LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS THE s BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS, EMBODYING THE PEIVATE JOURNAL OF BARMAN BLENNERHASSITT, AND THE HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE OF BURR, ALSTON, COMFORT TYLER, DEVEREAUX, DAYTON, ADAIR, MIRO, EMMETT, THEODOSIA BURR ALSTON, MRS. BLENNERHASSETT, AND OTHERS^ THEIR CONTEMPORARIES; DEVELOPING THE PURPOSES AND AIMS OF THOSE ENGAGED IN THE ATTEMPTED WILKINSON AND BURR REVOLUTION; EMBRACING ALSO THE FIRST ACCOUNT OF THE "SPANISH ASSOCIATION OF KENTUCKY," AND A MEMOIR OF BLENNERHASSETT, BY WILLIAM H. SAFFOKD. ,,:,,. MOORE, WILSTAaH & BALDWIN, 25 WEST FOURTH STREET, 1864. LIBRARY DIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, BY MOORE, WILSTACH & BALDWIN. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of Ohio. TO MY FRIEND, SENECA W. ELY, ESQ THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. TANGLEWOOD, November 19th. PREFACE. IN the year 1850, the author published a small volume, enti tled " The Life of Blennerhassett," which has passed through several editions. While collecting the material for it, he learned of the existence of the Blennerhassett manuscripts, and made an ineffectual effort to secure them. They were then in the cus tody of B.'s invalid son, in the city of New York, who could not be prevailed upon to submit them to the author's inspec-' tipn. The latter was, consequently, compelled to send the work to the press, with such limited information as could be gathered from contemporaneous history and the personal reminiscences of friends. On the death of this son, in 1854, the papers passed into the possession of JOSEPH LEWIS BLENNERHASSETT, the youngest surviving child of the family, from whom they were obtained in the spring of 1859. Upon an examination, the author was gratified to find that his former publication, although written upon such unsatisfac- *tory data, so far as it professed to relate the life of Blenner hassett, was in every material particular correct. But the addi tional fund of interesting and important information which was disclosed particularly with reference to this most romantic epi sode of American history seemed to impose the necessity of an entire revision of his work. In the performance of this duty, so much new material has been added from the private mem oranda, journals and correspondence of Blennerhassett, that he has thought it advisable to change its title. Hence he has adopted that of " THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS ;" and so nu- 6 PREFACE. merous have been the changes, that it may now be regarded as a separate and independent publication. In the selection and arrangement of the materials, .he has endeavored, impartially, to place before the public every im portant fact connected with the subject. Having no object to conceal the faults or infirmities, nor inclination to apologize for the acts, of Blennerhassett, the author has been careful to sup press nothing to shield him from censure, nor has he invented excuses to extenuate his conduct. Wherever and whenever it has been necessary, for the interest of the work and the inform ation of the reader, that the motives by which Blennerhassett was actuated should be disclosed, he has not hesitated to reveal them, even though it involved the invasion of private corres pondence. It is possible, nay, probable, that much is here presented which, could it have passed under the personal supervision of Mr. Blennerhassett, would have been materially modified, or entirely withheld ; particularly after time had smoothed the asperities of personal rancor, and obliterated the memory of private wrongs. But this is certainly not the province of the impartial biogra pher, whose paramount aim is the verity of history, and not the unwarranted aggrandizement of individual character. These remarks apply more appropriately to the observations on men and measures, contained in the journal and private correspondence of Blennerhassett. The scathing criticisms, and, in many instances, unmerited censure, with which its pages are replete, can only be extenuated by the smarting sense of per sonal injustice to which he deemed himself subjected. It is to be borne in mind, however, that none of his notes were ever intended for the public eye; that they were written exclusively for the entertainment of his wife and friends, at a time when party spirit ran high, and the jealous rivalries of leading poli ticians had discarded the amenities of social intercourse ; when PREFACE. 7 Colonel Burr himself strove to give a partisan bias to the pros ecution for treason, by charging Mr. Jefferson with political malevolence and private revenge. Under such considerations, we are prepared, at least, to excuse the warmth of his invec tives, however much we may dissent from his conclusions. Time has demonstrated, that whatever personal inconvenience and sacrifice of private interest the arrest of the Burr Expedi tion occasioned the parties immediately involved ; whatever mo tives may have influenced the action of the executive in the prosecution of its leader, it is certainly now clear, that it main tained the integrity of the Union, and re-established the confi dence of the world in the power and perpetuity of the govern ment. The chapter devoted to the Spanish intrigues in Kentucky, seemed necessary to a proper understanding of the causes which induced, and the parties who influenced and projected, this noted undertaking. If the remarks upon the conduct of Gene ral Wilkinson should seem severe, the author can only say that they have been prompted through no feeling of personal en mity, but in justice, merely, to those who were the victims of his duplicity and bold breach of faith. He has to regret the haste with which the necessities of the case have compelled him to prepare the work for the press. It has been completed in exactly one year from the time the papers were submitted to his inspection, and at such intervals of leisure, only, as he could appropriate from the duties of an arduous profession. He can not, therefore, flatter himself that it is free from occasional errors, or that it will successfully escape the criticism of cultivated and correct taste. But how ever numerous may be its faults, he can only hope that they may in some measure elude detection through the interest which the subject itself creates. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Lineage of Blennerhassett ; Placed at Westminster to school ; Grad uates at Trinity College ;. The Irish Bar ; Preferences, by the Irish gentry, for the legal profession; Studies at the King's Inns; Called to the degree of Barrister ; Determines to travel ; Sets out for the Continent; France; Witnesses the adoption of the new Constitu tion ; Returns ; Irish Revolutionists, John and Henry Sheares ; Dis content of Ireland ; Monopoly of England ; English tyranny; Effect of American Revolution on Ireland; On Europe; Repeal of Stat ute Sixth of George First ; Blennerhassett determines on removal ; Starts for Kinsale ; Proceeds to England ; Miss Agnew ; Marriage and Migration 19 CHAPTER II. Ships for New York ; Letter to Lord Kinsale ; Ohio and Mississippi Valleys ; Sets out for the West ; Arrives at Pittsburg ; Takes pas sage for Marietta; Population of the village; Resolves to locate; Selecting a site for a residence; The Island; Moves to a block house, and commences improvements ; Simplicity not consulted in the construction of the mansion ; Description ; Domesticity. ... 29 CHAPTER III. Personal appearance of Blennerhassett; Anecdote of; Experiment; Proficiency in music ; simplicity of character; Anecdote of; Afraid of earthquakes and thunder-storms ; Mrs. Blennerhassett 50 CHAPTER IV Character of the early settlers of Western Virginia ; Variety ; Social distinctions abolished ; Amusements; Feats of strength ; Chivalry; Patriotism; Washington's compliment; Early settlers of Belpre'; New England origin ; Puritanical practices ; Bravery ; Patriotism ; Education ; Comparison of the two types of character 56 10 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Difficulties attending the early colonization of the Mississippi Valley ; Navigation of the river cause. of discontent; Tardiness of Congress in asserting the rights of the people; Murmurings of discontent; Want of unanimity of the people on the subject of redress of griev ances ; Disunion advocated ; Intrigues of the Spanish Crown ; Gen eral James Wilkinson ; Endeavors to secure the free navigation of the Mississippi; Arrested by order of the Governor of Louisiana; Released; Entertainment; Permission to trade; Suspicious inti macy ; Gardoqui and Miro without concert of plan ; Gardoqui ap points Pierre d'Argfes to execute scheme; D' Argfes' movements; Plans of Spanish agents threaten collision ; Dispatch of Miro to Valdfes; Wilkinson sails from New Orleans to Philadelphia; Pro ceeds to Richmond ; Addresses a letter to Gardoqui ; Colonel George Morgan; Efforts at Colonization; Wilkinson returns across the mountains ; His splendid equipage creates suspicion ; Enters into large contracts for tobacco; Communicates with Miro by special messengers ; Advises him of the disaffection of the Kentucky people, and the probable success of their plans; Wilkinson suspicioned by Miro as working for pecuniary advancement; Dispatch of Miro; Major Dunn sent by Wilkinson as supercargo; Is introduced by. letter to Miro ; Wilkinson communicates further intelligence of the disposition of the Kentuckians ; Major Dunn corroborates his state ments; Dispatch from McGillivray, the half-breed chief; Miro elated ; Wilkinson still ignorant of Gardoqui's plans; Diplomacy; Wilkin son on a wrong scent; Wilkinson sowing the seeds of dissension in Kentucky; Constant agitations; Wilkinson's success animates others; A new cause of excitement; The new Constitution of the United States ; Convention of Virginia called to meet at Richmond ; A District Convention called to meet at Danville to frame a Consti tution for the new State; Wilkinson chosen as a member; Sudden termination of its deliberations; Letter on the subject from Wilkin son to Miro ; South-Western feeling ; Wilkinson still suspected ; General Morgan's movements; Wilkinson's distrust of Morgan; Sordid desires; British intrigue; Connally deputed by Dorchester; Visits Kentucky; Propositions; Interview with Wilkinson; Coun terplotting ; Spain consents to the navigation of the Mississippi on terms ; Effect of the measure ; Wilkinson discouraged ; Apprehen sions for his own safety excited ; Desires to become a Spanish sub ject; Is dissuaded by Miro; Miro's hopes dampened; Proposes to pension Wilkinson to guard the interest of Spain, and Sebastian to guard Wilkinson; Kentucky admitted ; Wilkinson commissioned ag Lieutenant-Colonel ; Reason therefor ; Discontent still prevailing ; Genet's intrigue ; Jacobin Clubs ; Address of the Society at Philadel- CONTENTS. 11 phia; General George Rogers Clark commissioned a Major-General in the French Revolutionary Legions; Washington embarrassed: Demands the recall of Genet; General Wayne ordered to repair to Massac ; Tranquillity, for a time, restored 63 CHAPTER VI. Clouds gathering; Burr visits the West; Object; Visits the Island; Interview with Wilkinson; Blennerhassett on a visit to Emmett; Duped by Harte ; Letter to James Brown, Esq. ; Despondent ; Pro poses to change his residence; Letter to Devereux ; Burr's first com munication to Blennerhassett; Answer to Burr; Burr to Blenner hassett; Burr's third letter; Burr's fourth and fifth letters; Arrival at the Island; Interview; Projects; Wirt's description; Burr con tinues recruiting ; Tempting inducements held out 105 CHAPTER VII. Preparations ; Burr visits Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Kentucky ; Terms of enlistment; "Querist;" Lexington, Kentucky; Mrs. Alston joined by her husband at the Island, in company with Blennerhassett ; visit. Lexington; Reception; Ruse; Col. Alston; Letter of Blennerhassett to Jos. S. Lewis & Co. ; Apprehensions of the public mind ; Retro spect; Rumors of the Expedition; Graham appointed a secret agent to investigate its object; Instructions to Wilkinson; Marches to ward Natchitoches ; Orders the fortification of New Orleans ; Re fused forces by the Executive of Mississippi Territory ; Sends Bur ling to Mexico to apprise the Viceroy ; Meeting at New Orleans ; Preparations for resistance; Mutiny in Wood county, Va.; Mrs. Blennerhassett alarmed ; Dispatches a messenger to Blennerhassett ; He returns from Lexington; Dr. Bennett; Letter to Colonel Phelps; Reply ; Interview ; Letter from Devereux ; Burr's arrest in Ken tucky; Advises Blennerhassett; Discharge; Graham visits Mari etta; Interview with Blennerhassett; Visits the Governor of Ohio at Chillicothe; Act of the Ohio Legislature; Militia of the State called out; Anecdotes; Comfort Tyler; Tyler to Blennerhassett; Hon. Charles Fenton Mercer ; Interview ; Reflections ; Arrival of Tyler at the Island ; Blennerhassett disheartened ; Persuaded by his wife to proceed; Boats guarded by the militia; Young recruits attempt a rescue . . . . . ., * . . . . 131 CHAPTER VIII. Burr dispatches communication in cipher to Wilkinson; Revelations; Evidences of Wilkinson's complicity ; Wilkinson's treachery; Com municates with the President; Proclamation of the President; 12 CONTENTS. Blennerhassett alarmed; Preparations; Mrs. Blcnnerhassett; Es cape of the Expedition from the Island ; Col. Phelps with his forces ; Ineffectual attempt to arrest Blennerhassett at Point Pleasant; Instructions sent to Tennessee ; Graham leaves Frankfort for Nash ville; The movements of Burr; Kentucky militia ordered out; Burr's flotilla; Burr leaves the Cumberland; Lands at Fort Massac; Is visited by the Commander, Captain Bissel ; Supplies Burr with a messenger to convey a letter to the Lead Mines in Missouri ; His wife presents Burr with provisions ; Burr and his party proceed to Chickasaw Bluffs; Has an interview with the Commander, Lieuten ant Jacob Jackson; Fails in his designs; Communication of the President to Wilkinson; Burr supplies himself with lead, toma hawks, etc., and proceeds to Palmyra, and thence to Bayou Pierre ; Blennerhassett' s Journal of the voyage down the river 167 CHAPTER IX. Morgan Neville, and William Robinson, Junior; Embark from Pitts- burg in a flatboat; Espied by the Wood county militia, and arrested; Escorted to the Island to await the return of Colonel Phelps ; Diffi culties with the militia; Trial of the young men; Conduct of the militia on the Island; Mrs. Blennerhassett ; s return from Marietta; Her fortitude on the occasion ; Embarrassed situation ; Accepts the offer of the young men to convey her to her husband; Colonel Phelps's return to the Island; Young men embarrassed at the announcement of his arrival; Character and description of Colonel Phelps ; Rebukes the militia for their riotous conduct ; His politeness to the young men; Proffers his services in accelerating Mrs. Blen nerhassett' s arrangement to go to her husband; Apologizes for the misbehavior of his men; Mrs. Blennerhassett prepares to depart; Leaves the Island in company with the young men; Passes the mouth of the Cumberland; Disappointed in not finding her hus band ; Arrives at Bayou Pierre, and is restored to Blennerhassett ; Painful situation of Burr and Blennerhassett; Burr sinks the arms for the Expedition, in the Mississippi 193 CHAPTER X. Proclamation of Cowles Mead in Mississippi ; Burr visited at his boats by George Poindexter, Attorney-General ; Letter from Cowles Mead ; . Surrender ; Examination before Rodney ; Jury called ; Refuse to find a Bill of Indictment; Censure the arrest; Burr resolves to escape; Letter to Mrs. Blennerhassett ; Makes flight ; Burr's forces arrested ; Other seizures at New Orleans ; Habeas corpus granted by W T orkman ; Wilkinson refuses to surrender his prisoners; Workman resigns; CONTENTS. 13 Burling returns from Mexico Wilkinson and Admiral Drake; Trial and discharge of Bollman, Swartwout, Ogden and Alexander; Letter of Blennerhassett to Graham; Blennerhassett arrested, and released on bail 199 CHAPTER XI. Burr's arrival in the village of Wakefield, Alabama; Inquires for Colonel Hinson's; His conduct excites suspicion; He is pursued by Nicholas Perkins and Brightwell, the Sheriff; Is found at Hinson's; His agreeableness ; Suspicions of the Sheriff; Mrs. Hinson's inquis- itiveness ; His departure from Hinson's ; Delinquency of Brightwell ; Perkins sets out for Fort Stoddard, to procure assistance of Lieuten ant Edmund P. Gaines ; They start in pursuit ; Burr is arrested ; His imprisonment at the Fort; Kindness to George S. Gaines; Amusements at the Fort; Burr's traveling companion, Major Ash ley, arrested, and escapes ; Difficulties in procuring a guard to con vey Burr to Richmond; Burr leaves the Fort under guard; Sympa thy of the ladies ; Guard ; Perkins fears the influence of Burr ; Par ticulars of the journey; Burr attempts to escape at Chester; Is unsuccessful ; Arrives at Richmond, Virginia ; Letter of Alston to Governor Pinkney, of South Carolina 214 CHAPTER XII. Blennerhassett leaves Natchez for the Island ; Letter of Blennerhap- sett to Mrs. Blennerhassett ; Same to same ; Travel's history ; Letter from Mrs. Blennerhassett to Mr. Blennerhassett ; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett ; Another ; Letter from D. Woodbridge to Blen nerhassett; From Mrs. to Mr. Blennerhassett; Burr to Blennerhas sett; Alston to Blennerhassett; From Mrs. Theodosia Burr Alston; From Burr to Blennerhassett ; Arrest of Blennerhassett at Lexing ton ; Advises Mrs. Blennerhassett by letter ; Narrative of the events by himself ; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett; Account of the arrest from the " Western World;" Letter from Henry Clay; Letter from Mrs. Blennerhassett; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett, from the Penitentiary; Account of the journey and incidents at Richmond; Burr to Blennerhassett; Same to same; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett ; Burr to Blennerhassett ; Mrs. Blennerhas sett to Mr. Blennerhassett; Same to same; Burr to Blennerhassett; Same to same ; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett ; Same to same; Devereux to Blennerhassett; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blenner hassett; Trial of Burr commenced; Counsel engaged; Verdict of acquittal ; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett. 231 14 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. Blennerhassett's Private Journal 30J CHAPTER XIV. Letter from Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett; Same to same; Letter from Luther Martin to Blennerhassett; Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett; Blennerhassett to Colonel Burr; Blennerhas sett to Mrs. Blennerhassett ; Same to same ; Same to same ; Returns to Natchez ; Pecuniary distress ; Purchases a cotton plantation ; Finds a home; Mrs. Blennerhassett's management; Devereux to Blennerhassett; A small remittance; Joseph S.Lewis to Blenner hassett; Thomas Addis Eminett to Blennerhassett; Joseph S.Lewis to same ; From the same ; From the same ; Blennerhassett to Gov ernor Alston ; Effect of the embargo ; Island Mansion destroyed by fire ; Letter from Joseph S. Lewis ; From the same ; From the same ; From the same ; From the house of Joseph S. Lewis & Co. ; From Joseph S. Lewis ; From the same ; From Joseph S. Lewis & Co. ; Burr in Europe; Suspected in England; Visits Edinburg; Returns to London, and is imprisoned ; Set at large, and ordered to quit the kingdom ; His subsequent movements ; Returns to New York ; Letter from to Blennerhassett; Blennerhassett to Burr; Letter from Mr. Emmett 508 CHAPTER XV. Origin of the Burr Expedition ; History of events preceding ; Gayoso's intrigues ; Power dispatched to Wilkinson ; Plan for dismembering Kentucky; Wilkinson's complicity; Power's second mission; In structions; Wilkinson's reply ; Spanish- American settlers ; United States tardy in taking possession of Spanish forts under the treaty of 1783; Spain is jealous of her American possessions; Memoir of the First Consul of France ; Advises that Wilkinson be enlisted in the service of France; Wilkinson the author of the Burr Expedi tion; Burr's project not a new one ; Miranda's Expedition; Extent of Burr's intrigues ; Misrepresentations ; Wilkinson's complicity and treachery ; Jefferson accused. 664 CHAPTER XVI. Blennerhassett unsuccessful; Disposes of his Mississippi estate, and removes to New York; Removes to Canada in hopes of obtaining a Judgeship; Unsuccessful; " The Deserted Isle;" Sails* for Ireland ; Disappointed in recovering estates ; Letter from Mrs. Blennerhas- eett; Distress of Mrs. Bleimerhassett; Letter to Blennerhassett; CONTENTS. 15 Colonel Archibald Henderson to Mrs. Blennerhassett; Same to the same ; Blennerhassett seeks office in England ; Letter to the Marquis of Anglesey ; Letter from Mrs. Blennerhassett ; Letter to Nev. de Courcy; To Lord Courtney; From Mrs. Blennerhassett; From the same ; To General Devereux ; To J. Kingdom ; To Devereux ; To the Marquis of Wellesley ; His history ; Marries Mrs. Patterson, of Bal timore, formerly Miss Eaton ; The Tabinet Ball ; Reverses of fortune ; Letter from the poet Campbell ; Blennerhassett returns to Canada, to remove permanently to England; Mrs. Blennerhassett's health declining ; Letter to Lord Anglesey ; Answer ; To Harman Blenner hassett ; Premonition of death ; Removes to Guernsey ; Death ; Re flections; Mrs. Blennerhassett visits the United States; Presents her memorial to Congress ; Claim reported favorably upon ; Death of Mrs. Blennerhassett 682 APPENDIX. I. SECRET CORRESPONDENCE 657 II. THE BATTLE or MUSKINGUM, OR DEFEAT OF THE BURRITES. . . 661 INTRODUCTION. MORE than fifty years since, the inhabitants of the West were gratified by the intelligence that an indi vidual of rank and fortune ha,d renounced allegiance to his father-land, to take up his abode among them. In those primitive days, every addition to the little band of early pioneers was deemed of some import ance ; but the accession of one whose manners and customs differed so widely from their own, who could build and adorn a palace in the western wilds, was considered an event of wonderful magnitude. With satisfaction they beheld the first germs of civi lization springing from beneath the plastic hand of taste, and bursting into full maturity through the gen ial influence of wealth. This western Eden,' while it captivated their eyes with its beauty, amazed their minds with the resources of its possessor. They wit nessed the accomplishment of his ends in the subjuga tion of nature to his will; saw "the desert bloom and blossom as the rose;" stood as anxious spectators when the whirlwind of popular prejudice prostrated the hopes of his household; and wept for the desola tion which succeeded.. Since the celebrated expedition of Aaron Burr, the earlier fortunes of Blennerhassett have been the sub ject of singular curiosity. Many have ^been the sur mises as to the causes which led this scion of Euro- 2 18 INTRODUCTION. pean aristocracy to renounce the hereditary honors consequent upon family, for the secluded life of an unpretending republican. Some attribute it to an early alliance with a lady whose fortune and rank were unequal to those of his own; others, to a want of success as a member of the Irish bar; while the uncharitable are anxious to throw around the subject conjectures of the darkest character. The mystery which surrounds -him and his " island home " has served, for more than fifty years, to enter tain the passing traveler, as he glides by the spot where once stood the American Alhambra. The mar velous stories of Spain, of Moslem enchantment and Moorish gold, are scarcely less credible than the tales at such times repeated to the attentive ear of the listener. Memory reverts with fond delight to the earlier days of our youthful pastimes, when, strolling through the embowered coppices of the isle, or seated beneath the vine-clad cotton tree, the stern realities of life were forgotten, in the tragic narratives of by-gone years. Around the name of Blennerhassett, and every thing connected with it, was waved the enchanting wand of romance ; and tales of beauty, of splendor, and of crime, while they fascinated us with their witchery, startled us with his deep and dark designs. Who Blennerhassett truly was, and what his origin and destiny, it is our object to disclose; to strip the subject of that mysteriousness which ignorance, wilful prejudice, or a love of the marvelous has thrown around it, and reveal to the inquiring reader the acts and character of the man. " THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. CHAPTER I. LITTLE of incident is anywhere related of the early life of Blennerhassett. He was the youngest son of a distinguished family, which could trace its lineage from the time of King John. His grandfather, Robert, having emigrated from Cumherland in the reign of Eli zabeth, became the head of three highly respectable branches of Irish gentry. The first son was the proprietor of Ballyseedy; the second of Conway Castle, Killorglin, both in the county of Kerry ; and the third established himself at Riddles- town, in the county of Limerick. The subject of this memoir was of the Castle Conway, or Killorglin line. He w r as born in Hampshire, on the 8th of October, in the year 1764 or 1765, while his parents were on a temporary visit to England. A younger son, and by the laws of primogeniture, destined to a profes sion, he was placed by his father at an early age, in the celebrated school of Westminster. He was afterward 20 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. entered at Trinity College, Dublin, where it is said he graduated with honor to himself and credit to his pro fessors. At that time the Irish bar a body formidable to the then existing government comprised many sons of the noblemen and commoners of Ireland. The legal science was not then a mere trade, but a profession, requiring both learning and time to master its abstruse truths. Eloquence was looked upon as a qualification for the Senate, and almost every peer and commoner had a relative among its members. This inordinate preference for the legal profession is said to have arisen from numerous causes. Chief among these was the ambition of their gentry, and their family pride. The first anxiety of a parent was to secure for his son a calling befitting, in every particular, the dignity of the ancient name. In this respect the bar has at all times proved the highway to fortune and political preferment. But the consideration of wealth, or, perhaps, a seat in the Privy Council, were not the only inducements to such a selection. Although they were not to be regarded with indifference, yet there Jaas also been an adventitious dignity conferred upon the profes sion, by the political circumstances of the country, and the individual influence of many of its illustrious names. Until 1792, no Catholic could be admitted to the pri vileges of a barrister, and the dignities of the profession were confined to a favored few. The highest families were anxious to secure positions, which stamped an aristocratic character upon the importance of the calling ; and to be a counsellor in those days was to be no ordi- IN FRANCE. 21 nary personage; the title was an indisputable passport to aristocratic society and intellectual association. Blennerhassett having, therefore, selected the law as the surest road to preferment and wealth, was placed at the King's Inns, as an entered apprentice; and at Michaelmas term, 1790, at the age of twenty-five, was generally admitted into the "Honorable Society," and called to the degree of Barrister therein. Having now successfully accomplished a severe course of study in which, in a few years, he had passed through the first literary, scientific and legal institutions of Great Britain ; and, by the death of his eldest brother, having but recently succeeded to the family estates, rendering exertion in his profession unnecessary as a means of sub sistence, he determined before entering upon its duties, to indulge himself for a time in the recreation of foreign travel. Accordingly, in company with one of his companions, he set out for a tour upon the continent. France, both then as now, was the center of interest for all the world. For the philosopher, statesman, or man of pleasure, she has long possessed, and still presents, superior attractions over any of her sister Kingdoms. At the period of Blennerhassett's visit, she had been rocked by the whirl wind of revolution ; and the established despotism of her military monarchs had been crumbled into atoms. The massive structure of the Bastile, every stone of which echoed the groans of four centuries of oppression, had been torn from its summit to its foundation, by the infu riated advocates of popular freedom. On the anniver sary of its destruction, Louis Sixteenth, with thirty 22 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. thousand delegates from the confederated National Guards of the kingdom, in the presence of five hun dred thousand of their countrymen, had taken the oath of fidelity to the nation, to the Constitution, and, all save the monarch himself, to the king. But France was still trembling from the convulsions of her people. Her recuperative energies were starting afresh, on a new sys tem of government, which lacked all the great elements of success. To one who had been familiar with the daily complainings of an oppressed nation, who, although himself but upon the verge of manhood, had already been strongly suspected of a secret league with the revo lutionary spirits of Ireland, thoroughly read in the poli tical writings of Voltaire, and a disciple of Kosseau, a more interesting and opportune period could not have presented itself. He was still an unwilling witness to the murmurs of the people. Confidence in the permanency of the government had not been secured by the affections of its subjects, and society had received a shock from which it had seemed impossible to recover. Having remained long enough to witness the adop tion of this new measure, Blennerhassett returned to his own country, in time to escape the storm, which prostrated the hopes of its friends, and destroyed the life of the unfortunate Louis. There were quite a number of the young men of Ireland in France at the time of the emeute. Many of them entered into the spirit of the Revolution with great zest, and endeavored to enlist the sympathies of the insurgents in their cause against the oppression of England. DISAFFECTED IRELAND. 23 Among the more noted of these for their subsequent misfortunes, were John and Henry Sheares. They were natives of Cork, well educated, both lawyers, and of respectable parentage. They were present at the taking of the Bastile, and John was seen, on his return to Ireland, to flourish with exultation a hand kerchief stained with the blood of Louis XYI. They subsequently became involved in the outbreak in 1798, for which they were prosecuted for treason. Although they were ably defended by Curran, they were, nevertheless, convicted, and suffered the extreme penalty of the law. Much dissatisfaction was after wards expressed on account of the character of the evidence upon which they were found guilty. There was but one witness, and he a government decoy, who had himself counseled more treason than either had ever conceived. But the same spirit of discontent which prevailed in France had extended to Ireland. For centuries had she groaned under the oppression of England. Her submission to the sceptres of Henry and of Richard had been construed into the right of con quest; and they sought to crush the native spirit of her people, by fomenting discord and exercising tyranny. Ireland had been blessed with a genial soil. Nature had lavished her brightest gifts upon her. The native character of her population was not infe rior to that of other nations. But of what avail were fertile fields, or gigantic intellects, when national dis organization and political faction perverted the gifts of Providence to selfish purposes, or destroyed their 24 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. usefulness in the general wreck of distracted govern ments and divided subjects ? Her manufacturing inter est and commercial enterprise struggled long against the monopoly of England; but the superior power of her ruler enabled her to check their prosperity, by the heavy hand of arbitrary restraint. A deplorable want of union of sentiment, and firmness of purpose, at all times prevented a successful separation from her powerful oppressor; and every attempt to claim, her independence proved vain and abortive. England, fearful of her growing strength, sought to subdue her spirit, by onerous exactions, and denying her the privilege of a free legislature. Not only against Ireland had she exercised hef* arbitrary will, but also against the colonies of her planting in North America. Vain in the conceit of her imperial power, she dared to exact obedience from peoples separated by the wide Atlantic, and command the same submission with which the oppressed subjects of Ireland had yielded. "While her experimental philosophy had taught her that to retain her authority she must exercise tyranny, she had not reflected that there was a point in the system of her oppression, where submission ceased to be a virtue. The spirit of independence was hovering over the bloody altar of the American Revolution, when Ire land again awoke to a sense of her own condition. She gazed with animated delight at the increasing success of American arms. Every new victory found a sympathetic influence, responding with joy, in the recesses of her own bosom. The feeble colonies of America, spread over a vast extent of territory, with but few facilities for con- LIBERAL PRINCIPLES SPREADING. 25 ducting a war, with a hostile Indian enemy in their rear, and the boasted chivalry of England at their front; undismayed by difficulty or the fear of defeat, after seven years of war, were finally victorious. The arrogance of England bowed its proud head to the shrine of liberty ; and Lord Cornwallis, her favorite general, led back the relics of her conquered army, to commemorate, in the mother country, the impotence of her power and the emancipation of her colonies. Before they had well considered the reason of their solicitude, the same spirit of independence had animated the Irish bosom; and, in every corner of her territory, the fire of liberty burst forth, in a blaze that threatened equal destruction to British usurpation, and kingly gov ernment. The nation became aroused. English influ ence and English interests secured partizans in church and state ; and opposing factions, from their intolerance and party animosity, had already commenced the Irish revolution. . The success of the cause of liberty in the American colonies affected, most sensibly, the whole of Europe. It appeared, indeed, as though the fiat had gone forth, that monarchies and despotisms were for ever to cease from among men. " Strange and unforeseen events were crowding the annals of the world; the established axioms of general polity began to lose their weight among nations ; and governments, widely wandering from the fundamental principles of their own con stitutions, appeared carelessly traveling the road to ruin." Such was the State of Europe; presenting an aspect 26 THE 'BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. not unlike that upon which we, of later days, have gazed (and to which we still look, with feelings of solicitude and hope), when Blennerhassett left the unhappy shores of France for those, not less discon tented, of his native country. Ireland, it is true, from the helpless situation of England, at a time w^hen her foreign wars and hapless defeats had exhausted the resources of that powerful nation, had successfully demanded the repeal of stat ute sixth of George First, entitled " An Act for the better securing the dependency of the kingdom of Ire land upon the crown of Great Britain ; " but her situa tion was not less distracted than before. Although it was difficult to keep aloof from the entan gling snares of party strife, Blennerhassett chose rather to pursue the more flowery paths of literature than the sterner and more rugged way of political preferment. To a mind which sought within itself for sources of enjoyment, the bustle and hurricane which reigned around served to distract his meditations, and inter rupt the pleasure which, in seclusion, he had hoped to find. j*>eing the possessor of an estate, with considerable additional fortune inherited at the death of his father, he determined no longer to remain in Ireland, subjected to the inconvenience and danger which usually attend the feuds of' faction; but, in some more remote and peaceful region, where the infuriated mob and the clamor of war were never heard, he hoped to spend a life of repose. He accordingly disposed of his lands to his relative, MARRIAGE AND MIGRATION. . 27 Mr. Mullins, afterward Baron Vintry, and made immedi ate preparation for departing. Having closed his busi ness lie started for Kinsale, a seaport in the county of Cork, where his sister, the consort of Lord Kinsale (Baron de Courcey), at that time resided. His estates had yielded him an ample fortune of one hundred thousand dollars. From Kinsale he proceeded to England, to complete his arrangements for transmit ting it to America, and supplying himself with his necessary outfits. While here he frequently met with, and finally became affianced to, a Miss Agnew, daughter of the Lieutenant- Governor of the Isle of Man, and grand-daughter of the celebrated General of that name, who fell at the battle of Germantown. She was young, intelligent, and beau tiful. Possessed of an uncommon degree of energy, coupled with a temperament of romantic ardor, she lis tened, with captivated delight, to the fairy stories he repeated of the far-off land in the Western world. She did not, therefore, hesitate to consummate the nuptials, and link her destinies with his in that rural paradise which his imagination had so vividly depicted. Upon the precarious sea of life, almost without com pass or chart, Blennerhassett had now launched his adventurous barque. The sudden truth flashed across his mind, that he, too, was an adventurer; not, how ever, for the gold of Peru, for discoveries in the material world, or the subjugation of a foreign power. Gold and honor were already his ; but these, compared to the revelation of truth in the great volume of nature, to the inquiring mind, which sought to unfold her hidden - 28 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. mysteries, were but as " sounding brass and tinkling cymbal." To him, that sea appeared serene and safe, with no adverse winds to interrupt his onward course ; while, in the dim distance of imagination, he descried that shore of sweet repose, where the deceit and treachery of man should never disturb the quietude of a mind at peace. IN AMERICA, AT LAST. 29 CHAPTER II. HAVING supplied himself, in London, with an extensive library and a philosophical apparatus, together with other materials deemed necessary for future use, Blenn- erhassett shipped for IsTew York in 1796, where he remained for several months, to study the topography of the country and the character of its inhabitants-. An account of the voyage, and description of the country, are entertainingly given in the following letter, addressed to his nephew, the Hon. Thomas de Courcey,* afterward Lord Kinsale : UTRECHT, LONG ISLAND, August ISth, 1796. MY DEAR TOM: Although I feel that your anxiety and my own wishes equally urge the dispatch of this let ter, yet that its end should not be altogether unattained, I have not only deferred beginning it since my landing on the 1st instant, but shall probably conclude with a date considerably distant from that with which I have commenced; for I shall sooner depend upon your rely ing on the chances in favor of the safe issue of my voy age, than merely send you an account of it such a distance as divides every thing but our hearts, unaccom panied with some account of things as they shall strike me in this country from time to time, which, as they 30 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. will necessarily affect my interests, will, I know, on that account, be more than entertaining to you. As to our passage, as nothing very material happened in the course of it, I shall only tell you that we made it very tediously, that is, in seventy-three days from our sailing from Gravesend, till we landed at E"ew York. During our vicissitudes of calms and adverse winds, which, instead of the direct distance, compelled us to submit to a tra- v verse sailing of, I suppose, not less than ten thousand miles, I was relieved from any sense whatever of confine ment by the variety and awfulness of nature in the Western Ocean, and particularly in what is called the Florida Gulf Stream, together with the almost daily occupation of examining, and finally, when we made the land, correcting the dead reckoning of the ship by means of two excellent instruments, with which, among others, I provided myself in London ; the one a Hadley's sex tant, the other a chronometer watch, iriade by the maker to the British Board of Longitude. On first setting my foot on American soil, I was visited with sensations which I certainly never experienced in the old country. With any particular description of these I shall not trouble you, but while they excited severe regrets, as I cast my eyes back on the sea that interposed so wide a space between me and the many dear ties I left behind, they soon after inspired more self ish reflections to cheer me with the contemplation of so grand a barrier between me and the malevolence of my enemies, while it seemed, at the same time, the only limit of my natural and political independence. But these prospects, I must admit, merely dawn at present ; NEW YORK IN '96. 31 and* my expectations will not ripen under their meridian heat till I shall have acquired a landed property equal to that with which I have parted. The climate, as well as the voyage, which Maggie has home well, has received us kindly, and still continues to treat us with benignity. The situation of New York, with which I know Morse has acquainted you, save in ihe lower parts of the town, where, from its rapid increase in trade, and I may say, the almost insular situ ation of the city, the inhabitants have, for some time, been making new ground for docks, and building lots, with bad and filthy stuff' ; its situation, I say, is provided with almost every requisite to check, if not destroy, the tendency of the climate (which in spring and summer is damp, and suddenly and violently variable), to produce the intermittent very general here, and known by the name of the fever and ague, which, to all appearance, is the same complaint with the ague in Europe. But the severe heat generally prevalent in the months of July and August, raising the thermometer some days to 96 ; by its pernicious influence on the docks, and new low grounds, renders it advisable for foreigners to retire to the country. Principally upon this account, added to a severe handling from the musketoes, which, during our stay in town, used to come over from the Jersey shore, opposite to which we lodged upon the Hudson, I removed to this place last Saturday, where we have joined a tolerably pleasant party, chiefly of subscribers, who have built a handsome house, with a large room and balcony in front, of near seventy feet in length, and other apart ments, containing about thirty good bed-rooms. The 32 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. situation is pleasant and cool upon the shore, compared with the town, from which it is distant about twelve miles. Here we shall remain till the latter end of the month, when the heat will moderate, and I shall pass through Jersey on my way to Philadelphia. In the meantime, I shall further explore this Island, having as yet, from the heat of the weather, done almost nothing in that way. But in two or three rides I have witnessed the general poverty of the soil which, though extremely shallow and sandy, exhibits a beautiful diversity of cul tivated country, in the appearance of large and well fenced fields of cucumbers, musk and water-melons, with plenty of apple and peach orchards. The peaches, though no more attended to than your wildings in Kerry, have as good a flavor as the best ever produced at E.een. Judge then what a garden I look to in a better soil and climate. Grapes are universal, but seem totally neglected except for pies, though I am persuaded they might even here be brought to perfection. Indian corn is so much the staple of consumption on this island, that it alone is called corn, every other species of grain being distinguished by its proper name. The farmers, nine out of ten Dutch, or their descendants, are not only comfortable but rich. And though the state of agri culture among them is ridiculed by the Anglo-Americans for its backwardness, there is not an acre of land between this place and ISTew York (from the easy vent which the latter offers for the above-mentioned produce, with garden stuff, and perhaps a few other articles), that does not annually bring in from 25 to 30 of this currency, the dollar being eight shillings here. Hence EARLY POLITICS. 33 I need scarcely tell you that land is extremely dear. I have it from good authority, that, in the back parts of the State, capital has been, within these five years past, uniformly doubled every two years by the purchase and re-sale of small lots of military lands. You remember the advantages this State possesses in being the best watered in the Union, both by nature and art, and, accordingly, all its waste lands are settling with surprising rapidity, chiefly from New England. These accounts, nevertheless, shall not, at present, seduce me into any purchases here, because the British funds have fallen considerably since I purchased into them, and there is now less than a twelvemonth to run of the pres ent Presidency. It seems to be the general opinion of the few informed acquaintances I have yet been able to make (most of the persons to whom I am here addressed having retreated for the summer in different directions, into the country), that Washington will not stand as candidate again, and that there will be a severe contest between the North and the South ; the former straining every nerve to elect Adams, the latter making equal exertions in behalf of Jefferson. The expected struggle is regarded by both sides with eager anxiety, while maneuvering is practiced by both parties to the degree even of multiplying the States. To explain this : You will probably have seen, by the papers, that a sixteenth State, viz., that part of the territory South-West of the Ohio, called the Tennes see country, has, in the last session of Congress, been admitted, by virtue of the amount of its population, into the Union. Now it is insinuated in the Northern 3 34 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. and Middle States, where Adams is the favorite, and by whose preponderancy he would probably succeed, that the admission of Tennessee was obtained through a false census. However, this objection, whether true or not, now comes too late. The business is done. But, in order to effect a counterpoise, the District of Maine is to be separated from Massachusetts. So when you see this event also in the papers, you will know how to construe the real motives for erecting the district of Maine into a separate State, out of the ostensible reasons set forth for the measure. In the midst of these transactions I have had an opportunity of witnessing the attachment of both par ties to the real interests of the country, though they reciprocally launch the imputations of aristocracy and democracy against each other; and the candor on the one side in allowing the superiority of Jefferson's tal ents, is equalled by the honesty on the other in admit ting that Adams has done more for America than his opponent. Still, the administration of the new Presi dent, if not his election, will, in my opinion, as seems granted indeed, operate as a test of the constitution, to confound or confirm the idea in Europe, that Mr. Wash ington is, alone, in America, the preserving cement of order and good government; and, at all events, the period will operate a crisis which I shall in prudence abide, before I settle the whole of my property on this side of the Atlantic. Upon this account, alone, I have said so much upon general politics ; from which, however, you must not infer that I do not see more than equal security of pri- EARLY TRADE. 35 vate property with any that can be boasted in Europe, where the many have nothing to lose, compared with the proprietary interest; but, in this country, there is no peasantry. In the meantime speculations of every possible sort are driven forward daily, I think, so far, unhappily, as they induce a species of gambling; for one-half must ever lose, at every sort of play, while the advantages of regular trade, being reciprocal, all parties are benefited. These speculations are commercial, properly so called and landed. I shall give you an example or two of each. ~No adventures in the former line have been more weighty or enterprising than in the article of flour. This I call a speculation, because flour is no natural subject of trade between America and Europe, since the latter can always raise enough for consump tion; but ideas of its partial scarcity in England and France, during the war, have so engaged the merchant and farmer, that both have for the most part been ruined within these last eight months, the former on his disas trous returns at a full third below first cost, having only to condole with the latter still keeping his granaries shut up, for he has now no market but the home; the arti cle having there too fallen near six dollars in the barrel. Hence you will not be surprised to learn the extravagant prices of the necessaries of life, and the high rates of wages, which have not yet come down in proportion to the wholesale fall. Men-servants still have twelve dol lars a month. Masons, at New York and Philadelphia, from sixteen to twenty shillings a day ; carpenters, a shil ling less, and both, in country situations, according to 36 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the distance from these cities, may be had from one to five or six shillings less. House-rent, also, still keeps up enormously ; a two-roomed house, according to its situa tion, fetching from 150 to 250 in these towns, of New York currency. To estimate the rate of other necessa ries, I shall send you a price current, which you must understand hy adding ahout a third to every article for each hand through which it' passes before it reaches the consumer. While the above speculations in grain and flour have been going forward, latterly, with such ill success, others have distinguished this country. Of these the East India trade is the most considerable ; commenced under every disadvantage to be apprehended from the great capitals, and old companies of Europe. Yet, has it grown to a size that now begins to alarm men's minds, for the great draught of specie it drains from America, and a conviction of the inferiority, notwithstanding the cheapness of the India returns, except sugar and nan keens, compared with the linen articles of wear, which were more in use before from Europe. But adventure has not stopped here. Some time last summer, a Yankee, at a little town in the State of Massachusetts, learning the times were mortally sickly at Port au Prince, con ceived a scheme of sending there a cargo of coffins. Those commodities were made up in nests of sizes, from the largest to those for infants ; and, that no room should " be lost, the inner coffin of the nest was packed with cakes of gingerbread. I have only to add, that the speculation turned out a capital hit, our Yankee having actually returned full freighted with the best West India produce, in return for his timber. LAND SPECULATIONS. 37 Now for the land hits. These are going on every day, not only in England, but even in America, on principles no better than horse-jockeying. In this play, also, many fortunes are made and lost, the adventurers purchasing on credit, and a presumption of re-selling within a certain time their former acquisitions, at an advance equivalent to enable them to make good their former engagements. But they have found their calculations to exceed dread fully the capital settling this country from Europe, and now the paper of a Mr. Morris, of Philadelphia, who, in the last war, had more credit than the Union altogether, is selling at 4s. 6d. in the pound, though he still con tinues proceeding with a house that can not cost less than 200,000. There is not one cipher too many. Hence, you'll perceive, there is yet no bankruptcy sys tem established. Congress yet fear to cramp industry and enterprise in the young country for which they legis late, or to open a door to commercial fraud by any attempt of that sort, which, in the present state of the community, they wisely imagine would prove upon trial too lax or too rigid. And for my part, from the little I have yet seen, I can not but approve of their wisdom in leaving the creditor in a situation to see his debtor's knees begin to tremble, rather than run the risk of bringing both to the ground together. You must perceive then from what has been said, that there must be an infinity of land of every quality and situation in the market, and yet Congress have adver tised some townships to be sold at auction next January, which, upon full deliberation, they have resolved shall not be put up at less than two dollars an acre. There is 38 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPEKS. however, an increase of wealth annually flowing into the country, unequaled in the annals of any other, from emigrations. These I can not now exactly estimate, but their effects are visible, in the increase of settlements in every direction, from the Atlantic to the Ohio and Mississippi. Witness the population of Kentucky (now considered almost an old country), swollen to 73,677, and even of Tennessee, to 77,262. In this track I am now preparing to set forward, but can not say how long I shall be anywhere stationary for a month before the next fall, at which time, after having explored Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Miami country, concerning all of which you shall hear the particulars in due time. I shall return through the wilderness by Virginia, if a settlement does not arrest me in the way. But I must postpone for the present any further particulars of my route to the "West, on account of the remaining remarks I have to make on those parts of the country which I have seen since I began this letter, with which I am now proceeding at Philadelphia. On our return from Long Island, we were received at Xew York, as well by the acquaintances we made without as by those to whom we had introductions from England, more in a parental and brotherly way than in a manner you would call polite or elegant. European etiquette is not yet prevalent, or it is that which reigned on the other side of the water, at least half a century back, but toward the particular style of English dress, both sexes have made greater advances. But these matters, with the state of domestic economy, I shall leave for Maggie to describe. After some days stay in 39 and about New York, we set out for Newark, in New Jersey. On our way two objects were conspicuously impressive in a distance of only ten miles from our outset. The first, a swamp, through which we passed, three miles in a direct line over a well-made new road. This swamp was not merely remarkable from its being the first I had seen, but from a hill of solid land, called Snake-hill, thickly wooded, which rises with almost perpendicular declivity to a hight in the center, that in an Englishman's eyes, would merit the name of a moun tain. When I say that the moment you could reach the base of this mount, in descending toward the plain, you would find far less footing than in an Irish shaking-bog, Snake-hill will be regarded by you, as it has been by me, a lusus natures of no small magnitude. The next object, a production of art, was the bridge over the Hackinsack, to which may be added that over the Passaic river, both about three hundred yards in length, which unite neatness and strength of work manship to an extent in timber that might well invite an European ten miles out of his road. The expense of erecting each of these, I conclude, from the account I have had of a similar one I have since crossed at Brunswick, over the Raritan, to be 30,000 Pennsylvania currency. Newark possessed sufficient attractions within itself to induce me to tarry there for some days ? even if I had not resolved to do so for the sake of visiting the Passaic Falls, about fifteen miles off the main road. Newark, if considered as a village, which it more resembles than a town, is perhaps the handsomest in the world. Of extent, nearly three miles ; it is seated in a 40 THE BLEXXEHIIASSETT PAPERS. plain, clear and level as a parlor floor, on the banks of the Passaic, in an amphitheater environed by gently swelling hills. Its Academy, Court-house, and two neat buildings for public worship, added to nine stages, which, besides an infinity of wagons, every day pass through it between New York and Philadelphia, give an air of business and gaiety to the place. It is also the residence of many private families of respectability, with some of whom we were previously well enough acquainted to be entertained longer than we chose to remain there. Land is here, within five miles round, from 30 to 40 an acre, New York currency. The Passaic Falls, as they differ, I fancy, from all, others in America, will always invite and entertain the naturalist. Their peculiarity arises from a fissure in the bed of the river, which is of solid rock, cleft in an oblique direction to a depth of eighty feet. The river meanders a considerable way in a serene current without a murmur, till it reaches the chasm where it falls with the majesty of thunder, and forever throws up a spray that, when interposed between the eye and the sun, exhibits an assemblage of rainbows of the most fantastic beauty. From Newark to Philadelphia, I have only to remark the general sandy and poor appearance of the soil through Jersey State, which, however, is regarded as one of the best cultivated in the Union, and this indeed appears in the large extent of its corn country, and other agricultural improvements which, by trimming its tim ber, have rendered it sufficiently champaign to have caused it, during the late war, to be exposed to the AMATEUR IMPRESSIONS. 41 constant harrassings of the British. In this route I passed, with pleasing reflections, over the memorable grounds of Brunswick, Princeton and Trenton. At the latter place I crossed the Delaware, in sight of the spot where Providence, or his happy fortune, gave the Presi dent and America that confidence in the issue of the contest, wherein the Hessians were surprised, which, to save the country, could not have been delayed for a day. On this side of the Delaware industry seemed to stride, rather than to saunter, as she did, comparatiYely speak ing, in the States of Jersey and New York. Here, after traveling in every direction over the soil, which yet she has not deserted, you may trace her footsteps not only under the earth, but from thence upward through all the stages of manufacture wood has yet passed in any country, and iron full one-half as far as it has reached in England. Of the extent of cotton, linen and wool, throughout the country, I can not yet positively speak. A considerable capital has been embarked at Patterson, near the Passaic Falls, in the cotton line ; but it has altogether failed from a variety of causes, which, 1 think, independent of the long credits given in Europe, and the vast wilds here doomed for half a century yet to howl for population, will so long, at least, frustrate all attempts at adventure in the three last mentioned branches of trade. The approach to Philadelphia, in this line, announces more a large busy city to which it leads, than any of those that surround New York; yet, from the detail of business I have before and since seen in both, assisted by a commercial view of the continent, it is pretty apparent 42 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. that the latter place is treading hard on the heels of the former already, and will soon step it by. At present, however, you see more stir at Philadelphia, more bustle in the streets, and far more English activity in both sexes. I inclose you a plan of the city, which, with fewer defects than any I know of, seems to have been conceived by Penn, upon the best principles to suit the climate, and provide for. the health, while it accommodates the busi ness, of the inhabitants. So much for Philadelphia. The only great person I regret not having become acquainted with is the President. He unfortunately set off for home two days after my arrival, which prevented my attending his leve*e ; but the day before his departure we were so fortunate as to be seated at church in the pew opposite to him. Adieu, my dear nephew, and believe me, Your ever affectionate uncle, H. BLENNERHASSETT. P. S. Maggie will speak for herself. At that time, the territory west of the Alleghanies, particularly the valley of the Ohio and Mississippi, was comparatively a wilderness. The enterprise of the pio neer had driven, to more distant regions, the aborigines of the West. The occasional hamlet, with its few acres of cultivated ground, interrupted, at intervals, the " boundless contiguity of shade," and marked the abode of civilized and associated man. Villages, with rude habitations, here and there, broke the silence of the forest, and presented the cheering signs of dawning civi lization. Through this vast solitude, the silvery .current of the Ohio wended its way to the " father of waters." IX THE WEST. 43 The innovating steamer had never yet ruffled its bosom, nor startled its inhabitants with the sound of its machin ery. The deer browsed among the thick undergrowth of its bottoms ; the fox sought shelter in its caves ; and the wail of the wolf was heard from the adjacent hills. Lands of almost inexhaustible fertility skirted its mar gin, and isles of peculiar beauty decked its surface. Captivated with various descriptions of the country, in company with his wife, Blennerhassett set out to seek this delightful land. Crossing the rugged barriers of the Alleghanies, then a tedious and difficult undertaking, they arrived at Pittsburgh in the fall of 1796. Here they obtained passage on a keel-boat, in those days the most comfortable mode of traveling on the western waters, and shortly arrived at Marietta, a town of greater importance than any other in the State of Ohio. The population of this pleasantly-situated village was unusually intelligent and moral. The puritanical charac ter of its earlier inhabitants gave a tone to society, which identifies the present generation with their fathers who repose in their beautiful cemetery. Fully satisfied with the attractiveness of the country, Blennerhassett abandoned his contemplated explorations of Kentucky and Tennessee, and resolved to locate in this enterprising settlement. During the winter his time was pleasantly occupied in visiting the various families, and making occasional excursions through the neighborhood, to select a site for a residence. Above the village, and within a convenient distance, is an eminence of considerable height, com manding an extensive view of the river and surrounding 44 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. scenery. With this situation he was much pleased, and had almost determined to erect on its summit a castle, after the manner of many in his native country ; but the ascent being difficult, and the declivities too precipitous, he abandoned the idea, and sought a situation more easy of access. The following spring, he purchased an island in the Ohio river, about two miles below Parkersburg, or the mouth of the Little Kanawha, which, to his pecu liar mind, possessed superior advantages to the adja cent farm. To one of romantic temperament, its locality was truly delightful. Upon its sloping banks waved the branches of the willow, and laved their foliage in the passing stream. The majestic forest trees, untouched by the hand of civilization, reared their trunks, as monarchs of the land ; while the wild-brier and woodbine, blending in promiscuous profusion, entwined their tendrils around the shrubbery of the wild-wood. Flowers of rare beauty burst spontaneously from the soil, and mingled their fra grance with the passing breeze. The feathery songsters warbled their notes in the secluded groves, making vocal each branch with nature's music. Could the mind, in pursuit of seclusion and repo&e, picture to its imagination a situation more desirable? Here might his cultivated taste adorn, to every extent, the ruder touches of nature, and mellow into softer shades the harsher outlines of her pencil; here might the mind, unfettered from worldly cares, drink deeper draughts from Truth's ever-flowing fountain; here, "At the shadowy close of day, When the hushed grove has sung its parting lay; ON THE ISLAND. 45 When pensive Twilight, in her dusty car, Comes slowly on, to meet the evening star, Above, below, aerial murmurs swell, From hanging wood, brown heath, and bushy dell A thousand nameless rills that shun the light; Stealing soft music on the ear of night ; So oft the finer movements of the soul, That shun the sphere of pleasure's gay control, In the still shades of calm seclusion rise, And breathe their sweet, seraphic harmonies." When fatigued with the severer studies of science, he could amuse himself with the traditions and stories of several intelligent revolutionary soldiers who resided on the Belpr6 shore ; or, as game abounded, might engage in the delightful sports of hunting and fishing. That portion of the island purchased by Blennerhas- sett, was known by the familiar cognomen of " Backus's Island," and contained about one hundred and seventy acres. General Washington, it is said, embraced this gem of nature, in the many valuable tracts of land entered by him on the bottoms of the Ohio. In 1798, Blennerhassett, having purchased the upper portion of the island, at a cost of four thousand five hundred dollars, moved into a block-house situated near the head. This, to those who had enjoyed the splendor of palaces, with the many conveniences which the arts of civilization afford, was a sorrowful exchange which few could desire, and fewer still would have made. He energetically commenced clearing the grounds of the thick growth of timber and underwood, for a site upon which to erect a dwelling. Many hands were requisite, in addition to the slaves he had recently purchased, for 46 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the laborious task. The forest trees were uprooted, and their boughs and trunks conveyed away. The small inequalities, not suiting his fastidiousness, were smoothed and regulated as fancy dictated. Vainly ambitious to excel any private residence west of the mountains, and to fashion it after those of his own country, economy and simplicity were not consulted in its construction. " The house and offices I occupy," he writes Devereux, the Irish patriot refugee, " stand me in upward of thirty thousand dollars, not mentioning gardens and shrubbery, in the English style, hedges, post fences, and complete farm-yards, containing barns, sta bles, overseers' and negro houses," etc. To the mind of the voyager descending the river, as the edifice rose majestically in the distance, spreading its wings to either shore, the effect was magical ; and emotions were produced, not unlike those experienced in gazing on the Moorish palaces of Andalusia. There was a spell of enchantment around it, which would fain induce the credulous to believe that it had been created by magic, and consecrated to the gods. On a nearer approach, was observed the beautifully graded lawn, decked with tasteful shrubbery, and interspersed with showy flowers; while, a little in the distance, the elm threw its dark branches over a carpet of most beautiful green sward. Beyond these, the forest trees were inter mingled with copse-wood, so closely as to exclude the noon-day sun ; and, in other places, they formed those long sweeping vistas, in the intricacies of which the eye delights to lose itself; while the imagination co'nceives them as the paths of wilder scenes of sylvan solitude. BLENNERHASSETT'S SEAT. 47 The space immediately in the rear of the dwelling was assigned to fruits and flowers; of which the varieties were rare, excellent and beautiful; and the manner in which they were disposed over the surface, unique, ele gant and tasteful. Espaliers of peach, apricot, quince and pear trees, extended along the exterior, confined to a picket fence; while, in the middle space, wound laby rinthine walks, skirted with flowering shrubs, and the eglantine and honey-suckle flung their melliferous blos soms over bowers of various forms. On the south was the vegetable garden, and adjoining this, a thrifty young orchard, embracing many varieties of fruit, promising abundant supplies for future use. Not entirely neglecting the useful for the ornamental, a hundred acres had been cleared where were cultivated the various crops adapted to the soil.* * The Lower Kanawha is one hundred and fifty yards wide at its mouth. Opposite to this river is the town of Belpre, three miles from which is Backus's Island. On leaving Marietta, a lady and gentleman, who had been on a visit there, desired a passage to the island. This request was, with much pleasure, granted ; and I had only to lament that the voyage was so short, which was to terminate my acquaintance with persons so truly interesting and amiable. The island hove in sight to great advan tage from the middle of the river, from which point of view little more appeared than the simple decorations of nature trees, shrubs, and flowers of every perfume and kind. The next point of view, on running with the current, on the right hand side, varied to a scene of enchantment ; a lawn in the form of a fan inverted presented itself, the nut forming the center and summit of the island, and the broad segment the borders of the water. The lawn contained one hundred acres of the best pasture, interspersed with flowering shrubs and clumps of trees, in a manner that conveyed a strong conviction of the taste and judgment of the proprietor. The house came into view at the instant I was signifying a wish that such a lawn had a mansion. It stands on the immediate summit of the island, whose ascent is very gradual, is snow white, two stories high, and fur nished with wings which interlock the adjoining trees, confine the 48 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Such was the residence of Blennerhassett, after he had expended much labor and money to render it the reality of what before was but ideal, an image of which had long haunted his dreams of youthful fancy, as the picture of sylvan beauty, of peaceful solitude, and of calm repose. How marked the mutations of a few short years ! Ireland, but as yesterday, claimed him as a representative of one of her great families, and the uncompromising advocate of her long neglected rights. The deference, due alike to rank and birth, in a monarch ical government, was his by inheritance ; and the favor prospect, and intercept the sight of barns, stables, and out-houses, which are so often suffered to destroy the effect of the noblest views in England. The full front of the house, being the signal for pulling in for the island, we did so immediately, and fell below a small wharf that covered an eddy, and made the landing both easy and secure. There was no resisting the friendly importunity of my passengers ; no excuse would be taken ; to stop the night at least was insisted upon, and with a convincing expression that the desire flowed from hearts desirous not to be refused. There is something so irresistible in invitations of such a nature, that they can not be denied. I gave instructions respecting my boat; and giving the lady my arm, we walked up the beautiful lawn, through which a winding path led to the house. It was tea-time; that refreshment was served and con ducted with a propriety and elegance which I never witnessed out of Britain. The conversation was chaste and general, and the manners of the lady and gentleman were refined, without being frigid ; distinguished, without being ostentatious ; and familiar, without being vulgar, importu nate, or absurd. Before the entire decline of day, we walked in the gar dens, which were elegantly laid out in your country's style, produced remarkably fine vegetables, and had a very favorable show of standard peaches and other fruits. We next turned into the woods. I soon per ceived why the island was named Bacchus. The island took its cognomen from the gentleman of whom it was purchased. It abounds with vines which grow to great hight and strength, but never produce to any perfec tion. The path we had taken led to the water, the border of which brought us to the boat, where, it seems, all the servants of the family had assem bled to hear what news my people might have brought into their little world. ' We found them seated on the green around Mindeth, who, proud DOMESTICITY. 49 of courts and of coronets was obtained without an effort, and resigned without control. Around him, a restless and distracted population were daily enacting scenes of outrage and oppression ; and the hand of civilization, while it gave energy to intellect, and advanced the arts and sciences, proved a powerful auxiliary in aggravating the causes, and perpetuating the scenes of the revolution. To-day we view him as the retired citizen of a republic, in the bosom of the forest of the Western world, with no tie of kindred, save the faithful companion of his bosom, and the two little sons, Dominick and Harman, who had been added to his household. Quietly retired from, the bn^v Jiaunts pf mai}, fcis .hours of study were only intruded upon by the friendly visits of his neigh bors, to ^wljoce nature^ . dissimulation and flattery were alike unknown, and whose aogiefcy and attachment he cherished by reciprocal attentions. to be their historian, related tales of such peril, that they gazed on him with sensations of wonder and astonishment. I saw the lady so pleased with this scene, and so delighted in particular with Cuffee's truly rural establishment, that I proposed supping on the shore. My proposition was joyfully acceded to, and instructions given accordingly. After chatting some time on subjects immediately rising out of occurring incidents, and admiring the versatility of mind which one time finds felicity in towns, and midnight masquerades at another, acknowledges happiness on the con trasted theater of the rivers and wildernesses, we sat down to our repast, and in a short time paid it the strong encomium of a satiated appetite. Next morning I with difficulty tore myself away from this interesting family. You will excuse me for omitting the names of this amiable couple. They were emigrants of the first distinction from Ireland. Ache's Travels in America, a series of letters addressed to a friend in England in 1806. 4 50 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. CHAPTER III. BLENNERHASSETT was about six feet in stature, of slen der proportions, and slightly stooping. He was entirely devoid of that suaviter in modo, which is so attractive to the gentler sex, and not unfrequently captivates the minds of firmer mold, in society at large. His forehead was prominent; 'and claimed for its uo&ses&oi ; an, lijte-li- gence above the ordinary capacity of mankind. ' His nose was the distinguishing feature of a face which wore an aspect of seriousness; afrd .th'ougiit, -almost amounting to cold reserve. Like many of the nobility, he was extremely near-sighted ; and, unlike many of the pres ent age, who ape this defect of nature, he found it a matter of serious inconvenience. In gunning, particu larly (an amusement of which he was passionately fond), he had usually to be accompanied by his wife, or some one of his servants, who levelled his fowling-piece and brought it to bear on the game. Peter, a domestic, who sometimes attended him, was in the habit of taking his station at a short distance, and giving directions after the following manner : " Now, level, Mr. Blennerhassett. A little to the left ! Now to the right ! there ! steady I fire ! " Off would go the gun, and not unfrequently the game. His usual dress was of the " old English style, with EXPERIMENT. 51 scarlet, or buff-colored, small-clotL.es and silk stockings ; shoes, with silver buckles ; and a coat generally of blue broad-cloth. When at home, his dress was rather care less ; often, in warm weather, in his shirt sleeves, with out coat or waistcoat ; and, in winter, he wore a thick woollen roundabout or jacket."* Retiring in disposition, his life was sedentary and studious ; books and philosophical experiments possess ing greater attractions than the gay and fashionable assemblies of the ball-room. Always entertaining, he never indulged in trivial conversation, but interested his audience in something calculated more to instruct the understanding than to amuse their fancy. His scientific studies, which were much facilitated by means of his various apparatus, included chemistry, elec tricity, galvanism, and astronomy. By the aid of a tele scope and solar microscope, it was with much satisfaction that he could demonstrate the truth of his theories by practical observation, and acquaint himself more fully with the motions and positions of the planets, as well as the minuter bodies of the earth. While experimenting in chemistry, he had conceived the idea that animal sub stance might be so adipocerated as to subserve the use of spermaceti for light. He accordingly placed pieces of meat in a small inlet from the river, to undergo a chemi cal change. When the proper time had elapsed, as he supposed, to test the truth of his theory, on visiting the cove he found the finny tribes of the water had antici pated his experiment by converting the meat into food. * Hildreth " American Review," 1848. 52 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. The act was not repeated, and his theory remained unde- monstrated. He was a connoisseur in music, and performed admir ably upon the violin and violincello. Many of his hours of recreation were whiled away with this delightful amusement; and, being an adept, pieces of his own composition were played with animating effect. Of an unsuspecting disposition, he was easily imposed upon by the misrepresentations of others. Not unfre- quently had he to pay enormously for his practical know ledge of life and human nature. It is reported of him that, on one occasion, having employed an individual to collect muscle shells from the beach, on which they were scattered in great profusion, when the laborer came to receive his pay, Blennerhassett inquired the reason of his high charge. " The diving's so deep, and the shells are so scarce." " But," replied Blennerhassett, " you do not dive, do you?" "Ay, indeed! In fifteen feet water." Believing there was no occasion for misrepresenting a fact, which could be readily ascertained by a short walk to the river, Blennerhassett paid the man his money a sum equal to five times the real value of the shells. Of a nervous temperament, he not unfrequently imagined objects which had no existence in nature, and apprehended evils that were never to be realized. Earthquakes and thunder-storms, to him, were intensely alarming; and such was his timidity on the approach of a threatening cloud, that it was his usual custom to close the doors and windows of his house, and place himself THE LADY. 53 in the centre of a bed, to avoid the accidental effects of the electric fluid. Of his forensic talents, or legal ability, he never, in this country, gave evidence. He was not deficient, however, in either. The county court of Wood county recommended him to the Governor of Virginia for the magistracy ; and by bis Excellency he was duly commis sioned: but presuming it a condescension for which he should be poorly paid, and still less respected, he mod estly declined to " qualify," and remained a private citizen. Let us turn, for a time, from the man, to contem plate the person and character of his companion. History affords but few instances where so much feminine beauty, physical endurance, and many social virtues, were combined with so brilliant a mind, in the person of a female. Her stature was above the ordinary hight of her sex ; her form well proportioned and beautifully symmetrical ; her manners of the most captivating gracefulness, with sufficient dignity to repel familiarity and command respect. Her dark-blue eyes, beaming with love and affection, and " sparkling with life and intelligence," looked forth from beneath the long brown lashes, which hung as curtains to conceal their charms. Features of Grecian mold, embellished by a complexion whose car nation hue health and the hand of nature alone had painted. Her hair, which was of a dark-brown color, was usually concealed beneath a head-dress of rich- colored silk worn after the manner of the Turkish turban. 54 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Her mind was not less polished than her manners ; and the fluency with which she wrote and spoke the French and Italian languages, indicated a high degree of cultivation, to which few, even in this golden age of science and letters, have ever attained. Her taste for dramatic composition led her to adopt, as a favorite pas time, the rehearsal of Shakspeare^s plays. These were usually executed with an effect which would have done honor to more professed connoisseurs, and exhibited a talent which needed only cultivation to have won lau rels of lasting freshness in the theatrical world. Her familiarity with various French and English authors ren dered her an agreeable companion for the man of letters, and proved a valuable assistant to her husband in recal ling to mind some opinion or expresion of an author which had escaped his memory. She cultivated, to some extent, a taste for poetry, and produced several pieces which are still in existence. As we are enabled to offer a specimen of her powers in this flowery department of literature, we forbear an expres sion of opinion, but leave the lines to represent their authoress. But it is only in the every-day affairs of life that we - / can gain a perfect knowledge of the true character of individuals. It was in this peculiar sphere that Mrs. Blennerhassett exhibited an uncommon degree of excel lence, and won the affection of all within her influence. She adapted her customs to the society around her, and joined in their amusements and festivities with all the spirit of one accustomed to frontier life from earliest infancy. Riding on horseback was a delightful and THE HOUSEWIFE. 55 healthy exercise, in which she frequently participated. At such times, she was usually hahited in a fine cloth riding-dress, of scarlet color, richly "bespangled with gold lace and glittering buttons. From her downy hat waved "the graceful plume of the ostrich," and "the rich folds of her drapery fell gaily over the flanks of her noble steed. Over hill and through dale, with the fleetness of the deer, she took her course, and seldom did her attendant get a glimpse of his sprightly charge until she checked her speed to await his coming. That she was capable of extraordinary physical endur ance was frequently demonstrated by the long and speedy walks she performed, whether on business or visiting some favorite friend. She has been known to accom plish a pedestrian tour, of from ten to twenty miles, with as much ease as other ladies would make their usual calls among city or village acquaintances. Fences or fallen timbers were no impediments. Bounding over them with astonishing agility, she carelessly pursued her way, as though tracing the more familiar paths of the wild woods. Although she participated in the various amusements through the country, and was the ruling spirit of every assembly, she never neglected the ordinary duties of her household ; every apartment received her personal atten tion, from the kitchen to the chambers, and was duly cleansed and arranged according to her direction. By her were the daily tasks of the servants assigned, while she performed with cheerfulness the duties devolving upon herself. 56 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. CHAPTER IV. THE character and habits of life of the early settlers of Western Virginia, are topics which have engaged the labors of but few pens ; but they are not the less inter esting on that account. Many of the inhabitants of this new, and hitherto uncultivated, portion of the State, were intelligent sons of families of distinction in the " Old Dominion." The great abundance of game of nearly every variety, the free and exciting sports of a life in the "Western wilds, devoid of care and free from the conventional restraints of society; the health-invigorating glorious fun of fol lowing "The stag to the slippery crag, And chasing the bounding roe," combined to allure the ardent and pleasure-loving youths from the tamer scenes of their childhood to those bound less fields of new and ever-changing excitement. Others enjoying smaller patrimonies, hearing of the rich allu vial bottoms of the Ohio and its tributaries, and the low price at which land could be procured, deserted their less inviting homesteads to seek new sources of wealth beyond those blue peaks which many regarded as the Western limit of civilization. Penury, and the exhaust ed lands of other portions of the State, drove no incon- FRONTIER LIFE. 57 siderable number in search of genial soil, where the hand of man might realize rich returns from the toil bestowed upon it ; or the abounding game should furnish supplies without the effort which nature requires of those who seek her bounties. Populated by these various classes, enticed thither through considerations as different as the dispositions and circumstances of the individuals themselves, that love of society which is seldom lost in man served to banish distinctions of rank, and render an absolute equality essentially necessary to their social existence. Around the blazing fire, the son of the wide-famed statesman tripped merrily in the mazes of the dance with the daughter of the unknown peasant. The scholar, orator and divine strove, in eager emulation, to plant their rifle-balls as hear the center of the target as that of the uncultivated woodsman. Remote from friends, from society, and the pleasing associations of earlier years, they devised amusements in every thing, and made frolic of labor itself. A house- raising, or log-rolling, was as cheerfully attended as the wedding of a favorite friend; and a corn-husking col lected the inhabitants from several miles around. The almost daily interchange of civilities, and constant asso ciation of the various classes, as well for the purpose of joint protection against the deadly rifle of the savage, as the innate love of company, served to mold the general character of the population into a distinct type, peculiar to themselves, and stamped their virtues with an originality which the mutations of time have failed to change. 58 THE BLENXERHASSETT PAPERS. The Virginian, thus re-molded (if we may be allowed the expression), from his active habits of life, was capable of extraordinary feats of strength and astonishing agility of limb. For a wrestle or a foot-race, he was always ready, and never refused a challenge to take a trial at either. While, to gratify his revenge, he would have grappled with Apollo for the tripod of the temple ; yet the overflowing fountains of his heart gushed forth, in streams of sympathy, for the misfortunes of his fellow- men. Chivalrous, brave, and independent, "he would not have courted Neptune for his trident, nor Jove for his power to thunder." With a generosity bordering on extravagance, his house, his horse, his gun yea, every thing but the sacredness of virtue were at the disposal of his friends. Clad in the buck-skin moccasin, with a hunting-shirt of linsey-woolsey, his rifle on his shoulder, and a butcher-knife at his side, he never changed his apparel to suit the circumstances under which he was placed ; and, whether pursuing the fleeting game, visit ing a neighbor, or attending the services of the church, the same attire was suitable both to the day and the occasion. The deer hunt, the horse-race, and ever-glorious fox- chase, were the usual sources of amusement among the men ; while the women found enjoyment at the various wool-pickings and quiltings throughout the neighbor hood. The circumstance of their spending so much time in the enjoyment of lawful amusements, is to be accounted for in the fact,' that, at that early period, they had but few desires to be satisfied, and fewer wants to be supplied. There being then but little, if any, demand WESTERN PATRIOTISM. 59 for agricultural produce, it was unnecessary to raise more than the consumption of the immediate vicinity required. Remotely situated from the extravagance and luxury of more cultivated society, there was no need of mahogany sideboards, groaning with champagne, nor of Brussels nor Turkey carpets to decorate their floors. Their unflinching patriotism was repeatedly tested in the Revolution, and in various engagements with the Indians. At the first call of their country's voice, the animated response was heard in every hamlet. "When they had neither the soldier's uniform, nor equipages, nor arms, they seized their trusty rifles ; and, from their smiling fields of toil, from the pleasant scenes of their sportive pastimes, they flew to win a soldier's name or a soldier's grave. The result of their efforts shall glow beneath the pencil and the pen shall live in national song, and survive in the spirit-stirring anthem, till none are worthy to repeat the strain, or to paint the scenes of their country's glory ! When the question of the pur chase of Louisiana was first mooted in our national councils, and it was then urged that the inhabitants of that territory would prevent a free and easy navigation of the Mississippi river; " Give me," said Washington, " three hundred picked men, well-tried and true, of old West Augusta,* and I will carve my way to the Gulf." What higher compliment could have been paid to the patriotism and bravery of the original settlers of the * This was the term applied to all the territory west of the Allegha- nies, known as the North-West Territory. Augusta County then com prising the whole. 60 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. trans- Alleghany country, of whom a few still remain, as land-marks by which to trace the characters of the departed ? "While this type of character occupied the Eastern shore of the Ohio, that of the West contained another, as marked and distinct as that of the Cavalier from the Roundhead. Many revolutionary officers and soldiers of the Northern States, who had exhausted their resources in fighting the battles of their country, and who, from the depleted state of the national finances had to remain for a time without indemnity, either for their services or losses, sought this new land, where they could recuperate their shattered fortunes by economy and industry. Others, too, of the sons of New England, attracted also by the fruitful valleys of this beautiful and majestic river, bade farewell to the rocky and ungrateful soil of their birth, and, with a plow and a bed, a Bible and a wife, set out for the West. Here, hundreds of miles from father Aminidab and mother Patience, they set themselves industriously to work, clearing up farms, from which to realize fortunes, as soon as the circum stances of the country would permit. That their most sanguine expectations have been fully realized, is hap pily demonstrated by the fields waving with grain, val leys filled with herds, and hills covered with flocks, which meet the eye of the traveler as he passes along the stream. While the meed of praise has been awarded them for their indefatigable industry, they have not been regarded as possessing that generous hospitality which is characteristic of their neighbors of Virginia. . Edu cated , to believe there was no product without labor, no 61 wealth without economy, they indulged but little in amusements, and were careful against expense. In their moral and religious observances, they were rigidly aus tere. Like the Puritans of Plymouth Rock, from whom they were descended, the Bible formed the chief rule of their conduct. Their family government was based upon its precepts, and its holy teachings were listened to, each Sabbath, in the " forest sanctuary." True, some there were who occasionally broke over the more austere les sons which had been taught them by their parents, but the exceptions, " like angels' visits, were few and far between." If their liberality at any time exhibited itself, it was usually toward objects of charity, or to spread the teachings of that gospel which they had been taught ever to revere. For bravery and devotion to the welfare of their country, they were justly regarded the equals of their neighbors; and acts of Indian cruelty were jointly revenged by the two. Having enjoyed early advantages in the best schools and academies of their native States, they were fully informed upon the subjects usually taught at such institutions, and many possessed talents of superior brilliancy. Such were the men with whom Blennerhassett had cast his fortunes. The variety of characters, perhaps, was as great, if the number of persons was far less, as that of the society he had recently abandoned. There was the hospitable Virginian, who, though he neither claimed nor desired the titular dignity of a nobleman, exhibited a generosity equal to that of its proudest possessor, a generosity which knew no bounds, and awaited no emergency for its exercise. "With a reckless 62 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. prodigality, he scattered his bounties broadcast ; threw open the doors of hospitality; lavishing, with an unsparing hand, the gifts which fortune had bestowed upon him. There was the high-toned chivalry of the Crusades, which stooped to no baseness ; cringed to no superior; nor was intimidated by menace; performing kindnesses, without ostentation, acts of daring, without boasting, and relieving the wants of the distressed, without the hope of reward. There was the zealous Puritan, acknowledging no superior but God; no law binding on the moral man but the Bible ; no religion but that of Calvin; rejecting the unmeaning forms of Popery; combating the doctrine of apostolic success- sion; and discarding, in his worship, the use of the gown, the surplice, and the prayer-book. There, the meek and pious Christian, dispensing charities without parsimony ; visiting the sick and the afflicted, and min gling the comforts of religion with the sad and agoniz ing scenes of death. And there, too, alas ! the crafty and wily miscreant, making promises never to be ful filled ; taking advantages in trade ; regarding neither the teachings of Holy Writ, nor the precepts of moral ity ; but ever faithless, ever insincere, prostrating virtue without compunction, and indulging in every lawless vice. TROUBLE BREWING. 63 CHAPTER V. BEFORE entering upon the more important incidents in the life of Blennerhassett, a preliminary view of "Western history is necessary to a knowledge of subse quent events. But few of the millions who now populate the valley of the Mississippi, are familiar, even "by tradition, with the difficulties which attended its early colonization. While the States of the Atlantic had engaged the energies of the government, the pioneers of the wilder ness had heen seriously neglected. That young and fertile region lay yet an unbroken forest, but sparsely inhabited, and separated from the sea-board by inter minable mountains and boundless solitudes. Shut out from the avenues of trade, it contributed nothing to the resources of the government, then much reduced by the Revolution, and the demands of its citizens were regard ed as burthens to the State, and useless exactions from the public treasury. JSTature, it is true, had supplied it with those noble rivers, now the great arteries of trade, but the arbitrary interdict of Spain had closed them against the enterprise and energy of the people. The navigation of the Mississippi had been a fruitful source of complaint almost from the first occupation of the territory. Favorites had been rewarded by the 64 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. authorities of Louisiana, but even these had been com pelled to contribute to the Spanish Crown. Congress had been frequently solicited to assert the rights of the people, whose prosperity was retarded by the restrictive intercourse of trade, yet such was the embarrassment of the government, they could but faintly hope for relief, and that, if at all, at a distant day, and under many disabilities. The murmurings of discontent which thus far had been comparatively, but faintly, heard, began now to assume a more threatening tone. Those who had been most loyal in their affection for the Republic, faltered in their allegiance to the confederation. The Government had been admonished of a rupture of the Union, and a forci ble alliance with a rival power. Measures of relief had been seriously determined on, but the manner of their accomplishment was a subject of no little diversity of opinion. While some advocated the separate organiza tion of a new Republic, independent of the United States, and closely allied with Spain, others desired annexation to Louisiana, and submission to Spanish domination. Some there were who advised a war with Spain, as affording a pretext for seizing on New Orleans ; while a fourth suggested that Congress should be pre vailed on to show preparation for war, and by alarming their apprehensions, " extort from the Cabinet of Madrid what it persisted in refusing." The fifth and last sug gested, that France should be solicited to procure a retrocession of Louisiana, and to extend her protection to the inhabitants of Kentucky.* Martin's History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 101. GEN. WILKINSON. 65 The extension of its American possessions, and the control of trade, had long' been the desire of the Span ish Crown. The occasion was opportune, and did not escape the superior vigilance of its public servant. The obstruction to navigation, which had been purposely thrown in the way of the inhabitants of the upper country, seemed now to have produced the desired result ; and Miro, the Governor of Louisiana, nattered himself, from the discontent which appeared every where prevailing, that at no distant day he could report to the Cabinet the dismemberment of Kentucky from the Union, and its voluntary acknowledgement of Spanish domination. General James Wilkinson was at -that time one of the leading men of the district. He had been a successful O soldier in the Revolution, and greatly distinguished him self by his unflinching courage and superior military tact. Like many of his compatriots, at % the close of the war, he had been left with limited pecuniary resources, and found it necessary to turn his attention to other pursuits. Still comparatively young, with a vigorous constitution, and superior intellectual attainments, he hoped soon to establish an independence of fortune, and elevate himself to distinguished civic position. With a remarkably discriminating judgment, few men better understood the motives which influence human action, and none more successful in wielding that knowledge to his own advantage. In the fall of 1787, having laden a boat with tobacco and flour, he descended to New Orleans, with the osten sible purpose of making arrangements with the Spanish 63 THE BLENNERI1ASSETT PAPERS. authorities, by which to secure to the inhabitants of the upper waters the free navigation of the river, and a market for their products. Scarcely had he landed, however, before he found himself surrounded by a retinue of officers, who informed him that they were directed to seize upon his cargo, which had been confis cated to the Government, and that he himself was required to appear before the Governor. Miro soon dis covered that the individual, of all others, whom he could have most desired for the furtherance of his objects, was then in his presence, a suppliant for his favor. He found in Wilkinson a man of ripe experience and exten sive influence. Insinuating in address, bold but reserved, with a ready familiarity in the passing affairs of foreign governments, not less than in those of his own, he pos sessed in an eminent degree many of the higher qualities of an accomplished diplomatist. Hence, it was of the first importance tjjhat his services should be secured to the interest of the crown, which might thus, by the efficient aid of an emissary in disguise, perfect its plans without the hazard of detection. At the close of the interview, the boats were released, and permission granted to dispose of the cargo. A generous display of hospitality, on the part of the Governor and citizens, soon succeeded. Costly feasts and brilliant assemblages became the daily entertainment, to which Wilkinson was invited. Per mission was also granted him to " introduce into Louis iana, free of duty, many Western articles of trade which were adapted to the market." The sudden and growing intimacy between the Span ish Governor and American planter had been marked b} SPANISH INTRIGUE. 67 many, and excited a suspicion of intrigue between the two. It was slyly insinuated that something beyond commercial privileges was in negotiation ; but with its objects and entire extent they were, as yet, imperfectly acquainted. Nothing was at that time disclosed further than that Wilkinson had written a dissertation " respect ing the political interests of Spain and the inhabitants of the United States, dwelling in the regions upon the Western waters." This was addressed to Miro, to be forwarded to the King of Spain, with whom he desired it to be known that he was then negotiating for the free navigation of the Mississippi. But it has been asserted, and certainly not without proof, that this communica tion was intended by Wilkinson to conceal a different design, indorsed by Miro, and to which but few others were privy. Gardoqui, the Spanish minister in Philadelphia, with out the knowledge of Miro, and, therefore, without con cert of plan, had conceived the project of settling Louisiana by emigration from the United States. By this means he hoped to draw to the interest of the Spanish Crown the people of Kentucky, which should result in her secession from the Union, with other dis tricts then similarly disaffected. To Pierre d'Args, Gardoqui committed the execution of his scheme. By authority of the Cabinet at Madrid, he invited the inhabitants of Kentucky, and those dwell ing along the Cumberland, to remove to West Florida, and the Florida district of Lower Louisiana, arid place themselves under the protection of Spain. Liberal grants of land, with extensive privileges, were offered to- 68 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. all who desired to better their condition ; and as a greater inducement to those owning property, slaves, stock, farming utensils, and provisions for two years, were to be admitted free ; while a duty of twenty-five per cent, was levied upon property imported into the colony for trade or consumption. But the plan of the Spanish representative threatened a collision with that of Miro. Both were ambitious of the favor at court, with which the success of their under takings w^ould be rewarded; and hence they desired to keep as a secret the means by which the object was to be effected. In a dispatch addressed by Miro on the 8th of January, 1788, to Valdds, the Minister and Secretary of State for the department of the Indies, writing of the plans of D'ArgSs, he says: "I fear that they may clash with Wilkinson's principal object. In the first place, D'Args having presented himself here with very little pru dence and concealment, it may turn out, that Wilkin son, in Kentucky, being made aware of the mission of this agent, may think we are not sincere, and that, endeavoring to realize his project without him, we use him merely as a tool to facilitate the operations of D'Args. Under the impression that D'ArgSs may reap the whole credit of the undertaking, in case of success, it may happe^ that he will counteract them ; for this reason I have been reflecting for many days, whether it would not be proper to communicate to D'Args Wilkin son's plans, and to Wilkinson the mission of D'ArgSs, in order to unite them, and to dispose them to work in concert. But I dare not do so, because D'Args may WILKINSON'S MOVEMENTS. 69 consider that the great projects of Wilkinson may destroy the merit of his own, and he may communicate .them to some one who might cause Wilkinson to be arrested as a criminal ; and, also, because Wilkinson may take offense at another being admitted to participate in con fidential proceedings upon which depended his life and honor, as he expresses himself in his memoir."* In the same dispatch he continues: " The delivering up of Kentucky into his Majesty's hands, which is the main object to which Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely, would forever constitute this province a rampart for the protection of ]N"ew Spain. * ts r ' * * * * * * The Western people would no longer have any induce ment to emigrate, if they were put in possession of a free trade with us. This is the reason why this privilege should be granted only to a few individuals having influ ence among them, as is suggested in Wilkinson's memo rial, because, in their seeing the advantages bestowed on the few, they might be easily persuaded to acquire the like by becoming Spanish subjects.". Wilkinson, having remained several months at 'New Orleans, instead of returning to Kentucky by way of the river, sailed for Philadelphia, from whence he proceeded * This official dispatch of Miro's reveals the fact of what had before rested only on suspicion, that Wilkinson prepared two memorials to the king one for the eye of the public, particularly the people of the West, asserting their rights and the importance of their trade to Louisiana and to Spain, and ex pressing his fears, in the meantime, lest the English should intervene, and, by joining with the disaffected portion of the western districts, wrest from ' the Spanish crown its possessions in Louisiana ; the other, intended only for the Cabinet at Madrid, disclosing a plan for the acquisition of Ken tucky, by her separation from the Union and attachment to Louisiana. 70 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. to Kichmond, Virginia, then the seat of Government for the Kentucky District. From this point he addressed a letter to Gardoqui, relative to the affairs of Louisiana, and, as he subsequently informed Miro, to sound him upon his plans, and to divert his attention from himself, as he had been informed that his own reception at New Orleans had been the subject of comment by the Span ish Minister. Gardoqui, in the meantime, was busily engaged in car rying forward his scheme of colonization. Col. George Morgan, a soldier of the Revolution, had conceived himself greatly injured by the Government, in rejecting what he believed a meritorious claim, and smarting under his disappointment, resolved to avail himself of the opportunity of placing himself beyond the limits of the United States, and, by securing a liberal grant of the Spanish Crown, to restore his broken fortunes in the fertile valley of the Mississippi. Having applied to Gar doqui, he obtained the conveyance of a vast tract of land, situated some seventy miles below the mouth of the Ohio, upon which he stipulated to place a large num ber of families, and subsequently laid out the town of New Madrid. D'Args had already informed Charles de Grandpre\ Governor of batches, to have preparation made for the reception of fifteen hundred and eighty-two families, which were expected soon to arrive from Ken tucky to take possession of their promised bounties.