Reports on the trials of Colonel Aaron Burr Volume 1; for treason and for a misdemeanor ... in the Circuit court of the United States at Richmond ... ... evidence in support and defence of the moti - David K. Robertson, Paperback

• Release Date   6/20/2012
• ISBN-13   9781231130476 | 978-1-231-13047-6
• ISBN   1231130474 | 1-231-13047-4
• Format   Paperback
• Author(s)   David K. Robertson
• This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1808 edition. Excerpt: ... Mr. Randolph, (who was then absent), who had taken the course pointed out by the court, and the chief justice explained it thus: that the attachment must go, if the testimony were sufficient to prove that it ought to be granted. and then the defendant must answer interrogatories. but that without sufficient evidence, an attachment could not be granted in any case. Mr. Mac Rae.--I have examined authorities, and understand the regular course. but I understood Mr. Randolph te have said, that if the evidence amounted only to suspicion, general Wilkinson must be called on as a witness against himself, which would be illegal and a violation of a sacred right. Here Mr. Mac Rae referred to 1st Dallas's Reports, 328, in the case of the Commonwealth v. Oswald, and read part of the argument of the counsel, and the opinion of the court, approving thereof. and contended that the contempt must be proved by disinterested witnesses. and that this proof must be clear and full. after which proof, the defendant has the privilege of purging himself from the imputed offence. He then proceeded: The question then is, has he committed this offence or not? Mr. Randolph says, that not merely the evidence of Knox proves this contempt, but that two witnesses, whom we have ourselves improvidently introduced, have confirmed it. This conclusion is wholly unsupported by evidence. Destitute of proof from beginning to end, the gentleman has been reduced to the hard and cruel necessity of heaping conjecture on conjecture, till he has conjectured that this court will, without a particle of proof, conjecture and grant their motion. Though I shall be followed by gentlemen of unexampled talents and excellent memories, I venture to affirm, that they will not be able to show, that this m...