At Burr’s defense was Henry Clay, in addition to the skills of Burr himself, and though Daviess “was quite an attorney… he had his hands full with Clay... Daviess had no chance at all.”  The grand jury found Burr innocent, and Daviess took the decision personally, writing with some sarcasm that “ A great majority of that jury, were honest simple men… but the active instruments of that address, made it, no doubt, wholly with a personal view, to bury alive a man, who should stir a question that brought to the peoples mind the old Spanish business; and thwarted our good saviour, mr. Burr, in his patriotic endeavors to give a wider spread to republicanism.”  These early proceedings against Burr demonstrate the difficulty Daviess had in proving his firm belief that Burr intended treasonous action, as well as provide a window into the nearing trial that held the interest of the nation and particularly obsessed Jefferson. 
	As one of Daviess’s purposes in writing his pamphlet was his frustration with Jefferson, Daviess saw immense irresponsibility in how Jefferson responded to the entire situation, from dealing with Daviess himself to waiting for Wilkinson to betray Burr before acting with any sense of urgency. Wilkinson, named by Daviess as working for Spain, had indeed taken an oath to Spain and was in their employ as a spy.  However, in Jefferson’s message to Congress on January 22, 1807, he offers his own interpretation of the events and actions of Burr, based heavily on information provided by Wilkinson himself. In the message, Jefferson pointedly claims that through information gathered, “neither safety nor justice will permit the exposing names, except that of the principal actor, whose guilt is placed beyond question… the prime mover… was Aaron Burr.”  He used a letter from Wilkinson to distill his interpretation of the conspiracy, resulting in the claim that “one [object] was the severance of the Union of these States by the Alleghany mountains,” the basis of the act of treason that Jefferson would pursue tirelessly.  In addition, Jefferson took Wilkinson at his word so much that he put him in charge of dealing with Burr’s actions and wrote him repeatedly with words of encouragement, saying, “You have doubtless seen a good deal of malicious insinuation in the papers against you. This… begot suspicion and distrust in those unacquainted with the line of your conduct. We, who knew it have not failed to strengthen the public confidence in you… be assured that you will be cordially supported in the line of your duties.”  
 Daviess vehemently objected to this twisting of the truth as he saw it, as Wilkinson and Burr had been working together. In his pamphlet, Daviess attacks Jefferson for waiting until the conspiracy “had been completely crippled by Wilkinson’s defection [before a] great deal of zeal and orders were exhibited,” as well as Jefferson’s willingness to “order, or to sanction or ratify such outrages as Wilkinson has committed… a prostration of that part of the constitution most intimately connected with the citizen’s liberty.”