burr's expedition. 181 



on eourt, in expectation of an indictment against hiini, for some 

 connection with Burr, (never known wiiat it was) contrived to 

 convey the idea, to this man, that a bill was actually found 

 against him, and that he, the marshal, was actually on the 

 point of arresting the culprit. The terrified man fled, as he 

 supposed, from justice, v^ith great speed, seventy miles, to 

 Zanesville. 



Burr's boats started from Blannerhassett's island, in the 

 Ohio river, early in January, 1807, and Blannerhassett, his 

 family, and Burr's friends descended peaceably down, vv^e 

 believe to Natchez, in the Mississippi Territory. His other 

 boats, along both rivers, descended likewise, towards the same 

 point of destination. 



Before this time, the president had called on this state for 

 troops, to repel the threatened — (we know not what to call it) 

 A great many troops had eagerly come forward, and offered 

 their services to the government, and were joyfully accepted 

 and enrolled, and held in readiness for instant action. 



In January 1807, Burr himself had descended to Natchez, 

 and there was summoned to appear before the supreme court, 

 of the Mississippi Territory. Having heard that his agents 

 were arrested at New Orleans, and along the river, he did not 

 obey the summons, but fled from Natchez in disguise. He was 

 arrested, we believe on the Tombigbee river, wending his 

 way, on horseback, across the country, to Georgia. The man 

 who arrested him, had never seen him before, but knew him 

 by his brilliant eye, which shone like a diamond, beneath an 

 old, broad-brimmed, flapped hat, under which Colonel Burr sat, 

 warming himself, by the fire, at a small inn. 



Colonel Burr was tried before Chief Justice Marshall, at 

 Richmond, Virginia, in the summer of 1807, on two indict- 

 ments, to wit: one for treason against the United States; the 

 other for setting on foot, an expedition against the Spanish 

 provinces. On both indictments Burr was acquitted, but he 

 was recognized, we believe, in the sum of five thousand dollars, 

 to appear at Chillicothe, before the United States court to an- 

 swer to any indictment to be found agaihst him, in Ohio. Not 



