The Blennerhassett Papers: Embodying the Private Journal of Harman ...

PREFACE.

In the year 1850, the author published a small volume, entitled "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 custody of B.'s invalid son, in the city of New York, who could not be prevailed upon to submit them to the author's inspection. 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 unsatisfactory data, so far as it professed to relate the life of Blennerhassett, was in every material particular correct. But the additional fund of interesting and important information which was disclosed-particularly with reference to this most romantic episode of American history-seemed to impoce 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 memoranda, 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 au

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 important 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 suppress 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 information 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 correspondence.

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 biographer, 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 personal 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 politicians had discarded the amenities of social intercourse; when

Colonel Burr himself strove to give a partisan bias to the prosecution 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 invectives, 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 Expedition occasioned the parties immediately involved; whatever motives may have influenced the action of the executive in the prosecution of its leader, it is certainly now clear, that it maintained the integrity of the Union, and re-established the confidence 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 General Wilkinson should seem severe, the author can only say that they have been prompted through no feeling of personal enmity, 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 however 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