empire in the west, of which the prisoner was to be the chief. It ought to be recollected that these were his objects, and that the whole western country, from Beaver to Orleans, was the theatre of his treasonable operations. It is by this first reasoning that you are to consider whether he be a principal or an accessory, and not by limiting your inquiries to the circumscribed and narrow spot in the island where the acts charged happened to be performed. Having shown, I think, on the ground of law, that the prisoner cannot be considered as an accessory, let me press the inquiry, whether on the ground of reason he be a principal or accessory; and remember that his project was to seize New Orleans, separate the Union, and erect an independent empire in the west, of which he was to be the chief. This was the destination of the plot and the conclusion of the drama. Will any man say that Blannerhassett was the principal, and Burr but an accessory? Who will believe that Burr, the author and projector of the plot, who raised the forces, who enlisted the men, and who procured the funds for carrying it into execution, was made a cat's-paw of? Will any man believe that Burr, who is a soldier, bold, ardent, restless and aspiring, the great actor whose brain conceived, and whose hand brought the plot into operation, that he should sink down into an accessory, and that Blannerhassett should be elevated into a principal? He would startle at once at the thought. Aaron Burr, the contriver of the whole conspiracy, to every body concerned in it was as the sun to the planets which surround him. Did he not bind them in their respective orbits and give them their light, their heat and their motion? Yet he is to be considered an accessory, and Blannerhassett is to be the principal! Let us put the case between Burr and Blannerhassett. Let us compare the two men and settle this question of precedence between them. It may save a good deal of troublesome ceremony hereafter. Who Aaron Burr is, we have seen in part already. I will add, that beginning his operations in New York, he associates with him men whose wealth is to supply the necessary funds. Possessed of the mainspring, his personal labor contrives all the machinery. Pervading the continent from New York to New Orleans, he draws into his plan, by every allurement which he can contrive, men of all ranks and descriptions. To youthful ardor he presents danger and glory; to ambition, rank and titles and honors; to avarice the mines of Mexico. To each person whom he addresses he presents the object adapted to his taste. His recruiting officers are appointed. Men are engaged throughout the continent. Civil life is indeed quiet upon its surface, but in its bosom this man has contrived to deposit the materials which, with the slightest touch of his match, produce an explosion to shake the continent. All this his restless ambition has contrived; and in the au | tumn of 1806 he goes forth for the last time to apply this match. On this occasion he meets with Blannerhassett. Who is Blannerhassett? A native of Ireland, a man of letters, who fled from the storms of his own country to find quiet in ours. His history shows that war is not the natural element of his mind. If it had been, he never would have exchanged Ireland for America. So far is an army from furnishing the society natural and proper to Mr. Blannerhassett's character, that on his arrival in America, he retired even from the population of the Atlantic States, and sought quiet and solitude in the bosom of our western forests. But he carried with him taste and science and wealth; and lo, the desert smiled! Possessing himself of a beautiful island in the Obo, he rears upon it a palace, and decorates it with every romantic embellishment of fancy. A shrubbery that Shenstone might have envied, blooms around him. Music that might have charmed Calypso and her nymphs is his. An extensive library spreads its treasures before him. A philosophical apparatus offers to him all the secrets and mysteries of nature. Peace, tranquillity and innocence shed their mingled delights around him. And to crown the enchantment of the scene, a wife, who is said to be lovely even beyond her sex, and graced with every accomplishment that can render it irresistible, had blessed him with her love, and made him the father of several children. The evidence would convince you that this is but a faint picture of the real life. In the midst of all this peace, this innocent simplicity and this tranquillity, this feast of the mind, this pure banquet of the heart, the destroyer comes; he comes to change this paradise into a hell. Yet the flowers do not wither at his approach. No monitory shuddering through the bosom of their unfortunate possessor warns him of the ruin that is coming upon him. A stranger presents himself. Introduced to their civilities by the high rank which he had lately held in his country, he soon finds his way to their hearts by the dignity and elegance of his demeanor, the light and beauty of his conversation, and the seductive and fascinating power of his address. The conquest was not difficult. Innocence is ever simple and credulous. Conscious of no design itself, it suspects none in others. It wears no guard before its breast. Every door, and portal, and avenue of the heart is thrown open, and all who choose it enter. Such was the state of Eden when the serpent entered its bowers. The prisoner, in a more engaging form, winding himself into the open and unpractised heart of the unfortunate Blannerhassett, found but little difficulty in changing the native character of that heart and the objects of its affection. By degrees he infuses into it the poison of his own ambition. He breathes into it the fire of his own courage; a daring and desperate thirst for glory; an ardor panting for great enterprises, for all the storm and bustle and hurricane inferior in guilt to them,) Aaron Burr was not a principal, but an accessorial offender in the treason; would you, for that reason, stop the evidence from going to the jury? Now, to inquire whether the conduct of Aaron Burr make him liable as a principal or accessory, is only arguing in a different shape the whole question, whether he have committed an overt act of war or not. The jury are to consult and decide whether