USA > Ohio > Biographical and historical memoirs of the early pioneer settlers of Ohio, with narratives of incidents and occurrences in 1775 > Part 38
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The next August we find Aaron Burr at Pittsburg, in company with his accomplished daughter, Mrs. Theodosia Alston, on his way down the Ohio river. He again visited the island, with his daughter, where he spent several days; he, in the meantime, taking up his abode at Marietta, where several of the inhabitants received him with marked atten- tion; while others looked upon him with contempt and
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abhorrence, as the murderer of Col. Hamilton; especially the old officers, friends and associates of that excellent man. It was in September, at the period of the annual militia muster; the regiment was assembled on the commons, and Col. Burr was invited by the commander to exercise the men, which he did, putting them through several evolutions. In the evening there was a splendid ball, at which he at- tended, and was long after known as the Burr ball.
Early in this month the contract was made for boats to be built on the Muskingum river, six miles above the mouth, for the purpose, as was said, of conveying the provisions and adventurers to the settlement in the new purchase. There were fifteen large bateaux; ten of them forty feet long, ten feet wide, and two and a half feet deep; five others were fifty feet long, pointed at each end, to push, or row up stream as well as down. One of these was consid- erably larger, and fitted up with convenient rooms, a fire- place, and glass windows; intended for the use of Mr. Blennerhassett and family, as he proposed taking them with him to the new settlement, and is an evidence he did not then think of any hostile act against the United States. To these was added a keel-boat, sixty feet long, for the transport of provisions. A contract for bacon, pork, flour, whisky, &c., was made, to the amount of two thousand dol- lars, and a bill drawn on Mr. Ogden, of New York, for the payment. The boats cost about the same sum, for which Mr. Blennerhassett was responsible. One main article of the stores was kiln-dried, or parched corn, ground into meal ; which is another evidence that the men engaged in the ex- pedition, were to march a long distance by land, and carry this parched meal on their backs ; of which, a pint mixed with a little water, is a day's ration, as practiced by the western Indians. Several hundred barrels of this article were prepared; some of which was raised on the island and
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parched in a kiln built for that purpose. The boats were to be ready by the 9th of December; rather a late period, on account of ice, which usually forms in this month; but they were tardy in making the contract.
Col. Burr remained in the vicinity three or four weeks, making a journey to Chillicothe. His son-in-law, Alston, came out and joined his wife at the island, and with her and Mr. Blennerhassett, who accompanied them, proceeded on to Lexington, Ky., early in October. Many young men in the vicinity of Marietta, Belpre, and various other points on the river, were engaged to join in the expedition; of which Col. Burr was the leader. They were told that no injury was intended to the United States; that the President was aware of the expedition and approved it; which was to make a settlement on the tract of land purchased by the leaders in the Baron Bastrop grant, and in the event of a war breaking out between this country and Spain, which had for some time been expected, they were to join with the troops under Gen. Wilkinson, and march into the Mexican provinces, whose inhabitants had long been ready for revolt, and prepared to unite with them. This was no doubt the truth, as believed by Mr. Blennerhassett, and those engaged under him, whatever may have been the ulterior views of Burr. Not one of all that number enlisted on the Ohio, would have hearkened for a moment, to a separation of the western from the eastern states; and when the act of the Ohio Legislature was passed, to suppress all armed assem- blages, and take possession of boats with arms and pro- visions, followed by the proclamation of the President, they, almost to a man, refused to embark further in the enterprise.
The bateaux were calculated to carry about five hundred men; and probably a large portion of that number had been engaged, expecting to receive one hundred acres of land for each private, and more for officers. As to their being required
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to furnish themselves with a good rifle and blanket, it was of itself no evidence of hostility; as it is customary, in making all new settlements, for men to be armed; as was the case with the forty-eight pioneers of the Ohio Company settlers, in 1788.
