OTD in 1807, President Thomas Jefferson received a subpoena to produce documents that might lead to Aaron Burr being exonerated in his Richmond Virginia treason trial.

Periodically people online will ask what historical figures would you like to meet.  For me it is always the rogues of history who would provide the best conversation.  Give me an Arnold or Burr any day rather than a Washington or Jefferson.

Burr was quite the controversial figure by this time.  Perhaps the first machine politician in our history, he had turned New York away from the Federalist Party and for this was rewarded with the Democratic-Republican nomination for vice-president in 1800.  

Famously this election was an electoral tie which had to be decided by the House of Representatives where Federalists still held power during a lame duck session.  The Federalists attempted to have the election bypass Jefferson; how much Burr contributed to this effort is still a matter of debate.  It certainly created a rift between him and the President.

Then, of course, he killed Alexander Hamilton who had used his influence with the Federalists to deny Burr the White House and then spread slander about him during the NY gubernatorial election. Now Burr was wanted for murder in New Jersey.

Burr concocted a seditious plan to enlist the help of Britain and Spain to create a separate nation in the southwestern reaches of the American continent, including parts of Mexico, over which Burr would rule. The outrageous plan failed miserably when one of Burr’s co-conspirators, General James Wilkinson, betrayed Burr and alerted Jefferson to the plot. Burr was hunted down and arrested in 1806 and indicted for treason.

Claiming executive privilege, Jefferson refused to turn over the papers.  John Marshall, the trial judge, declared insufficient evidence to convict.

Marshall and Jefferson were cousins, but despised each other. So other factors than correct judicial procedures may well have been involved.

After a few years in exile he returned to America in 1812, broken in health and financially destitute. After some discreet inquiries, he decided it was safe to return to New York. The United States was again on the brink of war with Britain, and his treason plot and the killing of Hamilton had been largely forgotten. Burr was able to get the murder charges against him dropped, and he once again began to practice law.

In 1833, at the age of 77, Burr married a wealthy widow 20 years his junior who divorced him in 1836 when it became apparent he would run through her fortune.  The cause of divorce was Burr's affair with a kitchen maid.  The lawyer who represented Burr's wife was Alexander Hamilton Jr.