architect were to have another relationship of which neither of them had dreamed. Latrobe had but recently completed a design for a penitentiary at Richmond, for the State of Virginia, drawn up according to the specifications of Jefferson. The building had been erected and it met all the very latest requirements set forth by the penologists. In addition to its functional excellence it was a noble structure characteristic of Latrobe’s imagination and genius. It occupied a commanding position overlooking the James River on a lofty hill next door to the one on which stood the Gray House of Robert Gamble. That, too, it will be recalled, was the work of Latrobe. It now housed Colonel Gamble and his wife, his two daughters, and his sons-in-law, Governor William Cabell and William Wirt.
Since the imprisonment of Burr in Mr. Martin’s house had brought forth charges of favoritism, Governor Cabell hit on a plan to save Judge Marshall embarrassment by graciously offering the court quarters for Burr in the penitentiary. The offer was accepted by his counsel on the understanding that, as soon as the trial commenced, the prisoner should be returned to the Martin house in town.
So it was that Colonel Burr was transferred to the penitentiary. If in fact, as some alleged, he had plotted to make himself an emperor, the structure in which he was now imprisoned provided a romantic setting. The massive walls and the sturdy tower needed only a banner floating over them to give every appearance of a castle or other imperial stronghold. It was the nearest thing to regal quarters he would ever occupy.
This important housekeeping matter attended to, the prisoner was arraigned and pleaded “not guilty” to the charges. The Court ordered the United States Marshal to summon a panel of 48 men to report on August 3. From these a jury was to be picked for the trial.
The time had come for another intermission. With the intermission came the need for further divertissement. Being secured in prison, Colonel Burr was in an awkward position to supply it. This time the local populace and the visitors to the town who had come to take part in the trial were to be relieved of their boredom by the navy of His Britannic Majesty, King George III.
Chapter XI
On the afternoon of June 22, a few miles outside the Virginia Capes, the British frigate Leopard fired on the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, killing three men, severely wounding eight, and slightly wounding ten. Among the slightly wounded was Commodore James Barron, ranking officer on the Chesapeake. The American frigate, taken by surprise and totally unprepared for action, fired one shot of protest and struck her colors. A party from the Leopard then boarded the Chesapeake, subjected it to the indignity of mustering its crew, and removed from it four men alleged to be deserters from a British man-of-war.
The issue of impressment was then at its height. The British Navy, short of manpower, charged that many of its men were deserting to the American merchant marine to enjoy better pay and working conditions. It was not at all unusual for British men-of-war to hail American merchantmen on the high seas and search them for deserters. Nor were the British too careful about the men they took off, frequently including American citizens among them. This practice had been bitterly resented by a large part of the American public, but, while complaints had been made to the British Government, the abuse had not yet been considered a cause for war.