In the meantime, a rumor had gone abroad, that Col. Burr and his associates were plotting treason on the western wa- ters, and assembling an army to take possession of New Orleans, rob the banks, seize the artillery, and set up a sep- arate government west of the Alleghany mountains, of which he was to be the chief. From the evidence on the trial at Richmond, and other sources, it appears that Mr. Jefferson was acquainted with the plan of invading Mexico, in the event of a war with Spain, and approved it; so that Burr had some ground for saying that the government favored the project. But when no war took place, and the parties had become deeply involved in building boats, collecting provisions, and levying men, to which the baseness and treachery of Wilkinson directly contributed, it was thought a fitting time to punish the arch-enemy of the President, who, by his chicanery, had well nigh ousted him from the chair of state, and had since taken all opportunities to vil- ify and abuse him. Another evidence that the government was supposed to favor the enterprise, is the fact, that nearly all its abettors and supporters in the west, until the procla- mation appeared, were of the party called Republicans, or friends of Mr. Jefferson, and was opposed by the Federal- ists, who hated and despised Burr and all in which he was engaged, as, from the character of the man, they thought it boded nothing good.
By the last of October, rumor, with her thousand tongues, aided by hundreds of newspapers, had filled the minds of the people with strange alarms of coming danger, to which the mystery which overshadowed the actual object of these
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preparations greatly added, and many threats were thrown out, of personal violence to Mr. Blennerhassett and Col. Burr. Alarmed at these rumors of coming danger, Mrs. Blennerhassett dispatched Peter Taylor to Kentucky, with a letter requesting her husband immediately to return; where he had gone on a visit with Mr. Alston. The history of this journey, as related by Peter in his evidence on the trial, is an amusing sketch of simplicity and truth. He was the gardener on the island for several years, and was a single- hearted, honest Englishman, who, after his employer's ruin, purchased a farm at Waterford, in Washington county Ohio, where he lived many years, much respected for his industry and integrity.
During the month of September, and forepart of Octo- ber, there appeared a series of articles, four or five in num- ber, published in the Marietta Gazette, over the signature of Querist, in which the writer advocated a separation of the western from the eastern states, setting forth the rea- sons for, and advantages of, such a division. These were answered in a series of numbers, condemning the project, over the signature of Regulus. They were well-written, spirited articles. The former were probably written by Burr; and the author of the last has remained concealed. The result, however, was unfavorable to the project, and roused the public mind in opposition both to the man and the cause he had espoused. Some of the articles by Reg- ulus were much applauded by the editor of the Aurora, a leading government paper of that day, who considered the writer a very able and patriotic man.
The last of November, Mr. Jefferson sent out John Gra- ham, a clerk in one of the public offices, as a spy, or agent, to watch the motions of the conspirators in the vicinity of the island, and to ask the aid of the governor of Ohio in suppressing the insurrection, by seizing on the boats and
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preparations making on the Muskingum. While at Mari- etta, Mr. Blennerhassett called on the agent once or twice, talking freely with him on the objects of the expedition, and showed him a letter he had recently received from Col. Burr, in relation to the settlement on the Washita, in which he says that the project of invading Mexico was abandoned, as the difficulties between the United States and Spain were adjusted. He also mentioned his arrest and trial before the Federal Court, on charge of "treasonable practices," and "a design to attack the Spanish dominions, and thereby en- danger the peace of the United States;" of which he was acquitted. But all this would not satisfy Mr. Graham. He visited the governor at Chillicothe, laid before him the sur- mises of Mr. Jefferson ; and the Legislature, then in session, on the second day of December, with closed doors, passed an act authorizing the governor to call out the militia, on his warrant to any sheriff or militia officer, with power to arrest boats on the Ohio river, or men, supposed to be en- gaged in this expedition; and might be held to bail, in the sum of fifty thousand dollars, or imprisoned, and the boats confiscated. One thousand dollars were placed at the dis- posal of the governor, to carry out the law.
Under this act a company of militia was called out, with orders to capture and detain the boats and provisions on the Muskingum, with all others descending the Ohio, under suspicious circumstances. They were placed under the command of Capt. Timothy Buell. A six-pounder was planted in battery on the bank of the Ohio, in Marietta, and every descending boat examined. Regular sentries and guards were posted for several weeks, until the river was closed with ice, and all navigation ceased. Many amusing jokes were played off on the military during this campaign, such as setting an empty tar-barrel on fire, and placing it on an old boat, or a raft of logs, to float by on some dark,
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rainy night. The sentries, after hailing, and receiving no answer, fired several shots to enforce their order; but find- ing the supposed boat escaping, sent out a file of men to board and take possession, who, approaching in great wrath, were still more vexed to find it all a hoax.
