On the Ohio River, fourteen miles below Marietta, lies a
beautiful island, which became, in the early part of this
century, the scene of a singular romance. At that time it
was a wild and forest-clad domain, except for a few acres of
clearing near its upper extremity, on which stood a large
and handsome mansion, with spacious out-buildings and
surrounding grounds which were laid out with the finest
taste. The great elms and gigantic sycamore of the West gave
grandeur to the surrounding woodland, and afforded shelter
to grazing flocks and herds. Huge water-willows dipped their
drooping branches into the waves of the Ohio as they ran
swiftly by. In front of the mansion were several acres of
well-kept lawn. In its rear were two acres of flower-garden,
planted with native and exotic shrubs. Vine-covered arbors
and grottos rose here and there. On one side of the house
was the kitchen garden, stocked with choice fruit-trees.
Through the forest-trees an opening had been cut, which
afforded an attractive view of the river for several miles
of its course. On the whole, it was a paradise in the
wilderness, a remarkable scene for that outlying region, for
not far from the mansion still stood a large block-house,
which had, not many years before, been used as a place of
refuge in the desolating Indian wars.
Here dwelt Harman Blennerhasset and his lovely wife; he a
man of scientific attainments, she a woman of fine education
and charming manners. He was of Irish origin, wealthy, amply
educated, with friends among the highest nobility. But he
had imbibed republican principles, and failed to find
himself comfortable in royalist society. He had therefore
sought America, heard of the beautiful islands of the Ohio,
and built himself a home on one of the most charming of them
all.
We have described the exterior of the mansion. Interiorly it
was richly ornamented and splendidly furnished. The
drawing-room was of noble proportions and admirable
adornment. The library was well filled with choice books.
The proprietor was fond of chemistry, and had an excellent
laboratory; he enjoyed astronomy, and possessed a powerful
telescope; he had a passion for music, had composed many
airs, and played well on several instruments. He was, in his
way, a universal genius, courteous in manners, benevolent in
disposition, yet of that genial and unsuspicious nature
which laid him open to the wiles of those shrewd enough to
make use of his weak points.
Mrs. Blennerhasset loved society, and was none too well
pleased that her husband should bury himself and her in the
wilderness, and waste his fine powers on undeveloped nature.
Such guests of culture as could be obtained were hospitably
welcomed at their island mansion. Few boats passed up and
down the river without stopping at the island, and cultured
and noble persons from England and France not infrequently
found their way to the far-off home of the Blennerhassets.
Yet, withal, the intervals between the visits of cultivated
guests were long. Ohio was rapidly filling up with
population, but culture was a rare exotic in that pioneer
region, and the inmates of the Blennerhasset mansion must
have greatly lacked visits from their own social equals.
One day in the spring of 1805 a traveller landed on the
island, as if merely lured thither by the beauty of the
grounds as seen from the river. Mr. Blennerhasset was in his
study, whither a servant came to tell him that a gentlemanly
stranger had landed, and was observing the lawn. The servant
was at once bidden to invite the stranger, in his master's
name, to enter the house. The traveller courteously
declined. He could not think of intruding, begged to be
excused for landing on the grounds, and sent in his card.
Mr. Blennerhasset read the card, and his eyes lighted up
with interest, for what he saw was the name of a former
Vice-President of the United States. He at once hastened to
the lawn, and with polite insistence declared that Mr. Burr
must enter and partake of the hospitality of his house.
It was like inviting Satan into Eden. Aaron Burr, for it was
he, readily complied. He had made the journey thither for
that sole purpose. The story of Mr. Blennerhasset's wealth
had reached the East, and the astute schemer hoped to enlist
his aid in certain questionable projects he then
entertained.
But no hint of an ulterior purpose was suffered to appear.
Burr was noted for the fascination of his manners, and his
host and hostess were charmed with him. He was unusually
well informed, eloquent in speech, familiar with all social
arts, and could mask the deepest designs with the most
artless affectation of simplicity. All the secrets of
American political movements were familiar to him, and he
conversed fluently of the prospects of war with Spain, the
ease with which the Mexicans might throw off their foreign
yoke, and the possibilities of splendid pecuniary results
from land speculations within the Spanish territory on the
Red River.
