Mr. Lee knew full well he was touching a tender spot. By thus accusing the District Attorney he was acting on the popular belief among Judge Marshall’s friends that the Chief Justice was himself as much on trial as was the prisoner at the bar. Mr. Hay was prompt to do what he could to counteract that impression.
“The cases are different,” he replied. “What I said was only said to put Mr. Botts right in his misrepresentation. It was innocently said and compatible with the highest respect for the Court, not with the design which the gentleman (I will not say candidly) insinuates.”
Here the Chief Justice intervened. “I did not consider you as making any personal allusion, but as merely referring to the law,” he assured Mr. Hay. Thus, with an exhibition of his customary common sense, Judge Marshall graciously accepted Mr. Hay’s explanation, whatever his innermost thoughts might have been.
Mr. Lee, however, persisted. “The gentleman plainly insinuated the possibility of danger to the Court from a favorable opinion to the prisoner,” he protested, “because he said that the opinion which we claimed for him was the same in substance as had occasioned the impeachment of one judge already. It certainly would not be unfair to infer that it was intended to show that the same cause might again produce the same effect.”
Colonel Burr’s urgent request that the trial be expedited seemed doomed to failure. Mr. Lee, having been less long-winded than his colleagues, completed his argument some time before the hour of adjournment. The proposal was made to send a messenger to summon Mr. Martin whose appearance was next on the agenda. But the lawyers of the defense who were present declined to do so, stating again that Mr. Martin was not yet ready. The Court therefore adjourned for the day.
It was not until Friday morning, August 28, that Mr. Martin at last made his entry and rose to address the Court. In speech and appearance he was coarse and crude. Toward his enemies he could be vindictive, as he already had shown in the previous proceedings of the trial. His emotions were as violently stirred in behalf of those he called his friends. On the other hand no one surpassed him in his knowledge of the law and in the application of that knowledge to whatever case he might be pleading.
At the moment Colonel Burr enjoyed his complete loyalty. And since his introduction to her a few weeks before he had developed a consuming admiration for Theodosia Alston. Now came the supreme opportunity to serve them both.
Mr. Martin opened his address with an expression of regret that the artifices and persecutions of his enemies had placed Colonel Burr in his present predicament. But, he continued: “I shall ever feel the sincerest gratitude to Heaven, that my life has been preserved to this time, and that I am enabled to appear before this Court in his defense.
“And if the efforts of these highly respectable and eminent gentlemen with whom I have the honor to be associated, united with my feeble aid, be successful in rescuing a gentleman for whom I with pleasure avow my friendship and esteem, from the fangs of his persecutors—if our joint efforts shall be successful in wiping away the tears of filial piety, in healing the deep wounds inflicted on the breast of the child, by the envenomed shafts of hatred and malice hurled at the heart of the father—if our efforts shall succeed in preserving youth, innocence, elegance and merit from despair, from distraction—it will be to me the greatest pleasure. What dear delight will my heart enjoy. How ineffable, how supreme will be my blessing.”
The solicitude of the elderly gentleman for the prisoner’s daughter was not lost on his audience. The old and kindly disposed no doubt heard them and were touched. The young and cynical were amused that the old man’s infatuation for the beautiful young matron was capable of producing such eloquence. It was one of the current jokes of the town.