Alexandria Daily Advertiser

Extract of a letter from New Orleans.

The 18th of December was a day of solemn and strong emotion in this city. Gen. Wilkinson was on that day called upon to answer to the supreme court for having arrested and sent off Dr. Bollman, who was not only the bearer of a treasonable letter from Col. Burr to the general, in which he proposed to seduce the general and the corps under his command, from their fidelity, by the proffer of the second place in command, and high honors and rewards; but was actually the prime agent of Col. Burr in this city, to propagate his revolutionary projects, and to keep him advised by express or otherwise, of every occurrence that might transpire. Various were the opinions and conjectures on the occasion. Some were hardy enough to assert that the general would elude the writ which had been issued for bringing up Bollman, while others contended that it was such an act of violence against the constitution of the United States, to resist an act of habeas corpus, that disobedience would be ultimately punished by a jail.

At length the hour arrived which was to decide this important question. The general appeared before the court divested of the appendages of an officer with neither the usual guard or his person nor an advocate for his cause. When the general advanced to the bar notwithstanding the deep solicitude of the crowd who filled the court house, the most perfect stillness and silence prevailed. After a short pause, the general addressed the court in following manner:

Summoned by the highest authority known to the constitution of the country, I cheerfully obey the mandate and present myself before this honorable court to await their will and pleasure.

I hold in my hand the writ of habeas corpus, commanding me to produce the body of Eric Bollman before you. This is impossible because he is out of my power; but I have attached to the writ my answer, containing the charge against Bollman, and the cause of my conduct on this extraordinary case which I have leave to read.

Here the General read his return to the writ, which has been already submitted to the public. He then proceeded:

Unskilled in the forms of courts, in terms of law, or technical phraseology, I have submitted to your honors a plain statement of facts, and shall with confidence rest the justification of the steps I have taken, on the motives and principles by which I was governed. Although this enlightened court may be satisfied, the ignorant, the idle and the curious may not; therefore it in the places of common and general resort, it be demanded, "why was Bollman arrested by arbitrary power?" The answer is brief, "to prevent the effect of this very attempt to rescue him, and thus reinstate him in the sinister correspondence which he had established with the conspirators in Tennessee and Kentucky. That this measure of necessity was understood by the governor and judges Hall and Mathews, and that the release of a conspirator yesterday by a judge below (Workman) who was sent abroad to machinate afresh and with impunity, foul plans against the United States, serves to illustrate the grounds of the precaution which has been taken."

I am in possession of much information which cannot be safely imparted at this moment. Let it be sufficient to say, that I know our public affairs are approaching rapidly to a threatening crisis. And let the information which I may with propriety give, suffice to warn the faithful citizens of the impending danger. I will appeal to any casuist whether in extreme cases the remedy should not be correspondent, and whether the lenity of our laws is not dangerously applied, where it is employed to screen the guilty, and to arm the traitor for the subversion of the very constitution on which they rest. To save the body we amputate a limb. To stop a conflagration we demolish an edifice, and to arrest treasonable designs it has been found salutary to dispense with the tardy forms of justice.

Your honors will pardon me for imposing these reflections on your time; offer them to explain the purity of my intentions, and should my zeal have beguiled my judgment, to extenuate the error.