This seed sown, the arch deceiver went his way. His first
step had been taken. Blennerhasset was patriotically devoted
to the United States, but the grand scheme which had been
portrayed to him seemed to have nothing to do with questions
of state. It was a land speculation open to private wealth.
Burr kept his interest alive by letters. The Blennerhassets
spent the next winter in New York and Philadelphia, and
there met Aaron Burr again. Not unlikely they came with that
purpose, for the hopes of new wealth, easily to be made,
were alluring and exciting. During that winter it is
probable that a sort of land-speculation partnership was
formed. Very rich lands lay on the Washita River, within
Spanish territory, said Burr, which could be bought for a
small sum. Then, by encouraging immigration thither, they
might be sold at enormous profit.
This was the Burr scheme as Blennerhasset heard it. The
dupe did not dream of the treasonable projects resting
within the mind of his dangerous associate. These were, to
provoke revolt of the people of Mexico and the northern
Spanish provinces, annex the western United States region,
and establish a great empire, in which Burr should be the
leading potentate.
Mr. Blennerhasset, once enlisted in the land-speculation
project, supplied the funds to buy the lands on the Washita,
and engaged in operations on a large scale for sending
settlers to the purchased domain. Colonel Burr came to
Marietta and took an active part in these operations.
Fifteen large flat-boats were built to convey the
immigrants, their furniture, and such arms as they might
need for repelling Indians. Five hundred men were fixed as
the number for the first colony, and this number Burr
succeeded in enlisting. Each was to have one hundred acres
of land. This was not in itself any great inducement where
land was so plentiful as in Ohio. But Burr did not hesitate
to hint at future possibilities. The lands to be colonized
had been peacefully purchased. But the Mexicans were eager
to throw off the Spanish yoke; war between the United States
and Spain might break out at any minute; Mexico would be
invaded by an army, set free, and the new pioneers would
have splendid opportunities in the formation of a new and
great republic of the West and South. Burr went further than
this. He had articles inserted in a Marietta newspaper,
signed by an assumed name, in which was advocated the
secession of the States west of the Alleghanies. These
articles were strongly replied to by a writer who signed
himself "Regulus," and with whose views the community at
large sympathized. His articles were copied by Eastern
papers. They spoke of the armed expedition which Colonel
Burr was preparing, and declared that its purpose was the
invasion of Mexico. Jefferson, then in the Presidential
chair, knew Burr too well to ignore these warnings. He sent
a secret agent to Marietta to discover what was going on,
and at the same time asked the governor of Ohio to seize the
boats and suppress the expedition.
Mr. Blennerhasset assured the secret agent, Mr. Graham, that
no thought was entertained of invading Mexico. The project,
he said, was an eminently peaceful one. But the public was
of a different opinion. Rumor, once started, grew with its
usual rapidity. Burr was organizing an army to seize New
Orleans, rob the banks, capture the artillery, and set up an
empire or republic of his own in the valley of the lower
Mississippi. Blennerhasset was his accomplice, and as deep
in the scheme as himself. The Ohio Legislature, roused to
energetic action by the rumors which were everywhere afloat,
passed an act that all armed expeditions should be
suppressed, and empowered the governor to call out the
militia, seize Burr's boats, and hold the crews for trial.
Public attention had been earnestly and hostilely directed
to the questionable project, and Burr's hopes were at an
end. The militia were mustered at Marietta, a six-pounder
was planted on the river-bank, orders were given to stop and
examine all descending boats, and sentries were placed to
watch the stream by day and night.
While these events were proceeding, Mr. Blennerhasset had
gone to the Muskingum, to superintend the departure of the
boats that were to start from that stream. While there the
boats were seized by order of the governor. The suspicions
of the people and government were for the first time made
clear to him. Greatly disturbed, and disposed to abandon the
whole project, costly as it had been to him, he hastened
back to his island home. There he found a flotilla of four
boats, with a crew of about thirty men, which had passed
Marietta before the mustering of the militia. They were
commanded by a Mr. Tyler.
