Connor Grogan

3/23/16
Hist 315
Dr. Jesse Limanek

Aaron Burr Conspiracy and Trial

Aaron Burr was the 3rd Vice President of the United States of America, he was
vice president under the first term of Thomas Jefferson. Aaron was born in New Jersey
but was much more of a new yorker having severed as the Attorney General and a
senator of New York. He also fought in the Revolutionary war as a officer in the
Continental Army. Aaron Burr though suffered a fall from grace and went on to face
plenty of political ramifications for his famous duel against his long time rival Alexander
Hamilton, this duel led to the death of Alexander Hamilton. This duel came to light
because Hamilton and Burr were facing off against each other in the Gubernatorial race
for New York. Because Burr had been dumped by Thomas Jefferson during his time for
reelection of another term to be President. Dueling was just becoming illegal in the
Northern parts of the United States so Burr was not sent to prison for murder like he
would be today if he were to get into a duel.Even though this all a crazy story already
none of these compares to the year 1807 when Aaron Burr is charged with treason by
his former boss the President of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

The Conspiracy around Burr starts after he beats his then rival Alexander
Hamilton in the famous duel in New York. The duel effectively rendered Burr incapable
pursuing any other political office after how contentious the duel was. This subsequently
made Burr leave the political realm and He decided to head west where he was going to
try and gain support for his campaign to break away the western states from there
atlantic counterparts, Burr also knew that this may lead to war with Spain so he was
also gaining support for that. If Burr was to do this campaign and if he were to succeed
in his plans he would be president of this new nation. Burr did have some support the
most famous support he had was from a General named James Wilkinson who fought
alongside Burr in the revolutionary war. Wilkinson was now the commanding officer of
the U.S. Army at New Orleans and he was also the Governor of the new Louisiana
Territory. Burr believed that Wilkinson would be able to provide him with logistical help,
troops and some money. Unfortunately for Burr, Wilkinson turned on him just as he was
about to enact on his plans to create a new nation in the center of the US and he sent a
letter that Burr sent detailing his plans to the President. This led Thomas Jefferson to
sent out a warrant on Mr.Burr, And in August 1807 Burr was arrested on the charge of
treason against the United States. Aaron Burr was brought to trial before the United
States Circuit Court at Richmond, Virginia, Where Chief Justice John Marshall would
oversee the case.Treason is defined in Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in
adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of
treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on
confession in open court. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of
treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except
during the life of the person attainted. (Bomboy, 2015)
This carefully worded definition for treason led to some problems for the prosecution
The United States argued that there was sufficient evidence that Aaron Burr
wanted to take over New Orleans and eventually lay war on Spain with the ambition of
succeeding from the United States.Thomas Jefferson was very ready to attack his
former colleague and often spoke out about how much of a traitor Burr was to the United
States. Jefferson himself never doubted that Burr was a traitor. Indeed, on January 22,
1807, he had pronounced Burr guilty of treason to Congress and the entire nation
without a grand jury indictment, (Bomboy, 2015)This was unprecedented for a
President of the US to come out and be so public about how he felt about the case and
for just how much disdain he had for one of the members of the trial. This could have led
to sway the jury which would have not been good for our legal system. Some of this
rhetoric had a correlation in how long it took to pick the jury because so many people in
Northern Virginia believed the President that Burr had committed an act of treason so it
took more then a week for the jurors to be chosen. The Defense provided evidence that
Burr was not near the act of supposed treason. It was also interesting how much trust
was put in the General because he had been known to be a shady character himself.

Also the Justice John Marshall was a rival of President Jeffersons case so this did not
help there case but also he poked holes into the entire case against Burr.
The prosecution ran into two main issues with there trial. The two issues were
that that the charge of treason was for assembling a military force on one of Burrs main
sponsors island which was called Blennerhassett Island named after Mr. Blennerhasset
himself. The problem was that Burr was hundreds of miles away from the island at the
time of the alleged gathering on the December of 10. The other problem for the
prosecution was that under United States law you could only be committed for treason if
there were two witnesses to the act of treason and the only witness to come forward
was Wilkinson, so the juror acquitted Mr. Burr of treason after only 25 minutes of
deliberation. The Jury stated We of the jury say that Aaron Burr is not proved to be
guilty under this indictment by any evidence submitted to us. We therefore find him not
guilty. (Bomboy, 2015)This meant that Burr was found not guilty and this brought
shame to Thomas Jefferson. There was a lack of evidence to convict Burr especially
with Marshalls clear directions about the amount of witnesses that were needed in
order for the there to be a treason conviction.

Work Cited:
Bomboy, S. (2015). How Aaron Burr's trial tested the
Constitution's treason clause. Retrieved March 23, 2016, from
http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2015/09/the-great-trial-thattested-the-constitutions-treason-clause/
"Thomas Jefferson Subpoenaed in Aaron Burrs Treason Trial."
History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
United States v. Aaron Burr. (n.d.) West's Encyclopedia of
American Law, edition 2. (2008). Retrieved March 25 2016 from
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/United+States+v.
+Aaron+Burr