OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - HISTORY: Chapter 30 (Abbott, John S. C., 1875)
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			      Chapter XXX
		        The Devastated Island

   While the boats were being built, Colonel Burr visited many of the
settlements in those remote regions, to engage enterprising and hardy young
men as recruits. There was something peculiarly fascinating to a romantic
mind in the expedition. To float down unknown streams, of almost fabulous
grandeur, for one or two thousand miles, then to ascend a stream, fringed
with almost the luxuriance and bloom of the tropics, and to go in strength
which disarmed fear, presented remarkable allurements to sanguine youth.
Colonel Burr addressed the young men, not only of Marietta, Belpre, and other
points on the same river, but went to Chilicothe, and to Lexington, 
Kentucky. He told them that President Jefferson, who was exceedingly popular
throughout the West, was fully informed of the objects of the expedition, 
and that they met with his cordial approval. Confidentially, as it were, he 
informed them, that though the enterprise was entirely a peaceful one, to
take possession of the immense grant, which had been purchased of Baron
Bastrop, still there was great probability that a war might ere long break
out between the United States and Spain; that the Mexicans were very anxious
to throw off the Spanish yoke; that the moment war was declared Congress
would send a large army to Mexico, around whose banners the inhabitants 
would enthusiastically rally. Thus Mexico would be wrested from Spain, almost
without a struggle. Then his little band of five hundred sturdy pioneers would
have the moulding of a majestic empire, on the foundations of democratic
equality, and might enrich themselves almost beyond the dreams of romance.
   These were undoubtedly the views which imbued the minds of the emigrants
generally, and which duped and bewildered the imagination of Blennerhassett.
Still, rumors began to be circulated that the intriguing Aaron Burr was 
plotting some mischief against the United States. During the months of
September and October Colonel Burr had caused to be inserted in the Marietta
Gazette a series of able articles advocating the secession of the western
states from those east of the Alleghenies. These articles appeared over the
signature of Querist. They were replied to in convincing logic, sternly 
condemning these views, by a writer over the signature of Regulus. The 
sympathies of the community were manifestly with Regulus. His articles were
extensively copied and read. They directed the attention of the whole country
to the armed expedition which Colonel Burr was preparing for the invasion
of Mexico. President Jefferson became alarmed. He knew Aaron Burr thoroughly, 
and was well aware of his ambition and his powers of intrigue.
   In November he sent out a secret agent, Mr. John Graham, who was connected
with one of the offices in Washington, to report respecting the proceedings
of Burr at Marietta and at Blennerhassett Island. At the same time he 
solicited the aid of the Governor of Ohio, to suppress the military expedition, 
by seizing the boats. There was peace between the United States and Spain, 
and Jefferson considered the invasion of Mexico with such an armed force as
totally unjustifiable. Mr. Graham had several interviews with Mr. Blennerhassett,
and was assured by him that since there was no probability of war between
Spain and the United States, Mr. Burr had entirely relinquished the plan of
invading Mexico, and thought only of the establishment of a peaceful colony
on the banks of the Washita.
   In the meantime, rumor, with her thousand tongues, was busy inextricably
blending truth with falsehood. It was said that Colonel Burr and his 
associates were plotting treason on the western waters; that they were
organizing an army to capture New Orleans, rob the banks, seize the artillery,
and set up a new government west of the Alleghenies. It was known that Colonel
Burr hated President Jefferson; that he had done everything in his power to
heap abuse upon him, and to thrust him from the presidential chair. The 
guileless Blennerhassett was considered an accomplice of Burr, and necessarily
shared in the detestation which the arch-conspirator had brought against
himself. The Ohio Legislature passed an act to suppress all armed expeditions, 
and to seize all boats and provisions engaged in such unlawful enterprises.
The Governor was authorized to call out the militia, to arrest any boats on 
the Ohio River engaged in Burr's expedition, to confiscate the boats and 
