Note 1126 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
Adams to Marshall, Aug. 7, 1800; Works: Adams, ix, 72; and Marshall to Adams, Aug. 16, 1800; Adams MSS. Chief Justice Ellsworth presided at the trial of Williams, who was fairly convicted. (Wharton: State Trials, 652-58.) The Republicans, however, charged that it was another "political" conviction. It seems probable that Adams's habitual inclination to grant the request of any one who was his personal friend (Adams's closest friend, Governor Trumbull, had urged the pardon) caused the President to wish to extend clemency to Williams.