1012. BURR'S (A.) TRIAL, Court rulings.—
Hitherto we have believed our law to
be, that suspicion on probable grounds was sufficient
cause to commit a person for trial, allowing
time to collect witnesses till the trial. But
the judges have decided, that conclusive evidence
of guilt must be ready in the moment of
arrest, or they will discharge the malefactor.
If this is still insisted on, Burr will be discharged;
because his crimes having been sown
from Maine through the whole line of the
western waters to New Orleans, we cannot bring
the witnesses here under four months.—
To James Bowdoin. Washington ed. v, 65.
Ford ed., ix, 41.
(W.
April. 1807)
