gaged in an unlawful enterprise designed to injure a power with which the United States were at peace. Burr applied to Henry Clay for professional aid. Colonel Daviess, the District Attorney, being a Federalist, the attempted prosecution of Burr was at once looked upon by the people as a stroke of partisan vindictiveness; popular sympathy, therefore, ran strongly on Burr's side. Clay, no doubt, was moved by a similar feeling; he, too, considered it something like a duty of hospitality to aid a distinguished man arraigned on a grave charge far away from his home, and for this reason he never accepted the fee offered to him by his client. Yet he had some misgivings as to Burr's schemes, and requested from him assurances of their lawful character. Burr was profuse in plausibilities, and Clay consented to appear for him. During the pendency of the proceedings, which finally resulted in Burr's discharge for want of proof, Clay was appointed to represent Kentucky in the Senate of the United States in the place of General Adair, who had resigned. Thereupon, feeling a greater weight of public responsibility upon him, he deemed it necessary to ask from Burr a statement in writing concerning the nature of his doings and intentions. This request did not seem to embarrass Burr in the least. In a letter addressed to Clay he said that he had no design, nor had he taken any measure, to promote the dissolution of the Union or the separation of any state from it; that he had no inten-
