Nevertheless, if the defense insisted upon force, did not the assemblage on Blennerhassett Island exert a species of potential force on the surrounding country? Did not Comfort Tyler and his party put that country into a state of consternation? What urged the state government of Ohio to send a body of men to take that party and seize its boats? What induced the State Legislature to deliberate with closed doors? What caused the militia of Wood County, Virginia, to be put in motion and marched to the island? The speaker traced the wave of alarm as it moved from the island southward all the way to New Orleans.
The day was almost spent when, with a sigh of weariness, Mr. Wirt announced that he had finished what he had to say. He begged pardon for consuming the time of the Court so long. He thanked it for its patience and polite attention. He pleaded that he was much too exhausted to recapitulate his argument. But to such a Court as that of the Chief Justice’s he was sure that was unnecessary.
After his masterly effort Mr. Wirt would not have been human had he not felt a glow of satisfaction over his performance. Even those on the other side must have conceded that he had more than earned his fee. All that came after the portrayal of the relationship between Blennerhassett and Burr was anticlimax. That passage, duly recorded by Mr. Robertson, found its way into books of elocution and became one of the most popular pieces of literature to memorize and declaim. The Chief Justice was kind enough to remark that he had been greatly impressed by the speaker’s eloquence. What effect it had on the members of the jury for whose consumption it was chiefly intended only they could say, and they left behind them no record of their reactions.
There was also the effect on the prisoner whose misdeeds had been so vividly described. The Colonel sat through it all calmly, but with his alert mind he took in every word of it. It is said that in later years he entertained himself and his friends by reciting the more florid passages and that his performance seldom failed to be rewarded with peals of derisive laughter.
Chapter XVII
Wirt’s argument had consumed the better part of the day, but there still was a little time left before the regular hour for adjournment. Two of the lawyers for the prosecution having held the floor in succession it was again the turn of the defense.
Of Colonel Burr’s lawyers none was better equipped by temperament to counterbalance William Wirt than was Benjamin Botts. He, too, could boast the vigor and abandon of youth. In fact he was the youngest of all the array of legal talent which had been attracted to the case. He was distinguished for his wit and he was a master of ridicule, for which Mr. Wirt’s florid oratory made an excellent target. As Wirt had set out after Wickham in his opening remarks, so young Botts turned his guns on Wirt.
“I cannot promise you, Sir, a speech manufactured out of tropes and figures,” he began with mock apology. Then, alluding to Wirt’s reference to “an argument as naked as a sleeping Venus,” he continued: “Instead of the introduction of a sleeping Venus, with all the luxury of voluptuous and wanton nakedness to charm the reason through the refined medium of sensuality, and to convince us that the law of treason is with the Prosecution by leading our imaginations to the fascinating richness and symmetry of a heaving bosom and luscious waist, I am compelled to plod heavily and meekly on through the dull doctrines of Hale and Foster.” Mr. Botts, too, was not without skill in playing up to the gross humor of an all-male audience.
“So far though from reproving the gentleman’s excitement of the boiling blood of such of us as are in the heyday of youth, without the previous caution of clearing the hall of those whose once panting desires have been chilled by age, and upon whom the forced ecstasy sat unnaturally and uneasy, I only lament my utter incapacity to elicit topics of legal science by an imitation of so novel and tempting an example. Nothing but the impossibility of success would prevent me also from grasping at the fame and glory on this grave occasion, and at this time of pleasure, of enriching the leering lasciviousness of a like bewildering thought to transport anew the old and the young.”