Burr was now called upon to give bond, and the amount to be required of him gave rise to much discussion. The Chief Justice stated, “that he wished it to be neither too large to amount to oppression, nor too small to defeat the objects of justice.” It had occurred to him that the sum of ten thousand dollars would perhaps avoid both these extremes. Mr. Hay earnestly insisted upon a larger amount, but the amount was fixed at ten thousand. Burr was then bailed for his appearance at the next term of the Circuit Court of the United States to convene at Richmond on the 22d of May next, to answer the charge of high misdemeanor.
Aaron Burr was now at liberty. President Jefferson was enraged at the result of the first trial. The feeling between the partisans of the Administration and the Federalists, to which political party Marshall belonged, was rampant. The friends of Jefferson charged Marshall with having permitted his political bias and personal dislike of the President to warp his judgment in favor of Burr throughout the trial, and Jefferson in one of his letters to Senator Giles, written a few days after Burr’s first examination at Richmond, refers to the _tricks_ of the judges in hastening the trial so as to clear Burr. It was evident that Jefferson was to be the real prosecutor of Burr, and had made up his mind to convict him at whatever cost.
The 22d of May, 1807, the United States Circuit Court for the Virginia District convened in the House of Delegates in the City of Richmond, Virginia, with Chief Justice Marshall and Cyrus Griffin, District Judge, on the bench.
Long before the hour the Court was to meet the hall and the entrances to the Capitol were thronged with people. Not a few of them were witnesses and persons summoned as grand jurors, while others were attracted by the notoriety of the trial. There could be seen John Randolph, of Roanoke, “the brilliant, eccentric leader of the Quids,” in the House, and afterwards United States Senator from Virginia; Andrew Jackson, who was loud in his denunciation of Jefferson and his administration for “persecuting his innocent friend”; Winfield Scott, then a young lawyer just admitted to practice; General Eaton, with a grudge against the Government for its failure to pay his claim for services and cash advanced while consul in Barbary, and with whom Burr had talked with great freedom about his plans; Commodore Truxton, another disgruntled officer of the Government in whom Burr had confided; Col. Morgan, a valiant old campaigner from the West, and his two stalwart sons, whose services Burr tried to enlist, but whom Jefferson credited with giving him the first intimation of Burr’s designs; John Graham, who had been sent out by the Administration to the Mississippi territory as its confidential agent to circumvent Burr and expose the conspiracy; Colonel Dupiester, one of the leading spirits in the plot and Burr’s trusted friend and ally; Jonathan Dayton, formerly speaker of the House of Representatives and Ex-Senator from the State of New Jersey, and John Smith, lately a Senator from Ohio, both friends of Burr and prominent in the conspiracy with him; Dr. Erick Bollman, an educated German, who had recently distinguished himself by a gallant but unsuccessful attempt to rescue Lafayette from prison in the castle of Olmutz, Austria, and in whom Burr had confided. Jefferson expected Bollman to give testimony that might criminate himself, and during the trial sent through District Attorney Hay a pardon for him, which Bollman indignantly refused to accept. And thither also came Governor Alston of South Carolina, and his wife, the beautiful and accomplished Theodosia, the only daughter of Aaron Burr; who had fled to his side the moment she had heard of his arrest.