he be a principal offender or not. Whether he be a principal or accessory is a question of fact, which they are sworn to decide. The court must judge of the weight of evidence, before it can say that the accused is either a principal or accessory. Suppose one part of the evidence contradicts another. Is it not judging of the weight of evidence to decide whether he be a principal or accessory? If it be not, I know not what judging of the weight of evidence is. Nothing is more peculiar within the exclusive province of the jury than the sufficiency or insufficiency of the evidence. of life. In a short time the whole man is changed, | injustice and inhumanity of considering him as and every object of his former delight is relinquished. No more he enjoys the tranquil scene; it has become flat and insipid to his taste. His books are abandoned. His retort and crucible are thrown aside. His shrubbery blooms and breathes its fragrance upon the air in vain; he likes it not. His ear no longer drinks the rich melody of music; it longs for the trumpet's clangor and the cannon's roar. Even the prattle of his babes, once so sweet, no longer affects him; and the angel smile of his wife, which hitherto touched his bosom with ecstasy so unspeakable, is now unseen and unfelt. Greater objects have taken possession of his soul. His imagination has been dazzled by visions of diadems, of stars, and garters, and titles of nobility. He has been taught to burn with restless emulation at the names of great heroes and conquerors. His enchanted island is destined soon to relapse into a wilderness; and in a few months we find the beautiful and tender partner of his bosom, whom he lately "permitted not the winds of" summer "to visit too roughly," we find her shivering at midnight, on the wintry banks of the Ohio, and mingling her tears with the torrents that froze as they fell. Yet this unfortunate man, thus deluded from his interest and his happiness, thus seduced from the paths of innocence and peace, thus confounded in the toils that were deliberately spread for him, and overwhelmed by the mastering spirit and genius of another-this man, thus ruined and undone, and made to play a subordinate part in this grand drama of guilt and treason, this man is to be called the principal offender, while he, by whom he was thus plunged in misery, is comparatively innocent, a mere accessory! Is this reason? Is it law? Is it humanity? Sir, neither the human heart nor the hu- Mr. Martin has referred you to a number of man understanding will bear a perversion so cases from Cooper and other authors, but they monstrous and absurd! so shocking to the soul! do not prove the position intended. The court, so revolting to reason! Let Aaron Burr, then, in all these cases, leaves the jury to decide on not shrink from the high destination which he the overt act. You will find those cases to has courted, and having already ruined Blan- amount simply to this: a dialogue between the nerhassett in fortune, character and happiness, court and the counsel of the prisoner, as to the for ever, let him not attempt to finish the trage- overt act. The court was required to say, whethdy by thrusting that ill-fated man between him-er the overt act were proved or not. There was self and punishment. But the court never says that the evidence is or is not sufficient to prove what it is intended to establish. No court has such right. The course in such cases, is to give instructions in a general charge to the jury, after all the evidence shall have been heard. Will you, because of your impressions on this subject, from a merely partial view of the evidence, compel the jury also to decide on that necessarily partial view! If you do, do you not thereby divest the jury of their peculiar functions? Their province should not be invaded. The invasion is big with danger and terror. I trust that you will see thi subject in the awful light in which it really stands, and that you will suffer the trial to take its natural course. no judicial determination. The judge merely told his opinion; but he told the jury at the same time, that the decision belonged to them and not to him. Upon the whole, sir, reason declares Aaron Burr the principal in this crime, and confirms herein the sentence of the law; and the gentleman, in saying that his offence is of a derivative There is a wide difference between criminal and accessorial nature, begs the question, and and civil cases; and as it is of much more imdraws his conclusions from what, instead of be-portance to preserve the trial by jury in the ing conceded, is denied. It is clear from what has been said, that Burr did not derive his guilt from the men on the island, but imparted his own guilt to them; that he is not an accessory, but a principal; and, therefore, that there is nothing in the objection which demands a record of their conviction before we shall go on with our proof against him. But suppose you should think otherwise, suppose you were of opinion, that on principles of law and reason, (notwithstanding the seeming former, to protect the lives of the people against unjust persecutions, than in mere civil suits, to preserve the rights of property, the constitution has secured that trial in all criminal prosecutions. Should the court interfere for the purpose of stopping the evidence, and to wrest the cause from the jury, in favor of the accused, would there not be a reciprocal right? If it can inter fere to save the prisoner, can they not interfere equally against him? A thing unprecedented in the annals of jurisprudence. Have the coun- | the jury, or the jury for the court, at pleasure; sel, on either side, a right to call on the other to address the court on facts, or the jury on side, to state all their evidence, before it be in- points of law? Such an attempt would not be troduced, and then to address the court without a greater encroachment on the right of the hearing it, if they think they have a better proper tribunal, than the present motion is on chance before the court than the jury? Has the rights of the jury.* either party a right to substitute the court for THE CHEROKEE CASE. The following is an extract from Mr. Wirt's argument before the Supreme Court of the United States, on a motion for an injunction to prevent the execution of certain acts of the legislature of Georgia, in the territory of the Cherokee nation of Indians, on behalf of the Cherokee nation.