Excerpt from The Two Principal Arguments of William Wirt, Esquire, on the Trial of Aaron Burr, for High Treason, and on the Motion to Commit Aaron Burr and Others, for Trial in Kentucky In many of the general re ections expressed by the gentleman under this head I perfectly accord with him; as that the constitutionin tended to guard against arbitrary and construcv tive treas'ons; that the principles of sound rea son and liberty require their exclusion. I have no objection either to his position that the con stitution is to be interpreted by the rules of rea son and of moral right. I fear, however, that I shall find it (ll lclllt to accommodate both the gentlemen who have spoken in support of the motion; for while Mr. \vickham demands rea son for the guide of our interpretation, Mr Randolph exclaims save us from the deducti ons of common sense. A kind of reason which is not common sense, would, indeed, be adapt cd to the joint purposes of both the gentlemen; but as that is a species of reason of which I have no very distinct conception, I hope the gentle man will excuse me for not employing it. Let us return to nh. Wickham. Having read to us the constitutional definition of treason and given us the rule by which it was to be interpreted, it was natural to expect that he would have proceeded directly to apply that rule to the de finition and give us the result. But While we Were expecting this - even while we have our eyes upon the gentleman, he vanishes like a spirit from American ground and we see him no more, until re-surging in England, by a kind of intellectual magic, we find him in the middle of the l6th century, complaining most dolefully of the state of my Lord Coke's bowels. Be. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."