* * To each family not owning negroes was granted six arpens of land, fronting a bayou or water-course, with forty in depth, making a total of two hundred and forty arpens ; to such as had two, three, or four slaves, or had a family composed of four or six adult unmarried sons capable of working, te i arpens in front by forty in depth ; to such as had from ten 71 During the month of February, 1788, Wilkinson re turned across the mountains to Kentucky. His splendid equipage and numerous servants attracted the attention and excited the wonder of his old companions, while rumors were freely circulated, that his sudden exhibition of wealth was to be attributed to something beyond the profits on his Southern cargo. It was suggested that others, who should follow his example, might discover the source from whence it sprung, and that the philoso pher's stone, which was to turn every thing it touched into gold, lay within the limits of the Spanish dominion. On the subject of the navigation of the Mississippi he grew quite enthusiastic, demonstrating in glowing lan guage the benefits to be derived from direct commercial relations with New Orleans, and at the same time inform ing his friends of the exclusive privileges which had been granted him by the Spanish Governor. He entered into large contracts for tobacco, and at once excited the jealousy of his rivals by the liberal prices offered for western products.* Soon after his return he dispatched a pirogue, with two oarsmen, to New Orleans, conveying a communicationf to twenty negroes, fifteen arpens by forty ; and to those owning more than twenty negroes, twenty arpens by forty. * Marshall's History of Kentucky, Vol. I, p. 283. tMost of these dispatches, if not all, were originally in cypher; they are to be found at length, and in Spanish, in the archives of Spain. Copies made in compliance with a resolution of the Legislature of the State of Louisiana, under the supervision of M. de Gayangos, a gentleman distin guished for his learning and literary works ; and also under the direction of his Excellency Romulus Saunders, who was then the United States Min ister Plenipotentiary at Madrid, are deposited in the office of the Secretary of State at Baton Rouge. Gayarre's History of Loui*ii.na, Vol. Ill, p. 111. '- THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. to Miro. informing the latter of his safe return across the mountains, and assuring him that their joint de sign was soon to be accomplished, as Kentucky had separated herself from Virginia^ and the rest, as Spain desired, must inevitably follow. " I have," he says, " col lected much European and American news, and have made various interesting observations for our political designs. It would take a volume to contain all that I have to communicate to you. But I dispatch this letter with such haste, and its fate is so uncertain, that I hope you will excuse me for not saying more until the arrival of my boats, and, in the meantime, I pray you to content yourself with this assurance, all my predictions are verify ing themselves, and not a measure is taken on both sides of the mountains which does not conspire to favor ours. * * * I beg you to be easy, and to be satisfied that nothing shall deter me from attending exclusively to the object we have in hand, and I am convinced that the success of our plan will depend on the disposition of the Qourt." "Whether Wilkinson was really in earnest in carry ing into execution the designs of the Spanish Gov ernor, may, by some, be regarded as a matter of con jecture ; but that he was, nevertheless, using him for pecuniary gain, is clearly established by Miro's frequent dispatches to the home government, recommending the purchase of increased amounts of tobacco, in which it was known that Wilkinson was then dealing. " There is no means," he writes, " more powerful to accomplish the principal object we have in view, in the memorial which has been laid before his Majesty, than the promise, that the government will take as much as MAJOR DUXN. 73 six millions of their tobacco, instead of the two millions which are now bought from them." In a subsequent dispatch, after the arrival of several flat-boats, owned by "Wilkinson, and under charge of Major Dunn, which the Governor was assured cost seven thousand dollars in Kentucky, Miro says, that, from the beginning, Wilkinson had informed him that he was not possessed of any pecuniary resources ; that on the recom mendation of the Intendant, he had obtained a loan of three thousand dollars from a gentleman in New Orleans, and, therefore, requested that his cargo should not be seized, as he had pledged the product of its sale to refund the sum, and to pay his crew, and the amount due on the tobacco, which had been purchased on credit. The balance was to enable him to support himself with out embarrassment, and to contribute to preserve and increase his influence in his own State. " Although his candor," he continues, " and the information which I have sought from many who know him well, seem to assure us that he is working in good earnest, yet I am aware it may be possible that his intention is to enrich himself at our expense, by inflating us with hopes and promises which he knows to be vain. Nevertheless, I have determined to humor him on this occasion." Dunn had left Kentucky, in charge of the boats and cargo, on the 15th of May, bearing with him a letter of introduction from Wilkinson. He informed the Gov ernor and Intendant that the Major was an old military companion, who had come to settle in the country during his absence. The reliance which he placed in his honor, his discretion, and his talents, had induced him, after 74 . THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. sounding his disposition with proper caution, to choose him as a fit auxiliary in the execution of their political designs, which he had embraced with credulity. Dunn, he said, would, therefore, present himself in order to confer with them on those points which would require more examination, and to concert with them those measures which they might deem necessary to expe dite " our" plan, and that, through him, he, Wilkinson, might he able to receive the new instructions which they might deem expedient to send him. " I have also chosen him, he continues, " to bring back the product of the present cargo of my boats." For these reasons, he wished to recommend him as one worthy of their entire confidence, and as a safe and saga cious man, who was properly acquainted with the poli tical state of the American Union, and with the circum stances of the Western country. He further informed them, that on the first day of January of the next year (1789), by mutual consent, the district of Kentucky would cease to be subject to the jurisdiction of Virginia. That while it was true it had been stipulated, as a necessary condition of their inde pendence, that Kentucky should be acknowledged as an independent State by Congress, and be admitted, as such, into the Federal Union, yet a convention had already been called to form the constitution of that district, and he felt persuaded that no action on the part of Congress would ever induce the people to abandon the plan which they had adopted, although he had received recent intel ligence that that body- would, beyond a doubt, recognize Kentucky as a sovereign State. PROJECTING. 75 The convention was to meet in July ; and in the mean time he would inquire into the prevailing opinions, and should thereby be able to ascertain the extent of the influence of the members elected. When that was done, after having previously come to an understanding with two or three individuals capable of assisting him, he should disclose so much of their great scheme as might appear appropriate. He, as yet, had been communicative but to two individuals; he, however, had sounded many; and wherever he had made known to any of them Miro's answer to his memorial, it had given the greatest satis faction. Col. Alexander Leatt Bullitt, and Harry Innis, the Attorney-General, were the only persons to whom he had fully communicated; and should any mishap befall him before the accomplishment of their ends, he desired the Spanish authorities to adcjress themselves to these gentlemen, whose political designs, he asserted, agreed with their own. An early organization of the State government was anticipated, at which time it was intended to appoint an agent to treat with Spain ; and as for Congress opposing any obstacle to the measure, it was ridiculously absurd ; for under the federal compact, that body could neither furnish men nor money ; and, as to the new government, should it ever establish itself, it would have to encounter difficulties which would keep it weak for three or four years, before the expiration of which, he had good reason for believing, that himself and Miro would complete their negotiations, and would become too strong for any force that could be sent against them. Urging upon the authorities the great importance of 76 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. permitting him to trade unmolested, and allowing but few individuals to pass duty free, he says : " The only tie which can- preserve the connection of the Western country with the Atlantic States, is the necessity of relying on them altogether for their supplies of such articles as are not manufactured by the people ; and as soon as they ascertain that these can be procured through the river, their dependent state will cease, and with it all motives of connection with the other side of the Apalachian mountains." Major Dunn confirmed the statement of Wilkinson, and assured Miro that the next year after the meeting of the first assembly, in which Kentucky would act as an independent State, she would separate from the Fed eral Union. He further assured the Governor, that many of the most distinguished citizens of the State had expressed themselves to that effect, and that the direction of the current of the rivers, which washes in front of their dwellings, pointed clearly to the power to which they should ally themselves. About this time Miro was much gratified at the receipt of a copy of a dispatch from McGillivray, the half-breed Chief of the Salapouches, to the Governor of Pensacola, in which he informed the Spanish official that the settlers in the Cumberland and Kentucky districts, against whom he had committed many atrocities, had sued for peace ; and, as an inducement to a cessation of hostilities, had "assured him that they would throw themselves into the arms of his Majesty, as subjects, and were determined to free themselves from their dependence on Congress, because that body could not protect either their persons DIPLOMACY. 77 or their property, nor, by favoring commerce, promote their prosperity: hence they owed no obedience to a power which was incapable of benefiting them. Elated with the prospects of success, Miro's dispatches to the King spoke so encouragingly, and with such confi dence, that they did not fail to create high hopes in the breast of the Cabinet as to the favorable result of his plans. Martin Navarro, his associate, had left the prov ince for Spain, and Miro exercised in his own person the two offices of Intendant and Governor. No other person had been sent to supply his place ; it being deemed best to leave negotiations entirely with the few who had been admitted to the secret, lest Wilkinson and his associates might be exposed. Until now, Gardoqui and the Governor had been act ing separate parts. Both were ambitious to accomplish their projects, and both were emulous of the rewards which were to follow. Neither had communicated his secrets to the other, while both were struggling for a common design. With such privacy had they conducted their several schemes, that even Wilkinson was as yet uninformed of the secret agency of D'Args. Miro had failed to apprise him of it for fear of the displeasure it might occasion him and Gardoqui, through a distrust of the General, and a desire to accomplish his object without his co-operation. The diplomacy displayed by these two officials of his Majesty evinces talents of no ordinary ability. Both were dealing with an experienced tactician, who prided himself upon his superior sagacity. He had, as yet, gained neither the affection of the one, nor the confi- 78 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. dence of the other. Both had read their antagonist, and conceived they knew the individual with whom they confederated. Miro had, therefore, to suppress a smile at Wilkinson's ingenuousness in communicating the fact that he had heen approached "by hoth French and Eng lish emissaries, who were husily engaged in enlisting, each in his own behalf, the interests of Kentucky. " It is to my knowledge," writes Wilkinson, that the Court of Versailles has, for years past, heen collecting every sort of information with reference to this district, and that it would give a great deal to recover its posses sions on the Mississippi. In the year 1785, a knight of St. Louis, named D'Arg&s, arrived at the falls of the Ohio, gave himself out for a naturalist, and pretended that his object was to inquire into the curious produc tions of this country, but his manner of living contra dicted his assertion. He made few acquaintances, lived very retired, and during one year that he remained here he never went out of Louisville, where he resided, fur ther than six miles. On his perusing the first memorial which the people of this district presented to the Legis lature of Virginia, on the question of separation, he expressed his admiration that there should be in so new a country, a writer capable of framing such a composi tion ; then, after having made some reflections on the progressive importance of our settlement, he exclaimed with enthusiasm, 'Good God! my country has been blind, but its eyes shall be opened/ The confidential friend of this gentleman was a Mr. Tardiveau, who had resided many years in Kentucky. D'ArgSs used to draw drafts on M. de Marbois, then Consul of France, at ISTew RUMORED TREATY.. 79 York ; and, finally, he lived as one who belonged to the family of Count de Moustier, the French Minister; and I am informed, from a good source, that he presented to this same Count de Moustier, a very elaborate memorial on these settlements, which was forwarded to the Court of France. " Perhaps, sir," he continues, " you will think this information frivolous, but I am sure you will believe that it proceeds from my devoted zeal for the interests, of Spain. Please remember that trifles light as air, fre quently are, for the faithful and the zealous, proofs as strong as those of Holy "Writ." * This same D'Arges was then in the actual service of Gardoqui, under instructions from the Court of Madrid, and in conference with Miro. Wilkinson had been actively engaged in sowing the seeds of dissension in Kentucky. George Muter, Harry Innis, John Brown and Benjamin Sebastian, conspicuous and influential men, had been admitted to the secret, and were fully commit'ted to the enterprise. Possessing talents of marked ability themselves, they, nevertheless, looked to Wilkinson for counsel and direction. The people were kept in constant agitation by conventions and meetings on the subject of their grievances. The Secretary of State, Mr. Jay, it was asserted, had formed, or was about to form, a treaty with Spain, by which the exclusive right to navigate the Mississippi for twenty-five years, on the part of his Majesty, was to be recognized by the United States Government. Delegates had been *Gayarre, Vol. Ill, p. 238. 80 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. assembled from the principal counties of Kentucky, had discussed their grievances, and had separated without any organized plan. The people became distracted, their burthens became more and more intolerable ; and many seemed willing to resort to any thing that promised a present relief. It was true* that not a few of the evils of which they complained were imaginary some unavoid able perhaps all, in time, would have been satisfactorily adjusted ; yet they ^conceived themselves aggrieved, and it was the policy of their leaders to cultivate such a belief. Wilkinson had returned in February, 1788. He had sailed from New Orleans to Philadelphia ; visited Rich mond, Virginia ; was present in the Assembly when the separation of Kentucky was voted on, and was . greatly gratified when the result was announced. His entrance into Lexington was grand and imposing. He had left there poor and in debt, only the summer before, but now flourished in splendid chariot, drawn by four richly- caparisoned horses, and attended by several slaves.* Unfavorable rumors were freely circulated. By some, it was hinted that at New Orleans he had sold both his cargo and himself; that, in fact, he had taken the oath of allegiance, and had already become a subject of Spain. He informed them, himself, of the exclusive privileges granted him by the Governor, by which he could ship tobacco, and deposit it at the king's store at ten dollars the hundred, which was a privilege allowed only to his Majesty's subjects. He advocated the right to navigate * Marshall's History of Kentucky, Vol. I, p. 263. OBNOXIOUS FEDERALISM. 81 the Mississippi, urged the great importance of a com mercial connection of the two countries, and insinuated that it might all he effected by a separation from the Union and the independence of Kentucky. Many were already convinced ; others felt that their prosperity had heen too long retarded by the inactivity of the Govern ment. "What has heen accomplished by Wilkinson," they argued, "may also be effected for ourselves." As yet they had derived no benefits from the Union ; but as an independent State they could form an alliance with Spain, and reap the advantages of her liberal patronage. The incredulous, of whom there were many, were reluct ant to move. Although they divined the object of Wil kinson's mission, still he stood high in popular favor, and they were cautious of giving offense. Some there were, who would have openly denounced him, but the facts upon which to base an accusation had been care fully concealed. By the multitude, however, his acts were highly extolled, and he .was flattered by the acknowledgement that to him alone were the citizens of the West indebted for opening that navigation, which Mr. Jay had offered to surrender, and of realizing that commerce which Congress had failed to secure. But there was a new cause of excitement which promised to facilitate his design. The merits of the new Constitution of the United States, which had been recently adopted by eleven States of the Union, was the subject of universal interest. The policy of its accept ance was daily discussed in bar-rooms, at the hust ings, and in social assemblies. Many of its provisions were known to be unpopular with a majority of the 6 82 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. , citizens of Kentucky, yet it was hoped that the objec tions might all be obviated by subsequent amendment. The people of the Kentucky district had been called upon to send delegates to Richmond, to meet in Conven tion in the month of June, at which time it was expected that Virginia would declare her sentiments upon the subject. The session was protracted for three weeks. At length a vote was taken, on the SOth of June, and the instrument ratified by a vote of eighty-eight to seventy-eight ; but three of the Kentucky members vot ing for it, while eleven declared against it. While the preliminary elections were being held, for members of the Convention at Richmond, the people were also required to select delegates to a District Con vention, to assemble at Danville, charged with the important trust of framing a Constitution for the new State. Wilkinson was chosen a member of that body. It convened on the 28th of July, and proceeded to organize. Its deliberations, however, were suddenly terminated, by the announcement of its president, that he had received a dispatch stating that Congress had declined any further action on the subject of Kentucky ; had, in fact, adjourned without having passed an act for her admission into the Confederation, and leaving the de cision, on that important question, to the Congress about to be formed under the recently-adopted Constitution.* " From this proceeding of Congress," writes Wilkin son to Miro, " it resulted that the Convention was of opinion that our proposed independence and separation Marshall's History of Kentucky, Vol. I, p. 228. X SOUTH-WESTERN FEELING. 83 from Virginia, not being ratified, its mission and powers were at an end, and we found ourselves in the alternative, either of proceeding to declare our independence, or of waiting according to the recommendation of Congress. This was the state of affairs when the Honorable Caleb Wallace, one of our Supreme Judges, the Attorney Gen eral, Innis, and Benjamin Sebastian, proposed a prompt separation from the American Union, and advocated, with intrepidity, the necessity of the measure. The arti fice of Congress was exposed, its proceedings reprobated, the consequences of depending on a body whose interests were opposed to ours, were depicted in the most vivid colors, and the strongest motives were set forth to justify the separation. The arguments used were un answerable, and no opposition was manifested in the course of the debates. It was conceded, unanimously, that the present connection was injurious to our interests, and that it could not last any length of time. Never theless, sir, when the question was finally taken, fear and folly prevailed against reason and judgment. It was thought safer and more convenient to adhere to the recommendation of Congress, and, in consequence, it was decided that the people be advised to elect a new Con vention, which should meet in the mouth of November."* " To consolidate the interest and confirm the confi dence of our friends ; to try our strength ; to familiarize the people with what we aim at ; to dissipate the appre hension which important innovations generally produce, and to provoke the resentment of Congress, with a view * Gayarre's History of Louisiana, Vol. III., p. 227. 84 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. to stimulate that body into some invidious political act which might excite the passions of the people ; these are the motives which influence me, and on which I rely for my justification." Wilkinson's solicitude for the measure at length became so apparent, that it excited the suspicions of the people. But, judicious in selection of his agents adroit in pushing others forward, wnile he, the arch mover, concealed himself behind the screen of secrecy, corresponding monthly with the Spanish authorities, and forwarding volumes of plans and information respecting affairs, not only in Kentucky, but throughout the United States, he presents an unparalleled success in the art of traitorous diplomacy. General Morgan was now actually in league with the Spanish authorities. He had accepted his grant ; had surveyed the land, and laid out the town of New Madrid. It was a princely donation, extending from the mouth of the St. Francis to point Cinque Hommes, embracing from twelve to fifteen million of acres. Already had fifty adventurous settlers planted themselves in this garden of the Western wilderness. But the settlement presented a serious impediment to Wilkinson's progress. It was too near the scene of his own operations not to become familiar with his intrigues ; besides, it was known that the town had been purposely established to intercept descending trade, for which reason it had been declared a free port of entry. " Probably," says Wil kinson to Miro,* "it will destroy the noble fabric of * Gayarre's History of Louisiana, Vol. III., p. 244. SATAN REPROVING SIN. 85 which we have laid out the foundation, and which we are endeavoring to complete." " I am informed," he continues, " that Morgan intends , visiting you as soon as he shall have finished the survey of the lands conceded to him. Permit me to supplicate you, my esteemed friends, not to give him any knowl edge of my plans, sentiments, or designs. It is long since he has become jealous of me; and you may rest assured that, in reality, he is not well affected toward our cause, but that he allows himself to be entirely ruled by motives of the vilest self-interest, and, there fore, that he will not scruple on his return to destroy me." That Morgan was prompted by the incentive with which he had been charged, Miro did not feel disposed to question. Men were only to be influenced in such an undertaking by the strongest considerations of private advantage. In fact, it was to that interest only he appealed, and by it alone he could hope for success. But, emanating from such a source, it was Satan reprov ing sin. Himself a soldier and officer of the Revolution, who had passed successfully through many a scene of doubtful conflict ; who, at the sacrifice of his private for tune, and at the imminent peril of his life, had aided in effecting the independence of that country he now secretly conspired against ; who had received her honors, her confidence, and her gratitude ; was not he himself now seeking, for Spanish influence and Spanish gold, to tear down the noble fabric he had helped to rear, and transfer to Spanish despotism those liberties for which so gallantly he had fought? "It is not necessary," says 86 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Wilkinson to Gardoqui,* " to suggest to a gentleman of your experience and knowledge that man throughout the world is governed by private interest, however variously modified it may be. Some men are avaricious, some are vain, some are ambitious. To detect the predominant passion, to lay hold, and to make the most of it, is the most profound secret of political science." Wilkinson's object was too transparent not to be detected by the penetration of Miro. " Some men are avaricious, some are vain, some ambitious." Wilkinson, he knew, combined the whole. " Hundreds," says he in a subsequent letter,f " have applied to me on this subject who are determined to follow my example ; and I do not deceive myself, nor do I deceive you, sir, when I affirm that it is in my power to lead a large body of the most opulent and most respectable of my fellow- citizens whither I shall go myself at their head ; and I flatter myself that, after the dangers I have run, and the sacrifices which I have made after having put my honor and my life in your hands you can have no doubt of my favorable disposition toward the interests of his Catholic Majesty, so long as my poor services may be necessary." " After having read these remarks, you will be sur prised at being informed that, lately, I have, jointly with several gentlemen of this country, applied to Don Diego Gardoqui for a concession of land, in order to form a settlement on the Yazoo. The motive of this *1 Jan'y, 1789; Gayarre, Vol. Ill, p. 247. tGayarre, Vol. Ill, p. 233, Feb. 12, 1789. BRITISH INTRIGUE. 87 application is to provide a place of refuge for myself and my adherents, in case it should become necessary for us to retire from this country in order to avoid the resent ment of Congress." In the meantime, the attention of the representatives of the British Government had been attracted toward the intrigues of the Spanish authorities with some of the more influential citizens of the West. It had been currently reported, that a severance from the Union had been determined on, and that the people were ready to throw themselves into the arms of any power which would protect them from Indian hostilities, and guar antee the free navigation of the Mississippi. A Doctor Connally was deputed by Dorchester, Gov ernor of Canada, to visit Kentucky and ascertain the disposition of the people. He arrived at Louisville in the month of October, 1788, having traveled through the wilderness from Detroit to the Great Miami, and thence down the Ohio. He gave attentive audience to the numerous complaints of the citizens, and suggested a plan by which they could relieve themselves from the embarrassments which the neglect of Congress had thrown around them. Great Britain, he asserted, was desirous to assist American settlers in their claim to the free navigation of the river. She would join them, with zeal, to open up this avenue of trade, and wrest from the Spanish Crown the Territory of Louisiana. Although the forces in Canada were too few to allow of any dimi nution of their number, yet Dorchester stood ready to supply the implements of war, and would equip ten thousand men with money, provisions and clothing. 88 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. As soon as the plan of action should be agreed upon, these articles would be forwarded from Detroit, through Lake Erie, to the Miami, and thence to the Wabash, to be transported to any point on the Ohio where the neces sities of the case might require. A fleet of light vessels would be ready at Jamaica, to take possession of the Balize, simultaneously with an attack to be made by the upper settlements. He desired to raise two regiments in Kentucky, and was authorized by Dorchester to confer rewards and honors on the men of influence who might desire to join him. Officers of the late Continental army who would take command, should rank the same in grade with the officers of Great Britain.* The proposition of Connally met with little encour agement. Dorchester had incited the hostilities of Indians against the Government of the United States, and the inhabitants of the West had been the chief sufferers/ Their desolated homes were yet draped in mourning for the victims of savage barbarity. Their wounds were too fresh, and their resentment too impla cable, easily to forget the sanguinary authors of their sorrow, or to forgive their not less cruel abettors. Wil kinson had heard of Connally's arrival, and wrote him, requesting an interview. His object was to penetrate his designs, that they might be communicated to the Span ish Governor. Connally was unsuspecting, and revealed his plans without reserve. Wilkinson listened atten tively, and was surprised at the boldness of his measures and the extent of his ambition. Great Britain was not * Marshall' s History of Kentucky, Vol. I, p. 348. COUNTERPLOTTING. 89 only contemplating a recovery of her American possess ions, lost to her at the conventions of Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle, but, also, the extension of their limits to the Gulf of Mexico. His own interests were not less involved in the scheme than those of Spain; for with the loss of Spanish empire followed the loss, to him, of Spanish favor and contemplated fortune. It was import ant to check the enterprise ; hut it was equally import ant to avoid suspicion, and give no offence to Connally. He desired to impress him with the implacability of pri vate resentment, and the impossibility of an English alliance. The manner of its accomplishment is com municated to Miro in his letter of the 12th of Feb ruary, 1789.* " In order to justify this opinion of mine, and to induce him to go back, I employed a hunter, who feigned attempting his life. The pretext assumed by the hunter was the avenging of the death of his son, murdered by the Indians at the supposed instigation of the English. As I hold the commission of a civil judge, it was, of course, to be my duty to protect him against the pretended murderer, whom I caused to be arrested and held in custody. I availed myself of this circum stance to communicate to Connally my fear of not being able to answer for the security of his person, and I expressed my doubts whether he could escape with his life. It alarmed him so much, that he begged me to give him an escort to conduct him out of our territory, which I readily assented to ; and on the 20th of ]!N"ovem- *Gayarre Vol. III., p. 237 90 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. ber tie re-crossed the Ohio on his way back to Detroit. I did not dismiss him without having previously impressed upon him the propriety of informing me, in as short a time as possible, of the ultimate designs of Lord Dor chester." To induce emigration and trade, the Spanish Gov ernment, contrary to the remonstrances of Wilkinson, finally consented that the products of the upper coun try might pass through the Mississippi on the payment of a duty of fifteen per cent. This, as he had foretold, operated to retard the progress of his plans. With the prospect of a ready market, labor resumed its wonted activity, and the murmurs of the people were silenced. Lands rose rapidly in value, wages were increased, and the pursuits of agriculture promised an adequate return for the capital employed. Apprehensive of having it perish on their hands, they had heretofore been deterred from raising more than the consumption of the imme diate neighborhood demanded ; " but now," said Wil kinson,* "they have .no longer any such fears, on account of the ready outlet they find, at New Orleans, for the fruits of their labor." Other circumstances, too, were rapidly combining to allay the public discontent. As a measure of policy, the President had distributed a few of the public offices among those who were regarded as disaffected toward the Government, and whose loyalty might be purchased as readily by the bestowal of executive favor as by the tempting promises of Spanish gold. "On my arrival *Gayarre, Vol. III., p. 277. COVERING RETREAT. Gl here,'* writes Wilkinson to Miro,* " I discovered a great change in those who had been so far our warmest friends. Many who loudly repudiated all connection with the Union, now remain silent. I attribute this to the hope of promotion, or to the fear of punishment. According to my prognostic, Washington has begun to operate on the chief heads of this district. Innis has been appointed a Federal Judge, with an annual salary of one thousand dollars; George Nicholas, District Attorney; Samuel McDowel, son of the President of the Convention, and Marshall, to offices somewhat resembling that of Alguazil Mayor; and Peyton Short, the brother of our chargd d'affaires at Versailles, is made a Custom-house officer ; but he has resigned, and . will, probably visit you next spring. I do not place much reliance on George Mcholas and Samuel McDowel. But I know Harry Innis is favorable to Spain and hostile to Congress, and I am authorized to say, that he would prefer receiving a pen sion from New Orleans than from New York. Should the king approve our design, on this point, it will have to be broached with much delicacy, caution and judg ment." He adds : " I fear that we can rely on a few only of my countrymen, if we can not make use of liberal donations." But Wilkinson's apprehensions began now to be excited for his own safety. If he was to be thus aban doned by his associates, and his plans defeated by the admission of Kentucky into the Union, some provision was necessary by which to escape the odium of defeat. *26th January, 1790. Gayarre, Vol. Ill, p. 278. 92 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. The monopoly of the upper trade had been swept from his grasp by the last act of the Court at Madrid. It had placed on terms of equality all who possessed the capital and energy to compete for the patronage of the Spanish Government. Scores of boats, laden with the products of the country, were pouring their commerce into the lap of New Orleans. The new Constitution proved much more popular than was generally anticipated, and was, day by day, increasing in favor with the people. Wash ington, too, the illustrious commander in the Revolution, was now the chosen chief of the Union, and his selection had inspired a spirit of loyalty which it was difficult, nay, dangerous to tamper with. Already had Wilkinson been marked as a traitor, and spies were vigilant in seek ing the evidences of his intrigue. " My situation," says he,* " is mortally painful ; because, while I abhor du plicity, I am obliged to dissemble. This makes me extremely desirous of resorting to some contrivance that will put me in a position in which I flatter myself to be able to profess myself publicly the vassal of his Catholic Majesty, and, therefore, to claim his protection in whatever public or private measures I may devise to promote the interest of the Crown." " You may rest assured," he adds, " that the constant persecutions of Congress can not produce the slightest impression on my attachment and zeal for the interests of Spain, which I shall always be ready to defend with my tongue, my pen and my sword" It would be presumed that Miro would gladly have * Gayarre, Vol. III. p. 280. 93 assented to the proposition, and suggested the " contriv ance " by which to have secured him " a vassal of Spain," but the Spanish Governor knew too well that Wilkin son's power to subserve his Majesty's interest, lay in his connection with the people of Kentucky, and his intimate knowledge of the affairs of the Federal Government. For were it once understood he had become a subject of Spain, he would, of necessity, be excluded from par ticipation in their affairs, and his influence lost to the interest of Louisiana. " I much regret," replied Miro,* " that General Wash ington and Congress suspect your connection with me, but it does not appear to me opportune that you declare yourself a Spaniard, for the reason which you state. I am of opinion that this idea of yours is not convenient, and that, on the contrary, it might have prejudicial results. Therefore, continue to dissemble, and to work as you promise, and as I have above indicated. Miro now began to feel gloomy forebodings of the result. Wilkinson's late communication had dampened his hopes, and rendered him suspicious even of the Gen eral himself. He was either the victim of punic faith, or his American emissary had been himself deceived. Yet he was reluctant to believe that Wilkinson, although willing to become a traitor to the Union, could also prove a traitor to Spain. Perhaps an over- weening con fidence had induced him to promise what he never could perform. It might be that, full of zeal, and persuaded, from the experience of the past, that he could bring *Gayarre, Vol. Ill, p. 284. 94 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. round to his own opinions the chief men of Kentucky, he had declared in anticipation that he had won over many of them. But still, it was a fact, that he had never once approached them on the main question, and now that encountering invincible obstacles and, above all, personal risks, it might be his desire to avail himself of the motive set forth in his letter to cover his precipitation. " Nevertheless," said Miro, " I am of the opinion that said Brigadier-General ought to be retained in the service of his Majesty, with an annual pension of two thousand dollars, which I have already proposed in my confidential dispatch, No. 46,* because the inhabitants of Kentucky, and of the other establishments on the Ohio, will not be able to undertake any thing against this province with out his communicating it to us, and without his. making, at the same time, all possible efforts to drive them from any bad designs against us, as he has already done re cently. Miro concludes, by recommending that a pension be granted to Sebastian, " because I think it proper" said he, " to treat with this individual who will be able to enlighten me on the conduct of Wilkinson, and on what we have to expect from the plans of the said Brigadier- General" We have at length arrived at a point in the history of this intrigue which renders it unnecessary to pursue it further. The key is disclosed which unlocks the door of mystery, and reveals other truths which for half a 2entury have been enveloped in darkness and in doubt ; Wilkinson pensioned to guard the interests of Spain, and Sebastian to betray his confederate Wilkinson. *Gayarre, Vol. Ill, p. 286. STILL TROUBLED. 95 Time rolled on. Kentucky had been admitted into the Union, as an independent State. Wilkinson bore the commission of a Lieutenant-Colonel, signed by George Washington, and was in actual command of the American forces. The announcement of his appoint ment spread consternation among his enemies, and elated his confederates. The question was repeatedly asked, "By whom was he recommended?" "By myself/' replied Col. Marshall, who had been his most formida ble opponent. He considered Wilkinson, he said, well qualified for the commission he bore; that while he remained unemployed by Government, he regarded him as dangerous to the tranquillity of Kentucky, perhaps to her absolute safety. If his commission did not secure his fidelity, it would place him under control, in the midst of faithful officers, whose vigilance would make him harmless, if it did not make him honest. Wilkin son would not be permitted to command the army while there existed a doubt of his integrity, and General Washington remained as President of the Republic. At all events, he could see no good reason for not putting the lion in the toils which he himself had solicited.* Although the admission of Kentucky into the Union for a time silenced the complaints of the people, yet it failed to restore a unity of sentiment and concert of action. The navigation of the Mississippi was still the subject of discord, not only between the authorities of Louisiana, and the western inhabitants of the States, but also between the mother country and the American Repub- * Marshall's History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 391 96 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. lie. Negotiations had been protracted, misunderstandings had ensued, and an imbittered diplomatic controversy threatened a collision of arms between the contending countries. Miro, after a service of twenty years, had been recalled to Spain, at his own request, and the gov ernment of the province committed to the Baron de Carondolet. Louis Sixteenth had perished on the scaf fold, and Charles the Third, as the avenger of his death, had declared war against his ruthless executioners. The astounding news of the French Revolution had crossed the Atlantic and penetrated the forests of the western hemisphere. It gave new hopes to the friends of free dom in Europe, and fresh impetus to the cause of liberty throughout the civilized world. Genet, the representative of the French Republic, had not been a disinterested spectator of the intrigues of Spain. His mind involuntarily reverted to that unfortu nate day when the King of France, grown disgusted with a possession which, for more than half a century, had been the cause of heavy expense, without giving even a faint promise of adequate compensation in the future, ceded to his cousin the King of Spain, without any remuneration whatever, but merely from the pure impulses of his generous heart, and from a sense of the affection and friendship which existed between them, all the country known under the name of Louisiana ; thus, by one stroke of the pen, stripping France " of those boundless possessions which she had acquired at the cost of so much heroic blood and so much treasure, and which extended in one proud, uninterrupted line from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi ; BIENVILLE. 97 the adventurous and much-enduring population which had settled there, and had overcome so many perils, under the flag of France, coldly delivered over to the yoke of foreign masters." He heard yet the prayerful remonstrance of the citizens of New Orleans against the impolitic and ungrateful usurpation. In a retrospect of the past he saw the venerable Bienville, with a hody bent by the infirmities of eighty-six years, yet with his intel lectual faculties unimpaired, with the tears gushing from his eyes, prostrate before the Duke de Choiseul, in hum ble supplication, pleading the cause of that country for whose welfare and prosperity he had spent a life of toil and self-denial. " Was France now to give up the last inch of that territory which he had acquired for her at the cost of so many perils, and so much endurance? Was it for the Spaniards he had called New Orleans into life ? Were the Louisianians ; were the numerous mem bers of his own family, whose homes he had selected in the cradle of his future fame ; were his many friends and the old companions of his labors, to be no longer his countrymen ? " * He recalled also the indignation of those Acadians who, under the humiliating treaty between England and France, had been thrust out by British force from their quiet and happy habita tions, where " Blemidon rose, and the forests of old, and Aloft on the mountains * Gayarre's History of Louisiana, Vol. II, p. 129. 7 98 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists From the mighty Atlantic Looked on the happy valley," and who had, " Friendless, homeless, hopeless, wandered from City to city; From the cold lakes of the North to Sultry savannas; From the bleak shores of the sea, to the land Where the Father of Waters Seizes the hills in his hands, and Drags them down to the ocean." How they wept on the receipt of the intelligence that they were again transferred to a foreign power against their consent and without their knowledge ; how Lafr- rilere and his followers had defied the authorities of Spain, and declared never to acknowledge any domin ion but that of their own beloved France ; how they took possession of the government, and were only sub dued by the appearance at the Balize of a Spanish Armada under the renowned 0'B.eiley. He had reason for believing that a remnant of that feeling still existed among the French settlers in Louisiana ; and although years had elapsed, and most, if not all, who had been the actors in those scenes had passed away, yet it was believed that their recollections were still green by tra dition, and their descendants still cherished an affection for the land of their forefathers ; and now that France had become the champion of free governments and republican liberty, more than ever would they long for her dominion, or seek her protection in any effort they GENET. 99 might make to secure a like government for them selves. Genet, therefore, set himself privately to work to effect a revolution in Louisiana; hoping, with the aid of the western settlers, to establish an independent government under the protection of France. At his instance, Jacobin clubs were formed in many of the principal cities of the United States, which were to be the active agencies for effecting this purpose. The society at Philadelphia, in the beginning of the year 1794, had caused to be printed and circulated an address from the freemen of France to their brothers in Louisi ana. In this they declared that the moment had arrived when despotism must disappear from the earth ; that France, having obtained her freedom, and constituted herself into a Republic, after having made known to mankind their rights, after having achieved the most glorious victories over her enemies, was not satisfied with success, by which she alone would profit, but declared to all nations that she was ready to give her powerful assistance to those that might desire to follow her example ; that the French nation, knowing their sen timents, and indignant at seeing them the victims of the tyrants by whom they had been so long oppressed, could and would avenge their wrongs. " Now is the time," continues the address, " to cease being slaves of a government to which you were shamefully sold, and no longer to be led on, like a* herd of cattle, by men who, with one word, can strip you of what you hold most, dear liberty and property." Recapitulating a long catalogue of grievances to 100 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. which their brothers had been subjected, they say : " You quiver, no doubt, with indignation. You feel in your hearts the desire of deserving the honorable appellation of freemen ; but the fear of not having assistance, and of failing in your attempt, deadens your zeal. Dismiss your apprehensions ; and know ye that your brethren, the French, who have attacked with success the Spanish Government in Europe, will in a short time present themselves on your coast with naval forces ; that the republicans of the western portion of the United States are ready to come down the Ohio and Mississippi, in company with a considerable num ber of French republicans, and to rush to your assist ance, under the banners of France and Liberty, and that you have every assurance of success. Therefore, inhabitants of Louisiana, show who you are; prove that you have not been stupefied by despotism, and that you have retained in your breasts French valor and intrepidity. Demonstrate that you are worthy of being free and independent, because we do not solicit you to unite yourselves with us, but to seek your own freedom. When you shall have the sole control of your own actions, you will be able to adopt a republican con stitution, and, being assisted by France, as long as your weakness will not permit you to protect or defend your selves, it will be in your power to unite voluntarily with ' her and your neighbors, the United States, forming with these two Republics an alliance which will be the liberal basis on which, henceforth, shall stand our mutual politi cal and commercial interests. Your country will derive the greatest advantages from so auspicious a revolution ; G. ROGERS CLARK. 101 and the glory with which you will cover yourselves, will equal the prosperity which you will secure for the coun try and for posterity. Away with pusillanimity; Ca ira! ca ira ! audaces fortuna juvat." Genet also dispatched Lachaise and Michaux to Ken tucky, to organize a force which was to descend the Mississippi to ~New Orleans, and act in concert with the French inhabitants. The time of their arrival in the country was peculiarly propitious. They found the peo ple divided in political sentiment, but all insisting on free navigation. Jacobin clubs were organized, and inflam matory appeals were issued, setting forth the grievous burthens under which they continued to labor. Too long, they asserted, had the citizens of the West placed implicit dependence on the impartiality and virtue of the General Government. Patient under the ungener-. ous local policy by which that government had been uniformly actuated; patient under the delays which it had feigned, and the obstacles which it had opposed to the procurement of their rights ; patient under the for ever-to-be-detested attempt to barter away that right; they had hitherto submitted to the oppressive exactions of the jealous Spaniards, and had not even raised their faltering voices to say to the arbiters of their fate : " You have done amiss." " Awake," they exclaimed, " from your lethargy! think and act for yourselves. Let the example of FRANCE and her glorious success animate you in the pursuit of those advantages which nature has bestowed upon your country." General George Rogers Clark, a man of distinguished military merit, then a prominent citizen of Kentucky, 102 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. had been commissioned, by Genet, a Major- General in the French Revolutionary Legions on the Mississippi, with power to name and commission other officers, and to raise a military force for the reduction of the Spanish posts on that river ; to open its trade, and give Freedom to its inhabitants. All persons serving the expedition were to receive one thousand acres of land ; those engaging for one year, two thousand ; and an enlistment of two years, or during the war with France, three thousand acres. Officers were to receive in proportion to other French troops ; lawful plunder was to be equally divided according to the cus toms of war, and every precaution taken to secure the safe return of those who might wish to quit the service. France was to supply the munitions of war, and commis sions to grade according to the number that each could bring into the service. Genet had also sent his emissaries to other States in the South and West, who had been successful in stimu lating a spirit of adventure among many of the inhabi tants. In Tennessee, and on the frontiers of Georgia, it was reported that large forces were being assembled, who, it was expected, would act in concert with the Creek warriors, in a descent upon the Spanish dominions. Thus, through the energy of the French plenipoten tiary, had a formidable expedition been set on foot for the subjugation of Louisiana, with the declared purpose of revolutionizing her institutions, and rendering her an independent Republic, with Genet as its recognized head. Of this new enterprise against the interests of Spain, Wilkinson and his adherents were silent, but not careless, WASHINGTON EMBARRASSED. 103 observers. Although then holding the commission of a lieutenant-colonel in the army of the United States, and, as was surmised, a secret pensioner of his Catholic Majesty, he neither openly encouraged nor publicly con demned the contemplated expedition. The terms of the address, the grievances enumerated, and the measures of relief proposed, were almost in the exact language with which it had been his custom to inflame the peo ple, except the new idea of wresting from Spain her possessions in Louisiana. In the mean time, rumors of the projected design hav ing reached the ears of the President, General Washing ton issued his instructions to Generals Wayne and St. Clair, as also the Governor Shelby, of Kentucky, com manding them immediately to suppress any movement having for its aim any attack against the Spanish domin ions. The reply of the latter caused the executive and his cabinet much concern. They feared that Shelby himself had either given in his adhesion to the cause, or was privately disposed to countenance its execution. The great sympathy which was manifested for the friends of liberty in France a deep sense of gratitude for her generous aid in the American Revolution, together with a lawless spirit of adventure in many of the more restless and discontented leaders of the country, rendered the extent of Genet's influence among the people a matter of painful uncertainty to the President. He felt his situa tion to be one of embarrassment. While he conceived it to be the true policy of the Government to observe a strict neutrality between the contending powers of Europe, of St. James Blennerhassett as the proud representative of that giant empire, sweeping in its mighty circumfer ence over half of the continent, with its millions of sub jects, and she as the heroine of the conquest, and the partner of his triumphs. " Go," she urged, " before the minions of the Government are upon you. Wait not for me and the children ; they dare not molest the mother and her innocents. We shall follow at a more opportune sea son, and meet again beyond the powers which pursue." Calling her maids to her assistance, she busied herself in arranging such articles of clothing as might be needed by her husband before she could reach him, at the com pletion of which nothing was found neglected which could contribute to his health or administer to his comfort. As the last trunk left the hall, the clock announced the hour of midnight the eventful moment of departure. Blennerhassett, issuing from his chamber, ordered all hands to the river. Drawing her robes about her, his wife placed her arm through his, and both proceeded to the boats in close consultation. A deep -snow lay upon the ground. The winds, sweeping the long reaches of the river, sighed among the leafless branches. It was pene tratingly cold. On the beach, near the stream, a large fire curled its flames into the air, dissipating the immediate darkness, and painting spectral forms against the curtain of night still further beyond. Encircling this, Blenner hassett and his companions held secret council preparatory to their final departure. Not the least among these was his anxious and hopeful wife. To elude pursuit and pass Gallipolis in safety was the subject under immediate dis cussion. Nahum Bent was called forward and inquired of, 176 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. whether he could not furnish horses for Tyler and Blen nerhassett, and, crossing the country by land, meet them Somewhere in the vicinity of that place, that the two might thence proceed through Ohio and Kentucky, to the mouth of the Cumberland. But Bent had but one horse, though he thought another could be procured from a Belpr friend. He was directed by Blennerhassett to visit Cap tain Dana, and request the purchase or loan of one, and meet him above Gallipolis, where himself and Tyler would leave the boats, and, passing around the town, intercept them at a point below. Mrs. Blennerhassett suggested that less inconvenience would be occasioned by taking a canoe, which lay adja cent, and on their approach to the town, the two should leave the boats, and floating leisurely by in an open vessel, used only for short voyages, would awaken no suspicion on the part of those who had been set to watch. As Blennerhassett was proceeding to give further directions, the company were suddenly startled by the abrupt intru sion of an officer, who, attracted by the light, had been watching their movements during the night. Stepping forward to Blennerhassett, he clapped his hand upon his shoulder and exclaimed : " I arrest you, Harman Blennerhassett, in the name and by the authority of the State of Ohio ! " Instantly the muzzles of seven or eight muskets were leveled at the intruder's breast, and the sharp click of their locks sent a thrill of indescribable sensation through every nerve. Apprehending fully the danger of his situation, General Tapper, as they now distinguished him to be, out : COL. PHELPS. 177 " Forbear, men ! Forbear ! Would you act so rashly ? " " By the gods ! " exclaimed one, " we will protect our selves, at all hazards, from an arrest. If in doing so it should become necessary to use our arms, we shall not hesitate to shoot, not only you," he added, " but all others who may interfere." The General, finding resistance had been determined on, and that his own person was in imminent peril, endeavored to persuade Blennerhassett to reconsider his resolution of departure, surrender himself to the Govern ment, and stand his trial, assuring him that it would satisfy the public indignation and curiosity, and result in no particular inconvenience to himself. Finding, however, that he was deaf to entreaty, and was fully resolved and settled in his purpose, Tupper bade him and the party adieu, and wished them a safe escape down the river, and a fortunate adventure. The conference thus abruptly ended, Blennerhassett, bidding his wife an affectionate farewell, with directions to follow as soon as her convenience would permit, em barked on board, and unmooring the boats, floated down the stream.* In thus abandoning the partner of his bosom, with her helpless and defenseless household, Blennerhassett had not mistaken the character of the individual who, he rightly presumed, was soon to take charge of his man sion. From intimate association with the man, he knew that innocence and feebleness would ever be sacredly regarded by Col. Phelps ; that, while duty to the calls * Albright's Evidence on the Trial of Burr. 12 178 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. of his country compelled him to exercise the functions of his office, and that, too, in defeating the plans of his most intimate friend and associate, that power would he exerted with the strictest adherence to the laws of hu manity and the highest sentiments of honor ; that while no menaces would deter him from the disagreeable duty imposed, no act of wanton violence should stain the honor of the friend. On the succeeding morning, Col. Phelps, with a small hody of men, proceeded to the island. They found it deserted "by its proprietor. Inquiries were made among the servants, who informed them of the circumstances of the preceding evening ; adding, that Mrs. Blennerhas- sett was then on her way to Marietta, to secure, if possi ble, the boat originally intended for the conveyance of Blennerhassett and his family to the Washita. Leaving the greater portion of his men in possession of the premises, Col. Phelps started across the country to intercept the descending boats, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha. None having passed, during the previous day, answering to the description of thos-e of which he was in pursuit, Col. Phelps informed the citizens of his de signs, and procured a party to watch the river that night. Accordingly, a large fire was built upon the bank, around which the watch attempted to k^ep their mid night vigils. Following that ancient custom of "keep ing the spirits up by pouring spirits down " like the model " officer," who was enamored of the ".landlady of France " they soon became oblivious to military duty, and reckless of the consequences to result from their in attention. Taking advantage of the darkness of the ALL AFLOAT. 179 night, Blennerhassett glided silently by, without disturb ing the slumbers of the guard, and, before the early dawn, was many miles beyond his discomfited pursuers. At the mouth of the Cumberland, he joined the flotilla of Burr, which was then awaiting accessions both from that river and the Ohio. Not apprised, until late, that boats were being con structed on the Cumberland, the effect of the President's proclamation had been trusted to, for some time, in the State of Tennessee ; but, on the 19th of December, simi lar communications and instructions with those of the neighboring States, were dispatched, by express, to the Governor, and a general officer of the western division of the State ; and, on the 23d, Graham, the agent, left Frankfort for Nashville, to put into activity the means of that State also. Burr, however, had been too prompt in his movements for the agents of the Government. On the 22d of the same month, he had descended the Cumberland, with two boats laden with provision and a few additional forces. The Governor of Kentucky, after the arrest and dis charge of Burr, hearing of his arrival at the mouth of the Cumberland, with a flotilla of numerous vessels, and that he was there congregating his forces, ordered out the militia for hfs arrest; but Burr, anticipating the move ment, slipped his moorings and proceeded on. The flotilla now consisted of four boats under command of Tyler, two under Burr, two under Floyd, one under Ellis, one under Blennerhassett, and a commissary boat under Dean. On the evening of the twenty-ninth, Burr stopped a 180 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. short distance below Fort Massac, then under the com mand of Capt. Bissell. The following morning, he was visited by that officer, who gave him a polite invitation to visit the fort and partake of its hospitalities. It is due to Capt. Bissell to state, (although the evidence on this point is conflicting,) that he was, at that time, without any in structions from the Government. He remarks, that he had learned, unofficially, of Burr's arrest and acquittal in Kentucky ; hence, he concluded, that his mission was one of peace, and for the purpose, ostensibly held out, " of colonizing the Bastrop lands." He furnished Burr with a messenger, to convey a communication to the lead mines in Missouri, as well as one or two men for his enterprise, and a small quantity of provision ; the latter, however, Bissell asserts, was sent by his wife, who was an early acquaintance of Burr, and who returned it, in compliment for a barrel of apples which Burr had forwarded to her. On the evening of the third of January, 1807, Burr, with one boat, landed at Chickasaw Bluffs, a military sta tion at that time commanded by Lieut. Jacob Jackson. He immediately dispatched a messenger to the commander of the fort, to inquire if quarters could be furnished him during the night, who shortly returned with an affirmative answer. The following morning, he had an interview with Jackson, on the subject of the expedition, in which he stated that he was going on a project of which many wished to know, but, from their inquisitiveness, he was not disposed to gratify them, but assured him that it was an enterprise which would be honorable to him, Jackson, and would be the making of those who should follow him, provided they survived the undertaking. Every ar- 181 gument was resorted to, to shake the fidelity of that young officer, to his country, and prevail on him to join the expedition, with the whole of the forces under his command. To the ardent and enthusiastic mind of youth, panting for scenes of glory and distinction, his offers of fame and emolument were truly tempting ; particularly as they were enforced hy the sophistical reasoning of that astute and experienced diplomatist. But, to his honor, and to the honor of American youths, particularly Ameri can officers, he foiled the attempts of the seducer, and came off moral victor in the attack. While in the service of his country, no offer of wealth, or place, or power, could decoy him from the path of rectitude. The Govern ment had confided the command of that fort to his youthful hands, and so long as he retained that trust, his best energies should be exerted to preserve it with fidelity and honor. On the 3d of January, 1807, the President dispatched the following communication to Gen. Wilkinson : " I had yesterday intended to recommend, to Gen. Dearborn, the writing to you weekly, by post, to convey informa tion of our affairs in the West, as long as they are inter esting ; because it is possible, though not probable, you might sometimes get the information quicker this way than down the river ; but the General received, yesterday, information of the death of his son in the East Indies, and, of course, can not now attend to business. I, there fore, write you a hasty line, for the present week, and eend it in duplicate by the Athens and Nashville route. " The information in the inclosed paper, as to the pro ceedings in the State of Ohio, is correct Blennerhassett's 182 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. flotilla, of fifteen boats and two hundred barrels of provisions, is seized, and there can be no doubt that Tyler's flotilla is also taken ; because, on the 17th of De cember, we know there was a sufficient force assembled at Cincinnati to intercept it there, and another party was in pursuit of it on the river above. We are assured that these two flotillas composed the whole of the boats pro vided. Blennerhassett and Tyler had fled down the river. I do not believe that the number of persons en gaged for Burr has ever amounted to five hundred ; though some have carried them to one thousand or fifteen hundred. A part of these were engaged as set tlers of Bastrop's land, but the greater part were engaged under the express assurance that the projected enterprise was against Mexico, and secretly authorized by this Gov ernment. Many expressly enlisted in the name of the United States. The proclamation, which reached Pitts burgh, December 2d, and other parts of the river suc cessively, undeceived both these classes, and, of course, drew them off; and I have never seen any proof of their having assembled more than forty men, in two boats, from Beaver, fifty in Tyler's flotilla, and the boatmen of Blennerhassett. I believe, therefore, that the enterprise may be considered as crushed ; but we are not to relax in our attentions until we hear what has passed at Louis ville. If every thing, from that place upward, be suc cessfully arrested, there is nothing from below that [is] to be feared. Be assured that Tennessee, and particu larly General Jackson, is faithful. The orders lodged at Massac and the Chickasaw Bluffs, will probably secure the interception of such fugitives from justice as may PRECAUTION. 183 escape at Louisville ; so that I think you will never see one of them. Still, I would not wish, till we hear from Louisville, that this information should relax your prepa rations in the least, except as far as to dispense with the militia of Mississippi and Orleans, leaving their homes, under our orders of November 25th. Only let them con sider themselves under requisition ; and be in a> state of readiness, should any force, too great for your regulars, escape down the river. You will have been sensible that those orders were given while we supposed yo,u were on the Sabine, and the supposed crisis did not admit the formality of their being passed by you. We con sidered Fort Adams as the place to make a stand, be cause it covered the mouth of Red river. You have preferred New Orleans, on the apprehension of a fleet from the West Indies. Be assured, there is not any foundation for such an expectation, but the lying exag gerations of these traitors to impose on others and swell their pretended means. The very man whom they reported to you as having gone to Jamaica and to bring the fleet, has never been from home, and has regularly communicated to me every thing which had passed between Burr and him. France or Spain would not send a fleet to take Yera Cruz ; and, though one of the expeditions, now near arriving from England, is probably for Yera Cruz, and perhaps already there, yet the state of things between us renders it impossible they should countenance an enterprise unauthorized by us. Still, I repeat, that these grounds of security must not stop our proceedings or preparations until they are further confirmed. Go on, therefore, with your works 184 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. for the defense of New Orleans, because they will always be useful, only looking to what should be permanent rather than means merely temporary. You may expect further information as we receive it; and, though I expect it will be such as will place us at our ease, yet we must not place ourselves so, until we be certain, but act on the possibility that the resources of our enemy may be greater and deeper than we are yet informed. " Your two confidential messengers delivered their charges safely. One arrived yesterday only, with your letter of November 12th. The oral communications he made me are truly important. I beseech you, take the most special care of the two letters which he mentioned to me the one in cypher, the other from another con spirator of high standing and send them to me by the first conveyance you can trust. It is necessary that all important testimony should be brought to one center, in order that the guilty may be convicted and the innocent left untroubled." On the 5th of January, having supplied himself with thirty pounds of lead and three dozen tomahawks, to gether with other articles, Burr proceeded down to Palmyra, and thence to Bayou Pierre. NOTE. THE FOLLOWING is A JOURNAL OF BLENNERHASSETT'S VOYAGE DOWN THE RIVER: 16th December. Tuesday, we left Jeffersonville ; crossed the falls; nothing extra; all our boats crossed safe. ITih. Pursued our journey at twelve o'clock at night ; landed at Salt river ; took in seven hands ; stopped some time ; and started again at four o'clock in the morning. About ten o'clock, A. M., parted with Colonel Tyler, and four keel-boats left us. We had a very bad night, occasioned by heavy rain, which continued until morning. VOYAGE DOWN. 185 18th. Nothing remarkable; passed Anderson's river at thirty-five min utes past two o'clock, A. M. ; passed one of the keel-boats at twelve o'clock at night. 19/A. Passed French Island at half-past nine, A. M. ; passed Green river at half-past eleven, A. M. About one, P. M., had some trouble about a canoe, which some of our hands, being ashore after wood, had taken away. The owner followed ; we had to pay him two dollars, and give up the canoe. Nothing more worth notice, until we arrived at Red Bank, then about sun down ; found it to be a place of small note ; there we remained two hours, and proceeding, passed Diamond Island about twelve o'clock at night. 20th. About five, P. M., met with some difficulties among some sawyers, which is a term given by boatmen to old trees, which settle in the river, and which rise and fall by the rapidity of the current. They are often dangerous, and sometimes fatal. Immediately after disengaging our boats from the difficulty, we were prevented from proceeding by a ledge of rocks; with much hazard we cleared ourselves about seven; passed Highland Creek, where stands a town of small note, entirely inhabited by Roman Catholics. At half-past nine passed the Wabash river, came up with Colonel Tyler and his boats. In the forks of the Ohio and Wabash, stand a few houses, but of no consequence. The latter river here is of considerable magnitude, and runs into the Ohio, opposite the center of an island, which takes its name from the river. The Ohio, here, has a beautiful appearance, interspersed with handsome plantations along its banks. Four miles below the mouth of the Wabash, there is a large island, the name unknown to us. At half-past twelve, P. M., arrived at Shawneetown : this is a place of deposit for the salt, made at the saline, but of no other importance, being a place of no trade. 2lst. Nothing remarkable. 22d. Nothing in the course of the day, but had a very wet night. 23rf. A beautiful day ; nothing extra. 2th. Very windy ; repaired our boats, they being very leaky in the rbofs. At eleven o'clock, P.'M., an express arrived from Colonel Burr informing us of his intentions to meet us at Cumberland river; likewise orders for us to proceed; but we were prevented by high winds, BO remained that night. Burr to Blennerhassett. NEAR NASHVILLE, Dec. 20, 1806. My young friend Stokely Hays, the son of a respectable old revolution ary officer, will hand you this, and will bring me your reply. I have experienced distressing delays ; but shall be at the mouth of the Cumber land on the 23d, Sunday. Please to repair thither. Enter on the east (upper) side of the island, which lies in the mouth of the river. I anticipate impatiently the pleasure of meeting you. A. BURR. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. 186 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. 25th. Left Shawneetown at eight o'clock, A. M. ; the wind fresh and ahead. Passed an island, name unknown to us. This day the wind blew so hard, that our boats were totally separated ; with much difficulty our boat reached the Kentucky shore, after riding a tremendous swell; re mained until sundown, and then proceeded on to join the rest of our company, who were in the same dilemma, being obliged to put in on the Indiana shore. 26^. About five o'clock, A. M., one of Mr. Blennerhassett's boats joined us, being one of fifteen that were stopped at Marietta. At half-past seven o'clock passed the Rock and Cave; went ashore and viewed it; found no curiosities, more than a hollow cavern. Passed Hurricane Island and Creek at half-past ten o'clock; passed Clover Creek, eleven o'clock, on the In diana side ; passed the Copperas Banks at half-past three, P. M., Indiana shore. 27th. Arrived at Cumberland river, at half-past , A. M.; joined Col. Burr, at the above place. The day was very stormy, and put our lit tle fleet to considerable trouble. Burr to Blennerhassett. SUNDAY EVENING. It is said that you have landed a mile below. We must all be stationary till morning. Send to me by return of this boat, Mr. Hays, with five hundred in twenty post notes, and fifty dollars in silver. We will endeavor to start all the heavy boats at an early hour in the morning : those below are to wait till those above shall come down. A gun will be fired as a signal for moving. All is well, very well, at this garrison. Your friend, A. BURR. P. S. Mr^ Elliot has handed me some money. The silver is necessary, if it can be come at, and about three hundred dollars of paper. Hays need not come. 28th. This day a boat joined us from Cumberland river, with Cols. Burr, Harris, etc., on board. Pushed off on our journey, and landed on the Kentucky shore eight miles distant from the above place. In conse quence of high winds, we landed about eight o'clock, P. M. 2$th. This day pushed off at eight o'clock, A. M. ; wind ahead and strong; obliged to land immediately opposite the mouth of Tennessee river, where we lay by for several hours ; pushed off again at sundown, and passed Fort Massac at half-past eleven, P. M., and landed one mile below. 30th. Pushed off at five o'clock, A. M. ; pleasant weather; came into the Mississippi at half-past three o'clock; passed the Iron Banks at half- past eight o'clock, and passed the Chalk Banks at half-past nine, A. M. JOURNAL CONTINUED. 187 31st. Pleasant weather; nothing happened worth notice. Landed, at sundown, on the Louisiana shore. January 1st. This day landed at New Madrid, at nine o'clock, A. M.; remained about three hours, and left one of our hands, Major G. Wood, behind with a canoe, in order to engage some men that purposed coming on with us. This evening on coming ashore, owing to our being in rear of the fleet, and going after dark, our boat ran aground, but got off with some difficulty, and effected a good landing in a short time. 2d. Pushed off this day at four o'clock, A. M.; passed the little prairie at eight o'clock ; fine weather ; landed at five o'clock at the Little Horse-shoe. 3^ Pushed off this day about five, A. M. ; passed a number of islands ; saw no inhabitants. I believe the whole of the fleet, our boat only ex- cepted, got into an eddy ; we escaped only, and by our timely exertions gained the opposite side of the island and river, say the right hand side; the rest put ashore. Although contrary to Colonel Burr's orders, we alone pushed on. 4^. This day at seven, A. M., we landed at the Chickasaw Bluff, where there is an American garrison, commanded by Lieut. Jackson. 6th. This day at six o'clock, A. M., left this place, and floated all day, and landed at nine, P. M., on an island, in consequence of a very high wind ; pushed off again at eleven o'clock. 6 ^.Floated all day; nothing extra. 7th. Do. 8th. Do. 9M. Floated all day, until two o'clock, P. M. ; landed to wait for Col. Burr; got some wood; perceived the sign of horses, but no inhabitants any where to be found; pushed off again at three o'clock, being joined by the Colonel and his boats; floated all night through a very dangerous navigation; about eight o'clock one of Col. Tyler's boats being lashed to a, flat, and striking against a sawyer, was broken loose, in consequence of which Capt. Dean's boat stopped, and dispatched a keel-boat in search of the one lost. Major Floyd's boat put ashore, in consequence of being de terred by a sudden squall of wind, which arose about eight o'clock ; the rest of the boats proceeded. IQth. At four o'clock, A. M., got into an eddy; could not get out, the night being very dark ; stayed until daylight appeared ; then got out, and came up with Col. Burr's two boats, namely, the boat he lived in, and one that had horses ; they gave us a signal for landing, with which we complied,x and effected a landing in the Mississippi Territory. About twelve o'clock this clay, Col. Burr pushed down the river with a bateau and twelve men, and appointed to meet us again at Bayou Pierre ; passed Palmyra at half- past one o'clock'; passed several islands, and landed about fifteen miles below. 11 th. This day pushed off at eight, A. M., and landed at Bayou Pierre at four o'clock, P. M. ; joined Col. Burr and party; had some intention of 188 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. staying at this place some time, but were prevented by a rumor spreading in the country of our intentions being hostile, in consequence of -which a party of militia came and stationed themselves in the woods, some dis tance from our boats, with an intention to stop us the next morning. We being apprised of their intentions, pushed off in the night, and landed four miles below, on the Louisiana shore. 12th. This day were visited by Col. and some of his dragoons,* talked with Col. Burr respecting his business, and went away well satis fied. This day Major Floyd joined us from Natchez. 13th. This day were visited by Col. Fitzpatrick and some of his dra goons ; we brought them over the river; talked with Col. Burr, and seemed well pleased. Col. Fitzpatrick brought with him about sixty men, all armed, in order to stop us ; but on hearing our business, he sent the men home, and left us quietly. 14th. Visited by several militia officers. IQth. Visited by Col. Shields, Gov. Williams's aide-de-camp, who con versed with Col. Burr, and appointed a meeting between him and the Governor, and then departed. 17th. This day Col. Burr started, agreeably to his appointment, to meet the Governor at the mouth of Cole's Creek, with several gentlemen with him. This day was remarkable for a heavy fall of snow, perhaps four inches deep. 18th. The water falling rapidly, we thought it prudent to remove from our situation ; and, agreeably to the orders of Mr. Blennerhassett, two of our boats moved down the river about a mile, being afraid of being blocked in by a bar that was outside of the creek, where we then lay. Wth. This day Col. Fitzpatrick, with some other officers, came on board, and took an inventory of all the stores and property we had on board ; we then pushed off, but were immediately challenged by a Major Flaharty, with about thirty armed men, in a keel-boat, who ordered us to put on shore. Being told that his Colonel was in the rear, and that it was by his sanction we put off, he left, and troubled us no more. That night we put on shore at the Petit Gulf, on the Louisiana side ; Major Flaharty and party immediately opposite, on the other side. 2Qtk. This day, about ten o'clock, in consequence of a very bad land ing, we thought proper to remove our boats up the river, which we effected. This day several boats trading to New Orleans were stopped by Major Flaharty and party, examined, and permitted to proceed. [ The rest of this Journal is in the handwriliny of Harman Blennerhassett.~\ In the evening the Major visited H. B. ; professed friendly intentions, and a determination to join us, with the greater part of his regiment. 2lst. We received news of the approach of a Capt. Davison, with a party of horse, coming, under the orders of Col. Fitzpatrick, to search for concealed arms, supposed to have been secreted in the brush ; during the night a party was sent out by to obviate effectually the success of the design. JOURNAL, CONTINUED. 189 22d. This morning an altercation took place between Majors Floyd and Flaharty, which induced the former to address a letter to the latter in a sort of defiance. This measure having been taken without my approba tion, I informed Major Floyd I would not co-operate with him in any acts he should enter into upon his letter or motives, but should, by myself and my party, resist such conduct on the part of Major Flaharty as I should deem improper, or as occasion required. Major Floyd, I believe, appre hending no attack or removal of our boats from their present station, seemed to yield to my observation, and in the morning made a visit to Major Flaharty, to engage with him in a shooting-match. On his return to the boats, he informed me that Major Flaharty, this evening, expected fresh orders from the Government, to enable him to move our boats down to Cole's Creek. Eleven o'clock at night, there were several shot fired from Major Flaharty's party on boats passing by to bring them to, but without effect. Damage to the boats or their men unknown. This morn ing Col. Comfort Tyler was taken from his boats, by an escort of the militia, to appear before the Governor at Washington, the seat of the Ter ritorial Government, about thirty miles from our station. The officer, Capt. Davison, who made the requisition to Col. Tyler, observed to him that he had no warrant. Col. Tyler agreed to the Governor's wishes with out that requisite. This day Major Flaharty, who can neither read or write, and is not a magistrate, informed me that he had taken and for warded to the Governor the affidavit of a man, who deposed before him. that he had seen, fifty miles above our present position in the Petit Gulf, thirteen of Col. Burr's boats containing arms and ammunition, with an unusual number of men. During several days past, some individuals of our party have been obliged, at Washington, to undergo examination, and enter into recognizance to testify, on the part of the United States, against A. B. at the next federal court, to be held on the first Monday in February. About ten o'clock this morning, Major Floyd communicated to me the following letter, received by Capt. Burney from Major Flaharty : January 23d, 1807. SIR : Not wishing to go to rash measures, I have to inform you that I must comply with the orders of the commander-in-chief, if you keep your present position; and, as I am certain that it can't be injurious to your self nor any of the people with you, I wish you to move opposite the mouth of Cole's Creek, where the communication is more convenient for you and me. You mentioned in your letter to me, yesterday, that you did not wish to put the militia to any more trouble. Your compliance will save the march of two companies that are ready to join me, if called on. I am, with much esteem, Yours, etc., JACOB FLAHARTY, MAJOR FLOYD. Major, 2d Regiment. 190 THE BLENNERIIASSETT PAPERS. On perusal of the above letter, which Flaharty could not write, I ac quainted Major Floyd that if it was worthy of credit in the intimation it held out of the orders of the commander-in-chief, and the truth of his menaced reinforcements of two companies, it might as well answer our present views and situation to comply as to adhere to the determination expressed yesterday, of maintaining our present position ; that, on the other hand, the Governor would be as responsible to us and the law for any impropriety of conduct toward us by the militia, as for any other acts of authority unduly exercised toward us. I therefore suggested to him the substance of the following letter in reply to Flaharty : PETIT GULF, January 23c?, 1807. SIR: Your communication, by the hands of Capt. Burney, I just now had the honor of receiving. You mention your wish for us to move to the mouth of Cole's Creek; the request I would take a pleasure in complying with, had not Col. Burr directed me to stay where we now are until his further commands. I do expect to have a messenger from Col. Burr to-day, perhaps time enough to move down this evening. At all events, we will determine, to-morrow morning (23d), what step will be proper for us to take. Report says, the officer commanding the district opposite you is determined to prevent the commanding officer of the Mississippi Territory from interfering with the jurisdiction of the Territory of Orleans. This report, if true, may be proper for you to be informed of. At all events, we are awaiting a legal investigation into our conduct ; and I contend that, during that investigation, and while we are, properly speaking, in the hands of its authority, the military law has no right to interfere. I am, Respectfully, etc., DAVIS FLOYD. MAJOR FLAHARTY. This letter, by means of the unfounded suggestion, submitted to Major Floyd, of the jealousy of the people on the Louisiana side, of any en croachments on their jurisdiction, or by other matter it contained, pre vented Flaharty from carrying his declarations into effect, if he really had authority under orders from the Governor so to do ; and he was re moved from his post opposite to us the following morning (24th), on the arrival of Col. Fitzpatrtck, who substituted only a party of ten men, under the command of Capt. Abrams, with orders to board boats civilly, without firing upon them, and seize only such arms and ammunition as they might contain. Col. Burr, this day, returned to the boats from Washington, where he had remained since the 17th under a voluntary submission to the civil authority, which had been exacted of him at Cole's Creek, on his reception there on the 17th by Mead, at the head of five or six hundred of the militia, half armed and generally discontented, in disregard of the DEMORALIZATION. 191 connection that had been entered into by Mead and himself. The Acting- Governor, it now appeared, had threatened him with all the armed force of the country unless he submitted. No securities, however, were required for his appearance at the adjourned Federal Court, to be holden on the first Monday in February. His own single recognizance was taken, in the sum of dollars. Accordingly, his return to the boats was free. I soon heard from him that Mr. Mead had received dispatches announcing the statements by Flaharty of what had passed between him and Major Floyd, which so exasperated the Governor, that he threatened to have Floyd brought to him in irons, but was induced to retract his menaces on learn ing Flaharty's character to be fraught with the utmost ignorance and assurance, while Major Floyd's temper was both mild and amiable. Col. Burr also acquainted me with the indignation the Federal Judge, Rodney, had expressed at the exercise of the military law over Col. Burr and his friends, both in the Mississippi and Orleans Territories ; the Judge assur ing him, in opposition to the U. S. Attorney, Mr. Poindexter, that the civil authority of the Territory was competent to try him ; adding, at the same time, that if Wilkinson, or any other military force, should attempt to remove his person out of the Mississippi Territory, prior to his trial, he, the Judge, would again, as he expressed it, put on old '"76," and march out in support of Col. Burr and the Constitution. This day, about three o'clock in the afternoon, my family arrived in the boat of Mr. Thomas Butler, who, having, on his way from Pittsburgh, called to take them on board at my house, on the Ohio, there underwent, with eight or ten other gentlemen, a captivity for three days, diversified in its scenes by a mock trial, in my hall, alternate insult and plunder, committed in common on them, my family and property, in a variety of particulars, for which I refer to Mr. Neville's journal. 2,5th. Nothing material occurred till eight o'clock at night, when we cast off to drop down about twenty-six miles, to Cole's Creek, opposite which we took another station on the Orleans shore. Here we remained, without any material prospect of a change in our affairs, till the 27th, when we heard that intelligence had reached Mississippi Territory that Col. B.'s drafts on New York had been protested, and that Gov. Williams, who had returned to resume the functions of his office in the Mississippi Territory, was reported to be friendly disposed toward us. Col. B. determined to visit the Governor, and set out next morning (28th) for that purpose, and to prepare, probably, for his trial on the following Monday. Reports now reached us of the near approach to Natchez of a division of nine or ten gun-boats, under the command of Commodore Shaw, bearing a special order from the "Secretary of the Navy" to take Col. Burr, or the next in com mand uncj^r him, and to take or destroy all the boats under his command. By this time the effects of general disorder and want of regulation in the use or distribution of liquors and provisions, with a total disregard of all pretense at authority whenever attempted to be assumed by superiors, 192 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. which had long since manifested themselves throughout all our numbers, now openly broke out among particular leaders, who even threatened to turn out of their boats the provisions, in payment for the demands of some of the men who had become discontented and threatened to leave us. 2Qth. Nothing occurred till 2d of February, when the Court at Washing ton had not that day charged the grand jury, who, of course, had not found any bill against Col. Burr, owing to objections, I suppose, made by the Attorney-General, to the jurisdiction of the Court over actions done by Col. Burr, without the limits of their Territory. Next day (Feb. 3d), Mr. N. brought me intelligence of the arrival of Graham at Washington, and of his having had an interview with Col. Burr. YOUNG AMERICA. 198 CHAPTER IX. MORGAN NEVILLE and William Robinson, jun., with a party of fourteen young men, early in December, em barked from Pittsburgh, in a flat-boat. Most of these were sons of gentlemen of affluence and ease, who knew but little of the realities of life, farther than was learned within the walls of an academy. They had proceeded down the river, as far as Parkers- burg, when their boat was driven on the shore by the ice during the night, and they were espied by the Wood county militia, and the whole party arrested as accomplices of Burr. With " savage magnificence," they were escorted to the island, to await the return of Col. Phelps, who was then absent, at Point Pleasant, in an ineffectual attempt to arrest Blennerhassett. Somewhat chagrined at their luckless adventure, so far, the young men endeavored to pass their time as pleasantly as possible, by ridiculing the militia, and threatening them with the strong arm of the law. But the intrepid captors were not to be deterred from duty. They parried the sarcasm of their adversaries, and occasionally retorted with considerable effect. The impertinence of the captives, at length, becoming insup portable, three justices of the peace were sent for, to 13 194 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. institute an examination into the facts, to commit for further trial, or acquit, the young men, as the evidence might warrant. They were accordingly arraigned, and, after a full investigation of the facts, mostly upon the evidence of the young men themselves, the court acquitted them of all hostile designs against the United States. "During the trial, the moh-spirit of the militia began to run riot, and, by the time it was ended, all was con fusion. The well-stored cellars of the mansion began to pour forth their riches ; drunkenness ensued ; fences were torn down, to pile upon the blazing fire of the sen tinels ; the shrubbery was trampled under foot." In the midst of this scene of confusion, Mrs. Blenner- hassett returned from her unsuccessful visit to Marietta, whither she had gone to procure the family boat of Blennerhassett. A scene of such desolation and ruin of all that was fair and beautiful, and around which her young affections had clung with fond associations, was calculated to crush a heart whose native character was remarkable for its strong attachments to the objects of its love ; but she had long since resigned her beautiful abode, for the more tempting lands which her imagina tion had dressed in fancy's brightest colors, where serener skies and gayer flowers " shed their mingled delights " over the perennial green of nature's bosom. The suc cessful issue of the expedition was to her a matter of weightier moment than all other considerations; and, thus it was, she remained unmoved amid the general wreck of her fair possessions, by the ruthless mob. COL. PHELPS. 195 Her situation, however, was one of painful embarrass ment. Blennerhassett, having departed in haste, with out making arrangements for her voyage, and the refusal of the authorities, at Marietta, to deliver her the boat, constructed for that especial purpose, left her, for a time, in almost hopeless despair of joining her husband at the appointed place. The weather had been intensely cold, and the fast-accumulating ice, in the Ohio, appeared to forbid a re-union with Blennerhassett until the following spring, when, in all probability, she could only find him in the Spanish dominions. It was, therefore, with feel ings of mingled gratitude and pleasure that she accepted the proffer of a room in the boat of Thomas Butler, one of the young men, who promised to make the accommo dations as comfortable to herself and children as the circumstances of her situation would permit. During the course of the evening, Col. Phelps returned from his tour across" the country. In this unexpected arrival, the young men had new cause of anxiety and alarm. They had congratulated themselves upon their successful defeat of the functionaries of the law, which they attributed mainly to their superior tact in mystify ing their judges, and intimidating their accusers ; but here was one who could not be duped by sophistical reasoning, or swerved from his duty by the fear of con sequences. Although dressed in the usual style of the backwoodsmen of that day, the careless manner in which he wore his garb added gracefulness to a form both attractive and commanding. They recognized in him, an individual of physical as well as intellectual superi 196 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. ority, and therefore wisely concluded to assume a differ ent bearing from that they oefore had observed toward their captors and judges.* In a thoughtful and classic attitude, he surveyed the destruction of the premises, and the evident marks of bacchanalian revelry, by which the party under his com mand had disgraced themselves ; then, turning upon them a look of withering rebuke, he spoke in such terms of in dignation as caused them to shrink with fear and trepi dation. " Shame ! men," he exclaimed ; " shame on such conduct ! You have disgraced your district, and the cause in which you are concerned ! " To the party of strangers, however, he was courteous and attentive. They soon ascertained that they had no cause to apprehend the frustration of their plans by Col. Phelps ; indeed, so far from that, he willingly acceded to their wishes, in permitting the departure of Mrs. Blen- nerhassett, and proffered his services, in accelerating her arrangements to go to her husband, who, he said, he knew could never return to her. To Mrs. Blennerhassett he expressed his deep sense of mortification, for the riot- * The following anecdote of him, related by General Cass, in his work styled " France, its King, Court and Government," is perfectly character istic. He says : " I recollect a similar incident, which took place in a small village upon the banks of the Ohio. The court was in session, and the presiding officer was a Colonel P , a man of great resolution, and of herculean frame. A person entered the court cabin, and, by his noise, put a stop to the pro ceedings. He was ordered out, and the sheriff attempted to remove him : but he put himself upon his reserved rights, and made such a vigorous re sistance that the officer retired from the contest. Colonel P , there upon, descended from the bench, coolly took off his coat, gave 'he brawler a severe beating, and, after putting him out of his house, resumed his garment and his seat, and continued his judicial functions." DESERTION. 197 ous acts of his misguided men, and assured her, of what she was already aware, that if he had been present, the shameful act would not have occurred. " Early next morning, Mrs. Blennerhassett commenced her preparations for a final farewell of the island Eden, where, for eight years, she had been the presiding genius. Her energy and zeal were such, that, in a few hours, she took possession of the humble chamber prepared for her in the boat, and, by the assistance of Col. Phelps, who rivaled the young men in courtesy, the necessary stores and furniture were embarked. On the 17th day of De cember, the boat swung from the shore, lashed to another of the same class, belonging to A. "W. Putnam, of BelpreY' In the latter part of December, they passed the mouth of the Cumberland, where it was expected she would join her husband; but, as we before have shown, he had passed out of the Ohio into the waters of the rapid Mis sissippi, and moored at the entrance of Bayou Pierre. Early in January, she was restored, with her children, to Blennerhassett, who received them with that deep-felt affection which a parent and husband can only appreciate. The situation of Burr and Blennerhassett had now become one of painful ^ anxiety. It was evident, from surrounding circumstances, that the strong hands of the general and State governments had become too powerful for the small forces under their command. Burr saw that he was the "victim of bad faith." Those who had favored the enterprise at first, and gave him to understand that their aid could be relied on, abandoned their designs, upon the issuing of the President's proclamation. The authorities of the States and Territories bordering on the 198 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Ohio and Mississippi rivers had ordered out the militia, for the apprehension of the parties ; and, from Pittsburgh to the Gulf, the most rigid measures had been adopted, to give an effectual check to the further progress of the expedition. As for Blennerhassett, his situation was cheerless in the extreme. For Burr, had he abandoned his home with all its endearments, his books, his studies, his property, and, withal, was deeply involved for debts contracted for the enterprise. As if the furies were not yet satiated in their revenge, he was hunted and pursued, as a malefac tor, and momentarily expected the chi-lling touch of the officer of the law, to summon him to justice. On a dark and dreary night, in the month of January, as the flotilla pushed slowly from the landing at Petit Gulf, might have been observed the master-spirit of the expedition, seated on a rough stool, in the inclement cabin of a flat-boat, lighted' only by the cheerless rays of a solitary candle, and the decaying embers of a rudely- constructed fireplace. With his face buried in his hands, while his elbows rested on a table of unplaned boards, he who had heretofore braved the disappointments which had attended his undertaking, with a fortitude that astonished, while it gave confidence to, his followers, now sat gloomy and dejected. Upon what he mused is beyond human ken; but, starting suddenly from his revery, he caught up an axe, and directed his attendant to make an opening in the side of the boat. Through this, in the silence of the night, when he supposed there was none to witness, the chests of arms for the expedition were silently sunk beneath the waters of the Mississippi. POINDEXTER. 199 CHAPTER X. COWLES MEAD, secretary of the Mississippi Territory, performing the duties of Governor, had, on the third day of December, 1806, issued his proclamation for the arrest of " the Burr conspirators ; " and, at the same time, call ing on the officers of the Government to take the oath of fidelity to the United States. To this proclamation, Burr, on the 12th of January, 1807, replied in a letter of some length, in which he disavowed any designs hostile to the tranquillity of the country, stating that his only object was a peaceable settlement of the lands of his new purchase. " If the alarm which has been excited," he remarks, " should not be appeased by this declaration, I invite my fellow- citizens to visit me at this place (Bayou Pierre), and to receive from me, in person, such further explanations as may be necessary to their satisfaction, presuming that when my views are understood, they will receive the countenance of all good men." This letter, he requested, might be read to the militia, who, he under stood, were assembled for his arrest. Having moved his boats to the western margin of the Mississippi river, a short distance below Bayou Pierre, he was visited by George Poindexter, Esq., the Attorney General of the Territory, who had been appointed by Mead as an honorary aid-de-camp for the arrest of the 200 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. parties. The object of this visit was to gain correct in formation as to the situation of Burr ; to ascertain his views, so far as they might be communicated; and to procure his peaceful surrender to the civil authorities. Major Shields, who accompanied Poindexter, delivered to Burr the following letter from the Acting-Governor : WASHINGTON, January 15fA, 1807. SIR : Your approach to this country has excited not only the apprehensions of the General Government, but alarmed, in a high degree, the good citizens of this Ter ritory. From these causes I have ordered my militia to rendezvous at such places as will enable them to guard this Territory against any design inimical to this govern ment; but having heard, through Col. Waldridge, that you profess perfect innocence of the views charged to you, I hav.e thought proper to send to you a confidential aid-de-camp, to receive from you such information on this subject as you may please to make. He will com municate freely with you, and you may implicitly confide in every assurance which he may make in my name. I have the honor to be, Your humble servant, COWLES MEAD. To Col. A. Burr. P. S. The gentleman attending Major Shields, is an honorary aid, and one who likewise possesses my fullest confidence. Mr. Poindexter, though a high civil officer, visits you as my aid. Yours, etc., COWLES MEAD. SURRENDER. 201 The sentence relating to guarding the Territory against any designs inimical to the Government, Burr repeated with a sneer, adding that he had no intention to injure the citizens of the United States. "As to any projects or plans," he continued, " which may have been formed between General Wilkinson and myself, heretofore, they are now completely frustrated by the perfidious conduct of Wilkinson ; and the world must pronounce him a per fidious villain. If I am sacrificed, my portfolio will prove him to be such." He stated further, that, so far from having any designs hostile to the citizens of the United States, he intended to have met Mr. Mead, at 'Port Gib son, on the day of the general muster, which happened at that place about the time of his arrival at Bayou Pierre ; but was deterred from so doing, by the belief that he would be assassinated, if seen passing through the Territory. Mr. Poindexter then requested him to surrender him self peaceably to the civil authorities ; stating that, un less he did, the Governor would certainly arrest him by force. Burr declared his willingness at all times to sub mit, and proposed that an interview should take place between himself and the Acting- Governor, at some con venient place, on the next day ; claiming protection from personal violence in the mean time. Stipulations were entered into, by which it was agreed that Burr should be returned to his boats, if Mead should not accept of his surrender ; that his flotilla should re main in the position it then occupied, until after the pro posed interview should have taken place ; and that, in 202 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the mean while, his men should commit no breach of the peace, or violate any law of the United States or Missis sippi Territory. The place designated for the conference was the house of Thomas Calvert, a respectable citizen of the Territory, who resided near the mouth of Cole's Creek, where the detachment of militia which descended the river was stationed. Burr, accordingly, on the seventeenth day of January, dropped down the river as far as Thomas Calvert's, ac companied by Col. Fitzpatrick, who directed him to be taken in charge by Captain Davidson's company of dra goons. Here he was joined, according to appointment, by Mead ; when further stipulations were required as to the terms of his surrender. These were, first, that the agreement entered into, for the purpose of procuring that interview, should be declared void. Secondly, that Burr should give himself- up, unconditionally, to the civil authority. And, thirdly, that his boats should be searched, and all military stores and apparatus found on board be disposed of, as the Executive should think fit. To these terms, the Acting-Governor required Burr's unequivocal reply, in fifteen minutes ; and, if not agreed to, he was to be instantly returned to his boats, and the militia ordered to seize the whole party by force. As there was no chance of escape, the conditions were accepted of and carried into effect. Burr declared his unwillingness to fall into the hands of Wilkinson, and requested, if any attempt should be made to arrest him by a military force from iN"ew Orleans, that it miglit be opposed. He was conducted to the town of Washington, THE JURY. 203 where lie was delivered over to the custody of the law, and the examination of the witnesses immediately com menced hefore Judge Eodney. Mr. Poindexter was called on, in his official capacity as attorney-general, to give his written opinion as to the course which ought to be pursued. He, accordingly, fur nished an able argument against any attempt to try the accused in the courts of the Territory. He stated that they had no evidence to convict him of any offense com mitted in Mississippi ; that the Supreme Court of the Territory, to which a jury was about to be summoned, had no original jurisdiction of any prosecution, and could only take cognizance of law reserved at the trial in the Circuit Court. It was his opinion, therefore, that Burr should be sent to the city of Washington, where the Su preme Court of the United States would be in session ; and the judges, attending from every part of the Union, could direct him to be tried in the District, where, from the evidence, it might appear that an overt act of treason had been committed. But Judge Rodney thought differently ; and a venire facias was issued, requiring the attendance of seventy-six jurors, at an adjourned session of the Supreme Court of the Mississippi Territory, to be held in February. From the number attending, at the appointed time, a grand jury of twenty -three persons was selected, who received a charge from the judge and were adjourned until the next day. The following morning, a motion was made, by the attorney-general, to discharge the grand jury ; first, be cause the court did not possess original jurisdiction in any 204 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. case ; secondly, because the depositions, submitted to his inspection, did not furnish sufficient evidence to convict Burr of the offenses with which he was charged, so as to bring them within the Mississippi Territory ; and, thirdly, that a warrant might issue, transmitting the accused to a court having competent jurisdiction, to try and punish him, if guilty of the crime alleged against him. The court being divided on this motion, it was, in conse quence, overruled, and the grand jury retired. The attorney-general, thereupon, determined to prefer no in dictment, and left the court-room. r H In the afternoon the jury returned with the following presentments : "The grand jury of the Mississippi Territory, on a due investigation of the evidence brought before them, are of opinion that Aaron Burr has not been guilty of any crime or misdemeanor against the laws of the United States, or of this Territory ; or given any just cause of alarm or inquietude to the good people of the same. " The grand jurors present, as a grievance, the late military expedition, unnecessarily, as they conceive, fitted out against the person and property of the said Aaron Burr, when no resistance had been made to the civil authorities. " The grand jurors also present, as a grievance, destruct ive of -personal liberty, the late military arrests,* made without warrant, and, as they conceive, without other lawful authority; and they do sincerely regret that so much cause has been given to the enemies of our glorious * The arrests of Bollman, Swartwout, Ogden and others, at New Orleans, on suspicion of being engaged in the expedition. SUSPENSE. 