Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 3.djvu/478

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 * "Who is Blennerhassett? A native of Ireland, a man of letters, who fled from the storms of his own country to find quiet in ours."

George Hay was neither so efficient nor so dexterous as Wirt, and either intentionally or by awkwardness succeeded in giving the impression of threatening the court: —


 * "Mr. Bott says that we are now advocating opinions which on Fries' trial we condemned. . . . I beg leave to assure the gentleman that the censure which the judge drew on himself was not on account of his opinions, however incorrect they might be, but for his arbitrary and irregular conduct at the trial, which was one of the principal causes for which he was afterward impeached. He attempted to wrest the decision from the jury, and prejudge the case before hearing all the evidence in it,—the identical thing which this court is now called on by these gentlemen to do."

That Hay, knowing well Jefferson's thoughts and the magic that hung about the word "impeachment," should have used these words inadvertently seemed hardly credible. If he did so, his clumsiness was as offensive as the threat could have been, for the idea of impeachment was in the air of the court-house. Burr's counsel at once retaliated. "It was very kind of the gentleman to remind the court of the danger of a decision of the motion in favor of the prisoner." Hay protested that he had spoken innocently, and the chief-justice said