cargo, and to hold the crew for trial, by imprisonment or under bail of
fifty thousand dollars.
   The militia were called out; the boats on the Muskingum were seized; a 
six-pounder was placed on the banks of the river at Marietta, to arrest and
examine every boat descending the river. Sentries were placed to watch the 
stream by day and by night.
   On the sixth of December, just before these energetic orders from the
governor were issued, a Mr. Tyler, from New York, one of Burr's agents, 
landed at Blennerhassett Island with about thirty men, in four boats, which
had been fitted out from the settlements above. Mr. Blennerhassett had that
day gone to Marietta to superintend the departure of the boats from the 
Muskingum. He there heard of the act of the Assembly. Much troubled in mind,
and with no disposition to enter into a conflict with the constituted
authorities, he returned to the island, quite disposed to relinquish the
whole enterprise, and patiently to bear his heavy losses. But Mrs. Blennerhassett
was a very ambitious woman. She had entered into the grand enterprise with
all the enthusiasm of her nature. She was fully aware of the high intellectual
endowments of her husband, and her wifely pride was roused to see him occupy
posts of influence worthy of his abilities. Mr. Tyler also united with Mrs.
Blennerhassett in remonstrances against any abandonment of the undertaking
at this late hour. Had Mr. Blennerhassett followed the dictates of his own
judgement, he would have been saved from one of the most dreadful tragedies
which ever befel a family on earth.
   Three days after this he received the alarming intelligence that the Wood
County Militia would that very night, under its commander, Colonel Pierce, 
land upon the island, seize the boats, arrest him and all the men there, 
and probably, in their exasperation, burn his house. Not a moment was to be
lost. There was no knowin what outages these lawless men might inflict upon
a family whom they denounced as traitors. It was stated that the men who had
volunteered for the attack upon the island were of the lowest and most 
desparate class in the community. Mr. Blennerhassett and the men, well armed
with rifles, immediately embarked on board the boats.
   The Ohio, between the island and the Great Kanawha, is very circuitous, 
making the distance by water double of that by land. Colonel Phelps, upon 
arriving at the island and finding that the objects of his search had escaped,
immediately went with a part of his force on horseback down the river on the
Kentucky shore to Point Pleasant, there to arrest the boats when they should
reach that spot. In the meantime Mrs. Blennerhassett, with great intrepidity, 
remained at home with her children. It was hoped that their presence would
operate as some restraint upon the brutal soldiery, and might preserve her
home and its precious contents from destruction.
   But the soldiers, taking advantage of the absence of their commander, 
behaved like savages. Their order extended only ot the arrest of Mr. 
Blennerhassett and the armed men they might find with the boats. But they 
immediately took possession of the house, rioted through all its elegant
apartments, seized upon all the family stores, became drunk with the wine 
and whisky they found in the cellar, compelled the negroes to cook for them,
burned the fences for bon-fires, and committed outrages which would have
disgraced any band of savages. One of the drunken wretches fired a rifle
bullet through the ceiling of the large hall, the ball passing through the 
chamber near where Mrs. Blennerhassett was sitting with her children. Thus
passed seven days of horror.
   At length, on the 17th, a gentleman from Belpre, Mr. A. W. Putnam, a warm
friend of the family, ventured upon the island to render such assistance as
might be in his power to the heroic woman. He succeeded in providing her
with a boat, in which she stored a few articles of furniture, and some of 
her husband's choicest books. Mr. Putnam furnished her from Belpre with some
provisions, as all of her own had been consumed or destroyed by the soldiers.
Taking her two little sons, Harmon and Dominick, with her, the one six and the
other eight years old, she pursued her way down the Ohio to join her husband.
It was a cold winter's day. The river was filled with floating ice; the boat,
hastily prepared, was far from comfortable. The cabin was open and cold and
cheerless. She and her children suffered severely. A few heroic young men
from Belpre accompanied her in these hours of terrible adversity. With 
tearful eyes, as the boat floated away, she cast a lingering look upon her
beloved island, which she was destined never to visit again.