205 Constitution, to rejoice at such measures being adopted, in a neighboring Territory, as, if sanctioned by the Ex ecutive of our country, must sap the vitals of our polit ical existence, and crumble this glorious fabric in the dust." The attorney-general declared his astonishment at such unwarrantable presentments by the grand jury, and, in forming the court that he should take no notice of them, retired. Judge Rodney strongly reprobated such conduct on the part of the jury, and, after rating them in no very mild terms, dismissed them without delay. In the evening of the day on which the court sat, Burr visited the house of Colonel Osborne. He had asked to be discharged from his recognizance, as he had fully com plied with its terms ; but, learning that it was the inten tion of Gov. Williams to seize on his person the moment he was discharged by judicial authority, he requested John Dana, one of his force from Belpre*, with two others, to convey him, in a boat, to a point about twenty miles from Bayou Pierre, whence he could escape across the country. Before leaving, he hastily advised Mrs. Blennerhassett of the result of the investigation, as follows : WASHINGTON, January 3Ist, 1807. MRS. M. BLENNERHASSETT : Our persons and our property are safe from violence and from pursuit. It is with regret and mortification that I acknowledge, that, at present, nothing more can be said ; yet there is reason to hope for something more, for permission (how humiliating ! ) to go on to Washita. My presence is necessary here, and will be so for three 206 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. or four days. The separation from my friends is extremely irksome and painful. Adieu. A. BURR. Procuring a boatman's dress, in which to disguise him self, he proceeded on his tour. Upon hearing of his escape, Williams issued a proclamation, offering two thousand dollars for his apprehension and safe delivery to the proper authorities. A few days afterward, a negro boy was discovered near the mouth of Cole's Creek, oppo site which the boats were stationed, riding on a horse which belonged to Burr, and having on his surtout coat. These circumstances created a suspicion; the boy was searched, and, sowed up in the cape of his coat, was found a note to the following effect : " If you are yet together, keep so, and I will join you to-morrow night. In the mean while, put all your arms in perfect order. Ask no questions of the bearer, but tell him all you may think I wish to know. He does not know that this is from me, nor where I am." To C. T. and D. F * From Blennerhassett' s journal it appears that, to add to their discomfiture, they learned that Burr's drafts on New York had been returned protested. General disorder reigned among his followers, who having indulged to ex cess in the use of ardent spirits, and witnessing the total destruction of his enterprise, had thrown off all authority, and threatened to appropriate the supplies in compensa tion for their wages. In consequence of the discovery of Burr's letter to * Comfort Tyler and Davis Floyd. MORE ARRESTS. 207 Tyler and Floyd, the men were arrested and placed under guard, where they were detained until the alarm was over. Many, if not all of them, were permitted occa sionally to walk about, free of restraint, on their parole of honor. In the mean while, several arrests of the supposed ac complices of Burr had been made at Fort Adams and New Orleans. Among the number were Bollman, Ogden, Swartwout, Adair, Dayton, Smith and Alexander, against whom the most rigid and unjustifiable authority had been exercised by General Wilkinson; in many cases upon bare suspicion, and without resistance at any time to civil authority. General Adair, who had arrived at New Orleans on the 10th of January, was besieged by one hundred and twenty men, under command of Lieu tenant-Colonel Kingsbury, accompanied by one of Wil kinson's aids. They seized upon him while at dinner in a public-house, dragged him from the table, and con ducted him to head-quarters, where he was placed in confinement, and secreted, until an opportunity offered to convey him away.* It was even attempted, in the Legis lature of Louisiana, at the suggestion of the Governor, * An Irish gentleman of wit and humor happened to be confined in prison for debt, when it was announced to him by one of the officials, that Gen. Adair was in the adjoining room. He immediately struck up in a full musical voice, to the tune of Robin Adair : " Ye are welcome to Orleans, Johnny Adair, Ye are welcome to Orleans, Johnny Adair! How does little Aaron do ? And Irish Blanny, too? Why did'nt they come with you, Johnny Adair I 208 THE BLEKNERHASSETT PAPERS. to suspend the writ of habeas corpus that inestimable guarantee to the liberties of every American citizen, more effectually to aid the harsher application of mili tary law and military dictation. Toward the writs of habeas corpus, issued by the courts, to bring the accused parties before them, Wilkinson ob served the most profound contempt. So ineffectual was the process of the courts, in bringing either the prisoners or Wilkinson before them, that Judge Workman recom mended to the Governor, that Wilkinson should be opposed by force of arms. He stated that the violent measures of that officer had produced great discontent, alarm and agitation in the public mind ; and unless such proceedings were effectually opposed, all confidence in Government would be at an end. He urged the Governor to revoke the order, by which he had placed the Orleans volunteers under Wilkinson's command, and to call out and arm the rest of the militia as soon as possible. He stated it as his opinion, that an army would not oppose the civil power, when constitutionally brought forth, or that if they did, the Governor might soon have men enough to render the opposition ineffectual.* Eb satisfactory answer having been made to Workman by the Governor, he again addressed him on the subject. It was notorious, he remarked, that the commander-in- chief of the military forces had, by his own authority, arrested several citizens for civil offenses, and avowed on record, that he had adopted means to send them out of the Territory, openly declaring his determination to usurp * Martin's History of Louisiana. DILEMMA. 209 the functions of the judiciary, by making himself the only judge of the guilt of the persons he suspected, and asserting in the same manner, and without contradiction, that his measures were taken after several consultations with the Governor. Although a common case would not require the step he was taking, yet he deemed it his duty, before any decisive measure was pursued against him, who had all the regular force, and, in pursuance of the Governor's public orders, a great part of the Territory at his disposal, to ask whether the executive had the ability to enforce the decrees of the court of the county ; and if he had, whether he would deem it expedient to do it in the pres ent instance ; or whether the allegations, by which Wil kinson supported the violent measures, were well founded. " Not only the conduct and power of "Wilkinson," he continued, " but various other circumstances peculiar to our present situation the alarm excited in the public mind, the description and character of a large part of the population of the country might render it dangerous in the highest degree to adopt the measure usual in ordinary cases, of calling to the aid of the sheriff the posse comi- tatus, unless it was done with the assurance of being sup ported by the Governor in an efficient manner." The letter concluded by requesting a precise and speedy answer to the preceding inquiries, and an assurance that if certain of 'the Governor's support, the judge would forthwith punish, as the law directed, the contempt offered to the court. On the other hand, should the Governor think it impracticable to afford the required aid, the court and its officers would no longer remain 14 210 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. exposed to the contempt or insults of a man whom they were unable to punish or resist. The same silence and indifference having been observed by the Governor toward the last, as toward his former communication, "Workman resigned his office as he had before indicated.* Burling, who had been sent to Mexico, returned, with out having accomplished the object of his mission. It appears that, instead of his being sent " to penetrate the veil which concealed the topographical route to the city of Mexico, and the military defenses which intervened," as alleged by Wilkinson, he was, on the contrary, com missioned to display to the viceroy the great pecuniary sacrifices made by that general, to frustrate the plan of invasion meditated by the Ex-Vice-President against the kingdom of Mexico, and to solicit, in consideration of such important services, a pretty round sum of at least two hundred thousand dollars.^ Don Joseph de Yturrigaray received this communica tion with due contempt and indignation, bidding his in terpreter to tell Mr. Burling that General Wilkinson, in counteracting any treasonable plan of Mr. Burr, did no more than comply with his duty ; that he, the viceroy, would take good care to defend the kingdom of Mexico against any attack or invasion ; and that he did not think himself authorized to give one farthing to Gen. Wilkin son, in compensation for his pretended services. He, thereupon, ordered Burling to leave the city of Mexico, * Martin's History of Louisiana. t Correspondence of Maria Ines Jauregui de Yturrigaray, Vice-queen. Davis' s Life of Burr, vol. ii, p. 401. INCREDULITY. 211 . and had him safely escorted to the port of Yera Cruz, where he embarked for l^ew Orleans. On the seventh of December, previous, Wilkinson had dispatched Lieutenant Swann, of the army, to Jamaica, with a letter to the officer commanding the naval force on that station, informing him of Burr's plans, and that a report was afloat that the aid of a British naval arma ment had been either promised or applied for : he there fore warned him, and all other British military and naval officers, that their interference, or any co-operation on their part, would be considered as highly injurious to the United States, and affecting the then present amicable relations between the two nations. The communication concluded with a hope, that the British government would refrain from any interference, and prevent indi viduals from affording aid to the enterprise; assuring him that the writer would, with all the force under his command, resist any effort of a foreign power to favor Burr's projects. To this Admiral Drake replied, that, from the style and manner in which the communication was written, he was at a loss how to answer it ; but begged him, Wilkin son, to be assured, that British ships of war would never be employed in any improper service, and that he should ever be ready most cheerfully to obey the orders of his sovereign. Sir Eyre Coote trusted, and sincerely be lieved, the representations made to Wilkinson were to tally groundless, as his letter contained the only intelli gence received on the subject.* * Martin's History of Louisiana. 212 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Bollman and Swartwout were conducted to the city of Washington for trial. After having been imprisoned, for some time, on the charge of treason, as joint-conspira tors with Burr, they were discharged from confinement, by order of the Supreme Court, as the evidence was not sufficient to retain them longer in custody. Ogden and Alexander were transported to Baltimore, as accomplices in the same crime. The former of these was taken before a magistrate, in the city, and set at lib erty for want of sufficient proof. The latter was released, in "Washington, whither he had been recently conducted, because of the improper averment of the offense. Blennerhassett, having learned that Graham, while in the vicinity of the island, had obtained the affidavit of Col. Phelps, which, among others, had been forwarded to the President, addressed him the following letter : DOUGLAS FERRY, Feb. 24, 1807. J. GRAHAM, ESQ. : SIR : Having heard, from respectable authority, that you have forwarded to the President an affidavit of Hugh Phelps, wherein he deposed that I had imparted to him certain views or objects, in which I participated with Col. Burr, hostile to the United States, or to some of the Spanish dominions, I am naturally led to inquire how far I may inflame or abate the persecution, with which I am honored by the Government or its agents, by proposing to you to forward another affidavit, to the same quar ter, deposing that Col. Phelps had declared, soon after the only interview I had with him, that I did not commu nicate to him the object. I can not pretend to state the PROTESTATION. 213 facts that may appear on the face of the affidavits on either side, until such documents come forward, any more than the tenor of fifty other affidavits or testimonies I can procure from my neighbors of respectable character, who will testify to the very contrary of what Col. Phelps has done men, all of them, possessing my good opinion, and believing Mr. Phelps is the last man in the world I would venture a secret with, if I had any. Provided, sir, with such means of counteracting the evidence of Mr. Phelps, or any other that may be ad duced against me, I can have no other solicitude for the issue of an arraignment any where than the intervening distress in which my family will be thereby involved. But as this nor any other consideration shall ever influ ence me to shrink from investigation, I now, sir, invite, through you, all the justice or persecution of the Grovern- ment. Why, or how, I may have become personally ob noxious to them, or to yourself, the public may hereafter understand. But if I am singled out as an early victim or example, I shall wish not to be severed from my family, by being thrown on board a prison ship, while I tender security for my appearance at the city of Washing ton or elsewhere, whenever it may be required. I request your answer, and with due consideration, I remain, sir, your obedient servant, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. Blennerhassett was arrested and recognized to appear at the next District Court for the Territory of Mississippi, where we shall leave him for the present, to follow the fortunes of Burr. 214 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. CHAPTER XI. LATE at night, about the last of February, Burr, with a companion, arrived at a small log tavern, in what is now the village of Wakefield, in Washington county, Alabama. Without alighting, he called at the door, and inquired of the inmates if Colonel Hinson resided in the neigh borhood. Receiving for answer that he did, they further informed him that the house was seven miles distant ; the road to be traveled, obscure and difficult ; and a deep and turbid creek lay in the route. 'Nothing daunted, he eagerly sought information as to the forks, and directions' as to crossing the stream. This having been communi cated, he put spurs to his horse, leaving the observers involved in astonishment. Near midnight, the glimmering of a light, through the distant trees, directed the travelers to the rude but com fortable quarters of Colonel Hinson. Having hailed and received no answer, they dismounted and entered the kitchen, where the remaining embers in the fireplace were soon kindled into a comfortable blaze. Seating himself before it, Burr left his companion to take charge of the horses, and had just begun to feel comfortable, when he was interrupted by a stranger, who, he con cluded, had ridden till late to reach desirable lodgings. But in this he was mistaken. The real cause of his HESITATION. 215 appearance, at this unseasonable hour, originated in Burr's mysterious departure from the inn. As it after ward appeared, Colonel Nicholas Perkins observed, by the light of the fire, as Burr sat upon his horse, that, although he was coarsely dressed, yet he possessed a countenance of unusual intelligence ; an eye of sparkling brilliancy ; and a demeanor wholly unsuited to the garb he wore. The tidy boot, in particular, which his vanity could not surrender, with his other articles of finer cloth ing, attracted Perkins's attention, and led him to con clude that the gentleman before him was none other than the famous Colonel Burr, described in the proclamation of the Governor. Perkins immediately started after Theodore Bright- well, the sheriff, who occupied an adjacent cabin ; and, awakening him from his slumbers, hurriedly communi cated the circumstances of the traveler's appearance, conversation and departure, and requested him to join him in the pursuit of the parties. Bright well consented ; and the two, mounting their horses, took the road to Hinson's. The night was cold and windy, and the moan- ings of the lofty pines, along the solitary road, rendered their journey gloomy and inauspicious. Still they pressed on; for the object of their pursuit was of no small im portance, at that particular time, to the minions of the Government. As they arrived in sight of the illuminated dwelling, Perkins, recollecting that the travelers had seen him at the tavern, declined entering, but sent Brightwell, whom he requested to return to him, at a certain place in the woods, after he had ascertained whether or not the suspicious individual was Aaron Burr. 216 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. As Brightwell called at the door, his voice was recog nized by Mrs. Hinson, who was his relative, and who until now had remained silent in another room, through fear of the strangers, in the absence of her husband. She soon prepared something to eat for her unknown guests. As Burr seated himself at the table, he thanked her, in the most courteous terms, for her kindness, and apolo gized for the trouble he had imposed upon her. His con versation was sprightly and agreeable, so much so, indeed, that Mrs. Hinson soon discovered that the gentleman and his attire did not correspond. His attention was often directed to Brightwell, who stood before the fire, and at whom he cast the keenest glances, evidently endeavoring to read his thoughts. A momentary separation having taken place during the night, between Burr and his com panion, at the suggestion of Brightwell, the latter was asked by Mrs. Hinson if she had the honor of entertain ing, as her guest, the celebrated Col. Burr. Fearing to make the disclosure, the man remained silent, and shortly after left the room. Early in the morning, Burr privately communicated to Mrs. Hinson his real name, and regretted the absence of her husband, whom he had seen at Natchez, and with whom he had promised himself to remain a week ; but that, as he was detected, he should prosecute his journey. After inquiring the route to Pensaeola, and Mrs. Car son's ferry on the Tombigbee, he called for writing materials, and indited several letters. His companion, who had been dispatched on the back route, for some purpose, returned about nine o'clock, and the two again set out for the " cut-off,'' not very far distant. RE-ARREST. 217 For some unaccountable reason, which has never yet been explained, Brightwell neglected to return to Per kins, whom he left highly excited and shivering in the cold. Having remained at his post until his patience was exhausted, and supposing that Brightwell, probably on account of the fascinations of Burr, or the pity which had seized him, in his behalf, had betrayed their plans, Perkins mounted his horse, and rode rapidly to the house of Joseph Bates, at Nannanhubby Bluff, to avoid the creek which intervened on the main route to Fort Stod- dart. Here he was furnished with a canoe, and a negro to navigate it, and, descending the Tombigbee, arrived at the military station early in the morning. The late Gen eral Edmund P. Gaines was then the lieutenant in com mand. Perkins briefly acquainted him with the particulars of the preceding night's adventure, and of his suspicions, which, although of slight foundation, had nevertheless impressed him with solid convictions of truth. Placing himself at the head of a file of mounted soldiers, the lieutenant started in pursuit, accompanied by Perkins. They shortly encountered the object of their search, with his traveling companion, and the sheriff, Brightwell. The parties having met, Lieutenant Gaines accosted one of the strangers, remarking, that he presumed he had the honor of addressing Colonel Burr. " I am a traveler," answered Burr, " and in a strange land, and do not recognize your right to ask such a question." " I arrest you, at the instance of the United States," replied Gaines. " By what authority do you arrest me, a stranger on the highway, on my own private business ? " 218 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. The lieutenant then informed Burr that he was an officer of the United States army, and held in his hand the proclamation of the President, as well as that of the Governor of the Mississippi Territory, directing his arrest. Burr asked him if he was aware of the responsibility of arresting a traveler ; to which Gaines answered, that he was perfectly aware of his duties, in the premises, and should endeavor to perform them. Burr then entered into a brief argument to show that these proclamations should never have been issued, and that in following their dictates, the lieutenant would be subjecting himself to much damage and blame. His manner was firm ; his air majestic ; and his language impressive ; but the resolute young officer told him his mind was made up ; the prisoner must accompany him to his quarters, where he would be treated with all the respect due the Ex-Vice-President of the United States, so long as he made no attempt to escape. He was then conducted toward Fort Stoddart, where the parties ar rived in the evening, and an apartment being assigned the prisoner, he took his dinner alone. Late at night, a groaning was heard in an adjoining room. Burr arose, opened the door, and ascertained that George S. Gaines was suffering from severe indisposition. He approached the sufferer's bed and kindly offered his services, as he had traveled much, and had some knowl edge of medicine. They soon entered into a sprightly conversation in regard to the state of the country, and particularly on the subject of the Choctaw Indians, among whom Gaines lived, as United States factor. The next day, being introduced to the wife of the command- A HARD ROAD. 219 ant, who was a daughter of the late Judge Toulman, Burr dined with the family, and enlivened the company with his wit and elegant discourse. In the evening, he played chess with Mrs. Graines, with whom he was often a frequent competitor in that interesting game. Of nights, he sought the company of the invalid, who be came exceedingly attached to his society. During their midnight conversations, how often would the good heart of his auditor grieve over the misfortunes of Burr. But it was a remarkable fact, that, as often and long as they were together, this unfortunate man never once alluded to his arrest, his troubles, or his future plans. From his early youth, it had been his custom to conceal things in relation to himself, and he always endeavored to throw an air of mystery over his acts. After Burr had been secured, as a prisoner at Fort Stoddart, Perkins departed for Wakefield, and caused the arrest of his traveling companion, who proved to be Major Ashley. He was placed under a guard, from whom he escaped and made his way to Tennessee, where he afterward made himself serviceable to his friend, in collecting evidence in his behalf for the trial at Rich mond. Three weeks had passed away since the arrest of the distinguished prisoner, and still the lieutenant had been unable to convey him to the seat of the general govern ment for trial. The difficulties were great, and, for a time, the undertaking appeared impracticable. In those days, there were comparatively no roads, no ferries, and few men could be found, in that sparsely-settled country, who would undertake a journey so long and perilous, 220 THE BLENNEKHASSETT PAPERS. over savage lands. The inclemency of the weather, at that season of the year, added much to the unpleasant ness of the tour, and, with many, formed an insuperable objection, as they must, necessarily, for want of houses of accommodation, be exposed, both night and day, to the vicissitudes of the month of March. At last, Burr left the fort, under guard, and proceeded, in a govern ment boat, up the Alabama river, into the Tensaw lake, accompanied by Lieutenant Gaines, and stopped at the house of John Mills. The ladies of the house, seeing the strait to which Burr was reduced, wept, through sym pathy for his misfortunes. One of the number, it is said, a Mrs. Johnson, named her son in honor of this distin guished individual. He is still alive, and is not the only boy bearing the name of "Aaron Burr" in the State of Mississippi. The ladies every where espoused his cause, in the south-western JSTew World. It is a prominent and noble trait, in female character, to admire a man of dar ing and generous impulses, and to pity and defend him in his adversities. At the boat-yard, in the present county of Baldwin, in the State of Alabama, the crew disembarked, where "William and John Pierce (who introduced the first cotton gins into Alabama) had a trading establishment. Gaines gave the command of the guard to Perkins, and directed him to convey the prisoner to Washington city. His guard consisted of Thomas Malone, of Alabama, Henry B. Slade, of North Carolina, two McCormacks, of Ken tucky, and two United States' soldiers. They were all men whom Perkins selected, and upon whom he could rely in any contingency. He took them aside, and ob- IX THE FOREST. 221 tained the most solemn pledges, that, upon the whole route to Washington, they would hold no interviews with Burr, nor suffer him to escape alive. Perkins knew the fascinations of Burr, and he feared his familiarity with his men ; indeed, he feared the same influences upon him self. His character, for making strong impressions upon the human mind, and attaching men to him by associa tion, was well known to the world. When Burr fled from the authorities in the Mississippi Territory, he had disguised himself in a boatman's dress. His pantaloons were of coarse, copperas-dyed cloth, with a roundabout of inferior drab. His hat, a flapping, wide- brim beaver, had, in times long past, been white, but now gave evidence of having encountered much rough weather. Placed upon his fine horse, he bestrode him most elegant ly, and flashed his large, dark eyes, as though he were at the head of his New York regiment. Each man carried provisions for himself, and some for the prisoner. They were all well mounted, with no arms except pistols in holsters, and two muskets borne by the soldiers. On the last of February, they set out upon their long and peril ous journey. Within a quarter of a mile from the point of departure, the dreadful massacre at Fort Mimms occurred six years after. Pursuing the Indian path, which led from the " 'Bigby settlement " to Fort Wilkin son, on the Oconee, they reached a point thirty miles dis tant the first day. At night, the only tent in the company was pitched for the prisoner, who reposed himself upon his blankets. The country abounded in immense pine forests. Here the Ex-Vice-President lay the first night, 222 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. before the blazing fire, which threw a glare over the dis mal woods. To what an extremity had he now been reduced ! In the boundless wilds of Alabama, under a small and com fortless tent, amid the perils of Indian barbarities, with the cry of the panther, answered by the howl of the hungry wolf ringing in his ears ; while the moaning of the winds through the tops of the lofty trees added dreariness to the solitude of the night ; with none with whom to hold converse ; surrounded by a guard to whom he dared not speak ; a prisoner of the United States, for whose liberties he had fought, and whose Government he had helped to form ; exiled from the State of his adop tion, whose statutes and institutions bore the impress of his mind ; deprived by death of his devoted wife ; his only child then on a distant coast of Carolina ; his pro fessional pursuits abandoned, and his fortune swept away ; the magnificent scheme of the conquest of Mexico up rooted, and the fragments dispersed; slandered and hunted down, from one end of the Union to the other ; these were considerations sufficient to weigh down an ordinary individual, and sink him to an untimely grave. But his was no common mind; and the characteristic fortitude and determination which had ever marked his course, still sustained him in the darkest hour. In the morning, he arose cheerfully, and pursued his course. Although guarded with vigilance, his few wants were gratified, as far as they could be, and he was treated with respect and kindness. The trail being narrow and obscure, Burr rode in the middle, having a part of the ON THE MARCH. 223 guard in front, while the rest followed behind, in single file. The route lay about eight miles south of the pres ent city of Montgomery, then an Indian town called Eaconcharte meaning' Red Ground. In the year 1811, General Wade Hampton cut out the " Federal Road " along this trail, which was well known to early settlers as the only highway in South Alabama. The guard passed by the site of the present Mount Meigs, and stopped at the house of "Old Milly," the former wife of a British soldier, who, with her husband, in 1770, left the barracks in Savannah and came to the Creek Nation. She had long been a resident of these wild woods, now lying in the county of Montgomery. Her husband, at this time a colored man, named Evans, was employed by Perkins to pilot the party across the dangerous creeks, Lime, Dubahatchee and Calabee, all of which they had to swim. It was a perilous and fatiguing march ; and, for days, the rain descended in chilling tor rents on those unsheltered horsemen, collecting in rivulets and swimming them at every point. Hundreds of Indians thronged the trail, and the party could have been shot down ; but the fearless Perkins bore on his distinguished prisoner, arnid angry elements and human foes. In their journey through Alabama, they always slept in the woods, near swamps of reeds, upon which the belled and hobbled horses fed during the night. After a hastily- prepared breakfast, it was their custom again to remount, and march on, in gloomy silence, which was but occa sionally broken by a remark about the weather, the creeks, or the horses. Burr was a splendid rider, sitting firmly in the saddle, and ever on the alert. He was 224 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. always a hardy traveler, and although wet for hours, with cold and drizzling rains, riding forty miles a day, and at night stretched upon the bare ground, on a thin pallet, yet, in the whole distance to Richmond, he was never heard to say that he was sick, or even fatigued. At the Chattahoochie, was a crossing-place, owned by an Indian named Marshall. The effects of the expedition were carried over in canoes, while the horses swam along side. In this manner they passed the Flint and Ocmul- gee. At Fort Wilkinson, on the Oconee, they entered the first ferry-boat they had seen on the whole route. A few miles further on, they were sheltered by the first civilized roof a house of entertainment, kept by one Bevin. While breakfast was preparing, and the guard were seated around a large fire, the host, like all publicans on the highway, inquired from whence they came. As they were from the " 'Bigby settlements," he immediately fell on the fruitful theme of the traitor, Aaron Burr. He asked if he had been taken ? " Was he not a very bad man ? " " Was n't everybody afraid of him ? " Perkins and his party were very much annoyed and embarrassed, and made no reply. Burr was sitting in a corner by the fire, with his head down ; and, after listening to the inquisitiveness of Bevin until he could endure it no longer, he raised himself up, and, planting his fiery eyes upon him, said : " I am Aaron Burr ; what is it you want with me ? " Bevin, struck with his appearance, the keenness of his look, and the solemnity and dignity of his manner, stood aghast, and trembled like a leaf. He uttered not another word while the guard remained at his house. . x UNSUCCESSFUL RUSE. 225 When Perkins readied the confines of South Carolina, he watched Burr more closely than ever ; for in this State lived the son-in-law of Burr, Col. Alston, a gentleman of talents, wealth and influence, and afterward Governor of the State. Upon reaching the frontiers of Georgia, he endeavored to convey the prisoner in by-roads, to avoid the towns, lest he should be rescued. The plan was at tended with difficulty ; they were lost often ; the march impeded ; and the highway was again resumed. Before entering the town of Chester, in South Carolina, the party halted. Two men were placed before Burr; two on either side, and two behind ; and, in this manner, they passed near a tavern on the street, where many persons were standing; while music and dancing were heard in the house. Burr conceived it a favorable opportunity for escape ; and, suddenly dismounting, exclaimed : " I am Aaron Burr, under military arrest, and claim protection of the civil authorities ! " Perkins leaped from his horse, with several of his men, and ordered him to remount. " / will not ! " replied Burr. Not wishing to shoot him, Perkins threw down his pistols, and, being a man of prodigious strength, and the prisoner a small man, seized him around the waist and placed him in his saddle, as though he was a child. Thomas Malone caught the reins of the bridle, slipped them over the horse's head, and led him rapidly on. The astonished citizens had seen a party enter their village with a prisoner ; had heard him appeal to them for pro tection ; had witnessed the feat of Perkins ; and the party vanished, before they had time to recover from 15 226 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS their confusion ; for, when Burr dismounted, the guards cocked their pistols, and the people ran within the piazza to escape from danger. Burr was still, to some extent, popular in South Caro lina ; and any wavering or timidity on the part of Per kins would have lost him his prisoner ; but the celerity of his movements gave no time for the people to reflect, be fore he was far in the outskirts of the village. Here the guard halted. Burr was highly excited ; he was in tears ! The kind-hearted Malone also wept at seeing the uncon trollable despondency of him who hitherto had proven almost iron-hearted. It was the first time any one had ever seen Aaron Burr unmanned. The guard becoming very much alarmed on the subject of Burr's rescue, Malone and Henry advised the purchase of a carriage. The former took charge of the guard, while Perkins returned and purchased a gig. The next day, Burr was placed in a vehicle, and driven, without further incident, to Fredericksburg, Virginia. Here Per kins received dispatches from the President, requiring him to convey the prisoner to Richmond. The guard took the stage, and soon reached that place. The ladies of the city vied with each other in contributing to the comfort of Burr. Some sent him fruit ; some clothes ; some wine; some one thing; some another. Perkins and his men went to "Washington; were paid for their services, and returned to Alabama, by way of Tennessee.* * The foregoing incidents are taken from Pickett's History of Alabama. With but few exceptions, I have followed nearly the exact language of the author. IMPLICATION. 227 Col. Alston, finding himself deeply implicated by the proclamation of the President, and mortified at the indis cretion of Col. Burr, to release himself of the suspicion which rested upon him, promptly addressed the following communication to his Excellency Charles Pinckney, then Governor of South Carolina : OAKS, February 6th, 1807. DEAR SIR: I have received and read the President's Message with deep mortification and concern; but the letter annexed to it, stated to be a communication in cyphers from Col. Burr to Gen. Wilkinson, excites my unfeigned astonishment. I solemnly avow that, when that letter was written, I had never heard, directly or indirectly, from Col. Burr, or any other person, of the meditated attack on New Orleans ; nor had I any more reason to suspect an attack on that place, or any other part of the United States, than I have* at this moment to suspect that our militia will be forthwith ordered on an expedition against Gibraltar. On the other hand, I had long had strong grounds for believing that Col. Burr was engaged by other objects, of a very different nature from those attributed to him, and which I confess the best sentiments of my heart approved. I need not add that those objects involved not the interests of my country. Without adverting to that integrity of principle, which even my enemies, I trust, have allowed me, can it be sup posed that a man situated as I am descended from a family which has never known dishonor, happy in the affection and esteem of a large number of relations and friends, possessed of ample fortune, and standing high in 228 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the confidence of his fellow-citizens could harbor, for an instant, a thought injurious to the country which was the scene of those blessings? The supposition would be monstrous. No, sir ; it was but a short period before the impression became general, that apprehended the possi bility of Mr. Burr's intentions being hostile to the Union ; and the moment which gave birth to that apprehension, gave birth to the resolution which became a citizen. I confess, however, there are times even now, when, in spite of the strong facts which have been exhibited, I am almost inclined to believe my suspicions injurious. What ever may be thought of the heart of Mr. Burr, his talents are great beyond question, and to reconcile with such talents, the chimerical project of dismembering the Union, or wresting from it any part of its Territory, is difficult indeed. I traveled through a part of the western country, during the last summer, and have no hesitation in saying, that either of those projects would have been as much reprobated there as in the Atlantic States. "With respect, however, to the communication annexed to the President's Message, which occasions you the trouble of this letter : after my solemn assurances to you that I had never given Col. Burr, or any other person, the smallest reason to imagine that I could be induced to engage in any project against my country, it would be infinitely satisfactory to me, could I explain to you, with the same certainty, the motive which led him to introduce my name as he did. But here, unfortunately, all is conjecture. Two motives only suggest themselves. He imagined, perhaps which, by the way, he has no right to do that his influence would be sufficiently great to induce my MOTIVE. 229 assent, and thought, therefore, he might as well consider it already obtained ; or, which is more probable, he might have imagined, that by the apparent concert of a number of persons from different States, a stronger impression would be made on his correspondent. Considerable effect, too, was, no doubt, anticipated by Mr. Burr's discernment from the perfect self-confidence which would have been manifested by his taking with him his daughter, receiving my co operation, and thus embarking in the scheme the fortunes of his infant grandson, the only relative, except his daughter, that he has. But whatever the motive w^hich drew from Col. Burr the expressions contained in this letter to Gen. "Wilkinson, facts, incontrovertible facts, prove that he had no authority for making them. His daughter did not go with him; the navy of the United States is still faithful to its duty ; Commodore Truxton, I am told, at the very moment he was said to have gone to the West Indies, was in Philadelphia, which I know not whether he has ever left ; and I, instead of following with a corps of worthies, am now at my usual residence, ivhere I have been ever since the adjournment of the Legislature, peaceably directing the plowing of my rice-fields, and preparing my lands for the ensuing crop. This is conclusive. A conspirator against the happiness and liberties of his country would have been, at this moment, very different ly employed. Conspirator! the blood now burns my cheek, as I write the word. But I meant to confine myself simply to the disavowal I have made you, of a single action or word hostile to my country. To feel even that disavowal necessary is sufficiently painful : I have yielded, however, to circumstances, and made it. 230 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. My unequivocal manner of making it, I trust, will not leave a doubt upon one candid or honest mind. Still I am aware that the common interchange of good offices with a man with whom I have been kmg nearly con nected, may have given rise to circumstances which, however innocent in themselves, malignity will delight in distorting, and the illiberal among my political adver saries exult in disseminating. I am aware that there will be men base enough ; for you and I have, not long since, seen proofs of it, to whisper even the circumstance of my connection, by marriage, with Col. Burr, as a circum stance warranting suspicion. About the opinions of such men I am indifferent. To the more ingenious and better part of my fellow-citizens, of whatever sect or party, I can only solemnly repeat, as I have done to you, sooner would I have perished than harbored a thought sub versive of the liberties, the happiness, or the integrality of my country. Let me always be judged by my own acts, and I shall be satisfied. If Mr. Jefferson or Gen. Wil kinson ever find any thing to urge against me, let it be adduced. My residence is well known, and I shall never shrink from investigation. Nay more, presumption, where I can not repel it by positive proof, shall be received as good evidence, and the slightest suspicion which I can not satisfactorily explain, shall be admitted as guilt. I remain, my dear sir, with much respect and regard. Yours always, JOSEPH ALSTON. REDEEMING THE TIME. 231 CHAPTER XII. BLENNERHASSETT having been arrested and discharged in the Mississippi Territory, imagined no further annoy ance from the Government. Feeling desirous to ascer tain the situation of his property at the island, which he had learned from his wife and others was much injured by the proceedings of the Wood county militia, he left ^Natchez in June, with the intention of visiting it. The following correspondence will advise the reader of the incidents of his journey, and afford satisfactory in formation, in the mean time, of the situation of the respective parties : Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett. GIBSON'S PORT, SATURDAY, June ~L3th, 1807. I arrived here about half-past seven o'clock this morn ing, after having lost half the day yesterday by lying by at Greenville, with a headache too heavy to ride with. I am now perfectly well, and after losing to-day with the Belpre* folks here, and the detention occasioned by getting little Bay shod, shall resume the journey this evening. The road is pretty open, having been lately cut out; but I shall endeavor, by traveling a good part of the night, to make up for whatever indulgence of shelter or rest I may allow the horses and myself in the day. I 232 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. find the cap the most comfortable luxury I ever traveled with, and think I can adjust a simple handkerchief about my head and face in a way to parry the musquitoes, or their more formidable companions the horse-flies. I have no care, I assure you, for any thing affecting myself, but through you and my boys ; could I, then, only be assured, that you would be as industrious to seek your recreation, and frequently shift the subject of your labors, as you are criminal in protracting the intervals of your sedentary occupations, that my boys would not be ever exposed to the sun bareheaded and barefoot, my reflec tions on my business, or subjects of interest or amuse ment would not, I protest, suffer a moment's interruption. Improve, then, the blessing you did not expect, for you could never find it on the Ohio, which a benignant God has reserved for you among strangers, in the generous regards of so many worthy families and individuals who have become your friends. Farewell ! HAR. BLENNERHASSETT. Give my particular love to Scott and F , and kiss Anne and the boys for me. MRS. BLENNERHASSETT. Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett. TOCKSHISH, IN THE CHICKASAW CATION, (310 miles from Natchez^ June 14*A, 1807. I rest here to-day under the most severe embarrass ments I have suffered since I left you ; namely, the state of my tormented legs. The respite, however, is not less necessary for my horses, which have hitherto performed TRAVEL'S HISTORY. 233 very well. I mention the condition of my legs the more freely, "because I know you will not disregard such an affliction. But whether from the heat of the weather, meager, and often scanty meals, the state of my blood has contracted an acrimonious habit it never had before, ? t is certain the myriads of musquitoes and horse-flies, with the almost incessant perspiration that I suffered for five days after I left you, which allowed me no repose, until exhaustion made me callous, and sleep now in my cot, then on the ground, prepared a revival of fresh sensi bility to new sufferings, all, I can aver, were not more intolerable than the anguish of my legs, which the ardor of my industry to prosecute my journey would not until now permit me to find ease, even when at rest ; no doubt, chiefly from so much pendent motion on horseback. But to that benignant Providence, which has so often had mer cy upon me, be rendered all gratitude and thanksgiving. I shall make good my journey, as I can convert my eye into a microscope, by which I am enabled, through Di vine goodness, to make this pen write to you. Through the same favor I shall pass unhurt through all the diffi culties and dangers I may yet encounter, and I will again embrace you and our boys, or we shall be indemnified hereafter. I omit to detail, at present, particulars of the journey hitherto. It is true, women and children perform it, for women will attempt and perform any possible undertak ing, and they will not leave their teams behind ; but it is no less certain, that many of them languish on the way ; and the hardiest boatmen, and even Joe, who behaves admirably, swear they will never again attempt it at this 234 THE BLENNEKHASSETT PAPERS. season of the year. We are now, by estimation, about 215 miles from Nashville, of which distance there is about fifty miles yet to pass through this Nation. We shall take from this place a fresh supply of corn for our .horses, and a recruit to our remaining provisions, of two quarts of parched meal. You will see by the map, we shall then, when we cross Duck river, enter Tennessee, where we shall want for nothing. Water has been tolerably convenient and palatable so far ; henceforward, I am told, it will be very good and plenty. I have had no scruple in drinking heartily while contending with heat, horse-flies, smoke and musquitoes. How fondly have I wished for the solacing society of Harding and Russel. ! how I could walk then. The Chocataw country, for an extent of 250 miles which 1 have passed through, has not been altogether uninter esting, either from the condition of the natives, who are beginning, at least in the vicinity of this path, to enter somewhat into the pastoral state, and in some solitary instances, from the example of about one hundred white men, settled through their Nation, exhibit some com mencements of agriculture, or from the appearance of their country, nine-tenths of whicli consist of either prairies or timber lands, well stocked with a variety of fine grass and plants, which exhibit a pleasing appearance from the total freedom from brush and underwood, which disfigure all the forests you have seen in America. But the Chickasaw lands, for twenty miles back we have traveled since we entered the Nation, deserve, in every point of view, the character of a Paradise, so far as any inland countrv, without the features of water scenery in BISSEL'S IMPEACHMENT. 235 its landscape, can claim it. Besides the beauty and variety of the whole vegetable clothing of the country, the clearly undulating surface of its woods, and the more advanced progress of the Chickasaws in agriculture, and the domestic economy that provides for the comforts of life, contrasted, as it is, with a tenacity of most of their In dian habits and manners, form altogether a variety truly interesting. This people must, in less than fifty years, become as respectable, in the " shepherd state," as they have hitherto been in the characters of the best warriors of all the tribes south of the Ohio. They have already no hunting ground nearer to them than the Mississippi, 100 miles distant. This circumstance will insure it. I have heard, by the way, pretty consistently, that Bis- sel is impeached, and will probably suffer for his civilities to Col. Burr. Jackson is sent down to the Heights, or Orleans, to be tried on a multitude of charges, and Ser geant D is taken round by Wilkinson to testify to God knows what. When you write, as you will, I trust, every week until first of November, be careful to set down nothing that may not meet the public eye ; and I think it safest to inclose to me, under cover to Gen. Tupper. I trust you will soon accustom yourself to the free enjoyment of all the hospitable kindness and attention that will be tend ered to you from Natchez to Bayou Sara : this is one of my best hopes, as I fear not we shall be able to find opportunities hereafter to requite the goodness of bur friends. As I constantly meditate on the prospect of your satisfaction with them, they all pass in review of my most grateful remembrance. During such moments, 236 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. however, my thoughts seem to soar on the wings of fancy, to a hight at which I lose sight of all other mortals, except the Scotts ; while at other intervals of my reflec tions, I seem to gravitate, like falling bodies through the air, to Harding, as the immovable center of your comfort and protection during my absence. I hope you got my first letter from Gibson's Port, and my second from C , 100 miles back. I have only time to say again, God bless you and the boys ! The post hurries me. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. I shall resume the journey before day, to-morrow, 7 o'clock P. M. From Mrs. to Mr. Blennerhassett. July 6th. I received your letter from the Nation, also the one previous to it, but derived but little pleasure from the general tenor of the last. Its contents are too gloomy, and I wanted no addition to the causes of low spirits I have experienced ever since you left ; for these, however, I know I am to blame. I trust you are in good health. Our dear, fine boys are almost the only children here who keep well, and grow fat. While I find my society more than ever courted, there is, and will be till you return, an insurmountable barrier to my peace of mind, in the fear of your becoming in volved in private quarrels. If they can, with honor, be avoided, I trust and pray they will. I see no reason for any despondency whatever. We can undoubtedly make a good beginning here, and, from TREATMENT. 237 what I have experienced since your departure, I am per fectly satisfied that this climate, in summer as well as winter, is every way more desirable than the one I left on the Ohio, so that, please God ! our happiness is now more in our own keeping than ever before. I trust your limbs are already well; if not, I wish you to try the leaves of the Jamestown weed. You need only take two or three of them, and, after softening them a little by beating between the palms of your hands, bind them well on the sores, after having first washed them with sugar of lead. Repeat the dressing three times, and then apply salve made of sugar of lead. I hope you will be able to procure all the things men tioned on your list. If you can, I want you. to get some of the early cucumber that the Barnes's used to have up the Kanawha, and bring every rare-ripe peach tree which can be moved out of the garden, as I find that sort are not grown in this country. If Peter Taylor, the gardener of Blennerhassett, comes, he must bring every flowering shrub he can move, or you find room for. I left a pair of wafer (not waffle) irons in the kitchen, which I wish to have again, if possible. Should it be convenient to send my side-saddle, by safe hands, before you come yourself, I hope you will do so, as, perhaps, I may need it, though I have, at present, more carriages at my service than I can possibly use. I trust, however, this state of dependence may be removed by your bring ing me some sort of a vehicle on your return. In my next I shall give you a full account of the way in which I have spent my time since you left me : mean while, you can hardly calculate the attentions I receive 238 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. from every one ; but Harding and the Scotts will ever be foremost in real affection. Ruple, I fancy, is on his way up, as is also Captain Leonard. I have some prospect of exchanging houses with Cap tain Yoss. He went two days since in pursuit of Peter Dexter for that purpose, and has not yet returned. Mr. H will manage the business for me, and when I have completed moving, I shall take leave of town, for two or three weeks, for Second Creek, accompanied by Miss Percy, who has not yet been able to join me, but makes fair promises. Should she fail, Mrs. Whittle will go with me. I have had a most pressing invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Borlin, and am expected to visit them when I go down : she is a charming little woman. Mr. Hunt has not yet returned, but is expected daily. I have hired Diana out. Molly and her Spaniard do every thing for me ; she is very good, and he the most obliging creature in the world. He stays here a great deal, goes to market, gets wood, and is said to be a very honest man. An aid to General Wilkinson met you near the Nation, and said you were well. He also circulated a report, and even told Scott, that it was now discovered that Jefferson was concerned with Burr, and had even given him his cypher. Harman says I must say they are good boys; but Dominick* replies, that would be a falsehood. I send you their ugly faces. Remember me with affection to the Belpr^ folks. God bless you ! farewell till next week ! M. BLENNERHASSETT. * The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Blennerhassett, ARRIVAL. 239 P. S. I find I must inclose this in a wrapper (envelope), as I am too lazy to copy it, and am hourly expecting com pany to call. Tell Peter Taylor, if he should not like to stay with us, he can, by supplying the Natchez market, very soon make a handsome independence for his family ; but he had better leave them where they are for the present, as they will be much healthier, and he can main tain them there for almost nothing compared to the cost of living here ; besides, when he deems it prudent, he can have them brought down at almost any time. Say to Amy that the boys speak every day of her children, and that none of them shall have reason to repent coming to this country. Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett. NASHVILLE, June 29th, 1807, past 5 P. M. I arrived here about one o'clock this day, being the eighteenth since I left you, including about three and a half days, during which I lay by ; namely, at Greenville and Gibson's Port, nearly one and a half days ; one at Tockshish, in the Chickasaw Nation, from whence I wrote to you, as I did from Gibson's Port ; and one more a little within the entrance of this state, fifty-three miles back, occasioned by the state of the horses, all of which had completely given out with fatigue and sore backs. It required much address to get here, even when we did ; and here we are to remain, for five days at least, to get the horses and my legs in a condition to proceed, and perform the remainder of the journey. My entrance into the United States has not been very 240 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. auspicious. Last Friday evening, soon after I had passed what is called the line that separates Tennessee from the "Wilderness, I endured, for upwards of an hour, the heavi est fall of rain I was ever under ; indeed, none ever fell heavier. Packing through mud in the pathway, covered with six miles of running water all along, part of the time in the dark, I was still, however, able to keep my self perfectly dry, by passing my head through a hole in the middle of my blanket, which hung on my shoulders and covered me every-where, a contrivance I supposed myself indebted for to the care Hardings' servants have had of my great coat. The next mishap was my last de tention, fifty-three miles back. The next was meeting a man yesterday morning, about forty-five miles back, who looked strongly at me, and passing by to a man who was traveling in company with me, inquired of him my name ; then said he had a letter for me, but would not deliver it, as it lay, he said, in the bottom of his saddle-bags. Had Joe or I learned this before we had traveled too far to turn back, we should certainly have had the letter, one way or another. You will get it, I hope, and forward it, with any others you receive for me, with all possible dis patch. Journeying on hither, I was much mortified, as I stopped to breakfast yesterday, by the perusal in a paper of the first proceedings at Richmond against Col. Burr, which evince the most rancorous malice of the Govern ment against his life. But they will be disappointed by the negative and cautious conduct he has all along pur sued. In the course of the proceedings it appears Jefier- son's runners have been industrious enough to ferret out A DREAM. 241 Peter Taylor and Jacob Albright, to prove that there was a body of armed men assembled on Blennerhassett's Island. This may surprise you, but it matters not. I need not write to you the particulars I have further seen ; they will reach you by the papers sooner then through me. Some short time before day this morning, my next tor ment was a dream, where I slept last night, ten miles back, in which I beheld our Harman fallen a victim to the bite of a dog, and you an insane mourner, wan and sallow, without a tear. You know I am sincere in deny ing all virtue to dreams, either as cause or effect of human events. I therefore mention this, with every confidence in God's mercy, that he will permit you to tell me our darling boy has continued well, long after the period of my dream. But the manner in which you there appeared to me has all day long so haunted me, that I wished, soon after I got my valise taken to my room, to chase away such a phantom with a view of the little Mammy, when, alas ! my yet last and greatest misfortune was visited upon me the treasure, the greatest, after yourself and the boys, I could have in this world, for if I do not recover it it is irreparable how shall I mention it? I lost your second self. Joe sets out twenty miles back ward, to-morrow early, in quest of it, where we have some hopes of recovering it. ! had Mrs. Alston, by one of the best impulses that ever actuated her, had she purloined it, how consoling would be the prospect of my journey, it would animate me to visit it. How, my love, will you soothe this heaviest of my sorrows? I have complained to you of none until this overtook me. May this be the last letter vou will receive from me in such a 16 242 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. state of mind as I now suffer under ; may I be blest with the recovery of that talisman that I now so fully feel would never fail to keep my strength from falling, and my hopes from becoming forlorn in the midst of all I may suffer from the malice of my enemies captivity or death. Perhaps it is reserved for me to recover this sol ace of every trouble that I shall endure, until I again em brace you. So far I had written yesterday. You will feel with what weight at my heart, though I knew before I sat down this letter will not leave this before Friday. To day, Tuesday, I have been chiefly occupied since I got Joe off on the greatest service, if successful, he can ever render me with further perusals of the proceedings at Richmond, up to the 6th instant, when Wilkinson had not arrived, though hourly expected, as it was supposed he must have set out three weeks sooner from Orleans than he did. I hope your friends, Harding and Scott, will get you the fullest accounts of the trial, from time to time. Nothing can hardly interest you more.- You may read some things that may alarm you for A. B. or H. B. ; but I have no doubt the rancor of Government will be baffled in its purpose to fasten any treason upon us, or even a misdemeanor. This place appears very dull and ugly, but tolerably cheap. The inhabitants are chiefly the offcastings of North Carolina, and I do not know a single face I have yet seen. The living, of course, at this inn, is rough and uncomfortable, except the tea and coffee, which will redeem many sins of the table with me. But the attend ance is very bad every- where, and criminal, where I want DEATH. 243 / it most, in the stables, at a time when I can not walk. On this view of my situation, I have thoughts of moving six or eight miles onward to-morrow, there to wait for whatever Thursday's post may bring here for me ; 'and endeavor to get the poor horses on, by easy journeys, as well as we can. It is now almost nightfall. I look for and dread Joe's return every hour to-night. You see, however, I am lighter at heart than I was yesterday ; and is not this a crime in my situation, yet no-way mended ? I had not light to finish the last sentence of Tuesday evening, when Beaumont, the pilot, who took me over the Falls in one of Floyd's boats, called upon me to in quire after him, and told me Mrs. F. had paid the debt of nature, about the middle of this month, having left behind her a fine child. It is painful, but necessary, that we should be the messengers of these sad tidings, if they have not otherwise reached him, because his affairs at home require his speedy return, his property of every sort depending only on the care of a negro wench. Yesterday, I spent the whole day in perplexing anxiety for Joe's absence, and the care of my unfortunate legs, on which it is not only misery to walk, but even to put them on the ground for a moment. They also prevent my rest a considerable part of the night. Nothing seems to succeed but close bandaging from the toe to the knee, which I have again resorted to. Up to this moment, "Wed nesday noon, July 2d, we have no intelligence of the thief who, we doubt not, stole my treasure. I have more than one runner out after him ; have offered ten dollars, and would not depart hence, if myself and horses were able, till all chance was hopeless. Joe has returned, after a 244 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. fruitless and unremitting search for him of forty hours. I hope Russell has returned, and is received as he deserves. Assure Kitty I cordially wish her no worse a husband than would write to her, and feel for her, after thirteen years' trial, as I do for you. I depend upon his vaccinating Harman, and attending you all three, if necessary. The state of your chest, I rely on your solemn promise to me, has surely been submitted to him, and I hope he has lost no time to administer every palliative and preventive he could best imagine. My concern for your keeping the boys' heads and feet always covered, I can never cease to dwell upon and repeat. I must leave you for some sort of dinner. God grant I may be able to add one more pleasing line than any I have yet written, before the mail closes this evening. Well, "par hazard," I have made a better dinner than any I have had yet in this place, i. e., the first bit of wheaten bread I could eat, and one cut of good mutton, well roasted. But does this ennui afflict a man who was satisfied and cheerful, after forty -five miles' ride, with half a tin-cup of water-gruel twice a day, in an Indian wilder ness ? Have I only returned into what is called civilized so ciety, to wish myself out of it? Much have I projected to execute of that active exertion which Harding so kindly urged me to. But I am now a cripple, without a leg to stand upon, or a mind capable of emerging from that sea of trouble in which it has sunk so deeply. I shall, how ever, wait the news next Monday's mail may bring from the eastward. It is not impossible some tidings may arrive to determine me hence westward, even direct to the chance of an asylum, under the government of Grand PROMISE. 245 PrS ; for I have little doubt Jefferson-, if he can not effect our ruin by our conviction, will seek it by harrass- ing us to beggary. I think if I should oe prosecuted with the virulence that has marked the proceedings against Burr, my acquittal, by the trouble and expense that would be incurred to obtain it, would be worth little more than a condemnation. One thing is certain, I shall take nothing from you to fee lawyers. I shall have none that may not volunteer their assistance. So you will have another short letter from this place, or its neighbor hood, to announce to you upon what terms, and in what temper, I leave it: my anxiety augments largely for fre quent and long letters from you. I trust you have long since left the Chateau of Poin- dexter, and have previously made every necessary ar rangement for a regular intercourse with -the Post-office at Natchez. I hourly expect Col. Panil, whom I over took and passed by 150 miles back, without seeing him. I wish he was come to break in upon my ennui. I have nothing to comfort me but this last refuge hope. All this tumult of my heated head has it been kindled by you, or a trinket ? God bless you all three, and all our good friends. The mail is near closing. Adieu. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. Blennerhassett to Mrs. Blennerhassett. NASHVILLE, Sunday, July 6th, 1807. As I am very anxious to leave this to-morrow evening, after I shall peruse whatever I may find interesting by the mail, which may occupy me the best part of the day, 246 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. I now use that time it might cost me to-morrow to tell you my legs are now nearly quite well, which I am in debted for, to a week's rest, and the most careful skill I possess. Col. Panil arrived here on Friday evening, much improved in his looks by his long journey, in which he did not distress himself by hard riding, whatever he might otherwise have suffered from insects and hot weather. He eats like a dray-horse, and can not find a single complaint, in the catalogue of all human, bodily infirmities to appropriate to himself. There is one there, however, which, though he will not see it, or utter its name, has fastened pretty hard upon him. Hypochon dria has marked him for her own, and he will sink under her, unless he abandons his plantation near Natchez. I have been so far particular, that you may, if you have an opportunity, convey to his family a more unbiassed sketch of his situation, than they will probably receive from himself. By a private arrival here to-day, I collect, by calcula tion on the intelligence by way of Knoxville, Wilkinson had arrived at Richmond, but did not probably get there before the 17th or 18th ultimo. It is most likely the grand jury has been detained to the period of his arrival. I hope to-morrow's papers will afford more satisfaction. Have you really missed writing to me by two mails that have left Natchez since I came away, without your hav ing been prevented by something you could not obviate. Judge of my mortification to see Col. Panil read letters from home of 23d, while I was looking over Natchez papers of the same date^, after I had left you on the llth. Tt will give me five days' work to get to Lexington, say LAST REFUGE. 247 200 miles, with horses in the condition of mine ; and, as I shall endeavor not to delay there longer than two days to rest the horses, I fear I have little chance of hearing from you before I reach Marietta ; so little have you cared, or so unhappily have you been forbidden to use the time which is past. You will surely need no further hints of this sort. I hope you have not suffered the idolatrous grief, with which I filled my last letter, to affect you much. It was a weakness in me to pour the melancholy effusions of my heart into your breast ; but how could I resist so natural a remedy for my pain ? While I possessed your image, I did not feel how really I was an idolater. When my hard fortune deprived me of it, I could see nothing in the loss so lively as the image of your death. Hence, hope, my last refuge, led me to dwell upon yourself; besides, I thought you could not be afflicted by my misfortune as I am. Joe, and others, are out still, and yesterday I again advertised in the paper, and am not absolutely in the abandonment of despair to recover my treasure. I already feel, however, time will wear out the impression of this calamity, as it effaces all others. So far in my fifth letter, which I will continue to-morrow. The mail arrived late this morning, Monday, 7th, and brings no Richmond papers. I have seen, however, a Virginia paper of the 12th ultimo, by which it appears that Burr had applied to the court for a " subpena duces tecum" directed to the President, requiring him to appear as a witness, and bring along with him a letter, he stated in one of his messages to Congress to have received from 248 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Wilkinson, which letter has not yet been made public. The chief justice doubted of the power of the court to order the personal attendance of the President, and fixed upon the next day to have his mind made up, by an argu ment on the motion. It has rained so hard, by frequent and heavy showers all day, that I should not have set out at any rate. To morrow I shall be accompanied by a Doctor Floyd, the husband of the ci-devant Miss Preston. We shall be together better than half the way, when he will strike oft* to Louisville. Since writing the above, I have seen some lengthy articles of further proceedings at Richmond, which you may first learn, and inform Harding, etc., that Burr's motion has been granted, after great and splendid exertions by himself and his counsel, particularly Edmond Randolph, and that the celebrated original cypher letter is not forthcoming, having been said to be lost ; that Randolph (Edmond) said in court, " Wilkinson, in a few weeks, would be in the rank of a private citizen ; " and that from private letters received here, it is believed, that immediately after the trial, he will have to settle his pri vate accounts with Gen. Jackson, and four or five other persons. I have also seen a detailed account of the object and issue of a Mr. Burling's mission to Mexico, by which it appears he was chiefly sent to insure the balance of $300,000, of which Wilkinson had before received $120,000, transported from St. Antoine to his quarters on mules, in the night. On the whole, Mr. Jefferson and his party must be ruined, by the support they have afforded Wilkinson, even if it were possible Burr could PROPERTY ATTACHED. 249 be convicted of any thing. Farewell, my love ! if I do not write again on the road, I shall immediately on reach ing Lexington. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. Monday, 12 at night. RICHMOND, June 8th, 1807. DEAR SIR : Your favor of February last was received by me a few days before I left Marietta for Richmond. I most sincerely regret that a service of foreign attach ment, of the 20th of February, has placed such of your property as was under my control out of my power. The writ was served on account of Miller, of Kentucky ; and Sanders, of Kentucky, has since filed in a claim. A writ of foreign attachment has also been served on D. Wood- bridge, Esq., attaching the claims you had upon him ; and all your movable property at the "Island" is at tached. A certificate from the sheriff follows, by which you will perceive that property of every description in my hands was attached : . " I do hereby certify, that on the 20th day of February, 1807, I served a writ of foreign attachment on D. Wood- bridge, as garnishee of H. Blennerhassett, attaching all the lands, tenements, goods, rights and credits, moneys and effects, which the said Blennerhassett might have in his, the said Woodbridge's hands, or possession. " JOHN CLARK, Sheriff. " County of Washington, State of Ohio." The inclosed letters, with one which I shall lodge in 250 THE BLENNEKHASSETT PAPERS. the Post-office at the same time with this, I took the lib erty of opening in February, just as I was going over the mountains, thinking they might require some attention and answers. I should have sent them to you long since, but did not know where to direct them. You will receive here, with your account, a letter from Col. Gushing, which makes a different package, but will be put in the office at the same time. I expected to have seen you at this place. The report in our country was, that you were arrested, and were to have your trial at Richmond. I should think it much better for your interest, if you do not return to the Island, to have an attorney vested with full powers, to attend to your business in Marietta and Virginia. Your property has, and will continue to suffer very much, unless you have a person authorized to attend to it. You probably heard from Col. Gushing, that your negroes had left Virginia, and were strolling about on our side of the river ; that Barker, in consequence of a letter of yours, of the 9th December, had recovered about $400 for the work done on four unfinished boats, although he had offered before to take from me $200, which circumstance was known to James Wilson ; that the Neals and Phelps had recovered a considerable sum against you, to satisfy which demands, Ransom, and a greater part of your mov able property on the Island, was sold. I can not give you any particulars relating to these transactions, as I was over the mountains from February until May, and the day I arrived at home was subpoenaed to attend Col. Burr's trial, at this place. Buell has gone on, under the direction of the Government, to sell such a part of the pork, meal, etc., etc., as he attached, and the boats are NO POLITENESS. 251 fitting up to take the United States' troops to St. Louis. "Wishing yourself and family much happiness, I am, Your obedient servant, D. WOODBRIDGE. Mrs. Blennerhassett to Blennerhassett. I can scarcely express the joy communicated to me by your last letter from Nashville. Thank God, the anxiety of your mind is somewhat relieved. I have little doubt that Col. Pannil's hypochondria did you more service than even a cheerful companion could have done. What a misfortune, in your state of mind, not to have got the letter which Mr. Tyrrel, of this place, passed you with in his saddle-bags. I now inclose it, and hope by this time the attachments may be in a fair way to be taken off our poor property. I inclose every other letter I have received, except one from D. Wbodbridge and one from Col. Gushing, as I trust, long before this reaches you, you will have seen them both. I feel greatly for the im pression which must be made on you by the present state of the Island ; but think, my dear husband, how thankful we may be to have preserved the health of our dear boys, and also yours, during such a dreadful journey. Col. Burr has every thing in his favor, and I now think will never let us sustain any eventual injury. You can't think with what joy and pride I read what he says of his daughter. I never could love one of my own sex as I do her : how can she live with such a man as Alston? You see he has not had humanity, or even politeness enough, 252 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. to answer your letter. I did not write the mail after your departure, and the week following. Thought the surest way for my letter to reach you would be to write to Lexington. I wish I had calculated better, but trust your uneasiness is long since removed. After I wrote last week, I went to spend some time with the Scott's ; but after leaving town, I learned of the arrival of a French Consul, who wished to rent my house. Mrs. Whittle to whom I am under the greatest obligations was confined with a pleurisy. I was therefore under the necessity of spending a day at with her, and took that opportunity of engaging half of James Moon's house, on the condition that if he had an offer for the whole, he was to give me the refusal. Mrs. Whittle keeps possession of the other half, where she will reside a good deal when recovered, which I hope will be soon, as she was much better yesterday, which I spent with her. "We are to go together to Second Creek, where I have press ing invitations from Berling's family to visit, but I am in doubt whether I ought to go there ; I will consult my valuable friend and adviser on all occasions. Poor man ! he has much anxiety about Winthrop, who has constant returns of pleurisy, and as he is cutting two back teeth, we are in hopes they are the cause of his illness. My visit to Scott's, you see, was curtailed, as I went out on Monday evening, and returned on Thursday, when I saw the gentleman whose name I do n't yet know ; referred him to Harding, saying my rent would be the same I paid myself, and he might have the place for the continuance of my lease. I then went home ; about the middle of the REMOVAL. 253 day, Thursday, had all my things packed up, and many of them removed that evening. The rest I had here, and next morning took possession of my new habitation, which was in such disorder that it took me two days, with the assistance of Molly and her hushand, to settle myself, so that altogether I underwent much fatigue; but, thanks to my constitution, I am recovering from a bad cold, received from exposure when heated, and pains in all my limbs, occasioned by my violent exertions, and being too tired to sleep for three nights ; but yesterday I rested well with Mrs. Whittle, and last night slept sound ly. I have this day put Dominick to a most excellent school in town, in a healthy, airy place. Thanking God for every thing, our situation is a Paradise to the one we left ; you will soon feel the benefits of it; 't is impossible here to feel heat at any hour of the day, and I have every convenience around me, but still I miss the Island. Harman says, "tell 'Pappy' I am a very good boy." Dominick has just returned from school to dinner. He bids me tell you how he loves you; he has come home quite pleased, though Mr. Harding and I left him crying at school. The schoolmaster's name is Graham, and it seems he had taken it into his head, " it was, as he said, that Graham who was bad to Col. Burr and us." You must 'know, I have lately learned from Col. Scott that Graham actually proposed to him to invite Col. Burr to his plantation, and when there, under the shelter, as it might be supposed, of his honor and hospitality, to pro cure good horses, and kidnap him off to the Federal city. Col. Scott made answer/ that he already had done his 254 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. duty, under the command of "Wilkinson, by going to Cole's Creek, and would do nothing more. He, Scott, was rather intoxicated when he told me this. God bless you ! M. BLENNERHASSETT. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. Burr to Blennerhassett. RICHMOND, May 21st, 1807. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. : I have barely time, by the opportunity of Mr. Tyrrell, to assure you and Mrs. Blennerhassett of my devoted attachment and regard, and to express my sympathy for all the vexations you have encountered. Mr. Tyrrell will tell you of all the strange things which are passing here. Of the bills, the first which you indorsed has been paid by Mr. Alston. The $10,000 indorsed at Lexington are in the hands of an agent with whom I am in negociation at this place. That which was left with Mr. Luckett has not, to my knowledge, been negociated. Within a few months after my release from this place, I may hope to be in cash for all these and some other purposes. May God preserve you and yours in health and spirits. A. BURR. If you should not go on the Washita lands, would you like a conveyance of the quantity promised to you. Tell Mrs. B. that the one-half of every letter I receive from my daughter is concerning her. Affectionate regards and grateful acknowledgments to our learned and amiable friend Harding. ERRONEOUS JUDGMENT. 255 Alston to Blennerhassett. OAKS, June 22d, 1807. DEAR SIR : You perceive, from the very first word I have written, that I address you with the same feelings with which we parted. There are certain expressions in your letter of April last, which, if you recollect, you must acknowledge, are not calculated to conciliate : they spring, however, so manifestly from a zealous attachment to Col. Burr, and a misapprehension of my feelings, that they have produced none of those sensations which, under different circumstances, they would not fail to excite. I pass them over, too, the more readily, as I am persuaded from your temper, the moment of discovering your error will be the moment of regret at having indulged it. Suffer me then to assure you, I have inflicted none of those wounds upon my " friends or relatives " which you apprehend. Col. Burr feels that he has not the smallest grounds of resentment against me ; he is perfectly satis fied ; nor does there exist a shadow of that animosity between us that you deprecate. The fact is, from not having a view of the whole ground, you have judged precipitately and erroneously of my error, in giving faith to the letter attributed to Col. Burr by Gen. Wilkinson, I have long been satisfied from several quarters. Noth ing but the shape, apparently so unquestionable, in which it came, could have gained it credit with me, for a mo ment. These things, however, will shortly be put to rights. As soon as the trial, now pending at Richmond, is over, the event of which, I am persuaded, can not but be favorable, Col. Burr will be with us. A letter from 256 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. him, of the 12th instant, announces health, spirits and confidence. Your letter was received the beginning of the present month, and, but for the necessity of ascertain ing the intentions of Col. Burr upon the subject of it, should have been acknowledged immediately. I for warded it to him directly, and have just heard from him. He informs me that the bill-holders have instituted no suit against you, but are at present expecting payment from him; that he has hopes of shortly effecting an arrangement by which he shall be able to meet the bills himself, which will, of course, relieve you, and render a reference to me unnecessary. He adds, that a gentleman, as agent for him, was to set out in a few days for the western country, through whom you should hear further and more amply upon the subject. These expectations of Col. B., I trust, will be accomplished. I have this day written to him, making certain offers which, I hope, will facilitate them ; but should they unfortunately fail, I shall certainly consider myself bound, both in honor and justice, to fulfill my engagement to you. The total failure of my crop, caused by the storm of last fall, has occasioned me a temporary embarrassment; but should your reimbursement devolve upon me, I shall cheerfully make any arrangement for a settlement which may prove satisfactory : the troubles and vexations you have under gone, the dreadful solicitudes and painful situation, so long endured by your amiable family, have my liveliest sympathies. The energy of mind, which distinguishes Mrs. Blennerhassett, has had a painfully ample field for exertion ; but the storm is past, and better moments, I trust, are about to arrive. Of the friendly attentions and INDISPOSITION. 257 unremitting hospitalities received from you during our tour through the western country, allow me to assure you of my grateful recollections. Were it within the scope of probabilities, I need not tell you how much pleasure the presence of yourself and family, at the Oaks, would give us. Tender, I pray you, to Mrs. Blennerhassett, my profound and most friendly respects. Believe me, with much esteem, your very obedient, JOSEPH ALSTON. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. P. S. Being unwell myself, Mrs. Alston has acted as my amanuensis. It is so customary at this time to pub lish extracts from every letter in which the name of Col. Burr happens to be mentioned, that I was about to observe to you, what you will readily perceive without the observation, that this is not meant for the same pur pose, but merely for your own perusal. J. A. Having acted as amanuensis for Mr. Alston, I now beg leave to speak for myself, and inquire after the health of Mrs. Blennerhassett ; her fortitude has, I hope, supported her through the troubles of the winter. May they be the last she has ever to encounter. I wrote to her last autumn, but I suppose my letter has not reached her. The fulfillment of our mutual promise of corresponding would afford me great pleasure ; for it will now be the only means of supporting a friendship, which I flatter myself commenced in conformity of sentiment and sin cerity ; but whatever may be the length of our separation or discontinuance of intercourse, the happy days I spent 17 258 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. on the Ohio, and the character of Mrs. B., will remain indelibly impressed on the mind of her friend and admirer. T. B. ALSTON.* * One individual alone clung to Burr in his hour of trial ; need we say that it was a woman, the only daughter of the accused. If there is a redeeming feature in the character of Burr, it is to be found in his love for that child. From her earliest years, he had educated her with a care to which we look in vain for a parallel among his contempo raries. She grew up, in consequence, no ordinary woman. Beautiful beyond most of her sex ; accomplished as few females of that day were accomplished, she displayed to her family and friends a fervor of affection which not every woman is capable of; the character of Theodosia Burr has long been regarded almost as we would regard that of a heroine of romance. Her love for her father partook of the purity of a better world ; holy, deep, unchanging ; it reminds us of the affection which a celestial spirit might be supposed to entertain for a parent, cast down from heaven, for sharing in the sin of the " Son of the Morning." No sooner did she hear of the arrest of her father, than she fled to his side. There is nothing in human history more touching than the hurried letters, blotted with tears, in which she announced her daily progress to Richmond ; for she was too weak to travel with the rapidity of the mail. Even the character of Burr borrows a momentary halo from hers, when we peruse his replies, in which, forgetting his peril and relaxing the stern front he assumed toward his enemies, he labored only to quiet her fears, and inspire her with confidence in his acquittal. He even writes from his prison in a tone of gayety, jestingly regretting that his accommodations are not more elegant for her reception. Once, and once only, does he melt ; and that is to tell her that in the event of the worst, he will die worthy of himself. After his trial, Burr went abroad, virtually a banished man. He was still full of his schemes against Mexico and the Spanish provinces ; but in England he met with no encouragement, the nation being engaged in the Peninsular war. He afterward visited France, where his petitions were equally disregarded, the Emperor being engrossed in the Continental wars. Here his funds failed. He had no friend to apply to, and was forced to borrow, on one occasion, a couple of sous from a cigar-woman on the corner of the street. At last he returned to New York ; but in how different a guise from the days of his glory ! No cannon thundered at his coming, no crowd thronged the wharf. Men gazed suspiciously upon him as he walked along, or crossed the street to avoid him, as one having the pestilence. But he was not, he thought, wholly destitute. His daughter still lived ; his heart 259 RICHMOND, June 29A, 1807. DEAR SIR : I recommend to you to place Mrs. Blen- nerhassett and your children with Mrs. Alston, till these agitations shall be composed. For other matters, I refer you to my friend, Major Ash ley, who will hand you this. Faithfully, yours, A. BURR. Mr. A. will perform his engagement. The bill for two thousand dollars was duly paid. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. To Mrs. M. Blennerhassett. LEXINGTON, KY., Tuesday Eve., July 14A, 1807. On my arrival here to-day, I was taken into custody for my indorsement of some of Col. Burr's bills, of which I am now getting clear by an arrangement Mr. yearned to clasp her to his bosom. She left Charleston, South Carolina, accordingly, to meet him. But although more than thirty years have elapsed, no tidings of the pilot-boat in which she sailed have ever been received. Weeks grew into months, and months glided into years. Yet her father and husband watched in vain for her coming. Whether the vessel perished by conflagration, whether it foundered in a gale, or whether it was taken by pirates, and all on board murdered, will never be known, until the great day when the sea shall give up its dead. It is said that this blow broke the heart of Burr ; and that though in public he maintained a proud equanimity, in private tears forced them selves down his furrowed cheeks. He lived thirty years after this event ; but, in his own words, " felt severed from the human race." He had neither brother, nor sister, nor lineal descendant. No man called him by the endearing name of friend. The weight of fourscore years was on his brow. He was racked by disease. At last death, so long desired, came ; but, it is said, in a miserable lodging and alone. Was there ever such a retribution ? ANONYMOUS. 260 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Clay is drawing up between Mr. Sanders and me, effected by my transferring Col. Alston's obligation, etc. Col. Mead's son, by a rapid journey from Richmond, per formed in twelve days, brings intelligence of bills of in dictment having been found against Col. Burr and my self for high treason and a misdemeanor, and that Burr is in close custody. The Federal marshal sent out to summon a jury from Wood county, and the trial fixed to come on the 3d of August. Burr's situation is thought to be perilous, as may be my own. If I go on to the Island or Marietta, I must expect to be immediately sent to Richmond. I have no idea of attempting an escape, which I could probably effect by Detroit to Canada. I feel conscious of all want of law or evidence to convict me, and shall therefore not seek to avoid an arrest anywhere, but promptly appear on any call for me at Richmond. Wil kinson will fall and be disgraced, whatever fate may attend Burr or myself. Seven of the grand jury were for presenting or indicting him, but all were unanimous for indicting Burr and me. I shall advise with Mr. Clay, this evening, on my situation, and the course I should pursue. It has appeared to me probable I should be arrested here, and sent on from hence ; Mr. Clay thinks that will not be ; you shall hear from me, however, the first new opportunity. Dudley Woodbridge, Edm. Dana, David Wallace, and almost every one you could suspect, have been taken to Richmond on subpenas ; John and S. Henderson, of course. Bollman has refused the Presi dent's pardon, as I should, unless it were issued upon petition to him from yourself and my respectable ac quaintances in the Mississippi Territory and the United INTERRUPTION. 261 States, unsolicited by me. I will not fly, even from Wood county witnesses and juries. I must now tell you I was interrupted when I had writ ten so far, by a visit from Mr. David Mead, to arrest me on the part of the United States. He is an amiable, kind young man, with whom I shall set out in a few days for Richmond. He has offered me every service since I have been confined, and is very busy in summoning witnesses on behalf of Col. Burr. He has just left me in a new lodging, which is very comfortable, I assure you, being a clean, airy room in the jail, left entirely to myself, where, I call God to witness to you, I do not feel aj; all uneasy at the sense of confinement. It is true, I have not yet tried it half an hour ; but the same Providence that has ever supported me will let my time and my reflections flow as gmoothly here as if I were at liberty. You must serve the same God, and by strong and steady endeavors think of this, and the worst that persecutions can inflict upon me, as lightly as I do. Attend to the duties you owe, and the delights that will be afforded you, by our dear boys, till I see them again, which I shall surely do somewhere. For ward to Richmond an affidavit from my valued friend Harding, stating at large the proceedings that were had against me at Washington, and a duplicate, for fear of a miscarriage. The jailer, a civil American, of the name of Prentiss, has just informed me has orders to let no one speak to me but in his presence, and to let no letters come to me or go from me. I have just sent him out to demand of Col. Crocket, the United States Marshal, or Mr. Bibb, their Attorney, that I may write to you a sealed letter or an open one, as they will venture to prescribe. 262 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. lie returns with an answer that I may send closed letters to you ; but any others I may wish to write must be seen by him and the jailer before they are sealed. I make memoranda of all these occurrences, which I read over to the jailer, and he has engaged to sign. If you wish to sympathize with me, do not grieve for my situation, as I am not at all discouraged. This even ing, 't is true, is warm ; but how much more distressing was the heat in the vast prairies and barrens I have passed through, tormented, too, day and night with insects, from which I am here free. Is my tumbler so greasy I can not wash it clear ? I am chemist enough to know that not a particle of the grease will adhere to the water ; and how very much cooler is my drink ! I have just been sent, per Joe, a mug of good tea, with toast, from Mrs. J., with mattress, sheets, etc. My win dows are grated, but large and open, and their appear ance no more disturbs my reflections, which kind Heaven never suffers to fail me, in place or time, than the figure of those we sometimes admired on the Island. You must dismiss, then, all concern for every mortification you will falsely think I suffer, except what arises from the want of the picture, which I do 'nt yet despair of, through the kind offices of a young man at Nashville, a printer, of the name of Rob. Alleson, who has kindly assured me he will engage himself to forward it to you or me. I must now close, to insure this letter time enough in the office to go by to-morrow's mail. Joe has just come to take them. God bless you! Write every post. Kiss my boys for me, and never fear a failure of my spirits or my constancy. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. FRIENDSHIP PROVED. 263 To Mrs. M. Blennerhassett. LEXINGTON, July 18A, 1807. It should afford you the fullest proof of my contentment, in my present situation, to learn, that without any inter ruption of good health, I have not appropriated any part of my time, since Tuesday, to writing to you. When I was closing my letter to you that day, I thought it would go from hence next morning ; I am happy since to hear" it will not go forward before this, which, I hope, you will first read. In the midst of my occupation, by the cares of my concerns with the Government, I have made arrangements for removing, I expect, the greatest part of the incumbrances affecting our property on the Island. Miller, who, you know, attached the chief part of our effects, is not here, but will probably accept of the same accommodations, accepted by Mr. Sanders, namely, a transfer of Alston's obligation, with a deed of trust on the Island, as a further security. Our valued friend Harding will explain this to you. He ought to see my letters to you, while the press of more indispensable occu pation prevents my writing to him. Details relating to my arrest on Tuesday evening, and the proceedings that have already, and will hereafter occur, you will see, must be too voluminous to find place in my letters. You must content yourself with the statement you will find ot them in the papers. I will not fail, however, to give you such particulars as you may not see there. The degrees of adversity seem to graduate the scales of friendship, and the sincerity of the professions we receive in life. I have been visited by Col. Meade, who 264 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. has not probably ridden to town for two years, on any two other occasions, while Morton, the Harts, and many others you would first count upon, have not appeared within the walls. More call upon me, however, than I wish to see, while poor Tracy is offended with me, be cause I will not take any of the little money he has gathered by so many years' hard earning, and several other persons daily load me with general offers of service. If confinement could, in itself, have any ills for me, they could not fail to be greatly abated, by the interest excited by my visitors and the unremitting exercise of my pen. But while I have these resources aided, besides, by the kindest attentions of the jailer and his family, who in no instance omits to render my situation not only easy, but even comfortable, without transgressing the line of de- markation between his duty and his inclination I hope the ease I experience, and the indifference I feel toward future prospects, will not induce you to suspect that the most loathsome dungeon, or the most unjust issue of my prosecution, could exhibit me unworthy of the favor of your constancy and virtue. Although I live very com fortably in every respect, Mrs. Sanders, late Miss Nich olas, persists in sending me a nice breakfast every morning, and Mr. Postlethwaite has endeavored to pro cure my removal to his house, a mile distant in the country ; but popular passion is so strongly engaged on the side of the Government, that it could not be effected in this focus of Democracy ; the ardor of which, however, I am generally assured the manner of my deportment, and address in the court have cooled down into some degree of sympathy and confidence in my honor. SPECIAL DIRECTIONS. 265 I have been very much engaged the last two days in preparing letters and various papers for Joe to take to the Island. I got him off in the afternoon ; he took with him two new horses I got for the three I left Natchez with, which he will take to his uncle's on the Monanga- hela, and keep until he takes them down to Richmond, where I shall want him and Scott to prove the inveterate animosity borne me by some of the Wood county wit nesses I expect to appear against me. I think it probable I may have occasion, on my defense, to make use of the first letter I wrote to Col. Burr; that being destroyed, probably my letter-book may be received as evidence of its contents. The book, therefore, which I left in the small trunk, containing my papers, together with every letter you can there find, or in any part of my writing- desk, from Col. Burr to you, or myself, you must, with the aid of Mr. Harding, or other friends, whose zeal and punctuality can be depended upon, have forwarded to me at Richmond, together with the morocco case, containing my music, and the two sheets of manuscript I lent Mrs. Wallace, with my spectacles; the whole carefully packed, sealed and directed, in a small trunk or box, in the safest and most expeditious manner, by Orleans, to some port where I may get the earliest intelligence of its arrival, and thence procure it by the coach. I expected the return to town last evening of my young friend, Da vid Meade, from the country, where he is fatiguinyly employed in serving subpenas for witnesses on the part of Col. Burr. On Monday I shall set out in his charge he being deputy-marshal with a guard of four, three, at least, of whom are respectable, and will, I am assured, 266 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. prove agreeable companions. I am extremely sorry to find the injury to private individuals of this country in consequence of a baseless authority for Burr's financial operations here last autumn, far exceeding my greatest suspicions. If it be shown that he had not funds and friends pledged to him to warrant his drafts, his conduct would appear nefarious enough to displace all the friend ships he ever formed. These strictures are particularly extracted from me by something I have heard of him relating to myself in a pecuniary sense, which will be examined, and come hereafter to your knowledge, if ma terial. They may therefore be kept secret from all but friends, in whose honor and attachment we can confide. David Meade has just left me. We shall certainly go on Monday, and proceed by easy journeys, comfortably equipped. Beware to enter upon Dominick's heart, but by small and cautious advances while informing him of my situation. Welcome the means you may derive from it, of forming him to a habit of patience and courage in suffering ; pity for the vices of mankind, and a steady contempt for malice, which the vengeance of power can never subdue. As it regards yourself, reflect and rejoice that your husband will not be unworthy of you by the tenor of his life ; while, through all the trials he may yet pass, the approving spirit of your virtue will embellish his fame and smile upon his courage. I have written to my friends, Jas. S. Lewis & Co., to honor Mr. Harding to amount of $500 or $600 to answer your occasions, as well as to accept all bills drawn by yourself, to amount of my remaining funds in their hands: this last instruction I gave them in contemplation of your making a small pur- DETENTION. 267 chase, and having need of some money to make ready payments and prepare for getting in a crop the ensuing season, which you ought to endeavor to effect for the children in the manner I have proposed; though any other you may be advised to will not he displeasing to me. Mr. Biggs will soon, I hope, reach Natchez, with some few hands, and I have begged of Col. Gushing to endeavor, as soon as possible, to send you every thing he can from the Island, from whence I think it probable you will receive some supplies in the course of this fall. My detention at Richmond will extend nearly to Christmas, owing to the distances from which I shall be obliged to collect my witnesses ; so that if I shall be able to run the gauntlet through Democratic juries and witnesses, you may easily calculate the time I could return to you by sea, or by land and the Ohio, taking the Island in my way. In the mean time, it is possible I shall not be kept in jail, but confined in a comfortable way in the Peniten tiary, or other safe quarters, under guard, at Richmond, as Burr now is. The federal marshal there has a good character from David Meade, and is brother to General Scott. Continue to repeat to all our worthy friends, par ticularly Harding, Col. and Mrs. Scott, and Russell, etc., etc., my grateful obligations for their goodness to you ; tell Russell I do not cry " Divil burn the iron boults," though I sometimes sing " Smolileu." A mail in to-day from Natchez, and no letters from you. I have had but one ; the postmaster's date being 23d ult., concerning the boys' works. For God's sake, write oftener, and give me the satisfaction of hearing 268 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. how many of my letters, this making the seventh or eighth, you received from your husband, HARM AN BLENNERHASSETT. P. S. As I can't write to many of your friends, I hope all will excuse me. Sunday noon, July 19th. I am just going out to walk in town, to make some visits with the jailer. H. B. The following is a notice of the arrest and proceeding alluded to, taken from the " New World :" LEXINGTON, July 21st. On Tuesday last Herman Blennerhassett arrived in this town from the Mississippi Territory. Immediately on his arrival he was arrested, at the instance of Mr. Saun- ders, on a civil process, and before his discharge was again arrested by the marshal for the Kentucky district, on an affidavit made by Mr. David Meade, the purport of which was, that Blennerhassett had been indicted for treason, and a true bill found by the grand jury at Rich mond, Virginia. It fortunately happened that Judge Todd was in town, before whom Mr. Blennerhassett was immediately brought ; but as he wished to be heard by counsel, he was committed to jail, and ordered to be again before the judge at nine o'clock the next morning, at which time he read to the court an affidavit which he had drawn up. The crowd was so great that the editor was unable to hear the whole of it, but he understood it went to give a history of his arrest and discharges in the EXTRACT. 