Monette, John W. History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, by the Three Great European Powers, Spain, France and Great Britain, and the Subsequent Occupation, Settlement, and Extension of Civil Government by the United States, Until the Year 1846, in two volumes, Volume II . New York: Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1846. [format: book], [genre: history]. Permission: Schingoethe Center for Native American Cultures, Aurora University
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delay in the administration of justice, as originally provided by American legislators, when brought to bear upon a powerful conspiracy and a popular enterprise. The authority of the highest courts, the forms of making the grand inquest, and the officers of justice for the execution of the laws, may become only so many means of evading the very laws themselves. Courts, judges, attorney-generals, and grand juries may become only so many avenues or instruments for the escape of great offenders. Such might have been observed in the various arrests and discharges, commitments and acquittals, indictments and trials which grew out of the government prosecutions connected with Burr's noted scheme in Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Virginia. Such was the case especially in the city of New Orleans.

Even the grand jury, forgetting that the general safety of the country was a paramount consideration, and that the commander-in-chief was acting under the superior authority and instructions of the President of the United States, attempted to embarrass the operations of General Wilkinson, and to throw censure upon his official conduct, as subversive of the civil authority. Thus, at the January term of the Supreme Court of the territory, holden in the City Hall of New Orleans, the grand jury, ⁵⁵³ among other presentments within the limits of their duties, made one against General Wilkinson for his measures of public safety, which were termed "illegal military despotism," the "forcible suspension of the writ of habeas corpus," contrary to the Constitution of the United States. The fact upon which this presentment was based was the arrest of Samuel Swartwout, Dr. Erick Bollman, Peter V. Ogden, and James Alexander, known agents and emissaries of Aaron Burr. ⁵⁵⁴