On the 6th of December, just before the order of the governor arrived, Comfort Tyler, a gentleman from the state of New York, landed at the island with four boats and about thirty men, fitted out at the towns above, on the Ohio. On the 9th, a party of young men from Belpre went up the Muskingum to assist in navigating the bateaux and pro- visions of parched meal from that place to the island. But the militia guard received notice of their movements, and waylaying the river a little above the town, took possession of them all but one, which the superior management of the young men from Belpre enabled them to bring by all the guards, in the darkness of the night, and reach the island in safety. Had they all escaped, they would have been of little use, as the young men engaged had generally given up the enterprise, on the news of the President's proclama- tion, and the act of the Ohio Legislature.
Mr. Blennerhassett was at Marietta on the 6th of Decem- ber, expecting to receive the boats ; but they were not quite ready for delivery. On that day he heard of the act of the assembly, and returned to the island, half resolved to abandon the cause; but the arrival, that night, of Tyler, and the remonstrances of his wife, who had entered with great spirit into the enterprise, prevented him. Had he listened to the dictates of his own mind, and the sugges- tions of prudence, it would have saved him years of mis- fortune and final ruin.
In the course of the day of the 9th of December, he had notice that the Wood county militia had volunteered their services, and would that night make an attack on 33
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the island, arrest him, with the boats and men there as- sembled, and perhaps burn his house. This accelerated their departure, which took place on the following night. They had learned that the river was watched at several points below, and serious apprehensions felt for their future safety ; although the resolute young men on board, well armed with their rifles, would not have been captured by any moderate force. The Ohio river, from the Little to the Big Kenawha, is very crooked and tortuous; making the distance by water nearly double that by land.
Col. Phelps, the commander of the Wood county volun- teers, took possession of the island the following morning, and finding the objects of his search gone, determined not to be foiled, and started immediately on horseback across the country, for Point Pleasant, a village at the mouth of the Big Kenawha, and arrived there several hours before the boats. He directly mustered a party of men, to watch the river all night and arrest the fugitives. It being quite cold, with some ice in the stream, large fires were kindled, for the double purpose of warming the guard and more easily discovering the boats. Just before daylight, the men being well filled with whisky, to keep out the cold, became drowsy with their long watch, and all lay down by the fire. During their short sleep, the four boats seeing the fires, and aware of their object, floated quietly by, without any noise, and were out of sight before the guard awakened. They thus escaped this well laid plan for their capture, arriving at the mouth of the Cumberland, the place of rendezvous, unmolested.
On the 13th, Mr. Morgan Nevill and Mr. Robinson, with a party of fourteen young men, arrived and landed at the island. They were immediately arrested by the militia, be- fore the return of Col. Phelps. A very amusing account of this adventure is given in the "Token," an annual of 1836,
*
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written by Mr. Nevill, in which he describes their trial be- fore Justices Wolf and Kincheloe, as aiders and abettors in the treason of Burr and Blennerhassett. So far was the spirit of lawless arrest carried, that one or two persons in Belpre, were taken at night from their beds, and hurried over on to the island for trial, without any authority of law. This was a few days before the celebrated move in the Sen- ate of the United States, for the suspension of the act of habeas corpus, so alarmed had they become ; but was pre- vented by the more considerate negative of the House of Representatives After a detention of three days, the young men were discharged, for the want of proof.
Mrs. Blennerhassett, who had been left at the island, to look after the household goods, and follow her husband at a more convenient period, was absent at Marietta, when they landed, for the purpose of procuring one of the large boats that was fitted up for her use, and had been arrested at Marietta ; but was unsuccessful, and returned the evening after the trial.