269 Mississippi Territory ; of his being on his journey home, when he heard at Danville of the indictment being found against him ; of the means he used to ascertain the truth of the report ; and that being satisfied of its correctness, he had hastened to this place, to surrender himself to Mr. Bibb, attorney for the United States ; that soon after he arrived he was arrested upon a civil process ; that he had met with Mr. Clay, to whom he communicated his intentions, and requested advice as to the mode he should adopt ; that Mr. Clay said he was too much engaged to attend at that time to his applications, but promised to see him on the subject at nine o'clock the next day. He declared it to be his wish to be sent on to Richmond to receive his trial at that place. Mr. Clay, as counsel, assured the court, that he was instructed by his client to express his wish to be sent on for trial ; he only wished an unnecessary rigor might not be observed, and that he might be forwarded in a manner as delicate as the nature of his situation would permit. Mr. Clay at the same time took the liberty, as a citizen, to protest against, or rather object to, the mode which had been pursued by the court ; he viewed the proceedings unprecedented and illegal. He, however, wished it to be understood, that his observations were made as a citizen, and not at the instance of Mr. B. ; it was his real wish to be sent on for trial. Mr. Bibb stated that he had provided himself with authorities to prove the proceedings proper ; but that he had that morning inquired of Mr. Clay whether any ex ceptions would be taken to the legality of the proceedings, and being informed that none would be taken, had neg- 270 , THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. lected to bring his authorities into court; that he was now surprised to find the exceptions taken. Mr. Clay stopped him again, to declare that the excep tions were not by the consent of Mr. B., who he believed was really desirous of being conveyed to Richmond. Mr. Blennerhassett assured the court that Mr. Clay had justly stated his desire, and pledged himself, that whatever .might be the decision of the judge, he would accompany Mr. Meade, the deputy-marshal, to Richmond. But he wished not to be understood as making a parade of willingness which he did not feel, of meeting investi gation, as he was more desirous of going as a prisoner at the public charge, than at his own expense, as his fortune was greatly impaired. He made an affecting appeal to the citizens of Lexington, which would have been very favorably received, had not the high crimes with which he was charged forcibly rebutted it. He spoke of the friendly attention and hospitable treatment experienced by himself and family, and hoped they would not believe, without evidence, that their attentions had been bestowed on unworthy objects. The judge took time to make up an opinion as to the proceedings which ought to be had in the case ; and issued a warrant for his commitment and safe keep ing, until the district-judge could be applied to, who ordered him to be delivered to the court in Richmond, without delay. He was yesterday sent off, attended by Mr. Meade and a guard of five men. UNPLEASANT TIDINGS. 271 LEXINGTON, July 22d, 1807. SIR : Your favor of the 20th was delivered to me ; the apology you offer, on the subject of my fee, is abundantly sufficient, and the compensation you propose, adequate. You will be pleased to inclose a Virginia bank note to me from Richmond, by the mail. I did not understand that by the agreement between Mr. Sanders and you, Mr. Miller was to be any way interested in the " deed of trust " upon your Island, and am pretty positive it was not agreed that he should be concerned in it, which is evident, indeed, from the face of the deed itself. Never theless, you may give Miller an order upon Sanders, to pay him out of the proceeds of the sale of the Island, if they should exceed Mr. S.'s demand, and Mr. Alston should not be willing or forced to pay according to his engagement. I think, therefore, you ought to acknowl edge the deed before the General Court in Virginia. You will only, by refusing to do it, give Mr. Sanders the unnecessary trouble of having the deed returned to be proven and certified from this place, or commencing a suit against you, to coerce an acknowledgment. Your obedient servant, HENRY CLAY. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. NATCHEZ, August 3d, 1807. MY DEAREST HUSBAND : After having experienced the greatest disappointment at not having heard from you for two mails, I at length learn of your arrest, which afflicts and mortifies me, because it was an arrest. 272 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. think, had you of yourself gone to Richmond, and so licited a trial, it would have accorded better with your pride, and you would have escaped the unhappiness of missing my letters, which I wrote every week to Mari etta. God knows what you may feel and suffer on our account before this reaches you to inform you of our health and welfare, in every particular; and knowing this, I trust and feel your mind will rise superior to every inconvenience that your present situation may subject you to ; despising, as I do, the paltry malice of the up start agents of Government, and that you may in some measure be the means of exposing them to the world. Let no solicitude whatever for us damp your spirits ; we have many friends here, who do the utmost in their power to counteract every disagreeable sensation which I suffer from your absence. I have removed into a part of Mr. Moon's house, where I can scarcely feel the heat of the weather, having let mine to the French Consul, who has come to reside here. The boys have a good school, and I find many conveniences here which I wanted at Poindexter's house. Mrs. Whittle spends most of her time here, which is a great advantage now, when I do n't go any- where, which I have determined not to do till I learn the result of your affairs, though pressed by all my acquaintances to go to the country, where I spent some time before I learned of the alteration of your course. I inclose several letters of business to General Tupper, at Marietta, for you, among which was the one that Mr. Sorrel, of this place, had in his possession when he passed you in the wilderness, but which can be of no conse quence now. Mr, Biggs has returned with only three STRONG ATTACHMENT. 273 negroes, not having been able to procure funds for more. I shall live in the hope of hearing from you next mail, and entreat you, by all that is dear to us, not to let any disagreeable feelings on account of our separation ener vate your mind at this time. Remember, that every one will read with great interest whatever concerns you, but still, do n't trust too much to yourself; consider your want of practice at the bar, and, if I still retain the same influence over you which you have over me, do n't spare the fee of a lawyer ; we shall never miss it in this coun try, and if we did, that, in such a case, should be no con sideration now. Assure Col. Burr of my warmest ac knowledgments for his and Mrs. Alston's kind remem brance, and tell him to assure her that she has inspired me with a warmth of attachment that never has, nor ever can diminish while I live. I wish him to urge her to write to me : a letter from her now would be most accept able God bless you ! M. BLENNERHASSETT. I hope you have done tormenting yourself about the loss of my picture. I inclosed you, to Marietta, what is of infinitely more value, the profiles of the two darling lovely boys. To Mrs. M. Blennerhassett. RICHMOND PENITENTIARY, Tuesday, Aug. 4^A, 1807. Do n't startle at a word ; I am not in the quarters of old M ; you must wait for a description of my lodg- mg until I conclude some little account of my journey 18 274 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. This has been as comfortable and accommodating as the severity of the weather and much fatigue would permit. The guard, consisting of five gentlemen, vied with each other all the way in emulating the exertions of that excel lent young man, David Meade, to promote my ease. I had, consequently, no restraint, and might, I believe, have effected my escape, if I had been disposed to attempt it. We arrived in town to-day, the 16th inclusive since we left Lexington, a quarter before 2 o'clock. We rode up to the Washington tavern, where we had an excellent dinner; after which I was visited by another deputy- marshal with a warrant for high-treason, and conducted in a carriage to this place, where I am lodged in a suite of commodious apartments, affording me a walk of forty paces in length, lately occupied by Col. Burr, who has been removed to another house, under guard, for the more convenient intercourse with his counsel during his trial ; these are numerous, and all volunteers in his defense. I was not half an hour here when I had a lively note from Col. Burr, a present of tea, sugar and cakes from Mrs. Alston, and a visit from Alston, and Edmond Randolph, to offer his advice and services gratis. Morgan Neville has been looking for me, and was denied admit tance to my room at the tavern, through officiousness or mistake, for all my friends may come here to me, though I can't go out to them. Mr. Randolph and Alston assure me the prosecutions for treason have already become ridiculous among the best informed, so that none of us will probably be hanged, nor can a conviction for the misdemeanor be effected from any thing we can learn, any more than from any acts or declaration of ourselves, PRIDE. 275 for none such ever escaped us to warrant one. Our only indemnity, therefore, will consist in our promoting the eclat, or whatever it may be, which will reward the zeal of the Government for our persecution. I had a visit to arrest the progress of my letter from Mr. Mercer ; he sat fully two hours with me, and was as interesting as he always is. My new lodging, though spacious and commodious, is unfurnished ; I have there fore been forced to have indispensable necessaries fur nished from the tavern, which, however, I shall only continue until I can make more economical arrangements. In my anxiety to save for you and the boys, I must still indulge my pride by spurning the liberal subsistence allowed by the United States to their State prisoners, of fifty cents per day. I hope you will duly receive my two letters from Lexington jail, and forward the things I therein wrote for. Request of Harding to see or write to Tyler, to advise him to offer a surrender of himself, and get subpened, if he does not hear soon after you get this, that the Government will abandon the chase they are at present engaged in ; I say abandon, for it is now generally believed, by all parties, that two of the grand jury, of the most respectable character, would not have concurred in finding any bill for treason, and none, pro bably, would have been found, if these had not mistaken the meaning of the judge's report of his opinion in case of Swartwout and Ogden. Having yesterday rode forty- five miles, and thirty-five to-day, before the variety of incidents that has occupied me this evening, and having other matters to engage me for an hour before I go to bed, I will reserve the rest of this sheet for such part of 276 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the news of to-morrow as may concern me, and may not reach you through the papers. Good night. Wednesday, 11 o'clock, P. M. Variety is charming, and never more pleasantly exemplified than in the succession of that of my levees here. I believe I should have been stupid, or perhaps indisposed a little to-day, from the transition from great exercise in the open air and broiling sun to sudden confinement, if I was not almost hourly stimulated by the appearance of some person I am pleased to see, or the hearing of some news to interest me. As to persons, I have seen this morning Mr. Botts, who will also take part in my defense, without pecuniary compen sation from me, and I expect his example will be followed to-morrow by a similar offer from Mr. Wickham. Tell Harding my indictment, as appears from a printed copy sent to me this evening, contains two counts ; the first for levying war against the United States on the 10th of De cember, which will be attempted to be supported by the perjured evidence of Taylor and Albright, of resistance made to General Tupper's arresting me ; while Tupper will prove he never attempted to arrest me, or any of the party ; for which insolent behavior of his, bye-the-bye, it is rumored that he is threatened also with a State pros ecution. The other count is for planning, and going down the river on the llth, to effect the seizure of New Orleans, which I suppose the evidence of the Hendersons is chiefly relied upon to maintain ; but this testimony I shall also, I expect, be able to defeat; also, let him know or read that in filling many of the blank spaces with my name, which occurs several times, an e is uniformly used in the Christian name, instead of an a, as I have ever POSTPONEMENT OF TRIAL. 277 written it, and in the surname an a is as often used as an e. I want to learn from him whether any, and what, advantages may be taken of these variances, and when ? To return to my visitors D. Wbodbridge and Edmond Dana called in the morning, both my friends, by whom I heard Joe had safely given all the papers I charged him with to Col. Gushing. A great deal of property has been sold, I hear, but the purchasers are friendly enough to offer to let me have it, by placing them as they were before the sales. No negroes are sold, but all are vagrant and latitant ; still none will be lost. The laws of Virginia and Kentucky only allow an absent debtor or defendant to come in within seven years, and set aside, or seek redress for a sale made against law or equity. Again, it seems as if every one I ever knew, and more, were now in Richmond ; for to-day the prosecuting counsel had about one hundred witnesses called in court, and, for the second time, put off the trial for two days, because about fifty more did not appear ; and nothing less than Morgan Neville and Bob Robison were here this evening. Friday, 8 o'clock, A. M. I was a little indisposed yes terday, which, with the hinderance of company, etc., pre vented my writing. A small dose of ipecac, has to-day restored my strength and appetite, so that I hope I have already surmounted whatever seasoning may have been necessary to fit me for the sojourn I shall make in this place. Mr. Wickham, as was expected, waited upon me, with Mr. Botts ; these, with Mr. Randolph, all three my gratuitous counsel, I severally and distinctly assured, no apprehension of a capital conviction, or sentence of death, could induce me to draw from the sympathies and exi- 278 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. gencies of my family to defray any charge of my defense, either at present or any after period I could contemplate. Mr. "W., a staunch Federalist, and Messrs. Randolph and Botts, perhaps as warm Democrats, are of opinion I shall be enlarged on Col. Burr's acquittal of the treason charge, if I can procure bail for the misdemeanor, which I sup pose I could easily do, but would as soon remain where I am, until all the claims of Government upon me are dis posed of. It will much depend on the progress and turn of Burr's trial, when mine can come on, though our cases will be kept as wide apart as truth and their merits justly require. It is truly painful to me to tell you to expect nothing from the Island, though most of the purchasers, even Miller, the principal, would return the property on the terms I have before mentioned ; yet the recovery of any thing depends on his acceptance of the best and only arrangements Alston can make. Alston is endeavoring to raise money here to meet all the demands, the success of which I shall learn to-day or to-morrow, but little depend upon. On failure of this, he, Alston, will assume the whole, payable one-half a year from next January, the remainder the January following, with interest. The impossibility, he declares, to raise money in Carolina, by sale or mortgage, and his having fewer negroes than his estates require, make this the best arrangement he can make ; but which, I fear, will not be accepted. I will endeavor to learn and effect the speediest means of for warding to you as many of the negroes as possible, which, I suppose, you will hire out ; but, in all your affairs, be Harding your guide. Alston talks confidently of Burr's recovering his de- TENDER OF FRIENDSHIP. 270 mands upon Government, to the amount of 50,000. This event would be prosperous, indeed, but I have little faith in it. Mercer has sat an hour with me since last sentence ; news to-day by him is all war, traced up to declarations by the President, that the ground the Gov ernment will take is the inviolability of a neutral flag ; every one is in arms, to be ready on the first signal to take Quebec and the West Indies. Mercer prays you to accept the admiring homage of his remembrance ; I send my letters for you, by arrangement with him under cover to his friend B. Taylor, Esq., attorney- at-law, Alexandria, who will duly forward them to Scott. You will also inclose to the same gentleman, who will forward your letters to me through Mr. Mercer. I have just received a tender of friendship by Mr. Ormsby, of Kentucky, from General Henry Lee, and offers of soups, jellies, etc., from Mrs. Carrington, with their compliments. From your husband, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. Burr to Blennerhassett. Sunday, August 4th. MY DEAR SIR: You may take it an ill compliment that I tell you I am heartily glad to hear of your arrival. Mr. Alston and Mr. Neville successively made attempts to see you at the tavern, but were denied. Having this minute heard that you have gone to my late quarters, I send to inquire of your health, of that of Mrs. Blenner- hassett's, and in what I can be useful to you. What counsel shall I send you ? Faithfully yours, A. BURR. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. 280 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Burr to Blennerhassett. August 5^, 1807. I am much gratified, my dear sir, by your letter and notes. It is impossible for us to communicate freely, ex cept through the intervention of counsel. I recommend to you to employ Mr. Randolph and Mr. Botts, and that you write a line to each of them this morning. They will not expect money, at least at present, and when I shall be discharged, I shall be able to furnish it. Write also to your friend Emmett,* to come on forthwith. My trial is essentially yours; it will settle principles which will govern in both. The political character of Mr. Em- mett will give him weight ; and it is greatly to be desired that a man of discernment and impartiality should wit ness the mode of these prosecutions and the extraordi nary efforts and extraordinary means used to produce conviction, right or wrong. Your faithful friend, A. BURR. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. If there be any thing wanting to your comfort, advise me. To Mrs. Blennerhassett. RICHMOND PENITENTIARY, Aug. 13M, 1807. All is going on very well ; I am hearty and in good spirits, but have only time to charge you to suffer not the appearance of a summons to bring you here, or to fret * Thomas Addis Emmett, of New York. INDECISION. 281 you, and tell you you must not obey it. Your want of funds, and the helpless state of your children, must op pose a barrier, which the Government will not venture to break down. Tell Harding to be of the same mind with my excellent c6unsel here. Adieu ! in haste for the mail. H. BLENNERHASSETT. MRS. M. BLENNERHASSETT. Burr to Blennerhassett. Friday, August I perceive the advantages from your presence, but am not at this moment able to decide whether the thing be practicable. One or more of our counsel will wait on you this afternoon, to confer on this and other points. I am surrounded by visitors, which prevents me from adding more than the assurances of my respect and at tachment. A. BURR.* To Blennerhassett. NATCHEZ, August 16th. Your first letter from Lexington has just come to hand, and, notwithstanding the predictions of your former one, I do n't find it by any means so melancholy as the first I received, as it assures me of your accommodations in that place (which I can neither bear to repeat or write) to be * Burr's answer to a note wishing to be informed if he (Blennerhassett) could be allowed to examine witnesses as his (Burr's) agent or advocate, or at least be present at their examination. 282 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS.^ much better than I expected. I also feel now, that in such a court as Richmond, absolute falsehoods can't pass, when, in opposition to all that can be sworn to by Wood county, you have the most respectable witnesses from the State of Ohio ; and surely every person in Belpre* can testify that Tyler's boats landed on the Jsland in noon day, and had no arms on board, and admitting that what all these villains said were true, how were you concerned in what was done by Tyler or others ? Ashley has told Mr. Harding that Peter Taylor said something that in jures you ; and Col. Burr writes in his letter to Harding, which I have seen, that " Mr. Blennerhassett has injured him, both by what he has said and what he has written." Good God ! what a world this is : tell Col. Burr, from me, if you think it worth while, that I wanted not thia aggravation to my unhappiness ; at least, that I looked not for aggravations from him. He also writes to tell you to place your family with Mrs. Alston : tell him were Mrs. Alston only in question, I would now, this moment, without hesitation, take refuge with her, and that I should not think my life even worth its present value, did not I hope once more to see and converse with that woman whom I think almost above human nature ; but I would at the same time do nothing that might lessen the dignity of the attachment I feel for her. We are under the greatest obligations to Doctor Com- mins, for carrying your package, which you will receive sooner than you could any other way. I believe, from what I have learned, that Tyler will injure you, if he can ; he is by this time arrested. Now let me again intreat you to spare no costs that can serve PERJURY. 283 you ; if our negroes come down from the Ohio, I repeat again, we can make a good beginning here. Capt. Percy has been here again, urging me to go to the Spanish dominions, where you will be well received, and where I shall make a visit, when I know the termination of your prosecution. I spent three days at Col. Scott's since I wrote the letter you will receive with this. You may perceive my spirits are much mended ; but I am still de termined to adhere to what I then said I would, in case the perjury of the mob should prevail ; though every con versation I hear on the subject tends to encourage me, at least with regard to yourself. I shall write every mail to assure you of the health of myself and the boys. Farewell for another week ! remember that your fami ly are well, and that you are adored by your M. BLENNERHASSETT. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. t To Blennerhassett. NATCHEZ, Aug. 2Gth, 1807. My usual depression of spirits has been much increased by not having received any letter from you by this mail, aided by the shock of hearing from Ashley to-day, for the first time, that it was by the perjury of Peter Taylor that a bill was found against you. 'T is true, I feel fully con fident such evidence must be done away with ; but I also feel, that it is owing to this alone that you are in your present situation, the thoughts of which haunt me night and day. Gracious God ! confined in a prison in the dog- days, and by the perjury of a wretch not many degrees 284 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. from a brute ! I used to give him credit for the utmost honesty; but it is in vain, I am convinced more and more every day, to expect principle without some refine ment, at least where interest is concerned. Ashley says he hears they have given the wretch a tract of land some where. If this can be proved, it will be sufficient. As for Albright, I can make oath to his secreting our two negroes, who ran away when you left the Island ; and Elmwood, the blacksmith, told me of his taking stolen melons and sweet potatoes to Marietta to sell for negro Jim, whom he saw steal them out of the field, where there were no others but mine. I see plainly enough, the Wood county rabble only want some pretext to vindicate their plunder; but I feel great confidence in the evidence I trust you will have from Marietta and Belpre*, and hope no lawyers' fees will be spared. "Why can't I be with you ? But I feel it would not do ; your mind is stronger without me, and the boys are an insurmountable objection to my going round, which I should only do in a case that I hope can't possibly happen. I have only been to Mrs. Scott's since I heard of your arrest, and shall probably not go anywhere until I learn the result. Miss Percy is still with me. Major T., who visits me often, begs to be kindly remembered to you. Dr. Commins left home, I believe, three days ago, for Richmond, where he was called as a witness by Govern ment. He took with him all the papers, etc., you wrote for from Lexington, but I suppose this will reach you first, though he went through the wilderness and took a pack-horse. FEVER UNAVOIDABLE. 285 The boys are well, and still, thank God ! insensible of your situation, though they often pierce me to the heart by their questions about you, and threaten very often, when I correct them, to " tell their pappy how bad I am.'* They both of them join in sending, to use their own phrase, " their good love to their dear pappy." I wish, when your mind is fully disengaged from your present embarrassments, that you would make a thorough calculation of the profits and losses between this country and the one we have left. Perhaps you may sell the Island ; if you can do so, it will be best ; if not, nothing but a certain loss would prevent my wish of returning there. My attachment for that place is strong indeed, but not so strong as to entirely counterbalance our inter est ; at the same time, I would have you consider there is only one thing in favor of this country the raising of cot ton which for a moment gives it any preference ; for, in spite of all you may have heard, it is a sickly country, both for black and white. Intermitting fever is inevita ble ; both the children have had it, but Harman's was the worst; he was completely cured by Dr. S., with whom I am much delighted as a physician. Dominick was then attacked, but I stopped the progress of the dis order myself. I am told Bayou Sara is much more healthy generally than the vicinity of Natchez, where fevers are constant ; and from this statement of the sick ness of this country I leave you to judge how far it will agree with your constitution. As to mine, I believe it is impossible I ever should have an "intermittent;" I only suffer at times from the pain in my breast, which uni- 286 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. formly increases in proportion to the anxiety of my mind. I grow very thin, notwithstanding my appetite is good; but I believe nobody's mind ever had more influence on the body than mine, but do n't let this concern you ; all I suffer now will only tend to make me completely happy, on your delivery from your present situation, which, I begin to think, must take place soon. 'T is not possible you can be injured by the perjury of such complete fools. The cotton crop promises very badly on account of the drought, in all the land about Natchez ; but wherever the land is new, the drought does not affect it. Now let me urge you to weigh well the advantages and disadvan tages of this country, and let your mind be no way in fluenced by what you have thought of the society of the place. It is not what I at first supposed it ; and any way, I consider it scarce a feather in the scale. If you can sell the Island, do n't hesitate to do so ; if not, consider that while we are making money here we are losing it by the house going to rack, and the land lying idle there ; whereas, if we can keep up that place, it, with the in crease of our negroes, will be enough for the boys ; then, on the other hand, if we go to Bayou Sara and plant cotton for four or five years, we may, at the end of that time, be enabled to go to the Northern States. Consider well what I have said, and remember that, at all events, your happiness is the first object with your M. BLENNERHASSETT. BUSINESS ITEMS. 287 Burr to Blennerhassett. KICHMOND, August 27th, 1807. DEAR SIR : Mr. Luckett* and I have an unsettled ac count to a considerable amount. He holds a bill indorsed by you. If you can devise means to procure him any aid at this moment, it would gratify me much. Your faithful and obedient, A. BURR. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. Burr to Blennerhassett. September 1st, 1807. DEAR SIR : It seems that some misapprehension exists on the subject of the bill held by Mr. Luckett. I could not with delicacy propose to you to take up my bill ; but I repeat that it would gratify me that it could be done. My present inability is too manifest. Yours, perhaps, not very different. If, however, you choose to request Alston to assume this bill as part of his engagement to you, the arrangement would give me real pleasure, and I have no doubt may be made satisfactory to him. I felicitate you on the events of yesterday, and am alway faithfully yours. A. BURR. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. * Mr. Luckett advanced money to Col. Burr on Blennerhassett' s indorse ment. 288 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. To Mrs. Bhnnerhassett. RICHMOND, YA., Sept. l~Lth, 1807. A few days have elapsed since I might have written to you to announce the second event that rendered last Monday remarkable as a day on which I might he sup posed to have "been elated with the long desired change of my condition for the better. That was the termina tion of my imprisonment, by the abandonment on the part of the prosecutors of the indictment against me for treason, and my admission to bail, under the other indict ment for a misdemeanor. But the receipt of your letter of the 3d ultimo, by a speedy arrival, was the event which constituted the first blessing that day returned to so many hopes and prayers offered up to obtain it. I have since received, I believe, all your other letters from Marietta, though your negligence in omitting dates dis tresses me, as I am ignorant of any time which I can con nect with any thing you tell me of yourself, the boys, or our friends. I am delighted with the profiles. It would cost you more calculation than you will ever enter upon to discover the one-hundredth part of the lines, or parts of lines and curves, on which I shall rapturously specu late in these bits of paper. You know it is not my tem per to feel surprise or emotion on transition from one extreme to another. I therefore passed from imprison ment to liberty with the same unconcern with which you have sometimes observed me to take the air, after three days voluntary confinement. But this may be more ex plicable from some daily notes I have kept for you since my arrival at Lexington. Our ingenious Harding will DEATH. 289 not be a little surprised to learn from you, that after a deprivation of liberty for fifty-three days, I was freed from the treason case, on which I had been arrested at Lexington, without arraignment, and shall probably get clear of the misdemeanor case in the same way, by the success of six similar points, which will be decided, I expect to-morrow, by the court, in favor of Burr. So you see I have little prospect of an opportunity to speak in my own cases, especially as I am so well provided with counsel. Still there is a chance of my being here put on trial for the misdemeanor, or being involved in the issue of a motion to send us to the Kentucky district for trial, in either of which events I shall say something. I have had two dollars worth of letters forwarded from Philadelphia : first, from Ireland ; two from Mar tin, one telling me to inquire after an estate he thinks has fallen to me of 6,000 a year, by the death of Lord Eoss, ci-devant Oxmantown, and Captain Jones, in the "West Indies, next to whom I stand in the entail. I do not wish you to build at all on this intelligence, though it is not at all improbable it may be realized. Should that ever happen, in how many instances may our gratitude do justice, in fact, to our dispositions. I hope I shall within a week re-open the small credit our nar row funds will entitle us to in Philadelphia. Lewis has already written to me, to say he will endeavor to have every bill taken up his house had rejected, that he can come at. I board with Major Smith, at a comfortable house, as cheap as we can, i. e., at seven dollars a week each, but shall proceed to Marietta as soon as I am dis charged from the court., as I do not expect any attempt, 19 290 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. if made for our transmissal to another district, will pre vail. Do, however, continue to write hither until other wise advised. I can add little more by this mail than to say, I am not sufficiently satisfied you can so surely he healthy where you are, in the fall, as if you were six or seven miles from the river. Therefore, on the earliest threatening to your self or the hoys of any autumnal attack, I entreat and enjoin you to let nothing prevent your removal. It would be impossible to enumerate all our excellent and accomplished friends ; still more so to say the hun dredth part of what my gratitude would express to them for their generous attention to you. You will acquit me of this duty with every one of them as well as you can. I wrote to Harding, who I hope will long enjoy his and Winthrop's good health. Colonel and Mrs. Scott, Mrs. "Whittle, and friends, have, with many others, claims upon my grateful regards that will never be obliterated. Your husband, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. P. S. I will endeavor to execute so much of your wishes as time and circumstances will permit. To Mrs. Blennerhassett. RICHMOND, YA., Oct. 7^A, 1807 I write this by Col. McKee, who leaves town to-day for Natchez ; though, from occasional interruptions he expects in his journey, you may not get it until after one or two other letters of more advanced date may reach you by post ANTICIPATION. 291 It will, however, serve to quiet your anxiety for my delay in arriving at Xatchez, as that pleasure must give way to the control of contingencies I can not govern. This day all the evidence is closed on the motion now before the court, for our transmissal to Kentucky ; the debates will end, and the motion be refused, I have every reason to believe, by Saturday ; but, in that event, I shall be de tained, three or four days, to put my demands on Col. Burr on some footing of adjustment ; after which I pro pose to use all diligence I can to haste to Marietta, from whence, I fear, I shall find great difficulty in effecting the recovery and removal of the negroes. I can not teaze you with particulars of my expectations ; I may have to go to Philadelphia or South Carolina, and, possibly, not be able to descend the river until after it shall break up in the latter part of January. You must economize in the mean time, and seek all the resources you can draw from the friends who surround you. I will write again by Tuesday's post; I have not cared to risk many letters, as you see weekly by the papers, or must conclude, I am every day before the court. I wish you to be very reserved in all your communications, except with Hard ing, whom I wonder you have not mentioned in every letter I received from you. I had none since Sunday's mail, and since the news of our boy's sickness, by yours of 25th August ; I am truly miserable in my alarms for my Harman, whose situation, as well as your own, with regard to the pain in your breast, I can see you have im parted to me with reluctance and reserve. Perhaps we shall yet enjoy ease and wealth, if Martin's expectations of my succeeding to the estates of the late 292 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. D. Harman, by the death of Lord Oxmantown, and Capt. Jones, shall be realized ; therefore, I only beseech Heaven to inspire you with the same prospects of contentment and delight with which I can enjoy the remainder of my days in a cottage with you and our boys God grant I am warranted to add them. Assure Dr. S. of perfect esteem and confidence in his talents and learning, and cultivate the opportunities of his closest attendance upon yourself and the boys. I have no news by this opportunity ; it is uncertain and precarious. Adieu ! HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. P. S. I hope Harding has not missed hearing that J. S. Lewis, in his individual capacity, will honor bills, drawn for your necessities, to the amount of $500. Devereaux to Blennerhassett. BALTIMORE, Oct. 12th, 1807. MY DEAREST FRIEND : I know you must think it strange at not having heard from me since your arrival in Richmond, and I am sure you must think it untimely in bidding you now farewell, to give only this paltry proof of my most affectionate regard and friendship ; yes, my dear Blennerhassett, my thoughts have been con stantly occupied in reflecting on those poignant and try ing afflictions, with which it has pleased a cruel destiny to overwhelm you, and for which I feel, not as the gen eral run of mankind, but as one, I may say without vanity, not unworthy to participate, as I really and sin cerely do, in your griefs. How often have I thought of TO HIS WIFE. 293 Mrs. Blennerhassett ; I feel so much for your misfortunes that I durst not glance at the cause of them. I am now on the eve of embarking for our loved and native country ; I go by the way of England, for the more safety. Per mission was granted me, by the last administration, to return for a twelvemonth, and I now take advantage of it in the hope of recovering my former estate, which, if I should, I may not only be a very independent, but a rich man in this country. Should I succeed, my friend of which there is but little doubt you and your estima ble lady shall find by my actions, instead of words, what I truly and sincerely feel toward you both. In the mean time, I have made a friend for you, who offers to come forward in a pecuniary point of view, if necessary. The person is Mr. Pierce Butler, of Philadelphia, a noble- minded countryman of burs, with whom you need feel no scruple in calling upon in this way. The offer came, un solicited, from himself, and he requested me to mention it to you. As I can not, unfortunately, at present, do more, I have nothing more to say, and conclude, my dear friend, with an affectionate remembrance to Mrs. Blen nerhassett, Your truly attached and unalterable friend, J. DEVEREUX. HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. To Mrs. Blennerhassett. RICHMOND, VA., Oct. I9th, 1807. This day's mail, my beloved, brought me your double letter from Natchez, and Col. Ellis's, of the 3d and 8th 294 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. ult., though I see, by the Washing-ton postmark, it did not leave that office before the 15th. You have not, I find, been spared by the climate. Well, I trust in the favor of Heaven for the full re-establishment of your health, through the same mercy to me that has granted your recovery. My misery has been severe, from not having heard from you for three weeks back. During my anxiety for the cause of my disappointment, I attrib uted the latter to a relapse of Harman's sickness, which much distressed me. There is certainly a Providence which ordains, in compassion of our weaknesses, that we shall sometimes dread calamities far less than that it is pleased to conceal from us. But why do you permit your concern for me to weaken your strength or deject your spirits ? you might conclude from the papers, the worst that can befall me is the loss of three or four months' detention from you. To-morrow, I expect we will all be discharged ; after which nothing shall retard my return to you, but the care I must give to your property and affairs. Why fret about what you regard without due consideration, the disappointment of that confidence you have heedlessly placed in mankind ? What claim could your merits have upon the envy of upstart's ? Is not the sincere attachment of two or three friends of more value than the momentary and lying attentions of the crowd ? But why dwell as you do upon the Island ? Have you forgotten Marietta and Wood county, or can you regen erate them ? or, if we should succeed to 6,000 or 7,000 a year, by the decease of Lord Oxmantown, etc., would you bury it with ourselves on the Island ? Compose your self, therefore, till we meet, if it should not be these six FRIENDSHIP PROVEN. 295 months ; if we should still prefer a cabin near Fort Adams, but six miles from the Mississippi swamp, where none of us, please God, need fear to encounter the climate. I rejoice to learn that you find a new friend to replace some old ones, who have not . stood the test. If H. has not sunk the man in the merchant, he will prove a brilliant exception to Harding's rule, pronounced against the influence of mercantile habits and obscure birth. It will be no consideration with him, that we may yet draw for his indemnity upon other funds than our grateful hearts. Harding's own rule will preserve him steadfast ; but you should not mention to any living person the pecuniary prospects opened to us, were it only the better to enable us to prove the hearts of others, but also be cause it may not be realized. It will not surprise you to learn that I have had unsolicit ed offers of horses and money, which I have declined. ~No less than three Irishmen have come forward in this way ; namely, Jas. O'Hennessey, a Kerry-man, who never spoke to me until he rode hither, 105 miles to see me ; Mr. Pat. Hendren, a lawyer, in easy circumstances, settled thirty miles from hence ; and Mr. Pierce Butler, whom I have never seen, who resides in Philadelphia, is very wealthy, and has made an unlimited offer through D . Mr. Chevallie'r lent me 1,000 to-day, to send to a negro sale, which I have not used, and shall return untouched ; and, while I was confined in the Penitentiary, General H. Lee offered me similar aid through a friend. Thus we find a few choice spirits to compensate for the inconstancy of false friends. May they reconcile us to the world. 296 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. I have only written one letter by mail since I left the Penitentiary. I missed two post-days through my attend ance on the court, or some other unavoidable occupation ; but I confided two letters for you to private conveyance, by Strickland and Col. McKee ; if you have not already discontinued writing to me at this place, you will do so from the time this reaches you. I shall possibly go to Baltimore and Philadelphia before I see the Ohio ; if so, I shall accompany Burr to one or the other, in a day or two. I forbear to trouble you with my motives until I can impart the result. Our long-protracted contest with the Government has blasted "Wilkinson's fame and credit, never to be revived, though the investigations may not exhibit Burr's charac ter or designs unequivocally immaculate. But my name has so regularly met your eye in the papers weekly, that it was unnecessary to detail particulars ; you would, of course, conclude I was daily present in court. As to my health, I never enjoyed better ; though I had two or three slight illnesses while in confinement, I have since recov ered much more flesh than I lost there. Tuesday, 20th. Since writing the above, yesterday evening, I had a pretty long consultation with Burr, the result of which is a more probable conjecture that I shall go to Philadelphia with him, to try his success there in raising some money for me. I will write frequently to advise you of my movements. I have no words to ex press my feelings for Kitty Perry's kindness. I hope we shall ever retain her attachment. Your husband, H. BLENNERHASSETT. MEN OF TALENT. 297 For various reasons, which it is not necessary here to enumerate, the trials of Burr, Blennerhassett, Dayton, John Smith of Ohio, Comfort Tyler, Israel Smith of ]S"ew York, and Davis Floyd, were postponed, from time to time, until the third of August. From the fifth until the seven teenth of the month , the court was engaged in obtaining a jury for the trial of Burr, and discussing points of law. Never before, in the history of the country, was wit nessed so grand a display of legal acumen and forensic talent. Upon the bench sat the venerated Marshall, spot less in purity, and, for soundness of judgment, without an equal. Calm, dignified, and attentive, he analyzed the arguments of counsel, and noted their relevancy with the nicety of a critic. At the bar was Wirt, whose fervid and soul-thrilling eloquence, even on this very trial, placed him at once among the first of American orators. With a brilliancy of imagination which startled his auditors, he swayed the minds of the jury with wonderful effect. There, too, was Martin, who had been previously distin guished, in the trial of Judge Chase, before the United States Senate. Every word that he uttered, like a two- edged sword, pierced the arguments of his opponents at every point. There was Hay ; always ready to take ad vantage of suspicious circumstances, and wield them, with tenfold force, against the prisoner. There was Ran dolph, slow, calculating, and careful; building up the vulnerable points of his case against the attacks of his adversaries. There was Botts, facetious and playful; sometimes descending to the ludicrous, but often rising, with convincing argument, to the grand. There was Wickham, dignified and commanding; taking up his 298 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. subject with a master hand, and holding it to view, in every conceivable light. And there, too, was Burr, proudly pre-eminent, in point of intelligence, to his breth ren of the bar. He had been the Yice-President of the United States. He was accused of the highest and dark est crime in the criminal code. He stood before the su preme tribunal of his country, with the eyes of the nation gazing upon him. In the opinion of many, he was already condemned. He had the talent and tact, and the resources of the government, to contend against. Every faculty of his mind was exerted in his own defense. The magnitude of the charge ; the number of persons in volved; the former high standing and extraordinary fortunes of the accused, had excited an interest in the community, such as never before had been known. The witnesses against him were mostly officers of the Govern ment, with whom, at one time or another, he had been in some way connected. For twenty-six days, the court was arduously engaged in the investigation of the offense. The evidence of sixty wit nesses had to be examined and noted. Meanwhile, there being no suitable quarters in the city, Burr was confined in the Penitentiary, in the suburbs of Eichmond. Every day he was matched into court, on foot, escorted by a body guard of two hundred men, which would have done honor to an eastern prince. On the first of September, the jury returned a verdict u that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty, under the indictment, by any evidence submitted to us ; we, therefore, find him not guilty" Burr objected to the verdict, as being incorrect in point of form, and asked that the same might be given in the usual way NOT GUILTY. 299 simply, " Not Guilty." Mr. Hay answered, that, in fact ? it was a verdict of acquittal ; and that it should be en tered in the jury's own words. "There was no precise form of words by which the jury should be governed." " They have no right to return a written verdict at all," replied Burr ; " they have no right to depart from the usual form." He then called for the recital of the common directions given the jury by the clerk. They were read, and end as follows : " If you find him guilty, you are to say so : if not guilty, you are to say so, and no more" " The jury can not be indulged," said Burr. " They have defaced a paper belonging to the court, by writing upon it words which they have no right to write. They ought to be sent back." After a short consultation, it was agreed that the simple verdict of " Not Guilty " might be entered on the records of the court. On the ninth of September, Burr was again arraigned, upon an indictment for a misdemeanor, which consisted of seven counts ; the substance of which was, that Aaron Burr did set on foot a military enterprise, to be carried on against the territory of a foreign prince, viz., the prov ince of Mexico, which was within the territory of the King of Spain, with whom the United States were at peace. After the prosecution had examined some of their wit nesses, and the court had decided that the testimony of others was not relevant, the District Attorney made a motion to discharge the jury. To this motion Burr objected; insisting upon a verdict. This was on the fif teenth of the month. The court, being of opinion that 300 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the jury could not, in this stage of the case, be discharged, without the consent of the accused, they accordingly- retired, and very soon returned with a verdict of " Not Guilty." To Mrs. Blennerhassett. RICHMOND, VA., Oct. 22d, 1807. Ashley offers a desirable opportunity of informing you of the effect of the final order -of the court here, which is, that Burr and myself are to be tried at Chillicothe, on the first Monday in next January, for a misdemeanor. I speak of the effect, because it is generally understood the Government will drop all further proceedings. The judge has given this as his private opinion off the bench. Hay has expressed the same belief; and all further ideas of prosecuting for treason must be at an end, as the judge, in giving his opinion yesterday, declared no ground was laid before him, by the evidence, to entertain a suspicion of an overt act, having been committed, which was essen tial in making out the charge, though he thought proof enough had been exhibited of a treasonable design. It is therefore probable the recognizance I entered into yester day with Doctor Commins and Major Smith, my securi ties for my appearance at Chillicothe, will in the end be of no other use than to enlarge the records of the court. Thus, you perceive, I shall probably never again be a prisoner, and will not be prevented from descending the river, before it closes, if I do not learn, by intelligence expected from the President the day after to-morrow, through the Attorney-general, that Government intends to abandon all further proceedings against us. CALCULATIONS. 301 I think I shall go with " B." from hence, on Saturday, for Philadelphia, four days journey thither, and a stay of three or four days there will leave me a full month for my journey to Marietta, the transacting of whatever busi ness I can finish in that quarter, and getting under way afloat. I will write a line, through the Federal city, to apprise you of my freedom from further probable molestation by Government, or obstruction in my journey to Natchez, where I hope to arrive, not far from New- Year's day. One way or the other, I am very anxious this informa tion should reach you before you misconstrue or brood upon the statements you see in the papers of A. Burr and myself, being here committed, or sent off to Ohio. My chief object in going to Philadelphia is, to arrange my pecuniary demands upon A. B., though only in the pros pect of securing them, and to raise by the friendships of Mr. Butler, or Joe Lewis, as much cash as will enable me to purchase a dozen slaves, whose hire or labor may give us subsistence until we learn the result of our expecta tions from Ireland, and support our independence after they may fail. I will dispatch my letter through the Federal city this evening, but will not close this before to-morrow, to collect further intelligence for you. All friends of the Chief Justice here are as much dissat isfied with his opinion yesterday as Government has been with all his former decisions. He is a good man, and an able lawyer, but timid and yielding under the fear of the multitude, led, as it were, by the vindictive spirit of the party in power. But you will console your self in the assurance of my wanting nothing, through the 302 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. support of many friends. And should my obligations, under my recognizance, prevent my return to you, as I had hoped above, you must yet weather it out, without attempting a voyage or a journey which, instead of hastening our meeting, would possibly, at this season, prevent it forever, in this world. October 23d. I shall be off to-morrow or next day, with Dr. Commins, etc. He and myself are endeavoring to procure some negroes in partnership, upon part credit, but I can't answer for our success. I have no hopes of learning here, as I expected, the designs of J. ; but if they are hostile, I shall find means of effecting my wishes, of which I have little doubt. Endeavor with Capt. P. to procure us a lodging in his neighborhood; it may be very convenient. You will hereafter learn the motives of this suggestion, but I shall write more fully from Philadelphia. Saturday, 24A. I leave this at 5 o'clock to-morrow morning, in company with Dr. Commins ; Burr and L. Martin follow next day. I shall stop a day at the Federal city, to learn the disposition of Government, where I have no doubt I shall obtain a release from all further demands upon me in a criminal way : but. if I am not certified of this, I shall not yet be bereft of resources to meet and indemnify you, in as reasonable a space of time as you should expect. I have more to do to-night than will give me half sleep. Farewell! I will write from Philadelphia, if not sooner. Your faithful husband, HAR. BLENNERHASSETT. PRIVATE JOURNAL. 303 CHAPTER XIII. [Blennerhassett's Private Journal, kept during the trial, wherein are minutely narrated the incidents which occurred from the time 'of his arrest, in Kentucky, until his discharge at Richmond.] RICHMOND, YA., Aug. 4^, 1807. WE set out as usual from Scottsville before day, rode twelve miles to breakfast, then proceeded to T 's, eight miles on our way, where we rested one hour in ex cessive heat; afterward, proceeded to Richmond, where we arrived at forty-five minutes past 2, P. M. Distance from Lexington, 564 miles. From T ? s, Mr. Meade sent a note to Major Scott, the federal Marshal for the district of Virginia, to inform him of our approach. We traveled this last stage as usual, until we got within three-quarters of a mile of Manchester, where Mr. Meade left us, at a turnpike gate, and rode off at a quick pace. Now Capt. took the command of the party, and said to me that it would be proper to observe some order ; to which I answered, I had no objection. He then ordered Mr. Morton, the High Sheriff of Kentucky, and Mr. Wil lis Morgan, to form a file in front, Mr. McCally and Mr. David Todd to form another in the rear, directing me to ride single between the files, while he took his station in front of the whole ; in this order he led the escort with the Drisoner, in an easy walk, under a broiling sun, over 304 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. a road in which I was almost suffocated by the dust, owing to a long drought with which the country seemed to have been affected, and a smart breeze in our rear. During this embarrassment I called to the gentlemen in front of me to observe, " that I supposed it was not neces sary those in the rear should ride so close to me." They did so, probably, from the Captain's having used the words " % close order " in forming the procession. Those in front, however, Mr. Morton, or Mr. Morgan, answered me in the negative ; upon which the rear file fell back a few paces. We continued still in the same order, in which I endeavored to keep my station, as was assigned me, as nearly as possible, until we drew near to M bridge, over James river, when the Captain left his station in the front and rode back to the rear, I suppose to order them to ride closer up, for they immediately afterward did so. We now reached the bridge, on which the Captain shook hands with Col. Meyo, en passant, and telling him one of the gentlemen in the rear would pay the toll, which Mr. Todd did very expeditiously, without much deviation from his station. We proceeded at the same gait, until we entered the Main-street, commonly called the Brick- row, where I was disappointed to see no particular notice taken of the party, except by a little boy, who called out to some of his comrades, " 0, see the troop of horse, but they have forgot their colors ! " The walking gait was still preserved until we got in sight of the Washington tavern, when the Captain was pleased to trot up to the house, in which pace we followed him as closely as possi ble. On alighting from my horse, I was welcomed by Mr. Meade, in the presence of many gentlemen standing OLD FRIENDS. 305 in the portico. He then asked me to go up stairs, ordered dinner, etc., after which he delivered me into the custody of the Deputy Marshal of the Virginia district, by whom I was conducted in a carriage to the Penitentiary, Mr. Meade and the Captain accompanying me. In the even ing I was visited by Mr. Alston, Mr. Mercer and Mr. Randolph; the latter having obligingly tendered me his services and advice as a lawyer. Here my apartments are large and convenient, but very warm, from the hight of the windows preventing a free admission of air. The Deputy Marshal, on taking charge of me, read a warrant by Judge Marshall, but refused to leave it, or a copy, with me. "WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1807. I slept until 7 o'clock ; had a light breakfast this morn ing from the tavern ; hired a servant at $13 a month, by the week, he finding himself; was visited by Mr. Julian Dandridge, with whom I used to assist here, seven years ago, at the Harmonic Society; by Prichard, the book seller, whose hospitality I remember then to have re ceived, and who tendered me his best services, reminding me of some pecuniary accommodation I had conferred upon him, which I had forgotten. Visited again by Mr. Alston, who brought me a letter from Col. Burr ; also, by Dudley Woodbridge, jun., Edmond Dana, with letters from Miller and Col. Gushing, by Mr. John Banks, who re minded me of my gold chronometer in his possession, and by Mr. Craughton, who conferred great civilities on me seven years ago at Fredericksburg, and now warmly ten dered me his best services. Mr. Alston repeated orally 20 306 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. to me the necessity Col. Burr observed in his letter for my employing counsel, as the only proper intermedium of our communications. I assured him I was very de sirous of such aid, but was determined not to strengthen my defense, however disastrous the issue of it might prove, by drawing from the exigencies and sympathies of my family a single dollar to defray its charges. He still urged me to write a few lines to Mr. Botts, which I did. stating that I was solicitous of the aid of Mr. B.'s talents on terms I wished to propose to him in person. On Mr. B.'s appearance soon after in my room, I stated to him that Col. Burr and Mr. Alston had expressed a desire that I would employ him, though they were apprised of my determination not to spend a dollar on my defense, being a resolution the exigencies of my family imposed upon me, but Mr. Alston having assured me Col. Burr would arrange the matter with Mr. Botts, I wished Mr. B. to believe I should regard the aid of his talents on my trial as most beneficial to my interests, and flattering to my wishes. Mr. B. handsomely replied to me, by assuring me that he would think it dishonorable to withhold his professional aid from my inability to make him a pe cuniary compensation. I returned, that from the state of my aftairs that inability would probably be permanent, and again referred him to the contingency of Col. Burrs or Mr. Alston's remunerating him on my account, as well as on Col. Burr's, as it was in this view, and at their special instance I had given him the trouble of calling upon me, though I could sincerely assure him that, were I in circumstances to remunerate him in a degree propor tional to the sense I entertained of his talents, etc., he IN PRISON. 307 would be one of the first counsel I should employ. Mr. B. seemed perfectly satisfied, and was pleased to say he would, with my leave, bring Mr. Wickham to see me, who, he was sure, would be happy to assist me in the same way with himself. I thanked this generous and enlightened stranger with all that awkward embarrass ment with which the impetuosity of gratitude suffused my countenance, making every pore of my face an outlet to the flow of my heart, which found too narrow an issue at my mouth. It will soon appear how necessary it was to explain the occasion and manner of my interview with Mr. B. I took this opportunity to observe to Mr. Botts, that Mr. Edmond Randolph had last evening called upon me, and obligingly tendered his advice, by which I said I could not presume to suppose Mr. R. meant I should con sider him as my counsel, gratuitously engaged to defend me on my trial. Mr. Botts was in the act of taking leave when I made this remark to him, which prevented my distinctly understanding his reply. I was visited this evening by my Lexington escort, en masse, who took the opportunity to inspect the building and the armory, took their grog, and then took leave. Morton, who arrested me so rudely, while engaged in conversation with Mrs. Jourdan, and Miss Van P 1, at Lexington, endeavored, by the most assiduous attentions on the road, to repair that outrage, and now, I thought, exhibited in his coun tenance every concern for my situation. I find I have every liberty allowed me but that of passing from under this roof by day, or out of my room by night, the door being locked upon me at 8 o'clock, and opened at sunrise. I have got a supply of groceries and liquors ; my dinner 308 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. is furnished by the tavern, and I have every prospect of living well. This evening I have inclosed various papers to Mr. Alston, showing him how my property has been sacrificed on the Ohio, and praying his aid to recover it for my children, by virtue of his responsibility for my indorsement of Col. Burr's protested bills. Continued my labors to comfort my poor wife, by another page of a close written letter, and went to bed at midnight. THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 1807. Woke this morning with severe headache and general lassitude ; took a little breakfast, with no appetite. At 10, A. M., took a small dose of medicine; repeated at noon ; had a long conversation with Alston, in which he expressed great concern for the embarrassments occa sioned me by my indorsements of the bills ; declaring that, for my sake, he would do any thing in his power, observing, however, that it was impracticable to raise money in South Carolina by sale or mortgage of lands ; that through his anxiety to have all the protested bills taken up, he now had a friend employed in this town, endeavoring to raise as much money as would cover all the demands ; that I shall learn the result to-day or to morrow, which, if successful, would remove all difficul ties. I proposed to him an alienation to me on some of the holders of the bills of some negroes to be sold at Katchez, where, I suggested, he might avail himself of the advance they would fetch upon their value in Caro lina, and by that means he would probably sink half the demands upon him; but after some consideration, he stated the value of slaves in Carolina full as high as it is HIGGLING. 309 at Natchez; and at last observed, that his estates needed more slaves for their cultivation than he owned. He offered, however, to assume all the demands upon me, if the creditors will accept one-half, payable with interest, next January twelvemonth ; the other half, etc., the January following. But my children's property is, and will be, irrevocably sacrificed in the mean time. Quicquid delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi. Mr. A. next referred to a memorandum he had in his pocket of some inquiries to be made of me on the part of Col. Burr, of which two are remarkable: first, had I written, or would I write, to Emmett, to come to the trial ? second, in what instance did I intend, when I ob served to Mr. Edm. Randolph, that " Col. Burr had sometimes been too cautious ; sometimes, too little so ? " To the first I answered, " that I had no doubt Emmett's friendship for me would bring him hither to assist in my defense, if he thought I stood in need of him ; but as I was, on the one hand, determined to expend no money in my own defense, I was, on the other, equally averse to bringing my friend on a journey from his large family, or withdrawing his industry from that harvest on which alone that family depended for their support ; but could I engage Mr. Emmett at a suitable compensation, I would write to him forthwith." Mr. A. said, " his expenses should be paid." I replied, I could not say what Mr. Emmett might understand by the term expenses ; but I was sure he would never hand in an account of his tavern-bills or traveling charges. I must, therefore, at 310 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. present, decline to disturb him. Mr. A. was now led by some association of ideas to remark, that Messrs. Randolph and Botts had signified to Col. Burr or himself, that, when they offered their professional services to me, I seemed rather to desire to decline them, or consider them as in trusive. This evening, Mr. Botts brought Mr. Wickham to my room, when I asked Mr. Botts " if he understood me in the sense Mr. Alston said he did ? " On the con trary, Mr. Botts declared he did not ; nor did he think Mr. Randolph did. Mr. Wickham added a few words in compliment of my candor, and said all three considered themselves voluntarily engaged, without any expectation of pecuniary compensation from me. In answer to the second inquiry, I informed Mr. Alston that in making use of the expressions reported to Col. Burr by Mr. Ran dolph, I alluded to no particular instances, but could easily cite some. I then instanced the confidence reposed by Mr. Burr in General Wilkinson, on which Col. Burr had known my opinion long since, and the committal of himself to Col. Morgan and sons, both as examples of defect of caution on his part, and was proceeding with equal ease to call up errors of an opposite nature (God knows, I know a hundred, both ways), when I was stop ped by Mr. A.'s shaking his head, expressing his assent to my remarks on Wilkinson, and interrupting me by saying : " Mrs. Blennerhassett had good reason for her opinion of Col. Morgan." I was the less scrupulous to enter explicitly upon these explanations for the satisfac tion of Col. Burr and Mr. A., because I did not feel that Col. Burr had ever suffered as yet from any avoidable " SERPENT'S TOOTH." 311 indiscretion of mine ; though I was likely to do so far more than I had done already by his errors. I suspected that he had sent Mr. Edm. Randolph to deliver me a lec ture on caution ; and, above all, I should, least of all ex amples I could imagine, wish to emulate the caution Mr. A. has exhibited to the world. Him, therefore, I re garded as the most improper organ of Col. Burr's wishes ; nor was I yet without another motive. I had occasion to inform Mr. A., when on the subject of the protested bills, that Mr. Barton, who had had an interview here with Col. Burr on that business, informed me at Lexington that Col. Burr told him I was a bankrupt, not worth a dollar, or other words fully of the same import, which Mr. Barton protested he would, at any time or place, repeat and support. Bankrupt ! Hah ! Who made me so? God of retributive justice! That Col. Burr also declared to him that he did not believe Mr. Alston had executed any writing by which he, Alston, could be bound to me. "What ! did his memory, perhaps the most ener getic of all his talents, here lose its polish by the abrasion of his own calamities? Did he forget that he himself drafted that very paper, after having considered another which Mr. A. had written as insufficient ? But Mr. Bar ton has shown him a copy of the original, and he has probably recognized his own composition. Received some visits this evening ; could get no tea, because Mr. Douglas, the keeper, and Harwood, one of his assistants, were out, and another turnkey, with whom I had not yet got acquainted, would lock me up at night fall. Headache still continued. I went to bed about 10, being unable to write. 312 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1807. Was visited by Mr. Mercer, who staid nearly one hour with me ; "begged, on the part of a lady unknown to me, who did not wish to have her name mentioned, I would ac cept of soups and jellies from her, if they were desired by my appetite or state of health. I told Mr. M. my grati tude impelled me to take a liberty with the lady, which I hoped her goodness would pardon. It was to engrave her name on the tablets of my heart, and enable my family to consecrate it in their regards. He then men tioned Mrs. Carrington. I prayed him to offer, in his own manner, a more just return of my sentiments than I could express. Soon after, Mr. Ormsby, of Louisville, Kentucky, called upon me to show me a letter signed H. L., directed to him by General Henry Lee, stating that he understood H. B., meaning myself, was friendless in this place, and tendering with warmth any services I might stand in need of. This offer I declined, charging Mr. 0. with a suitable verbal answer of grateful acknowl edgments to the General, of whom Mr. 0. cautioned me to beware in case of any dealing with him, at the same time acquainting me that the character of the General was, as I had long before been apprised, that of a man equally violent in his friendships and his enmities.' From the numerous instances of a violation of private confi dence and public faith that have of late disgraced the Government and the country, by liberties that have been taken or permitted at the Post-offices, I procured, through the friendship of Mr. Mercer, the means of sending my letters and receiving those from my wife, through K. INDIGNANT. 313 ^Taylor, Esq., attorney at law, Alexandria. Closed a long letter to my wife, begun as long ago as Tuesday evening, on my arrival in this place. Began to brief my case for my counsel, of which I finished first folio. Have not seen or heard from Mr. Alston, or Col. Burr, to-day. Received the papers, and continued this journal until past midnight. SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1807. Overslept myself this morning. Spent more time than I could well spare in getting combed and shaved. Read the papers, the Federal one stating that they learn my arrival here ; that I speak confidently of my innocence, and desire a speedy investigation. Those on the other side, dropping the "Mister," mention my name in con formity to the style of the President; and his Wood county myrmidons insinuate that I was caught, as it were, fortunately in Kentucky, from which I was brought hither under guard, meaning, no doubt, like a felon or convict, as I should be. For to-day, my only visitor was Mr. Hendren, a lawyer, who resides in Charles City county, and has generously offered to come to town, and live at his own expense, whenever I will permit him to serve me. Mr. H. repeated assurances, which had before been made to me by Mr. John Banks and Mr. Ormsby, that the jury, not only so far as that part of the panel that was returned from "Wood county, but all the rest that completed it, from the body of the state, was grossly packed, with the exception of not more than two or three ; that Col. Burr and myself could not be too much on our guard, for he was persuaded that every Democrat, to a man, now in this town, was thirsting for our blood, and 314 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. "John Jourdan," who has returned here to-day from Wood county, has told me this evening he has brought with him ample evidence of the most damning manoeu vres and intrigues that have been practiced in that quar ter. Say, Thos. Jefferson ! thou philanthropic messenger of peace and liberty to this favored country ! under thy administration, are these things unknown to thy tender heart, or are they the unhallowed doings of thy worthy and industrious partisans, to overcharge or adorn the can vass already burdened with the splendor of thy renown ? The papers will inform my friends of the progress and conduct of the trial of A. Burr ; but perhaps they may learn only from these notes, that the issue of it, "whether it prove serious or comical, will be the product of error in the grand jury that found the treason bills; for two of the most respectable and influential of that body, since it has been discharged, have declared they mistook the meaning of Chief Justice Marshall's opinion as to what sort of acts amounted to treason in this country, in the case of Swartwout and Ogden ; that it was under the in fluence of this mistake they concurred in finding such a bill against A. Burr, which otherwise would have prob ably been ignored. I am well to-day, and had a keen appetite at dinner ; soon after which, Jourdan stepped in, but with no particular news regarding my affairs on the Ohio. Saw Robinson and Mr. Simpson summoned with him, on the part of Col. Burr. SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 1807. Visited by Prichard, at 9 o'clock, A. M. He stayed fully two hours, during which he confirmed many former VEXATIOUS DELAY. 315 accounts given me of the meanness and cowardice of Jef ferson's Attorney General, George Hay, whose insolence to poor Prichard, some years ago, occasioned P. to throw a plate at his head, which terminated the affair, and kept Mr. Attorney, ever after, within the bounds of civility. P. informed me, negroes now sell in this place at the same prices they could be bought at when I was here before, seven years ago. He has offered to get me a woman, aged about thirty years, with two sons, twelve and eight years old, belonging to his sister-in-law, for $500. Eh ! Mr. Alston, are negroes so much lower here than in South Carolina ? He has also promised to get me Molly's three children, two girls and a boy, if the owners will part with them, upon like reasonable terms as he thinks they will. After P. left me, I continued the briefing of my case for my counsel, and completed the third folio. If the prosecutors attempt again, to-morrow, to put off the trial to a fourth adjournment, I shall not think it unwarrantable to begin to suspect they fear to advance upon the ground they Ve taken, lest the mines of Mexico, or of Tartarus, be sprung upon them. This suspicion seems to be somewhat countenanced by the cir cumstance of their being correctly informed of the places where General Dayton has been for several days, and will continue, near this town, without the Marshal, who is certainly a vicious partisan, having yet made any attempt to disturb him ; while the once redoubted Eaton * has dwindled down in the eyes of this sarcastic town, into a ridiculous mountebank, strutting about the streets, * American Consul at Tunis. 316 THE BLENNERIIASSETT PAPERS. under a tremendous hat, with a Turkish sash over colored clothes, when he is not tippling in the taverns, where he offers up with his libations the bitter effusions of his sorrows, in audibly bewailing to the sympathies of the bystanders " that he is despised by the Federalists, mis trusted by the Democrats, and hen I too long for his fame, "too long for his purse," "Quis talia fando temper et a lachrymis." General Dayton, however, I hear, will offer himself up to-morrow, or the next day, and will therefore live rent- free like myself, for some time ; but how far reasons of State may prevent my partaking of his society here, I can not yet tell. It is now 11 o'clock, P. M. I will walk about for some time with a fan, and then endeavor to sleep, to preserve my strength and appetite. MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1807. Rose at 6, A. M., dressed, and walked until 8. Had a call from Col. Q r, a violent Democrat, who calls every one " Tory " that is not of his own party, and talked a great deal about ruining England in the expected war with the United States. D. Woodbridge stepped in while I was at breakfast, and returned me in frames the two drawings presented me by Miss Yanpool at C , Col. Meade's place, near Lexington, the day I left that town under guard for this city. After Q ' r took leave, D. "Woodbridge informed me, he was told some time since by Col. Morgan, a subpoena had actually been dispatched, a fortnight past, to Natchez for my wife, and he heard somebody say last evening, General Wilkinson had assert ed the same thing. I immediately addressed a letter to IN COURT. 317 Messrs. Randolph, "Wickham and Botts, stating this in telligence, and appealing to their feelings to vindicate, from this outrage of party, the rights of a wife and the fundamental principles of law and justice. Mr. Mercer called in as I was folding up the letter, and kindly took upon himself the charge of delivering it for me, as well as of inquiring at the Post-office for any letters he could bring me from thence. I had but half finished the last sentence but one, when I heard the voices of strangers coming up stairs, and Mr. Douglas entered my room with one of the Deputy Mar shals, to invite me to take an airing, that is, to attend the court. I was ready in three minutes, and on reaching the outside gate, perceived a carriage and two horse- guards in waiting. I stepped in, found the air and exer cise very agreeable ; was told by the way, I should have the trouble to pass through a large crowd, to which I answered, " I was indifferent," and soon arrived at the capitol, where, without doors, I did not perceive near as many people as I expected; within, the court is .held in the Hall of the Assembly, which is spacious and hand some, and was pretty full at my entrance. I was first led by the Deputy Marshal below the bar ; soon after, some body else invited me to walk within it, pointing to a bench ; and again, I was directed to walk to the opposite side, directly in front of the Chief Justice's seat, where I sat down near a table at which Col. Burr's counsel sit. The court was not yet opened ; I was soon accosted, suc cessively, by Messrs. Randolph, Wickham and Botts, who all inquired, what occasioned my appearance in court ; I said I was ignorant, but supposed for arraignment. The 318 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. counsel did not know I had been furnished three days ago with a copy of the indictment ; but I told them I had not yet received a list of the witnesses that might be called to testify against me, which I submitted to them, whether I was entitled to before arraignment. I then entered into a conversation, upon a hint from him in French, with Mr. Wickham, who, upon a first address to a stranger, possessed a talent of infusing into his manner an air of ease and friendly interest, that is truly adapted at once to engage the hearts of his acquaintance. Some considerable time after the court opened, it was engaged in a desultory way, with applications from jurors to be excused from serving on the trial of A. Burr, on various grounds, and excused. During such occupation, Col. Burr entered ; came over to that side where I was, shook me by the hand, and smilingly said, he was extremely glad to see me indeed. Observe, I had not before heard from him since Thursday. The prosecuting counsel seemed occupied with those of the defendant, A. Burr, in completing those lists of the witnesses, with the places of their abode, and agreeing upon some form of an ac knowledgment to be made by A. B., that he had been duly served with the same, for which the court was pa tiently waiting, when Mr. Hay coolly observed, " that it might, in the mean time, be as well to arraign Mr. Blen- nerhassett;" to which Mr. Botts objected, for want of preparation by me and my counsel. Mr. Hay replied, that if it was not done to-day, a great deal of time would be lost. Mr. B. said he could not help it, it would be im proper ; on which Mr. Hay returned, " that I might then be remanded," which I soon after solicited, from the MR. THOMPSON. 319 warmth of the place and a wish to get back to my writ ing. I therefore left the court, having bowed to the bench, under charge of another Deputy Marshal, and another gentleman, with whom I returned hither on foot, much heated by the walk, about fifteen minutes past 2. Saw and saluted many faces on leaving the court ; among them, "Win. Lewis, who appeared glad to see me, and in quired particularly for my family ; also, David Wallace, who arrived yesterday. Dined with less appetite than I had yesterday ; oppressed in the evening by the heat of the weather ; tried to get cool, by walking and fanning, but was so weak I was obliged to lie down on the floor, where I slept, I know not how long, until I was awak ened by the name of Mrs. Alston, at which I started up, as if electrified, and perceived a servant of hers with a large present of oranges, lemons and limes. Wrote her, in form of a card, three lines of devotion and gratitude, seizing the opportunity of inquiring after Alston, who is confined to the house, to pray her to let me hear again from her to-morrow. Drank tea as usual, at nightfall, and was soon after locked up. Through excessive heat, I have written the sixth folio of my brief, and will now try to sleep, it being 2 o'clock, the llth. TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1807. Rose late. Saw Jourdan while at breakfast. He re mained all day to copy my brief. Visited in the evening by Dav. and Robert Wallace, with P. Howe. Had a friendly, sympathizing letter from Mr. Wm. Thompson, a lawyer of handsome talents, though a violent Democrat, the brother of the author of the Letters of Curtius. 1 320 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. got acquainted with him at Abington, on the road hither. I do not hear any more of Mrs. Alston's intention to attend the trial of her father. I hope neither will add this to the many indiscretions already committed by him. Jupiter might invisibly elude the guards of Danae, but the bonne amie of the Col. does not I suppose occasionally pass his keepers with the same address. Proh pudor! Worked to-day chiefly on my brief, of which I have to night, past 12, entered on the eleventh folio. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1807. Rose at 7, A. M. Was visited by Dav. Meade, who tells me himself and the guard that escorted me hither from Kentucky will be allowed only one-half of what they expected, namely, instead of 10, only 5 cents per mile for coming and returning ; and he expects his bill against the United States will not be paid under two years after his having advanced his money for them : also, he understands the Marshal, Major Scott, will not pay Burr's witnesses, while he answers all the calls of those on the part of the prosecution. Does a culprit, then, . with an empty purse, look in vain to the provisions of the Constitution, which declare " that the accused shall have compulsory process to enable him to enforce the attend ance of his witnesses ;" and may he be hanged for want of money, as well as of innocence? I fear the murmurs of agents and returning officers will be so widely diffused, that no one will undertake to serve subpoenas for me on witnesses, however material to my defense, while I will not lay out a dollar for promoting its success. A consid erable fall of rain last night and this morning has very FALSE WITNESS. 321 agreeably lowered the temperature of the air, the high degree of which has, for a week past, been so very op pressive. I have had, by Mr. Meade, another advance from female humanity. Mrs. Chevalier, wife of the French Consul, has solicited by him my acceptance of any refreshments or delicacies she could send me. Read the three papers published here, of which the " Inquirer," incorrectly, and rather impertinently, notices the occasion of my counsel's declining to permit me to be arraigned last Monday. Was interrupted by idle visitors, desirous of gratifying their curiosity to survey my countenance and quarters. One of them, a rejected juryman from Wood county, of the name of Morrison, with whom I am not acquainted ; the others, strangers to me, and came, like many others before them, without recommendation, to solicit employment of serving subpoenas on witnesses. Had a friendly visit in the evening from Mr. Fowler, in company with Jourdan, and procured, through a friend, copies of the depositions, before the grand jury, of Peter Taylor, Jacob Albright, and David Wallace. The first having sworn that I told him we would stab all those that went with us to get land, and would not go on our expe dition ; the second, that General Tupper arrested me on the " Island " the night I left it, from which I effected my escape by my friends directly presenting six guns at the General ; and the third, that I offered him the post of Surgeon General, if he would embark in the expedi tion. " God of Truth and Justice !" avenge such mur derous villainies in mercy ; and then, my beloved wife, behold and adore a guardian Providence, that ordains the conviction of perjury to issue in the same breath from 21 322 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the lips of falsehood accusing the innocent. Mr. Fowler assures me Mr. Hay begins to feel sick of the business, and doubts not a nolle prosequi will be entered on the rec ords, on Burr's acquittal of the treason. THURSDAY, AUGUST 13, 1807. Rose at half-past 6 ; walked, dressed and breakfasted. Had a friendly letter from Prichard, requesting me to command his heart and hand ; also a long letter, sent by Phelps, but lastly from Col. Burr, from Tom Neale, con fessing, at last, that 'twas he bought Eansom, whom he will return to my wife or to myself at the same price he gave for him. Heard by letter from Col. Burr, in answer to one I wrote to him, covering another for him to for ward, if he wished it, to Mr. Hendren, requesting him to come to town, to assist Burr with his knowledge of the jurymen. Heard that Alston is to-day confined to his bed. Visited by David Meade, with two gentlemen of his acquaintance, summoned as talesmen, or on another venire pro defectum juratorum, on the last. To one of these, finding he was acquainted with Will. Thompson, I was fortunate, in procuring an opportunity, connected with the subject of conversation, to show Mr. T.'s hand some letter to me. As this party were taking leave, Messrs. Wickham and Botts appeared at the door ; they seemed pleased to find the ennui of my confinement relieved by company ; sat half an hour, during which they told me, they understood the Hendersons would swear much against me, but seemed to think with me, their story could bear but little on either count of the indictment. They concurred in opinion, that I should WILKINSON. 323 not hurry my trial, but should rather wait until party prejudice was more allayed, and the great crowd of wit nesses now in town somewhat dispersed. They confirmed to me the fact of a subpoena having been actually issued for my wife, her name being one on the list of witnesses furnished to A. Burr. My complaints on this head they seemed to regard as irremediable, because A. Burr is not her husband. In how many instances is the letter of the law at war with common sense, and its own principles ? Are not all accomplices principals in treason? are not Burr and myself charged by exactly similar indictments with the same overt acts, at the same place ; and, conse quently, can the same jury, if I should choose it, or any other in my case, shut their eyes to testimony upon which Burr may be by possibility convicted? I hinted these ideas to these generous and accomplished advocates ; their silence seemed only to reply, sed ita lex scripta est. They, however, were of opinion that the helpless state of the children would justify her non-compliance with the summons. The moment they left me, therefore, I dispatched a few lines to her to that effect, which I hope were time enough at the office to go by this evening's mail. The slow march of the trial, I am told, has put Wilkinson out of all patience. He has been heard to swear in his wrath, that if Burr is not h anged, he cares not how soon himself were stretched on the same gal lows. Mr. Botts said he saw the " Querist" at old Hen derson's, and will advise my presence in court when the sons are produced to give their testimony. Progressed with my brief, of which I entered on the thirteenth folio, bringing the narrative of the case, so far as I hope I can 824 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. prove it, down to the period of my first interview with Graham, on Burr's affairs at Marietta, in last November. I learn or conclude by letters I have received, that old Richard Neale and James Wilson must be in town ; I have as yet seen neither. Jourdan tells me, Burr lives in great style, and sees much company within his gratings, where it is as difficult to get an audience as if he really were an Emperor. If these things be so well founded, as is the hint in last Tuesday's notes, I fear Wm. Thompson is sketching his portraits of the characters connected with the trial too far West, not to lose some lines of cer tain features that would not escape his pencil if he were here. FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1807. "Went down to the kitchen after breakfast, in this wing of the building, my servant having gone to town to beg of one of the cooks there to request a keeper to bring the barber to shave me. Cooks were preparing the din ner for the convicts now confined here, to the number of about 130. This meal, I learned, generally consisted of three-quarters of a pound of meat, one and a half pints of soup, and one pint of corn-meal dough, which suffers by baking a diminution of one quarter of the weight. The breakfast, the only other meal allowed in the twenty-four hours, consists of the like quantity of the same sort of bread, and half a gill of molasses, diluted with a pint of water. "Not having before spoken of the police of this establishment, I will now mention what has fallen under my own observation regarding it. The convicts are con fined, for various terms of years, according to their several PRISON DISCIPLINE. 325 offenses, for which the heaviest sentence is, I believe, for the space of eighteen years. They are kept to labor in the respective trades or occupations they had been bred to, with no allowance of rest on any day, but Sunday, except during meals, being set to work at daylight, and leaving off at sunset. The present keeper is a smart, in telligent man, who tells me, before he came here, the value of the annual labor of the prisoners did not exceed $5,000 ; the expenses being nearly, as at present, $11,500. But he speaks confidently of raising the former, in his first year, to $14,500. I believe great diligence will be neces sary in him to effect it. The men have not now, as under his predecessor, the benefit of any work they might try to do, over and above the limits of their task. Mr. Douglas assigns two curious reasons for discontinuing that little indulgence to these wretches ; 1st, that it was found to occasion expense to the State, by encouraging some folks to commit and confess small offenses, in order to get boarded here gratis for six or twelve months, when they would be turned out, with a sum of money in their pockets, for their extra labor during their confinement, which they would soon renew in v the same way; 2d, that those confined for a long term of years would prob ably soon debilitate themselves through this stimulus, to an increase of industry, by which their maintenance would become a dead charge, without any return to the State. The stimuli of Mr. D., therefore, or his superiors through him, are dark confinement in the cells, and the cow-skin, with short allowance of bread and water, which is not very well calculated, to prevent the last evil the debility now sought to be avoided. My unfortunate 326 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. barber, I hope, fell on a lucky day for his punishment, well or ill deserved, for I was soon told in the kitchen that he was in the cells ; but expressing my concern for the poor fellow's misfortune, one of the cooks stepped out, I suppose, to signify to the proper authority the ma turity of my beard, no doubt, rather than the expression of my sorrow; and, in ten minutes, Yaun was in my room with his whole apparatus. This Yaun, my friends, is only here for eighteen years, merely for cutting his wife's throat, with precisely the same sort of instrument with which he operates most delicately on mine, every other day. Nor do the largest cities I have ever lived in boast an artist, in his line, that should supplant him in my favor. The physiognomy of his countenance, and the steadiness of his hand, with the keenness of his instru ment, admirably correspond with the firmness and sensi bility of his heart would to Heaven I could add, its purity. But hideous jealousy entered there, and goaded this wretch to murder and madness. A gentleman of Petersburg, who called in last evening with David Meade, assured me that Yaun, on the day he killed his wife, sat at his door for an hour or two, showing the bloody razor to the passengers in the street, and telling them how he had used it. The gentleman declared, had he been of the jury, he should not have concurred in the conviction. This convict is black, was born free, lived in good circum stances, has been to Europe, and always supported an excellent character. Poor Yaun ! the gloom of thy soul is now as dark as thy countenance ; but yet may one ray of Divine mercy enlighten it ! Thou shalt still shave me. Col. Burr wrote me to-day, that he was so surrounded NEW VISITORS. 327 by company he could not make up his mind upon a com munication I made him by letter, of which he said he perceived all the importance and advantages. I wrote to him to summon Henderson, the father, for reasons that will appear by my brief, urged the advantage that would result from my cross-examining all the witnesses (that I knew, particularly the Hendersons, which may be pro duced against him, if in my present character I could be allowed to act, during his trial, as an agent or advocate for him ; or if that should not be permitted, that I should at least be in court when such witnesses appear. I also submitted to him the expediency of one of our counsel seeing my brief, so far as I had written it. He added in his letter that one of them should call upon me for that purpose, and to confer on other matters this evening. But I have received no such visit, and must confess I am rather led to ascribe my disappointment less to the negli gence of the advocate than to that of the client. The vivacity of his wit, and the exercise of his proper talents, now constantly solicited here in private and public exhi bition, while they display his powers and address at the levee and the bar, must engross more of his time than he can spare for the demands of other gratifications. Man is prone to what St. Pierre aptly names the harmony of contrast, in which the mind and the eye are as much de lighted in physics and in ethics as the ear is in music. My reflections will perhaps borrow from this principle hereafter, in attempting to do more justice, in expression of character, to a third portrait of an original, so differ ently appearing to my regards at Richmond and on the Mississippi. Was visited this morning by Belknap and 328 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. P 1; the latter, one of the most active in seizing the boats and provisions at Marietta, last December ; also by D. Woodbridge, who read my brief, but to whom, as well as to every one else that calls upon me, I never speak on the subject of evidence yet, or hereafter to be, given by them on these trials. Had a very friendly letter from Col. Gushing, lamenting my situation, and assuring me of every exertion of his friendship to serve me; another, from Thos. JSTeale, exactly to the same effect as his last ; also a very friendly one from Mr. John Banks, accompa nying a present from Mrs. Banks, of two bottles of cor dials, and a large cake. Visited by Alston, this being the first day he could venture out in a carriage. He says appearances every day strengthen the expectation of Burr's acquittal on both bills, Hay having been heard to say, out of court, he does not think he will be able to substantiate the charges. It is believed, however, a mo tion will be made to the Court, on the acquittals, but be rejected, to transmit us to other districts for trial, accord ing as evidence may appear or be procured, as may be contended to implicate our conduct as treasonable else where out of this district. Douglas has also heard Duane confess, that he, too, is fearful Burr must be acquitted. Had this evening an obliging visit, and one hour's inter esting French conversation with Col. de Pestre, who in formed me his brother-in-law, a promising young ma.n of various merit, had been turned out of his place as Clerk in the "War Office, because he could not accuse the Col. of Burr-ism ; and afterward, some honorable friends of the Government had the delicacy to insinuate how handsomely the Col. might be provided for in the army, 329 if his principles or engagements were not adverse to the administration. The Col. replied, that he understood the hint, hut it neither suited his honor nor character to serve in such employment. Wrote to Col. Gushing, requesting him to forward to me an inventory of all my effects that have heen sold under attachments, and all my negroes, to my wife, or Col. Scott, or Mr. Harding, at Natchez, for her. Have not worked to-day on my "brief, from a prospect held out by many of my discharge on Burr's acquittal. Chatted as usual in the evening with Douglas, and having left a letter I began to Miller, for to-morrow, continued this diary until midnight. SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1807. Half-past 8, P. M. Have not, during the forenoon, seen a face, but that of my servant Billy, who, by the comfort I derive from his remarkable neatness and assiduity, my wife will not think undeserving of mention in this diary, which I have resolved to keep only for her gratification. Every one is probably at court, where this is a day of some interest, as the jury will probably be impanneled. Have done nothing but walk, and read the papers, my face continuing very sore with a disagreeable eruption. "Will now finish my letter, begun yesterday, to Miller, and conclude the notes of to-day after tea, by which time I may probably collect something worthy of notice from Jourdan, whom I hourly expect. While at dinner, Mr. Ellis called in to know if I could yet inform him when I might want him to serve subpoenas for me, otherwise he should soon leave town, seeing no prospects of getting any money from Col. Burr, against whom he has a de 330 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. mand of about eleven dollars, for a boat and cargo sold him in October last on tbe Ohio. B., it seems, has dis posed of all such claims, by a declaration, it is said, he made in court, before my arrival, of his being a bankrupt. But in emptying his strong-box, which seems to have lost all his treasures as quickly as those that took wing from Pandora's, he has, I am told, like that goddess, closed the lid time enough to prevent the escape of that hope on which some favored dependents may yet mort gage to him their future services and the property of their children. It would even baffle the acuteness, and exhaust the deliberation, of our worthy Harding, to estimate the amount of this treasure, or conceive the structure of the debenture by which it is secured; I must therefore explain both. Know, then, that it has been whispered to me, with the important gravity so confiden tial a communication required, that the sum is $50,000 ; the security, a claim upon Government for the damages sustained by the culprit now trying for his life, but who will probably obtain his acquittal of the treason with more ease than he can procure one on another charge recorded against him in Kentucky, of having robbed the Western country of $1 00,000, to say nothing of the ab surdity of suing the United States in the face of a positive statute. As I was closing my letter to Miller, Jourdan stepped in with Rob. Nicholas, a Democrat, furious, keen and selfish, in chase of Alston, to secure and hasten the payment of bills, protested and indorsed by me to Sanders, to amount, with charges, etc., of fl 0,000, for which I will never give more than my bones, and the holder believing me determined, now depends on Alston's QUEER CHARACTER. 331 responsibility to me, which I have transferred to him. To-morrow, I shall be visited by Mr. Edmond Randolph, on the part of Sanders, and on my own business ; I an ticipate the conference with much interest. Jourdan is quite desolate and dispirited by the treatment of B., of which he will give me particulars to-morrow. SUNDAY, AUGUST 16, 1807. Rose late this morning, very ill, but satisfied I was affected by no influence of confinement, or the place; a severe headache, under which I 've all day labored, pro ceeding only from a derangement of the stomach, to which I am frequently subject. While at breakfast, I was visited by Mr. P., a merchant of consideration here, who had not before called upon me, for which he apolo gized, and in whom I admired here, in the spring of 1 800, the most amiable manners, with a fine musical taste, and handsome execution on the violin, he and myself, during my stay, being the principal performers in the Harmonic Society. My worthy friend Prichard led the way, as much heated by the warmth of his friendship as of his two miles' walk, bringing with him also Wood, the late editor of the Atlantic World, a paper, which is now extinct, and may be truly said to have been the last faint effort, save these trials, of expiring Burr-ism under the relentless fury of Democracy. Wood is a singular look ing man, with a countenance expressive of great oddity, if not of genius ; of few words, with embarrassed man ner, but said to be skilled in mathematics. His appear ance altogether inspired some interest to know him better, and he will, by my desire, enable me to improve 332 THE LLEXNERHASSETT PAPERS. our acquaintance. I was agreeably occupied with this party until General Tupper appeared ; the news of his arrival in town, "brought me yesterday evening by Jour- dan, must have caused some little mental uneasiness last night and this morning, of which I was unable to render an account to myself. This intelligence could not reach my ears without arriving in the same instant at my heart, where it was at once amalgamated with all my hopes and anxiety for my family. With what rapidity did I calcu late, over and over, and conclude that I must hear from Natchez by the General. I had written to my wife from the Chickasaw Nation, to direct to me under cover to the General. I hardly permitted myself to conclude an inter change of salutations with him when I eagerly inquired for a letter; he had none, and he left home^as late as the 5th instant. But a few more mails from Lexington and Marietta, without the blessing of a letter, and I shall en deavor to prepare myself for more awful trials than the death-warrant of a wicked or a jealous Government. General Tupper's conversation, which lasted about one hour with me, was very interesting, both to my curiosity regarding the intelligence I could derive from him on my own account, and my admiration of that honorable inde pendence he will yet make the Government feel more of, on his part, when they wish or desire, from the experience they have already had of his temper. It seems much of the artifice of intrigue, on the part of Government or their runners, has been put in requisition to endeavor to mold the General's disposition in the temper of the present prosecutions. He has next encountered attempts upon his honor indirectly, to induce him in some degree DISAPPOINTMENT. 333 to countenance the testimonies of Taylor and Albright to the facts of his having arrested me, with my rescue and escape from him, mentioned 12th instant ; outrages upon his character and feelings, which he has repelled with that disgust and contempt suggested by his honor, but not without thereby incurring, what, until then, the con servators of Jeffersonian fame never thought of, insinua tions of his concern, and threats to involve him in the pains and penalties of the conspiracy. Either before or after this analysis of the stuff, which would not take the dye, proposed, it was politely signified to him, that al though he had been recognized as a witness, on the part of the United States, the prosecutors, in kind considera tion of the inconvenience another journey might put him to, would dispense with his further attendance. He said, however, he would return were he obliged to travel on his hands and knees. He also tells me, Doctor "W is alarmed at my presence here to confront him, when he shall dare to offer such testimony again as he has ven tured before the grand jury, and is terrified, for he is no doctor, at the thoughts of being examined publicly by those who are of that profession, to prove he is not one. See my notes of 12th instant, and it will appear how properly I wanted to fill the place of Surgeon-General in the expedition ; but General Tupper says, he knows a person to whom W. said I was jesting with him when I spoke of his going with me as Surgeon-General. I have not been gratified with the visit I expected to-day with so much interest from Mr. Randolph, but have had a long one from Alston, which was taken up chiefly with the subject of an arrangement of the demands of Sanders 334 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. and Miller; the agency of Nicholas has been so tar effective as to induce Alston to offer to take a journey forthwith to South Carolina to try to raise the money, leaving Mrs. A. here until his return. He can not offei 1 hopes of the success of this attempt, and no final adjust ment, I believe, will be effected, but by the opinion and advice of Mr. Randolph. Mr. Craughton called this evening, after a severe walk of three miles, and remained about two hours. MONDAY, AUGUST 17, 1807. This is a black Monday indeed with me, whether the "cloudiness of my mind or of the sky makes it appear such. I feel well to-day, and took breakfast with some appetite, during which Col. de Pestre entered, and kept up an interesting conversation with me until noon, which, from the complete coincidence of our opinions on certain characters, and the reflections arising from the notes we had to compare on our past interest, and connection with them, could not much tend to fortify me for encountering the new mortifications occasioned me by a letter I have just received from my estimable friend, Jos. S. Lewis, in his private capacity, informing me that the house of which he is the head, had, in consequence of attachments served on my funds, my last pecuniary resource of my poor family in their hands, been obliged to dishonor all the bills I had drawn, that were presented for acceptance since the 20th of last January, the day such , attachments were served, at suit of the Kentucky Insurance Company and Lewis Sanders, of Lexington. What discredits and embarrassments the return of bills I have drawn at DISTRESS. 