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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 following letter is from the pen of Mrs. Blennerhassett, addressed 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 Wm. 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 escaped 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 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 occasioned me by your absence. I shall live in the hope of hearing 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. 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 Col. 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 never can 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 $3000 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."

After the trial at Richmond in 1807, he returned to Natchez, where he staid about a year, and then bought, with the remains of his fortune, a plantation of one thousand acres, in Claiborne county, Mississippi, seven miles distant from Gibson Port, at a place called St. Catharines, and cultivated it with a small stock of slaves. While here he continued his literary pursuits, leaving Mrs. Blennerhassett to superintend both indoors and out. The embargo destroyed all commerce, and the war which soon followed put a stop to the sale of cotton, and blasted his hopes of reinstating his fortune from that source. In a letter to his attorney at Marietta, in 1808, wherein he proposes the sale of his island for slaves, he says, that with thirty hands on his plantation, he could in five years clear $60,000: cotton was then in demand, and brought a high price.

His lady, with her characteristic energy, rose at early dawn, mounted her horse and rode over the grounds, examining each field, and giving directions to the overseer, as to the work to be done that day, or any alteration to be made in the plans, which circumstances required.

They here had the society of a few choice friends in Natchez, and among the neighboring planters. On this plantation they passed ten years, in which time one son and a daughter were added to the number of their children. The daughter died when young.

Retaining still a fond recollection of his Marietta and Belprie friends, he in the year 1818 sent one of his sons to the college in Athens, Ohio, under the care of W. P. Putnam, the son of his old friend, A. W. Putnam. Here he remained a year; at the end of which time, finding his fortune still decreasing, and means much cramped by his endorsements for Col. Burr, amounting to thirty thousand dollars, ten thousand of which were repaid by Mr. Alston, he in 1819 sold his plantation and moved his family to Montreal; the Governor of the province, an old friend, having given him

hopes to expect a post on the Bench, for | Havoc and ruin, and rampant war, have past which he was well qualified. Over that Isle, with their destroying blast.

Misfortune having marked him for her own, soon after his arrival, his friend was removed from office, and his expectations frustrated. He remained here until the year 1822, when he removed his family to England, under an assurance of a post from the government, which was never realized, and resided in the town of Balb with a maiden sister.

It was while at Montreal, with prospects of poverty and blighted hopes thickening around her, that Mrs. Blennerhassett wrote those beautiful and touching lines describing "the island," and her once happy home, which are given below, as well worthy of preservation:

THE DESERTED ISLE."

I.

"Like mournful echo from the silent tomb, That pines away upon the midnight air, Whilst 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.

II.

"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'er desire.
Oh! why, dear isle, art thou not still my own?
Thy charms could then for all my griefs atone.

III.

"The stranger, that descends Ohio's stream, Charm'd with the beauteous prospects that arise,

Marks the soft isles, that 'neath the glistening
beam

Dance in the wave and mingle with the skies;
Sees also one, that now in ruin lies,
Which erst, like fairy queen, towered o'er the
rest,

In every native charm by culture dress'd.

IV.

"There rose the seat where once, in pride of life,

My eye could mark the queen of rivers flow, In summer's calmness or in winter's strife, Swollen with the rains, or battling with the

snow.

Never again my heart such joy shall know:

V.

"The blackening fire has swept throughout her halls,

The winds fly whistling through them, and the wave

No more in spring floods o'er the sand-beach crawls,

But furious drowns in one o'erwhelming

grave

Drive on, destructive flood; and ne'er again
Thy hallowed haunts, it watered as a slave.
On that devoted Isle let man remain.

VI.

"Too 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 e'er again display
The joyful coloring of thy prime array;—
Buried with thee, let them remain a blot,
With thee, their sweets, their bitterness, forgot.

VII.

"And oh! that I could wholly wipe away The memory of the ills that work'd thy fall; The memory of that all-eventful day

When I returned and found my own fair
hall

Held by the infuriate populace in thrall;
My own fireside blockaded by a band,
That once found food and shelter at my hand.

VIII.

"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.

IX.

"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 armed the plunder-greedy crew.

X.

"Thy shores are warmed by bounteous suns in
vain,

Columbia, if spite and envy spring
To blast the beauty of mild Nature's reign.
The European stranger, who would fling
O'er tangled woods refinement's polishing,
May find (expended every plan of taste)
His work by ruffians rendered doubly waste."

