Was the testimony the Government proposed to offer to prove the overt act laid in the indictment? No, it was evidence of subsequent transactions at a different place and in a different state. Such testimony, he declared, was not relevant. It could be produced only as corroborative or confirmatory testimony, if it could be produced at all. The Chief Justice had now dealt with the decision in the Bollman and Swartwout case and made it clear that it had not been intended to serve as a new rule of law introducing constructive treason into the United States. He had followed that up by showing that neither Colonel Burr’s actual presence nor legal presence on the island at the time of the overt act had been proved. This done he was coming to the end of his opinion. The words he was about to speak had evidently been carefully chosen. He must have been aware of the solemnity of the moment even though he may not have foreseen that he was speaking for posterity as he began: “Much has been said in the course of the argument on points on which the Court feels no inclination to comment particularly; but which may, perhaps not improperly, receive some notice. “That this Court dares not usurp power is most true. “That this Court dares not shrink from its duty is not less true. “No man is desirous of becoming the peculiar subject of calumny. No man, might he let the cup pass from him without self reproach, would drain it to the bottom. “But he has no choice in the case, if there be no alternative presented to him but a dereliction of duty or the opprobrium of those who are denominated the world, he merits contempt as well as the indignation of his country, who can hesitate which to embrace.” There spoke the soldier of the American Revolution. Not all the power that could be exerted by the presidential office, not all the threats of public violence nor the prospect of public scorn could frighten John Marshall from doing his duty as he saw it. If Aaron Burr was to be found guilty of treason it would be only after he had been granted all the protection that was due him under the Constitution and the laws of the land. If that be an undue encroachment of the Judiciary on the powers of the Executive and the Legislature, let Mr. Jefferson make the most of it! “The result of the whole,” concluded Judge Marshall, returning to his customary calm, judicial language, “is a conviction as complete as the mind of the Court is capable of receiving on a complex subject, that the motion must prevail.” He observed that the jury had heard the opinion of the Court on the law of the case. They would now apply that law to the fact and would find a verdict of guilty or not guilty as their conscience might dictate.