   The soldiers kept possession of it for several days after her departure.
They seemed to riot in wanton destruction. The cattle were turned into the
garden; the shrubbery and flowers were trampled down and ruined; the orchards
of choice fruit trees, just coming into bearing, were either girdled or cut
down. A few days had transformed this loveliest spot, perhaps, on the continent 
of North America into a scene of utter desolation and ruin. And these
atrocities were perpetrated, not by savages, but by white men; by citizens 
of the United States, who had been commisioned as the executors of salutary
law. We may here mention that one or two years after this the dilapidated
mansion took fire, and with all the remaining furniture, books, and apparatus.
was laid in ashes. Thus this vision of loveliness passed away forever.
   But let us return Colonel Phelps. Rapidly he descended with his mounted
band to the mouth of the Great Kanawha, there to await the arrival of the
boats which bore Mr. Blennerhassett and his friends. Reaching this point in
the evening, he encamped his riotous crew upon the banks of the river to 
watch through the night. It was very cold, and the men built immense fires,
not only for warmth, but the throw the light across the stream, so that the
boats might not pass unseen in the darkness. The men were well provided with
whisky, and the first part of the night was passed in riotous orgies. But
towards morning, stupified with drink, and drowsy from watching, they all
fell soundly asleep.
   As the boats came in sight of the fires, the occupants were well aware of
their significance, and abstaining from the slightest noise, the four boats
drifted by, on the silent current, without awaking the drunken sleepers. 
Having escaped this peril the boats floated rapidly on to their appointed
rendezvous, at the mouth of the Cumberland River.
   Mrs. Blennerhassett, with her children, commenced her voyage a week after
the departure of her husband. Upon arriving at the mouth of the Cumberland
River, where she hoped to find him, she learned, to her disappointment, that
his little flotilla had proceeded out of the Ohio into the rapid waters of 
the Mississippi, and had probably by that time reached Bayou Pierre, in the
Mississippi territory. She followed after him. Winter soon set in with great
severity. Soon after the boat in which she was embarked left, the Ohio River
was entirely frozen over, and was not again navigable until the last of
February.
   Early in January she overtook her husband near Natchez, and she and her
children were surrendered to his care by her gallant conductors. The whole
country was now aroused into a general cry of indignation against Burr and
his confederates. Burr was consequently compelled to abandon the enterprise
as hopelss. He assembled his followers, about one hundred and thirty in
number, thanked them for their adherence to his cause, but stated that 
circumstances which he could not have anticipated or controlled had frustrated
all his plans, and that the enterprise must be entirely abandoned. Many of
those who had embarked in the expedition were left to shift for themselves 
one thousand or fifteen hundred miles from their homes. Some time in January, 
Colonel Burr and Mr. Blennerhassett were both arrested and brought before the 
United States Court at Natchez on the charge of treason, and were put under
bonds to appear in February.
   Colonel Burr forfeited his bond. Mr. Blennerhassett appeared, but as no
proof whatever of any treasonable design could be brought against him, he
was acquited. Soon after Burr hired three men to row him about twenty miles
up the river to a point where he landed in the night. Here he laid aside his
nice suit of broadcloth and his beaver hat, and dressed himself in the 
coarse garb of a boatman, with a slouched, soiled, white wool cap. The disguise
was so effectual that his most intimate friends could not have recognized
him. He then started to cross the country through the wilderness.
   He was, however, arrested on the Tombigbee River, and carried to Richmond
for trial on two indictments, one for treason and the other for misdemeanor.
The trial was long and tedious. But he was acquitted of both charges, as there
was no evidence found sufficient to convict him.
   Mr. Blennerhassett, after his trial and acquittal by the United States
Court at Natchez, supposed himself safe from all further annoyance from the 
laws. He therefore started to visit his desolated island, intending to
dispose of the remainder of his property there, and to return and take a 
plantation in the vicinity Natchez. His wife and family were left behind.
