Aaron Burr came from a wealthy family. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (today it is Princeton) at age 17. He served with valor in the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. After the war, he entered politics. He was elected to the New York State Assembly and then to the Senate in 1790. He became famous and was chosen by Thomas Jefferson to run as his vice president in 1800.. They lost. He left the Senate to return to the Assembly, but in 1804 Jefferson tabbed him again. They won this time. Unfortunately, they tied in the Electoral College because every elector that voted for Jefferson, voted for Burr also. In cases of a tie, the election was sent to the House of Representatives. Burr, if he was an honorable man, would have stepped aside, but Burr was not an honorable man and dreamed of becoming President. Federalist Party congressmen were voting for Burr to cause trouble. After 34 votes, Alexander Hamilton intervened and convinced enough congressmen to back Jefferson because Burr was a worse choice. Burr would remember that. And also that Hamilton worked to defeat him when he ran for Governor of NY in 1804. And Jefferson dropped him from the ticket in 1804.
On the outs, Burr began plotting something big. He would seize the Louisiana Territory and possibly part of Spanish Mexico. His co-conspirator was Gen. James Wilkinson, Commander in Chief of the Army. Burr had convinced Jefferson to appoint Wilkinson Governor of the La. Territory. Wilkinson was a shady character and was a Spanish agent. Burr asked for British help in the form of $500,000 and a fleet. They turned him down. In 1806, Burr and an army of between 40 to 7,000 (the first is much more likely) headed for New Orleans. Meanwhile, Wilkinson decided the project was doomed so to save his skin, he turned on Burr. He sent a copy of a letter from Burr to Jefferson. This “Cipher Letter” was damning and Jefferson ordered the arrest of Burr. He was arrested on Feb. 19, 1807 and sent to Virginia for trial for treason.
Burr was charged with raising an army and planning to take New Orleans and the western U.S. Burr’s defense was that he was going to lease 40,000 acres from the Spanish. There were many witnesses to Burr’s plan, but some of them contradicted each other. A key witness perjured himself. And it was proved that Wilkinson had edited his involvement out of the Cipher Letter. But the reason for Burr’s acquittal was Chief Justice John Marshall, who presided over the case, insisted on a strict interpretation of the Constitution (ironic because usually he was a loose interpreter). The Constitution states that to be found guilty of treason you had to have “the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act.” According to Marshall, this meant that just planning an act against the US was not sufficient to find a person guilty of treason. You had to actually storm the Capitol, for instance. Burr had not reached the stage of implementing his treason, so he was found innocent.
Was he a traitor? The evidence is strong for his intentions. His claim of wanting to become a farmer in Spanish territory is hard to swallow. His army was not ghosts. And Burr had a reputation of being a schemer and a dreamer. If you see Marshall’s point of view, he was not a traitor, but a scoundrel. I think we can safely say Burr was guilty, but he got off on a technicality. The American public clearly felt Burr was a traitor and effigies of him were burned in various cities.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/aaron-burr-acquitted
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr_conspiracy
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/duel-burr-conspiracy/
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