But his reputation was ruined, there was no
hope for him in public life, and his remaining years were spent quietly
in the practice of his profession, partly abroad and partly in New
York.
It has been too much the habit to picture Burr as a thoroughgoing
scoundrel who murdered an innocent man and conspired against his
country. As a matter of fact, he did neither. Of the charge of treason
he was acquitted, even at a time when public feeling ran high against
him, and in the quarrel with Hamilton, it was Hamilton who was at all
times the aggressor. Both were brilliant, accomplished and courtly
men--even, perhaps, men of genius--but Fate spread a net for their feet,
blindly they stumbled into it, and, too proud to retrace their steps,
pushed on to the tragic end.
The presiding judge at Burr's trial, not the least of whose achievements
was the holding level of the scales of justice on that memorable
occasion, was the last of that great school of statesmen who had fought
for their country's independence, and who had seen the states united
under a common Constitution. John Marshall lived well into the
nineteenth century, and his great work was to interpret that
Constitution to the country, to give it the meaning which it has for us
to-day. Marshall was a Virginian, was just of age at the outbreak of the
Revolution, and served in the American army for five years, enlisting as
a private and rising to the rank of captain.
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