Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the ElephantHolt, Mathew Joseph
History
Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant
Holt, Mathew Joseph
Kentucky -- Fiction; Kentucky -- History
“‘I have obtained funds and have actually commenced the enterprise.
Detachments from different points and on different pretences, will
rendezvous on the Ohio on the 1st of November. Everything internal and
external favors views * * * Already are orders given to contractors to
forward six months’ provisions to point Wilkinson may name. The project
is brought to the point so long desired. Burr guarantees the result with
his life and honor and with the lives and fortunes of hundreds—the best
blood of the country. Wilkinson shall be second only to Burr. Wilkinson
shall dictate the rank of his officers. Burr’s plan of operations is to
move down rapidly from the falls by the 15th of November, with the first
five or ten hundred men, in light boats now constructing, to be at
Natches between the 5th and 15th of December, there to meet Wilkinson;
there to determine whether it will be expedient in the first instance to
seize on or pass by Baton-Rogue.’
“On the 25th of November Mr. Daviess announced to the Court that he
could have Davis Floyd present on December 2nd and asked that a second
grand jury be empaneled for that date; which was done.
“But on the 2nd Mr. Daviess was again forced to ask a postponement
because of the absence of John Adair; though he asked that the grand
jury be retained until he could enforce Adair’s attendance by
attachment.
“This occasioned a lively and prolonged argument between Burr’s counsel
and Daviess, to which all the overcrowded court room listened with
marked attention.
“Clay had the sympathy of the majority of the audience. The proposed
expedition and its leader were popular. Clay was a Democrat. Daviess was
a Federalist, a decidedly minority party in Kentucky. The people
believed in the innocence of the smiling and composed Burr. The judge
was with him and refused to retain the grand jury after the disposition
of pending business. It was up to Daviess to make business until Adair
could be found. He asked an attachment for him, which the Court denied,
holding he was not in contempt until the end of the day’s session. He
drafted an indictment charging Adair with complicity in the Burr
conspiracy; but the grand jury returned it, ‘not a true bill.’ As it was
late, Daviess asked for and procured an adjournment until the next day.
“When the court reassembled, Daviess asked, as prosecuter, to go before
the grand jury to examine his witnesses so they would understand and be
able to piece together the detached evidence constituting the
conspiracy. The request was resisted by counsel for Burr and refused by
the court, though the judge himself had suggested it the evening before.
“The grand jury at the close of the hearing returned the indictment
submitted against Col. Burr, ‘Not a true bill’—and further declared in
their report, that the evidence submitted completely exonerated him from
any designs against the peace and dignity of the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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