Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1887 — The Trial of Aaron Burr. [ARTICLE]

The Trial of Aaron Burr.

Immediately upon the close of his office as Vice President, Burr started on an expedition to the Mississippi Valley, to workup among the people of that locality his scheme for establishing an independent republic west of the Mississippi. He found a number of citizens and some Government officials ready to fall in with his plans, and there seems little doubt that for a time James Wilkinson, General-in-Chief of the army and Governor of Louisiana Territory, was inclined favorably toward the scheme. Probably this was because he was not aware of its extent and enormity at first, for later he made every effort to thwart the plan, and it was through his informat.on that the attention of the Government was called to Burr’s plans. In November, 1800, Burr was arrested and summoned before a grand jury at Frankfort, Ky., but no bill was found against him, owing to difficulty of procuring witnesses, and he was released, and his friends celebrated his triumph with a grand ball. But meanwhile President Jackson had commissioned Graham, the Secretary of the Orleans Territory, to investigate the reports about Burr, and immediately afterward he issued a proclamation against “an unlawful scheme set on foot for invading the Spanish dominions.” Graham, securing from the Legislatures of Ohio and Kentucky the requisite authority, seized a number of boats on the Muskingum and Ohio Livers which Burr had fitted out for his expedition. Burr, hearing of the e seizures, made his escape to the west shore of the Mississippi, but a body of militia was sent, under the President’s proclamation, to arrest him. He had previously had all his cases of arms thrown into the river, and therefore assumed the pretense of utter innocence of any hostile intentions, demanding that he and all those with him should be searched, and his boats examined for evidence of his revolutionary designs. As nothing of the sort was found, i. strong sentiment in his favor was .oused. He was brought before the upreme Court of the Territory, but the Grand Jury not only refused to bring any indictment against him, but presented charges against the Governor for calling out the militia to arrest him. Burr, now free, resolved to disband all his followers and leave the country. But before he could accomplish this he w r as again arrested. An indictment for high treason was found against him by the Grand Jury of the 1 ’istrict of Virginia. He was charged with levying war, by the collection of armed men, within the dominion of Virgmia. He was also charged with concocting a

scheme for the overthrow of the national authority in the Western States tod Territories. As there was not sufficient evidence against him, however, on this trial, he was acquitted.— lnter Ocean.