Page 9

9

two days after the date of the resolution of the House
of Representatives, that is to say, on the morning of
the eighteenth instant, I received the important affida-
vit, a copy of which I now communicate, with ex-
tracts of so much of the letters as comes within the
scope of the resolution. By these it will be seen that
of three of the principal emissaries of Mr. Burr, whom
the general had caused to be apprehended, one had
been liberated by habeas corpus, and two others, being
those particularly employed in the endeavor to cor-
rupt the general and army of the United States, have
been embarked by him for ports in the atlantic states,
probably on the consideration that an impartial trial
could not be expected, during the present agitations
of New Orleans, and that that city was not as yet a
safe place of confinement. As soon as these persons
shall arrive, they will be delivered to the custody of
the law, and left to such course of trial both as to
place and process, as its functionaries may direct.
The presence of the highest judicial authorities, to
be assembled at this place with a few days, the
means of pursuing a sounder course of proceedings
here than elsewhere, and the aid of the executive
means, should the judges have occasion to use them,
render it equally desirable, for the criminal as for the
public, that, being already remobed from the place
where they were apprehended, the first regular arrest
should take place here, and the course of proceedings
receive here its proper direction

TH: JEFFERSON,

January 22, 1807.
2

9

two days after the date of the resolution of the House
of Representatives, that is to say, on the morning of
the eighteenth instant, I received the important affida-
vit, a copy of which I now communicate, with ex-
tracts of so much of the letters as comes within the
scope of the resolution. By these it will be seen that
of three of the principal emissaries of Mr. Burr, whom
the general had caused to be apprehended, one had
been liberated by habeas corpus, and two others, being
those particularly employed in the endeavor to cor-
rupt the general and army of the United States, have
been embarked by him for ports in the atlantic states,
probably on the consideration that an impartial trial
could not be expected, during the present agitations
of New Orleans, and that that city was not as yet a
safe place of confinement. As soon as these persons
shall arrive, they will be delivered to the custody of
the law, and left to such course of trial both as to
place and process, as its functionaries may direct.
The presence of the highest judicial authorities, to
be assembled at this place with a few days, the
means of pursuing a sounder course of proceedings
here than elsewhere, and the aid of the executive
means, should the judges have occasion to use them,
render it equally desirable, for the criminal as for the
public, that, being already remobed from the place
where they were apprehended, the first regular arrest
should take place here, and the course of proceedings
receive here its proper direction

TH: JEFFERSON,

January 22, 1807.
2