In addition to the expectation of office in England, Mr. B. also had hopes of recovering an interest he held in an estate in Ireland; both of these, however, failed. He ultimately resided in the Island of Guernsey, where he died in 1831, aged sixtythree years.

Eleven years after his death, in 1842, when his widow and children were reduced to extreme want, she returned to New York with one of her sons, both of them in very poor health, with the purpose of petitioning Congress for remuneration for the destruction of the property on the island by the Wood county militia in December, 1806.

The petition is couched in very feeling and appropriate language, in which she sets forth the outrages done to the house and property on the island.

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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 wretchednesswhich blighted the prospects of her children, and made herself, in the decline of life, a wanderer on the face of the earth."

This memorial was directed to the care of Henry Clay, then in the Senate of the United States, enveloped in a letter from R. Emmett, a son of the celebrated man of that name. He says, "She 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 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."

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"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 Mr. Clay presented the memorial to the that they left it in a state of comparative ruin Senate, with some very feeling and approand waste; and as instances of the mischiev-priate remarks; having been formerly well ous and destructive spirit which appeared to acquainted with the family, and employed govern them, she would mention that while as his attorney when arrested at Lexingthey occupied as a guard room one of the ton, Ky. best apartments in the house, (the building of which had cost nearly forty thousand dollars,) a musket or rifle ball was deliberately fired into the ceiling, by which it was much defaced and injured; and that they wantonly destroyed many pieces of valuable furniture.

"She would also state, that being apparently under no subordination, they indulged in continual drunkenness and riot, offering many indignities to your memorialist, and treating her domestics with violence.

"Your memorialist further represents, that these outrages were committed upon an unoffending and defenceless family in the absence of their natural protector, your memorialist's husband being then away from his 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,

It was taken up and referred to the Committee on Claims, of which the Hon, William Woodbridge was chairman. His report on the memorial is a very able and feeling document, in which he advocates the claim as just, and one which ought to be allowed, notwithstanding it had now been thirty-six years since the events transpired. He says, not to do so "would be unworthy of any wise or just nation, that is disposed to respect most of all its own honor."

The report sets forth all the circumstances attending the "Burr treason," as described in the foregoing biography. The documents which accompany the report are very interesting, especially the statement of Morgan Neville and William Robinson, Jr., two of the young men who were arrested and tried on the island as partisans of Burr, in Dec., 1806, and written for the future use of Mr. Blennerhassett, a few days after these events transpired. It is given as a correct history of the outrages on the island :

"Statement of Messrs. Neville and Robinson. | these transactions, as impression was made on

"On the 13th day of December, 1806, the boat in which we were was driven ashore, by ice and winds, on Backus' island, about one mile below Mr. Blennerhassett's house. We

landed in the forenoon, and the wind continuing unfavorable, did not afford us an opportunity of putting off until after three o'clock in the evening, at which time we were attacked by about twenty-five men, well armed, who rushed upon us suddenly, and we not being in a situation to resist the fury of a mob, surrendered. A strong guard was placed in the boat to prevent, we presume, those persons of our party who remained in the boat from going off with her, while we were taken to the house of Mr. Blennerhassett." "On our arrival at the house, we found it filled with militia. Another party of them were engaged in making fires (around the house) of rails, dragged from the fences of Mr. Blennerhassett. At this time Mrs. Blennerhassett was from home.

"When she returned, (about an hour after,) she remonstrated against this outrage on the property, but without effect. The officers declared that while they were on the island the property absolutely belonged to them. We were informed by themselves that their force consisted of forty men the first night, and the third day it was increased to eighty. The officers were constantly issuing the whisky and meal, which had been laid up for the use of the family; and when any complaint was made by the friends of Mrs. Blennerhassett, they invariably asserted that everything on the farm was their own property. There appeared to us to be no kind of subordination among the men ; the large room they occupied on the first floor, presented a continued scene of riot and drunkenness; the furniture appeared ruined by the bayonets, and one of the men fired his gun against the ceiling; the ball made a large hole which completely spoiled the beauty of the room. They insisted that the servants should wait upon them before attending to their mistress; when this was refused, they seized upon the kitchen and drove the negroes into the washhouse.

"We were detained from Saturday evening until Tuesday morning; during all which time, there were never less than thirty, and frequently from seventy to eighty men, living in this riotous manner, entirely on the provisions of Mrs. Blennerhassett. When we left the island, a cornfield near the house, in which the corn was still remaining, was filled with cattle, the fences having been pulled down to make fires. This we pledge ourselves to be a true statement of

us at the time.

