were the probable places of apprehension and examination.  It was not known at Washington till the 26th of March, that Burr would escape from the western tribunals, be retaken and brought to an eastern one:  and in five days after (neither five months nor five weeks, as the Judge calculated) he says, it is ’impossible to suppose the affidavits could not have been obtained.’  Where?  At Richmond he certainly meant, or meant only to throw dust in the eyes of his audience.  But all the principles of law are to be perverted which would bear on the favorite offenders, who endeavor to overturn this odious republic.  ’I understand,’ says the Judge, ’probable cause of guilt to be a case made out of proof furnishing good reason to believe,’ &c.  Speaking as a lawyer, he must mean legal proof, i.e. proof on oath, at least.  But this is confounding probability and proof.  We had always before understood that where there was reasonable ground to believe guilt, the offender must be put on his trial.  That guilty intentions were probable, the Judge believed.  And as to the overt acts, were not the bundle of letters of information in Mr. Rodney’s hands, the letters and facts published in the local newspapers, Burr’s flight, and the universal belief or rumor of his guilt, probable ground for presuming the facts of enlistment, military guard, rendezvous, threat of civil war, or capitulation, so as to put him on trial?  Is there a candid man in the United States who does not believe some one, if not all, of these overt acts to have taken place?

If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law as to condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should have judged them in the present case with more charity.  All this, however, will work well.  The nation will judge both the offender and judges for themselves.  If a member of the executive or legislature does wrong, the day is never far distant when the people will remove him.  They will see then, and amend the error in our constitution, which makes any branch independent of the nation.  They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches of the government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and to the common sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class of offenders which endeavors to overturn the constitution, and are themselves protected in it by the constitution itself:  for impeachment is a farce which will not be tried again.  If their protection of Burr produces this amendment, it will do more good than his condemnation would have done.  Against Burr, personally, I never had one hostile sentiment.  I never, indeed, thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure of.  Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I thought it my duty to respect in him their confidence, and to treat him as if he deserved it:  and if his punishment can be commuted now for an useful amendment of the constitution, I shall rejoice in it.  My sheet being full, I perceive it is high time to offer you my friendly salutations, and assure you of my constant and affectionate esteem and respect.