Mr. Blennerhasset's judgment was in favor of abandoning the
scheme. Mrs. Blennerhasset, who was very ambitious, argued
strongly on the other side. She was eager to see her husband
assume a position fitting to his great talents. Mr. Tyler
joined her in her arguments. Blennerhasset gave way. It was
a fatal compliance, one destined to destroy his happiness
and peace for the remainder of his life, and to expose his
wife to the most frightful scenes of outrage and barbarity.
The frontier contained hosts of lawless men, men to whom
loyalty meant license. Three days after the conversation
described, word was brought to the island that a party of
the Wood County militia, made up of the lowest and most
brutal men in the community, would land on the island that
very night, seize the boats, arrest all the men they found,
and probably burn the house.
The danger was imminent. Blennerhasset and all the men with
him took to the boats to escape arrest and possibly murder
from these exasperated frontiersmen. Mrs. Blennerhasset and
her children were left in the mansion, with the expectation
that their presence would restrain the brutality of the
militia, and preserve the house and its valuable contents
from destruction. It proved a fallacious hope. Colonel
Phelps, the commander of the militia, pursued Blennerhasset.
In his absence his men behaved like savages. They took
possession of the house, became brutally drunk from the
liquors they found in the cellar, rioted through its
elegantly furnished rooms, burned its fences for bonfires,
and for seven days made life a pandemonium of horrors for
the helpless woman and frightened children who had been left
in their midst.
The experience of those seven days was frightful. There was
no escape. Mrs. Blennerhasset was compelled to witness the
ruthless destruction of all she held most dear, and to
listen to the brutal ribaldry and insults of the rioting
savages. Not until the end of the time named did relief
come. Then Mr. Putnam, a friend from the neighboring town of
Belpré, ventured on the island. He provided a boat in which
the unhappy lady was enabled to save a few articles of
furniture and some choice books. In this boat, with her two
sons, six and eight years old, and with two young men from
Belpré, she started down the river to join her husband. Two
or three negro servants accompanied her.
It was a journey of great hardships. The weather was cold,
the river filled with floating ice, the boat devoid of any
comforts. A rude cabin, open in the front, afforded the only
shelter from wind and rain. Half frozen in her flight, the
poor woman made her way down the stream, and at length
joined her husband at the mouth of the Cumberland River,
which he had reached with his companions, having distanced
pursuit. Their flight was continued down the Mississippi as
far as Natchez.
No sooner had Mrs. Blennerhasset left the island than the
slight restraint which her presence had exercised upon the
militia disappeared. The mansion was ransacked. Whatever
they did not care to carry away was destroyed. Books,
pictures, rich furniture were used to feed bonfires. Doors
were torn from their hinges, windows dashed in, costly
mirrors broken with hammers. Destruction swept the island,
all its improvements being ruthlessly destroyed. For months
the mansion stood, an eyesore of desolation, until some
hand, moved by the last impulse of savagery, set it on fire,
and it was burned to the ground.
What followed may be briefly told. So great was the
indignation against Burr that he was forced to abandon his
project. His adherents were left in destitution. Some of
them were a thousand miles and more from their homes, and
were forced to make their way back as they best could. Burr
and Blennerhasset were both arrested for treason. The latter
escaped. There was no criminating evidence against him. As
for Burr, he had been far too shrewd to leave himself open
to the hand of the law. His trial resulted in an acquittal.
Though no doubt was felt of his guilt, no evidence could be
found to establish it. He was perforce set free.
If he had done nothing more, he had, by his detestable arts,
broken up one of the happiest homes in America, and ruined
his guileless victim.
Blennerhasset bought a cotton plantation at Natchez. His
wife, who had the energy he lacked, managed it. They dwelt
there for ten years, favorites with the neighboring
planters. Then came war with England, and the plantation
ceased to afford them a living. The ruined man returned to
his native land, utterly worn out and discouraged, and died
there in poverty in 1831.
Mrs. Blennerhasset became a charge on the charity of her
friends. After several years she returned to the United
States, where she sought to obtain remuneration from
Congress for her destroyed property. She would probably have
succeeded but for her sudden death. She was buried at the
expense of a society of Irish ladies in the city of New
York. And thus ended the career of two of the victims of
Aaron Burr. They had listened to the siren voice of the
tempter, and ruin and despair were their rewards.