335 Natchez, to amount of 700 or 800, will occasion my afflicted wife, I fear to estimate. Every day's trial seems to inflict a new wound upon my heart, or some part of it that has not bled for my wife and children ; my own suf ferings have long since destroyed the tone, and established the apathy, of every nerve that vibrated to the first im pulses of the perfidy and injustice that, by their continued action, since the beginning of last October to the present hour, have relieved my mind from all care for the dura tion or issue of my confinement. I have just dispatched a letter to Alston, requesting to see him, and another to Pri chard, desiring him to retain, or, if disposed of, to try and take up a small bill I drew on Philadelphia a few days since for $100. Joe Lewis tells me he will honor Harding's bills, drawn on himself for $500, in considera tion of my wife's situation. ! my wife, we thought we were serving a P . . . . , and have been the dupes of an advocate. De Pestre has justly taken up the ideas sug gested in my notes of last Friday. This generous foreigner has narrowed his means of maintaining a large family, besides some orphans, to the amount of $5,000, for which he has not been even thanked. I hear Alston's carriage, and must now close, but for what purpose ? to hear a re petition of the same professions of concern already made me, to which is added, however, an offer to go to Caro lina, in two or three days, to try to raise some money, the success of which, however, I must understand, is very problematical. What could I reply to the professions of one of the richest men in the Union, offering to assume these demands, ready to sell or mortgage, but yet unable to get the money I never used a cent of, but for which the cries 336 THE BLENNERIIASSETT PAPERS. of rapacious creditors rend the walls of my prison ah ! that would be indifferent to me, did I not fear they are loud enough to reach and swell that heart that will echo them back to mine. For what purpose could I desire to see him again on this business, but to make the last sacri fice I had to offer ; alas ! I once thought it impossible ; I blush to name it, to humble the pride of integrity before that of wealth to solicit his charity. I have thus sought relief through the storm by every effort of skill or dili gence I could make, until, wearied and exhausted, I have set down in the humility of my heart, to drift perhaps to that shore where the mercy of Heaven will recompense me, in the participation of the rewards prepared for the fortitude and virtues of a wife I have been so long blessed with. It is a relief to my heart to fill a whole page with a single sentence. The flood of my sorrows is too copious to suffer the artificial breaks and pauses of critical rules. My wife will feel this, if no one else can. I wrote a very long letter to Joe Lewis, which I immedi ately began when Alston left me, to acquaint him that bills with my indorsements, on account of which one of the attachments had been served on his house, as my garnishee had long since been paid by Alston's agent, Mr. Sam. Allen, of Philadelphia ; that I had, in addition to the arrangement I made with Sanders at Lexington, Kentucky, a prospect of making further arrangements here, through Alston, with Rob. Nicholas, the agent, and Mr. Edmond Randolph, the lawyer of Mr. Sanders, by which I should, I expected in a few days, have the attach ment at suit of Sanders taken off, and in the mean time, until I could see Mr. Randolph, which I could not do WHO WROTE IT ? 337 to-day before the mail closed, I hoped Mr. L. would be lieve his house would not be proceeded against as my garnishee, and whatever obstruction to their currency the little resources I yet possessed through his house in Philadelphia were incumbered with, would be removed. I have, to-night, also written to Mr. Randolph, to request him to call upon me to-morrow, before court opens. Speaking to-day, while Alston was here, before Col. McKee, of what was doing in court, whither I wrote to Alston to come to me, A. said, they left Hay stating the case, on the part of the prosecution, damned the speaker, and declared he would whip a son of his, were he only twelve years old, that could not make a better. This led me to praise a pamphlet, entitled "Agrestis," which Alston yesterday brought me, being two letters on Wilkinson's proceedings at Tew Orleans, which for its arrangement and strength, as well as for some imagery of the language, I observed, would not be unworthy of a Curran, at the same time inquiring who was the author. A. said that was not known. I then repeated the ques tion to Col. McKee, who said it was a friend of ours ; at least Mr. A. was suspected. I mention this trifling occur rence for the sake of observing that Alston was now silent, thereby appropriating to himself the merit of the book, which his wife, I have no doubt, might produce ; for by the title-page of the second edition printed here, it appears the former, or first edition, was published in South Carolina, or else it has proceeded from some other genius of much mind and erudition; but to suppose Alston the author would be preposterous ; obscurity may consistently veil the parentage of Hercules, but it would 22 338 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. be ridiculous to suppose him the offspring of a dwarf. Take this trait and test it by the fact. There is a pro vincial phrase or two in the pamphlet which I will keep, that proves it first saw the light at New Orleans. TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1807. It may easily be conceived how difficult it must be for one in the state of mind in which I closed my notes of the heavy hours of yesterday, to fall into that oblivious repose, through sleep, which easily ensues upon the ces sation of ordinary labor of body or mind, and enables us, by recreation, to perform the task of misfortune allotted for the morrow. Accordingly, I did not find my bed what it always proves to the peasant or the mariner, the grave of care. The tumult of my mind had so inflamed my body, that irritation on the surface could not be allayed, while trouble reveled within. I was restless, for I was sick at heart, and slept not soundly until toward morning. Yet I rose betimes, and had an early visit from Mr. Randolph, who called upon me, in pursuance of my request to him by letter of last night. I stated to him my embarrassment, by Mr. Sanders attaching the only remaining funds that were tangible, and insufficient for the support of my family ; observing, that if Mr. S. did not withdraw the attachment, which I hoped Mr. Randolph would forthwith, as S.'s lawyer, persuade his agent, Mr. Nicholas, to do, I should consider my arrange ments at Lexington with Mr. S., to secure and settle his demands through Mr. Alston, as abrogated. This seemed to engage his reflections ; but I was sorry soon to find he had the indelicacy, not only to inquire what was the CANDOR ! 339 amount of my funds in the hands of Messrs. Jos. S. Lewis and Co., but even to tell me that if a sum of $1,000, or even $500, could be got immediately for Nicholas and Sanders, who, he knew, wanted money, such an expe dient, he rather believed, would tend to give effect to some arrangement into which Mr. Alston might be in duced to enter ; adding, as he was taking leave, " that I knew how much a little ready cash helped these sort of things forward." I had before observed to Mr. R. that he must know now, from the nature of my financial em barrassments, detailed to him in these transactions, how little I could presume on counsel I could not remunerate, Before he left me, he said, Burr has an excellent jury, on the whole, with the exception of Parker alone, who, he acknowledged, is a worthy, honorable man, but a violent Jeffersonian partisan. I expressed my surprise at Burr's accepting him, after he had avowed in court as strong prejudices as some who had been rejected. This indis cretion on Burr's part he censured. He then told me Hay was very weak yesterday in stating the case, and he had no doubt of an acquittal ; but to save time and labor, he very much wished the Chief Justice should concur in opinion with the counsel on the defense, who yesterday contended, in a lengthy argument with their opponents, that no evidence of intentions should be gone into until overt acts had been first proven. How the court have decided I shall know in the morning. I now soon dis patched a note to Alston, and fortunately continued reading Agrestis until I heard his carriage-wheels, which seemed to rattle in my ears ; " read on " until after he had entered the room ; i. e., a thought struck me that possi- 340 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. bly he might have had something to do in the compo sition, and I might do more with him, through his van ity of authorship, than I had yet been able to effect through any other channel. Admirable ! cried I, before I answered his salute ; he smiled " what ! " said he, " Agrestis, are you pleased with that little thing? "Well, I did not care to notice it yesterday ; but I will now tell you in confidence, 't was I wrote it." I then pointed out to him an image or two, particularly one in the first let ter, of Justice, surrounded by the laws, in the sanctuary of her temple, poising in their presence tlie balance with her own hand, which, I said, would be a fine subject for the relief, alto relievo ; while the stations of her executive officers, assigned them without the sanctuary, might beau tifully form the intaglio, or back-ground, of a good piece of sculpture. Here I threw down the book, which he as readily took up, to descant on other merits it possessed, or point out errors of the press; all of which engaged my most profound attention. The organ now wound up ; I lost no time to try upon it the tune my heart first called for ; how do you think it went ? To admiration ! the instrument was now so much improved ; the piece, so often tried on it before, was now not only performed in half the time it used to be, but was worth double the money it would bring yesterday. In plain English, in stead of paying one-half the money next January twelve months, and the other half the January following, ac cording to his utmost powers, to-day he was tuned up to the incredible power of paying the whole, not indeed to day, but next April twelve months. Who knows yet but a judicious combination of discords to be selected from ASPIRATION. 341 the letter to Pinkne}^ with some more of the melody of Agrestis, might produce a harmony which, if it can not move the oaks, may still solicit the responsive cadence of the dollars? He left me with animated assurances of seeing Nicholas to-day, and myself again upon the "busi ness, not, however, without some pretty simpers about Mr. Randolph's hint of the $500, which he regarded as soliciting a douceur for Nicholas; but even that, he hinted, in the suavity of his self-complacency, would not be impossible, when I assured him it should go in part of the demand. I have had two or three reasons to-day of lightening my heart of the load that oppressed it yes terday. After Mr. Randolph left me, I walked about, invoking the saving providence of Heaven over my wife and children ; secondly, better prospects opened to me, from my interview with Alston ; and, thirdly, the sincere pleasure I felt in writing to another Eugenius, as dear to me as the first was to Yorick, to communicate to Hard ing a transcript of my notes of yesterday, and a short letter of to-day, to enable him to observe the better under what part of the tottering fabric of my affairs he may set the firm prop of his care and friendship for my family a service in which, I feel, he will not dally. The regards of my wife may one day give him a perusal of these notes, as a supplement to his comments on "Agrestis," which I have also sent him. I feel no tedium loci, and have no want but that of letters. Cock-crow announces the morn. Grant, God ! it brings health to my family ! WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1807. Saw Dud. Woodbridge, before breakfast, who told me 342 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Eaton, Truxton, Taylor, and Albright were yesterday examined on the trial. This intelligence has fretted me, because I find Burr disregards the caution I gave him, to have me present during the examination of the witnesses I knew, as they should be produced against him. I have heard he alters the notes of his counsel, increased yester day by the addition of Mr. Lee, and for the most part marks out the course they pursue on his defense. I hope his negligence of the suggestions I have made to him will not furnish more cause of repentance than he is already burdened with. Hay, having again called for my arraignment, and Mr. Botts having, I am told, said he would try to be ready by Saturday, I must again revert to my labors on my brief, which I shall resume this even ing. The Chief Justice has, I think properly, allowed the prosecutors to follow their own course in adducing their evidence, provided they ofFer none of any -other treason than what is laid in the indict. It will appear, from a correct report of the trial, how far Hay contends that the doctrine of constructive treason is law in this country. How candid he is ; and what a virulent dispos ition McRae manifests to insinuate bias in the court to ward the accused. Mr. John Banks brought me, this morning, a paper containing Bollman's long letter to Duane, respecting B.'s communication to the President, which, if not quite a justification of the writer, settles however, forever, the honor and good faith of Jefferson. I have not seen Alston, according to my expectation and his promise ; the general interest and curiosity engaged at the capitol must suspend all other concerns. This evening General Tupper tells me that Hay boasts of hav- TEDIUM. 343 ing a number of witnesses to establish the credit of Al bright. Eternal Justice, then, support my innocence of the facts he has ventured to swear against me, until I shall appear before thy tribunal, where the vicious shall only testify to their own crimes. General Tupper has also a suspicion that Meiggs may venture to injure his credit as a witness ; but the slightest attempt of that sort shall ex hibit Meiggs branded in the next papers as a liar and a coward. Eaton's manner and delivery in giving his evi dence is highly extolled in the two Democratic papers, the Argus and Inquirer; but I am better informed he strutted more in buskin than usual on that occasion, and the effect was as diverting to the whole court as it prob ably was beneficial to the defense. Still, Douglas, who is pretty regular in his evening visits to me, or to my grog and cigars, tells me Burr is as cheerful as ever, though he can not feel insensible to the advantage the prosecutors have taken, in framing the indictment in a manner to correspond in its form with the substance of the opinion given by Chief Justice Marshall, in the cases of Bollman and Swartwout, and the industry they practice to train and back their witnesses to support it. But as a jockey might restore his fame in the course, after he had injured it on the tight-rope, so perhaps the little " Emperor,"' at Cole's Creek, may be forgotten in the Attorney at Rich mond. I have been weak all day, and again put off brief ing until to-morrow. 11 P. M. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1807. I had Mr. Douglas called to me, to request him to treat me to a walk in the yard this morning before breakfast. 344 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. My visitors, in the course of the day, generally complain of the closeness of my apartment, and some tell n.e they choose to reside in certain quarters of the town for the sake of high elevation and more air; others, that they prefer country quarters near town, for similar reasons, and wishing me soon to partake of like advantages. My walk for half an hour in the yard this morning, heing the second time I have been from under the roof of this building, save the day I was taken to court, 10th instant, was very agreeable, notwithstanding its narrow limits, both of time and space, and the high walls and buildings, in defiance of all which my lungs seemed to me to quaff their aerial draughts with a spring and vigor I have sel dom felt before. I have procured materials from the druggist for making some oxygenized muriatic acid gas, with which I will, perhaps to-morrow, destroy the noisome miasma that infests the air of these rooms. Continued my labors on my brief, of which I completed the seven teenth folio by dinner time, when, who will believe it ! I was visited in the most friendly manner by David "W e. It is inconceivable how he will profit by the hints he has had from General Tupper, or if called upon again, which he seems to dread, how he will travel out of his deposi tion before the grand jury. I received him with the courtesy of a prisoner, now in his own quarters. He sat a little, and then took leave, confused. I was not after ward left fifteen minutes alone, before every muscle of my face was relaxed from the rigor in which W. had bound them, to wanton in the liveliest welcome of Little Gates, who hurried to take my hand with an ardor and frankness that testified the sincere interest he felt in see- DILEMMA. 345 ing me well. He had been in town since Sunday, but his duties of attending to the chance of his being called as a witness in court, and the irresistible interest excited there since his arrival, prevented his calling on me sooner. He staid better than an hour, during which his conversation was full of interest and entertainment, from certain com munications he made me, of men and things, of which I shall make use in my brief, as well as from two or three anecdotes and stories he told me of some military char acters, and their achievements at Marietta, on the night the boats were seized there, of all which he acquitted himself with great humor and spirit. I shall expect the fulfillment of his promise to visit me often, with as much interest as I felt this evening. Visited by a sensible, gen teel man, with a hard Dutch name, which I forget, hav ing lost his ticket. He reminded me of having seen me, seven years ago, in this town, and invited me to his house, when I recover my liberty. My last visitor was Stokely, who declared, had he been in Wood county at the time of the troubles, by which my family and property so much suffered, he would have exerted whatever influence he had to prevent them. He said he was very sorry to observe the counsel on both sides agreeing in one thing at least, that is, to keep me so constantly as they do in the front of the fight. He could not understand the policy of A. Burr's counsel, contending that their client is not answerable for any acts of mine, and affected to lament deeply his fears, that, in addition to all I had al ready suffered, I should end at last by falling a victim be tween the cunning of Burr, on the one side, and the fury and prejudice of the prosecutors on the other. I thanked 346 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. him, and said, I had thoughts of summoning him as a witness for certain purposes that might be connected with my defense, hoping, if I should do so, he would excuse the trouble of the journey ; to which he assented, with expressing great desire to see me again settled in the " White House on the Island." But how much sooner should I suspect treachery in this man twelve months past, than in others who have since been seeking my ruin. Old Neale will not come to see me, partly from scruples as to the obligations of duty, being summoned on part of prosecution, and the aversion he would feel to see me in this place. Hay having yesterday stated he would rest the evidence, as to the overt acts, "Wickham has to-day spoken very ably for four hours, chiefly to contend, that, the acts not having been proved, no evidence should be offered of the intentions, or that if the acts have been proved, Burr, as an accessary at a distance from the scene of action, can not be proceeded against, until I, as a prin cipal, shall be convicted. If I have been correctly in formed, the ground has been judiciously taken, and will no doubt be ably maintained by Mr. Wickham, and the host that will follow him. I can not expect, at such a crisis, Alston will give a thought to any thing out of court. I should have added, w r hen speaking of Stokely, that I learned from him that James Wilson has lost his wife, and left Wood county for another residence. How has he left my business ? and what has he done with the valuable papers I intrusted to his charge ? My children, will your unhappy father yet have days and health suffi cient to gather together the little fragments of your prop erty, so widely scattered over the face of the earth ? If HONOR. 347 he but live to finish that task, he will then be ready to take the last journey for his wages. My wife will, if I can not, seek the obligations of Dud. Woodbridge, sen., and others, from J. Wilson, before she spares a sigh to time. FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 1807. D. Woodbridge called and sat with me this morning longer than he has done altogether since I have been here. He has got over the care of his examination, which worried him yesterday in court nearly two hours, and was, I understand, rather a disservice to the interests of the prosecution than otherwise. No witnesses are yet discharged, and all are as uncertain how long they will be detained as ever, unless there be grounds for an opin ion Mr. Botts has given to Duane, that the trial will be over by Wednesday or Thursday. Mr. B. must think Hay, who, I hear, has demanded time to examine authori ties cited on the other side in support of Wickham's motion, will not succeed in opposing it. It appears my name is as often made use of in court, during my absence, as it will be again on my own trial, when some curious, contrarieties of facts and testimonies may come out, if I ever shall be tried. D. Woodb ridge, from looking over that part of my brief narrating the conduct of the Hender sons, in betraying my confidence to Graham, etc., was led to acquaint me with a fact I was not a little mortified to learn, viz., that Botts is married to a sister of Mrs. Sandy Henderson. Must I, then, withhold to defend myself against the most serious witnesses against me, though my generous benefactor and enlightened patron, engaged to protect my life and character against the deadly assaults 348 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. of his own relatives, with no other recompense than the pride of interposing the barrier of his talents between a distressed family and its menaced ruin, be averse to listen to a statement he would still less choose to advocate of his connections ? Had I been apprised of this difficulty in my first interview with Mr. B., I know not how he could have relieved me from it. I must see him on the subject before I send him a brief. Strange, that every embarrassment I labor under, great or small, is derived from the same source. Dudley tells me my wife's favor ite horse, Robin, was stolen, with other things, by one Welch, who has not since been heard of; that J s, the honest, returned him the $40, and that M , the zeal ous, kept the other $20. Falsehood ! thy name is Man not Woman. Willey visited me to-day, and was truly glad to see me again. I made him give me a detail of all his adventures from leaving the boats. He had traveled, in his story, as far as Fort St. Stephen's, on the Tombig- bee river, where he was arrested, after having lost one of his horses, and lived with the mulatto boy Harry for six days on damaged corn. Having missed his way, he had not seen Col. Burr from the time he left Judge B 's till he found him at Washington City. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1807. While at breakfast, little Luckett stepped in. He pro duced to me, I hope, the last bill, with my indorsement, drawn by Burr ; I had no note or recollection of it. It was drawn on the same baseless authority as the rest, for $2,500, and had, of course, suffered a like fate ; yet Luckett had not attempted any proceedings against me, PREPARING. 349 though he showed me an account stating a balance against Burr of upward of 8,000, by which, and losses he has sustained, he says, he has been quite ruined. He intreated my best interests with Alston, and never expects any thing from rne. I nope soon to be able to state the details of a final arrangement with Burr and Alston, to extricate me from all these embarrassments. Having learned from Luckett, I was to be taken to court to-day, at noon, to be arraigned, I was in the act of dressing when two Deputy Marshals called upon me, half an hour earlier than was necessary, excusing themselves by say ing my watch was so much too slow, though it was exactly with the town clock. The distance from hence to the capitol being nearly a mile, and as I have not been well, I had sent my servant to town to procure me a horse, but as he had not yet returned, I asked these gen tlemen if they had brought a carriage, as had been done the last day I was taken to court, telling them my reasons for not wishing to walk. They answered, " the law did not make any such provisions, and the walk would serve me." So I soon attended them, though not in the style that was provided the 10th instant. My two attendants on foot, to-day, were unarmed, both going and returning. I had time enough before court opened to prepare for my counsel a list of thirty-nine witnesses I should have time allowed me to get here before I could be ready to go to trial. Of these, I informed Mr. Botts, twelve I deemed material to disprove all evidence that did, or might yet attempt to, prove my having committed any overt act ; the rest to prove I had in nothing manifested a traitorous design, and of the number I wanted subpcenas duces tecum, 350 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. for five or six, to procure the production of various docu ments that might be necessary to my defense. My other witnesses are summoned on either side, in the present trial; so that the original list I took with me to court to day contains no less than fifty -five. Mr. B. then stated, that as a long list of witnesses I had furnished him lived as distant from hence as Natchez, it seemed hest to post pone my arraignment until the opinion of the court should he known on the several points made on the part of A. Burr, which would equally affect my case and his, when, if necessary, I should he prepared to state at what time I could expect the forthcoming of my witnesses, so that I might be arraigned by Wednesday. To this, Hay agreed ; the court, which sat to-day only on my account, was adjourned, and I returned to this prison as I left it, that is, unarraigned. I hear Bollman is with Burr con stantly, and no doubt busy. If it does not appear that Burr can boast as Chas. Fox did, amidtice, sempiternce, yet may he say inimicitice placabilis. Alston's prose, and Boll- man's talents for intrigue, are recommendations or ano dynes to a mind that finds no difficulty in obliterating the impressions of sensations heretofore received from either by the letter to Pinkney, which is before the public, or the process-verbal of the interview with Jefferson, which is not yet given to the world in detail. Enough has already appeared in these notes to warrant my suspicions as to Alston ; and, in addition to the hint given, to-day and 19th instant, of my opinion on Bollman's manoeuvre with Jefferson, I am the more confirmed in a disposition to mistrust both the motive and the matter of the inter view, as well as his letter to Duane, because, as yet, he I FRESH AIR. 351 has not had the curiosity to see me ; neither a community of interest nor suffering has affected him. He has had no other motive probably to suggest to him a wish for my acquaintance, for he has possibly never heard from authority that I had been offered to choose him or Shaw for my private secretary, when I should name a diplomatic appointment for myself. This would have been a useless and dangerous humiliation of Mr. B.'s pride, which, no doubt, his master has long since found more accommo dating to his views than mine. My visitors, this evening, were General Tupper, D. Woodbridge, Belknap, Wood and Doctor Bennett. The last, who has been brought here to support P. Taylor's evidence, of my having writ ten to him a treasonable letter, by Taylor, is friendly, and can swear that I wrote nothing to him of a traitorous nature, though Taylor told him the letter was of that sort when he gave it to him. The doctor says, he sup posed I wanted the arms I wrote to him to endeavor to borrow for me, ten or twenty guns, to defend my family and property against illegal outrage he knew I appre hended at that time from the Wood county volunteers, in the same sense in which, in my brief, I have stated this part of my case to counsel. General Tupper read over a most humorous lampoon on most of the military charac ters engaged in the heroic feats of arms they performed on the night of the 10th of December last at Marietta, of which, I hope, I shall obtain a copy to relieve the ennui of these notes. I find it very agreeable this even ing to get upon a chair, by which I am enabled to raise my mouth to the lower tier of openings in the grating of the windows and breathe another air for half an hour. 352 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPEKS. SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 1807. If Alston could not make the same excuse for not call ing on me yesterday that he might have offered some days back, still less could he do so to-day, when I suspect he has been sent to me. Luckett, this morning, told me it was Col. Burr's wish that I should write to Alston, to do the best he could for him, about the dishonored bill L. holds with my indorsement. Suspecting the correctness of this statement, I replied, " that Col. Burr was a ready penman, and in the habit of writing to me on matters of business ; that L., therefore, must endeavor to get him to specify, under his hand, how it was necessary Mr. Alston should learn his wishes from me while they saw each other every day; my own wishes for the relief of L. I had no objection to signify to Mr. Alston in my own way." Luckett posted off, and has procured by his importunities, not a letter from Burr, who never puts pen to paper but under the influence of necessity, though he is, per haps, the most constant writer in America, but a visit from Alston. When he came in, I inquired, "what were Col. Burr's expectations of the fate of the motions now before the court ? " He said, " they, or some of them, would prevail, and the trial would be over by Wednesday or Thursday ; that he and Mrs. Alston would very soon leave town, and that Col. Burr, on his discharge, would immediately occupy himself with the business of form ing a land company, and settling the Washita lands." Perceiving he had an interest in thus abruptly informing me of this project, I encouraged him to dwell upon it, when I found that, though he had been conversing with SUSPICION. 353 Burr 011 the subject, he wished me to inform him whether Burr had ever seen the lands. I told him I was not cer tain, but believed not, adding, that Tyler and Smith, who had once been very intent on settling there, had long ago abandoned the scheme, believing, from information they had procured, and could rely upon, Lynch's title was bad, and they were accordingly busily preparing to settle in the Attakapas .country, very distant from the Washita lands, which were condemned by very good judges I named to him, who had visited them. Alston seemed surprised at this intelligence, and said the commissioners had confirmed Lynch's title. I told him I doubted that, but it was immaterial, as Lynch had long ago been a bankrupt, so that I had not much thought of accepting or purchasing 10,000 acres of those lands which Col. Burr had offered me. I should not be surprised to learn very soon that Burr has been promising to replenish Alston's coffers, which he will empty of 50,000 at least, from his Eldorado on the Washita. I well know B.'s address, in preventing or evading the simple questions he does not like to answer. I have seen Alston often yield to it, and wonder not that he shall seek from me that in formation of which he found Burr so tenacious. This, then, may turn out another instance, in addition to many others I have furnished, in which B. may see cause to deprecate my knowledge of him, and curse that candor of integrity that has so often traversed his purposes. Bollman's cautious skill, perhaps, will never betray him into similar indiscretions ; but Major Smith will be here to-morrow, and then bursts the bubble. After I had next given Alston some account, by his desire, of the country 23 354 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. about Natchez, in which I also took liberty to correct many errors in Col. Burr's view of that subject, I con trived to let him broach the business he came on. He asked me if I had seen Nicholas to-day. I said no ; but Luckett had been here with another of my indorsements, and an account he showed me, with a balance struck against Col. Burr, of something better than $8,000 ; thus, said I, almost every week I discover some new demand upon me on account of this business ; and I have now ascertained that, besides other losses, my name has me responsible for $21,000. Well ! says he, it will cost me at least $50,000. I mentioned the bill and balance together, to try if he would offer any objections to responsibilities I had entered into exceeding the amount of his guarantee to me, but finding he did not, I then told him the amount of the bill was only $2,500. With the account between Col. Burr and Luckett I had no concern, and recom mended the latter to such present relief as he could afford him. He seemed pleased ; said Nicholas would probably accept his terms ; should remove the incumbrances on my property in Philadelphia, and invited me to Carolina, and promised soon to see me again. Then, returning to the subject of the trial, he told me a piece of news, which well deserves a place here as so much secret history, characteristic of the feelings and energies of the Chief Justice. It seems, after the Judge had determined to give the prosecutors time, from Friday until Monday, to prepare to answer the arguments of the opposite counsel on four points, any one of which being supported by the court, the trial ends. A friend of General Marshall asked him if, in suspending a criminal prosecution by granting VATICINATION. 355 this indulgence, he had not made a rule that had no pre cedent. To this he answered, "he knew it;" but if he should decide against the prosecutors on any of these points, he would be reproached with not being disposed to give them an opportunity to answer them ; and that he will probably not overrule them at all is more probable from an expression of his, while playing at chess with Wickham, since the latter made the points. " Do n't you think," said he, "you will be able to check-mate these fellows, and relieve us from being kept here three weeks more ? " In the evening Gates called, and soon left me, to give way to Wickham and Botts. This visit provided for a wish I yesterday expressed, in court, to Mr. B., to see him in the course of this day, my object being to state to him candidly the objections I had lately discovered to his appearing as an advocate for me in my defense, which might expose the breach of honor and confidence I com plained of, on the part of his connections. But as he brought Mr. Wickham with him, and it seemed their joint opinion that the decision on the points now before the court would probably this week put an end to Burr's trial, and occasion the relinquishment of mine, or, if that did not happen, they had determined upon a plea in abatement, for a misnomer to the indictment in my case, which they thought must prevail, and then the prose cutors would probably despair of success in getting another grand jury to find another bill against me ; or, if they should make such an experiment, I should most probably, in the mean time, be admitted to bail. From this view of their opinions, I said I hoped it would not be necessary to trouble them with my brief, and I could not 356 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. venture the appeal to Mr. Botts's feelings, which I pro posed to make in this interview. My accomplished friends now terminated their visit with their accustomed kindness, and left me in a sublime reverie on their virtues and talents, which was soon broken in upon, by the ap pearance of Mr. Douglas with a stranger ; I should rather have said, by two apparitions, for it was now near night fall, and Douglas no sooner appeared than he turned on his heel, saying, " Colonel Duane, sir," and ran down stairs. The surprise of this interruption the stranger, whom I had never before seen, did not suffer to endure long enough to allow me to invoke the angels and min isters of grace for my protection. I was already within the grasp of this Gabriel of the Government. He seized my hand, and bade me dismiss my surprise, however natural it might be on his appearance before me. I handed him a chair, and said, " I had lived long enough in this country to be surprised at nothing it could produce or exhibit, but yet desired to learn from what cause I had the favor of this visit." " Having heard Mr. Douglas ob serve," said he, " you would be pleased to see me." " Sir, Mr. D. has made a mistake ; he must have meant some body else." " No matter," continued he ; " having seen and known your present situation, I could not as a man, and an Irishman" here he digressed, to show how he both was, and was not, an Irishman " I would not leave this town without warning you of the sacrifice now pre paring to appease the Government by your friends, of which you are destined to be the victim. You can not desire any other key to my meaning than the course the defence has this week taken ; but if you think the Gov- COL. DUANE. 357 ernment will not cease to pursue that justice they possess the means of insuring, and suspect, as you ought, the designs of those you have too long thought your friends, it might yet appear no better, on my part, than a nominal service to give you these cautions. I have therefore sought you, not to tender you words, hut deeds ; the only return, on your part, will be that care of yourself which will find a shield in my honor " here he very awkwardly struck his breast, and grinned a ghastly smile " and that confidence I can command in the Government, whose good faith is not misplaced in the zeal I have testified to serve it." To this harangue, delivered somewhat less, perhaps, with the action and manner of Satan personat ing Duane than that of a felon, he added violent prot estations of his wishes to serve me, saying that for that purpose he would put off* his journey back to Phila delphia, which otherwise was irrevocably fixed for Wed nesday, and would now, or at any time hereafter, go to Washington for me, where nothing he should ask would be refused him. In thanking him for the frankness and zeal with which he cautioned me against my friends, and a negligence of my safety, I assured him I was not afraid to meet the prosecution, as I expected I should, before my arrival here, without counsel or friends ; but from present appearances I was more curious than in terested to learn what were those means he said Govern ment possessed of insuring justice? Finding by his answer he was now disposed to allure me into a con fession of having written certain papers in the hands of the prosecutors, I told him, " the warmth of his offers 358 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. to serve me could not make me forget either his situation or my own, with relation to the Government; that I cared not what writings should he charged upon me, I should admit none until fairly proved, which, if any such should ever appear, I would justify, if necessary, on the scaffold. He now summed up the objects of his mission, whatever produced it, with ahuse of Burr, Tyler and Smith, acknowledging that he had heen served gratis hy the first, in the most handsome man ner ; that the others were more concerned against the Government than I was ; hut swearing that he believed, if I did not follow his advice, they would make a scape goat sacrifice of me for their deliverance. Can I make no use, then, of this adventure ? yes, I will put this in terest in requisition, if I can't find readier means to abbreviate the imprisonment of Vaun. I have again laid by my brief, which I shall not probably soon resume until all my expectations of Burr's success and my own are reversed. In the mean time, I will attend to the adjustment of my private affairs. Ellis called in to-day, and seemed pleased with having it in his power to offer to spare some money to me, if I wanted it. I was very glad, I said, to find Col. Burr was in cash. " Not at all," said he ; "I was with the Marshal, and pretended a subpoena had been served on me at Natchez, and got 140 odd dol lars. This was all Col. Burr could yet do for me." This is caution, with a vengeance.. The Marshal's runners have these two nights past been in busy search of General Dayton. If he is taken this way, how will he appear to the multitude? ALSTON. 359 i MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 1807. Between 8 or 9, A. M., arrived Major Smith in this place. He has got the room under me to sleep in, and no reasons of state or measures of public safety appear at present, though they were obvious three weeks ago, to prevent our living together until bed-time, that is, 8, P. M. He has not heard from Burr, though Mr. Martin has visited and offered him to be his counsel, gratis. I was visited by De Pestre, whom I was obliged to send away to attend to Nicholas, who will probably do something definite as to Sanders with Alston to-day or early to morrow. For, strange to say, the latter, De Pestre assured me, was going home to-day, but Nicholas says he will put it off until to-morrow. I apprehend I slaall be obliged to accept of that friendly invitation he gave me yesterday. Smith heard that Burr has made financial arrangements in Philadelphia to settle every thing after his acquittal. Midnight. TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1807. The unexpected arrival of Alston on the stairs before 8 o'clock this morning, while I was walking with Major Smith in the passage, operated as a panic, and soon inspired a conviction of the apprehensions I entertained yesterday, after having seen De Pestre, that he would be off with French leave. I composed myself, however, to receive him with an air of confidence I have generally of late dissembled toward him, affecting at the same time a little surprise at so early a visit. This he parried, with a whiff of his cigar, which gave him time to think to say, 360 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. " the court was to sit as early as nine, and he meant to lose nothing of all that was expected from Wirt, who would have the advantage of a good foil afforded him yesterday by the wretched exhibition of McRae, which soon became so flat, that it nearly cleared the Louse." " He affected," said he, " to prance at starting, but could only crawl all day over the ground ; even Hay confessing he did not understand the question, and Botts, who would next have spoken, declaring that he had heard nothing that required a reply from him. Alston now called me into my apartment to dispatch the object of his early visit, which seemed to be, to leave town without incurring any complaints of mine for not concluding, before his departure, the so long-expected arrangement with Nich olas. He therefore objected to the difficulties that he said Nicholas and Randolph pretended to feel in remov ing the attachment from my funds in Philadelphia, with out particular orders from Sanders. I said I should expect or coerce Sanders to do that, in virtue of the set tlements I had made with him in Lexington, whether Mr. Alston furthered that settlement or not. He then said Nicholas yesterday promised to have the necessary papers ready last evening, but he would have me completely exonerated from the demand before he did anything; to which I, of course, assented. But, I asked, what had occasioned the determination I heard he had formed of leaving town yesterday or to-day? "0! the certainty of the trials ending this week had made him desirous of leaving this place, of which he was heartily tired, as soon as possible, and his anxiety to try to raise even a part of the money for my relief would the more hurry him away." RUMORS. 361 He forgot, I suppose, he yesterday told Nicholas he had just received letters that suddenly called him home. A propensity to rely more on his wits than his memory, is a prominent trait in this character. It would, then, have answered no purpose to have inquired into the fact of the letters being concerned, rather than my sufferings, with the period of his journey. He could easily say, " "t was true, he had letters;" for he is very circumspect to avoid changes upon his words, which I took an occasion again to-day to put to the test by observing to him, that I supposed my losses by Miller's sale of my effects, which had been sacrificed in Wood county, would not be much short of 15,000, which sum would not replace two-thirds of my library, my furniture, instruments, house-linen, etc., with all my farming-stock and implements of husbandry, for all which I had no other hope of indemnity but what I could derive from the honor and resources of Col. Burr and himself; to all of which he was silent. But he might, and did, add, nothing more engaged his concern so much as his wishes to relieve my embarrassments. He then told me Col. Burr wished me to be upon my guard against spies, as he apprehended some had been lately visiting me under the mask of friendship. On asking him whether he alluded to any particular persons, I found he had heard of Duane's visit to me on Sunday evening, which was next day in every body's mouth, and may pos sibly have had some share in engendering a report which as yet has been only whispered, though it may have stolen into some of A. Burr's private audiences. This report states that I now see Burr in a different light from that in 362 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. which I first regarded him, and that my fellow-prisoner, Major Smith, is come on determined to denounce Burr, and turn an approver. Alston did not hint this rumor to me, but I thought it would be serviceable to the interests of my pecuniary expectations from him to send him back to Burr, satisfied of my vigilance and perseverance in those duties of honor and good faith which, if they doubted in me, I should never forget I owe to myself. "Ha!" said I, "you 've heard of Duane's visit to me, then ; would you wish to see my notes of what passed between us?" " Yes," said he, eagerly, " very much in deed." I then read to him the minutes I had taken on Sunday evening, with which he seemed highly pleased, and said they ought to be published. To this I told him I could not accede, though it might seem to him the more necessary from some observations made to me by Duane, more than I thought necessary to enter in my notes, of which I recollected one, that concerned Alston himself, who now seemed all anxiety for the disclosure he ex pected. But I affected to attach little importance to the thing, and said, after no small enjoyment of his solicitude about it, " 't was only that Government had got posses sion of one of his letters to me." " One of my letters!" said he ; "I never wrote to you but two upon business of a private nature, and any other letter they can have of mine must be a forgery." " To be sure," said I ; "or at all events, from the favorable course things are now likely to take, such a letter could do no harm." " But what did the rascal," continued he, " state to be the purport of the letter ? " " Nothing more," said I, " than proving that COLLOQUY. 363 you and myself were equally involved in all Col. Burr's projects." He then abused Duane, repeated his wish my notes were published, and took leave. I find I have omitted to observe, owing to the hurry and fatigue I suffered the day I arrived in this prison, that Alston, on his first visit to me that evening, acknowl edged the receipt of the letter I had written him from Natchez, containing a reprobation of his public letter to Gov. Pinkney, when he said, " he felt now no uneasiness at certain reflections I had therein made use of, which he knew proceeded from a warmth of temper natural to me upon a misconception of his motives, which he had ex plained to the satisfaction (is it possible ?) of Col. Burr." To which I answered, that the letter itself would say it was not designed to excite any unpleasant sensations, though it was written under impressions that could not be obliterated, and that his not answering my letter, which was so incumbent on him, from the nature of that part of it relating to money matters, so irritated and con vinced me that he disregarded my expectations from him, arising from his guarantee for my losses by my concern with Col. Burr and himself, that I was further led' to declare, at Lexington, that he was as fully concerned with Col. B. as myself, stating at the same time to him a further motive for such a declaration, which will be found in my notes of the 6th instant. All this he accepted very kindly, assuring me he had written two letters to me. "What! two!" yes; he not only then, that is, on the fourth instant, said two, but said so again to-day. E"ow those who are blest with his correspondence, will find he is not in the habit of bestowing two answers on one letter, 364 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. especially when that one has chiefly for its object to bring a demand upon him into action, much less to grant a sin gle reply to a letter which, through respect to his wife, he might at least acknowledge. I allude to our friend Harding's letter to him that he confessed he had received, but told me on his first visit it merely inclosed some papers to him, and required no answer. So the generous labors of the head and heart of one of the best men living did not deserve even the thanks of this coxcomb. But it appears from all this, that if his second letter was in answer to the only one I ever wrote him, his first was occupied with some other subject ; and the palpable inter est with which he listened to the late news Duane left with me for him, joined with the motives that induced him to write the death-warrant of his character to Pink- ney, and some late rumors of designs in Government, to institute a prosecution against him also, all leave little room to doubt that the prosecutors have got hold of something he would not like to see. But if this alarm will give me hold upon him, to keep him long enough here to carry some of his sincere wishes into execution, I shall owe Duane more obligations for his visit than he is aware of. I received a note from Prichard, covering the bill I had drawn on Philadelphia in his favor, which was returned for reasons already given in my notes of last Monday. Behold me, then, without a dollar, except the few that remain of thirty Prichard sent me a fort night since. On this very bill I have had my coat re paired, my umbrella newly covered, my hat dressed, and my boots new-tapped. But this economy will not pay my tavern bill, nor those of my grocer and washer- APPREHENSION. 365 woman. Nor will it restore to me the only funds on which I depended for my only care, the maintenance of my family. My own wants will never solicit the mantle of charity to shelter them from the pinching blast of ad versity, until death shall lay the storm. Until then the cry, even to the heart of Mr. Alston, pray spare a trifle from your stock, to clothe my naked family, with that credit of which you Ve stripped it. In this spirit I wrote him what follows : " I have just received the inclosed, by which you may convince Mr. Nicholas of the unjust and absurd obstruction of my credit in Philadelphia, by the continuance of Mr. Sanders's attachment. Having no other source of pecuniary supply to which I can resort for subsistence of my family, until I can collect the wreck of their property, I await the accommodation of such credit or remittances as your dispositions may devise for the relief of my exigences. Yours, H. B." The servant returned with a verbal answer, in these four words "He will see him," importing that Alston would see Nicholas, as if seeing N. will indemnify me for all I have suffered, or support my family. Alston told me Belknap has con fessed he received from Smith $700 for me, which he denied the night he arrived on the "Island" from Ken tucky, the night I left it. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1807. The bird, I believe, has not flown to-day, but may take wing, I know not what moment. I have neither seen nor heard from him since his verbal answer to my letter of yesterday. The little animal has clapped its wings in screaming essays toward the " Oaks ;" but yet may it re- THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. main a little longer on that egg it has not yet hatched, for the cuckoo that laid it. Wirt raised his reputation yesterday, as high as McRae sunk his the day before. The former, I learn, paid me some compliments. We have many visitors, as usual, of whom I shall only notice Kerr, who sat one hour here this evening. Was cautioned by Dud. Woodbridge to beware of Bennet. But I have him secured by Tupper, who tells me he, Tupper, will support the declarations made by Bennet to him and me, on Bennet's first visit here to me. Major Smith is suffer ing something of a seasoning. THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1807. Rose at a quarter past 5 this morning, to walk in the yard, as I had agreed with Major Smith last night; but he rested badly, and had a profuse perspiration when I called upon him, which determined him, with my advice, to stay in bed. So I walked for an hour alone, under a disagreeable fog, with a view to try whether breathing so long another, if not a better, air than that of my room might not enable me to escape to-day a periodical head ache, with some fever, we both complain of about 2 o'clock every day since Sunday, and of which we are not free some nights, before we go to bed. Young Swartwout called upon us with Alston. The latter called me out to tell me things will be completed to-day with Nicholas, from whom h.e will get the original bills on which the attachment was served on the house of J. S. Lewis & Co., as my garnishees, by which, I suppose, I can again open the channel of my credit which the attachment has so long shut up in Philadelphia. He assures me Luckett's MR. DUNCAN. 367 account is not admitted to be correct by Burr, and that I shall not be liable for the bill of $2,500 with my indorse ment in Luckett's hands. He has also offered me a draft at sight on Charleston, for the bill returned me by Prich- ard. He concluded his money business with me this morning, by telling me Col. Burr will be soon in cash, having concluded some financial arrangements with a Mr. Pollock, who is very rich. I must not forget, how ever, he also told me his settling both Sanders's and Mil ler's claims, if the latter will come into the arrangement, will, with the incidental charges, require payments by him to the amount of $16,000 ; so that after settling San ders's claim, if Miller won't settle in the same way, he has proposed to take up his present letter of guarantee and give me another to indemnify me for what Miller may be entitled to recover of me, to which I have assented. Mr. Alston has found Wirt, though not without merit, so far as he was figurative, monotonous, with bad or no action, and better recommended by the foil McRae afforded him than any interest his late essay could inspire. He seems to-day to partake of apprehensions entertained by Col. Burr's friends, that the Chief Justice may yield to want of energy, in ruling all the points now before him, as the able efforts of the counsel for the defense can not fail to prove the law requires. Surely, if the law has not been mistaken on the side of the accused, the calumny which has been propagated through the crowd, of Burr's emis saries having made an attempt to take off Mr. Duncan by laudanum, would tend to strengthen rather the en ergies of such a head and heart as the Chief Justice is probably blessed with. This- Duncan has been brought 368 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. here, I am told, to prove a negative ; namely, that "Wil kinson is not a Spanish officer or pensioner. Duane has kept his promise to abandon the field yesterday. I find to-day he is an expert angler, and adapts his flies and tackling not only to the waters and seasons of his choice, but to that kind of fish that are the objects of his sport; at least, the first cast of his line has caught that wary fish, the natural history of which has engaged so much of these notes. I have been accordingly informed, a formal demand has been made upon Hay to declare whether tire Government or himself possess a certain letter, of which a sketch has been given here the 25th instant. The scene that this interview probably presented will, I know not how long, be reserved for recital in the secret mysteries of the prosecution. Alston, on his part, gave me too sublime a rehearsal of the dignity and force with which he launched the bolts of his defiance on all the Titans of Virginia, for me to presume to imitate it in these memo randa, without incurring the suspicion at least of being disposed to burlesque it. The Titan Hay, however, he assured me, he overwhelmed with mountains of con sternation and dismay ; in short, the fact was denied, and what was very extraordinary, as the like never happened before, imprecations of mendacity, on the fame of Col. Duane, were endured with patience by Jefferson's attor ney. The existence, however, of the letter, be it remem bered, is as yet no more disproved than A.'s title to Agrestis is established. "When Alston observed to me, to-day, he would give me a new guarantee against the amount of Miller's recovery, I said, that would be neces sary for two purposes ; first, for the purpose of transferring TUPPER'S SONG. 369 it, as I had the former one, to Sanders, or raising money on it, as I had nothing else left to pledge ; secondly, for the benefit of my family, in the event of my death, which I thought very probably might soon happen. I could see well enough to discern a pointed attention on his part to the last reason. He had on a former occasion observed, when I assured him I should publicly expose the perfidy and dishonor of Graham and the Hendersons, at all hazards, be the issue of these trials what it might, " that my short sight would lay me under very unfair disadvan tages ; " to which I answered, " I should know how to accommpdate the distance to the extent of my sight ; " and, to-day, he hoped with earnestness that I would not think on any gloomy subject to cloud the prospect of many happy years I shall yet enjoy. This was not his language, but his precise meaning ; how far it was sin cere may be imagined from his talking in this way, after he returned me what another man might have kept, my letter given here the 25th instant, without lisping a sylla ble on the exposure I made to him in that letter of my second humiliation before his wealth, to solicit an atom from the heap to assuage the distress he is bound to relieve. Be it remembered, he has never questioned de mands I made upon him, independent of his first guaran tee for disbursements I have made for Col. Burr, to be tween four and five thousand dollars, in a letter of which he acknowledged the receipt on the 4th instant, any more than statements of other losses, an indemnity for which, when ascertained, will be sought in the honor and re sources of Col. Burr and himself. Tupper has promised me a copy of his song of the " Battle of the Boats," and 24 870 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. tells me the Hendersons now affect that they are obliged to testify against me. "When we recollect their menaces in Wood county to denounce me, after they had prosti tuted their honor to a spy, we must rather believe they regret to testify against that letter Sandy wrote his father, soliciting his consent to his son's espousing the principles and conduct, I confidentially recommended to them, which letter will show what treason I recommend ed or was engaged in. Robison and others tell us, this evening, Hay had the insolence to insinuate to-day, to the Chief Justice, an imp'eachment, if he did not over rule all the points now before the Court. Does the Chief Justice want energy at such a crisis to declare the law? surely this insult should give it to him. Prichard assures me Burr, on his acquittal, will not soon leave this town. Civil demands upon him will gather round him from all quarters, to a far greater amount than he can find bail for, if Pollock, or some other preserving angel, does not shield him from this new host. Then, indeed, will he fall more inglorious than from a gibbet. I am very unwell this evening, suffering under a return of the like oppressive weather I endured during the first fortnight of my imprisonment. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1807. I awoke yesterday morning with a continuance of the indisposition under which I had labored on Thursday evening. I was affected with much fever and racking headache, to a degree of severity that compelled me to return to bed before breakfast, after taking three or four grains of calomel. Dud. Woodbridge called me aside APOLOGY. 371 this morning to complain that the " Enquirer " has mis represented the evidence he gave last Wednesday. He said he had been to the printer on the subject. I could not understand distinctly, however, what particular fact had been misstated. He observed to me that he was at a loss to conceive the object of the counsel on both sides, examining him upon matters altogether irrelevant to the questions before the Court; such as, his opinion of my talents and studies, his knowledge of the amount of my property, and particularly the value of my place on the Ohio. But he supposed the drift of Col. Burr was to show that I could in no sense be regarded as a military character. He apologized for his having said that " I had more other sense than common sense," an expression which he said escaped him in the hurry and warmth of his examination. I accepted this explanation, but wished him to inform me what motive the counsel could have to exhibit me to the jury as a character less skilled in the ordinary affairs of life than common men? He now stated to me, that Burr's special confidants, who formerly sought his company here, of late, seemed rather inclined to avoid him, for which he was at a loss to account ; but that, while he boarded in the same house with Bollman, this gentleman had devoted much pains to learn from him all he could of my character, by which, having ex tracted from him an opinion that I was eccentric, Boll man, who was informed of the testimony he had given before the grand jury, regretted very much that D. Wood- bridge had not informed that body of the circumstance. All this is mysterious to me, and will remain so until I can explore the matter by opportunities I shall not fail to 372 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. seek. I have had a large draft upon my little funds, of $2.55 for a large packet from Philadelphia, covering the following inclosures ; namely, two letters from Elliott and another from his wife, with the seal cut open, and several others of importance. Burr yesterday informed me, by note, he had an unsettled account with Luckett, who holds one of his drafts for $25, with my indorsement, which it would gratify him much if I could discharge : but Alston, two or three days ago, assured me Luckett's account was not allowed, and I should not be called upon to pay this draft. Will these adventurers never meet but in du plicity ? Mr. Alston has not appeared to me since Thurs day; he is probably engrossed to-day by Martin's con cluding speech, in reply upon the points now before the Court. Wood, this morning, gave me some information, which, if true, proves Burr as bad a general out of the field as I have no doubt he would prove in it. Speaking of several characters that Burr had subpoenaed from Ken tucky, I inquired, what benefit he expected to derive fr^>m John Brown, who I heard had arrived ? " He can expect none from him," said Wood ; " he will find Brown more Wilkinson's friend than his." " Brown is as truly pen sioned as Sebastian was by the Spanish Government ;" and Col. Burr must have strangely overrated his own powers, if he ever thought that these men would have joined him in any thing but words against Spain, while he might with the greatest ease, when he was in Ken tucky, have enlisted Daveiss and the whole Marshall party in his interest. "Daveiss and Dr. Marshall," he added, " would gladly have embarked in all or any of his speculations; they had no Spanish ties to break, and SEBASTIAN. 373 Daviess instituted the first proceedings against him, partly from a sense of neglect on the part of Burr, and through enmity to the President, who he fully believed was con cerned with Burr, or connived at his operations. Be these things as they may, true or false, as "Wood is more or less deserving of credit it should be remembered that "Wood once possessed the confidence of the Marshall fac tion, by which he had an opportunity of knowing their dispositions that however unprincipled he may have proved in other instances, he still adheres to the denunci ations he published in the " Western World," which have already ruined Sebastian, and may yet lead to the con viction of other culprits, and that as he has now aban doned all concern with politics and newspapers, save so far as he can be serviceable to Burr, he can have no cal culable interest in depreciating the views or talents of any of the persons he has reflected upon. But the present trial can not fail to furnish ample testimony, if not to the guilt, at least to the defect of every talent, under the as sumption of which this giddy adventurer has seduced so many followers of riper experience and better judgment than myself. You were right, therefore, honest Hay, in observing the other day to Woodbridge, while expressing your concern for my situation. " that I must now think Burr had duped me ; " but you were wrong in supposing I am indebted to you for the discovery ; I am possessed of it these nine months. I am still without relief of my anxiety for my poor family. I pray the mercy of Heaven to prepare me for the first news I shall hear from them. II o'clock, P. M. 374 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. SUNDAY, AUGUST 30, 1807. I have heard this morning from Ellis, that General Jackson is hourly expected in town, and Ashley's arrival also looked for, this evening or to-morrow. If by either of these chances I shall be blessed with no disastrous news of my family, or even with a revival of those hopes that I have too long brooded upon, of once more behold ing the picture of my beloved wife, how great a load of care my hours of sorrow will throw ofi'. I trust Almighty God will first. ordain I shall bow with devout gratitude before I bound in levity or transports, to which I have so long been a stranger; or, if I idly dream, to wake perhaps to realities of sad reverse, then let me first invoke the Divine mercy, to retain me faithful to all my duties, in every task allotted to my destiny. I had a very interesting conversation this morning with John Banks and Mercer, and both eagerly charged themselves with the care of sending me good soup ; and as my late sick ness induced me at their desire to complain of the quality of necessaries sent from the tavern, in pursuance of which, soon after, Mercer left me a present of refresh ments of fruit and good butter, and fine calves-feet jelly, was sent in ice by Mrs. Gamble. The conversation, of course, had no other object so natural to engage our in terest as a comparison of the foundation of different con jectures respecting the decision the Chief Justice will deliver to-morrow on those points which have so long balanced this town between law and faction, and will so much longer poise the trembling passions of the distant multitude on the same pivot. Each of us was not with- BANKS. 375 out an inuendo, or an anecdote, of no small interest to Major Smith, who, I was happy to see, continued of the party. My hints were thrown out only in general terms, alluding to the inferences I had endeavored to draw from the intelligence Wood yesterday gave me. Mercer, who, it is said, is much enamored of a very accomplished young lady, a relation of the Chief Justice, ably exerted his happy address for some time, not indeed to confirm the sense Banks and myself professed we so fully enter tained of General Marshall's high talents, deep erudition and amiable virtues, but to discharge our apprehensions of some doubts we said we lamented they had imbibed, that the Chief Justice would possess all the energy that would be necessary to reconcile the opinion he had deliv ered on the part of the Supreme Court in the case of Bollman and Swartwout, with such another as would be required of him to establish the most material of all the points now before him. Mercer insinuated he had oppor tunities from whence he could deduce a different antici pation. But neither Banks nor myself could hereby perceive his conjectures to be better warranted than our own. Banks was now led, after indulging himself with some general reflections on the difficulty and delicacy of the Chief Justice's present dilemma, in which we all concurred, to tell us an anecdote, with which I was sur prised to find Mercer unacquainted, from whence Banks indeed did not infer that the Chief Justice will, on the present occasion, shrink from his duty, as an able judge or a virtuous patriot, to avert the revenge of an unprinci pled government, or avoid other trials menaced, and preparing for himself by its wretched partisans, but he 376 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. lamented, and certainly our choicest sympathies harmo nized witL his feelings, that the facts he had mentioned, of which he vouched the verity, referring Mercer to the office and file of the Argus, had already proved that the Chief Justice had explained or accommodated his en ergies on the bench in conformity to the views of his enemies, by ordering or permitting in his private character something to be inserted in the Argus, in the form of an apology to, or exculpation of, Wilkinson, purporting to contravene, but altogether inconsistent with, the tenor or expressions of declarations of opinions he, as a judge, had delived on the bench. This will, no doubt, engage Mercer's interest and anxiety so much that I will, to-day, add not a word to what I have already said, on a discov ery that has not a little depressed me. Yet I am certain, whatever dust or insects may have sought the Judge's robes while off his back, none will venture to appear upon the ermine that bedecks his person. Mercer and Banks gave me not less than two hours of their company, which, whether considered with regard to the elegance and interest of Mercer's conversation, or the friendly concern testified by Banks for the issue of the trial, con stituted one of the most agreeable visits I have received since my imprisonment. Mercer promised to bring me the earliest tidings of the decision to-morrow. Alston is too much occupied to call upon me, when such an effort is not indispensable. The influenza has arrived here, and found its way into half the families of the town. I am severely affected with it ; this is the third illness I have had here, which has compelled me to resort to medicine. As we were LUTHER MARTIN. 377 chatting over some of Mrs. Gamble's fruit after dinner, in came the whole rear-guard of Burr's forensic army I mean the celebrated Luther Martin, who yesterday con cluded his fourteen hours' speech. His visit was to Major Smith ; but he took me by the hand, saying, there was no need of an introduction. I was too much interested by the little I had seen, and the great things I had heard, of this man's powers and passions not to improve the present opportunity to survey him in every light the length of his visit would permit. I accordingly recom mended our brandy as considered superior, placing a pint tumbler before him. !N"o ceremonies retarded the liba tion ; no inquiries solicited him on any subject, until apprehensions of his withdrawing suggested some topic to quiet him on his seat. Were I now to mention only the subjects of law, politics, news, etc., on which he de scanted, I should not be believed when I had said his visit did not exceed thirty-five minutes. I imagine a man capable, in that space of time, to deliver some account of an entire week's proceedings in the trial, with extracts from memory of several speeches on both sides, including long ones from his own, to recite half columns, verbatim, of a series of papers of which he said he is the author, under the signature of " Investigator," to caricature Jef ferson, give the history of his acquaintance with Burr, expatiate on his virtues and sufferings, maintain his credit, embellish his fame, and intersperse the whole with sen tentious reprobations and praises of other characters. Some estimate, with these preparations, may be formed of this man's powers, which are yet shackled by great embarrassment of delivery. In this his manner is rude, 373 THE BLENNERIIASSETT PAPERS. and his language ungrammaiical, which is cruelly aggra vated upon his hearers by the verbosity and repetitions of his style. With the warmest passions that hurry him like a torrent over those characters or topics of his con versation that lie most in the way of their course, he has by practice acquired the faculty of curbing his feelings, while he never suffers to charge the enemy until broken by the superior numbers of his arguments and authorities, by which he always outflanks him ; then he lets loose the reserve upon the center with redoubled impetuosity. Yet fancy has been as much denied to his mind as grace to his person or habits. These are gross, and incapable of restraint, even on the most solemn public occasions. Hence his invectives are rather coarse than pointed ; his eulogiums more fulsome than pathetic. In short, my amiable young friend Mercer, in his accustomed classical neatness, gives me every trait of his portrait, when in one word he calls him the " Thersites of the law." Yet, though Mr. M. did not intend to sit here to so bad an artist, he has literally promised me his portrait by a bet ter hand ? and I believe he is not without mShy moral good qualities, not very inconsistent with the sketch I have attempted of his character. I have no doubt he is unrivaled for zeal in the service of his friends, while he retains them from the concern with which he spoke of Burr's financial difficulties, declaring his friend could find security in Baltimore for $100,000, which I doubt, though I do not at all question Martin, as he said so, would be his bail for $10,000. I regret to find Smith neglected, not only by Burr, but Burr's satellites. I asked Martin if the prosecutors won't succeed, as I predicted by letter to B., INDISPOSITION. 379 before I got here to put him upon a defense on the trea son bill, that will nearly amount to a confession of the misdemeanor? I think this has actually happened. Mar tin thought that because Burr alleges he expected war between Spain and the United States, his expedition was lawful. But may not a jury think Burr did not expect the war, and find their verdict then on the confession ? MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 1807. I suffered total privation of sleep last night, by the un remitting severity of my cough. This is the most oppressive day I have yet endured in this place, and my lassitude was so great, that after seeing Strickland, who, I am glad to hear, sets out for Natchez about Saturday, I read for two hours, but was obliged to go to bed, where I slept until awaked by Mercer, with a report of the Chief Justice's opinion, stating, in substance, that all the points of so much expectation had been established in favor of the accused, and my indictment virtually got rid of, by the Judge's opinion, that the evidence adduced to prove the overt acts did not prove such an assemblage as the law required to constitute a traitorous one. Mercer took much pains to state every detail his memory could suggest ; but I was little revived with the news. I have yet too many other trials to pass. The Court adjourned to six o'clock this evening, when the prosecutors are to be prepared to state the course they will now pursue. The result I shall learn to-morrow morning, and be thereby probably enabled to look to the period of my imprisonment, When I shall have access to Burr and Alston, it will be my fault if I do not see them when I 380 THE BLEXXERHASSETT PAPERS. ought. My chest is very sore; I will take some medicine, and endeavor to sleep, after first offering up my cares and prayers to Heaven for my wife and boys. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1807. This morning I find my influenza much abated by the good effects of the medicine I took last night. Visited, as usual, by a variety of persons, before and after the ad journment of the Court, by whom we learn, Hay observed, with an affectation of terseness, that he had examined the opinion of the Court, and had no further arguments or evidence to offer, by which I should understand he meant to envelop in uncertainty the course the prose cutors will now pursue, of which no conjecture can be formed before to-morrow. A diversity of opinions, how ever, seems already to dissect the speculations of the prosecutors ; some supposing all the indictments will be abandoned by nolle-prosequis ; others, that Burr will be proceeded against immediately on the misdemeanor ; and some more, that a motion will be made to have him sent to the District of Kentucky, where things may work more favorably to convict him of overt acts, suggested to have been committed by him at the mouth of Cumber land river ; while, on the other hand, it is said, Burr will to-morrow move for nothing less than to be discharged from the indictment for the misdemeanor. But this seems to me too bold a dash on the part of the accused. I should rather presume, on the contrary, that the Judge would allow the prosecutors all the latitude of discretion they may desire in adducing evidence to prove that de gree or probability of guilt that may induce the Court to ARGUMENTATION. 381 transmit the accused to another district, from which they had precluded themselves by the form in which they had framed the indictment for treason. Yet I can not "believe the Chief Justice will ever say, a man once put in jeop ardy of life in one district for treason, charged to have "been therein committed and acquitted thereof, may after ward be put to answer charges of other overt acts of the same treason in another district. Though a man may be responsible to the law, in twelve districts severally, for a distinct treason committed in each, provided the animus or design quo (with which) he sought his object by the overt acts in each be proven to have operated the overt acts, as their immediate preceding motive, within the district where they are laid in the indictment to have been com mitted. Thus, a man may successively meditate, and mentally organize or arrange, eleven separate treasons, iu as many States, the execution of all which he may aban don ; but finally, in a twelfth, he may attempt to reduce his project into action. But evidence of overt acts in the last State can not borrow evidence of the design from any of the former to complete his crime. The jury, I hope, have to-day evinced more of caprice than party spirit, by affecting to bring in something like a special verdict of acquittal. It will, however, be entered generally on the record. Burr has written to me to solicit Alston to as sume the amount of the bill Luckett holds, and felicitates me on the events of yesterday. I have gratified Luckett with a letter to that effect to Alston, whom I have not seen since Thursday. 382 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1807. My cough still causing me some loss of rest, I had not risen this morning before seven, when I was visited by Wickham and Botts. They staid about fifteen minutes, and called to acquaint me they meant to-morrow to offer the special plea to my indictment, on which account they had come to invite me to visit the folks at the capitol. They told me Burr was not solicitous about his discharge, which they thought would not take place for three or four days. They apprehended an attempt would be made to have us all transmitted to the Kentucky or other dis tricts, which they did not appear to think would prevail. After breakfast, being very languid, we did nothing but read until a little after noon, when a Deputy Marshal un expectedly roused us into action, by a summons to attend the Court. We dressed in five minutes, and accompanied the officer in a distressing warm walk. We did not re turn till the Court adjourned, about half-past four. On our arrival, the Court seemed disengaged, as if it had been waiting for us. During this pause I could only col lect from Botts, that some motion was before the Court, which he had not time to explain, before Hay rose to ob serve, that as Major Smith and myself were present, and as we were similarly circumstanced with A. Burr, the same course should be pursued with us all. This called up Botts, who was followed by Wickham, both in very able arguments, contending that our cases were totally separate and distinct from Burr's ; the latter not being now, on account of his acquittal of the treason, legally present before the Court ; the only proper means to bring him there, to answer to the indictment for the misde meanor, being, by summons or venire facias, according to the laws and practice of Virginia, where process of capias is not allowed for any offense less than capital. Burr said he was ready to enter an appearance to the indict ment for the misdemeanor, insisting, until he did so, he was not legally in court on that charge; from whence I inferred, that the motion made before my arrival was probably for his discharge under the proclamation that should have ensued, on recording the verdict yesterday of his acquittal. Wickham and Botts supported their arguments with not only English and Federal authorities, but with the doctrines of Hay himself, delivered by him in his evidence on Chase's trial, which they dressed up in such comments and strictures as exhibited Hay the most bewildered spectacle of confusion and mortification I ever saw exposed to a public assembly. The Chief Justice said he should proceed to assign counsel to Major Smith for which purpose the latter got me to write a letter for him yesterday if the counsel of the United States meant to proceed against him on his treason bill, to which Hay answered, " it would be unnecessary, he believed." The Judge then observed, that the arguments would require his postponing his opinion until to-morrow morn ing. After the Court was adjourned, Burr and ourselves were detained about ten minutes by the absence of the Marshal and his deputies, who had stepped aside some where out of my sight, I believe, upon some consultation respecting the expense of Burr's guard until to-morrow ; for I soon heard Burr tell Botts he would pay the ex pense himself. The guard over him, at his present 384 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. quarters, has hitherto cost the United States seven dollars a day, which, it is now understood, he must pay himself until discharged, since his life has been redeemed from the mortgage the Government had on it. Burr, during this detention, said he hoped he should be able to come to see us to-morrow or next day ; but I fancy we shall have the liberty of the town as soon as his highness ; and so after all, it is one hundred to one, I shall never be ever arraigned for treason. On entering the dome of the capitol I was indemnified for the severity of my walk, not merely by the pleasure of the transition from the heat abroad to the shade and lower temperature of that part of the building, but by the enjoyment of beholding a face I had not yet seen in town. I passed close by Phelps, whose visage exhibited so high-colored a picture of the disappointment of his malice, that I involuntarily smiled upon him with such satisfaction as almost tempted me to wish him joy. My hurry, however, did not permit me to speak. I must reserve my words for something more human. Tupper expects letters this evening. I have charged Billy to see him, and be with me as early as he can. If I but wake to good tidings from Natchez, how shall I sacrifice to the God of fathers, for his pre servation of my Harman, whom I have again dreamed I have lost. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1807. I opened my eyes first this morning in quest only of that object, in exclusion of all others, that occupied my heart last night. But instead of letters through General Tupper, Billy brought me early a note from him, to an- INCERTITUDE. 385 nounce that there were three letters from my wife, not here, arrived for me, but at Marietta. To Almighty God be first offered my grateful and humble thanksgiving. I am hereby enabled to conjecture, with much probability, my beloved wife, at least, was well about the middle of July. But I dare not so far presume upon the favor of Providence as to conclude my boys, particularly Harman, were in health at that period, much less, how long they and their mother have since continued well. This note has given me, however, a vivacity to-day, in spite of the oppressiveness of the weather, I have not before experi enced in this prison, where, it is true, my friends have sometimes made me bear a part in the humor or interest of the story ; but I have ever felt on such occasions in the state Nicholas described, when he gives us the account of that part of his life during which he was conscious of being under the influence of two minds at the same instant. Or, at least, my heart would pity the momentary fluttering of my spirits, which, on such occasions, could never soar above its trouble. That truly worthy Irish man, Mr. Hendren, has come again to town, apparently on purpose to see me. (See notes of 8th ult.) If I shall be detained here, as is probable, for some time, after I shall be bailed or discharged, I have engaged to visit him at Shirley, twenty miles from here. Not having seen any one since the rising of the court this evening, we are without any knowledge of the proceedings there to-day. Luckett called, this morning, to tell me Alston required me to write to him again, to desire he would settle or assume the amount of the bill Luckett holds, with my indorsement, saying my last letter to him on Monday to 25 386 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. do so, did not express my desire with sufficient certainty. This is admirable ! Major Smith has seen that letter, and only wanted to hear this statement by Luckett, which, if true, settles Mr. Alston's intentions and mine. The first to put off, the last to hasten ; if he leaves this town, with out his having reasons I shall approve of for not making the settlements he has undertaken, my purpose is fixed to follow him to the " Oaks " with a friend, very soon after my discharge, when it shall not exceed forty-eight hours to conclude all my business with him. I have written to William Thompson a long letter, accepting his tender of a correspondence, and returning him my sincere disposi tion to improve our acquaintance into a friendship. Re curring with Mr. Smith to some incidents that happened soon after our arrival at Natchez, and speaking of Cowles Meade, I was much surprised to learn what I had never heard before, that Meade had seriously taken up an idea of Col. Burr's being then deranged, alleging that he could not be mistaken, as he, Meade, had very long known him. Be this as it may, Burr, yesterday, looked fifty per cent, better than I have ever seen him, and dis played a command of tone and firmness of manner he did not appear to me to possess before the verdict of Tuesday. 11, P. M. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1807. Visited this morning by Ellis and Doctor Monholland, who inform us yesterday was spent in Court in a desultory disputation on Hay's attempt, moved or suggested to have Burr transmitted to the Kentucky District; on which- the Chief Justice has yet made no rule, as they MISDEMEANOR. 387 understand he conceives the indictment for the misde meanor must be first got rid of here. They also tell us Burr went out about 1 o'clock to procure bail, which they supposed he did not effect, as his guard were in statu quo this morning. I have written a thankful letter to two : I have received one from Jas. O. Hennessy, a Kerry schoolmaster, who appears to be settled as a private tutor in the family of Hudson Martin, Esq., near York Post-office, Albemarle county, and is very solicitous to serve me. Read the best part of this morning, as is generally my practice when not otherwise employed, and which will show I have not been idle, wherever it might appear by this diary the minutes of any particular day are few or uninteresting. Hay has made a special return instanter, to a subpcena, duces-tecum, ordering him to pro duce a letter from Jefferson to Wilkinson, which Hay did not wish made public, as parts of it were confidential. But his return was not accepted, and he has been co erced to produce the letter. The whole day has been spent in altercation on this subject, and the question whether evidence should be gone into to determine upon the transmissal of us all to another district, before our indictments for the misdemeanor are ,here disposed of. In Burr's case, the Chief Justice has determined his dis charge from his treason bill, and ordered his trial for the misdemeanor to proceed directly. 11, P. M. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1807. Burr is to-day to give bail to the misdemeanor, the Chief Justice having yesterday determined a capias is the proper process, and not a summons, on grounds I ana 388 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. ignorant of. The sum was settled at $5,000, Burr having prayed it might he reduced below what it had heen for merly fixed at since his acquittal ; and his heing in cus tody on civil process, altered his situation, and now made it more difficult for him to find hail than before. Strange ! I should never before have heard of this arrest on civil pro cess having been made upon him, and still being unre- moved. I observed to Alston, who has just left me, that I found by to-day's papers, Col. Burr and the Judge had both referred to this circumstance as influential in settling the quantum of the bail. He did not like it, and asked, peevishly, ""What is it the papers will not talk about?" This man, with his most active associates, Bollman and Sam. Swartwout, to whom probably young Dayton may now be added, has, I believe, been more active with every thing than his purse to serve the interests of Burr ; his industry enabled him, rather than his judgment or knowledge of the subject, to anticipate the opinion of the Chief Justice on the late arguments of an entire week, long before any body else scarcely would venture an opin ion, or conjecture about it. And if the Coryphcd of the prosecution were solicitous to collect, from every opportu nity they could derive from the Judge's conduct, materials to fabricate an impeachment against him, the Triumviri above mentioned were not less busy in their preparations, by rumors or publications, to arraign him for timidity be fore the tribunal of public opinion, in case his judgments had been adverse to their wishes. Notwithstanding the dignity and independence of the Judge's mind, I suspect from some hints dropped to me by Mercer, Mr. Marshall early perceived his course lay between Scylla and Charyb- DOUBTS. 389 dis, though he equally disregarded the dangers that men aced him on either side. Again, Alston has detected, by his spies, some curious governmental manoeuvres, that have been going on in Kentucky, nothing less than prep arations by Bibb, the District Attorney there, for our prosecution in that State to be instituted, if not already commenced, the moment we are discharged here, provided only the necessary witnesses can be trained and suborned, and a grand jury packed for the purpose. Alston assures me the grand jury was actually to have been embodied yesterday, if the scheme had succeeded, of which he ex pected to be advised by Monday. Hence we learn to ac count for Hay's delays, to dismiss the other treason bills here, which he may yet possibly proceed upon, though he has declared he would enter nolle prosequis if he finds his speculations in Kentucky likely to miscarry. Why else has Major Smith been served to-day with copies of his indictments ? Alston tells me, Duncan was yesterday evening examined upon interrogatories by consent, by Burr and Botts, preparatory to his, Duncan, leaving town to-day. The object was to obtain matter to discredit Wilkinson. It is pretended Duncan has proved Wilkin son guilty of forgery, in erasing and altering the cipher letter. But I do not place implicit reliance on the full extent of this statement. Burr's guard, it is added, will be dismissed to-day. But the business of bailing may undergo some procrastination, I suppose, if any part of it depends upon expectations from Alston, who has not to-day said a word to me upon money matters, from which I do by no means imagine he has yet concluded any thing with Nicholas or Luckett. I was not sorry he 390 THE BLENNEKHASSETT PAPERS. did not call me out. I shall not forget to construe his silence upon my last note to him, to settle with Luckett for the bill as an acceptance of one demand, at least, beyond the limits of his letter of guarantee. Though had he spoken to me in private, I was prepared to express to him my surprise at the freedom he used in speaking of what passed during my visit from Duane, after I had apprised him I did not wish it published ; also, to warn him of my being acquainted with the officious inquiries his friend Bollman had been making about me, and to ac quaint him, that though his agent in Philadelphia would probably exonerate me from one of the attachments, yet he had not paid the bill, in the manner stated to me on a former occasion. (See notes of 27th and 29th ult.) Since writing the above, before dinner, I find this even ing I have been much mistaken in my conjectures of the morning respecting the hero of these notes. Luckett has just stepped off with Alston's letter of guarantee to me, on which I have seen a special receipt from Nicholas to him, for a bond and mortgage. Luckett brought it to me to request I would also endorse on it an order to settle his demand for the bill, which I did very readily. The news by this arrival is, that Burr, besides his bail already men tioned, procured security to-day, also, for $30,000, in civil suits, which have been here commenced against him ; that he enjoyed a long walk this evening with Mrs. Alston, in which he exhibited himself through the greater part of the town, and will probably honor me with a visit to-mor row. It is again threatened that Alston will be off to morrow, but not without seeing me ; I fancy he will, in case he comes pour prendre congS, take away with him, SPECULATION. 391 from my valediction, more matter of reflection for him to ponder on, at the Oaks, than has yet troubled him on my account. Half past 10, P. M. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1807. As I learned yesterday, which I 've omitted to mention, that Burr's trial for the misdemeanor had been ordered by the Court to commence to-morrow, the uncertainty of its duration has caused me no small uneasiness, lest it might prolong my imprisonment until the period of its termination. This apprehension has led me this morn ing to suggest, by note to my counsel, the expedient of my pleading in abatement to both my indictments, to morrow morning on the opening of the court, at once before the trial begins. I have had a short line in answer from Botts, saying, he will this evening confer with Ran dolph and Wickham, and endeavor to have me brought into court, pursuant to my desire. My speculation, on the success of this manoeuvre, opens to me a prospect of no small interest and amusement, as it may affect the recovery of my liberty, at least for a time, and promises to occasion no little embarrassment to the prosecutors, who can not, I believe, support a demurrer to the plea, which when established will, of course, destroy both of the present indictments against me, and thereby reduce Hay to the dilemma of seeing me fully discharged by the Court, or oblige him to apply for a recommitment, in order to have me transmitted to another district. But to open and examine the evidence from which alone he could exhibit even the semblance of probable' cause to induce the Court to grant such a motion, would occasion 392 THE BLENNERHASSET? PAPERS. such an interference and obstruction of Burrs trial now pending, that he must be inevitably distanced, unless he can prevent my pleading until the present trial is at an end, which I also expect he will fail in, because I conceive it a matter of right that I should plead when I am ready to do so. Besides, the Court will have sufficient leisure ; for I understand from Mercer and Kerr, that Burr's trial will not, in fact, commence before Tuesday, or perhaps Wednesday. These gentlemen, in giving me this intelli gence this morning, acquaint me with some curious cir cumstances, which have occasioned the expected suspen sion. It seems, after Hay's special return to the subpoena duces-tecum on Friday, stating that he deemed certain parts of Wilkinson's letter, of 12th of November, to Jef ferson, confidential, which he therefore could not part with, etc., was held insufficient, after an animated discus sion by the Court, which threatened to enforce Mr. Hay's compliance with its orders. He then begged time to learn Wilkinson's pleasure, as to his producing the letter. Yesterday, however, he took new ground, and prayed to amend his return, which now set forth, " that on a fur ther perusal and examination of the said letter, he dis covered it contained some secrets of state, whereupon he prayed time to obtain Jefferson's consent or dissent to his producing it." Four days, I am told, is the extent of the time allowed for his receiving an answer from Monticello. But it is a little curious, that in order to learn his master's pleasure he should send the letter to him, which I am assured he has actually done, so that we may, by possi bility, be gratified with the scene that may ensue 011 Jef ferson's heroism, opposing his shield to the onset of the ANECDOTE. 393 Chief Justice upon his attorney. But the bewildered Hay has, in the mean time, " let the cat out of the bag ;" for the great secret of state is now all over the town. It happened thus. While the guardian of state secrecy and private confidence was yesterday descanting before the Court on the sacred obligations of these duties, the deities or demons of theft and discord, combining with the evil genii of Jefferson and Hay, directed the keen scent and piercing eye of a vulture to that prey most natural to his appetite. John Graham, whose name may find a place perhaps in the history of the present administration, from his exploits as a spy and informer in their service, politely stepped up to the table where the letter lay, and while Hay was earnestly defending the inviolable secrecy of its contents, this " Bird of Paradise " was pecking at the for bidden fruit. The example was followed by other fowl, I know not how far, of the same feather. But some magpies, I find, were so delighted with the fruit, of which they had eaten in the same manner, that they flew through the streets in the evening, intoxicated with its flavor, and chattering the words, "Militia traitors!" These fine birds could not speak in detail of all the sweets on which they had regaled themselves ; yet can they rival that cel ebrated parrot that detected a Prince of Orange incog., and squall, when a little man passes by them, "Great General." The oracles of intrigue, however, at the capi- tol, have been resorted to on this occasion, who have answered, " that a great General expressed his opinion, as a secret of state, that the Mississippi and Orleans mil itias should not be trusted." I am a little pleased with this anecdote, and have some thoughts of giving it to the 394 THE BLENNEBHASSETT PAPERS. public. I find Tupper and many other witnesses aro about to return home, some being discharged as they arrived ; i. e., unexamined, some having, by consent of parties, left their affidavits. I am inclined to infer, from these appearances, that poor Hay rather feels craw-sick, than that he is not yet fully gorged with the banquet of professional fame, at which he has made so long a sitting. As for McRae, he is utterly chop-fallen ; an object of dis gust to his friends, and pity to his enemies. Luther Mar tin sat some time with us this morning. He said he came to see his client Major Smith ; but his vanity as an author and a father led him to bring me his strictures on the barbarous and sanguinary toasts that were drank on the Fourth of July, against Burr and himself, at Elktown, in Maryland, and also to read two letters from two of his daughters. His retort on the toasters is a good philippic on their bloody ignorance of the law, but a mass of verbi age, engrossing more than one page of a paper, the points and arguments of which might all be neatly expressed in half a column. He improves in interest, as I get a nearer view of his sensibilities, through which he shines far brighter as a father or a friend than he will ever appear through his oratory or his writings as an advocate or an author. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1807. This day, at 11 o'clock, A. M., ended my captivity, which has lasted fifty-three days. I was taken down to Court about ten o'clock, when Mr. Botts called upon Hay to know what he meant to do with my treason-bill, which Hay agreed to have discharged, but required my deten tion in custody on the indictment for the misdemeanor, OUT OF PRISON. 395 which produced a conversation on the subject of bail, during which D. Woodbridge offered me his services. After an examination on the amount of his property, he was accepted as my security in $5,000, myself being bound in the same sum, on condition that I attend the court on Wednesday, and not depart the same from day to day, without license, until discharged. John , Banks had also come up to court to assist me in the way of bail. He afterward accompanied me in quest of a lodging, which I have found at a Mr. Walton's, who seems a good sort of man, and will, upon my solicitation, if necessary, come forward to-morrow to bail Major Smith, though L. Mar tin will take that friendship on himself. We then re paired to the Post-office, where I was made happy by a letter from my beloved wife, of the 3d ult., whom the favor of Almighty God permitted the blessing of her health, and that of our boys. I then visited Aaron Burr, now settled in the house occupied lately by Alston, who has at last gone off this morning in the way he has so long threatened, that is, without taking leave. In the evening, I returned to the Penitentiary to visit Major Smith, and, after acquainting him with my having pro vided more agreeable quarters for him, I came away with L. Martin, and took up my abode at my lodgings, under a severe headache, the forerunner of another day's sick ness, which I shall probably undergo to-morrow. But it is just the happiness conferred by a letter from Natchez should be tempered with an alloy. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1807. As I apprehended on Monday night, I spent yesterday 396 THE BLENNERIIASSETT PAPERS. in bed, under much fever and sickness. In the morning, I fortunately begged Mr. Walton to take my cloak, as he was an invalid, and it was very rainy, and step up to court, in case of his assistance being wanted to bail Major Smith. Mr. W. had on Monday agreed, after much solicitation on my part, to come forward as the Major's bail, if necessary. But as I had some slight fears of Martin's forgetting engagements he had made while in his cups, thought it most prudent to have Walton on the spot, and the event justified my prudence; for though Martin had not forgotten his promise, he was incapable of executing it, through the effects of yesterday morn ing's potations. I was informed by Major Smith, that had not Mr. Walton arrived when he did, the Court would very soon have remanded him for want of bail, Martin having in vain endeavored to express his purpose, in which Burr interrupted him, not liking the statement he was trying to make to the Court, though Martin would gladly have entered bail to any amount, for he is, I am now convinced, one of the best-hearted men alive. I slept badly last night, and am very weak to-day, though I have attended my place in court, where the trial of Burr proceeded on the misdemeanor, Hay having pre sented from Jefferson a mutilated copy of Wilkinson's letter, out of which Jefferson has reserved all the parts alleged to be confidential, in disregard of the opinion of the Court rejecting the special return to the subpO3na aleady offered to that effect by Hay. How far the Court will accept from Jefferson, what it has refused from Hay, will not appear until the fate of six points, made by Botts to-day, to arrest all further evidence in this case similar CONSULTATION. 397 to what was done in the treason case, shall be determined. The arguments on this motion will not probably be closed before the end of the week. I had, this evening, a pretty long tete a tte with Burr, during which General Dayton was sequestered in another room. This old sly boots, or Burr, who is often closeted with him, did not mention a hint of my seeing him, though Burr had the candor to tell me, when I was taking leave, he would return to General Dayton in the next room ; so that both were equally conscious I should despise the intro duction. Our conversation turned altogether on the subject of my involvment in pecuniary claims upon him, in which I represented distinctly, and with firmness, that I should expect indemnity from him for every loss I might incur by his paper or my disbursements for him, specifying to him, at the same time, many instances in which my property on the Ohio had already been sacri ficed on those accounts, and adding, that I particularly held Alston answerable to me for any bills, with the charges upon them, which I might have indorsed beyond the amount of Alston's guarantee to me by letter, unless Burr would settle such claims. He assured me he would adjust all such demands, whenever he can be freed from the present prosecutions, and can have reasonable time to collect his resources ; until when, he expressed a desire that I should employ Jacob Burnet, now here, to procure as much procrastination of execution on Miller's attach ment as he can, Alston having got Nicholas and Luckett to accept of his paper for their demands to the amount of $12,500, with charges. I will have one more consulta tion with Burr before I make my first demand upon 398 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Alston for the balance of his guarantee by letter, which will be $2,500, at least. When that is disposed of, I shall meditate upon other demands, on his verbal guarantee to me. 10 o'clock, P. M. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1807. I have, this morning, conferred with J. Burnet, who tells me Miller may be delayed in effecting sales against me in Ohio for twelve months to come. I have also en gaged him to act as my attorney in Ohio Federal Court, against old Woodbridge. The Court heard Bolts and Martin argue further on Botts's motion, and adjourned early, on account of the absence and indisposition of some of the other counsel. I then enjoyed a further repast, prepared for me by my beloved wife, which had been withheld, I know not how long, from me. It was the letters she had addressed to me at Marietta, with others inclosed in them, to the amount of nine dollars postage. These being without dates, I knew they must be old. The profiles they inclosed of my dear boys were morsels of such exquisite and uncloying flavor, that they have developed within me sensations of delight I did not know I possessed. How many parts of all the lines and curves of these dear heads I shall scan and reflect upon, in many a precious reverie, it is given to few besides myself to care or comprehend. But did I truly know my patience had obtained for me any particular bless ing, among the many I derive alone from a beneficent Providence, then how much better should I know the pre-eminent value of that blessing, and study the holy tenure by which I could preserve it. I will never dare to IN DEBT. 399 ask, but will receive from Divine dispensation, in this sense, its permission of the health and comfort of my little family, which I yet know not, but beseech Almighty God to teach me how I may deserve it. I went this evening to the Harmonic Society, at which I could not assist for want of my spectacles. The vice-president requested I would consider myself an honorary member while in town. The flutes are good, with four moder ately good violins, two tenors, two bass players, one telerably good and three excellent singers, who performed some charming trios of Doctor Calcott's, new to me, and composed for some affecting extracts from Ossian. The instrumental music was all old, and known to me. I passed a pleasant evening, and came away at 12. Next Thursday I shall take a part. