1020. BURR'S (A.) TRIAL, Judiciary Partisanship.—
If there ever had been an instance
in this or the preceding administrations,
of federal judges so applying principles
of law as to condemn a federal or acquit a republican
offender, I should have judged them
in the present case with more charity. All this,
however, will work well. The nation will judge
both the offender and judges for themselves.
If a member of the Executive or Legislature
does wrong, the day is never far distant when
the people will remove him. They will see then
and amend the error in our Constitution, which
makes any branch independent of the nation.
They will see that one of the great coordinate
branches of the government, setting itself in
opposition to the other two, and to the common
sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that
class of offenders which endeavors to overturn
the Constitution, and are themselves protected
in it by the Constitution itself; for impeachment
is a farce which will not be tried again. If
their protection of Burr produces this amendment,
it will do more good than his condemnation
would have done. * * * If his punishment
can be commuted now for an useful
amendment of the Constitution, I shall rejoice
in it.—
To William B. Giles. Washington ed. v, 68.
Ford ed., ix, 45.
(M.
April. 1807)