MORGAN NEVILLE, WM. ROBINSON, JR."

Charles Fenton Mercer, Esq., also, in September, 1807, soon after the trial at Richmond, made a full statement of his knowledge of the events on which the accusation against Mr. Blennerhassett was founded, as they transpired between the 20th of September and 6th of December, 1806, having been himself at the island in November, with his opinion of the object of the expedition, in which he fully clears Mr. Blennerhassett of any design against the peace and quiet of the United States.

Mr. D. Woodbridge, of Marietta, in a letter to the Chairman of the 2d April, 1842, makes a statement of the loss of property from the attachment of the government, and the riotous conduct of the Wood county volunteers on the island. In August, 1842, while the subject was under consideration, news arrived of the death of Mrs. Blennerhassett at New York, and nothing more was done in the matter.

She who had lived in wealth and splendor, and imparted charity to hundreds of the poor, was indebted to others for a grave. She died in the most destitute condition; and her last days passed under the soothing care of a charitable society of Irish females in New York, by whom she was buried.

The reverses in this accomplished woman's fortune, and in that of her amiable husband, illustrate the uncertainties of human life, and unfold the mysterious doings of Providence with the children of

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THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE,

AND THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

Both the President and his Secretary enter into labored arguments to prove the superiority of what they call revenue tariffs over all other tariffs, and especially over tariffs for protection. Thus the President in his message to Congress in December, 1845, says :

"The object of imposing duties on imports should be to raise revenue to pay the necessary expenses of government. Congress may, undoubtedly, in the exercise of a sound discretion, discriminate in arranging the rates of duty on different articles; but the discriminations should be within the revenue standard, and be made with the view to raise money for the support of government.'

THESE are important documents, if not on account of their own intrinsic merits, at least on account of the positions occupied by their authors. If they have not the merit of able state papers, they have the merit of containing some facts very important to be known and duly appreciated by the people of the United States. They have also the merit of containing the strong points of the argument (if the argument have any strong points) in favor of free trade, and a labored defence of that suicidal tariff act of 1846. These documents give us the practical operation of that act during seven months of the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1847, and in part its practical operation for one whole What the President means by the year, commencing December 1st, 1846, and phrase, revenue standard, will perhaps apending November 30th, 1847. Why the pear more clearly from the following expractical operation of the act for the lat-quisite piece of reasoning :ter period was not given in full, is what we should like to know, but which neither the President nor the Secretary has seen fit to inform us. From the facts given, however, we shall be able to ascertain pretty accurately the facts withheld.

The President, for example, states that the amount of revenue paid into the Treasury during the first year of the tariff of 1846, was about thirty-one and a half millions of dollars. But he does not tell us either the amount of exports or imports during that year, and of course we cannot ascertain the average per centum of duties upon the whole importation of that year; but as the amounts of exports and imports for the fiscal year ending the 30th June, 1847, and also the amount of duties collected on those imports are given, we can ascertain precisely the average per centum of duty upon the whole importation of that year, which will enable us to guess pretty accurately what was the average per centum of duty on the whole importation for the year ending the 30th November. With these data, therefore, we shall be able to test the comparative merits of the tariffs of 1842 and 1846.

"It becomes important to understand distinctly what is meant by a revenue standard,

the maximum of which should not be exceeded in the rates of duty imposed. It is conceded, and experience proves, that duties may be laid so high as to diminish or prohibit altogether the importation of any given article, and thereby lessen or destroy the revenue which, at lower rates, would be derived from its importation. Such duties exceed the revenue rates, and are not imposed to raise money for the support of government. If Congress levy a duty for revenue of one per cent. on a given article, it will produce a given amount of money to the treasury, and will incidentally and necessarily afford protection or advantage to the amount of one per cent. to the home manufacturer of a similar or like article over the im

porter. If the duty be raised to ten per cent., it will produce a greater amount of money, and afford greater protection. If it be still raised to twenty, twenty-five, or thirty per cent., and if, as it is raised, the revenue derived from it is found to be increased, the protection or advantage will also be increased; but if it be raised to thirty-one per cent., and it is found that the revenue produced at that rate is less than at thirty per cent., it ceases to be a revenue duty. The precise point in the ascending scale of duties at which it is ascertained from experience that the revenue is greatest, is the maximum

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