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1807. Saw Burnet again this morning, and showed him Al ston's letter of guarantee, which I assigned to Sanders, and is now returned to me, by his agent Nicholas, with the latter's receipt indorsed upon it for Alston's paper, which he has taken in satisfaction of his principal's demand. I have written to Lewis, to state this settle ment, and hope it will restore my credit with his house, from whence I have requested a remittance of $200, as I am in debt and without funds. Court, to-day, was occupied with further arguments on Botts's points. I heard Wirt for the first time. He is a handsome speaker, but faulty in his figures, rather through defect of study than genius. Edmon-d Randolph followed on the other tide; he has suffered a depression, in manner and 400 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. matter, of fully one-half, since I saw him display here in 1800. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1807. Randolph finished his argument this morning, and was as labored, inanimate and uninteresting as on yesterday. He advanced nothing new, except an objection to the in dictments not setting forth with sufficient certainty that the expedition was carried on from the United States, pursuant to the manner in which the offense is described in the statute ; as he insisted, in the present indictment, the words " from thence " referred to the Island, and not to the United States. The point seemed to me a good one, and the Chief Justice took a note of it. Martin followed for two hours, and was, besides being clear in his positions, though, as usual, totally regardless of ar rangement, less cumbrous than in common with his verbiage. But Wickham, who closed on that side, ex hibited a masterpiece of strong, condensed argumenta tion, followed with a severe, but measured philippic on the motives, ignorance and misconduct of the prose cutors. This occasioned such agitation to Hay, who was alone hardy enough, of the three on that side, to with stand the impression, that he declared his feelings ought no.t to be trusted with the duty imposed on him, to offer remarks on expressions so unprovoked and unmerited, which Mr. Wickham would retract. He therefore re quested to be heard on Monday ; the Court then immedi ately adjourned. But I trust the Judge will not allow Hay to prove what he can alone do ; namely, Tutius est igitur fictis contendere verbis quam pugnare manu. I have NO CAPITAL. 401 this evening progressed with letters to A. Martin, so long delayed. (See notes of the 29th ult.) Should I ever suc ceed to the large estates which Martin supposes now awaits me, who would imagine, that did not know my indiffer ence to wealth, I should be so careless of it. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1807. I was this morning informed by Mr. "Walton, a gentle man had arrived in town last night from the country, who had come a considerable distance to see me, and would call at 9 o'clock. I therefore staid within to receive him certain it must be either Mr. Hendren or O'Hennessy and was called upon to the minute, when a stranger appeared somewhat agitated. I inquired whether it was Mr. O'Hennessy I had the pleasure to receive, and being answered in the affirmative, I invited him up stairs. This man, I soon found, who had seen me only once or twice in Kerry, when I was one of the counsel attending John Crosbie's election, I believe, in 1793, who had never spoken a word to me in his life until this day, has suf fered many a sleepless night through his anxiety for me under the present prosecutions, and the first moment he learned he could have a chance of seeing me, he set out and rode 105 miles for the purpose. This is not all ; he intreats me to suffer him to follow me to any indefinite distance, declaring he regards it as the first object of his heart to settle near me. He has no capital; but, as a schoolmaster and a skillful dealer in horses, can command the means of a comfortable livelihood any where in America. At Natchez he can soon get rich. He will, therefore, accompany me with a Mr. O'Connor, a mathe- 26 402 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS matician, who will follow his fortune, so that I have secured a good tuition for my boys in the dead languages, English, and the elementary branches of the sciences, until a prospect of bettter means for their advancement may be more clearly opened in Europe the only con tingency that can draw me from the Mississippi. O'Hen- nessy has besought me to command a fine horse, and what money he can raise. The latter I have thankfully declined. I visited Burr this morning ; he is as gay as usual, and as busy in speculations on reorganizing his projects for action as if he had never suffered the least interruption. He observed to Major Smith and me, that in six months our schemes could be all remounted ; that we could now new-model them in a better mould than formerly, having a clearer view of the ground, and a ^more perfect knowledge of our men. We were silent, feeling the full force of his last remark on men ; which, however, we did not fail, I believe, duly to apply both to him and ourselves. It should yet be granted, that if Burr possessed sensibilities of the right sort, with one- hundredth part of the energies for which, with many, he has obtained such ill-grounded credit, his first and last determination, with the morning and the night, should be the destruction of those enemies who have so long and so cruelly wreaked their malicious vengeance upon him. But time will prove him as incapable in all his future efforts as he has been in the past. Honest Hen- nessy dined and spent the evening with me. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1807. Major Smith, soon after breakfast, brought me a letter HAY UNHORSED. 403 from the office, from my wife, dated the llth ult. This letter, too, has announced to me, through the favor of a preserving Providence, the good health of my wife and boys, up to that date. I dare not, then, indulge a wish to lament the grief occasioned her hy my arrest in Lex ington, and the anguish that has festered in her breast from her reflections on the severity of my confinement in the Dog-days. To-day, the Chief Justice has delivered an able, full, and luminous opinion as ever did honor to a judge, which has put an end to the present prosecution. But I have no doubt the prosecuting counsel will show their ignorance and malevolence by carping at it as they did at the other in the treason case. The jury must to morrow deliver a verdict of acquittal Hay, in the mean time, having prayed the Court to adjourn, to give time to study the opinion, and thereby shape his future course. But in this he could not avoid showing his petulance, by pretending the prosecutors should exclusively be accom modated with the opinion, which he would not say, when he would return to the other side. An application, how ever, from Botts, to have it left with the clerk for the benefit of both parties, corrected this insolence, under which Mr. Hay sunk as usual. O'Hennessy could not leave town to-day until he heard the opinion, and saw Burr, to whom I introduced him in court. He was highly delighted with both, and again visited me after dinner, and will return to Amherst county to-morrow I mean as far toward it, of his 105 miles, as he can. I have this evening progressed further in my letter to A. Martin. 404 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1807. Saw Burnet, this morning, who tells me he has given such information to D. "Woodbridge as will probably in duce him to become bail to the attachment against me at suit of Miller, by which I hope to procure time enough for Burr or Alston to settle that demand, and exonerate my property at Marietta from it. The prosecutors, still true to evil purposes and malicious designs, attempted to day to get rid of the prosecution against Burr by a nolle prosequi. This produced an argument, in which they were overthrown, having nothing to rely upon on their side but a dictum in Fosters Treatise on Homicide. The jury were ordered out, and after an insidious attempt, but which failed, with one of them to bring in a special ver dict, they returned into court, in half an hour, with a general verdict of acquittal. Hay then said he would to morrow enter nolle prosequis on Smith's and my indict ments, and proceed with his motion to the Judge to com mit and transmit us all to some other district. All are busy in preparing for this new contest, in which I shall probably personally take a part, from want of instruc tions in my counsel, absence of witnesses, and other rea sons which will appear hereafter. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1807. On opening the court this morning, Hay, after some desultory conversation on both sides of the bar, exhibited a general charge against us in writing, of having levied war against the United States, at Cumberland Island, in Kentucky, at Bayou Pierre, on the Mississippi, or at BURR AGAIX. 405 some intermediate place. We were all three, that is, Burr, Smith and myself, proposed to be subjected together to the inquiry, leaving it to the Judge to separate and apply to each such evidence of overt acts as the testimony might disclose. The Judge acquiesced in this proposition of Hay's, and one James McDowel was called, who proved nothing more at Cumberland than that Burr formed there a circle, and said, " he would not tell his secrets at that place." There are, however, a dozen other witnesses on the ground here who were at Cum berland at that time, and will swear that nothing of the sort took place there. Hay then attempted to examine as to facts in the Mississippi Territory, which called up, after some conversation, an argument on four points made by Botts ; namely, want of power in the Judge to transmit, under the judicial act; right of Burr to a bar by two acquittals here; his discharge by a grand jury already in Mississippi Territory ; and all his acts taken together constituting but one offense, for which he has already been tried and acquitted, within a district which the prosecutors have selected out of the whole for the purpose. Botts was very able and perspicuous in opening the argument, which Burr very neatly summed up and condensed, before the Court adjourned, about half-past 3. I had no opportunity that presented the least necessity for my rising, and think that will probably be the case until the motion for our recommitment is disposed of and defeated altogether. I was glad to find that Burr had at last thought of asking us to dine with him, as I was rather curious again to see him shine in a partie quarrie, consisting of new characters. We, therefore, walked 406 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. with him from court, Luther Martin, who lives with him, accompanying us. We found but one other face that was strange to us, and a foreigner, who, I hoped, might turn out to he Bollman. Martin, hy the way, told me, " he thanked his God he should not now labor under the lock-jaw, which had hitherto restrained him before Democratic juries. He should now be no longer tongue-tied." Our foreigner was very taciturn and re served, and turned out to be a cousin of Judge Prevost's, and of the same name. The dinner was neat, and fol lowed by three or four kinds of wine splendid poverty ! During the chit-chat after the cloth was removed, a letter was handed to Burr, next to whom I sat. I immediately smelt musk. Burr broke the seal, put the cover to his nose, and then handed it to me, saying, " This amounts to a disclosure." I smelt the paper, and said, "indeed I think so." His whole physiognomy now assumed an alteration and vivacity that, to a stranger who had never seen him before, would have sunk full fifteen years of his age. " This," said he, " reminds me of a detection once very neatly practiced upon me in New York. One day a lady stepped into my library while I was reading, came softly behind my chair, and giving me a slap on the cheek, said, ' Come, tell me directly what little French girl, pray, have you had here ? ' The abruptness of the question and surprise left me little reason to doubt the discovery had been completely made ; so I thought it best to confess the whole fact, upon which the inquisitress burst out into a loud laugh on the success of her artifice, which she was led to play off upon me, from the mere circumstance of having smelt musk in the room." "We ARGUMENTS HEARD. 407 all applauded this anecdote as it deserved; but I have given it a place here only to convey an idea of that tem perament and address which enabled this character on certain occasions, like the snake, to cast his slough, and, through age and debauchery, seem to uphold his ascend ancy over the sex. After some time, Martin and Prevost withdrew, and we passed to the topics of our late adven tures on the Mississippi, on which Burr said little, but declared he did not know of any reason to blame Jack son, of Tennessee, for any thing he had done or omitted. He has not heard of J.'s letter to Claiborne, which Wat- kins talked so much about in the executive council at Orleans, on the question respecting the legislative memo rial to Government. Such a general may well continue to sacrifice to Venus, rather than to Mars; but he de clares he will not lose a day after the favorable issue of the present contest at the capitol, of which he has no doubt to devote his entire attention to settling up his projects, which have only been suspended on a better model ; in which work, he says, he has even here already made some progress. Martin presented Smith and my self each with his portrait, tolerably engraved, as he had long since promised. I intend to have it neatly framed by Prichard. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1807. This morning, the Court heard a continuation of the arguments on both sides, which lasted until 5 o'clock this evening, when Randolph begged the Judge to indulge him with about an hour's hearing to-morrow morning, promising that he would show, under the Constitution 408 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. and the spirit and genius of the laws of their country, that the Court could not comply with Hay's present motion, to have us again committed and transmitted to another district. Of the success of such an attempt I can see no prospect, even if the Judge should be of opinion, contrary to what has been so ably contended by Burr's counsel, that the Court has a power to commit under the judicial act; as a total failure of evidence to prove any overt act upon us must undermine the motion. I spent the evening at the Harmonic Society, where I took a part in a symphony and a quartette by Pleyel, but with less effect than if I had been provided with my own specta cles. I had the pleasure of meeting there Neville, Spence and other visitors ; besides hearing several good glees, in some of which a Miss Coniers took the upper part. She is a very pretty girl, and is said by Neville to be accom plished. The society broke up, however, early the music not producing the best effect, from the state of the weather, and the room being too much crowded. I found an old letter in the Post-office, announcing protest of the bill held some time since by Luckett, with my indorse ment for $2,500, so that every thing that little shop keeper had told me of no proceedings having ever been taken against me, as an indorser, was utterly false. I was called upon this evening by David Meade, who seriously assured me that vicious partisan, Scot, the Mar shal, had been trying to make a bargain with him to undertake the office of a Deputy, for the purpose of re- conducting us to Kentucky, anticipating the success of the present motion, though Hay has certainly said out c f court, this evening, he does not expect he shall succee 1. DOUBTFUL POSITION. 409 Such are the tricks of these jugglers, in and out of court. Midnight. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1807. Randolph kept his promise this morning, so far as making out his hour, but did little more service, having offered nothing new, except one argument to show that where a man had been charged for the same murder in different States, the law arising upon his acquittal in the first was different from what it would be on an acquittal of an overt act of the same treason in the first district, where the offender was tried. Then the Judge delivered his opinion, condensing the four points made by Botts within the observations he made on two of them ; namely, power of the Court under the Constitution and the laws of the United States, to arrest and transmit to a Territory, which he decided in the negative ; and the effect of Burr's acquittal, which, he hoped, it would not be necessary for him to decide upon, as he should prefer a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. It followed, as he laid it down from this adjudication, that the prosecutors might adduce any evidence in their power to prove any overt acts against us, Burr included, com mitted any where in the United States, to authorize him to transmit us to any district thereof. But, does it not thence follow, that a persecuting and vindictive Govern ment may order its attorney to harrass an obnoxious, but innocent, victim of its wrath, by playing off the farce of a prosecution against him, in a district of its own selec tion, without effect, and afterward ruin him, by dragging him through every other district in the Union ? "What 410 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. better answer can be given to this supposition tban say ing such a case is rendered improbable, by supposing no government will be wicked enougb to contrive such a villainy ? But this is begging the question. I have here put a case, which has not been supposed at the bar ; but, with very little alteration, it is our own case. How long is it since the prosecutors began to digest all the infor mation it collected by the most illicit means, from the most foul sources, not of our acts, but of our designs, before we committed any acts? Did they not order prosecutions fifteen hundred miles from the present ? Did they not make two selections of their ground, besides an attempt at a third, by Graham, their agent, or at his in stance as a spy and informer, in the State of Ohio, which was only avoided by my flight, and after having failed in all of proof, do they not now seek to drag us back again to the same district where they have already miscarried and failed in every thing, but the success of the plunder and outrage committed on my family and property, by informers and personal enemies the dregs of all the human society in my absence, when I had incurred no forfeiture ? The Judge having further declared the prosecutors might now proceed with their evidence, they called up James McDowel, who swore to some unimportant state ments, which, if necessary, we can disprove by a dozen witnesses. But they attempted repeatedly to go into evidence, not only of alleged facts, but even of declara tions of third persons, to prove overt acts and designs within the United States ; and the Judge, for reasons I can not imagine, seemed disposed to countenance the pro- PARTIALITY. 411 ceeding, which is certainly in direct hostility with his own opinion this day delivered ; unless as a committing magistrate, he thinks he ought to indulge a greater lati tude of investigation than he would permit on a trial. But to-morrow's proceedings will further elucidate these matters. 10 o'clock, P. M. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1807. Strickland called upon me before the sitting of the Court this morning, to say he should in two hours set off for Natchez. I wrote a short letter to Harding, to give him some account of my situation, and tell him I hoped the present demands of the Government on our persons would he satisfied on Monday ; after which, I hoped to be at Marietta in fifteen or sixteen days, whence I should proceed to Natchez as speedily as my affairs would per mit. But I since regret to find, from the complexion of affairs in court to-day, that our detention may yet ex tend even to a month, unless our counsel shall succeed, in efforts they will not cease to make, to confine the prose cutors within the limits of the established rules of evi dence, and the adjudications already pronounced by the Court ; for this whole day was spent in arguments and altercations in violation of both. This was chiefly occa sioned by the prosecutors persisting in the conduct they pursued yesterday, which produced a corresponding op position, which I lamented to see the Judge not only permit, but in some degree participate in ; for instance, Dunbaugh was allowed to-day to testify to facts at and below Bayou Pierre, while two or three witnesses yes terday were always stopped, with the concurrence of 412 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the Court, as often as they attempted to speak of any thing without the lines of the United States. How this is reconcilable with the opinion of the Court, I have yet to learn. Altercations on points already settled, or on a series of topics, where the contest is a logomachy, have always a narcotic influence on me. Nor could any sense of the interest I had in the consequences, or any stimulus the ingenuity of Wickham or Botts could apply to all the intensity of my admiration of their talents, prevent my passing the day in a sort of doze ? Burr, I observed, seemed so irritated with the Judge's apparent incon sistency with himself, that he would not trust himself to rise to sum up and condense the forces displayed by his counsel, into compact columns, after the engagement, toward the close of the day, as is generally his practice. He has no fear of the final result, but feels what a mortifying check he has received. SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1807. I proposed this morning to devote the entire day to writing, my attendance in court through the week totally preventing almost the whole of the labor demanded of my pen. But a solicitude to confer separately with Burr and Mercer, on the course indulged to the prosecutors by the Court the last two days, forced me to go in quest of those so oppositely interesting characters : and the debts yet unpaid, that laid so heavy a burden on my reflections, which I wanted to discharge to Mrs. Gamble, Mrs. Chev alier and Col. de Pestre, who had long been confined with the influenza, hurried me out of doors immediately after breakfast. I found Burr, just after a consultation with RICHMOND LADIES. 413 his counsel, secretly writhing under much irritation at the conduct of the Judge, but affecting an air of contempt for his alleged inconsistency, as he asserted His Honor did not for two days understand either the questions or him self; had wavered in his opinions "before yesterday's ad journment, and should in future be put right by strong language, I am afraid to say abuse, though I think I could swear he used that word, on the part of the de fense. I observed, that though I believed the Judge's the purest of all human hearts, I could not, in my best judgment, reconcile the latitude he permitted the prose cutors, either with the letter or spirit of his last opinion delivered on Friday. Burr replied nothing to my offer of tribute to the Judge's heart, but said his Burr's opinion should draw him back from his deviations from it, and he would hang him, not so facetiously, indeed, as Eaton swore he would hang Miranda, but upon every comma of his opinion. He then inquired where Mercer was, and expressed a strong desire to know his thoughts on the Judge's late conduct. I answered, "that I had come out chiefly to gratify the same desire, and should go directly to seek Mercer." I left Smith with him, and took leave. I bent my way to Mr. Chevalier's, to see De Pestre, whom I found at home. Mrs. Chevalier received me very kindly, and prevailed on her husband, who was confined to his room, to come down stairs to see me, and beg of me to partake of a family dinner with them, which I accepted. After an hour's conversation, I then made a visit to Mrs. Gamble, who seems a most amiable old lady, and so fraught with the generous humanity characteristic of her sex, as to suffer not the connections 414 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. of her daughters, Mrs. Cabell, the Governor's wife, and Mrs. Wirt, to prevent her expressing not merely a con cern for the general hardships we have suffered, but even to censure the last two days' proceedings in court. I was not fortunate enough to find Mercer before I returned to Chevalier's to dinner, where I spent a pleasant evening, save so far as Mr. Chevalier was not of our company, being confined to his bed. Mrs. C. is as lively and agree able as it is possible for any woman to be with limited endowments and without beauty. I had an hour's inter esting conversation by means of a walk before tea with De Pestre in the garden, which, however, touched on no new matters, except his informing me that Mrs. Alston had expressed to him a wish that he would engage in nothing before next spring that might prevent her father from having an opportunity of forming another connec tion with him, conveying an intimation which he avoided as delicately as he could. We again harmonized in repro bation of Alston, in every point of view, when I hinted to the Colonel some expectations and reasons I entertained for urging Burr or Alston to give me an obligation, if they can't raise money, for the amount of my losses by them, yet unsatisfied, which he approved of. He will spend some time with me to-morrow evening, when we will prosecute our thoughts. I visited Mr. C. in his bedroom, after tea, for awhile, and on my return home, I learned from Smith, a confirma tion of what De Pestre had already mentioned to me, that Burr sets off immediately for England, after his libera tion from the present motion before the Court, to collect money for reorganizing his projects, which I now r have SUSPICIONS. 415 ascertained to be as baseless as the interests of the parties or persons to whom he discloses them are opposed or variant. For he assures his creditors here at least he has done so to Smith that when he raises money in England, he will not be strict in questioning demands upon him in this country, which he will fully discharge. In London, no doubt, he will pledge himself to appropri ate every guinea they will advance him to the promotion of such operations on this continent as will best serve the interests of Britain; and if he had not already exposed his duplicity and incapacity in his favorite art of intrigue to Yrujo, he would again as readily promise to advance, with Spanish dollars and Spanish arms, the fortunes of the Spanish minister and his master. But is it not a little strange that he should have never dropped even a hint to me of his projected trip to England. I have had more of his confidence than either Smith or De Pestre ; for he has insinuated to me that the former was not dis posed to fight on the Mississippi, when I thought he had the disposition not to do so himself; and he has, during our embarrassments on that river, through Wilkinson, spoken, in the presence of Major Smith, myself, and others, of the probability of De Pestre's being hanged, through failure of an enterprise he had sent him on, as an event which he treated with the utmost indifference. Surely I may repeat, that whatever feeling this man pos sesses, is confined within the sensuality of his tempera ment ; if indeed his conduct, in the eyes of all who really know him, does not warrant the suspicion of Cowles Meade, and fully prove, while the whole bar as little knew him as Col. Swartwout, whose attachment is still 416 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. unshaken, that there is at best but method in his mad ness. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1807. Dunbaugh was reproduced to-day, with no other effect than to contradict himself, by saying Burr communicated to him in secret his having been betrayed by Wilkinson, though he swore, on Saturday, Burr imparted to him no secrets. The Judge has noted enough in this witness to destroy all credit in his testimony. The day passed in the examination of other witnesses called by prosecutors, whose evidence was altogether favorable to us, though I was mortified to see the Judge, considering himself as an examining magistrate, open so wide the door to the wan ton discretion of the prosecutors, as to allow them to offer testimony of any sort, which they alleged to be explan atory of the so-called overt acts on Cumberland Island, at which place, it is confessed, the assemblage, at most, was doubtful or equivocal in its character. I can not com prehend the distinction taken by the Court between ad missible and operative evidence; nor do any of the bar here, I believe, perceive how evidence that can not oper ate upon the subject be admissible. It seems to me, that perhaps the Judge has at last thought it necessary to sac rifice a little to public prejudice, when the concession can not cause any serious consequences in the issue of this strange contest. This evening De Pestre spent an hour with me, which was passed in a more dilated view of his past concerns with Burr. He gave me a description of the manners and character of Yrujo, who is reconfirmed in his embassy to this country, in spite of all the efforts of this Government for his removal. This minister is, BURR'S MANAGEMENT. 417 according to De Pestre's portrait of him, a shrewd politi cian, who pierced the cohweb tissues of Burr's intrigues with him at a single glance. Though he assured De Pestre, who was charged in Kentucky, last October, with a special mission to him, that had Burr opened his designs with frankness, and really projected a severance of the Union, and nothing hostile to the Spanish provinces, he, Burr, might have had an easy resort to the Spanish treas ury and its arsenals, while his confidence would have been safely lodged in the honor of a Spanish nobleman. But Yrujo laughed at the awkwardness with which Burr en deavored to mask his designs on Mexico, and expressed his concern for De Pestre's having lost his time in such a service. But Burr, if he had capacity or money for re animating his projects, has lost a season never to be recalled. He might, last winter, have had the whole equipage of two French ships of war, who offered to bring their small arms with them into his services. If he had not talents, or spirits to use them, he is where he should "bje. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1807. A variety of witnesses, examined to-day by the prosecu tors, seem to me to advance their cause but little, though their newspapers pretend they throw great light on the mysterious proceedings of Burr. But his mysteriousness is surely an impenetrable shield to cover his treasonable designs, if he had any. I have seen a complete file of all the depositions made before the grand jury in Burr's pos session. It must be confessed tbat few other men in his circumstances could have procured these documents out 27 418 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. of the custody of offices filled by his inveterate enemies. I have long been at a loss to imagine the means he used, of which I am not yet fully informed. But I have learned accidentally that Skelton Jones has become friendly to him. This Jones, a noted duelist, the brother of the late Reviewer, and he who formerly conducted the Examiner, an influential Democrat, I am told, received a letter some time since from Burr, covering a bank-note, without specifying for what purpose the money was sent. Jones returned it, with civil remonstrance, which gave Burr an opportunity of requesting an interview, which, if it did not succeed in removing the easy scruples of this honor able patriot, has, however, since that event, completely attached Mr. J.'s interest, as I have learned from a Mr. Braxton, a young lawyer here of some talents. Burr has again asserted to-day, in court, that he expects, by the mail, documents to enable him to show that Eaton must be an incompetent witness in any court. This, if estab lished, will give the coup de grace to the fame of the Der- nean hero, who, I am assured by Robison, has sworn the peace against a Mr. Smith, of Petersburgh, who threat ened to kick this General out of the room; and yet he appears every day in court, affecting by his looks an air of defiance. Wilkinson also exhibits his boasted arrogance, sometimes in the same place. But his examination can not come on for some days. When it takes place, it must be of the highest interest in the eyes of those who, know ing his character and the insidiously artful deposition he has made before the grand jury, will contemplate a spec tacle of depravity seldom equaled ; while such a sum mons to the address, I will not yet add the firmness of SANDY HENDERSON. 419 Burr, will leave no nerve untouched. But /may venture to predict that Burr will sink under it. For, apart from the merits or demerits of either, there are reasons why it should be so in this country, if not in any other upon earth, which I will unfold at large hereafter. I find by D. Woodbridge, many people have died at Marietta, within two months past, of a malignant disease prevailing there. Did God's mercy place us elsewhere ? Midnight. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1807. It chiefly engaged my attention in court to-day to hear Burr contend, that conversations by me with others, respecting him while he was absent, and prior to the period of any alleged acts, should not affect him. This attempt was made to obviate the effect he apprehended from the testimony of the Hendersons ; but the Judge was pleased to overrule it. Woodbridge has expressed some wish to be discharged, and return with Belknap to Mari etta, but assures me he will still wait until the whole affair is finished, or while he can be of any service to me. I have begged he may not, observing, his being my bail need not detain him ; and have told him, at the same time, to take no trouble on my account, etc. He seems satisfied, as I have informed him of the fact of General Dayton having gone to Ohio, though not discharged from his recognizance. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1807. This morning I was treated to the narrative of Sandy Henderson, which is considered to bear more particularly on me than any other testimony. I had projected a long 420 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. cross-examination of him, which I should have pursued with good effect, but our counsel feared it might operate quite contrary to my expectations from the uniform ex perience they have, that within these virtuous States, when once witnesses determine to swear for a purpose, all attempts to involve them in inconsistency only tend to render them more desperate. I therefore agreed to postpone my cross-examination until the next day, that I might, in the meaii time, confer with Mr. Wickham on the subject, as he feared, I suppose, that something might break out injurious to Burr, through my pressing Hender son ; and Mr. Botts, from his' connection with that family, wished to be excused from taking any part in this exam ination. I had here another check, from the obligations Mr. Botts has already imposed upon me. But I assured him I had discovered his connection too late to prevent his having been concerned for me. It was yesterday I should have mentioned as having seen Henderson first called, and in consequence of the difficulties affecting Wickham on account of Burr, and myself on account of Botts, I last night drew up a series of interrogatories, which I wished Henderson to answer upon affidavit by consent, with which I called upon Wickham in the even ing. He also conferred with Burr upon them ; all ap proved of the questions, but still feared the effect of them, from the apprehended hostility of the witness; so that we concluded on one only of them, which we put to him this morning in court: namely, "whether, at the time of my alleged communications to him, he did not, and doth not yet, entertain a strong prejudice against Col. Burr?" which he answered in the affirmative. I met this even- MORE EVIDENCE. 421 ing with an introduction, at the Harmonic Society, to a very handsome woman, a Mrs. Meyio, who has been too many years a widow, though I hear she is soon to be married. I mention her as being the niece of the amia ble and highly esteemed Mrs. Carrington, whom I have not yet visited to thank her for her generous offer, more than once made through Mercer, to send me refresh ments to the Penitentiary. I took a part in a quartette of Haydn's, and in a glee, and returned home after mid night. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1807. Yesterday, John Henderson gave his testimony to the same effect Sandy had done, and underwent little or no examination. John Graham also delivered his to the same purport with that he gave against me, before Toul- min and Rodney. But, in cross-examining him, I asked him to say " who was to pay the $1,000 for forfeiting his recognizance to appear to prosecute me in the Mississippi Territory:" he applied to the Court to be excused answer ing this question ; denied he had applied to Col. Scott to invite A. Burr to his house to dinner to have him kid napped, and said, he has got his present office of chief clerk in the Secretary of State's office, lately. To-day, after consultation with our counsel, I agree to waive ob jections I had offered against reading the "Querist" in print, or Henderson's evidence of my having shown him only a manuscript of a composition by me with such signature. The reading of the fourth number by the prosecutors, with examination of Dana and Gilmore, finished the day. 422 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. f ^ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1807. To-day, the long-expected examination of Wilkinson came on, after that of Eaton, upon matter and conversa tions between him and Burr, which had been excluded as improper evidence on the trial-in-chief, but was now thought admissible before the Judge as an examining magistrate. I have taken, I believe, faithful notes of every thing that fell from both of these persons, by which it will appear that Eaton's testimony is indefinite as to any bearing that it should have upon Burr's designs, without seeking for those inconsistencies with his former story before the grand jury, and on the trial-in-chief, which Martin, under the signature of " Investigator," is endeavoring to establish in the Virginia Gazette here. The General exhibited the manner of a serjeant under a court-martial, rather than the demeanor of an accusing officer confronted with his culprit. His perplexity and derangement, even upon his direct examination, has placed beyond all doubt " his honor as a soldier, and his fidelity as a citizen." It will appear from the gauntlet he has begun to run, which he will not finish before Monday evening, that he has confessed he altered a du plicate of the original cipher letter for the express purpose of erasing from it an acknowledgment by Burr, of Burr's having received a letter from him, Wilkinson, of the 27th of February ; that this was done for the avowed purpose of concealing from the Legislature of Orleans a part of that letter, from which that body might infer that he was privy to, or concerned in, the projects of Burr; that he substituted other words in ' the room of the ADJOURNMENT. 423 erasure as a translation of the erased ciphers afterward,' but at what time he could not recollect ; that the transla tion of the document sent to Government was from this mutilated original ; and that he had sworn, by an affidavit he produced himself in court, that such translation faith fully rendered the substance of the original. On the other hand, Burr, who was very unwell, preserved a com posure, inspired by Wilkinson's self-condemnation, and supported by his indisposition, contrary to the expecta tions I had formed a few days past. The cross-examina tion progressed but a little way, and was adjourned until Monday. Yesterday evening, Woodbridge called upon me in the most abrupt manner, to repeat to me what he had before observed on Wednesday evening, that he was very desirous to return home, and hoped I would that evening look out for other bail. But he hardly allowed me time to answer, " that I would, and whether I suc ceeded or not, I wished him not to stay a moment on my account," before he had the unfeeling ingratitude to add, " that if I did not, he should give me up in the morning." I was accordingly prepared on the opening of the court this morning, to state to the Judge, " that Mr. Wood- bridge was about to be discharged ; but previous to his leaving town he wished also to be discharged from the recognizance he had entered into on my account, for reasons I did not inquire into; that it thence became necessary I should find other securities, or be recommitted, of which I should prefer the latter, rather than solicit bail in a place where I was almost an utter stranger. But I believe two citizens of this place were voluntarily attending, for the purpose of entering with me into 424 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. another recognizance. John Banks and a Mr. A then were called forward, and thus ended, I wish I could say my last concern, with the Woodbridge family. Of Dudley, it must not he concealed, that although he is reputed to have given a fair, candid, and to us advan tageous testimony, he has not yet told the whole truth- having suppressed my communication to him of our designs being unequivocally against Mexico, which I suppose he kept back, because he embraced and em barked in the plan on the first mention of it to him, though he afterward receded from it, upon his own re flections or the counsels of others.* SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1807. While at breakfast, this morning, I received a verbal message from Burr, importing that he wanted to see me. On my arrival soon after at his house, I found him in bed. He informed me he wanted to see me, to know what I would advise him to do in his complaint, observ ing, he had no confidence in the physicians here. I sug gested to him my being of the same opinion, unless I excepted McClung, whom I believed to be a man of some genius, and probably possessing considerable skill in his profession. Burr said he was a creature of rule; and calling again for my opinion, I said I would have some pills made up for him, which he could take for two or three nights. I left him to go to the druggist's, where I had the medicine carefully prepared, which I sent him * The integrity and respectability of Mr. Woodbridge is undoubted by all who knew him. From a personal acquaintance for some years previous to his death, I am enabled to add, that euch was the purity of his character, through a long and useful career, as to stamp with un- iruthfulness any reflection upon his honor as a man or his veracity as a witness. INTERVIEW SOLICITED. 425 about two o'clock, accompanied with a note conveying directions for his diet, and the use of the medicine. I called there again in the evening to see him ; hut while I was engaged in the parlor with several persons, where Martin was reading to us a heavy manuscript of his next Investigator, I found on going into Burr's bedroom, soon after Martin had done, that he had just taken, instead of my medicine, a dose of laudanum. He said he felt so weak, and was in such want of rest, he thought it best to take an opiate. I told him he must then omit my pills for this night, wished him good rest, and took leave. On my return to the parlor, Baker told me a Mr. Smith, who knew my family in Ireland, and might probably recognize me, solicited him to bring us together. "He should accordingly bring Mr. Smith, with my leave, to my lodgings." I assented, and thanked him. He also acquainted me that Mrs. Broughenbrough, commonly called Brokenberry here, who is regarded as the nearest approximation in this town to a savante and bel-esprit, has expressed no small solicitude, and has insisted that Hay will enable her to read the " Querist," which is much praised here. Martin boasts of the fourth number, not a little, as a piece of argumentation which the prosecutors had better conceal from the public, while they wish to keep them uninformed on the merits of the question re specting a severance of the Union. Martin has also assured me Judge Tucker, though a violent Democrat, seriously contended at a party, with Judge Marshall, in this town since May last, that any State in the Union is at any time competent to recede from the same, though Marshall strongly opposed this doctrine. I find Robin- 426 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. son, the only correct stenographer, who takes exact notes of all the proceedings at the capitol, and is besides a scholar, who understands five or six languages, will give the " Querist " a longer life by incorporating it in his book than it was likely to enjoy in the barren soil of the " Ohio Gazette," where it appeared to bloom but as an humble flower, and trampled under the feet of the sovereign peo ple. Baker is a young lawyer, whom Burr employs, more for the benefit of his influence out of doors than from the aid of talents or services in court, where he is only of use through his humor and the freedom with which he lavishes his abuse. I believe he possesses as good a heart as is permitted to a Democrat, and his spirits and popularity are perhaps, in effect, as valuable to Burr as the talents of "Wickham or Botts. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1807. I had, this morning, a long double letter from my adored wife. Its red seal was as welcome to my eyes as the evening star to the mariner after the agitation of a storm. For I had, last week, suffered no small anxiety from the want of a letter. But the seal, notwithstanding its color, and every curve and turn of the letters in the superscription, had long passed under jealous inspection, to undergo every scrutiny from which I could augur the import of the intelligence within, before I would venture to break it open. But I was assured by the seal there was no mortality, at least on the -5th ult., as by the post mark. I trust, then, the heartfelt offerings of thanksgiv ing I tried to breathe forth to Heaven were borne to Almighty God, before I consulted the contents of the DREAMS. 427 letter. There I soon saw how industriously my beloved continued to practice the only fraud her pure soul is capa ble of conceiving that of endeavoring to hide from me all she feels for me, and has suffered for our dear boys. Her complaint in her chest is mentioned in a way to alarm me, through the vail of disguise she has attempted to throw over it. But the weekly reports she will not fail to see of the criminal proceedings here, will, I trust, lighten much of the anxiety she labors under, which, I know, so much aggravates the affection in her breast. I next find my boys have, both of them, had fevers ; and my dear Harman, who has suffered most, was perhaps at the height of his disease, about the period when I last dreamed I had lost him, and has perhaps been spared to us, through the merits of his incomparable mother, which have not been beheld with the less favor of Providence, while I was offering up my prayers, in the Penitentiary, for his preservation. I have, I find, in concluding my notes of the 2d inst., observed, I again dreamt I had lost my Harman. Did my first dream of his irrecoverable injury from a dog typify the disease of which he was to suffer ? and did my second dream, which was visited upon me in the Penitentiary, a night or two before I noted it on the 2d inst., come upon me as another vision to announce, perhaps, a relapse he has undergone, since his mother's letter of the 25th ult. was written. These things are only known to the Eternal and All-wise Dispenser of our mortality. But while reason shall continue my only guide to faith, I will yet wonder in mysterious awe of such dreams as these, which my understanding can not scan, while they appal my heart. If I shall be blessed 428 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. with the sight of another red seal riext Monday, I shall put off a heavy burden of anxiety which now oppresses me. The Court does not sit to-day, on account of Burr's illness. I find he is much worse than yesterday. He says he will take my medicine to-night, and has rejected bleed ing, proposed to him by McClung, in which I fully agreed with him that he should not part with his blood, even at a Joe a drop. I called upon De Pestre, this morning, at Mr. Chevalier's, where Mr. C. kindly pressed me to dine en famille, which I declined, through a desire to write at home and attend a private quartette-party at the Har monic Society's room this evening. The invitation of Chevalier was given in the most friendly manner, with a reprobation of the restriction imposed on the hospitable dispositions of the families of this town by the effects of a system of espionage, which is kept up by Government and its agents to a degree that has generally prevented those attentions we should otherwise receive. This must be the case, as I have not received a visit from any family- man, much less an invitation, since my release from im prisonment, though Mr. Pickett, who lives in the first style here, informed my landlord, Walton, the other day, he means to invite me to his house. So that etiquette seems also to be totally disregarded ; and, no doubt, here, as in other countries, a want of better breeding is received by strangers as a proof of inhospitality not merited. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1807. Jurr took my medicine last night as he promised, rested well, and is much better this morning. But he has prudently declined attending court, though he is evi- CORRUPTION. 429 dently mortified, he is not able to witness the progress of his recrimination of Wilkinson, conducted by his counsel, in which he is so desirous to take a part, especially as Botts has retired to Fredericksburg, to attend to other professional calls upon him. I perused this morning, at Burr's, some interesting documents, forwarded to him from New Orleans by Ed. Livingston and Alexander, all tending to overtake Wilkinson with a portion of that re tributive justice he has so fairly earned. Of these papers, I trust the Chief Justice, in the spirit of that latitude he has so liberally permitted to the prosecutors, will, as an examining magistrate, allow the affidavits of Derbigeny and Mercier to be read, as both go to prove the Bri gadier's corruption in having received from Carondelet, in 1796, a douceur of $9,000 at Cincinnati, which, added to every thing else that will appear against him, should surely settle his integrity and credit, if not his admissi- bility as a witness.* On opening of the court, Graham * John Mercier, jun., of the city of New Orleans, being duly sworn, maketh oath, that he was one of the clerks in the office of the Governor in the time of the Spanish dominion, during a period of nine years, from the year 1792 to the year 1801. That while this deponent was employed in the said office, to-wit, in the years 1795 and 1796, a secret correspond ence was carried on in cipher between the said Governor, then the Baron de Carondelet, and some person of note, who then was in the western part of the United States, and, as this deponent believes, on the waters of the Ohio. That this deponent had no certain knowledge of the name of the said person, but that it was a matter of notoriety, among those who were employed in the said office, that the said person was General Wilkinson. That this deponent was intrusted with the care or charge of deciphering some of the letters which were received from the said person, and of copy ing some of the answers which were made to them by the Governor. That the cipher was understood by means of a small English dictionary ; and that so far as this deponent now recollects, the number of the page and the line where the word wras in the dictionary was made use of, instead 430 THE BLENNERIIASSETT PAPERS. voluntarily came forward to explain a part of his testi mony, and, I know not why, was pleased to declare I had told him at Marietta, "that both Burr and myself per ceived the people were not ripe for a severance of the Union; that we should not hurry it, as it would take place from natural causes of itself, and we had no per- of the word itself. That this deponent very well recollects that the project treated of in the said correspondence was the dismembering of the West ern States and Territories from the Union, but that he is not able to recol lect the particulars. And this deponent further swears, that some time toward the end of the year 1795, Mr. Thomas Power, who was employed as the confidential agent of the Spanish Government for this secret nego tiation, was intrusted with a sum of nine thousand dollars, or thereabouts, destined for the said person, which sum was delivered to the said Power, in the office of the Governor, in the presence of this deponent. That the said Power set off with it, and, as this deponent believes, with the dis patches which were prepared on that occasion for the said person. J. MERCIER. Sworn before me at New Orleans, the 31st August, 1807 BONAMF, Justice of the Peace. John McPonaugh, jun., being duly sworn, doth depose, that some time in the month of March, in the year 1804, General Wilkinson consulted with this deponent, as a commission merchant, on the probability of sugar or cotton shipped from this country to the Atlantic ports turning to advan tage. The advice of this deponent was, to ship sugars in preference; upon which the General requested this deponent to purchase for him sugars to the amount of nine or ten thousand dollars, payable in cash. This depo nent, accoi'dingly, purchased for the General, through Messrs. Dusan and Dubourg, brokers, one hundred and seven hogsheads of sugar, and char tered the ship Louisiana, in which the General took his passage, to transport it to New York, the said sugar being shipped on the sole risk and account of the General. That the amount of the said sugar, as invoiced, was eight thousand and forty-five dollars and thirty-five cents ; and this deponent gave the General a bill of exchange on New York for one thousand dollars, the sugars not amounting to the sums which the General risked to be in vested in them. That the amount of the said two sums, being $9,045 35, was paid to this deponent by the General, in Mexican dollars, and that some of the bags containing the said money were Mexican bags, such as come from Vera Cruz ; and this deponent recollects that the said purchase excited at the time much speculation among the American inhabitants of COMPARISONS. 431 sonal interest in the event." Then came on the little Brigadier, whose demeanor, to-day, was no doubt as op posite to that arrogance in which he strutted at Orleans, during the reign of his brief authority, as was the car riage of Dionysius at Corinth, compared with his royal port before at Syracuse. But I should not have degraded New Orleans, as to the resources of the General which enabled him to pay so large a sum of money in cash; and the Governor himself, some time after the departure of the General, spoke to this deponent upon the subject, appearing to be desirous of ascertaining the amount of the sugars which had been purchased, and the means by which the General had been enabled to pay for them. JOHN McDoNAUGH, JUN. Sworn before me, this 4th September, 1807, at the city of New Orleans. JOHN LYND, Justice of the Peace. Peter Derbigeny, of New Orleans, Counselor-at-Law, being sworn on the Holy Evangelist of Almighty God, deposeth, that some time in the year 1796, this deponent being then a resident at New Madrid, on the Missis sippi, Mr. Thomas Power, then employed by the Spanish Government on a private agency, went up the Ohio as far as Cincinnati, as this deponent was told, and returned some time afterward to New Madrid, in quest of a sum of money, which was delivered to him by Dr. Thomas Portall, the then commandant of that post. That this deponent was informed by a Spanish officer, on whose veracity he had every reason to depend, that the said money was destined for General Wilkinson, who was in secret correspond ence with the Spanish Government. That Mr. Thomas Power, in order to conceal the said money, which was, as far as this deponent can recollect, a sum of nine thousand dollars, or thereabouts, bought from this deponent some barrels of sugar and coffee, in the center of which the said money was packed up in small bags which were made for that purpose in this deponent's family. That after these preparations were gone through, Mr. T. Power set off on his way back to Cincinnati; and that, on said Power's return from thence, this deponent was told that the said money had arrived safe, and had been delivered to General Wilkinson. And this deponent further saith, that shortly after the surrender of Louisiana to the United States, a rumor having circulated that General Wilkinson had shipped in the vessel in which he returned to the Atlantic States a large quantity of sugar, the price of which he had paid him in dollars lately coined, con tained in bags not yet unsewed, and such as they are when sent from the Spanish mint, this deponent grew suspicious that it was again money paid by the Spanish treasury to General Wilkinson, and felt it his duty toward 432 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the fortunes of that tyrant by a comparison with this urchin. I continue to take notes of his testimony to his own turpitude, which I shall not transcribe here, as they may be seen among my papers, by my friends. But it is here I shotfld observe, that the address of Wickham, in conducting the cross-examination to-day, was masterly and ingenious, not only in regard to the witness, but to the Administration which so embarrassed Hay, as well as the General, that it would be impossible to say which of them most heartily welcomed a sudden adjournment, in the Government, to whom he had of late sworn allegiance, to inform the Governor of this province of the facts to him known concerning the money sent up to General Wilkinson in 1796; that Governor Claiborne then re quested this deponent to write to the President of the United States on the subject; that this deponent wrote accordingly to the President of the United States, and delivered his letter into the hands of Gov. Claiborne, after having shown him the contents, which he approved of; and that, as the said letter was not signed, this deponent, by the advice of Gov. Clai borne, mentioned therein to the President that he might know the name of the writer from Gov. Claiborne himself, if he should wish it. And this deponent further swears, that in the winter of 1804 to 1805, this deponent being then at Washington City, in the capacity of a deputy from the inhabitants of Louisiana to Congress, jointly with Messrs. Dos- trehan and Sawis, he was introduced to Col. Burr, then Vice-President of the United States, by General Wilkinson, who strongly recommended to this deponent, and, as he believes, to his colleagues, to cultivate the ac quaintance of Col. Burr, whom he used to call " the first gentleman in America;" telling them that he was a man of the most eminent talents, both as a politician and as a military character ; and this deponent further swears, that General Wilkinson told him, several times, that Col. Burr, so soon as his Vice-Presidency would be at an end, would go to Louisiana, where he had certain projects ; adding, that he was such a man as to suc ceed in any thing he would undertake, and inviting this deponent to give him all the information in his power respecting that country ; which mys terious hints appeared to this deponent very extraordinary, though he could not then understand them. P. DERBIGENY. Sworn before me, at New Orleans, the 27th of August, 1807. BONAMY, Justice of the Peace. SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS. 433 wliich Hay hastily sought the only retreat that was left to his confusion. The Judge had hardly risen from the bench, when a general buzz about Wilkinson's embarrass ment ran through the crowd, and in five minutes every Democrat in the capitol was expressing his surprise at the effect with which we had so suddenly changed our characters and turned accusers. I sat this evening an hour with Burr. Bollman and Major Smith were the only other persons of the party. Here was an oppor tunity to confirm my conviction, that neither Burr nor Bollman desired I should have any acquaintance with the latter, for neither solicited nor proposed an introduc tion. Both, no doubt, have discovered, long since, I am not of a temper to further their intrigues, but they are short-sighted in not perceiving how effectually I can and will assuredly frustrate them. Well ! we chatted, never theless, on the exclusive topics of our present concerns with the Government, among which, it was observed by Burr, " that he should not be surprised if the next ^In quirer ' attributed his absence from court, at this time, to fear of confronting Wilkinson." I remarked, " that such misrepresentation could have no effect, as the " Virginia Gazette " would contradict it. Burr said, " this last paper had no circulation ; " and if $300 could be raised immediately, the press of the " Impartial Observer," which has been obliged to stop for want of funds, could be again set to work. The editor was bold and ingeni ous, passed for " a good Democrat, would represent things right, and print every thing that was required of him." He then asked me, " if I could not raise even $120, with which a beginning could be made ? could not I get twenty 28 434 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. subscribers, even to advance $10 each? How sorry he was Tupper and Mercer were gone away. They would readily contribute. Would not I look about/' etc. I said, " I knew not a man that would advance a dollar." He seemed surprised that I did not eagerly offer my services as a runner to beg for him, and said, " I might look out if I pleased; that is," he added, "if I felt any interest in the thing." Now, I 'm at a loss to divine the drift of this set upon me. Was it to remind me to smother any rising thoughts within me, to renew my hints to him, of other calls for money? Was it to ex hibit me to Bollman in a character he would not appear to impose upon him? I own I am at a loss for a solu tion. But certainly, however solicitous he may be to revive the impartial observer, he was not indifferent to making use of this occasion for some other purpose. Smith, however, said, "he would look about him ; " and I abruptly took leave. Bollman kept silent during the mos^ of the visit. He is engaging in his appearance, but I have yet had no opportunity to catch any lines of his character, which I hope will not hereafter escape me. Swartwout is dispatched to Washington on some secret mission, which is as mat-apropos, during Wilkinson's ex amination, as Burr's disappearance from court. Swart wout, it is said, will be back on Thursday. Eaton has come forward to-day in court, to say the toast * was first * General Eaton's evidence on the trial went to prove that Burr medi tated a dissolution of the Union. Eaton, in order to rid himself of Burr's importunities, proposed the following toast at a dinner given to him (Eaton) at Philadelphia or Georgetown ; he could not distinctly recollect which : " The United States palsy to the brain that should plot to dismem ber, and leprosy to the hand that will not draw to defend, our Union." FORTUNATE ESCAPE. 435 given at a public dinner given to him at Georgetown, which, being in or before December, 1805, contradicts what he before swore to on that subject. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1807. The court having been only opened to-day for the pur pose of adjourning until to-morrow, to accommodate the bar, who are obliged to attend the Court of Chancery, I spent an hour with Burr in miscellaneous conversation, during which Bob. Robison and Smith were present. The arrival in town of Poindexter and Williams, from Natchez, being mentioned, and conjectures offered as to what Poindexter could say as a witness for the Govern ment, Robison observed, " he was inclined to think Col. Burr was fortunate in having made his escape when he did from that country, as, had he delayed it for another day, he would probably have been seized, and have fallen into the hands of Wilkinson." Robison seemed unin formed altogether of the nature of Meade's stipulations with Burr, last January or February, in what was called the armistice at Natchez. Burr now entered into a train of statements to show Robison how Meade had violated his engagements on that occasion. If he had made out such a story as he now told in the presence of Smith and myself, where we were not by, it might perhaps pass like other representations which have, I know not in how many instances, been received upon the credit of his word. But that he should tell any one, in our hearing, that Meade pledged his honor to him that our people should all keep their arms, when we know the solicitude 436 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. with which he afterward had them all hid, and sunk in the river, and say, he was not taken a prisoner, under guard, to Washington in the Mississippi Territory, from the interview he had, as it was called, ^Yith Meade, at Cole's Creek, in pursuance of his forbearing to prefer resistance, which he might have made to a surrender of his person, it would indeed surpass all credibility, if he had not with the same temerity assured Wickham, the other day in court, "that the Mississippi militia, while ordered out against him, could hardly be kept by him from deserting to him by whole companies. What they might have been disposed to do, had he shown himself worthy of their support, is too far removed from what they did to need any attestation from us, or our friends, in that country. But young men, whom I can redeem from future connections with every incapacity but the talents for intrigue, must not be entangled in those snares, so imprudently or so rashly laid for their credulity. In deed, I am again disposed to call to my aid Cowles Meade's impression last winter, that Burr was at times deranged, as the only means of accounting for his occa sional rashness in his assertions. Certain I am, he ex hibited at that season every derangement but that of avoidable hazard ; and as his memory is confessedly strong, he can not now surely rely upon his facts, without a similar, if not a worse, apology. I saw to-day a curious parallel of Burr's character and my own, drawn by Wirt, in his speech, reported in the " Enquirer," on Wickham's motion to arrest the evidence in the treason case. I'll transcribe it hereafter. POINDEXTER. 437 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1807. Wilkinson's cross-examination was continued this morning by Wickham, with great ability, and suspend ed until to-morrow, to give him time he desired for re flection, and further recurrence to his papers, and also to enable Burr to finish it to-morrow, as the latter is not well enough to attend to-day. Then came forward the ingenious Poindexter, who delivered a very petulant and dogmatical testimony, in the course of which he had the effrontery to state the whole affair of the alleged recog nizance of Burr taken by old Rodney, in a manner to in duce, if he could, a belief that Rodney was perfectly cor rect; that Burr had forfeited an original recognizance, and that Rodney was one of the best men living; while no honest man in the Territory believed a word of the stories that were told there of another recognizance or memorandum for one having been suppressed ; he even went so far as to say, he heard, and believed, that Hard ing had begun to write an original, but got tired before he finished it, and it was thrown under the table. ! Harding, my estimable friend, may you soon be able to scourge this paltry pettifogger, who further declared, on his oath, that the matter was now before the Supreme Court of the Territory, where the securities would get off, not upon the merits of the case, but because the Judge who bound them had not cognizance of the offense. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1807. Burr attended to-day in court, and concluded the cross- examination of Wilkinson ; after which, Poindexter was 438 THE BLEXNERHASSETT PAPERS. again called for, and was, if possible, a greater curiosity as a witness than he had been yesterday. His parade of his opinion of the jurisdiction of the courts in the Mis sissippi Territory, his strictures on the presentments hy Burr's grand jury there, his justification of his conduct as honorary aid-de-camp and Attorney General, and his insolence to Burr and his counsel, all exhibited him in a light which introduced a character into the piece now performing at the capitol, as novel as it was unexpected. Then succeeded a witness of a very opposite cast, a Mr. Trisley, one of the late grand jury here, who has riveted on Wilkinson's character and credit those fetters Jeffer son and himself were so long forging together for the fame and liberty of others. After a close struggle be tween opposite counsel, Wickham succeeded by his usual address in wresting from the prosecutors a very curious letter by Jefferson to Wilkinson, of the 3d of last Janu ary, which I must, if possible, get a copy of. Martin was both- yesterday and to-day more in his cups than usual, and though he spared neither his prudence nor his feelings, he was happy in all his hits. 11 o'clock, P. M. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1807. Wilkinson, though it was thought by many yesterday that his cross-examination was concluded, was, this morn ing, again further interrogated as to the import of his instructions to Lieutenant Pike, and the nature of his confidential intercourse with Kibby. But nothing could be got out of him as to the former; and, as to any deal ing with Kibby, of the sort alluded to in Kibby's pub lished affidavit, he would no more confess it than that he CHALLENGE. 439 is said, by the records of scandal, to have had in his youth with General G * * * . He produced two copies of alleged instructions to Pike. These papers, being of his own manufacture, left his adversaries, of course, to con tent themselves with whatever effect the suspicions aris ing from their questions might produce in the minds of the auditors, if not of the Judge. But the publication in the " Argus," to-day, of no less than six documents, of fered by Wilkinson in the course of his examination, and rejected by the Judge as improper to be given in evidence, will operate a preponderating counterpoise in his favor. Before he withdrew, he appealed to the Court on the attempts that had been made, during his examination, upon his honor and veracity ; observing, " that it now would be easy for him to show his whole conduct in its true light, freed from all manner of doubt or suspicion of his motives, if Burr would produce the letter of the 13th of May, alluded to in the ciphered letter, which would enable him to expose other letters from Burr which occasioned that letter." He then declared that Burr's assertion, " that the letter of the 13th of May had been put out of Burr's power into the hands of a third person, with Wilkinson's knowledge," was unfounded, and destitute of all manner of truth ; that Burr knew the very reverse was the fact ; and with warmth and as perity of language, he again challenged him to produce it. Burr, with an air of dignity and composure which, I think, he borrowed from an opinion that he is not bound to give Wilkinson a meeting out of court, demanded whether this sort of language and such topics were giving testimony ; 440 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. and then observed, " that the General was there to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, upon his oath, and should reserve other matters for another place." Wilkinson now withdrew ; but who can not perceive that, in this scene, the craft of the advocate shrunk from the charge of his enemy. I examined, soon after this, Gates and Jones the latter of whom fully proved the terms of a parole agreement to go down the river with me last winter in a manner to defeat every effect the testimony of the Hendersons could possibly produce to my preju dice. I find Burr has a heavy bill against the United States, on account of advances he says he has made to agents employed for summoning his witnesses. How many have undertaken this service for him J[ know not; some I do know who advanced their own money, in ex pectation of being refunded by Burr or the United States. But how far Burr will be indemnified for his advances in this business may be guessed from the transaction already narrated of the manreuvre, by which he put Ellis, one of his creditors, in cash. (See conclusion to notes of 23d of August.) But Ellis, who was to-day examined, parried some lounges made at him, during his examination on this subject, by saying, "it was a verbal summons he got at Natchez the proper one was served upon him here." I will now set down here Wirt's parallel of Burr's char acter and my own. After having stated that Burr was manoeuvring to effect his escape from the prosecutions, by having me sacrificed in his stead, he asks, " By what sort of legerdemain is it, that Burr wants to shuffle himself down to the bottom of the pack, and turn me up, princi- ABOUT TO TRAVEL. 441 pal traitor ? "# He then proceeds as follows : " Who, then, is Aaron Burr and what the part which he has borne in this transaction ? " SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1807. I called on Burr this morning, when he, at last, men tioned to me, during a short tete a tete, that he was preparing to go to England ; that the time was now aus picious for him ; and he wished to know whether I could give him letters. I answered, " that I supposed when he said England, he meant London, as his business would probably be with people in office ; that I knew none of :;: Will any man say that Blennerhassett was the principal, and Burr but an accessory? Who will believe that Burr, the author and projector of the plot, who raised the forces, who enlisted the men, and who procured the funds for carrying it into execution, was made a cat's-paw of? Will any man believe that Burr, who is a soldier, bold, ardent, restless, and aspiring, the great actor whose brain conceived, and whose hand brought, the plot into operation, that he should sink down into an accessory, and that Blennerhassett should be elevated into a principal? He would startle at once at the thought. Aaron Burr, the contriver of the whole conspiracy, to every body concerned in it, was as the sun to the planets which sur round him. Did he not bind them in their respective orbits, and give them their light, their heat, and their motion? Yet he is to be con sidered an accessory, and Blennerhassett is to be the principal, who, thus deluded from his interest and his happiness, thus seduced from the paths of innocence and peace, thus confounded in the toils that were deliberately spread for him, and overwhelmed by the mastering spirit and genius of another this man, thus ruined and undone, and made to play a subordinate part in this grand drama of guilt and treason, this man is to be called the principal offender; while he, by whom he was thus plunged in misery, is comparatively innocent, a mere accessory ! Is this reason? Is it law? Is it humanity? Sir, neither the human heart nor the human understanding will bear a perversion so monstrous and absurd ! so shocking to the soul ! so revolting to reason ! Let Aaron Burr, then, not shrink from the high destination which he has courted ; and having already ruined Blennerhassett in fortune, character, and happiness for ever, let him not attempt to finish the tragedy by thrusting that ill-fated man between himself and punishment. Extract from W. Wirts Speech. 442 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. the present ministry, nor did I believe I had a single acquaintance in London." He replied, " he meant to visit every part of the country, and would be glad to get letters to any one." I said, that I would think of it ; that I might discover whether I had any friends there, whom it would be an object worth his attention to know, and took leave. Thus it is, this strange man continues to expose his inconsistency with himself, rather than lay aside the mysterious mask, with which he has ever sought, and still continues, to disguise his very hints a practice, I believe, he has not departed from in any instance, from "Wilkinson down to myself. We can only conjecture, therefore, his designs. For my part, I am disposed to suspect he has no serious purpose of reviving any of his speculations in America, or even of returning from Europe, if he can get there. His anxiety to elude his creditors is, I believe, occupation enough for his energies, which are little, except in his reveries. Out of them he tells different stories to different persons, enjoin ing confidence from all, but committing himself in noth ing to any one. I have suspected for some time, however, he really does dream of appearing in London, with some thing, according to his ideas, in the nature of a suite. Some weeks past, he consulted De Pestre, to learn from him how much money would be wanted to enable him to go and return. He said, he supposed that $10,000 might answer. De Pestre told him, that would depend on the nature of his business, and the time it would require to transact it. But he has more lately been engaged in en deavoring to attach to him some young men who may accompany him. I yet only know, positively, two. Sam. FRIENDLY INTERPOSITION. 443 Swartwout was enraptured with the prospect, and still may feast his imagination upon it ; though I could not resist the propensity I felt to convey to this fine young man, without his suspecting from whence it came, a curb, which may restrain his generous ardor and innocent credulity. His relation, Major Smith, has endeavored to apply it. Bob. Robison was the other, and, to save him, my breast heaved with indignation against his tempter, while my heart labored for the danger of my young friend, when I found that his property was Mr. Burr's object; for Burr, it seems, in the first place, certified himself by inquiries of Major Smith, that Robison's father was wealthy, and Robert an only child, before he proposed the voyage to him, which I find he had the insolence to introduce by telling him, Smith, Robison would be much pleased to accompany him, as Mr. Blen- nerhassett had assured him, than which nothing is more false. But Burr is as careless of his facts as of his religion, where neither is exposed to scrutiny ; and any liberty with them may advance his purpose for the mo ment. I had seasonably prepared this young man, who will to-morrow make his escape to Pittsburgh, from the fascinations of this serpent. I was much entertained for two or three hours by the performance on the piano by a young Frenchman, who is a fine performer, and made me acquainted with some new music of Haydn and others, which he executed with masterly skill and expression. MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1807. This day was chiefly consumed with hearing testimony adduced to prove Eaton's incompetency or discredit ; 444 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. which failed, according to the legal rules of evidence, though Eaton himself has already fully anticipated the object of his adversaries. I am very unhappy in failing to hear from ISTatchez, to relieve my anxiety for Harnian. But why should I presume to pray for the removal of my trouble for him and his mother, when I know how un worthy I have been of the many blessings I have already enjoyed in them. I have ever thought too highly of Dominick, in prejudice to his brother ; my late cares for the latter have equalized the account. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1807. Burr and Martin made a considerable blunder to-day, by producing a Major Brough, to the discredit of Wil kinson, as they thought. The Major, it is true, told some curious stories to the Court and to the General, as unex pected by the Judge, probably, as they were unpalatable to the Brigadier ; but the effect only tended to show both equally rivals in treachery to the State, if not to them selves. Burr would gladly have pretermitted the exhi bition of this scene, but it was too late ; the curtain had risen, and "Peacham" and "Locket" stood confessed in every line of their characters, except a compromise of their differences. But as, in such cases, " honest men come by their own," the public feelings on the Mississippi will necessarily be relieved, by the disclosures of this wit ness, from the insult and mortification of again seeing Wilkinson command in that country. It is in vain that Wilkinson has promised to destroy the credit of this wit ness. The Major has brandished his sword with such effect and address, on this occasion, that he has not only GIFT. 445 cut down the General, but even disarmed his auxiliaries Jefferson, Dearborn and Rodney who have so long fought by his side throughout, this criminal warfare. In short, unless this testimony, which, from its effect upon Jefferson, etc., I regard as the most interesting that has occurred, can be totally obliterated from the reports of the present motley proceedings at the capitol, and the Major be absolutely foxed, the execration of the admin istration will soon be sown on the Mississippi, to produce a crop similar to that which sprung from the teeth of the hydra. I regret the whole narrative will not probably appear in full before Robertson's report of the whole proceedings. This evening, my friend Hendren, who has again come up to town chiefly to see me, has called to express his satisfaction at the near prospect of my restora tion to my family, .and to solicit my acceptance of a horse he has a long time destined for me, together with whatever money I may have occasion for. He has duly tempered the frankness of these propositions with senti ments of corresponding delicacy. I, alas ! have made no better return to this generosity than words that lightened not the burden that he had laid upon my heart, which, I hope, God will give it strength to carry to my grave. How long have I sought, through life, friends without my family; and where have I found any, until the hand of Divine mercy pointed their regards to that piety that has supported the patience of my distress. I have declined Hendren's favors, and quieted his solicitude to serve me, by requesting him to look out for a few negroes I want to purchase. He will see me again next Monday. 446 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1807. Wilkinson was not ready to-day to undertake his attack upon the credit of Major Brough, but he will attempt it to-morrow. Nothing was done, of any consequence, in court to-day. Soon after it adjourned, I took a letter for my wife to the " Eagle," to go by Col. McKee, who leaves for Natchez to-morrow. I had there the happiness to see Doctor Commins, just arrived. He made me happy, by assuring me my boys were running about on the 25th of August, when he last saw them, and has brought me a packet, which I shall receive in the morning. I find I have omitted to note a very curious discovery made in court last Saturday. Nothing less than letters of McKee's, some of thenT dated in January and February last, pro duced by Wilkinson, proving the Col. to have been with us on the Mississippi, far more as a spy than a friend. The capillaries of the Colonel's physiognomy, during the reading of the said letters, were swollen to bursting. The man, I believe, would have hissed upon immersion in cold water. He was struck dumb, and, upon his release, went off in a tangent. Burr can't endure a hint of this incident; and yet he has since been more than once closeted with the Colonel. Can he find no better friends, or is he really deranged ? THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1807. Wilkinson has not kept his promise of to-day, dis crediting the testimony of Major Brough. An unim portant witness or two were examined by way of killing time, which now seems to be the favorite object of the EXCITEMENT. 447 prosecutors. Afterward, Hay at last announced that the evidence was closed on the part of the prosecution, but reserved his right to examine, without restriction, all of those witnesses that may arrive, according to his fancy, which was conceded to him. He then entered upon his speech, to comment on the evidence, which appeared to me the best effort I have yet heard from him ; it was per spicuous and somewhat ingenious. I have therefore taken pretty close notes of all such parts of it as appeared to me to be worthy of notice, or particularly applicable to myself. He spoke, however, to empty benches until the rising of the Court, which was, for his accommodation, protracted half an hour longer than usual. A few minutes before he stopped, I was much diverted by a display of his irritability, which was excited by McRae's interrupting him with a whisper to stop at 4 o'clock. Upon this, the attorney fired with indignation, and in his wrath very plainly exhibited his contempt for his co adjutor, by telling him he would not be interrupted by him ; and then endeavoring fruitlessly to compose his ire, he lamented the condition of counsel, that could neither agree with those on their own side, or those who were opposed to them. I sent to Doctor Commins, this morn ing, for the packet he brought me from Natchez, but not having received it, I called upon him this evening, when he delivered it to me in a wretched state, it hav ing been taken from him in the Creek Nation of In dians, by Col. Hawkins, the agent of that tribe, who, after examining my letter-bag, and every original letter my wife had sent me, except perhaps two sealed letters from herself, and, after taking such extracts and copies 448 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. of the whole as he chose, then returned to Doctor Com- mins as many as he thought proper. This outrage I shall have formally stated in an affidavit by the Doctor, in order to procure an attachment against the Colonel. I spent a very pleasant evening at the Musical Society, where I met Mrs. Chevalier and Mrs. "Wickham. They seemed pleased with some performances, in which I took a part, particularly a quartette of Pleyel's. Mrs. Chev alier gave me some hospitable reproaches for the scarcity of my visits. I believe her husband a most generous and benevolent man, which his countenance fully bespeaks. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1807. It is a little singular that my birthday should yesterday have passed by without my having noticed it ; but this has been the case for several of the last years of my life, and T suppose the reason is, that my mind is hardly occu pied once a year in thinking of myself. I may have taken my height and weight, perhaps full twenty times in the course of my life ; but I am certain I never remem bered, much less noted, the amount of either, so that I could recollect it one hour after trial. Yesterday, then, I completed my forty-second or forty-third year; for my father and mother could never agree whether I was born in 1764 or 1765, though they coincided as to the day, fix ing it on the 8th of October. But at such a distance from my suffering family, I can not estimate how much hap piness or misery they have been preparing for my future years. Hay finished his speech to-day. He was followed by Randolph, in a style that will read much better than it was delivered. He relied chiefly on the effect of Burr's RAISING MONEY. 449 acquittal, and arguments drawn from the Constitution. As to me, he seemed to forget my case altogether, save so far as his concern for Burr obliged him to mention my name and writings. This, I suspect, will also be the case with Wickham. Nous verrons. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1807. The Court does not sit to-day, at the request of the prosecutors ; yet they are eternally complaining of the tedious length of the trial, and their own confinement and sufferings by it. The accused have no sufferings, it seems, worthy of their notice. I have to-day spent much time in painful reflections on the state of my affairs with Burr. It appears by a statement of my private account with him, so far as I can now collect all my charges against him here, for he has but two credits, he is in debted to me in a balance of $2,864.96, independent of my account against him, for what I have already paid and lost, by my indorsement of the bill held by Miller for $4,000. It will be useless, or worse, for me to attempt to appear at Marietta without a sum of money, if not suffi cient to discharge Miller's claim, at least necessary to enable me to get my negroes away from Ohio, if that is now possible, and to redeem some few valuable articles of my property that have been sacrificed at sheriff's sales. I have therefore imagined a method of forcing Burr's exertions to raise money for me, which is the most likely to succeed. It is founded on the principle of effecting through his vanity and interest what it is now evident I should in vain seek through his justice or generosity. I will hint to him my ability to introduce 29 450 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. him into the first circles in England, by introductory letters ; at the same time, showing him my expectations of becoming soon possessed of a large fortune in Europe, from which, I doubt not, I shall be enabled to engage his best endeavors, if not his warmest interest. This plan I shall put in execution to-morrow, of which I will note the effect upon him. Leaving it to ripen in his medita tions for a week, I shall then open my present distresses to him in detail, and present him with his account. It is a little painful, I own, to feel oneself obliged to bring even a bad man into the path of his duty by artifice. But the details of the manoeuvre, when examined, will, I trust, do me no discredit with my friends. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1807. It being very warm and dusty this morning, I sent to John Banks for a horse to visit his family and Chevalier's, they living two miles apart, and take the benefit of a short ride. But I previously called upon Burr, whom I found alone and in good spirits. He attributed the re moval of his indisposition exclusively to the effect of my pills, and his inflamed eye was nearly cured. Daniel Clark and Mr. Powers had arrived from Orleans to sup port the depositions of Derbigeny and the younger Mer- cier, to the confirmation of Wilkinson's character and ruin. Availing myself of such a state of things, I en tered into desultory conversation affecting all freedom of thought from any particular object. The affair of the Leopard and Chesapeake being mentioned, Burr observed, that though the difference between the United States and Great Britain on that account might be expected to be "FRIENDS AT COURT." 451 soon settled, there were many other causes of dispute which would not soon be removed ; that this was a most auspicious moment for his purposes to visit England, and he had no doubt he could, in serving himself and his friends there, show them, the ministry, their best interests in a manner that would convince their judgment. This was the best opportunity I could have desired for my pur pose. I now told him, as he happened to be alone, I had been reflecting on the application he had lately made to me for letters to England, to assist the better means he no doubt possessed of establishing his intercourse with the best society in that country. I regretted that, through the fluctuations of parties there, I had no acquaintance with any member of the Administration. But I had thought of three noblemen, with whom I had been at school at Westminster, and there intimate with them all, though I had never since met with any of them, except Lord Sackville, who had visited me in Ireland. To Lord S., therefore, I could write, and also to Lords Elgin and Courtenay. The latter I was very intimate with at school ; and the former, I presumed, from the circum stance of his having been not long since ambassador at the courts of Petersburgh and Constantinople, must be much respected by the present ministers, if not in office with them. To all these personages, I said, I thought I could properly address a mere letter of introduction, which if it would not of itself produce the end proposed, would not fail to do so when supported by the appear ance he would make in London, the address with which he would be as impressive there as here, and the distin guished rank he lately occupied in the American Govern- 452 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. ment. The effect of this communication was rapture. The whole man was changed. With all his studied re serve, he could not restrain his transports, which agitated his countenance and his movements far more than the news of a capital prize in the lottery could have done. I now, after pausing a little, to give his reflections time to recover his usual composure, asked if he remembered a hint I had sometime since given him, that I entertained some expectations of hereafter becoming easy in my cir cumstances, and perhaps wealthy. " Yes," he hastily replied, " very well.' 7 I then alluded to a communication by letter from a friend in Ireland, which I would now acquaint him with, and from which I might expect, if my prospects should be realized, possibly to meet him in those circles in Europe, into which I proposed to intro duce him ; now drawing from my pocket A. Martin's letter of 16th of last May, which luckily contained no other matter than that I wished him to see, and some political news. I presented it to him. He read it delib erately, over and over, and I now beheld myself estab lished in an influence upon his feelings, and a considera tion from his notice, to which I am persuaded I had never before possessed the least title. Hey-day ! behold the wretched and beggared Blennerhassett about to rise out of the misery in which I have plunged him, and his unhappy family, into wealth and consequence. The heir, too, of a nobleman ! His new wealth and his dignified connections must supply me with better materials for my projected speculations than all others I have hitherto col lected. His connections and his purse shall lay the foun dation under which I will again bury his credulity and 453 rear upon it my aggrandizement. I am persuaded all this, and probably much more to the same purpose, en tered and pervaded the mind of this arch-financier, with the velocity of light, in an instant. Be it so. Let him outwit himself. He shall have my letters to the British nobleman, and may make his own use of them, If he will first exonerate me from Miller's demand, and pay or secure the balance he owes me before we part. Other wise, we break upon a ivrit, and for every thing else, I fear not his address in future. Chevalier, as usual, pressed me to dinner. I have such full confidence in his goodness that I believe I shall ven ture to request him to indorse or negotiate a bill on Phil adelphia for me. MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1807. I am miserable this morning, by being denied a letter from Natchez. The season advances, and witnesses con tinue to arrive so constantly, that I am filled with appre hensions of being unable to descend the Ohio before the breaking up of that river. Martin commenced his speech on the evidence this morning, and only reached the first full stop at the hour of adjournment. He will probably hold out full two days more. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1807. Martin kept on his feet again to-day until the adjourn ment. He has only come to the second period. I had this morning an extremely friendly note from Chevalier, telling me he never lends his name to any body, but has one thousand dollars at my command, which I have ac- 454 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. cepted, to send to the sale by Commins. I have spent a pleasant evening at Banks', where I often take Smith with me, as he knows no one here. Banks has given me some lines he made on the late Miss , which I will here transcribe, as they deserve preservation : SWEET SHADE. Within our hearts, thy mem'ry is embalmed Beyond the usual gifts that grace thy sex; Thy various virtues and acquirements shone: The dignity of worth (like thine) it would Degrade to blazon each peculiar claim That marked thy value here ; for all who knew Thee felt its force, and every tongue seemed Emulous to praise. The young, enraptured, Hung upon thy name; with equal rev'rence And grateful love hailed the bright exemplar That adorned the sex. Pleased with the theme, The aged matron, too, for this laid by The frigid caution of maturer years ; With joy exulting, joined the general praise, And wished, a pious wish, her offspring might Through life's alluring scenes tread the chaste paths That marked Eliza's steps. One kindred trait, that marked thy latest hour, Unknown to all but to thy weeping friends, Who clung around the sable couch of Death, 'T were impious not to note. The God who smote Still blessed thee to the last. Its powers thy mind Retained ; while, conscious of th' approaching call, Thy steadfast soul still stood serene and firm. No tumult there, no dread, no terror could Disturb the heart which purity inspired. 'T was Resignation's calm I Thy closing eyes, 'T is true, a transient tremor felt, and o'er The fevered cheek a drop let fall. 0! 't was MARTIN AND MVRAE. 455 A sacred gem, incalculably rich ! A legacy divine ; for others' woes It fell. 'T was filial sympathy, which, like A shock electric, struck the palsied nerve, Impervious but to this. Dim though thy sight, Yet still thou sawest a parent's Agonizing pangs ; a precious pearl Thou gav'st ; and with the boon expir'd. Sweet Shade ! this tribute is not half thy due. Alas ! too soon we pay the solemn meed ; Yet bear it on thy wing; 't will pleasing prove A passport to the skies ; and when, blest Shade, Thy sister-spirits, who thy flight await At Heav'n's portal, shall peruse the scroll, In strains celestial, not unknown to thee, They '11 chant the theme divine, until it reach The Throne of Grace. There, in regal state, The King of Kings, in all the majesty Of Heaven arrayed, with sweet solacing smile, Shall hail thy welcome to the realms above, While myriads of the just around him sing : "This the reward of virtuous acts below, Eternal life and bliss for evermore 1 " WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1807. Martin at last concluded at 4 o'clock, with the adjourn ment this evening. Want of arrangement, verbosity, and eternal repetitions, have more than sated the malice of his enemies. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15. 1807. MoRae consumed this whole day with somewhat less discredit to himself than might have been expected. It appears that he is now the only one of the three prose cuting counsel that labors to bolster up the credit and 456 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. consistency of Wilkinson. Hay has declared, out of court, " he has washed his hands of him." I had a friendly letter from Devereux, announcing his being about to return to Ireland, where he expects to recover his estate, and. assuring me, with much concern for my present sufferings, his actions shall prove his friendship, whenever his means can give it that operation he now so generously laments he can not direct to my succor. He assures me, however, Pierce Butler, Esq., of Philadelphia, has directed him, without solicitation, to invite me to call upon him for any pecuniary aid I may need. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1807. Wickham followed Martin, instead of McRae, yester day, and was, I think, far below his former efforts. He occupied the day nearly. It was to-day McRae exhib ited, as I have just mentioned, not having had time to write down yesterday's notes till this evening. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1807. Wirt spoke very much to engage the fancy of his hear ers, to-day, without affecting their understanding; for he can not reason upon the facts before him, and can no more conduct a law argument than I could raise a mountain. As Junius says of the king, " The feather that adorns him supports his flight." " Strip him of his plumage and you fix him to the earth." He attempted to be sar castic on all his opponents. Randolph he charged with a decay of professional and oratorical powers, which keep pace with the march of his years. Martin he upbraided with ill earned and unmerited fame, which had disap- VISITING. 457 pointed the expectations of the Virginia bar, before which he had shone through so many moons, but had never yet appeared in any of the phases of the law. I mention this, as a specimen of his efforts in the figurative style, to show how unhappy he is in his researches into those mines of taste and study which the fancy of an orator never ex^ plores in vain. Wickham he boldly accused of unadorned plagiarism, in appropriating to himself the arguments of Dallas and Lewis in the case of Fries, and even express ing their ideas with inferior eloquence. I took some notes of this orator's performance, which Wickham was very glad to get, as he was absent during the delivery of what w^as so pointedly applied to himself. " O that mine enemy would write a book ! " Wilkinson is writing one, which, some say, is to ruin not only Burr, but Jefferson too. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1807. I staid at home until evening, owing to the high wind and dust that annoyed every one who ventured abroad. But I drank tea, and spent the evening until 10 o'clock, at Mrs. Chevalier's. I there met Mrs. David Randolph, who is a middle-aged lady, and very accomplished; of charming manners, and possessing a masculine mind, From this lady, the near relation of the President, and whose brother is married to his daughter, I heard more pungent strictures upon Jefferson's head and heart, be cause they were better founded than any I had ever heard before, and she certainly uttered more treason than my wife ever dreamed of; for she ridiculed the experiment of a Republic in this country, which the vices and incon stancy of parties and the people had too long shown to 458 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. be nothing more than annual series of essays to complete a work ill begun, and which appeared to be nearly worn out before it was half finished. But " she always was disgusted with the fairest ideas of a modern Republic, however she might respect those of antiquity." And as for the treason, " she cordially hoped, whenever Burr, or any one else, again attempted to do any thing, the Atlan tic States would be comprised in the plan." She talked much of Thomas Moore, with whom she was highly pleased here, and recited some favorite extracts from him ; but she is very much mortified by the indiscrimi nate censure of Virginia, with which he has requited the hospitality and consideration with which he was uni versally treated in this State his only two exceptions from his strictures being Wickham and the Chief Justice ; but in the former he could discover no accomplishment, beyond professional skill and a slight knowledge of French, with a talent for repartee, and an imagination denied all favors which it would in vain solicit from nature and the sciences. Of the Chief Justice, I can not speak, out of the precincts of the law, or his politics, which I already begin to fear will exhibit his heart, as unlike those of Hardwick or Cambden, as his mind may resemble theirs." I also obtained from this interesting lady some sketches of the characters of General Dayton and Bollman, with both of whom her acute penetration seems to have had sufiicient opportunities of informing her judgment. The sentence of my moral craniology on these heads thus presented to me was this, that the one is that of an unprincipled speculator and crafty politician, who never appeals to his reason but to deceive, and never A CHALLENGE. 459 departs from it but to be sensual. The other is that of an individual possessing similar talents, more highly re fined by nature, but less consolidated by experience, with syren faculties of speech and manner, never exerted to captivate, but to destroy their victim, and a temperament of antipathy, rather than of inclination to the sex. I, this morning, closed long letters to A. Martin, for Ireland, after, I believe, full two months' neglect. I have so long been dosed with the incessant vexations of my prosecu tion, that I sometimes imagine my apathy is better lent me to befit me for the future frowns of unsteady fortune, than to prepare me for the insidious smiles. I am already her puppet. MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1807. Wirt concluded with perhaps a better two hours' dis play of his powers than he has yet exhibited. Lieutenant Jackson, at last, made his appearance, but fell very short of what the prosecutors expected of him, from the pur port of his affidavits, which they have published in the " Argus," and of his own infamy : though he made out enough of treachery and perjury, probably, to swell the current of suspicion against Burr's treasonable designs. Swartwout* has sent "Wilkinson a challenge, but with out effect. * Swartwout sent a challenge to General Wilkinson by Israel Smith, which he (W.) refused to read, saying that "he held no correspondence with traitors or conspirators." This raised Swartwout's ire, and induced him to publish the following in the " Virginia Gazette:" To His EXCELLENCY BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES WILKINSON. SIR : When once the chain of infamy grapples to a knave, every new link creates a fresh sensation of detestation and horror. As it gradually 460 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1807. I have said nothing of my relief, yesterday, by a letter from my beloved, bearing the intelligence of her recovery from a fever. Who would think I was glad to receive this letter ! I had been miserable for three weeks in ap prehension for Harman. This new calamity has affected me with a kind of lethargy, from which I awake often in surprise, to wonder that we are all four alive, as if life, upon any terms, was unnatural in our present prospects. 0, Melancholy ! how long wilt thou brood upon me. I have begun a letter to my wife. Sustain her strength, O God, who approvest her virtue, and can best assuage her sufferings. Mr. Marshall, at length, has delivered an or precipitately unfolds itself, we behold in each succeeding connection, and arising from the same corrupt and contaminated source, the same base and degenerate conduct. I could not have supposed that you would have completed the catalogue of your crimes by adding to the guilt of treachery, forgery and perjury, the accomplishment of cowardice. But every succeed ing day presents you in a new light to the public, and plunges you still deeper in crime and ignominy. Having failed in two different attempts to procure an interview with you, such as no gentleman of honor could refuse, I have only to pronounce and publish you to the world as a coward and poltroon. One word more before I take my leave. This is a critical moment in the life of your Excellency. Your reputation is gone for ever, and your life totters on the verge of dissolution. As you can not pretend to the es teem of any man living, you should have sought a momentary reputation in the applause of even your enemies. You should have been brave, and died like a man. Your enemies would then have forgotten the wrongs you had done them. Your country would have been appeased, and even Judas for given. You should have considered that there is some small merit in even a villain's bravery ; it was all you were supposed to possess this side of the grave. You should have made much of it; it might have served to wipe away some portion of the stain which your treachery and turpitude have fixed upon your character. S. SWARTWOUT. Richmond, 2lst October, 1807. LONGINGS. 