With this application, which is specific, a prompt compliance is
practicable. But when the request goes to 'copies of the orders issued
in relation to Colonel Burr, to the officers at Orleans, Natchez, &c.
by the Secretaries of the War and Navy departments,' it seems to cover
a correspondence of many months, with such a variety of officers, civil
and military, all over the United States, as would amount to the laying
open the whole executive books. I have desired the Secretary of War to
examine his official communications; and on a view of these, we may be
able to judge what can and ought to be done towards a compliance with
the request. If the defendant alleges that there was any particular
order, which, as a cause, produced any particular act on his part, then
he must know what this order was, can specify it, and a prompt answer
can be given. If the object had been specified, we might then have had
some guide for our conjectures, as to what part of the executive records
might be useful to him: but, with a perfect willingness to do what is
right, we are without the indications which may enable us to do it. If
the researches of the Secretary at War should produce any thing proper
for communication, and pertinent to any point we can conceive in the
defence before the court, it shall be forwarded to you. I salute you
with respect and esteem.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LI.--TO GEORGE HAY, June 17, 1807
TO GEORGE HAY.
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