Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1872-10-03

family to beggary. And his wife, in
her way, was not much wiser than him.
self, although abundantly competent, i
she had remained at home, to shine in
the sphere in which she was born.
So passed eight years. In 1905, Aaron
Burr set on foot his famous expedition
for the conquest of Mexico, and on his
way to the west to make preparations
and to beat up recruits, he became &C.
quainted with the eBlennerhassetts. AL
ready they were embarrassed for money
and were more anxious to sell their es
tate than they had ever been to acquire
it. Burr offered him share in his daz
zling enterprise; and probably convey
ed, in some way, to the eager credulou;
Irishman, that when the prize had
been won, it was he who should repre-.
sent the empire of Aaron /. at the
Court of st. James's. So far as we
know, Burr practiced no deception
upon him; for ifthere was a man in the
world who more entirely believed in
the feasibility ofhis Mexican enterprise
than any other man, IL was Aaron Burr
himself.
Before the scheme was well organ.
lied, as all the world knows, President
Jefferson shattered it to pieces with g
bolt no more formidable than a procla.
nation. Burr was arrested and taken
to Richmond for trial. BIennerhasset
charged with completely with him, was
also conveyed to Richmond a prisoner,
His island was overrun by wild Ohio
militia; his gardens trampled into ruin;
his out-houses destroyed; and his man.
sion defaced. After a detention in
Richmond of many tedious and expen.
sive months, he was discharged, and
rejoined his family at Natchez.
He then gathered the remains of his
property, and bought a cotton planta-
ton of thousand acres in Mississippi;
and upon it he placed a few slaves. An
able man could have made a fortune
upon that virgin soil, in that early day
of the cotton culture; as, indeed, many
of his neighbors did, who had never
seen an electrical machine and knew
not note of music. It twas Mrs. Blen-
nerhasset who managed the plantation,
so far as It was managed. 1t was she
who, at the dawn, mounted her horse,
and saw that the labors of the day were
begun. Her exertions, however, were
not adequate to the situation, and the
struggle was unsuccessful. His credit
OTs being clamOrous, he offered his
plantation and twenty-five negroes for
sale, after he had held them about
seven years, they realized enough to
pay his debts, and leave small sum
for investment.
In 1919, being fifty-four years of age,
but more worn by misfortunes than
years, he removed to Montreal, took a
partner. and tried to get into the prac-
tice of the law. The attempt not sue
ceeding, he sailed for neland, where he
made futile attempt to recover some
estates 10 which he fancied he had a le-
gal title. Then he directed his ener-
giles to getting q place under govern
ment. Some of his old Westminster
scho0l-tellOws were now ministers, gen.
erals, lords and dukes, and to them he
addressed letters asking their interest
in promoting his object; to which they
uniformly sent polite replies OF refusal.
In 1925, he returned to Canada, but on
ly to close up his affairs in America,
and, taking with him his wife and
children, leave forever q continent in
which he had experienced little but un-
happiness. A maiden sister who lived
in England had offered him share of
her cottage, which was not very spa
cious, and substance upon her in
come, which was not very large. In
this last refuge he lived six years, and
there he died, in 1881, in his sixty-third
year.
In after years, Mrs. Blennerhassett,
with an invalid son, and herself almost
exhausted with anxiety and toll, came
to New York and asked Congress to
make good to her the damage done to
her island abode by troops in the en-
plOyment OF the United States in 1906.
Mr.. Clay-forwarded her memorial to
the Senate.
''Mrs. Blennerhassett," he wrote sis
now in New York, residing in very
humble circumstances, bestOwing her
cares on a son, who by long poverty
and sickness, is reduced to utter imbe-
becility, both of body and mind; una
BILE to assist her, or provide for his own
wants. In her present destitute situa-
ton, the smallest amount of relief
would be thankfully received by her.
Her condition is one of absolute aCo,t,
and she has but short time left to en-
Joy any better fortune in this World.n
1t is supposed that any appropriation
for her relief would have been made if
she had lived long enough for the tardy
action of Congress. She died in 1843, in
a mean abode in the city of New York,
in her last moments by Sisters
of Charity. Her son survived her elev-
en- years, during which he was utterly
unable to help himself, and would
have starved to death but for the chari-
ty of few persons who knew his situ-
alton, and knew, too, the melancholy
tale of his family's ruin. Occasionally
a paragraph in newspaper would
make known his wants to the public,
when small sums would be sent in for
his benefit. was myself bearer to
him of one of these newspaper collec-
tions, amounting to twenty-five dollars,
D few months before his death in 1854.
He sat silent in a miserable room near
st. Johns square-an elderly gentle
man in an extremely worn suit of black,
with paliid expressionless face. I
explained to him the object of my
visit and handed him the money. He
gazed vacantly at it, but did not hold
out his hand to take it, and evidently
had not understood word that / had
said. therefore laid the money upon
an old chest, and went in search ofsome
Dne who could be supposed to have
charge of him. I believe I found some
such person at length. and succeeded
In leaving the money so that it would
be expended for his benefit.
The railroad now constructing from
Lima to Oroya, piercing the Andes,
will unquestionably be, when COM
pleted, one of the proudest monuments
Of human power and enterprise. The |
tunnel, which is 5000 feet long, is be-
ing executed at an altitude of IL, 900 feet |
above the level ofthe sea, and with ex-
rapidity. Numberless lives
have already been lostamong the work.