461 elaborate opinion, purporting that he can not commit any of us for treason ; not because we had none in our hearts, but because we did none with our hands. But the last article has determined him to commit me for trial, to Ohio, for a misdemeanor. Burr is, of course, ordered on this new dance. I shall, however, I fancy, leave the little emperor to exhibit in it alone ; for it is now time I should withdraw behind the scenes, even though I should employ .Duane to shift them. I shall therefore set out to Philadelphia, first for this object, and next to close my pecuniary affairs with Burr there, which I could not do here. I have given bail for my appearance at Chil- licothe, the 4th of January ; bondsmen, Smith and Commins. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1807. Burr is in a sort of keeping at his own house, en deavoring to get all his bail renewed in the civil suits here depending against him. Martin has become his security, I believe, to the amount of $15,000. How much of this he may eventually sink in the purchase of the old staple of experience, he will ascertain in about six months. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1807. Wrote to my wife a letter to go by Ashley, which I will not close until the moment before I leave this town. It will reach her, and, I trust, tend to support her until I can escape, and then into Florida with her, if necessary, which I am determined to attempt, rather than play a part in a second trial, which would separate me from my family, probably, for not less than a year from hence. 462 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Was I criminal in seeking some little refuge from my trouble this evening at the Musical Society ? I met there Mesdames Wickham, Chevalier and the Misses M. I only took a part in one quartette, by particular desire of those ladies. Midnight. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1807. Breakfasted at Mrs. Chevalier's, where I met a pleasant party. At ten o'clock I rode out to visit Banks, and pre scribe for an indisposition with which he is affected. Smith, being finally discharged by the Chief Justice, left me yesterday for New York. I am endeavoring to ob tain a lot of negroes, in partnership with Dr. Commins, though I fear we shall not succeed. This evening visited Wickham, to fee him with a few words. He thinks, in case Government should be disposed to desire my convic tion at Chillicothe, Woodbridge's evidence will enable them easily to affect it. Revisited and spent the evening with Banks. He has offered to lend me one hundred dollars, which I shall probably accept, to enable me to return Chevalier's money. I take a horse and gig from Banks, as there is no conveyance from hence, in any pub lic or private carriage, for ten .days to come. Burr, Mar tin, Commins, and myself, with two servants, will proba bly form a cavalcade to move to-morrow or next day. I must raise money in Philadelphia, on chances, and even strain a point with Commius, there to aid me whatever success I may have with Burr. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1807. I have been all day too ambulatory to spend a moment METAL. 463 with these notes, before now, 11, P. M. I am just re turned from a two-mile walk in the dark, to take leave of the family of my friend, John Banks, who has kindly pressed me to borrow the largest sum, I believe, he could spare. And before I lie down to take two hours' rest, before I am called up to set off in the stage for the Fede ral city, I must note my having closed a letter I began several days ago to my wife, to go by Ashley, who will commence his journey to-morrow or the next day. My excellent friend Jos. Lewis, I find by letter from him this evening, has removed my fears for my credit and honor, by remitting to Mr. Chevalier 1,000, to replace that sum lately lent me by Mr. C. The house it seems, in Phila delphia, must still suspend my credit, on account of the removal of Sander's attachment. But J. L. will lend his generous friendship to succor that honor of a friend in distress, who is not, I trust, unworthy of the sympathies of his liberal heart. His counsel will soon direct my dis tracted cares to peace. WASHINGTON CITY, TUESDAY, OCT. 27, 1807. Luther Martin has just made his final immersion into the daily bath of his faculties, after a series of appari tions, in all the phases of his accustomed orbit. Whether in a stage-coach, or a tavern, he is indefatigable, under the united stimulus of egotism and benevolence, to harrass the gratitude or tax the patience of his friends. At 3 o'clock, A. M., on Saturday morning, at Richmond, he joined us in the coach, and neither the privation of sleep, nor the fatigue of the journey, have in the least checked his loquacity, or lessened his good humor. He read to 464 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. me an able pamphlet, on the subject of Jefferson's rejec tion of the new British Treaty, while we were jolting and jarring over as bad a road as any country can lament, with more dispatch than I could peruse it in my chair. His strong memory made him interesting all the way, in his anecdotes and stories; and he is not unhappy in his powers of ridicule, which is well pointed, until it soon becomes blunted by the suggestions of his benevolence and the abrasions of his verbosity, which, like the revo lutions of a grindstone, soon wear away the subject ap plied to it, without undergoing in itself any sensible dim inution. We spent last night at Alexandria, where we recruited our strength by a good night's rest, and reached this city to*day, by a packet-boat, about 1, P. M. Here, at Hotel, Martin has kept up an incessant fire against Democrats and the Administration, for he has had no want of that ammunition with which he always primes and loads for such duty. In our own room, occu pied by Commins, Martin and myself, he is not content to confine his feats for the gratification of ourselves and a few occasional visitors. He has several times carried his arms into the enemies' country I mean the public room occupied chiefly by members of Congress, with many of whom he has no acquaintance, while all admire and acknowledge him privileged. I had the satisfaction of reading the President's message in half an hour after it was communicated to-day to Congress. The news is here, that Jefferson will yet support Wilkinson, though he may not find a more respectable Democrat than McRae to back him. Yet he says nothing in the message of the General's honor as a soldier, or his fidelity as a citizen. PAMPHLETEERING. 465 He now speaks only of his energy, which, in conjunction with the exertions of the army and the patriotism of the militia, dissipated the plots that were formed on the Mis sissippi. The same paragraph of the message opens by implicating a contingency that may induce the Govern ment party in Congress to impeach Mr. Marshall, by sig nifying a doubt, whether we have not still the use of our necks through the misconduct of the Judge. Should the latter suffer, 't were penance for that timidity of conduct, which was probably as instrumental in keeping him from imbruing his hands in our blood as it was operative in inducing him to continue my vexations, to pacify the menaces and clamorous yells of the cerberus of Democ racy with a sop which he would moisten, at least, with the tears of my family. Should this be well founded, what pity would sacrifice to his sufferings ; and if it is undoubtedly true, that in a private conversation he had with Martin, soon after the latter first arrived in Rich mond, he observed to him, " that it would be difficult or dangerous for a jury to venture to acquit Burr, however innocent they might think him," who hence will believe that the greatest talents lodged in such nerves are not, when exercised in the judgment-seat, rather a public curse executed on a nation, than a natural blessing con ferred upon the individual. Besides, the seasonable ap pearance, at this crisis, of a pamphlet by J. Daveiss, the Judge's brother-in-law, and late District Federal Attorney for Kentucky, removed from his office, for his premature and unsuccessful prosecution of Burr ; the indiscriminate censure, in this pamphlet, of Jefferson, "Wilkinson and Burr ; the probable information the Judge must have had 30 466 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. of this intended publication, when he opened to the pros ecutors as wide a field of investigation as they desired on their motion for our recommitment ; and, in short, the well-known spirit of clanship and co-operation with which the Marshalls and all their connections are so uni formly animated all these motives will clearly explain how readily the Judge must be disposed to favor alike the ruin of Burr, "Wilkinson and Jefferson, in every thing short of murder. Ah ! generous and accomplished Mer cer, how will your virtues hereafter receive my devotions, if you should think them polluted with these blasphemies against the admired relative of your adored ? But as my reflections are penned for no eye but that of my wife and two or three confidential friends, it will not be suspected by those who know my heart, that whatever share of further sufferings may result to me from the conduct of the Judge, can in the least generate my suspicions of his integrity, or warp my judgment of his behavior. Com- mins leaves this early to-morrow morning, for Balti more, where I expect to join him the day after to-mor- morrow. I entertain strong hopes of being able to obtain some negroes in partnership with him. Burr did not come along with us from Richmond, but will, we all believe, be through here in a day or two. I am enabled to say, from separate information I have obtained from Martin and Commins, he has made use of all the confi dence he could inspire them with, to the utmost extent at Richmond, where he has induced them to become his securities, in all the civil suits instituted there against him, to amount of $36,000. I have no doubt he has set every engine of his ingenuity at work to effect this object. The PECULATING. 467 credulity and good nature of Martin, who worships even his vices, and is as assiduous in enlarging upon his looks and sayings as ever Bos well delighted in such drudgery for Johnson ; and the vanity of Commins, to purchase the interest of a man whose resources appear to his under standing inexhaustible ; both needed but little the col lateral security of Pollock, which, however, Burr has not only exhibited to them, but he has besides laid before them my expectations of succeeding to a large fortune in Europe ; thereby meaning to persuade them also, no doubt, that he will then control my finances ; although he had promised me he would not communicate my pros pects of the probability of that event to any one. Such is his honor ; such his unerring purpose to take every chance of converting even the hopes of his acquaintances to his own interest. On the whole, I should be well pleased with this last liberty he has taken with me, if it should hereafter make a part of that basis on which I shall endeavor to ground his effects to arrange my present pecuniary demands upon him. It is quite unaccountable how he has disposed of all the cash he raised in Kentucky last year. Jourdari has convinced me that he, Burr, actu ally received through his hands, at Lexington, not less than $40,000, of which he never advanced more than $15,000 to all his agents and associates, to say nothing of all the property he procured upon his drafts. He could since have spent but little money, having received much from the United States, and having been in custody until very lately. I shall, to-morrow, endeavor to investi gate the further views of Government upon me. 468 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1807. I have, this morning, written by Martin to Rodney, the United States Attorney-General, to request him to inform me, officially, whether Government is now dis posed to prosecute me any further, in conformity with the late adjudication of the Chief Justice, or will finally discharge me, as has been done, I hear, in the case of Tyler ; or will dispense with my personal appearance at Chillicothe until the September session of the Court there, as Government can not probably be prepared to prosecute at the next January term ; and, in the mean time, the occasions of my family, and the serious de mands of my private affairs, require my presence at Natchez. I am very anxious to receive an answer before dinner, in which I much fear I shall not be gratified, through my friend M.'s more indispensable devotion to his libations. I shall, however, note the result, I hope, to-night. But I have been disappointed; for, though I spent a dollar in coach-hire to go with Martin, this evening, in quest of Rodney, we could not see him, as he was not returned from the President's, where he dined. Martin, I find, is very incontinent of every thing, which ordinary discretion should not disclose, where there is no injunc tion, in terms of secrecy. He assured me, to-day, he is prepared to sacrifice $10,000 for Burr, if the collateral security of Pollock should fail ; that it will be nothing more than diminishing a provision of so much he had made by will for his three daughters, which he had orig inally destined for a Miss Thompson, now Mrs. Living- WASHINGTON CITY. 469 ston, to whom he gave an allowance of 600 a year, for six or seven years. But her husband is now richer than himself; "however, let the worst happen," he added, " he had signed blank bonds, which he left to be filled up by the attorneys employed against Burr ; " and such bonds, he says, are void by late decisions of the English Courts, adopted by the Courts here. This would seem inconsistent with the warm spirit of integrity which seems to breathe in all his thoughts and actions. And he declared accordingly, he would not take advantage of the circumstance. I also find his idolatrous admira tion of Mrs. Alston is almost as .excessive as my own, but far more beneficial to his interest, and injurious to his judgment, as it is the medium of his blind attachment to her father, whose secrets and views past, present, or to come, he is, and wishes, to remain ignorant of. NOT can he see a speck in the character or conduct of Al ston, for the best of all reasons with him ; namely, that Alston has such a wife. This city has certainly no resemblance to any other upon earth. Its extent, as originally laid out, has been known for some years past, upon paper; but a few of its singular features, as they now smile or frown upon the Potomac, are remarkable. As to streets, literally speaking, there is not one yet in existence, unless the few wide paths and half-made roads that intersect each other can be called streets. On a hill, at the head of one of these, about a mile from the river, stand the two wings, without the body, of what is to constitute, but is already called, the Capitol. They are cumbrous, ill-pro portioned, piles of building to my eye ; with too small a 470 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. space for the central building, if ever reared. About another mile's distance, to the westward, stands the Presi dent's house, with a low dead-wall in front, and an ordinary post-and-rail fence in the rear of it. On either side of it, stands what are called its wings, which any person would require to be told were such before he could believe it ; for they are of brick, and at too great a dis tance to appear to belong to the large White House be tween them any more than to the Capitol. They are each a row of ordinary brick houses ; in those to the West is kept the Post-office ; in those to the East, the Secretary of State's office is, etc. ; and both, it is said, are to be con nected with the center by a garden. But the last feature of architecture has not yet made its appearance. From the Capitol you behold, in four or five different directions, at the distance of from one to four miles apart, rows of houses, each of five or six together, so that the whole appears like a jumble of fragments of villages, except that part, being one and a half mile north-east of the Capitol, where the Navy-yard is said to stand, which is more built up than any other quarter of the city. But after all, every foreigner, after his arrival here, will in quire for fifty years to come, as is now very common, " where is the city of Washington ? " Martin visited Rob. Smith this evening, where he heard Wilkinson extolled, and Burr as heavily denounced, as if he had not yet been tried. Mr. and Mrs. Smith declared Government had abundant proofs against Burr, which they could not pro duce from confidential restrictions. Martin, before he left them, convinced himself they would gladly dispense with his visit. NO WAR! 471 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1807. I went this morning with Martin, in a carriage, to visit Rodney, before breakfast. R. is a trifling negative char acter, from whose manner I could at once perceive he had yesterday spoken with Jefferson of my arrival here. He abruptly told us, " Government meant certainly to pro ceed against us ; " on which he was received with a volley of abuse by Martin, who thanked his God for the news, as Government would thereby hasten the consummation of their own infamy. Rodney seemed surprised to learn from us that not a single witness had as yet been bound or summoned to appear in Ohio. I told him, as my call upon him was in his official character, I would leave him the letter I had yesterday written to him, which he prom ised he would, and did, answer this evening, by three or four lines, saying, " he could only observe, at present, that I would be bound to attend, pursuant to the recognizance I entered into at Richmond. So he is also trained to teaze, if he can not injure, the infidels who worship not the divinity of Jefferson. Martin has solemnly pledged himself to meet Government, at the sitting of the Court in January, in Ohio ; to see things are conducted regu larly, so far as may concern Burr and me, whether we personally appear there or not. He has found out from Robert Smith, that Jefferson has no thoughts of war with Britain, of which he has so much affected the con trary ; for he will never act as he speaks or writes ; he will always counteract his political professions by his back-stairs committees, until Jack Randolph shall finally sever him from them. Burr, I hear, is arrived at George- 472 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. town, three miles from hence, up the river. If so, he will probably be of our party to-morrow, to Baltimore. "We set off at five in the morning, in the stage. Several northern members of Congress, whose names I know not, have had the curiosity or politeness to visit us. From one of them I was truly concerned to learn the death of Mr. Hunt, which happened last July, as he himself pre dicted, on his new purchase at French Grant, on the Ohio. This place has been extremely tiresome to me. The taverns are very dear, and badly kept; so that I shall leave it with pleasure. I wrote to-day to my landlord, "Walton, John Banks, and my wife, to gratify, as far as I could, all their cares and solicitude for my future desti nies. To all I acknowledged that tribute I so justly owe to Martin, who, with better breeding, and a redemption from his habits of inebriety, would be a perfect character. His heart is truly overflowing with the purest milk of benevolence. His potations may sometimes, perhaps, co agulate, but they will never acidify the fluid with which it is so well replenished. May it never be wasted on the unworthy. "WASHINGTON, OCTOBER 30, 1807. Rose before five this morning; but, as the coach then drove up with a cargo of eleven passengers, I have been detained here another day. I have borne the ennui, with which I have spent it, with such patience that I would not walk fifty yards from the tavern to visit the Hall of Congress, or observe how they ballot there for their officers or their committees ; though I certainly should have gone so far to hear a debate, had there been any. GENEROUS BARBER. 473 The election of officers reminds me of a curious Repub lican caper at Richmond, last winter, which, as it was of a negative nature, can not be recorded in that State, but should be known every-where else, to convict it of im moral conduct, if not of impiety. It was nothing more than a " remembering to forget," on the part of the Legis lature, I mean the house of delegates, during the whole session, the immemorial custom to appoint a chaplain. Burr, I hear again, is somewhere in this city. But I no more depend upon his appearance than on that of a new comet. We start to-morrow again. BALTIMORE, NOVEMBER 1, 1807. Before I mention my having arrived here, at last, I shall note the generosity of my barber at Washington, who re luctantly received three-quarters of a dollar from me, be cause I observed to him, " I should give him more than his charge, if I was not rather poor at present." And he evinced his sincerity by assuring me he had $100 at my service, which he requested me to accept. How is this to be accounted for? Devereux, Hendren, O'Hennessy, and Butler will all exclaim, " He was an Irishman ! " So he is : his name is Dixon, and it shall ever remain recorded in the duties of my gratitude. Yesterday, Martin and myself were wedged in among ten other passengers in the coach. A Mr. Blount, brother of the late Governor of Tennessee, was of the number. He is an infuriated Demo crat, was at the battle of Germantown, and ordered the aim of the riflemen who shot General Agnew in that affair. I saw Tyler on alighting from the coach, who showed me his discharge, in the handwriting of Rodney, 474 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. whom he declares he has not seen, having received it from Captain Pike, who escorted him to Washington City. Tyler denies his having made any deposition against me any where, and professes his friendship and attachment to Burr, whom he is very anxious to see before he sets out for New York with Sam. Swartwout. To-day I left my cards at Pringle's and the Gilmore's. Of these families, I only saw Mrs. Wm. Gilmore, who seemed glad to see me. I have a little curiosity to collect in my fallen fortune as many exceptions as I can establish to the general condemnation of mankind pronounced upon them by the adversity of individuals. I break fasted with Martin, and shall dine with him to-morrow, as well as all the Burrites in town. Burr, I hear, was, last night, at Georgetown. His appearance here is as much a matter of curiosity with his enemies as of inter est with his friends. But the elements of his orbit, I repeat, are as unsettled as those of a new comet. Mar tin thinks he might have been detained to raise money enough to pay his tavern-bills, etc., while Commins says Burr assured him he should suffer no detention on that account. So it uniformly turns out, that no two persons of his acquaintance will ever understand him alike ; and yet all who still adhere to him profess a unity of con fidence in him. Commins has brought on a fever by his debaucheries. I shall stay here at least till Wed nesday. 11, P. M. BALTIMORE, NOVEMBER 2, 1807. I spent the principal part of the morning with Martin, reading the papers and conversing with various visitors ROGUES' MARCH. 475 he received. The news we deemed worthy of most notice "before dinner, was that of two arrivals in town, namely, Wilkinson's baggage, preparatory to his taking up his quarters at Fort McIIenry, near this city, and Burr's appearance at the French Hotel in Gay street. So the Brigadier, as I expected, will probably never revisit the Mississippi in his present command, nor probably long retain it here, notwithstanding all the control he may pos sess over the heart of Jefferson, and though he boasted, not long since, at Richmond, that he would be at Natchez in thirty days. Burr will probably show himself as little as possible to the public. He has, therefore, sneaked into obscure quarters, though Steward, who now manages this house since Evans's death, declared he would accommo date Col. Burr and his friends with as much attention in their adversity as he could have done in the days of their better fortune. The expression of this sentiment was drawn from him on the occasion of some illiberal Demo crats threatening to leave the house, if we were received into it. I dined with Martin, who had a select party, though he left out two Burrites, Tyler and Luckett. Burr called upon Martin, for a few moments, before din ner. He returned in the evening, and had a long confer ence with Tyler in an adjoining room ; during which the attention of our party in the dining-room was called forth to receive, at the windows, some public honors offered to us from the street. A desperate Democratic printer, commanding a company of one of the city regiments, whose name is Frely, drew up his men under the win dows, and there halted, while his fife and drum played the " Rogues' March " for us ; then gave three cheers, and 476 THE BLENNEKHASSETT PAPERS. marched off. This salutation has prepared fresh fuel to keep up the blaze of Martin's wrath against all his oppo nents. Burr, on his return with Tyler to us, said, " these excesses of indecency always recoil on those who enter into them ; " and he soon after withdrew, not evidently indifferent to such manifestations of public regards, which, however, I am sure, Martin will make his own use of with good effect against "Wright, the Governor of Maryland, whom Martin first brought into notice, which the Governor no longer remembers. I left soon after, that is, about 8, P. M., but did not go to bed till 11. At 10, I had a long conversation with Tyler, who, I find, has long since taken up all my impressions of Burr, and will spare no labor to infuse his opinions into the prejudices of Colonel Swartwout, whom, he has no doubt, he will induce to adopt his sentiments. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1807. Having accidentally met Hayden, the dentist, this morning, who mentioned to me the late arrival, at the Academy, of a grand electrical machine, I could not sup press my wishes to see it. Hayden obligingly offered to walk there with me, which I accepted. He introduced me to the Principal of the Seminary, who received me very politely, and presented me to a Mr. Paguet, who took upon him the exhibition of the powers of the ma chine. This was a superb plate of forty-six French inches diameter, with a conductor, forming three sides of a par allelogram, one of them in front of, and parallel to, the plate ; the two others, perpendicular to it. The machine, with two turns of the plate, gave sparks twelve inches JUDGE LYNCH. 477 long, and charged a battery, about fifteen feet of coated glass, in ten turns, which killed a duck. On my return from the seminary, I repaired to L. Martin's, where one of his students informed me he expected a mob would this evening attack the house, and offer violence to Mr. Martin, Col. Burr and myself, of which notice had been given by hand-bills, which had been circulated through the town. Martin was not at home. I eagerly sought a view of one of the bills, which is in these words : " AWFUL ! ! ! " The public are hereby notified that four < choice spir its ' are this afternoon, at 3 o'clock, to be marshaled for execution by the hangman, on Gallows Hill, in conse quence of the sentence pronounced against them by the unanimous voice of every honest man in the community. The respective crimes for which they suffer are thus stated on the record : first, Chief Justice M. for a repeti tion of his X. Y. Z. tricks, which are said to be much aggravated by his felonins capers in open Court, on the plea of irrelevancy ; secondly, His Quid Majesty, charged with the trifling fault of wishing to divide the Union, and farm Baron Bastrop's grant ; thirdly, B , the chemist, convicted of conspiring to destroy the tone of the public Fiddle ; fourthly, and lastly, but not least, Lawyer Brandy-Bottle, for a false, scandalous, malicious Prophecy, that, before six months, * Aaron Burr would divide the Union.' N". B. The execution of accomplices is postponed to a future day." My first inquiries of the few acquaintances I met in the streets, who now know me, were directed by a desire to 478 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. acquire some estimate of what we might expect in the evening ; but I obtained little satisfaction. I then thought Burr might be best informed, as his vigilance I had be fore proved to be lively at all times, was most sharp on the approach of danger. I know not whether Tyler had smelt out what was brewing before I had heard any thing about it, but found, on my return from the seminary, be fore I had heard the news, he had fled rather precipi tately ; for he had declared to me, not two hours before I last went to seek him, that he should not go away until to-morrow. I therefore bent my course straight to Burr, at his shabby quarters, in Gay Street, where I waited full fifteen minutes before I could see him. I afterward found he was packing up his things to escape in the mail, which was to leave in ten minutes. He labored hard within, I could plainly see, to exhibit that composure of manner, to which he has devoted so much of his life, to form his exterior by. He would not wait to write the superscrip tion of a letter, which he requested me to direct for him to David M. Randolph. I bid him adieu, with an assur ance that I would follow him to-morrow, and he said I should find him at G , in Philadelphia. On my return to Evans's, I found Martin, Luckett and Commins in my bed-room. Martin defied the menaces of the mob, but he assured me he had just left the mayor, who had prom ised him to make all necessary arrangements to secure the peace of the city, and protect every one from per sonal injury. Luckett having come by a different way from that I took, though I was walking the streets in every direction all the morning, told me Burr and Swartwout had been KIND TREATMENT. 479 / escorted by a guard sent them by the mayor, from their lodgings to the stage-office, from whence he had seen them start, under the good wishes of many spectators. Commins denounced the Government and it's rabble, and said, it was impossible any thing should- be attempted against us ; but I thought otherwise. I deliberated a lit tle on the various reports I had heard, however different in particulars, yet all agreeing that Martin and myself should at least receive an addition to our wardrobe, of a suit of tar and feathers. I thought it would not be im proper to leave town, or at least change my lodgings forthwith. But I soon reflected, how naturally Burr might expect to receive unwelcome obloquy for his flight, and I at once determined to keep my ground. At din ner, therefore, I took my seat, amidst a very large com pany, at the long table, and remained there conversing a long time with a Frenchman, who sat next me, at least half an hour after 3 o'clock, the time designated in the hand-bills for the spectacle that was to take place in the evening. I should have sat, I know not how much longer, had not Steward, who manages the house, brought a man up to me, who inquired my name. On giving it to him, he said he belonged to the police of the city, and had been sent, with several others of that body, to watch, and give notice of any attempt upon the public peace, or on the persons of individuals. "That the mayor had particularly mentioned me to him by name," which I be lieved, as he said Mr. Thoroughgood Smith observed to him, " he had formerly known me and my lady here." I took this man out ; his name is Goldsmith. I then ordered liquor for him and his companions in another 480 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. room, where I. thanked them for the service they, in the way of their duty, were come to render me. They informed nte, two troops of horse were ordered out, and I had nothing to fear. The time passed away in conversation with these men, about twelve in number, until near 5 o'clock, when I sent Goldsmith to request Martin to come to me, as I wished to share his fate, hav ing understood from them that I ought not to go out of the house, which I interpreted into something like a wish on the part of the mayor. Soon after I returned to my room to write, Goldsmith came to me with intel ligence that Martin could not be seen at his house ; that his students and some friends were armed, and well prepared to repel an expected assault on the house ; " but that the people were in motion in great force, had every thing prepared for tarring and feathering," and would, he believed, if disappointed or opposed, tear Martin and myself to pieces. He then begged of me not to leave the room I was in, adding, " that his companions would drown him, if they could, in a basin of water, for his attention to me, though he was as good a Republican as any of them." I now suspected this man might possibly direct the drunken desperadoes of an enraged multitude to my apartment. I therefore determined to change it for another the moment he left me. In a few minutes, Steward came up stairs, and told me to go into the gar ret, which I soon did, under an apprehension that I was betrayed or sought after. In the garret, I observed two trap-doors opening through the roof of the house, on which I resolved to take my station, from whence I might contemplate at my leisure, if I could not distinctly THE MOB. 481 see the scenes that might shortly pass in the streets below. Both the trap-doors were open. I shut down one of them, and intended to cut off my return into the nouse by shutting the other, should it become necessary* But an uproar soon rose to my ears from below, and from one of the garret windows I saw the mob pass by the house, to the amount of about fifteen hundred, as well as I could estimate, in full huzza, with fife and drum playing the " Rogue's march." I have since learned, they drew along with them, in two carts, the representatives, habited for execution, of the Chief Justice, Burr, Martin and myself. They passed on to Martin's house, in Charles-street, where they broke some of his windows, and performed some other feats, of which I have not yet learned the particulars. In the mean time, two troops of cavalry patrolled the streets, not to disperse the mob, but to follow and behold their conduct. They, the mob, made as much noise as if they were about to destroy the city, and returned about 7 o'clock to the point from whence they came, headed, I hear, by one Patterson, who lives there ; while the cavalry have, I suppose, been long since dismissed, in full confidence in the honor of the mobility. I have been down stairs to supper at the long table. It is now near 10 o'clock, and I have not these two hours heard any more of either of them. How far the respectable part of the city will think it worth their while to show they had no participation in this frolic, which, I am informed, was chiefly made up at the " point," we shall hereafter learn. I believe it altogether orig inated with the Democratic printers here, who are but little controlled by one spiritless Federal paper, which is 31 482 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. all there is at present on that side ; while there are three or more Federal prints supported in Philadelphia, where I have no expectation of receiving similar public honors to those conferred upon me here. Wrote to Natchez, to counteract, by anticipation, the alarms my friends there might take up for my safety, from the rapid circulation of rumors, etc. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1807. Went early this morning to Martin's, where I saw Mr. Ray, a warm friend to him, who had taken, last night, the direction of the gentlemen who had volunteered to defend the house. Martin and his property, I found, were untouched last night, the mob having contented them selves with menaces and abuse, offering a defiance to the party within and the cavalry without, from whence I conclude that the mayor was intimidated by them and a large majority of the two troops of horse, well disposed to their views or their leaders ; namely, one Biayo, and others from the " point." Martin did not appear to his friends until this morning. I took leave of him on my way to the packet, by which I set out for Philadelphia, where I arrived, with no occurrence during the journey, on Thursday, 5th of November, at 3 o'clock, P. M. Put up at the Mansion House, late Bingham's, kept by an Englishman, in the best style I ever saw in America. Dined, dressed, and visited Burr and my worthy friends, Mr. and Mrs. Jos. Lewis. Burr pretended he should have waited, if he had not believed every thing at Balti more would have ended with the hand-bills. He was very glad to hear of Martin's having so well escaped, and IN PHILADELPHIA. 483 said lie would give Bollman, who boarded where I did, a letter of introduction to me. I observed to him, that probably Dr. Bollman did not wish my acquaintance, as he had never called upon me in Richmond. Burr tried to excuse this, but failed. He is trying to live here incog., but every one knows he is in town. I supped with Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, en famiUe, where my friendly reception, kind inquiries, and the interesting conversa tion of my amiable friends, agreeably detained me until midnight, when I took leave, with a promise to dine with them to-morrow. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1807. Spent the morning chiefly in examining the newspapers and visits to the Lewises, Conrad, C h and Turnbull's families, as my friend Joe Lewis's dinner-hour is 2 o'clock. Before I went there, I had a call from R. Lewis, to bring me a letter from Walton, of no importance, and engage me to dinner with him to-morrow. Passed the evening sociably, tete-a-tte, with Joe L. ; during which I was chiefly occupied in conversation with him on the subject of Burr's trials and adventures, and also that of my pres ent financial derangements. About 7, P. M., we were called into the street by an alarm of fire, which turned out to be groundless ; and I saw him back to his house, where I then left him, to return to my lodgings, as I had a severe headache. Before I went to bed, I observed that the " American," a Democratic paper of Baltimore, con tained an invidious paragraph approving of the insults offered to us there last Tuesday evening. Bollman has left his card with me, with a letter of introduction from Burr. 484 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1807. At breakfast, this morning, Bollman presented himself to me upon his credentials, and I received him into my ac quaintance with all the ease of courtly etiquette I am mas ter of. I invited him to take a seat by me, and entered into conversation with him on general topics, which was sustained for half an hour, and succeeded by his obliging me with his view of the Mississippi country, and particu larly the environs of New Orleans, for which he enter tained a decided preference to any other quarter, and pro jects, probably without the command of a dollar, nothing less than the purchase of an estate, at $60,000, within five miles of that city. Daniel Clark has assured him it is a great bargain, as it will yield a revenue of $15,000 a year by adding a few slaves to those already on it ; and Boll man only wants a friend or two to join with $10,000 each, and he can effect the rest. I have little doubt Bollman has conceived I may be of use to him in this affair ; but I am certain he can not serve me in it. Mrs. David Ran dolph had no small trial of her skill in detecting this man's character, if her judgment has not erred in the attempt; for his countenance, manner and address possess every qualification to engage the warmest interest in his favor as a scholar, a gentleman, or perhaps a gallant. Yet he has formerly failed in this town as a merchant, rather through his excesses in speculation and intrigue than from any natural inaptitude to that sort of life. And his late wife's family discovered enough in him to determine them to oppose his connection with the N. family as far as was possible. But I will, at present let him rest. I dined HEALTH RESTORED. 485 and spent the early part of the evening with R. Lewis, in the same way I did yesterday with his brother, that is, in the enjoyment of good wines and friendly conversation. I must, however, partake of no more of these early din ners, as the long sittings that succeed them leave no time, these short days, to transact whatever business may yet detain me here. Duane has announced the arrival of Admiral Blennerhassett, at the Mansion House, and re- published, from the " Baltimore Whig," its invitation to invest us with a suit of " Yankee ermine," as well as the process-verbal of the mobility of that city. But I shall visit this apostle of Democracy on Monday. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1807. Visited, this morning, by Tom. Butler, who made me very happy, by learning from him my beloved wife had quite recovered from her fever, and she and the boys were well after the middle of last September, when he saw them. While I was attending the service at the Roman Catholic chapel in Fourth Street, I had the honor of morning vis its from sundry great personages, who left their cards for me ; namely, Burr, Bollman and George Pollock, reputed to be very rich, whose education, I have heard, Burr has had some concern with, and at whose house here he has taken up his quarters. After my return from Mass, I was visited by a Mr. Reckless, of New Jersey, who seems a warm partisan of Burr, and is engaged in endeavoring to do away an indictment, pending in that State against Burr, for the killing of General Hamilton. Upon the re moval of this impediment, I find Burr means to try the effect of requisitions upon a considerable party he consid- 486 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. ers attached to him in that quarter. Mr. R. treated me with much consideration, and said, " while I was abroad, some members of the Jersey Legislature had come with him to wait upon me." I find, indeed, the greater part of the numerous strangers who frequent the Mansion House re gard me with no common attention. I form acquaintances among them without previous introductions ; but this is more to be attributed to the sinking of Democracy here into the coalition of the Federals and Quids, which has nearly annihilated the faction of Duane, than to any claim I could have upon public favor from the merit of my acts or the singularity of my fortune. I have, among others, met here with a Mr. B., from Charleston, South Carolina, who has traveled much, and has embellished good talents with much accomplishments. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1807. Conversed for half an hour, after breakfast, with Boll- man, chiefly upon medical and physiological subjects, in which I was much pleased with some novelty of fancy recommended by that suavity of manner and easy address which endanger the judgment of those who listen to him. I had invitations from Pollock and Joe Lewis for din ner to-morrow. Dined with Turnbull, spent part of the evening with Tom. Butler, and supped with Joe Lewis en famille, where I sat until midnight. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1807. Soon after breakfast, visited Burr and Pollock. Burr has again opened an audience-chamber, which is much occupied. Although I found two or three friends with SUDDEN FLIGHT. 487 him at breakfast, he was called out the moment he had finished, and was absent about an hour and three-quar ters, during which interval Mr. Pollock gave me his company. I find him a very well-bred man, who has had advantages in Europe. He spoke less of Mrs. Alston than I expected, and has never seen her husband, whose vari ous talents, however, he does not the less correctly esti mate. "With respect to Burr, whatever may have been the ground of his present intimacy with Mr. P., I can ven ture to affirm, it has already been abused on the part of the former, although the latter, as yet, is evidently un aware of it. Pollock withdrew, and I entered upon the objects of my visit. After informing Burr that Martin was resolved to appear for us at Chillicothe, he seemed all sur prise ; and nothing could be more natural than the colli sion of such generosity with his own ingratitude ; for he fled from Baltimore, without waiting even to thank his friend for the long and various services he had rendered him. Further, he had not written to him from hence. On recovering from this new charge of Martin's benevo lence upon his feelings, he exclaimed, " What a man ! " but told me I must write to him not to think of the jour ney till he should hear from him ; that I should direct him, in the. mean time, to write to Burnet and Michael Baldwin, the late Marshal of Ohio, to retain both (no doubt, with Martin's advance of their fees), and that he still had no thoughts of going to Ohio, though he had given notice to Scott, the Virginia Marshal, to be prepared with a guard of gentlemen, by the tenth of December, at Richmond, to conduct him from thence to Chillicothe. He added, " that Martin's too great zeal and indiscretion 488 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. would do us great mischief in Ohio, and the skill of Bur- net, with the influence of Baldwin, who was popular with the blackguards, and exasperated against the Administra tion since the loss of his office, were the best means to frustrate the efforts of Government to have bills found against us, which they would exert themselves to effect, to divert his, Martin's, attention from other objects." He now again assured me he would be glad I could extri- cat^ myself from the Government upon any terms agree able to my own feelings, and fully approved of my effect ing that object through Duane, in any way my judgment might suggest. This business being thus dispatched, I next solicited him on the subject of his finances, on which indeed he had partly anticipated me, by inquiring, " what were my prospects through my friends, the Lewises?" I informed him I had no expectations from that quarter, and should absolutely starve, while I was possessed of such splendid hopes in Europe, if I was not relieved in the mean time. He regretted much the absence from town of two persons with whom he expected to do some thing ; but he had, he said, negotiations on foot, the suc cess of which he could not answer for, but should know in two or three days. I now represented to him the probable necessity I could not resist, of urging Alston, but hoped such a measure would not be displeasing to him or to Mrs. Alston, Upon this suggestion, he was less reserved than he had been with me at Richmond, before he was acquainted with my pecuniary views and my means of advancing him in Europe, and freely de clared neither Mrs. Alston nor himself would be dis pleased with any steps I might take against Alston, who STILL CRAVING. 489 had treated him in a manner I could well enough judge of, to save him the mortification of expressing his opinion of it. He even assured rne he had demanded from Alston an explanation of his conduct in addressing the letter to Pinckney, immediately on his arrival in custody at Rich mond, observing, " that no humiliation of his condition could make him forget what he owed to his own dig nity ; " that Alston had shown much contrition, and made every possible concession, including an offer of a public reconciliation in print ; but Burr said he thought it would be prudent to spare him this extreme of humili ation, I suppose, for his daughter's sake. By the by, it is remarkable that many persons of penetration and in telligence, who have indulged an eager interest in investi gating every thing during the last year relating to Burr, within the reach of their inquiries, should have preter- mitted that irredeemable passage of Alston's letter, im puting to Burr a design to bereave his infant grandson of his patrimony. Before Burr returned from the audi ence chamber, I found Mr. Pollock had made a like omis sion ; and, upon my acquainting him with the circum stance, he expressed his feelings suitably of the con founded folly and turpitude of the writer, who had long before repeated to me assurances he had given his father- in-law, that his property was worth one hundred thou sand guineas, and he would, if necessary, embark the whole of it in the furtherance of Col. Burr's plans. I did not leave Burr until he had again reminded me of his hopes of my forwarding his views in England ; to which I answered, " I could only lend my endeavors to serve him by the letters I had already offered him." He said, 490 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. it was to those only he alluded ; so the baits I have thrown out to him do not yet glitter in vain, which further, appeared, by his observing to the party present, when first I called upon him, " that he supposed I had not yet taken the trouble to find out whether a certain man was dead or alive, upon whose death I should be entitled to a fortune worth, at least, one hundred thousand guineas," adding, " I had a strange fund of indifference to objects few other men could resist." This was truly well thrown out for Pollock, etc. But I was not a little amused to observe he had been calculating how many years' pur chase my expected estates of 6,000 a year would sell for ; so that while this bait glitters he will not lightly break from me. Dined and spent the evening with a set party at Joe Lewis's. I have found it due to so worthy a friend, to offer him a perusal of these notes, as I hope they will more fully develop to him my character and necessities than he could otherwise become acquainted with either; and I took to his aid -and counsel, rather than to any other present means, to lighten the actual burdens that bear so heavily upon my family. He has perused the first volume with so much interest and satis faction that he has given it a second reading. This alone would be an ample compensation for the little labor I have spent upon it. I feel I have penned many reflec tions, and passed many characters with my own, in review, in a light which should be admitted to few eyes besides those of my wife. But I fully rely upon the safe keeping of the confidence I have ventured with my friend, who will therefore be enabled to take a better view of my suf ferings and necessities. I have lost some time in visiting OCCUPATIONS. 491 Duane, which 1 shall not effect before Thursday. There are two excellent papers here lately set up against him; namely, the "Spirit of the Press" and the "Tickler," which would he perfect, if they were not too local. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1807. Soon after breakfast, I was called, by note, to Lewis's counting-house, to meet Bartlett, the partner of Tom Hart, of Lexington, who kept me waiting there for him the best part of the morning ; but, at last, arrived, and paid me $832, being so much saved out of my losses by Hart, in 1805. Dined with a formal party at my friend R. Lewis's, where I sat with a pleasant set, after dinner, until 11 o'clock, and received an invitation to dinner from Mr. Tightman, an amiable and convivial young merchant of this city, and son of the Judge of that name. Reeve let freely loose the flow of soul and of w T ine. He is an excellent mimic, and a truly comic character, and might, if he had not a far better calling, excel upon the stage. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1807. Occupied this morning, chiefly, by reading the papers, particularly a London Courier, containing an excellent speech of Sheridan's, or rather only a skeleton of it, on Irish affairs. This paper Mr. Bee was kind enough to procure for me, without solicitation on my part. Until dinner time, I passed the remainder of the morning in walking and buying a few articles for my wife. Burr has taken an excursion of about twenty miles up the Delaware, to return, I expect; on Saturday, when I pro pose, in the event of his being still out of cash, to make 492 , THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. my last demand upon him so long projected ; namely, a requisition to him to procure security, to which my family can resort, in this country, for my claims upon him, to the amount of about $9,000, made up by my account already presented to him, and the debt and charges aris ing from Miller's demand. The mercantile folks are much alarmed with the news of to-day, threatening a speedy war with Britain. And I have heard it said, that shares in some of the Insurance Stocks have fallen to-day ten per cent. But I observe the successful energies of my native country against Copenhagen have a petrifying effect upon the Democrats, while nineteen-twentieths of the merchants, who are Federalists, awfully contemplate the approaching crisis with England. This evening, I received a novel remedy for a sharp toothache, with which I was affected. It was grounded on a principle, that great mental engagement and exertion would operate a diversion of inordinate action expended upon a small diseased portion of the body. I attempted to put this fancy to the test, by effecting my too long-neglected in terview with Duane. After tea, I set out upon this adventure, and arrived at his dwelling in much pain, about 8, P. M. I think it deserves notice that I should mention, because my feelings were singularly affected by the preparation I found I had to undergo, to obtain not only an audience of this high priest of Jacobinism, but even admission within the walls that contained his Holi ness. I had pulled the bell three times, without produc ing the common effect of bringing any one to the door from within, and was in the act of applying my hand to a fourth experiment, when a man answered from with- IRISH WELCOME ! 493 out, an Irishman. He inquired my name, in a full Cork accent, but very low voice, and on hearing it, said Mr. Duane was not at home, but if I would leave my name and business he would mention it to him. I said, I should suppose my name was now become familiar enough with every one in the employment of Mr. Duane to render my leaving it in writing unnecessary. The printer's devil replied, " to be sure, every one knew Mr. Hassett, and Mr. Duane would be glad to see him." While this conversation was passing, Duane, who had been listening in the alley adjoining the house, came for ward without his hat ; for he had passed from the rear of the house into the alley, to spy secretly the chances of safety, as he could ascertain them by observing what he could see or hear, between his scout and me. The Colonel has been further seasoned to the service of his party, of which he now begins to feel a little tired, by two drub bings, since his return from Richmond ; and as he rises in military rank, and suffers in service, he grows more wary in caution, and has learned from experience the folly of exposing his person by night, without full assur ance of the peaceful intentions of his visitor. All scru ples of this sort being removed upon the present occasion, I apologized for the unusual hour I had fallen upon for my visit, which had seemingly broken in upon the Col onel while he was engaged with business or company, as he had been denied to me, though I was fortunate enough to find him at home. To this I received some blundering answer; the scout withdrew, and I was invited into the house, where I was introduced to Mrs. Duane. In a few minutes I signified a desire to speak with the 494 THE BLEXNERIIASSETT PAPERS. Colonel in private. Upon this suggestion he took up a candle, and I followed him up stairs. I opened the inter view by informing him that I could not leave town with out calling to thank him for the visit and friendly offers I had received from him during my imprisonment in Richmond ; that I felt disposed to regard his motives to that visit as distinct from considerations of party or poli tics, the mere dictates of national feelings, and the natu ral impulse of an Irishman to serve a suffering country man in distress ; that, besides this motive to my visit, I felt much curiosity, and some personal interest, to learn how far he approved of the determination of Government to pursue me with further and indefinite prosecutions, which could add nothing in their result to the public interest or the credit of the Administration, however they might diminish or ruin my fortune ; that, although it might be deemed politic to keep Col. Burr busy by such vexations, Government could apprehend nothing from me, and at all events I was sure he could not approve of the vindictive spirit that had even refused to dispense with my personal appearance at Chillicothe, next Janu ary, when Government can not be prepared to go to trial, much less shall I ; then, reminding him of the offers he had made me at Richmond, I said, my situation at present was very different, as it regarded my connection with Col. Burr, from what it was at that time ; for I, now re garded myself as cleared from all charges that the Gov ernment had failed to establish against me, and no longer felt it incumbent upon me to undergo endless prosecu tions to vindicate whatever concern I had in Col. Burr's speculations, especially as he probably will never renew WITH DUANE.| 495 them ; and if he could, I should have no further concern in them. I had no need to sound any deeper in the shallow wa ters of my research, which by no means possess that depth that is commonly supposed. Burr had advised me that this man loved wonderfully to hear himself talk, and that the best way was to let him run on until he was out of breath, and afterward take him back to those points on which he had stumbled, and on which I wished to fasten his attention. The hint was serviceable, and I made more use of it than I might have done if I had de pended upon the reserve Duane affected on his visit to me in the Penitentiary, which I now see arose from a dis covery he soon made on that occasion, that he durst not broach the unhallowed purpose for which he then visited me, which was a bargain to induce me to betray my en gagements or connections ; while, on the present occa sion, he considered me rather as a politician assailing his interest underhand, than a suitor soliciting his good offices. I concluded my observations with stating that I understood Colonel Burr meant again to surrender him self into the custody of the Marshal of Virginia, with intent to be conveyed from Richmond, about the tenth of next month, to Chillicothe, at the public expense, and if I should not soon discover that Government would decline further proceedings against me, I should immediately prepare to commence the expenditure of so much of the public money as the law would allow me toward the charges of my defense, which had not hitherto cost the United States a dollar. But I wished him to be assured it was not my purpose to ask any favors from Govern- 496 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. ment at any time, or through any quarters whatever, my chief object in making him this present visit being to learn, as far as I could through him, whether the Admin istration still preserved a spirit of hostility to me person ally? He now launched out into abuse of Burr and Marshall, and said, the Government were committed with the sentiments of the majority of the people, who would never be satisfied without our conviction on such full evi dence as had come out, particularly that of Wilkinson, Dunbaugh and the Hendersons ; that it would look like persecution of Burr, to grant me any forbearance, and that the Chief Justice must atone for his conduct to the country. Luther Martin, he declared, had lately done Burr more harm than his enemies could have wished in the public sentiment, by his silly and intemperate publi cations. Wilkinson, he acknowledged, was as much con cerned in Burr's schemes as Burr himself; but his excul pation was not only due to him, from his seasonable discovery and overthrow of the plot, but his country should canonize him for it, and the Government could never sufficiently requite him. He declared he, Duane, had a regular correspondence with Hay, who, he would not believe, had ever censured or neglected to vindicate the General. I expressed my surprise at his entertaining such sentiments seriously, however he might advance them in his paper ; but he was frank enough to protest to me that he considered Gallatin* now the most danger ous man in the country ; Randolph was mad; Burr might still play the part of Coriolanus or Alcibiades ; but Jeffer- * Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury. SEMPER PARATUS ! 497 son and Madison were the only men on whom the coun try could depend, though he had no doubt Monroe would have been President, had it not been for the interference of Randolph, which had ruined his prospects. As for him self, he had been proposed as senator, during his attend ance at Richmond, without his knowledge, which was the reason he had lost his election. Mr. Erskine's dispatches, which had been used as a trap to ensnare him, only con tained some newspaper S) and he had defeated the scheme by forwarding them after the mail. It appears plainly from this sketch, that we have authority for knowing the present party in power are divided among themselves ; that the Chief of the nation is still afraid of Burr, which is further proved by his own indiscretion ; for Jefferson has lately said, that whenever Burr could get to the Netherlands, he could command $400,000. Yet Duane continues his daily attacks upon Burrism, and complains a good deal of Burr being in town, though his bothered runners can not find out where he lives. Before I left him, he affected to disapprove of the late rising in Balti more, no doubt, because he can't excite the good people of this town to another here. He seemed surprised to learn I had the hardihood to dine and sup in public, on the day my eflagy was executed ; and when I told him I was always provided with a brace of pistols, he twirled on his seat. Having given him this impression for the benefit of himself and his friends, I left him, in perfect freedom from my toothache. I returned to the Mansion House, where I passed the remainder of the evening in miscellaneous conversation with several agreeable men. 32 498 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1807. I have nothing material to note to-day, except my din ing and spending the evening with Mr. Edward T , whose hospitality but too successfully seduces the pru dence of his guests. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1807. Took a family dinner, to-day, with Jos. Lewis, who had yesterday appointed to take me, this evening, to see a fine grazing farm, about six miles from town, belonging to a man of the name of Sickle, at the confluence of the Dela ware and Schuylkill. We set out in Lewis's carriage, in company with a Mr. Hamilton, a very amiable English man, who formerly belonged to the Navy, is curious in paintings, of which he has a handsome collection that I have not yet seen, and keeps a small and well-regulated academy with much credit. We reached the place early enough to see it and the fine cattle belonging to it, to gether with a remarkably beautiful heifer, at a neighbor ing plantation of Sickle's, on our way homeward. This heifer, about three years old, besides her fine make, would weigh, it is said, fifteen hundred pounds. The farm was remarkable for its banks, faced with stone, and luxuriant pastures, of which, however, a great deal is wasted for want of better care, notwithstanding the crops of hay taken off" every spring and summer. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1807. I am much mortified by my detention here, through the probably delusive hopes Burr has held out to me of the BAD TASTE. 499 probable success of his efforts to raise money. I have almost let slip the season for descending the Ohio, for there is much appearance of an early winter ; and thus will another item be probably added to the long account of my sufferings by this man. Wrote to my wife ; read and dined at home with a com pany of about thirty, among whom were counted individ uals of thirteen different nations, and General Moreau, who sets out, to-morrow, for New Orleans, with a single companion, in the stage, by the way of Pittsburgh. The General spoke to nobody; but his companion, Bollman, assures me he is a man of little speech and no ideas, except on military affairs ; so that I had no loss in dining with a conversable party at a distant part of the table. Wrote this evening to Luther Martin and Doctor Com- mins, to put the former off his design of going to Chilli- cothe for Burr and myself, and to remind the latter of my intention to travel with him, and have a concern in his negro purchases. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1807. Bollman, to-day, handed me a printed estimate of the value and yearly profits of sugar estates in the Orleans territory, furnished him by Daniel Clark, now here, who will decline visiting me, I apprehend, until I shall have extinguished the last spark of Burrism within me, with which, I suspect, he has been sufficiently singed to dread the fire. Spent the best part of the morning shopping, after some conversation with Bollman, who further rec ommends himself by a disclosure of his family affairs and narrow circumstances, unsought altogether on my part. 500 THE BLEXNERHASSETT PAPERS. The result of Clark's statement is a yearly return, in Acadia county, of twenty-eight per cent, on the capital invested, and twenty-two in the vicinity of Orleans, which is represented superior to any thing farming can produce any where else, hecause no more, in fact, than one-third of the capital is advanced for the first installment, the produce of the estate clearing itself in four years. But, though examples are given of what has been done by two or three planters for as many successive years in the vicin ity of Orleans, the counties of Acadia and La Fourche, as yet, do not furnish experience of what might be expected in those situations, and the best management and no acci dents are presumed. Supped this evening with Joe Lewis, and on my return home was blest with a letter from my beloved wife, which I found on my bedroom table, and probably was for warded, under cover from Baltimore, to Burr, as it had no postmark, and did not reach me through Lewis. This letter is of 28th of September, at which time all was well at Natchez. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1807. Had a note from Burr, this morning, to dine with him to-morrow at 4 o'clock, which invitation I have accepted, in anticipation of mixing, probably for the last time, with a few of his choice spirits. Spent the evening and supped, en famille, agreeably with Joe Lewis. There is a great fall of snow since yesterday. R. Lewis has solicited to see my notes, which I could not refuse. He pledged his discretion, in which I fully confide. DAVIESS S PAMPHLET. 501 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1807. So much of these short mornings is consumed with visits, the papers, and the unavoidable waste of time that can not be denied to acquaintances only, that little business can be dispatched by me before dinner, when that call must be answered at 2, or even 3, o'clock. To-day, however, I did a little shopping before I came home to dress for Burr's party, which I joined at half- past four, consisting only of Mr. Biddel, one of his most attached friends, and brother to the notary public here, Dav. Randolph, Tom. Butler, Doctor Commins, Mr. Pol lock, Burr and myself. The party was as insipid as pos sible. Burr is evidently dejected; and though he often affected to urge and enliven the conversation, it lan guished through the stupidity of Randolph, the uncon cern of Pollock, the vacant reserve of Commins, the in capacity of Butler, the nothingness of Biddel, and the aversion of myself to keep it up, until 8 o'clock, when it expired ; and I took leave soon after the entrance of a General Nichol, who seemed another of Burr's gaping admirers, and much resembles, in manner, breeding and intellect, General Rupel, of Kentucky. Thus ended the last invitation I shall ever probably receive from this American Chesterfield, who is fast approaching the limits of that career he has so long run, through the absurd confidence of so many dupes and swindlers. I had yes terday put into my hands, for the first time, by David Randolph, Joe Daviess's pamphlet. It is a hasty, pas sionate performance, seldom alluding particularly to me by name, but bearing hard upon Jefferson's hypocrisy 502 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. and neglect of the author, and the early information he gave him of Burr's designs and first movements. The book will, with all its defects, mortify Jefferson, by prov ing to the world that he would at no time open his eyes or ears to Wilkinson's intrigues with the Spanish Govern ment, and, therefore, to use an expression of the author, " the President is as much espanishized as the Brigadier." It has also great merit in its comments, and the parody it contains on Jefferson's communication of last January to Congress, on Burr's operations last winter on the Ohio and Mississippi, which has very much diverted me. This per formance, together with Judge Marshall's last volume of the Life of Washington, exposing the origin and views of the present Democratic party in power, have, by this time, I have no doubt, inspired Jefferson with a more deadly hatred of the Marshall faction than he has ever con ceived of all the Burrites he ever heard of. I was present ed, to-day, by a Mr. Nolta, a young Italian, who has often met Wilkinson at parties in New Orleans, with a caricature of that General & la Falstaff. It is a good resemblance, and pleased me, though it is not thought as well done as another he has made of Edw. Livingston, as a companion to the first, under the title of Lawyer Greyhound. I have paid my second week's bill here, amounting, in the whole, to about thirty dollars ; and for this, though I do not dine at home half my time, I can not have a fire in my room. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1807. Visited, this morning, the infant Academy of the Arts, lately established here, with Joseph Lewis, who is a sub scriber to the Institution, and showed me the way from PAINTINGS. 503 his counting-house, where I pass half an hour every morning. The present collection, in a well contrived building, at the upper end of Chestnut Street, is slender in paintings ; all of which, however, I did not stay long enough to examine. Two fine large ones, by West, of scenes from Lear and Hamlet, are lent for exhibition by their owner Mr. Fulton ; and there are few other orig inals of much value, for painters will, for at least a century yet, find too much encouragement in Europe to permit the establishment of an American school. But the many fine casts taken, by permission, of Bonaparte, and now exhibited here, offer a feast to better connoisseurs than myself, of high relish. During the little time I spent there, however, I was highly pleased, among a great number my notice was directed to by Lewis, to contemplate, particularly, a large and a small Venus de Medicis, of which I did not like the line of straight con tinuation between the nose and the forehead, so justly condemned by Lavater. I speak of the larger of the two, which otherwise is exquisite. The other one is a copy in marble of Yenus coming out of the bath ; has a better face, and is extremely beautiful. The group of Laacoon and the Apollo of Belvidere are perfect to my admiration, which would not be exhausted upon them for hours ; and the Farnesian Hercules is as well copied in our Lavater as ever an engraving represented a piece of sculpture But Lewis's early dinner hour was at hand, and my appe tite for these morceaux was obliged to give way to his for his beefsteaks ; so I made only a first offering, on this occasion, of my admiration to the artists of antiquity, with a devout hope of discharging the full debt of my 504 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. homage hereafter to them, when I shall speak more of this Institution. Dined with Lewis very agreeably, as usual, and, in the evening, young Mr. Coates, son of Samuel Coates, whom we knew here in '96, stepped in and invited me to dinner for next Monday, at his country place on the Schuylkill, to join a small party. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1807. Having determined, last Wednesday, I would not see two days more pass away without leaving my ultimatum with Burr, I set out this morning for his quarters, re solved to burst the cobweb duplicity of all his evasions with me upon money matters. It will be seen every where in these notes, how long and how insidiously he has trifled with my claims upon him, from the time when he assured Barton I was a bankrupt, and denied to him my possessing any legal claims upon Alston or himself; while, at the distance of fifteen hundred miles, he was writing most affectionately to me until the last interview I have this day had with him, in which he treated me not as a faithful associate, ruined by my past connection with him, but rather as an importunate creditor invading his leisure or his purse with a questionable account. The time therefore has fully arrived, at which I should deter mine whether I should attempt to secure upward of $7,000 for my family, or sacrifice it to an absurd and am phibious character of an associate and confidant in his views to future projects, without principle or object, and destitute of all means to promote them. Under these reflections, patience now became exhausted, and to pro- OLD SCORES. 505 crastinate any longer now appeared treason to my family. I therefore set seriously about the task I had allotted myself for this morning. I found him alone, and had not been ten minutes with him, after he had discharged a shop-boy, with whom he had been trifling, I know not how long, about some article of dress, before he asked me if I had heard of Mr. Luckett's treatment of him? On my answering in the negative, he informed me that Luckett had sent a marshal to him yesterday, and obliged him to give bail to the amount of about $16,000, Luck ett's claim, I suppose, being about half that sum. This intelligence mortified me, as it convinced me I had lost time. I expressed my concern for this new embarrass ment he had experienced, as it might narrow his means to satisfy other claims which he did not consider ques tionable, like Luckett's. He asked me upon this, what claims I alluded to ? I said it was with great regret I should mention my own; namely, the amount of the account I had furnished him with in Richmond, and my claim for his protested draft held by Miller, with my in dorsement for $4,000, on account of which my property on the Ohio had been sacrificed to four times the amount. Now, had you seen how " that eye of his did from its lustre fly," you would have beheld a little man indeed. He was dumb and motionless ; but he soon recovered his accustomed affectation, and asked, what was the amount of my account, declaring he had never looked into it since I had handed him it. I said it was a small one, ob viously meaning by comparison with most others he had settled or secured. "A pretty small one," he replied, 506 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. " of only about $3,000 ; " and said, he had not yet ex amined it. This sneer, at the amount of my account, and the questioning of its fairness, by referring it to ex amination, which he falsely said he had not given it ; for he looked it over the evening I presented it at Richmond, asked a question or two on some of the items, which I answered, informing him I had vouchers for most of them, which he said he did not want to see, and was satisfied it was correct ; such a diminution of that suav ity of address, with which he had already too often diverted me from my purpose, now exhibited him a heart less swindler in the last swoon of his disorder, and de termined me to hasten my departure. I suppose I testified my feelings sufficiently by my looks and manner, with out removing his doubts of the impression this treatment made upon me, by now telling him, as I did, that my time and expectations were exhausted, and I should stay in Philadelphia no longer; that I perceived he could give me no hopes of money, which I did not expect, but that, though I was contented to starve myself, I must secure something for my family, since I knew he had found means in that way to accommodate every other creditor, which was all that detained me in town. He now pretended he had nobody he could call upon. I observed, I thought it very possible he might never return from Europe, in which case my family must have a security to resort to in this country. To this remark he had the kindness to reply, "that when I said my family, I meant myself, and that I knew all his friends." "You do," said he, "'Mr. Blennahassett " so he has A CRISIS. 507 frequently pronounced my name before, when he has got beyond self-management. "Sir," said I, "I must insist upon it, I do not know all your friends." Upon this contradiction, he begged my pardon, and said he really thought he had informed me of all who were his friends in that city. 508 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. CHAPTER XIV. WASHINGTON CITY, Oct. 29th, 1807. MY DEAR WIFE : To-morrow I set out from here for Baltimore, in company with Luther Martin, who has pledged himself to attend, on the part of Col. Burr and myself, at the Circuit Court of the United States, to sit at Chillicothe, on the 4th of January next, whether we shall personally appear or not, to see that all matters respect ing us are properly conducted. It is probable I shall not regard a non-compliance on the part of Government with, not a request, but a desire, I have expressed through Rod ney, the United States Attorney General, that they would dispense with my personal appearance until the ensuing term in September, through my wishes, in the mean time, to revisit my family and attend to my private af fairs ; for the proceedings that should necessarily precede a forfeiture of the recognizance I have entered into can not be gone through before January, 1809. The courts of the United States sitting in Ohio only twice a year, namely, in the months of January and September, Hard ing can explain to you how two writs of scire facias must be returned, in case of my absence from the district, before my recognizance becomes forfeited. So that my present plan is to push for Natchez, about the middle of November, in company with Doctor Conimins, by way of MARITAL SOLICITUDE. 509 the Ohio. Government, while they smart under the mor tification arising from the issue of the proceedings at Richmond, seem determined to pursue Burr and myself until we cry mercy ; but the world shall first cry shame ! This evening I shall receive Rodney's answer to my let ter, probably negativing my demand, but that will not affect my movements. My affairs will detain me about ten days in Philadelphia, after a stay of two in Baltimore. I have strong expectations of putting my claims upon Burr and Alston on a desirable footing. As to news, you may inform those most interested, par ticularly our esteemed friend Mr. Hunt, there will be no war w,ith Britain, much less with Spain. This conclusion is not drawn merely from the President's message to Con gress, but from better authority. Electioneering, secretly, is very active here on the part of Madison, Clinton and Monroe, for th e exclusion of Jefferson from the next Pres idency, while the efforts of others to obtain the Vice Presidency, establish a schism in the present party in pow er which exhibits a warning type of the future destinies of this country. Tyler left this for Baltimore, this morning. I shall see him there and learn the manner in which he has obtained his discharge, which has been given him only verbally, by Rodney. Duane, I expect, will soon take a decided part against Jefferson, because he has not been less awkward in tampering with letters that have passed through his hands. I hope you will keep up a rational confidence in my resources to preserve my health and spirits ; and I beseech you to seek continually the utmost variety and change of scene, which I so well know the happy effects of upon 510 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. you, as the only means of restoring you to my eyes in the state I beseech God to grant I may find you. Luther Martin is certainly one of the most benevolent men alive. His heart is overflowing with the milk of philanthropy, which his potations may sometimes coagu late, but will never acidify. Kiss my boys for me. Your sickness has diverted my reflections from them of late ; but our preserving Provi dence will restore us in its own time according to our merits. H. B. BALTIMORE, Tuesday, Nov. 3d, 1807. Col. Burr set off to-day at 1 o'clock, P. M., in the mail, for Philadelphia, with S. Swartwout, as he had no par ticular desire to behold a representation of his execution. I was a little more curious ; and, notwithstanding hand bills were this morning scattered through the town, pur porting that the execution of Judge Marshall, A. Burr, Luther Martin and myself would take place at Gallows Hill, at 3 o'clock this evening, I both dined and supped at the public table, with very large companies, here at Evans's, and am, after all, hearty and in good spirits. The mob was made up from the Point, but pledged their honor, which they did not violate, that they would hurt no person. They were followed by two troops of horse through the streets, to see they did their business orderly. All have dispersed at least three hours ago, it being now 11, P. M. I start to-morrow for Philadelphia, where I am sure I shall not receive such public honors. I tire you with IN BALTIMORE. 511 too many letters ; but it is to prevent your paying any at tention to the newspapers. I expect Doctor Commins and myself will travel together to Natchez. I pray God this may find you and the boys well. This is the only care that occupies Your husband, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. BALTIMORE, Nov. 14^, 1807. DEAR SIR : Your favor of the 8th inst. I have received, and thank you for the friendly and affectionate sentiments you have expressed for me. Should you return by this place, you will certainly see me. I shall, I flatter myself, occasionally hear from you, should you leave Philadelphia by a different route. I have written to Baldwin and Bur- net, and have inclosed for Judge Todd an open letter, under cover, to Col. Burr. I certainly should wish to avoid a journey to Chillicothe at so severe a season of the year, if thought unnecessary. Whether witnesses will at tend against Col. Burr or yourself, is uncertain. "Whether bills will be found, is more uncertain ; and it is impossible that trials should take place at next term, even should bills be found. Under these circumstances, the presence of neither of us ought to be necessary. We are once more at peace ; I mean in the city of Baltimore. The conduct of the mob is most unmercifully condemned and dis cussed ; and the leaders are, in truth, though they keep up the best appearances they can, heartily ashamed of themselves. Dr. Commins leaves me to-day, by the water-stage. I direct this to his care, lest you should have left Philadelphia. Though I shall ever feel pleased 512 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. in having been introduced to your acquaintance, yet I must regret, on your account, the circumstances under which that acquaintance hath been formed. You will introduce me, though not personally, yet with my best regards, to your lady and your little ones; to hear of their and your happiness will increase mine. I am, my dear Sir, with great sincerity, your friend and obedient servant, LUTHER MARTIN. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. To Mrs. Blennerhassett. PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 11th, 1807. MY DEAR WIFE : As I expected when I wrote last from Baltimore, this day fortnight, I have found my reception in this city easy and undisturbed. I have been here a week last Wednesday, having arrived the 5th inst. I hope .you received that letter to prepare you for a just reception of the accounts that must reach you by the papers of a rising at Baltimore, of which my effigy only was one of the objects. I am much teased by various causes of detention here which I can not control. The arrangement of my pecu niary claims on Col. Burr, and the acquisition of slaves, neither of them yet effected, are the principal. It is un certain still how soon I can even hope to leave this town. Many motives incite me to go round by sea, in a fine ves sel, with Bollman and other agreeable passengers, to sail about the middle of next week ; for there are reasons why DIFFICULT TRAVEL. 513 I should not even appear at Marietta, though so many de mands call thither. But I yet think that will be my course. I receive the most friendly attentions from my friends, the Lewises, and others. To-morrow I dine with Mr. Pollock, a gentleman of fortune and great respectability, where Col. Burr has taken up his quarters. I wonder you have not yet drawn upon J. S. Lewis, for any sum not exceeding $500, through Harding. I am at a loss to conceive what you have resorted to, particularly as you call upon me, in your most welcome letter of 28th September, to direct the dis position of about 1,200 you expected to receive on your negro speculation. My only wish is that you should apply the money to your own occasions, calling to the aid of your judgment the advice of that excellent friend whom you will one day further discover I have justly appreciated. Butler, who is now here, made me very unhappy, by telling me he left him very sick, and I sin cerely sighed to be at his bedside. A large fund of stoicism will be necessary to support the want of letters from you till we meet ; for I suppose you have, according to directions long since given you, ceased to write ; and it would be impossible to instruct you how to direct to me, my change of place will be so variable. We have to-day a heavy fall of snow here, and I fear I shall not be able to take water on the Ohio before it breaks up. This, with other considerations, lends much to determine me upon the voyage by sea to New Orleans. But I can not make up my mind until I again see D. Commins, whom I hourly expect here from Baltimore, 83 514 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. with whom I must endeavor to procure some negroes, or by some other means, as I can not think of returning without some new ones, or at least our old ones from Ohio. I live here at the Mansion House Hotel, late Bing- ham's, in Third Street, kept by an Englishman in the best style I have yet seen in America. My expenses are heavier than I wish, on every account, but I have become so public a character, any thing tending to shabbiness or obscurity would bring discredit upon you, to avoid which I know you would prefer a larger share of future sacri fices. The company are genteel and numerous, princi pally foreigners, and not a Democrat in thirty, the general number at the house. My silence on your recovery and the health of the boys arises from inability to express my joy and thanksgiving to God. But I beseech you to seek the utmost change of company and occupation. Nothing can better insure my hopes of finding you re-established in your constitution ; and every day's experience convinces me of the wisdom and facility of not only mitigating the ills of life, by resolving to contemn their mischief, but even of our capability to be happy in spite of them. Without disap pointing contrary conclusions you would draw from our separation, I could give you many examples, during my reverses, since I left you; but you will hereafter find them with more satisfaction in my notes. I shall only add, that you should never forget that a steady pursuit of gaiety will prove the best prescription for the longest enjoyment of the summer season, and prepare the largest and most serene autumn of life. We have prospects LOVE OF STYLE. 515 already opened to you that beckon us to wealth and repose; if they should prove delusive, our piety and moderation will insure tranquillity. I am much at a loss to know how to buy any thing here for you. I shall, however, procure some things. I have rigged myself out in consideration of the extrava gant prices of things at Natchez ; and have not forgotten the boys' shoes, though God knows when they will get them, and I can, badly guess the sizes. I could tell you a good deal .of what might pass for news with you, but it is not worth while, and could not find room here. I must not refuse, however, to mention that I have heard here young Michael de Courcy is married to a rich lady in England, and has a child or two. The Admiral's daughter is married to a Captain Dashwood, of the Navy. I learned no other particulars of the family. Wilkinson, I hear, has taken passage from Baltimore for New Or leans, contrary to every expectation I could form, which I mention as a circumstance, if true, not quite indifferent to my future tranquillity on the Mississippi. You forgot to put Kitty Percy's, and your own, hair into your letter, with the boys' drawings. The disap pointment, I hope, has not arisen from my knowing how to prize both. How happy I should feel, hereafter, in the pleasure Miss P. might enjoy, and confer upon us, by making a trip with us to Europe. Burr has given notice to the Marshal. of Virginia, to be prepared with a guard of gentlemen at Richmond, to conduct him from thence, on the 16th of next month, to Chillicothe ; but some in tervention or other, I apprehend, will prevent that jour ney. Harding will smile at this ; but let him mourn 516 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. over the misery of talents without strength of nerve or energy of character, which have only shone to consume the fame of the Chief Justice, who has disappointed every lawyer and friend he possessed, and may possibly fall a sacrifice to the mob government of the day, for attempting to stroke, while he should have muzzled, the tiger of Democracy. Remind H g continually of my attachment; and assure the Scotts, Major Trask, and all other friends, of my warm regards. War direct with Britain is even yet the dread of the Democrats ; but should it happen in six months afterward, down fall Jef ferson and company. From your husband, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. To Aaron Burr, Esq. MANSION HOUSE, PHIL A., Nov. 28A, 1807. SIR : I have reflected, with much concern, on an ob servation which fell from you yesterday ; namely, that my account was not a small one, and that you had not yet examined it. You may recollect, when I presented it to you at Richmond, I told you I had vouchers for most of the items it contained ; to which I will now add, that I can substantiate the whole, whenever it may become nec essary ; and, on receiving it from me, you said you were satisfied it was correct, and wanted to see no vouchers. If I have misunderstood you, on either of these occasions, I shall expect to hear from you in the course of this even ing, with a statement of your objections, if any, to my charges. TO HIS WIFE. 517 The exact amount of my demand, on account of my indorsement of the bills upon which I have been sued by Miller, I can not immediately ascertain. I believe the damages are 10, chargeable with interest, as well as the principal, from the time the bill was returned. In the close of the late interesting intercourse that has so long subsisted between us, you must perceive, sir, I feel myself released from the performance of an offer I made you of introductory letters to the Lords Elgin, Courtenay and Sackville. I feel that I could not solicit their attentions to you as my friend ; and I should wish to decline doing so on any other grounds. I am, sir, with all respect and consideration, your obedient servant, HAEMA^ BLENKERHASSETT. To Mrs. Blennerhdssett. PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 30A, 1807. MY DEAR WIFE : I have just closed a trunk which, with a box, a bundle of coach-harness and a demijohn of lamp oil, will leave to-day by the brig Mary, directed to you to the care of Lenlow, Turner & Co. In the bottom of the trunk you will find two small volumes of my notes, intended for no eye at ISTatchez but Harding's and your own. You will, therefore, when not in your hands, always keep them under lock and key. The ducks are to be put upon water, and the pointed end of the magnet brought near their beaks to make them approach you ; the blunt end will make them recede. Keep the mag net from wet, and do n't let it fall. 518 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. I I hope you will soon safely receive the things I sent before me, which I will follow as soon as I can ; but I find it impossible to avoid going to Marietta, without irrep arable prejudice to our affairs, and I think it better to be a month longer away before we meet, than to have to leave you again in August, which might probably happen if I did not appear in Ohio, where I may prevent the finding of other bills against me, or otherwise get rid of the criminal proceedings against me altogether. I there fore set out at 4 o'clock to-morrow morning, in the Pitts burgh coach, and shall not delay to write to you from thence or from Marietta. As you will observe by my notes, I apprehend I have broken with Aaron Burr on a writ, and shall succeed that way, since all others have failed to secure a demand upon him of $8,000, as you shall better understand hereafter. You may depend upon my exertions to get upon the water as speedily as the season and my circumstances will permit. I shall give charge of the key of the trunk to the Captain of the Mary, or Doctor Bollman, who goes passenger in her. I have told him he is recommended to your polite attention, if he should visit Natchez, as he proposes to do ; but beware of the most insidious influ ence of his manners and address, as they are irresistible by ordinary minds. It is already reported in the best circles here, that I have become a friend to Jefferson. This is amusing, and may be very serviceable. I have not time to add more, as the mail is near clos ing. Tom. Buller is to travel with me as far as Carlisle. From your husband, HAR. BLENNERHASSETT. BURNET AND BALDWIN. 519 MARIETTA, Dec. 17*A, 7, P. M., 1807. DEAR WIFE : I have been here since Tuesday morning, and find appearances of every sort infinitely more flatter ing than I had expected. Col. Gushing has been up to see me, and will not leave me before noon to-morrow. I have an opportunity, by the favor of Wilkins, on his way to Natchez, of speedily informing you I shall endeavor to fly from the declining storm of Jacobin malice in eight or ten days, if the waters will favor my escape. But if they do not, you may be assured I have nothing to fear at Chil- licothe, where I can overawe the miserable speculations of the marshal, based upon the profits he expects to make of the trials there. .1 have seen all the negroes, except Ransom and Clara ; I think they are well disposed to ac company me, and I shall get them off, with more or less difficulty. I even propose purchasing Daniel, and a fam ily of six heads, for $1,400. I look daily for the arrival of Commins, whom I have joined in fitting out a boat at Pittsburgh. My coming on here without Commins, was to dispatch as much of my business in this quarter as I could, while his detained him some time above. I have only time to add, I have retained Burnet and Baldwin ; the former will be a host of law with the decent part of the citizens of Ohio ; the latter, a giant of influence with the rabble, whom he justly styled his " bloodhounds," and has in good training to bait Wilkinson, whenever he gives them the scent. God bless you and our dear boys. I hope I shall soon embrace you all in health, if Mr. Wilkins was not mistaken when he informed me he heard by letter from Mr. Elliot, dated in October, you were then well. Your husband, HAR. BLENNERHASSETT. 520 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. To Mrs. M. Blennerhassett. NINE MILES ABOVE NATCHEZ, Sunday, Feb. Sth, 6, P. M. To secure the success of the two objects of my present journey; namely, the conveyance to you of what pro perty I could bring away from the Ohio, and the enjoy ment of a few months' repose with you, I have deter mined not to yield to the hopes or fears with which I have approached you, by leaving my boats until Harding, to whom I have written, may advise me to venture my appearance on shore. Uncertain whether Dr. Shaw or my other enemies are yet apprised of my having failed to make my personal appearance at Chillicothe, on the 4th of last month, and ignorant how far they may speculate upon whatever news they may have received from that quarter since that period, I am resolved to continue afloat, that I may, at a moment's warning, start with my light keel-boat, and be, in about four hours, beyond the line, about sixty miles below Natchez, whither you can follow with your family and effects by my flat-boat, under the care of my friend Mr. Weaver, who has traveled with me. If this arrangement takes place, I shall want one of your black men, in lieu of whom I shall leave a boy; and you will also forward to me, or bring with you, such letters from Grand Pre*, as can be obtained from Minor, Yidal and Mr. Dunbar. You may now privately make your way to my boat, under the guidance of Mr. Weaver or Honest Moses ;* *A family servant. DIARY ENDED. 521 one of whom will deliver you this letter. You must not mention my arrival to the boys or servants until I see them, or shall have left the shore. Heaven grant that I may happily embrace you in health and spirits. From your husband, HAR. BLENNERHASSETT. P. S. I refer you to Moses for all intelligence you may desire upon small matters. Thus, after the close of this memorable trial, which had occupied the public attention for several months, Blennerhassett returned to Natchez. The continued anxiety attendant on a tedious investigation of the charge of treason, in which character and life were involved; the accumulation of debts ; the neglect of domestic inter ests, and the rapid decline of his resources, were discour agements, indeed, under which stouter hearts might well have sunk without the charge of effeminacy. The creditors, who had advanced funds upon his obli gations, finding his pecuniary affairs becoming daily more embarrassed, were insolent and exacting. Liquidation was demanded ; and, when they saw that he neither had the funds to meet them, nor the ability to procure further credit, they pursued him with the precepts of the law, with a rapacity equaled only by their uncharitable invec tives. A portion of his library and philosophical appa ratus, which had been his amusement in prosperity, and the solace of his darker hours ; the remaining furniture possessing value to him, wholly unappreciated by others, were attached and sold at a criminal sacrifice. 522 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. His beautiful mansion, together with its surrounding shrubbery, had been regarded and used as public prop erty. Its fair gardens had been destroyed, not less by the hands of the ruthless freebooter than the negligence of his tenants and the floods of the Ohio. Not satisfied with that which might be removed without injury to the freehold, the window-casings were torn out, to procure the leaden weights by which the sashes were raised. Even the beautiful stone roller, used for leveling his grounds, was crushed to pieces, to obtain the iron axles on which it ran. The island itself was extended, by a writ of elegit 9 at the suit of Robert Miller, of Kentucky, who commenced the culture of hemp, and the manufac turing of cordage. Such is but the every-day lesson of human experience ! Such is the sympathy of unfeeling man with the misfor tune and distress of his fellow man ! To-day he kneels at the shrine of friendship, as the bestial Caliban at the feet of Stephano, and calls the object of its worship, "god;" to-morrow shrinks cowardly from it, and returns his gratitude in foul misdeeds and wanton injuries. Cotton, at that time, commanded an exorbitant price. Investments in lands adapted to its culture, and slaves to work it, afforded rich returns for the amount of capital employed. Many were turning their attention to it. Blennerhassett conceived it a favorable mode of retriev ing his shattered fortune. He therefore concluded a pur chase of a thousand acres of land, in Claiborne county, at St. Catherine's, near Gibsonport, Mississippi, and placed upon it a small number of slaves. Here, again, after the varied incidents of two long years, in which he AT HOME AGAIN! 523 had been buffeted about, by the whirlwind of uncourted excitement, he found a HOME. Those accustomed to battle with the vicissitudes of for tune but struggle the greater when encountered by oppos ing difficulties. On the contrary, those cradled in the lap of ease, are but poorly prepared to meet adversity, unless endowed with unusual perseverance. This latter quality it was not Blennerhassett's fortune to possess. Accus tomed not only to the comforts but the elegancies of life, he was a stranger to want. His sleep had never been disturbed by visions of distress ; nor his energies excited through cupidity or avarice. It may well be imagined, therefore, that he was but slightly qualified to sustain himself, under his present embarrassments. For him, life had but few attractions, save those that were found in the pursuits of science ; and to deprive him of these, was to deprive him of the happiness of existence. With a full appreciation of her husband's feelings, Mrs. Blennerhassett undertook to aid him in the management of his farm. At the early dawn, she mounted her horse, to convey to the overseer the instructions committed to her charge. In this, however, she never neglected the affairs of her household, or those affectionate attentions to her family, which render the felicities of home bright to the recollection of husband and child, when the mem ory of all else has perished. Devereux to Blennerhassett. LONDON, Sept. *lih, 1808. MY DEAR AND RESPECTED SIR : This makes my second letter to you since my arrival in this country. In my for- 524 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. mer, I acknowledged with gratitude and thanks the re ceipt of your dear and most welcome letter from Rich mond. What trials, what misfortunes, have you not un dergone, and your dear and worthy Mrs. Blennerhassett too ! But, my friend, though great your misfortunes, what are they when compared to those which the gener ous and ill-fated Barry family have lately undergone ? I am really so overwhelmed with grief at the sad tidings I have had within these few days of that family, that I can scarcely arrange my thoughts so as to be understood. Only think of it, that poor Mrs. Barry, after the demise of her beloved husband in New York, hastened with her only remaining daughter to Madeira, in hopes of preserv ing her existence by a change of climate ; but, alas ! it was too late : she died soon after her arrival there ; and her poor mother, broken-hearted, is now left the last of her family. This melancholy and deplorable event has awakened all my woes. My dear friend, what is this life, after all ? From the trying afflictions you and your worthy Mrs. Blennerhassett have so lately experienced, I should not thus obtrude my griefs upon you. But they are griefs pro duced by the sufferings of one of the best of families, and who, with yours, most attract my regards of any in this world. Enough of this painful subject too painful to dwell upon. As I mentioned to you in my last letter, I perfectly agree with you in the sentiments you expressed to me from Richmond, and which I have long felt, I assure you. Yes, my friend, from what is past, and from what is gone, never to be recalled again, I could most willingly estrange 525 myself from this world to share a little content with you in any corner or in any obscurity. I have already mentioned to you that I failed in my application to this government. They will not even per mit me to visit my native country. I, knowing the cause, am not surprised at it; for you must know they inter cepted one of O'Connor's letters to me, about three years ago, in which he offered me a nattering rank to enter the French service with him. This offer, though made to aid misfortune more than rebellion, has operated very seri ously against me ; and, was it not for the precaution I took previous to my leaving the United States, I might now be immured in the Tower. But, my dear friend, the disap pointment does not now affect me; for, truly, I never cared so little as to independence in money matters as I do at this moment. Without adverting to the cause of my inquiry, I asked two or three gentlemen from about Cork as to the per sons you have named, but could gain no satisfactory in telligence. Had I been permitted to have gone to Ire land, I should have gone every length in tracing that subject. As I feel extremely anxious to hear from you, and of your estimable lady and children, I entreat you to write me as speedily as possible of your future plans, and where we are yet to meet. As I can not express to you, my dearest friend, what I feel, I shall end this scrawl with best wishes and regards to you, dear Mrs. Blennerhassett, and my young friend Dominick. Your most truly attached and distressed friend, J. DEVEREUX. 526 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. P. S. I do 'nt mean to return to the United States immediately. There is no prospect I should think of the embargo's being very soon raised, unless for a more active scene of operation; and, of course, if so, there could he nothing to engage my attention particularly there; and by remaining here, I am more to myself from the sight of the world. Hoping that you will not omit writing to me by the first opportunity, I am, again, Yours, most sincerely, J. D. A remittance of 300 from Ireland, being a balance from Lord Yentry, on the sales of his estates, enabled Blennerhassett to start afresh in his new field of enter prise. The business correspondence between himself and his consignee, Joseph S. Lewis, of Philadelphia, is vo luminous, and of but little interest to the general reader, further than showing his efforts were not altogether in effectual. A few of these only, together with one or two letters from his old friends, are here inserted : Joseph S. Lewis to JBlennerhassett. PHILADELPHIA, July, 1809. MY DEAR SIR: On Saturday, I received from Mr. Harding your esteemed letter of the 9th of June, ac quainting me with your having consigned your son Dominick to me. I accept this trust with pleasure, ac companied, at the same time, with great anxiety; and you may assure yourself my care of him shall only be second to that of my own children. Mr. Harding will inform you that the Board of Health ADOPTION. 527 will not permit him to come into the city before the 4th of August, although every one on board the ship was in good health, and that, therefore, they have stopped at Darby, about seven miles from town, where I have been twice to see them, and, yesterday, took Mrs. Lewis with me, who feels all a mother's anxious care, and enters into Mrs. Blennerhassett's feelings on parting with so beloved an object as a son. I have the pleasure to say that I have procured a situation for Dominick, such as I think you would every way approve, if you were here yourself one equally removed from the bigotry of a monastic education, and the more uncourtly forms of our society. The Academy to which I refer was established, about four years ago, by a number of our most respectable gentle men, for the education of their own children, and is conducted by two French gentlemen of the name of Out*. The situation of the school is high, healthy and pleas ant, about four miles north of Philadelphia, a distance which will afford me an opportunity of seeing Dominick often, and of bringing him home occasionally to spend a holiday. Mr. Harding being obliged to leave this morn ing for New York, Dominick has been placed under the charge of a respectable old lady, where I shall see him every day or two until his quarantine is out ; after which I shall bring him home, and, as soon as every thing is prepared, place him with Messrs. Carre*, who are men of amiable and respectable character, sufficiently rigid to keep their boys within a correct line. Present my best regards to Mrs. Blennerhassett, and also those of Mrs. L. ; tell her to dissipate all anxiety about her son. that 528 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Mrs. L. will take upon herself a mother's care, and that my affection for his parents will insure my attention to his comforts, to his wants, and to his well-doing. * * * Yours, with great esteem, J. S. LEWIS. