1807: Aaron Burr on Trial for Plotting the Secession of New England
Aaron Burr, former Vice President of the United States, stood trial beginning 3 August 1807, accused of conspiring to engineer the secession of New England and carve out an independent empire in the American west. The charges grew from years of suspicion surrounding his political ambitions and alleged dealings with foreign powers after his catastrophic fall from grace following the fatal duel with Alexander Hamilton in 1804.
The trial, presided over by Chief Justice John Marshall in Richmond, Virginia, became one of the most closely watched legal proceedings in early American history. Burr was ultimately acquitted on the treason charge, Marshall ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove an overt act of treason as required by the Constitution.