The conduct of the militia, in the absence of their com- mander, was brutal and outrageous; taking possession of the house and the family stores in the cellar, without any authority, as their orders only extended to the arrest of Mr. Blennerhassett and the boats. They tore up and burnt the fences for their watch-fires, and forced the black servants to cook for them, or be imprisoned. One of them discharged his rifle through the ceiling of the large hall, the bullet pass- ing up through the chamber, near where Mrs. Blennerhassett and the children were sitting. The man said it was acci- dental; but being half-drunk, and made brutal by the whisky they drank, they little knew or cared for their actions.
On the 17th of December, with the aid of the young men, and the kind assistance of Mr. A. W. Putnam, of Belpre, one of their neighbors and a highly esteemed friend, she,
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with her children, was enabled to depart, taking with her a part of the furniture, and some of her husband's choice books. Mr. Putnam also furnished her with provisions for the voyage, her own being destroyed by the militia, in whose rude hands she was forced to leave her beautiful island- home, which she was destined never again to visit. They kept possession for several days after her departure, living at free quarters, destroying the fences, and letting in the cattle, which tramped down and ruined the beautiful shrub- bery of the garden, barking and destroying the nice or- chards of fruit trees, just coming into bearing; and this, too, was done by men, on many of whom Mr. Blennerhas- sett had bestowed numerous benevolent acts. It is due to the commander, Col. Phelps, to say that these excesses were mostly perpetrated in his absence, and that on his return he did all he could to suppress them, and treated Mrs. Blen- nerhassett with respect and kindness. This spot, which a short time before was the abode of peace and happiness, adorned with all that could embellish or beautify its ap- pearance, was now a scene of ruin, resembling the ravages of a hostile and savage foe, rather than the visitation of the civil law.
Before leaving the island, Mr. Blennerhassett, not expecting to return, had rented it to Col. Cushing, one of his worthy Belpre friends, with all the stock of cattle, crops, &c. He did all in his power to preserve what was left, and prevent further waste. Col. Cushing kept possession of the island. one or two years, when it was taken out of his hands by the creditors, and rented to a man who raised a large crop of hemp. The porticoes and offices were stowed full of this combustible article; when the black servants, during one of their Christmas gambols, in 1811, accidentally set it on fire, and the whole mansion was consumed. The furni- ture and library, a portion of which only was removed with
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the family, were attached, and sold at auction at a great sacrifice, to discharge some of the bills indorsed by him for Aaron Burr, a few months after his departure.
With her two little sons, Harman and Dominic, the one six, and the other about eight years old, she pursued her way down the Ohio to join her husband. The young men, her companions, afforded every aid in their power to make her situation comfortable; but the severity of the weather, the floating ice in the river, and the unfinished state of her cabin, hastily prepared for her reception, made the voyage a very painful one. Late in December she passed the mouth of the Cumberland, where she had hoped to find her husband; but the flotilla had proceeded out of the Ohio into the rapid waters of the Mississippi, and landed at the mouth of the Bayou Piere, in the Mississippi territory. The Ohio was frozen over soon after the boat in which she was embarked left it, and was not again navigable until the last of February, the winter being one of great severity. Early in January she joined the boats of Col. Burr, a few miles above Natchez, and was again restored, with her two little boys, to her husband, who received them with joy and grat- itude from the hands of their gallant conductors.
The whole country being roused from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and the hue and cry raised on all sides to arrest the traitors, Col. Burr abandoned the expedition as hopeless ; and assembling his followers, now about one hundred and thirty in number, made them a spirited speech, thanked them for their faithful adherence, amidst so much opposi- tion, and closed by saying that unforeseen circumstances had occurred, which frustrated his plans, and the expedition was at an end. All were now left, the distance of one thousand or fifteen hundred miles from their homes, to shift for them- selves. Several of the young men from Belpre, six or eight in number, returned in the course of the spring.
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Two brothers, Charles and John Dana, remained and set- tled near the Walnut hills; purchased lands, and entered into the cultivation of cotton.