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. From Thomas Addis Emmett. YORK, Sept. 15^, 1809. MY DEAR BLENNERHASSETT : It was not without con siderable emotion and pleasure that I received yours a few days since by Mr. Harding, and heard from him the first news I had been able, authentically, to collect of your present situation. Of what is past, it is not fit I should say any thing in a communication of this kind ; of the future, you will believe me perfectly sincere, when I assure you that your prosperity and happiness will always interest me very strongly. In return for the pleasing intelligence I have had of you, accept similar accounts of me and my family. My success has been greater than I could have calculated upon. My health has been extremely good, and Mrs. Emmett and the children enjoy the prosperity which has succeeded to our trials ; such, I trust, will also be the event of your present situation. Mr. Harding mentioned to me that he had brought along with him your oldest son, Dominick, and placed him at an Academy at Germantown, Pennsylvania. As Mrs. Blennerhassett has brought her mind to part with him, a thought struck me, which I now lay before you. I have three sons at school at Flatbush, Long FROM FRIENDS. 529 Island, five miles from this city, under the care of a Mr. Thompson, who is very competent, a graduate of Trinity College,' Dublin, and of very unexceptionable character ; his wife is a Mary Anne Connell, cousin to Maurice Con- nell, of Iveragh ; came over here a widow, of the name of Yielding, with strong letters from Kerry friends to Mrs. Emmett, and was married in my house to Mr. Thompson. I have mentioned your son to them both, and can answer that he would be treated with more than common affection and care ; and, being at the same school with my own, I should have opportunities of showing him, perhaps, some attention, which, situated where he is, would be out of my power. I am not fond of sup planting a person like his present master, who, I presume, would discharge his duty, but I submit the proposition to your consideration. Adieu, my dear Blennerhassett. Do you and Mrs. B. receive the best wishes of me and my family for every thing that concerns you, and believe me sincerely Yours. THOS. ADDIS EMMETT. From, Joseph S. Lewis. PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 22d> 1810. MY DEAR FRIEND : About ten days ago I received your esteemed letter of 8th August, and I enter with much warmth into your situation and the means proposed for improving it. I have been engaged, in my mind, since its receipt, to contrive some way of meeting your desire of obtaining the sum you want to borrow, but I do not find any one here who is willing to lend money on such 34 530 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. distant security ; and even the offer of more than usual interest would serve to introduce in the mind of strangers a doubt of the goodness of the security ; and there are none of our money-lenders who would be willing to take the chance of being compelled to go to Ohio or the Mis sissippi Territory, to look after his payment. I propose, then, that after the sale of your cotton, which we hourly expect from New Orleans, you should draw, in addition to what our advance may then be, as much as will make $5,000, which you shall have at six per cent, interest per annum. You are to consign to us all your cotton for sale, on which we shall charge the usual commission of five per cent. * * * Very respectfully your friend, ' * J. S. LEWIS. From the Same. PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 17*A, 1810. MY DEAR FRIEND: Your favor of 14th November I received yesterday, and am much pleased to learn the happy effect of my last letter upon your uneasiness about Dominick, whom I have not seen for a few weeks, but I hear from him frequently ; and, a few days ago, I saw Mr. Carre*, who said he was well, and spoke favorably of an increased attention to his studies. There is no doubt you can obtain excellent lodgings in the neigh borhood of the city, at a moderate rate, say five or six dollars a week each, for Mrs. Blennerhassett and yourself, including board. I suppose your passages would cost $100 each ; about half that for your son, and the same COTTON TRADE. 531 rate for your servants. I should think $1,100 or $1,200 would be an ample allowance for your expenses for a trip of five or six months, bating the temptations such a large shop as our city would afford you to lay out money for luxuries, etc., which, of course, your own prudence would, in some measure, guard you against. On the score of health the jaunt would be desirable, and I shall be glad you make use of any excuse to give Mrs. Lewis and myself the pleasure of seeing you and Mrs. Blenner- hassett. Very respectfully your friend, J. S. LEWIS. From the Same. January 6, 1811. I can not conceive any reason why the New York mar ket should offer a better price for cotton than ours. It is not quite so steady, and the people are more speculative. If your cotton goes there to our correspondent, we must pay his commission, and we should not be quite so well satisfied of the solidity of the persons to whom sale would generally be made as here. Your cotton has arrived, but I can not at present effect a sale on such terms as I like. The gloomy prospect of our affairs with England is such, that we do not consider a speculation in cotton as safe, and its value here will also be much affected by the proceedings of Congress regard ing the Bank of the United States. If the charter should not be renewed, and there seems much doubt of it, prices of every article will fall very materially. In addition to this, the situation of exchange is such, that bills can no A 532 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. be drawn on London without the utmost difficulty, and then at a loss of seven or eight per cent. The proceeds of your cotton now on hand, and for which at present there is no sale, we estimate at $2,000. Yours very respectfully, J. S. LEWIS. In viewing the complacency with which Blennerhas- sett had heretofore regarded Burr's actions toward him self, we are at a loss whether to attribute his silence to the mildness of his temper, or a lack of courage to vin dicate his honor from the aspersions of his enemies. But, for his unfortunate alliance with Burr, he might still have reposed in the shady groves of the isle. But for Burr, he might have continued to enjoy those peaceful pursuits for which he had abandoned Castle Conway, to secure a home in the secluded forests of America; but for him, he might yet have enjoyed a competency beyond his wants, and luxuriated in the fields of literature, with out the fear of pecuniary distress. It was not, however, until driven to it by necessity, that Blennerhassett attempted to show how much he had really been injured by the man whom he had regarded and cherished as his friend ; but who had now deserted him in the hour of misfortune. Almost bankrupt in purse, with a large family dependent upon him for sup port, to whom could he look for indemnity for the losses sustained in the enterprise of Burr? He had contributed largely, if not entirely, to the procuring of boats, imple ments and provisions for the expedition, and, as yet, had received nothing in return. Both Burr and Alston had turned a deaf ear to his petitions for relief; indeed, Burr, LETTER TO ALSTON. 533 had it been his desire, could afford but poor satisfaction from the meager remains of a once large fortune. Blen- nerhassett, accordingly, addressed the following letter to Governor Alston : Blennerhassett to Gov. Alston. LA CACHE, PORT GIBSON, Miss. TER., March 2d, 1811. SIR : As a letter from me, after so long a suspension of our correspondence, will probably be as little welcome as expected, I anticipate, on inditing it, only such atten tion on your part to its object as your reflections may deem consonant to your interest. I proceed accordingly, without further preamble, to apprise you, that having long since despaired of all indemnity from Mr. Burr for my losses, by the confederacy in which I was associated with you and him, I count upon a partial reimbursement from you upon grounds and motives which it is the ob ject of this letter to develop and recall to your recollec tion. Having mentioned Mr. Burr, I wish you, sir, to observe, that I shall never more consider a reference to his honor, good faith, or resources in any other light than as a scandal to any man offering it who is not already sunk as low as himself. You w^ill therefore feel, I hope, as little disposed to speak, at this day, of his intentions as of his means to indemnify his friends. It is on you, sir, that as regards myself, devolves this duty. The heroic offer you made to co-operate with your person and fortune in our common enterprise, gave you, in my esti mation, a color of claim to that succession in empire you boasted you would win by better titles your deeds of 534 * THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. merit in council or the field. For examples of these exploits, I anxiously invoked the season of their achieve ment; but I confess, sir, I attached a more interesting value to the tender you so nobly pledged of your whole property to forward and support our expedition, together with your special assurances to me of reimbursement for all contingent losses of a pecuniary nature I might indi vidually suffer. These considerations, sir, as they in volved me on your responsibility, naturally refer me to you for the acquittal of it, and possessing such ample powers to discharge it, I flatter myself I shall be able to induce you to the full exercise of them. To this end I now apprise you, that the period has arrived in which I feel myself warranted to tell you, that in virtue of your oral and written assurances to guarantee me against all injuries to my property by reason of my participation in the confederacy of 1806, I finally determined to em bark with you, and have thereby sustained damage to the amount of $50,000, of which sum I now demand $15,000, payable at New Orleans or Philadelphia, in August next. The respective sums you have paid already in part dis charge of your written obligation, I believe, $12,500, together with the $15,000 now required, will leave a balance of $22,500, which you may, if you please, adjust by your obligation, on receipt of which, if required, I will dismiss my demand against Mr. Burr by suit in Philadelphia. Here, sir, you perceive is a demand instituted on the guarantee of the good faith of a gentleman, who can never plead specially thereto but out of a court of honor. Within that jurisdiction, he must acquiesce or rely on the REMEMBRANCERS. 535 general issue. Your adjusting this affair in the manner proposed, I would, at a certain period of our acquaint ance, have suffered no man to question ; but the cruel, cold-blooded indifference with which you have so many years beheld a distressed family, in vain endeavoring to collect some fragment of the property embarked and wrecked in the voyage you had insured, without acquit ting the debt of your guarantee such a demeanor, sir, naturally obliges me, as a further and final result of all my labors and deliberations that relate to you to submit to your reflections, other motives of action besides those already offered. These are certainly of a character and complexion I regret it should be my lot to exhibit to the public. To you, however, it belongs to say whether they shall remain shrouded within the sanctuary of your own breast, or stalk forth the heralds of the private trea son and public perjury they will proclaim infallibly to the honest Democratic electors of South Carolina, who would thence remove you from the chair of their assembly with a different kind of zeal from that through which they placed you in it. Yes, sir, I submit it to your discretion, to keep concealed from your friends and from your coun try that led you to take part in our confederacy, which you pledged yourself to me to back with all your prop erty, worth, as you stated, 200,000 guineas, to join and support us at !N~ew Orleans, at the head of 2,000 to 3,000 men, to leave with me, besides your oral and writ ten guarantee of indemnity for all my losses, a private cipher, the inscrutable vehicle of our correspondence ; afterward, to commit the shabby treason of deserting from your parent by affinity, and your sovereign in expectancy ; 536 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPE11S. and then, finally, in your -letters to your Governor, to vilify your father-in-law, and perpetrate an open perjury by publicly denying all privity or connection with his views or projects. Assuredly, sir, a picture of this kind, on which I have occasionally worked during the last four years, can not, you must imagine, be viewed by your Democratic friends with less horror than a death's head in a phantasmagoria ; and yet, after all my labors, I feel no wish to exhibit it to vindicate my character in associ ating with Mr. Burr and yourself in the judgment of the mobility of the low people, or to appease the impotent vindictiveness of Mr. Jefferson and his miserable parti sans. The fact is, I have survived all the labors of body and mind imposed upon me by the evil genius of Jeffer son and of Burr, except the remaining one of exposing both. But I must bequeath to my children and friends a memorial of that honor, loyalty and courage, to which you and I made our first offerings on entering into the association, but which you did not follow with me in the expedition ; such a remembrance, containing sketches of Mr. Burr's cabinet and correspondence with myself and other associates ; the history of my interviews and consultations with Mr. Alston, relative to Mr. Burr's designs upon "New Orleans and Mexico, with ample references to letters and other rare and original docu ments, that will be lodged in Charleston or Philadelphia, for the inspection of the curious, the whole, sir, is now ready for the press, but shall not be sent away for pub lication until you shall have failed to announce your com pliance with the engagements of honor herein required LISTEN I 537 of you, by forwarding a credit for $15,000, payable as before mentioned, and accompanied with your obligation, or some other equivalent proposal, for adjusting the balance. Now, sir, to conclude, you may gather from what you have read, that I hold myself bound by no obligations of secrecy to any one who has broken faith with me, provided the disclosure work no injury to an innocent third person. That you may have full notice, I have no objection, in apprising you of the nature and design of the proposed publication ; but to give you an opportunity of keeping it out of view, by discharging the debt of honor you have contracted, whereby, in doing an act of justice, you will prevent the necessity of my selling to the public that detail of infamy and falsehood which you should exclusively purchase; that your past experience of my principles and temper will guarantee the sincerity of these sentiments, and to exemplify this assurance, I promise you, that whether the demand I have made upon you be complied with or not, I will, at any time after publishing my book, which shall be suppressed or expedited by your determination, promptly attend to any call you may think proper to make upon me. I have to add, that I have no doubt of my book's producing $10,000, if you do not think proper to prevent its appearance. Should you decide in the negative, you may rest assured I shall not, to save the trouble of smelt ing, abandon the ore I have extracted, with such expense of time and labor from the mines, both dark and deep, not, indeed, of Mexico, but of Alston, Jefferson and Burr. I send, besides the original, a duplicate and triplicate of this letter; namely, one directed to Columbia, one to 538 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. Charleston, and the third to Georgetown. This is done with a view, by lessening the chances of my letters' mis carrying, to expedite your answer, for which I shall wait double the time necessary to bring it to me in the regular course of the mails. I am, sir, your most obedient servant, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. COL. J. ALSTON. The success of his new undertaking animated Blenner- hassett in the hope of reclaiming his losses in a very short time. Such, indeed, would have been the result had not the war of 1812, and the embargo which fol lowed, put a decided check to our commercial transac tions. Produce, of every description, immediately fell in price, until the commodity would scarce pay the expenses of marketing. A bare subsistence, therefore, was all he could promise himself, until a termination of hostilities between the contending nations. But misfortunes seldom come singly. It was but a short time previous that he had heard of the fate of his island residence, rented by him to one of his Belpre* friends, but who was afterward dispossessed by the Ken tucky creditor. As the beauty of the grounds had been entirely destroyed, and the mansion itself much injured, through carelessness and neglect, it had lost its primitive attractions, and was now regarded as a mere convenience in farming. In the year 1811, the tenant raised an un usual quantity of hemp, which was stored in one of the wings of the building. On a very cold night, several of the slaves, who had been permitted to visit their Virginia KINDNESS. 539 friends, overturned the boat in which they were return ing, and one of their number was drowned. Suffering under intense cold, they proceeded to the cellar where the spirituous liquors were kept, to obtain the stimulus for counteracting the ill effects of their accident. Pass ing through the entrance of the hemp-room, to which the stairway led, by accident they communicated the flame of the candle to the hemp, and, in a few moments, the destroying element was beyond their control. Stupid with astonishment, at the awfulness of the spectacle in the darkness of the night, they neglected to apprise the inmates, who would all doubtless have perished, had not some one of them fortunately awakened in time to give the alarm. Escaping, with nothing but their night- clothes and a few articles of furniture, they beheld with awe this beautiful mansion, which, but a few years previ ous, had been the abode of peace and happiness, adorned with all that could embellish or beautify its appearance, rapidly reduced to a mass of ruins. From Joseph S. Lewis. PHILADELPHIA, March 26th, 1811. DEAR SIR: Your favor of 27th ult. has just reached me, and it affords me much pleasure in hearing from you. It would be very gratifying if it were oftener. I regret extremely that you should be thrown back by want of a sufficient capital to work your estate to the best advan tage, and I should be extremely happy in offering you an increase of the credit sometime ago granted you ; but 540 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. even that credit is very inconvenient, in consequence of the uncommon situation of the times. Owing to the charter of the United States Bank having expired, and the severance of our intercourse with England, a total stagnation of "business has occurred, and we want all our means to make ourselves comfortable, when our stores are overloaded with goods, etc. Your cotton we have not been able to sell a bale of, and our advances for you, at this moment, are about $8,000. Under all these cir cumstances I can not encourage you to draw any further, but certainly I will not dishonor those already drawn, and which you have advised as payable at September 'and January next, and the one to Capt. Yidal of $700, rely ing that you will, as early as possible, send your cotton down to our friends at New Orleans, with orders to sell it, or send it round here as soon as they can, as we may meet some chance of selling it ; and you may be assured, that whenever I can do it, I will extend the credit. I hope you may succeed in making a sale of your Island. I have recently heard from, Mr. Woodbridge, who was in town a few days ago, that your house on the Island was burned down, and it happened in consequence of Miller having stored it with hemp, which took fire from a candle taken in by a negro woman. I most heartily regret this circumstance, which must injure the value of the property ; but I should conceive Miller was liable in having done what his lease could not authorize, making a storehouse of a dwelling. As to Alston, there seems no chance of a recovery from him. Your letter for Dominick I will send to him ; he con tinues in good health, and is improving in his studies. BUSINESS. 541 Mrs. L. and my family are all well. I hope you will be able to make your arrangements in such a way as will enable us to see personally that you and Mrs. B. are so too. Present my best respects, and believe me ever Yours, Jos. S. LEWIS. PHILADELPHIA, June 21st, 1811. DEAR SIR : Your favors have all been replied to. We have not been able to dispose of your cotton, and the price is nominally thirteen cents. We see no better pros pect for what is to come, and we therefore recommend your sending your new crop to Amory Callender, New Orleans, with orders to sell it at once, and remit us as soon as they can. Our political affairs do not promise us much amendment in the article of cotton, and the sooner, therefore, it can be turned into money the better. Dominick is well, and improves in his studies considera bly. Your cotton here is still on hand. Jos. S. LEWIS & Co. September 7th, 1811. We see no prospect of a rise in the cotton, and would willingly sell yours at twelve cents, if to be had, for there is no use in keeping it. Jos. S. L. H. BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 13th, 1811. DEAR SIR : Your esteemed favor of 19th ult., dated at Natchez, reached us yesterday, and affords us pleasure to 542 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. learn that you and your family were recovering from your sickness, which has been so generally fatal upon the Mississippi this year. On the score of confidence in you, we should not decline to accept your bills for any reason able sum, in addition to what we are already in advance, but these are not times when we can do so without very great inconvenience. Business generally is suspended, and the usual facilities of procuring money are cut off. In fact, two years ago, the advance of $6,000 could not have been so inconvenient as $1,000 now. Our advance now is about $13,000, and taking into view your cotton here, and what we may receive of your next crop, the whole will not amount to $3,600, and this will be a long time first. Under these circumstances, we have con cluded not to accept your last bill of $600 to W. Jackson & Co., although the alternative is extremely painful to us ; but as there seems a prospect of making sale to Mr. Anthony, of your Island, we shall immediately write to him, and if it should seem likely the business can be con cluded in a reasonable time, we will take care that your bill shall not go back. "We have given as a reason for non-acceptance, that it is for want of advice. After offering your cotton upon every occasion for sale, with out effect, and seeing no prospect of a favorable result by keeping it longer, we have concluded to ship it to Liver pool, and have put it on board the ship United States, which being intended for your interest, we have no doubt you will approve. With respect to the present crop, we recommend you to direct to Messrs. Amory, Callender & Co., to make sale of it immediately, and remit at once to us, or, if they can not do this, to lose no time in shipping HOPE DAWNING. 543 it to Liverpool, consigned to Messrs. Leigh & Shellock. Here, it will not sell for more than at !N"ew Orleans. Our brother in New York sold a large parcel last week at 10J cents. We see no prospect of an improvement in cotton while the continent is shut. England has now two years supply on hand, and unless this market is opened to her manufactories, cotton will go down. Dominick is in excellent health, and very contented with his situation. With our best respects to your good lady, and our sincere regards for yourself, we remain, Your friends, Jos. S. LEWIS & Co. From the House of Jos. S. Lewis $ Co. December 1st, 1811. Agreeably to our annual custom, we wait on you with your account to this date, showing a balance in our favor of $12,150 T 3 5 (j. We also inclose you, on account of the charges on your cotton, which we have shipped by the United States, amounting to $909 T y****** By the time this reaches you I suppose our old friend Devereux will be in London. He is now in Washington, the received ambassador from the Colombian Republic. His laurels have been dearly won. I would give much to see him, but that is impossible. However, I think that, should you see his name announced in London, it might be worth while to go and see him, as he could cer tainly do something for Harman, should what I have before proposed fail. You know my disposition too well to wonder at the solicitude I feel for my child; and, even if my efforts should all prove fruitless, it will still be a cause of consolation to know that I have done all in my power to serve him. I have promised you some pleasing intelligence in my last two letters, which I hope and believe I shall soon be able to communicate ; but the time for it has not yet arrived ; when it does, be assured that no pleasure could be much to me without your participation. The winter here is very severe ; but I find so much more comfort than I did last season, in Kew York, that, while I can live, I will not repine, and trust you will fol- 612 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. low my example. Say every thing for me to my dear friends who kindly interest themselves in my behalf. God only knows whether ever again I shall see them or be permitted to enjoy any friendship, other than that of strangers, yet for this I am not unthankful. There are some of these, even, who are unremitting in their kind ness. While from what is called society, that is, parties, I am excluded, as I must necessarily be, both from my situation and inclinations, yet, I am seldom alone, and continue to take exercise enough for health, as severe as the season is. This is the first winter for nine years that I have escaped a cold, or have not suffered from a return of my breast complaint. It is certainly cause for thank fulness, as a similar attack to that of last winter would rob my dear Lewis of his only protection. Adieu ! my dear husband. Take care of yourself, and some happiness may yet be in store for Your wife, M. BLENNERHASSETT. To Nev. de Courcy. (PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL.) STOKETON HOUSE, March 29^, 1824. MY DEAR NEV. : How fully I am persuaded your anx iety to serve me is solicitous to consider the best means of availing yourself of such opportunities to do so, as this, your second visit to Portugal, may offer, I will leave to futurity to evince through the grateful affection of a distressed family, whose head is already devoted to you. If, therefore, you have acceded to my wish in accepting POLITICS. 613 the offer I have made you, to put on paper my views of the best means of succeeding for me, you will not im agine that in so doing I have any purpose, either to stimulate your zeal or to induce you t ) substitute my judgment and policy for your own, in scenes and circum stances of which you will be able to judge on the spot, but which I can only estimate through, perhaps, a delu sive medium at a distance. If the suggestions I am about to present to you should be sanctioned by the results of your own observation, or modified by the char acters and circumstances that you will be concerned with, an occasional review of the former may not, however, be quite useless as a sort of chart on which you may prick off your course, not so much by the bearings and dis tances I have set down, as by the winds and currents of party and intrigue you may be affected by in the voyage. Without further preamble, then, I conceive the means of effecting my introduction into the civil service of the Portuguese Government can only be obtained through the patronage of the actual minister, whether Pampeluna or any other. "Without such a passport it will be in vain to linger in the confidence which even the King's prom ises may inspire, or the assurances his other courtiers may profess ; the former can never be realized without the fiat of the minister ; the influence and sincerity of the latter must submit to the same test. The best affections of a monarch, situated as is John VI, must ever be confined to the royal breast, powerless and inert, until the minister shall become the conductor between them and the object to which they are directed. Hence arises the necessity of engaging the minister's in- 614 THE BLEXNERHASSETT PAPERS. terest, at a period early enough to prevent his suspicion of neglect. But upon what terms, i. e., through the in sinuation of what future return, on the part of the candi date, is the first question of either doubt or difficulty that presents itself? Kow, whatever may be your views or policy of the minister, I should not hesitate to pledge myself to espouse them all, subject to the proviso that nothing therein tended to the detriment of his Majesty. Ever alive to the influence of this sentiment, I should make no compromise, nor hold any interview with the party of the Queen or Don Miguel, even if I could in trigue for my object through their influence. But to a candidate, circumstanced as I am, there can be no great difficulty in choosing between the French and English parties at court, should such an election become neces sary. In the present state of Portugal, which, politically, if not commercially speaking, must, under continental contact, yield to the destinies of Spain, I could conscien tiously enlist under the banners of the shortest side, which I would endeavor accurately to ascertain before hand. So far this outline is made to include advances to foreign ministers, as well as Pampeluna, especially the French and Russian, whose interest ought, at the same time, to be early courted. When it is represented to all these personages that the candidate, who had already obtained some royal notice of the recommendation which the King has favorably received of him, is qualified as a jurist and a scholar to serve his Majesty in any diplo matic or judicial office; and you may add, if every thing else fails, as a forlorn hope, " in an ecclesiastical charac ter," that in Europe or America he would strenuously IN EXTREMIS ! 615 and ably advance the best interest of his patrons in a diplomatic character, etc. I trust it is not too much to expect, that if your exer tions should overreach their farthest aim, they will not altogether fall short without reaching some intermediate point between total failure and success, where I may find myself once entered upon some station in which I may subsist until I can thence work out promotion. I will exemplify my meaning here by observing, that I should not deem it disparagement of the condition I derive from my ancestry and profession, of which even poverty must not divest me, to accept any situation, any where, not even excepting Angela, which was not beneath the rank of a consul or collector. As to location, my preference would be first in Europe, next in America, any where preferable to the United States, where, being obnoxious as a persecuted supporter heretofore of legitimate mon archy, I could not so easily fill all the duties of a diplo matic station. Should such an appointment be unattain able, you will next try to work out one in the law ; or if that fail too, then, finally, endeavor to obtain such an establishment in the Church as in its income would enable me to spare you two or three hundred pounds a year, after leaving me as much more on which to subsist. Kow, this is the only topic of this letter ; I wish you to regard it as inviolably confidential ; for, although I could as easily satisfy your reason and feelings as my own, that I should neither offend against the duties of true religion and morality, in accepting such a treasure, were it not even justified as the best effort I could make for a starving family ; yet how vain would the undertaking 616 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. prove with others ! If, then, you should be reduced to the necessity of canvassing for me in a spiritual charac ter, you need not hesitate to say of me, " que vous un connaissez un bon Catholique." I will close this tiresome letter by begging of you to look at it occasionally, to remind you that the time draws near for my return to my family, " to live or starve to gether, as we can, for the remainder of our days ; " * but, until death shall relieve us of our wants, we shall ever cherish the most affectionate regards for you. This con sideration will suggest to you the expediency of giving me speedy intelligence of the result of your exertions on my behalf. And believe me, etc., HAR. B TT. To Lord Courtney. STOKETON HOUSE, SALTASH, April 15A, 1824. MY LORD : After the long lapse of years through which your lordship and myself have passed with the respective portions of happiness and misery each of us has experienced since the days of our juvenile friendship, when boarding together at Mrs. Clapham's, it will, I hope, be less matter of surprise than of satisfaction to you to learn that your old school-fellow, Blennerhassett, though hitherto silent, now takes the first opportunity of soliciting a revival of friendly intercourse by proposing a correspondence which may enable him to testify the acute * An expression in one of Mrs. B.'s letters to himself. TO AN OLD FRIEND. 617 sense he has of the injuries which have so largely been unaccountably suffered to undermine your lordship's fame and just rights, in which no one has yet antici pated him in standing forward to vindicate. It is only since my late return from America, after an absence of near thirty years, that I have bee^n given to understand your lordship has, during so many years, been the victim of so much malice and self-interest, with out the aid of a protecting arm, to turn aside those of the moral assassins that have beset your fame, that they might thereby divest you of your property. Tow, to grapple with the ruffians, and oust them of whatever con trol they may have usurped over your mind and estate, I tender you, under the guarantee of our juvenile friend ships, my services as an experienced barrister, together with those offices of friendship which I am disposed to think you might require and return iji circumstances not incompatible with our respective stations in life. But I forbear troubling you with any thing like stipu lation, unless called upon to do so, after having proved the success of the efforts I would make to deserve your confidence, which, in the first instance, I may, in some degree, appreciate from the tenor of your answer. If I should join your lordship's society, I would ob serve, my habits are those of a literary man, though I easily accommodate myself to any mode of life, and am no less than I was in boyhood, an enthusiast in music, in which I have become a proficient. Your speedy answer will be anxiously looked for by, my Lord, Yours most faithfully, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. 618 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. To Blennerhassett. MONTREAL, May 19#A, 1824. MY DEAR HUSBAND : Your letter, conveying the melan choly tidings of our much-lamented Admiral's death, not unexpected, should have been answered sooner if the state of my mind had not made me dread that my writ ing might grieve you more than my silence. But I am now more tranquil, and am at a loss for appropriate words of condolence. Tell my aunt Mary that I deeply sympathize with her in her great affliction, and that the image of those virtues which shone forth in her noble husband's character are as fresh in my recollection as though I had seen him but yesterday. I sincerely hope, if you have not already, that you may prevail on my aunt Avis to remain near her sister, as this will be, for a time at least, her only consolation. * * * * * ###**# You can not surely remain from us forever. It would have been better that you had not elated me with the hope of prosperity ; but my disappointment is over now, and I can even console you. Our noble friend Rossiter wishes for nothing so much as joining you again in busi ness, of which he has more than he can attend to, and only forbears taking a partner in hopes of your return. I moved the day before yesterday into an excellent house, at 25 rent. It is the oie you may recollect, constructed of stone, in the rear of the house in which we lived. I am quite fatigued in body and mind ; the latter, as you know, always weak ; yet it has achieved more than DESPERATION. 619 you would credit, did you know all.* But I will soon write again, and hope the April packet can not be far off. In the mean time, do 'nt be discouraged ; we may yet do well here in a moderate way ; and what more, at our time of life, is necessary ? As to your keeping a school, it is nonsense (pardon the expression) ; we shall never be driven to this ; and here, even if we were starving, it would be impossible. My six bank shares are untouched yet ; and if you return, or should send me 25, may so remain for a long time. I have a comfortable house, fur nished as w^ell as my necessities require ; and, with the assistance of a good maid-servant, get along comfortably. In short, therefore, be easy about me on every account but one, your continued absence ; this it is that breaks my heart ; and if it is suffered to continue, I may not last long. Thank ISTevison for me ; certainly, should I die, he shall have Lewis, now my only comfort. The boys are well ; Lewis progresses rapidly at school ; but, alas ! Harman is doing nothing but indulging him self in miscellaneous reading, and performing occasional errands. He says, on your return, he will go to the South ern States and teach. I have written to poor Dominick, but have received nothing from, or heard nothing of, him since last August, at which time he accompanied the troops to the head of the Mississippi. This is, indeed, a sad scroll ; do n't show it to any one. When I began it, I was calm, and thought I was brave ; but the subjects * An allusion to the forthcoming book of poetry, " The Widow of the Rock, and other Poems," which she was then publishing, and with which she desired to surprise her husband. 620 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. that have constantly recurred have overcome me, and I am compelled to conclude. When I recover myself, which I hope will be in a few days, I shall commence a long sheet that will prove far more acceptable. God bless and preserve you ! prays YOUR AFFECTIONATE WlFE. To Blennerhassett. MONTREAL, June 27th, 1824. MY DEAR HUSBAND : Could I believe in the flattering hope of your embarking to return to us on the 1st of April, any answer to your welcome letter of the 1st and 3d of May would be useless ; but, alas ! such and so mul tiplied have been my cruel disappointments on this score, that, until I see you, I shall almost despair of our ever meeting again. I look for letter after letter, still hoping the next I receive will end my doubts ; but every one that arrives only adds to my perplexity. If my last two have reached you, my riddle, as you call it, has been solved ; and, what is of more importance, you have an outline of a plan by which, if we can not live in affluence, we may yet subsist with independence here. All those little attentions paid me at first by many of the citizens of this community, seemed to have been with drawn, until the publication of my book, which, in a few instances, excited a renewal of them, and which I rejected ; holding it better to live in solitude than again subject my self to the capriciousness of those to whom T feel myself superior. The author of " The Widow of the Rock, and CALCULATIONS. other Poems," * will, therefore, receive no favor which was withheld from " Mrs. Blennerhassett." I live in utter soli tude ; but such has been the state of my health and spirits for some time past, that any society would have been in supportable. ******** I rely on none of the prospects of your advancement you mention, save the poor chance there may be of a recommendation to a new Governor, if Dalhousie, who has gone home with his family, does not return. The papers say, but this is only conjecture, that he is to go out to India, and that both a civil and military governor will be sent to Canada. Heaven only knows how this may be; but, notwithstanding all the fuss a few toad- eaters made at his departure, the general impression seems to be, that he is a poor creature ; while the Canadian party can't tolerate him. I exceedingly dislike this place, but do not know where I can be better suited ; for, as to Portugal or its dependencies, I turn from them in horror ; such is the state of that country, the success might prove our destruc tion. "Where there is no principle, and parties constantly changing, what can the fallen expect but death or im prisonment? Though the climate of Brazil may be fine, in what situation would any appointment leave you there if, as would certainly be the case, the Government did not duly pay the salary ? It would be better to commit suicide at once, in my opinion, than to go to any other Portuguese colony; and as to having any thing to do * The title of her book. 622 THE BLENXERHASSETT PAPERS with the Church, that would be running into the lion's mouth. If any employment could he obtained under an English nobleman, it would be desirable, even though I should be doomed to seek a retreat in the Welsh mount ains, which I should much prefer to Scotland. But I expect nothing from this scheme, and again repeat, that I fear it is here alone we can hope to end our days without starvation. ! I ask myself a thousand times what I can have done to deserve my present forlorn condition ? Did it spring from the grave, I could bear it as the lot of mor tality. But to be a wife and the mother of two grown sons, and yet feel alone in the world, is a situation which I sometimes wonder that I can sustain ; yet, poor Dom- inick, in the midst of his failings, was ever kind to me, and now that a year has elapsed without having heard from him, bears more sadly upon my heart than any thing else. #*###### You can't remain much longer from, your affectionate wife, M. BLENNERHASSETT. To General Devereux. COTTAGE CRESCENT, BATH, May 8th, 1825. MY DEAR DEVEREUX: After the many trying vicis situdes of fortune two old friends have undergone during nineteen years that have rolled over them since they received that impressing regard for you which no length of time or change of circumstances can ever efface from INFERIOR TYPOGRAPHY. 623 their hearts, your feelings will better suggest to you than I can describe the agreeable surprise with which we have just learned you are in London. Assuredly, the distance of a day's journey which sepa rates us, can not long impede any efforts I can make to effect our meeting, if I shall learn by your answer that you do not expect soon to visit Bath, and that business is likely to detain you in London, more especially law busi ness, in which I could devote to your interest the best efforts of my professional labor or advice. Mrs. B., now here with my sister, is in too delicate a state of health to permit her indulging the pleasure she would not fail to enjoy of accompanying me to town on such an occasion. Of the deep regret which she will en tertain, on conceiving the thought of not seeing you here, you will be the best judge, from the ardor of her mind which she lent to the best feelings of her heart in conse crating her sense of your worth and character, in the poetical address to you she published, last year, at Mon treal, called forth on the occasion of seeing in the papers your intended mission from Colombia to Russia, and in vindication of your character, which her best sympathies have covered with the segis of truth and friendship against the gorgon of calumny that would assail it. The volume, containing many other things that will not be un interesting, I will transmit you by the Bath coach, if you do not let me take it up with me, or rather to hand it to you here. It has been wretchedly printed in Canada. We expect to republish it in London.* * For the gratification of the curiosity of my readers, I extract a few stanzas from the collection alluded to. The contemplated revisal and 624. THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. I forbear to touch upon my present condition or future prospects until we meet, and shall only add, that I shall be most impatient to learn whether I shall further hasten to embrace you in town, or shall soon be more gratified to welcome you here, where you will accept of a bed. Without the least abatement of our best sentiments, I doubt not you will consider us most anxious to hear from you, and believe me, my dear Devereux, Unalterably yours, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. To J. Kingdom, Esq. COTTAGE CRESCENT, June 25th, 1825. MY DEAR FRIEND : From the generous interest I know you feel in the success of my proposed plan of undertak- London publication of the poems was never effected. The address opens as follows : " From Chimborazo's lofty brow, Fame spreads her eagle wings for flight; A hero's name she echoes now, To thrill the soul with wild delight. " On Andes' peaks thy deeds now shine ; In Quito's halls are joy and mirth; Lov'd Erin's cause, for ever thine, Is linked with Freedom's 'round the earth. " Colombia now no more shall hear The soul's sad echo of distress; The tyrant's scourge no more shall fear, While BOLIVAR and THEE they bless. " Why weeps poor Erin thus in need Of souls like thine to soothe her tears ? Why not at FREEDOM'S call we speed To worship at the throne she rears?" TUITION. 625 ing the instruction of two or three other lads concur rently with that of my son, you have ere now expected something in the nature of a prospectus to be submitted to your consideration. I shall now offer you a sketch of my views, in the hope of your favoring me with your un reserved judgment on the subject. Having, by my own experience and observation, fully proven the wasteful expense of time, money and constitu tion, to obtain school and academical instruction, and its defects, when acquired, I have no reason to regret that my present restricted circumstances determine me to dis pense, proprid persond, to my son that discipline of the head and heart, which I should despair of his attaining in a public seminary ; and which, for a reasonable com pensation, I would administer to a few others of similar age and amiable tempers. It would be with me a sine qua non that the best moral principles had been confirmed, and the temper generous and tractable, in any pupil I would undertake; such preliminary qualifications I can vouch for in Mr. Cresser and my own boy. With such dispositions I would keep up rather a companionable than a magisterial in tercourse. Expecting to receive them with good moral instincts, I should spare no pains to arrange and eluci date the analysis, as well as the synthesis of their ethics, which I regard as the best and most solid foundation of all the prosperity they may aim to attain, in whatever vocation they may be destined for. As to literary acquirements, the course and compass of them should be regulated by the profession we have in view ; for instance, I should hold it preposterous for a 40 626 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. student of law to pore longer over the intricacies of mathematics than was necessary to enable him to apply them to an elementary course of physics. This I put as an example of the vigilance I would exert in the economy of time in the selection of matter. Meanwhile I should never lose sight of the necessary grounding, so frequently disregarded or neglected at all schools, except, perhaps, the Royal Foundations, in which last, I admit, young men acquire hy seven or eight years labor, a good grammar of the dead languages, with little or no love for the beau ties of the ancients, in the study of whom they are solely devoted to the almost total neglect of all other acquire ments. I can aver that, of the four hundred boys at Westminster school, when I was there, six could not be picked out who could deliver the principles of an opera tion in the Rule of Three. Such a waste of young life was more compatible with a monastic age than with the present. But the tyranny of fashion further exacts four years more of the flower of youth to be devoted to the college course ; for what benefit I know not, save so far as it may be requisite for a more respectable ordination ; but with what effects it visits the constitution and morals of its students, I suppose, is as generally felt and admitted, as is the great charge for the name, rather than the sub stance of any learning that is gained by it. The literary men of Alma Mater are really self-taught products of a second closet education, and only regard her as their boarding dame. Hence I propose, for my son, to dis pense with a public education, feeling as I do, that if God Almighty vouches health to me for three years to come, T shall in that time provide him with a viaticum for pur- EDUCATIONAL. 627 suing his journey toward the attainment, with credit, of whatever profession circumstances and his talents may best indicate. In three years, I beg to repeat, for any lad no less advanced than Lewis, I could supersede the neces sity of all school and University education, and fit him for such a course of study as in five years more would enable him to enter on the practice of any of the liberal professions as well gifted and qualified as any University scholar whatever. You perceive my plan, in the whole, embraces a period of eight years, of which the last five are to be appropri ated to a mixed course of the sciences, polite literature and professional study, to be arranged and digested on a scale adapted to the views, interests and intended voca tion of the individual. For instance, should the bar be his object, he is to spend half of his last year in a special pleader's oflice, three months of it in an attorney's, and the other three in a conveyancer's office, having, during the last five years, kept all his Terms at the Temple. For a military, naval or commercial calling, I would not undertake to propose further than by the first three years' course, which would embrace enough of French, Greek, Latin, English, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geography, Geom etry, Astronomy, and no more than I should deem requi site at the present day for any condition. Any other acquirements should be sought out in an after period by the individual. If boarding should be required, it could be procured at Cottage Crescent, by all comparisons the most healthful and pleasant situation, distant one and three-fourth miles 628 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. from Bath, at the lowest terms it could be furnished in a good family. The tone of the society and manners is such as may he expected in a domestic circle whose limits regard as their center a retired hamster, who is an LL. B., has traveled much, and practiced his profession with rep utation both in Europe and America. It is not, he flat ters himself, his least recommendation, that he avers he had no wish to grow rich by his labors in the decline of his life. His only aim is to give ample value for quantum meruitj while, by benefiting others, he can enlarge the rational comforts of his own family. In his estimates, which, however, he is willing to modify at your sugges tion, he submits, that he ought to receive 100 per annum, independent of boarding. If it should be thought I have spoken less reverently than I thought to have done, I would refer to the bill now before Parliament, constitut ing a Police System for the Universities. Yours faithfully, H. BLENNERHASSETT. To Devereux. COTTAGE CRESCENT, BATH, Aug. 31s, 1825. MY DEAR DEVEREUX : Perceiving by the papers that commercial intercourse with Colombia is connived at by France, which I have thought it probable may have arisen from the success of your efforts on the part of the Republic with the French ministry ; and if I am right in this conjecture, I may rejoice in your having been, at least, the proximate cause of that recognition TO DEVEREUX. 629 which seems so generally expected to be made by the French Government. Should this soon take place, surely the services you have rendered the Republic, and the claims you have on Bolivar, can admit of no intervention between you and the Colombian Government, notwith standing your being a foreigner, to impede your filling any diplomatic situation in Europe you might choose to accept under the Republic. Might I, in such an issue of your exciting political speculations, suggest that, if your views are not already fixed, I will not say on some more attached, but more competent friend, I would be most happy to be appointed your secretary, in which character, I may venture to say, I hope my industry and acquire ments would not disappoint your expectations. To this application you will 'gratify me with an early answer. But en attendant, if you could, without inconvenience, procure me a consular appointment under the Colombian Government, or any agency worth even 200 per annum, in any situation in Europe, such an addition to our pres ent small income would make us comfortable any where near you; though, I confess, we should receive it with considerable alloy, if it were to depend on the condition of our residing out of Europe. I have nearly, but not quite, abandoned the project of resuming my profession in Ireland, which is not now the happy home of our " by-gone years." The scheme is beset with too many difficulties to promise success, with a detail of which I will not attempt to excite your sympathies. Mrs. B. has sanguine hopes that the suggestions I have presented to your friendship may open better prospects for us. She begs to close this letter ; so I will only add, 630 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. I hope we shall soon learn where we may look for the happiness of embracing you ; being Ever, my dear Devereux, faithfully yours, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. P. S. We have just heard of a new work on the Colombian Revolution, with which we are impatient to meet, that we may follow the march of your fame. Apro pos de la marche, I have composed some military ones, of which I hope your Excellency will hereafter select one, to be enhanced by your accepting its dedication. MY DEAR SIR : I can not permit your friend's letter to go without offering you, under my own hand, an expres sion of the heartfelt pleasure I received by your kind let ter from London, the sentiments of which so entirely cor respond with those I have ever cherished, that I look forward to the period when we shall receive the pleasure we formerly so much enjoyed in your society ; not merely in your promised visit to us here, but in a more durable intercourse, if we shall ever be so fortunate as to realize the hope of sharing with you the evening of our days. With every solicitude for your health and happiness, I beg you to believe me, Your faithfully attached friend, M. B. To the Marquis of Wdlesley. COTTAGE CRESCENT, BATH, November 3d, 1825. MY LORD : If any subject of these realms may more gratefully than another be supposed to exult in the CONFESSION. 631 glories of the illustrious house of "Wellesley, your Excel lency will not doubt the sincerity of that devotedness with which an humble relation of that house now ven tures to solicit your Excellency's notice and protection. The grandson of Conway Bleunerhassett, who married Elizabeth liarman, daughter of Margaret Welleeley, who married Wentworth Harman, I trust the degree of con sanguinity which I happily derive from this descent may qualify me to aspire to the hope of your Excellency's favor, if, upon investigation of my capacity and charac ter, I shall be found worthy of it. I am of the Irish bar, since 1790 : left it for America, in 1795, where I have resided until I finally returned, last year, from Canada, to lay claim, at the solicitation of some friends, to certain estates of the late Dean Harman, which, it was confidently but erroneously believed, I was entitled to, in virtue of my descent from Wentworth Harman. The failure of this enterprise, consequent upon a long train of adverse circumstances, now reduces me to resort to the forlorn hope of praying your Excellency to locate me in any civil situation in Ireland, the stipend whereof may enable me to support a family in a state above penury. Confined, since my return to England, by an attendance on an aged sister, in feeble health, which has hitherto pre vented my personally paying my respects to your Excel lency, I beg to avail myself of this occasion to express my most ardent wishes for the most perfect happiness of that union resulting from your Excellency's late nuptials with a lady whose acquaintance Mrs. Blennerhassett is proud to recollect she made some years since at Baltimore. With the most profound esteem and admiring sense of 632 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. those virtues and talents that distinguish, as they have prepared for history, your Excellency's character and fame, I pray to he considered, my lord, Your most humhle servant, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. Although somewhat foreign to the object of these memoirs, I can not refrain from affording the reader, even at the peril of censure for a departure from the strict line of biographical narrative, and pertinency to my subject, a more extended acquaintance with the personages ad dressed and referred to in the preceding letter. The Marquis of Wellesley, with whom Blennerhassett claimed consanguinity, was the eldst son of the Earl of Mornington, and brother of Arthur, Duke of Wellington, was created Marquis of Wellesley, for his services in India as Governor-General, and, at the date of his letter, Vice roy of Ireland. He had, but the February previous, been married to Marianne, daughter of Richard Caton, Esq., of Baltimore, where Mrs. Blennerhassett had made her acquaintance. At the time of her marriage with the Marquis, she was the widow of Robert Patterson, by which previous alliance she became, in some degree, con nected with the Bonaparte family.* Their nuptials were * Jerome Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon I, was born in 1784, and educated in France. He went to St. Domingo with Le Clerc, as a lieutenant, and soon afterward was appointed to the command of a frig ate. Napoleon had so high an opinion of his nautical talents, that he made him an admiral; he, however, was soon dissatisfied, and transferred him to the army, where he arose to the command of a division. About the year 1801, Jerome visited the United States, and while here married a Miss Patterson, daughter of the Marquis of Wellesley's wife's former husband. Napoleon compelled him to divorce this lady, with a view of marrying a MRS. PATTERSON. 633 celebrated when Lord Wellesley was in his sixty-fifth and the bride in her thirty-first year. Her sister, Louisa Catherine Caton, had been previously married to Sir Felton Bathurst Harvey, in 1817, and became a widow two years after. In 1828, she was again married to the present Duke of Leeds, then Marquis of Carmarthen. Perhaps no American woman, either before or since, has ever won such marks of distinction in Europe, as was bestowed on these beautiful and highly-gifted ladies. Al though of American parentage, and educated in the less ostentatious manners of Republican simplicity, there was, nevertheless, an inborn dignity of deportment, and an unaffected suavity of address, that at once admitted them within the royal circles of Europe, while their beauty and accomplishments rendered them successful rivals of the titled aristocracy of the old world. Mrs. Patterson and her sister had visited Ireland to see the country. Having been introduced to the most fash ionable circles, she soon became the center of attraction. Her religion, which was that of Rome, had it been at first revealed, might have restricted, in some measure, the generous hospitality which was every-where dis played. On her introduction at court, Lord Wellesley became enamored of her charms, of which one hundred and fifty thousand pounds were said to constitute a part: Her fortune, however, it is said, was greatly exaggerated princess of the house of Wurtemberg. This marriage took place in 1807, and Jerome removed to the territory of Wurtemberg, where he continued to reside for some time under the title of Count Montfort. He died in 1860. It seems rather a remarkable coincidence, that while the stepmother married the brother of the Duke of Wellington, the stepdaughter should have married the brother of Napoleon. 634 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. by the vulgar report ; and the Marquis would have been the very last man to have taken it into the account in a matrimonial alliance. " Though Hymen," says Sheil, " is sometimes addicted to the study of arithmetic, yet Lord Wellesley would never set him at this inglorious task." It was indeed, with him, altogether an affair of the heart. She was that poetic creation an old man's darling. He offered her his hand, and was elated with its acceptance. In the great city of Dublin, the announcement of the intended nuptials produced the most profound sensa tion. The lord-lieutenant was soon to introduce in their midst a vice-queen, of wonderful beauty, and of the Roman Catholic religion ; of course, the wildest ex citement prevailed among the hitherto oppressed and restricted Catholic subjects. Their creed they now con ceived, says Sheil, " would receive a sanction from a pair of beautiful eyes at the Castle." She would drive in state to the chapel, and O'Connell and Sheil hoped " that her love of legitimate rhetoric might induce her to go in disguise to the gallery of the Catholic House of Commons," The Orange faction were alarmed; the scepter was to depart from Judah; and the Protestant viceroy was to be placed in Catholic leading strings, by the intrigues of an American beauty. It was idle, they said, to expect, on the part of Lord Wellesley, any very rigid adherence to the principles of the Protestant relig ion : " How powerful must be the influence of a young and beautiful wife upon a man of careless and vacillating opinions." The marriage may be said to have been a double one ; A BALL. 635 at least, the ceremonies were twice performed ; the first by Dr. Magee, a clergyman of the Church of England ; the second, by one of the Catholic communion. Thus pol itics and religion were reconciled, the rancor of religious intolerance appeased, and both parties satisfied that the hy menial knot had been tied with a double bow. The Marchioness soon became popular in Ireland. She was called upon to witness much distress, caused, partly, by the improvidence of its inhabitants, but more immedi ately by the prostration of its manufacturing interests. It was true that her private charities were frequently dis pensed to individual objects ; but where poverty and suf fering were so universal, however large the contributions of her own and her husband's private benevolence, they could afford but limited relief to the starving poor. As an expedient of temporary relief, it was suggested that a " Tabinet Ball " should take place, under the auspices of the fair and newly-ennobled lady. I am enabled to con dense a description of the scene from an eye-witness.* The notice was given in order to afford the young ladies in the country an opportunity of coming to town, and the llth of May, 1826, was fixed for the metropolitan fete. Peremptory orders were issued at the Castle, that no person should appear in any other than Irish manu facture. A great sensation was produced by what, in such a provincial town as Dublin, may be considered as an event. Crowds of families flocked from all parts of the country ; and if any prudential grazier remonstrated against the expense of a journey to the metropolis, the Mr. Shell. 636 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. eyes of the young ladies having duly filled with tears, and mamma having protested that Mr. O'Flaherty might as well send the girls to a convent, and doom them to old maidenhood for life, the old carriage was ordered to the hall-door, and came creaking into town, laden with the rural belles, who were to make a conquest at the Tabinet Ball. The arrival of the important day was looked for with impatience, and many a young heart was kept beating under its virgin zone at the pleasura ble anticipation. In the interval much good was ac complished, and Terpsichore set the loom at work. Every milliner's shop gave notes of profuse and prodi gal preparation. At last, the llth of May arrived, and at about 10 o'clock the city shook with the roll of carriages hurrying from all quarters to the rotunda. Here was an immense assemblage of young and beautiful women, dressed in an attire which, instead of impairing, tended to set off the loveliness of their aspect, and the symmetry of their fine forms ; the sweetness and innocency of expression which characterizes an Irish lady, sat upon their faces ; modesty, kindness, and vivacity played in their features ; and grace and joyousness swayed the movement of limbs which Chantry would not disdain to select for a model. While these gay festivities were proceeding, it was suddenly announced that Lord Wellesley and the Marchioness were about to enter the room. There was a sudden pause in the dancing, and the light airs to which the crowd had been moving were soon changed to the Royal Anthem. All were eager in their efforts to observe the beautiful American. A Yankee and a Papist turned into HAPPY MAN ! 6S7 I a vice-queen ! a novelty never before witnessed in the long history of Ireland. There was something strange in this caprice of fortune; the crowd were anxious to behold the person with whom the blind goddess had played so fantastic a freak. Followed by a gorgeous retinue of richly-decorated attendants, the viceroy and his consort advanced toward the immense assembly, who received them with acclamation. She was leaning upon his arm. He seemed justly proud of so fair a burden. The consciousness of so noble a possession had the effect upon him which the inspirations of Genius were said to have produced upon a celebrated actor, and he looked " six feet high," compact, and well knit together, with great alertness in his movements, and with no further stoop than sixty winters have left upon him, with a searching and finely-irradiated eye, and with cheeks which, however furrowed, carry but few traces of the tropics. The victor of Tipoo Saib, and the conqueror of Captain Rock, entered the rotunda. He seemed to personate his sovereign with too elabo rate a fidelity to the part, and to forget that he was not in permanent possession of the character upon a stage which was under the direction of such capricious mana gers, and that he must speedily relinquish it to some other actor upon the provincial boards. He was, un questionably, a man of very great abilities ; a speaker of the first order of talent ; a statesman with wide and phil osophic views, who never bounded his prospects by an artificial horizon. He attained great fame as a politician, and had the merit of co-operating with O'Coimell in the pacification of Ireland. 638 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. A throne, surmounted with a gorgeous canopy of gold and scarlet, was placed at the extremity of the room for nis reception ; and to this seat of mock regality he ad vanced with his vice-queen with a measured and stately step. When he had reached this place of dignity, his suite formed themselves into a hollow square and excluded from any too familiar approach the crowd of spectators that thronged around. A sort of boundary was formed by the lines of aid-de-camps, train-bearers, and pursui vants of all kinds. The Marquis was dressed in a rich uniform, with a pro fusion of. orders. He wore white pantaloons, with short boots lined with gold and with tassels of the same ma terial. The Marchioness was dressed in white tabinet, crossed with a garland of flowers. Her appearance was striking, not only as a very fine, but dignified woman. Nobody would have suspected that she had not originally belonged to that proud aristocracy to which she had been recently annexed. She had nothing of la bourgeoise par- venue. She executed her courtesies with a remarkable gracefulness, and her stateliness sat as naturally upon her as though she inherited it by regal descent. Her figure was peculiarly well proportioned. Her arms and shoul ders, though less suited to Hebe than to Pomona, were finely moulded, and her waist delicately small and taper ing. Her profile was marked and classical. Her com plexion had not that purity and milkiness of color which belong to Irish beauty, but it was perhaps not the less agreeable from having been touched by a warmer sun. Her brows were softly and straightly penciled ; her THE DOWAGER. 639 cheeks well chiseled, and an expression of permanent mildness sat upon her lips. "If I were called upon," says Sheil, " to point out, among the portraitures of ficti tious life, an illustration of the Marchioness of Wellesley, I do not think that with reference to her air, her man ners, the polish and urbanity of her address, and the placidity of her expression, I could select any more ap propriate than the English heroine of Don Juan "THE LADY ADELINE AMUNDEVILLE." The Marquis and the copartner of his honors, and sole tenant of his heart, having made their obeisance to the company, seated themselves upon the throne. From this position they could command a view of the entire assem bly. After the ceremonies of the reception had ended, the festivities of the occasion were resumed, and only closed when the morning sun eclipsed the glare of arti ficial light, and admonished the exhausted dancers that the night was spent. This remarkable lady seems not to have been exempt from the fickleness of fortune, and to have experienced sad reverses in her latter days. Queen Victoria granted her a residence in Hampton Court Palace, a " refuge for the destitute " among the aristocracy, in which many pauperized people of rank are rent free. Here she re ceived a pension, either from the British Government or the East India Company, both of whom Marquis Welles- ley had served faithfully and with distinction during a long period of years. 640 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. I , From the Poet Campbell. 10 UPPER SEYMOUR STREET, WEST, July VWi, 1825. SIR : I am exceedingly sorry that it is wholly out of my power to be of the smallest use to you in the publica tion of your musical composition. The New Monthly never inserts pieces of music, and I have no personal ac quaintance either with Mr. Braham or Mr. Sapio. The words are not mine, to the best of my recollection ; but I should not be ashamed of them. I am therefore obliged to return your MSS., and with best wishes I remain, Your most obedient servant, THOS. CAMPBELL. In 1825, Blennerhassett returned to Canada, only to complete his arrangements for a permanent removal. His business having been closed, accompanied by his wife and youngest son, he sailed from Quebec, never to return. His maiden sister, Avis, having offered him a home, his family became a part of her household at Cottage Cres cent, Bath, in the county of Somersetshire, England. The generosity of Avis, whose income was by no means ample, afforded them a subsistence during the remainder of his life. In the mean time, as is disclosed by his cor respondence, he strove arduously, but fruitlessly, to gain employment. Disheartened by disappointment, and suffering from unusual exposure, Mrs. Blennerhassett's health was found to be rapidly declining. The climate had proven too rigorous for a constitution already impaired, and the dis- HOPE ON! 641 < ease,* to which she had long been subject, became greatly aggravated. A removal to another locality, where the changes were less extreme, was advised by her physician as the only certain measure of relief, The Island of Jersey, in the British channel, was accordingly determ ined on ; thither they removed, accompanied by the sister Avis. A change of Administration had been but recently effected in the Government, and Lord Anglesey was placed at the head of the Ordnance Department. Blen- nerhassett determined once more to appeal to the gener osity of his friend, and addressed him the following letter : ST. AUBIN, JERSEY, May 31s, 1827. MY LORD: With what feelings I participated in the general satisfaction expressed by the better part of the public on the triumphant establishment of the present Administration since your Lordship's acceptance of office in it, the correspondence I have been honored with by you, from 1819 to 1823, will more fully attest than I could by any assurances. I hope that, in inditing this letter, I shall not have ob truded upon the indulgence which has always heard and answered me. Encouraged by such reflections, I now beg leave to state, that my chief motive for this address is an anxious desire to offer to your Lordship's considera- ation certain suggestions relating to our cannon and musketry in proposals for improvements in fabricating cannon, by which a 24-pounder, for instance, may be * Inflammation of the heart. 41 I 642 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPRRS. made of higher proof, and of half the weight, and at nearly one-half the cost of the present pieces of the same caliber. If this can be realized, of which I have no doubt whatever, though the plan was rejected by a committee appointed to examine it in the Duke of "Wel lington's Administration, who were assuredly mistaken, both as to the facts and principles on which the plan is founded, what an accession of effect and saving will be gained in naval as well as military projectiles, your judg ment will not fail to discover. The expense, however, of an experiment to settle the question would hardly cost Government 100. The second proposal has for its object the means of giving to the musket now in use all the precision and effect of the rifle, without any alteration of the piece whatsoever, and also without lessening or at all interfer ing with the present rate of time taken up in loading. The object is effected by a new mode of making the balls, and which is also more speedy and economical than the present. The success of this improvement on the effect of the musket is unquestionable, and has received the approbation of several military men, to whom it has been proposed. During my retirement from Canada, residing here with my family on a small income, I have abandoned all views of resuming law-practice, unless in an official situation befitting a barrister of 1790. Any civil appointment, however, in your Lordship's department, at a European station, that could be conveniently offered me ; or one in Europe or America for a deserving son, or a present or future vacancy, would be most gratefully accepted. DISAPPOINTMENT. 643 I pray to be informed, whether I may or may not ad dress you officially, tendering the foregoing proposals, for lessening the cost and increasing the effect of ordnance and musketry for the advancement of her Majesty's service. I have the honor to be, etc., HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. REPLY. OFFICE OF ORDNANCE, June 9th, 1827. SIR: I am directed by the Marquis of Anglesey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 81st ult., and to acquaint you that his Lordship will be happy to receive the suggestions which you may have to offer, and will submit them to the consideration of the committee, whose province it is to examine and report upon the various projects brought before this department. With respect to your request, an appointment, Lord Anglesey regrets extremely, that the long list of pressing claims, received from his predecessor, and the very limited means of attending to them, will not allow his Lordship to hold out any expectation that it will be in his power to offer to your acceptance any appointment. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, WM. GOSSETT. EL BLENNERHASSETT, ESQ. To Harman Blennerhassett, Junior. GUERNSEY, December &h, 1828. MY DEAR SON : On the 30th ult., my dear Harman, we received your letter of the 8th November. We grieve to 644 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. learn by it that you labor under pecuniary embarrass ments we can not at present relieve. * * * ### * * * * * Since we had your September letter, I have heartily rejoiced at the station you had acquired in civil life by the attainment of a profession in the practice of which I hope and believe you will reach a standing to insure you a competency, if not a fortune. And with a view to your success I will now present a few observations to your consideration. The field of advice to a young lawyer is so large that it is not easy to choose on which side to enter it. I shall therefore only touch, as it were, upon the confines of the region of study, by advising you to refuse your mind to matters of detail in it, but seize and treasure up in mem ory the principles and points which you can draw from it for the occasion of pleading and forensic argumenta tion, in which your adversary may not, perhaps, be able to say as you can, " Condo et comparo quod mox depromere passim" Blackstone, omitting his feudal system and such other parts of the work as, on first reading, you can mark off as inapplicable to American polity and jurisprudence, should be your text-book. It will furnish the principles which will best prepare you to study those constitutions and laws of which you are now called upon, in some de gree, to direct the administration in your practice. In this work you ought to contemplate your vocation from a high post of responsibility, which the full discharge of duty will reward with the full meed of honor and profit. This sentiment will be well supported by your habitual ADVICE. 645 principles of candor and integrity, which will secure to you the favor and countenance of the Court, which you must ever conciliate by decent humility, without servil ity; but it will expose you to insidious attacks of chi canery, in practice by your opponents, ever on the watch to overreach your contingent neglect of rules, orders or notices, which your vigilance must aid your industry to counteract in season. In your public speaking you must be no competitor for the palm of eloquence. Leaving others to aspire to that object, it must be your aim to stand before the Court on the facts, on which you can show the law and reason of your case upon solemn argument. When addressing a jury, or examining a witness, you must rather engage the feelings of the former by seeming to participate in what ever bias you have reason to suspect they entertain, whether derived from rumor or personal prejudice, as you must endeavor to win the confidence of the latter by the urbanity of your manner of interrogation, through which you can best throw him off his guard against your real purpose, until you have fixed him on one horn of a dilemma, from which he has no escape but in the conclu sions you have in view. This is, indeed, one of the evo lutions of practice, requiring the greatest dexterity and address, but yet to be executed with more or less success through exercise, directed by observation and judgment, which time and industry will supply, but it is never to be obtained when marred by fits of irritability of temper, against which, through regard for character and true interest, you should ever be on your guard, through all trials of life, especially those of your practice. 646 THE BLEXNERHASSETT PAPERS. These observations, drawn from the sources of my own experience, I shall close here at present.* I have for- * The advice here given by Blennerhassett to his son, on entering the practice of law, is perhaps more spiritedly given by an Irish gentleman, as related by Mr. Shell : " A young barrister," says he, " who looks to eminence from his own sheer, unaided merits, must have a mind and frame prepared by nature for the endurance of unremitting toil. He must cram his memory with the arbitrary principles of a complex and incongruous code, and be equally prepared, as occasion serves, to apply or misapply them. He must not only surpass his competitors in the art of reasoning right from right principles the logic of common life but he must be equally an adept in reasoning right from wrong principles, and wrong from right ones. He must learn to glory in a perplexing sophistry, as in the discovery of an immortal truth. He must make up his mind and his face to demonstrate, in open court, with all imaginable gravity, that nonsense is replete with meaning, and that the clearest meaning is manifestly non sense by construction. This is merit, by 'legal habit of thinking;' and to acquire them, he must not only prepare bis faculties by a course of assiduous and direct cultivation, but he must absolutely forswear all other studies and speculations that may interfere with their perfection. There must be no dallying with literature ; no hankering after comprehensive theories for the good of men ; away must be wiped all such ' trivial fond records.' He must keep to his digests and indexes. He must see nothing in mankind but a great collection of plaintiffs and defendants, and con sider no revolution in their affairs as comparable, in interest, to the last term reports of points of practice decided in banco regis. As he walks the streets, he must give way to no sentimental imisings. There must be no ' commercing with the skies, no idle dreams of love, and rainbows, and poetic forms,' and all the bright illusions upon which the ' fancy free' can feast. If a thought of love intrudes, it must be connected with the law of marriage settlements, and articles of separation from bed and board. So of the other passions, and of every the most interesting incident and situation in human life -he must view them all with reference to their legal effect and operation. If a funeral passes by, instead of permitting his imagination to follow the mourners to the grave, he must consider how far the executor may not have made himself liable for a waste of assets by some supernumerary plumes and hat-bands, beyond ' the state and cir cumstances of the deceased;' or, if his eye should light upon a requisi tion for a public meeting to petition against a grievance, he must regard the grievance as immaterial, but bethink himself whether the wording of the requisition be strictly warrantable under the provisions of the Con vention Act. FRATERNAL. 647 borne until now to speak of my own health. It is, for my time of life, good, save a paralytic affection of the left arm and side, which has not left me since the 28th of last May, when it seized me. How it may terminate I know not, but whenever I shall be called away from this sub lunary, to another, and I doubt not a better state, I shall not apprehend that my soul will be any thing less jocular there than here. That thought in the Emperor Adrian's soliloquy, or rather address, to his departing soul, is not so happily conceived as the sportive playfulness with which he expresses in beautiful diminutives his philo sophical composure, in articulo mortis a moment of trial " Such is a part, and a very small part, of the probationary discipline to which the young candidate for forensic eminence must be prepared to sub mit ; and if he can hold out for ten or fifteen years, his superior claims may begin to be known and rewarded. But success will bring no dimi nution of toil and self-denial. The bodily and mental labor alone of a suc cessful barrister's life would be sufficient, if known beforehand, to appal the stoutest. Besides this, it has many peculiar rubs and annoyances. His life is passed in a tumult of perpetual contention, and he must make up his sensibility to give and receive the hardest knocks. He has no choice of cases ; he must throw himself, heart and soul, into the most unpromis ing that is confided to him. He must fight pitched battles with obstreperous witnesses. He must have lungs to out clamor the most clamorous. He must make speeches without. He must keep battering for hours at a jury that he sees to be impregnable. He is before the public, and at the mercy of public opinion ; and if every nerve be not strained to the utmost to achieve what is impossible, the public, with its usual good nature, will attribute the fail ure to want of zeal or capacity in the advocate, to any thing, rather th*an the badness of the cause. Finally, he must appear to be sanguine, even after a defeat; and be prepared to tell a knavish client that has been beaten out of the courts of common law, that his ' is a clear case for relief in equity.' The man who can do all this deserves to succeed, and will suc ceed ; but I will not discourage my young American aspirants, that, in the United States, they may not ' rationally expect to arrive at eminence in their profession upon less rigorous conditions.' " 648 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. so fearfully met by vulgar hearts. I am so far sunk in practice, through dissuetude in my Latin, that I can not set about a letter in that language. The lines are these : " Anima vagula blandula Hospes comesque corporis, Quo nunc abidis in loco? Palidula, frigida, stridalis, Nee dabis ut soles joca ! " * The epithet " vagula blandula " beautifully characterizes the departing spirit's mild nature, and its being on the wing to seek its resting in unknown regions ; but those in the last line but one are, to my taste, unhappily chosen, as they exhibit the soul like a vulgar ghost or specter, bearing about it enough of a camel covering sufficient to exhibit our Divine spark ! a pale, shrieking, chilled being, not, indeed, capable of jesting. * * * Your fond father, HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. The attack of paralysis of which he writes was the premonition of his closing career, " The silver cord was loosed, and the golden bowl broken." He lingered for sometime after ; but death, as he intimates, would at any time have been a pleasant messenger. The light of his intellect was fading, and his grasp on earthly hopes rapidly relaxing. After a residence of three years at St. ' sweet, roving spirit, Guest and companion of my body, Where now will you go ? Pale, cold and shrieking creature, No more, as once, will you be capable of jesting." HIS DEATH. 649 Aubin, it was deemed advisable to remove to the Island of Guernsey, where the landed property of Avis was situate. Here, at Port Pierre, a second, and then a third attack followed ; and, on the 1st of February, 1831, wearied with life, he sank to rest, in the sixty-third year of his age, with his head pillowed on that bosom which, for thirty -five years, had throbbed in perfect unison with his own. Thus has it been attempted to portray the life and character of Blennerhassett. From youth to age, and finally to the grave, we have followed his footsteps, with an interest excited more through our sympathy than our admiration of the man. In his life, there is really noth ing remarkable. His scientific acquirements never gave to mankind one single truth, nor devised a plan for the benefit of the human race. His is not that fame which bedecks with laurels the brow of the hero, or follows those acts which the world regards as sublimely great. Of these, indeed, he was never emulous. His native country afforded him the finest fields for militaiy noto riety ; and as for political preferment, the times in which he lived were propitious to the aspirant. The names of his compeers will descend to posterity in living colors as long as down-trodden Ireland' shall retain a place on the page of history. That celebrity which attended his name was not of his seeking. His was the peculiar tempera ment, fitted better for the enjoyments of private life than the battle-field or the political arena. For this, he re signed magnificence and ease for obscurity in a western wilderness, where he enjoyed, for a time, that uninter- 650 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. rupted repose which had so long attracted his fancy. There, too, he would have doubtless remained hut for the circumstances heretofore narrated. At the death of her husband, Mrs. Blennerhassett was left with a family of dependent children, for whom her greatest exertions could hardly procure subsistence. Long and arduously she toiled, both mentally and physically, to avoid impending poverty. It was not only necessary that they should be fed and clothed, but it was also im portant that they should receive such an education as would, at least, fit them for the business transactions of life. She had now arrived at an age when elasticity, both of body and mind, was nearly destroyed; and this of itself was sufficient to prevent any expectation of future success. Under such gloomy prospects, she resolved to visit the United States and petition the Government for relief. In this, she is not to be regarded as a mendicant asking for alms, but rather as asserting her rights ; rights most wantonly violated by the officers of a government pledged to the protection of its citizens. The agents of the Pres ident had not only detained the boats and stores prepared for the enterprise of Burr, but had actually destroyed the former and consumed the latter. They had invaded the sanctity of her household; had appropriated to them selves and wasted her provisions ; broken her furniture ; laid waste the gardens; torn down the fences; and had done serious injury to the mansion. They had put Blen nerhassett to an enormous expense in defending himself at Richmond ; they, in fact, had reduced him from affluence TO CONGRESS. 651 to comparative poverty. Was this extraordinary sacri fice to be justified, and its victims to remain unsatisfied from the mere fact that Blennerhassett was accused of hostility toward the Government ? Could such an inva sion of private rights have been legalized, if he had been found guilty of the acts with which he was charged ? In the year 1842, Mrs. Blennerhassett, with an invalid son, visited ISTew York, and, through the hands of her friends, preferred a petition to Congress. "With a meek ness of disposition which is remarkable, when we recol lect her grievances, she says : " Your memorialist does not desire to exaggerate the conduct of the said armed men, or the injuries done by them ; but she can truly say, that, before their visit, the residence of her family had been noted for its elegance and high state of improvement ; and that they left it in a comparative state of ruin and waste. And, as instances of the mischievous and destructive spirit which appeared to govern them, she would mention, that, while they occupied as a guard-room one of the best apartments in the house, the building of which cost nearly forty thou sand dollars, a musket or rifle ball was deliberately fired into the ceiling, by which it was much defaced and in jured ; and that they wantonly destroyed many pieces of valuable furniture. She would also state that, being ap parently under no restraint, they indulged in continual drunkenness and riot, offering many indignities to your memorialist and treating her domestics with violence. " These outrages were committed upon an unoffending and defenseless family, in the absence of their natural 652 THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. protector, your memorialist's husband being then away from home ; and that, in answer to such remonstrances as she ventured to make against the consumption, waste and destruction of his property, she was told, by those who assumed to have the command, that they held the property for the United States, by order of the President, and were privileged to use it, and should use it as they pleased. It is with pain that your memorialist reverts to events, which, in their consequences, have reduced a once happy family, from affluence and comfort, to comparative want and wretchedness ; which blighted the prospects of her children, and made herself, in the decline of life, a wanderer on the face of the earth." Robert Emmett, the son of Thomas Addis, and nephew of the celebrated Irish patriot, interested himself in her behalf. He had been the intimate friend of Blennerhas- sett, and sympathized deeply with his afflicted family. In forwarding her memorial to the Hon. Henry Clay of the United States Senate, he remarks: "Mrs. Blenner- hassett is now in this (New York) city, residing in very humble circumstances, bestowing her cares on a son, who, by long poverty and sickness, is reduced to utter imbe cility, both of body and mind ; unable to assist her, or provide for his own wants. In her present destitute situ ation, the smallest amount of relief would be thankfully received by her. Her condition is one of absolute want, and she has but a short time left to enjoy any better for tune in this world."* * Mrs. B. was in the receipt of a small rent received from a house in England, left to the family by the sister of Blennerhassett. JUSTICE. Her statement, with regard to the destruction of her property, and the acts of the officers of the Government, were fully corroborated by William Robinson, jun., and Morgan Neville, both of whom were present at the island when the occurrences took place. An estimate of the property destroyed was made out by Dudley Woodbridge, the former partner of Blennerhassett in mercantile trans actions, which also accompanied her petition. It would be presumed that, under such a state of cir cumstances, the American Congress would not long hesi tate in granting her full indemnity for past injuries. Mr. Clay presented the petition, and eloquently advocated its justice. He had known Blennerhassett in the noontide of his prosperity, when not a cloud darkened the horizon of his effulgent future ; he had visited his rural palace, and regaled himself with the luxuries it afforded. He had partaken of its hospitalities, and been entertained by the sprightly conversation of its inmates. He had wit nessed Blennerhassett's arrest, in Kentucky, and man fully exerted himself in his defense. He had afterward witnessed his declining fortunes ; and, when destruction had laid waste his possessions, had wandered over .the ruins with feelings of unsuppressed sympathy. The memorial having been referred to the appropriate committee, of which the Hon. William Woodbridge was chairman, he returned a report, alike honorable to his intelligence and clear sense of justice. He advocated the claim as legal and proper, and one which ought to be allowed, notwithstanding it had been thirty-six years since the events transpired. " Not to do so would be un worthy a wise or just nation." 654: THE BLENNERHASSETT PAPERS. The claim would doubtless have met with the favor of Congress, had not an event transpired, in the meanwhile, which rendered further action unnecessary. Death had visited the suffering applicant, and relieved her of earthly wants. In a humhle abode, in the city of !N"ew York, her spirit had silently departed ! No soothing hand of a relative fanned her fevered temples, nor wiped from her brow the chilly dews of expiring nature. Within that lonely chamber, it was reserved to strangers to witness the last sad scenes. She, who had been born in affluence ; to whom the world appeared, in early life, as Paradise before the fall ; who had been honored by the attentions of the great and the praises of the humble ; whose heart was ever open to the cries of distress, and whose hands were ever ready to relieve the wants of the needy, had, in her turn, to ask the charities of the world ! Although the kindly ministrations of a society of Irish females served, in some measure, to assuage the agonies of her parting hours, still it was hard to die thus destitute and deserted ; for " On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires." And now, as the sable hearse moved slowly along, fol lowed only by those devoted " sisters of charity," it ex cited no interest in the passing crowd. ~No mock pageant indicated the life or station of the deceased. In one of the cemeteries of that city remains all that is earthly of that once accomplished lady, separated from the tomb of her husband by the wide Atlantic. While on their REQUIESCAT. 655 graves \TC " clrrp /the, trjbuto of a tear," may we never forget the lesson taug'ot ns by their lives.* * It is proper >o add that the son H>i?n$iiJL xiied. in the city of New York, in 1854, after a protracted illness, in which he Was attended by the good offices of the ladies of the "Old Brewery" mission. Joseph Lewis Blen- nerhassett, the last survivor, is engaged, at the present time, in the prac tice of law at Troy, Lincoln county, Missouri, from whom the manuscripts for this memoir were obtained. ' : . : .. . - , < ' * APPENDIX. 657 APPENDIX: i. SECRET CORRESPONDENCE. GENERAL WILKINSON and Burr began their correspondence in cipher about the years 1800 and 1801, near the period at which the latter ascended the chair of the Vice-Presidency. For this purpose they adopted three different ciphers. The first is called the hieroglyphic : X 1/2) - O^l-f-^V"V^ y^vo-A" O President. O Vice-President. -i- Secretary of State. It was invented by General Wilkinson and Captain Camp bell Smith as long ago as the year 1794, '95, or '96, for the purpose of communicating confidentially with the general offi cers in the Western country. Another cipher, of a somewhat similar construction, was de vised by Captain Smith in 1791, in which the hieroglyphics representing the President and Vice-President are the same with those used in the cipher of Col. Burr. The second is denominated the arbitrary alphabet cipher; and was formed by Burr and Wilkinson in the year 1799 or 1800. ABCDEFGH. - i x x A V J & 1234 T L J n 42 658 APPENDIX. This cipher was nothing more than a substitution of char acters in the place of letters which actually compose the alpha bet. It was also used in figures, from one to ten. The third is styled the dictionary cipher and was adopted by them in the year 1800. The famous letters from Burr to Wilkinson, of the 22d July, 1806, delivered by Swartwout at Natchez, and its duplicate of the 29th of the same month, conveyed to Bollman, were written partly in each of these two ciphers, and partly in English. The Wilmington edition of Entick's Pocket Dictionary of 1800 served as the key, by which such part of the letters as were written in figures were to be interpreted. For example, if the figures 3 and 4 were used, the figure 3 pointed out the page in the book, and 4 the number of the word intended counting from the top in the first or second column on the page, which latter circumstance was indicated by a slight mark above or below the 4. General Dayton's letters of the 16th and 24th July, which were forwarded in company with Burr's by Swartwout and Bollman, were written partly in hieroglyphics and the ' arbi trary alphabetical ciphers, above described, partly in English, but principally in Dayton's own cipher, of which the key-word is FRANCE. It is composed in the following manner, the letters of the alphabet being numbered thus : 1234567890 abode fghij In order to decipher a letter or passage written in cipher, take the first letter of the key-word F, fix on the letter in the series of the alphabet; count forward from that letter as many letters as are equal to the first figure in the ciphered letter; as 8, for example, which will give I, and I will be the first letter of the first word; then take the second letter of the APPENDIX. 659 key-word R, and, in the same manner as in the first instance, count forward as many letters as are equal to the second fig ure ; as 2, which will give the second letter T, completing the first word, It. Continue the same way with the ensuing letters of the key-word, until they are finished ; and then begin again thus going through the key-word again and again until the letter is completed. In the ciphered letter the figure, or aggregate of figures rep resenting words, are separated by commas. There was another cipher in use among some of the accom plices in this enterprise, the key-word of which was CUBA. The use of this cipher may be understood from the following scheme and explanations : 1 C U B A 2 . . d . . v . . c . . b 3 , . e . . w . . d . . c 4 .. f . . X . . e . . d 5 g y . . f . . e 6 . . h . . z g .. f 7 . . i . . a .. h g 8 J . . b . . i . . h 9 . . k . . c J . . i 10 . . 1 . . d . . k J 11 . . m . . e . . 1 . . k 12 . . n . . f . . m . . 1 13 . . o cr . . n . . m 14 . . p . . h . . . . n 15 q . . i . . p . . 16 . . r J . . q . . p 17 . . s . . k . . r . . q 18 . . t .. 1 . . s . . r 19 . . u . . m . . t . . s 20 . . V . . n . . u . . t 21 . . w . . . . V . . u 22 . . X . . p . . w . . V 23 y . . q . . X . . w 24 . . z . . r y . . X 25 . . a . . s . . z y 26 . b . t . . a . . z 660 APPENDIX. In order to compose a letter in this species of cipher, find in the column under the first letter in the key-word the first letter of the word which you wish to write, and the figure opposite to this letter represents the first letter of that word. To find the figure expressive of the second letter, look for that letter in the second column, and the figure opposite to that letter, represents the second letter in the word. Continue in the same way with respect to the other two columns, if it be a word of three or four letters. But if it contains more than four letters, you must return to the first column, and proceed in the same manner ; that is, the fifth letter of the word is to be found in the first column under ; the sixth letter in the second column, and so on. Thus, if Hope was the first word in the epistle, look for the letter H in the first column under C, which is opposite the figure 6 as the repre sentative of the first letter; the letter is to be sought for in the second column, and is represented by the number 21 ; and so on with the letters P and E. In the ciphered letters, the figures representing letters are separated by periods. The reader will immediately perceive that besides France and Cuba, any other words might be used as key-words of these ciphers, according to the discretion of the writer and his correspondent. The difficulty of discovering the key to one of these ciphered letters would be still further augmented by the writer's shifting his key-word for different epistles, according to some rule previously agreed on. The difficulty would be incalculably increased, if the writer not only con tinues to shift his key -word, but the cipher itself. Richmond Enquirer of 1807. AiVENDIX. 661 II. THE BATTLE OF MUSKINGUM, OR DEFEAT OF THE BURRITES. NOVEMBER, 1806, BY GENERAL E. W. TUPPER. IT lias been the province of the bards in all ages to record the glorious achievements of their warriors. The heroes of the Nile, Marengo and Austerlitz, have had their honors re counted ; and shall not those of Muskingum live, while thous ands are forgotten ? Yes, ye virtuous few ! Ye also shall live ! and millions yet unborn, while passing, shall point to the shores of Muskingum and the plains of Marietta, and say, " There fought the brave, and there the immortal fell ! " The following imitation of the " Battle of the Kegs " is offered !.o the public, not without its many imperfections. The writer has, in several instances, chosen to sacrifice the harmony of his rhymes to the more essential article truth. Ye jovial throng, come join the song I sing of glorious feats, sirs ; Of bloodless wounds, of laurels, crowns, Of charges, and retreats, sirs ; Of thundering guns, and honors won, By men of daring courage; Of such as dine on beef and wine, And such a-s sup their porridge. 662 APPENDIX. "When Blanny's fleet, so snug and neat, Came floating down the tide, sirs, Ahead was seen, one-eyed Clark Green,* To work them, or to guide, sirs. Our General brave,f the order gave, " To arms ! to arms ! in season ! Old Blanny's boats, most careless float, Brim-full of death and treason!" A few young boys, their mother's joys, And five men there were found, sirs, Floating at ease each little sees Or dreams of death and wound, sirs. " Fly to the bank ! on either flank ! We'll fire from every corner; "We'll stain with blood Muskingum's flood, And gain immortal honor. The cannon there shall rend the air, Loaded with broken spikes, boys, While our cold lead t hurled by each head, Shall give the knaves the gripes, boys. Let not maids sigh, or children cry, Or mothers drop a tear, boys ; I have the BaronJ in my head ; Therefore you've nought to fear, boys Now to your posts, this numerous host; Be manly, firm and steady. But do not fire, till I retire, And say when I am ready." * A "bold man, well known in those days, t Major-General Buell. J The only system of military tactics then in use in the Western coun try, among the officers, was that of Baron Steuben. APPENDIX. 603 Tho Deputy,* courageously, Rode forth in power and pride, sirs; Twitching his reins, the man of brainsf Was posted by his side, sirs. The men in ranks stand on the banks, While, distant from its border, The active aid scours the parade, And gives the general order. "First, at command, bid them to stand; Then, if one rascal gains out, Or lifts his poll; G d d n his soul, And blow the traitors brains out." The night was dark ; silent came Clark With twelve or fifteen more, sirs; While Paddy Hill, with voice most shrill, Hooped ! as was said before, sirs. The trembling ranks, along the banks, Fly into Shipman's manger; While old Clark Green, with voice serene, Cried, " Soldiers, there 's no danger." " Our guns, good souls, are setting poles ; Dead hogs, I ! m sure, can 't bite you ; J Along each keel is Indian meal ; There 's nothing here need fright you." Out of the barn, still in alarm, Came fifty men, or more, sirs, And seized each boat and other float, And tied them to the shore, sirs. * Governor Meigs. f Name withheld. \ The boats had in them hogs recently slaughtered. 664 APPENDIX. This plunder rare, they sport and share, And each a portion grapples. 'T was half a kneel* of Indian meal, And ten of Putnam's apples/f The boats they drop to Allen's shop, Commanded by O'Flannon, Where, lashed ashore, without an oar, They lay beneath the cannon. This band so bold, the night being cold, And blacksmith's shop being handy; Around the forge they drink and gorge On whisky and peach-brandy. Two honest tars, who had some scars, Beheld their trepidation; Cries Tom, " Come, Jack, let's fire a crack; 'T will fright them like damnation. Tyler, they say, lies at Belpre, Snug in old Blanny's quarters; Yet this pale host tremble like ghosts, For fear he '11 walk on waters." No more was said, but off they sped, To fix what they 'd begun on; At one o'clock, firm as a rock, They fired the spun-yarn cannon. Trembling and wan stood every man ; Then bounced and shouted murder; While Sergeant Morse squealed like a horse, To get the folks to order. * A measure of two quarts. t There were a few apples in the boats belonging to A. W. Putnam, of Belprd. APPENDIX. 665 Ten men went out, and looked about; A hearty set of fellows ; Some hid in holes, behind the coals, And some behind the bellows. The Cor'ner* swore, the western shore, He saw with muskets bristle ; Some stamp'd the ground ; 't was cannon sound. They heard the grape-shot whistle. The Deputy mounted " Old Bay," When first he heard the rattle, Then changed his course, " great men are scarce ; " I 'd better keep from battle." The General f flew, to meet the crew, His jacket flying loose, sirs; Instead of sword, he seized his board; Instead of hat, his goose, sirs. 'Tyler's," he cried, "on 't other side; Your spikes will never do it; The cannon's bore will hold some more; Then thrust his goose into it." Sol raised his head ; cold spectres fled ; Each man resumed his courage; Captain O'Flan dismissed each man To breakfast on cold porridge. Joel Bowen. t Buell was a tailor by trade. '-. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE RECALL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS Book Slip-35m-7,'62(D296s4)458 263053 Call Number: E33U S15 Safford, W.H, The Blennerhassett E334 S15 263053