Evening star., 1943-11-28
Capital Sidelights
By Will P. Kennedy.


the House, vino has served longer in
that Office than any other man, has
just added to his laurels by clearing the
name Of the great Kentucky statesman,
Henry Clay, three times candidate for
President, from aspersions that he de-
Tended Aaron Burr on trial for treason.
He took issue with James B. Rhody,
colulnnist in the State Journal, Frank
fort, KY; Paul Brannon, for an article
in the State-sponsored magazine In
Kentucky (Which has an official status
and has a circulation in every State in
the Union'D; Assistant Attorney Cen
eral Keller, who quoted Bernard Mayos
book on Henry Clay in support of Bran
mons claims; the editor of the State
Journal, who published an article by
DR.. Willard Rouse Jillson, local his
torian, quoting the editors of the West
ern World (Street and Wood on re-
ports of the court action against Burr
in Frankfort, antedating the one and
only treason trial at Richmond, Va.
Mr.. Trimble made exhaustive re-
search in every available history in the
. Congressional Library approximately
20) relative to the Burr Clay episode"
and came to the conclusion that Henry
Adams, professor of history at Harvard
University in the closing years of the
10Th Century, was right when he ad-
monished his class: There is no such
thing as history-I mean accurate writ
ten history" He quotes from the writ
ings of Henry Clay himself and from
the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
He appealed to the Attorney General Of
the United States and to the American
Antiquarian Society, national library
of American history in Worcester, Mass.
All of these confirmed South Trimble's
persistent contention that: Henry Clay
did not defend Aaron Burr in trial for
treason, for the only treason trial of
Burr was in Richmond, Va, May %,
1907, and Clay did not attend All
other parties to the controversy referred
to a consideration in the Federal Court
at Frankfort where charges were filed
on November S, 1906, by Col j. H.
Daveiss, United States Attorney for the
District, against Aaron Burr, Esq. late
Vice President Of the United States, for
crimes of high misdemeanor." The
grand jury brought in verdict in favor
of Burr, and mot only described him
not guilty but clear Of suspicion" On
the indictment proposed the grand
jury voted Not a true bill"
Mr.. Trimble has conducted his CAM
paign to clear the name of Henry Clay
for nearly year. He argued persistently
that the Frankfort Court affair (of
which he previously never had heard)
was not a trial, which could not be con-
Quoted until after an indictment had
been made by the grand jury, and that
the charge was not for treason" but for
high misdemeanor The Attorney Gen.
eral of the United States has ruled that
Federal law does not term any crime a
high misdemeanor, though offenses less
than felony are divided into misdemean-
ors and petty offenses." He mentioned
one-half dozen States that designate
crime high misdemeanor" but not equal
to treason. The Antiquarian Society re-
piled that high misdemeanor is defined
in old English law books as a heinous
offense, next in Importance to high
treason"
The justification of South Trimbles
research. confounding his critics, came
on November 49, when the Frankfort
State Journal published II columns
quoting Mr.. Trimble's arguments, quota
tions from histories, Clay's writings and
the United States Attorney Generals
confirmation of the veteran fighting
Kentuckian's contention This is also to
be printed in the Congressional Record
and the verdict is: Henry Clay did not
defend Aaron Burr on trial for treason"
South Trimble, in his Office, has the
model of the statue of Henry Clay. His
was the first portrait of Speaker owned
by the Government in 1882, now hanging
in the Speakers lobby. There are two
other portraits of Clay in the Capitol.
On July /, 1852, the remains of Henry
Clay lay in state in the rotunda of the
Capitol, previous to transportation to
his Old Kentucky home. After that no
funeral services were held in the rotunda
until the funeral of President Lincoln,
Is years later.
4 4 = 4
William Howard Taft was the heavi-
est President, with Grover Cleveland q
close second, while James A. Garfield
was probably the best set up-physical-