Some time in January, Col. Burr and Mr. Blennerhassett were arrested, and brought before the United States Court, at Natchez, on a charge of treason, and recognized to ap- pear in February. Blennerhassett did appear, and was dis- charged in chief; no proof appearing to convict him of any treasonable design. Burr did not choose to appear; but soon after the recognizance, he requested John Dana, with two others, to take him in a skiff or row-boat, to a point about twenty miles above Bayou Pierre, and land him in the night; intending to escape across the country by land. The better to conceal his person from detection, before starting he exchanged his nice suit of broadcloth clothes and beaver hat with Mr. Dana, for his coarse boatman's dress, and old slouched white wool hat, which would effec- tually disguise him from recognition by his intimate ac- quaintance. He proceeded safely for some days; but was finally arrested on the Tombigbee river, and with many taunts and insults taken on to Richmond, where he arrived the 26th of March, 1807. No bill was found by the grand jury, until the 25th of June, when he was indicted on two bills ; one for treason and the other for a misdemeanor. After a long and tedious trial, he was acquitted, on a verdict of "not guilty."
Mr. Blennerhassett supposing himself discharged from further annoyance, some time in June started on a journey to visit the island, and examine into the condition of his property ; which, from various letters, he was told was going fast to waste and destruction. Passing through Lexington, Ky., where he had many friends and acquaintances, he was again arrested, on a charge of treason, and for some days confined in the jail; as an indictment had been found
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against him, as well as Burr, at Richmond. He employed Henry Clay as his counsel; who expressed deep indignation at the illegality of his client's arrest. "He had been dis- charged already in chief, and why should he be again ar- rested on the same supposed offense ?" But the govern- ment was unrelenting, and nothing but the conviction of the offender could appease their wrath. He was taken, with much ceremony and parade of the law, to Richmond, where he again met Burr, the originator of all his troubles and misfortunes. The magnanimity of the man is well shown, in that he never recriminated or accused his destroyer with deceiving him, inasmuch as he had entered voluntarily into his plans, and therefore did not choose to lay his troubles on the shoulders of another; although it is apparent, that if he had never seen Aaron Burr, he would have escaped this sudden ruin to his prosperity and happiness. The fol- lowing letter is from the pen of Mrs. Blennerhassett, ad- dressed to her husband at Lexington, and displays her noble and elevated mind, as well as her deep conjugal affection. It is copied from the sketch of Mr. Blennerhassett, by Wil- liam Wallace, published in vol. ii, of the American Review, 1845.
"NATCHEZ, August 3d, 1807.
MY DEAREST LOVE: After having experienced the greatest disappointment in not hearing from you for two mails, I at length heard of your arrest ; which afflicts and mortifies me, because it was an arrest. I think that had you of your own accord gone to Richmond and solicited a trial, it would have accorded better with your pride, and you would have es- caped the unhappiness of missing my letters, which I wrote every week to Marietta. God knows what you may feel and suffer on our accounts, before this reaches, 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
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.
inconvenience that your present situation may subject you to ; despising, as I do, the paltry malice of the upstart agents of government. Let no solicitude whatever for us, damp your spirits. We have many friends here, who do the utmost in their power to counteract any disagreeable sensation occa- sioned me by your absence. I shall live in the hope of hear- ing from you by the next mail; and entreat you, by all that is dear to us, not to let any disagreeable feelings on account of our separation, enervate your mind at this time. Re- member that all here will read with great interest, anything concerning you ; but still do not trust too much to yourself; consider your want of practice at the bar, and don't spare the fee of a lawyer. Apprise Col. Burr of my warmest ac- knowledgments for his own and Mrs. Alston's kind remem- brance, and tell him to assure her she has inspired me with a warmth of attachment which can never diminish. I wish him to urge her to write to me. God bless you, prays your
M. BLENNERHASSETT."
On Burr's acquittal, Mr. Blennerhassett was never brought to trial, but discharged from the indictment for treason, and bound over in the sum of three thousand dollars, to appear at Chillicothe, Ohio, on a misdemeanor; "for that whereas he prepared an armed force, whose destination was the Spanish territory." He did not appear, nor was he ever called upon again; and thus ended this treasonable farce, which had kept the whole of the United States in a ferment for more than a year, and, like "the mountain in labor, at last brought forth a mouse."
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