* SIR, I have presented to you all the views that have occurred to me as bearing materially on this question. I have endeavored to satisfy you that, according to the supreme law of the land, you have before you proper parties and a proper case to found your original jurisdiction: that the case is one which warrants and most imperiously demands an injunction; and unless its aspect be altered by an answer and evidence, -which I confidently believe it cannot be—that if ever there was a case which called for a decree of perpetual peace, this is the case. It is with no ordinary feelings that I am about to take leave of this cause. The existence of this remnant of a once great and mighty nation is at stake; and it is for your honors to say whether they shall be blotted out from the creation, in utter disregard of all our treaties. They are here in the last extremity, and with them must perish for ever the honor of the American name. The faith of our nation is fatally linked with their existence, and the blow which destroys them quenches for ever our own glory: for what glory can there be, of which patriot can be proud, after the good name of his country shall have departed? We may gather laurels on the field and trophies on the ocean, but they will never hide this foul blot upon our escutcheon. "Remember the Cherokee nation," will be answer enough to the proudest boasts that we can ever make-answer enough to a cover with confusion the face and the heart of every man among us, in whose bosom the last spark of grace has not been extinguished. Such, it is possible, there may be who are willing to glory in their own shame, and to triumph in the disgrace which they are permitted to heap upon this nation. But, thank Heaven! they are See the Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, AttorneyGeneral of the United States, by John P. Kennedy: vol 2. pp. 380-343. comparatively few. The great majority of the American people see this subject in its true light. They have hearts of flesh in their bosoms, instead of hearts of stone; and every rising and setting sun witnesses the smoke of the incense from the thousands and tens of thousands of domestic altars, ascending to the throne of grace to invoke its guidance and blessing on your councils. The most undoubting confidence is reposed in this tribunal. for this unfortunate people will be done by this We know that whatever can be properly done honorable court. Their cause is one that must have been true and faithful to us, and have a come to every honest and feeling heart. They right to expect a corresponding fidelity on our part. Through a long course of years, they children. Our wish has been their law. We have followed our counsel with the docility of asked them to become civilized, and they became so. They assumed our dress, copied our names, pursued our course of education, adopted our form of government, embraced our religion, and have been proud to imitate us in every thing in their power. They have watched the progress of our prosperity with the strongest interest, and have marked the rising grandeur of our nation with as much interest as if they had belonged to us. They have even adopted our resentments, and in our war with the Seminole tribes they voluntarily joined our arms, barians from the very State that now oppresses and gave effectual aid in driving back those barthem. They threw upon the field in that war a body of men, who proved, by their martial bearing, their descent from the noble race that were once the lords of these extensive forestsmen worthy to associate with the "lion" who, in their own language, "walks upon the mountain-tops." They fought, side by side, with our present Chief Magistrate, and received his repeated thanks for their gallantry and conduct. May it please your honors, they have refused to us no gratification which it has been in their power to grant. We asked them for a portion of their lands, and they ceded it. We asked *The remainder of Mr. Wirt's speech, in which he replied to Mr. Wickham's fourth objection to the admission of further evidence on the part of the prosecution, is omitted. + The Indian designation of their chieftain Ridge. again and again, and they continued to cede, until they have now reduced themselves within the narrowest compass that their own subsistence will permit. What return are we about to make to them for all this kindness? We have pledged for their protection, and for the guaranty of the remainder of their lands, the faith and honor of the nation; a faith and honor never sullied, nor even drawn into question till now. We promised them, and they trusted us. They have trusted us: Shall they be deceived? They would as soon expect to see their rivers run upwards on their sources, or the sun roll back in his career, as that the United States would prove false to them, and false to the word so solemnly pledged by their Washington, and renewed and perpetuated by his illustrious successors. Is this the high mark to which the American nation has been so strenuously and successfully pressing forward? Shall we sell the mighty meed of our high honors at so worthless a price, and, in two short years, cancel all the | g.ory which we have been gaining before the world for the last half century? Forbid it, Heaven! I will hope for better things. There is a spirit that will yet save us. I trust that we shall find it here, in this sacred court, where no foul and malignant demon of party enters to darken the understanding or to deaden the heart, but where all is clear, calm, pure, vital and firm. I cannot believe that this honorable court, possessing the power of preservation, will stand by and see these people stripped of their property and extirpated from the earth, while they are holding up to us their treaties and claiming the fulfilment of our engagements. If truth, and faith, and honor, and justice have fled from every other part of our country, we shall find them here. If not our sun has gone down in treachery, blood and crime, in the face of the world; and, instead of being proud of our country, as heretofore, we may well call upon the rocks and mountains to hide our shame from earth and heaven. |