Upon reaching Lexington he was very strangely, it would seem unwarrantably, 
again arrested on a charge of treason, and was for several days confined in
the common jail. He employed Henry Clay as his counsel. This distinguished
jurist was very indignant that his client should be exposed to these unjust
proceedings. He exclaimed: "Mr. Blennerhassett has already been tried and 
acquitted. Where is the justice in again arresting him for the same supposed
offense?"
   But the government was unrelenting. Somebody must be punished. With much
parade he was conducted to Richmond for trial. There he met Aaron Burr. The
ruined man manifested much magnanimity in not uttering a single word of
reproach to one who had proved the destroyer of all his prosperity and 
happiness. Indeed, it is not probable that either he or Mrs. Blennerhassett
had seen anything in the plans of Colonel Burr which was in the slightest
degree criminal. Mrs. Blennerhassett, hearing of her husband's arrest, wrote
the following touching letter to him, dated Natchez, August 3, 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 you of your own accord gone to
Richmond and solicited 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 Marietta.
   "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 that 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 the 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 occasioned me
by your absence.
   "I shall live in the hope of hearing from you by the next mail; and entreat
you not to let any disagreeable feelings on account of our separation 
enervate your mind at this time. Remember 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 do not spare the fee of a 
lawyer.
   "Apprise Colonel Burr of my warmest acknowledgments for his own and Mrs.
Alston's kind remembrance, and tell him to assure her she has inspired me
with a warmth of attachment which can never dimish. I wish him to urge her
to write to me.
			"God bless you, prays your
					"MARGARET BLENNERHASSETT"
   The second arrest of Mr. Blennerhassett was so totally unjustifiable that
he was never brought to trial. He was bound over in the sum of three 
thousand dollars to appear at Chillicothe, Ohio, to answer to the charge of
"having prepared an armed force whose destination was the Spanish Territory."
He did not appear, and no notice was taken of it.
   He soon returned to Natchez, and with the remains of his fortune purchased
a plantation of a thousand acres in Claiborne County, Mississippi, about
seven miles from Fort Gibson. This he worked with about thirty slaves, of whom
the energetic Mrs. Blennerhassett was superintendent. Cotton was high and
found a ready market. Prospects brightened. He wrote to a friend, "In five
years, with thirty hands, I can clear sixty thousand dollars."
   Mrs. Blennerhassett rose at early dawn, mounted her house, and rode over
the large plantation, visiting every field, and giving minute directions to
the overseer as to the work to be accomplished during the day. All the operations
of the plantation were controlled by her judicious decisions. Here they lived
for ten years, enjoying the society of the neighboring planters. Mr. 
Blennerhassett, having but little taste for business, devoted himself to his
literary and scientific pursuits, in which he found much enjoyment, but no
pecuniary profit. But again the days of darkness lowered over them. The war
with England came with the cruel embargo. All commerce was stopped, cotton
became nearly valueless. The profits of the plantation hardly met its
running expenses. Mr. Blennerhassett, quite disheartened, and being greatly
cramped by endorsements for Colonel Burr, amounting to thirty thousand dollars,
sold out, and moved to Montreal. One of his intimate friends of former days
was then governor of the province, and had invited him to come, with the 
promise of an appointment to a seat on the bench for which he was well qualified.
But misfortune seemed still to pursue him. He had scarcely reached Montreal
ere his friend, the governor, was removed from office and all his hoped were
frustrated. His friends urged him to return to England with the assurance of
a lucrative post from government. But political expectations are proverbially
uncertain. He repaired to England and took up his residence with a maiden
sister at Bath. No governmental office was open to him.
   While at Montreal, when blighted hopes and prospects of poverty were
thickening around them, Mrs. Blennerhassett wrote her beautiful poem, entitled
"The Deserted Isle." It was the outgushing of her heart in lamentation over
the once happy home upon the island now lost forever. We give a few of the 
stanzas:

