Historians looking to illustrate the way judicial lawmaking in the new nation was influenced by chance and contingency, human passions, follies and character quirks might well turn to the treason trial of Aaron Burr. To make the point the story should begin with Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, because it was their mutual feelings of distrust and contempt and their intersecting political aspirations that set the trial in motion and set loose the political passions that influenced the proceedings.

The relationship between Jefferson and Burr began in the late 1790s, when both men were interested for their own reasons in driving the Federalist party of Washington and Adams from office. Whether Jefferson and Madison talked serious politics with Burr in 1791 on their famed botanical trip to New York is not clear. What became clear in the course of the decade, however, was that Burr proved himself to be the man most capable of delivering New York’s electoral votes in the upcoming presidential election of 1800. For his pivotal role in forging the New York–Virginia political axis, Burr won a place on the ballot with Jefferson. When New York’s electoral votes carried the Democratic Republican party to victory, Burr deserved a real share of the credit.