			THE DESERTED ISLE.

		Like mournful echo from the silent tomb, 
		  That pines away upon the midnight air, 
		While the pale moon breaks out with fitful gloom,
		   Fond memory turns with sad, but welcome care, 
		   To scenes of desolation and despair,
		Once bright with all that beauty could bestow,
		That peace could shed, or youthful fancy know.

		To thee, fair isle, reverts the pleasing dream;
		   Again thou risest in thy green attire, 
		Fresh as at first thy blooming graces seem;
		   Thy groves, thy fields, their wonted sweets respire;
		   Again thou'rt all my heart could e're desire.
		O why, dear isle, art thou not still my own?
		Thy charms could then for all my griefs atone.

		For many blissful moments there I've known;
		   Too many hopes have there met their decay, 
		Too many feelings now forever gone,
		   To wish that thou wouldst ere again display
		   The joyful coloring of thy prime array.
		Buried with thee, let them remain a blot;
		With thee, their sweets, their bitterness forgot.

		And oh! that I could wholly wipe away
		   The mem'ry of the ills that work'd thy fall;
		The mem'ry of that all-eventful day,
		   When I returned and found my own fair hall
		   Held by the infuriate populace in thrall,
		My own fireside blockade by a band
		That once found food and shelter at my hand.

		My children! (oh! a mother's pangs forbear,
		   Nor strike again that arrow through my soul.)
		Clasping the ruffians in suppliant prayer,
		   To free their mother from unjust control;
		   While with false crimes, and imprecations foul,
		The wretches, vilest refuse of the earth,
		Mock jurisdiction held, around my hearth.

		Sweet isle! methinks I see thy bosom torn,
		   Again behold the ruthless rabble throng.
		That wrought destruction, taste must ever mourn.
		   Alas! I see thee now, shall see thee long,
		   Yet ne'er shall bitter feelings urge the wrong,
		That to a mob would give the censure due,
		To those that arm'd the plunder-greedy crew.

   In England Mr. Blennerhassett encountered a double disappointment. He
hoped for office, but obtained none; he hoped to recover an interest he held
in an estate he had owned in Ireland, but failed. In greatly straitened
circumstances he removed to the Island of Guernsey, where he died a world-weary,
heart-broken man, in the year 1831, in the sixty-third year of his age. His
widow, with her children, was reduced to extreme want. Ten years after his 
death she returned to America with one of her sons, both in feeble health,
to petition Congress for renumeration for the destruction of her property by
the Wood County Militia in December, 1806.
   The petition she sent to Congress was a very appropriate and pathetic
document. "Your memorialist," she wrote, "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 
state of comparative ruin and waste. Being apparently under no subordination,
they indulged in continued 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 nature protector, your memorialist's husband being then away from his
home. 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 priviledged 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 blightened
the prospects of her children, and made herself, in the decline of life, a
wanderer on the face of the earth."
   This memorial was transmitted to Henry Clay, then in the Senate of the
United States. It was accomplished by a letter from Mr. Emmet, son of a 
distinguished lawyer and orator of that name. In his letter Mr. Emmet writes:
   "Mrs. Blennerhassett is now in this city, residing in very humble
circumstances, bestowing her cares upon a son, who, by long poverty and sickness,
is reduced to utter imbecility, both of mind and body, unable to assist her
or to provide for his own wants. In her present destitute situation, 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 fortune in this world."
   Mr. Clay had formerly been well acquainted with the family, and it will 
be remembered that he was Mr. Blennerhassett's attorney, when so unjustly
arrested in Lexington, Kentucky. He presented the memorial to the Senate in
touching words, which moved all hearts. It was referred to the Committee
on Claims. Mr. William Woodbridge, the chairman, reported very strongly in
favor of granting the petitioner's request. In his report he entered into
a detailed account of what is called "The Burr Conspiracy," and of Mr.
Blennerhassett's undeniable innocence.
   "Under these circumstances," he said, "is to deny the petition of the
memorialist, would be unworthy of any wise or just nation that is disposed
to respect most of all its own honor."
   While the subject was thus under consideration, Mrs. Blennerhassett passed
away from all the sorrows of time into that sleep that knows no earthly
waking. The question was dropped in Congress, not again to be revived. Mrs.
Blennerhassett, whose early days had been surrounded by wealth and splendor,
who had moved, one of the most brilliant and accomplished of ladies, in the
very highest circles of rank and culture known on earth, who, with a sympathetic
heart, had ministered abundantly to the wants of the poor and the friendless,
was herself indebted to the hand of charity for nursing in her last sickness,
and for the expenses of her burial.