Discontent centered in the Monongahela Valley sections of western Pennsylvania, particularly Washington County, where irate farmers defied federal authority. In Ohio County, in present West Virginia, opponents of the excise tax attacked Zacheus Biggs, the revenue officer, and forced distillers to ignore the law. About thirty men, with blackened faces, called at the home of the officer in Monongalia County and threatened him with destruction of his property and bodily harm. The collector speedily resigned his commission and fled.
Most West Virginians backed away from open defiance of the federal government. Only in Ohio County did opponents of the tax elect representatives to a meeting at Parkinson's Ferry on August 14, at which Pennsylvania leaders sought to concert action against the measure. The Ohio County delegates—William McKinley, William Sutherland, and Robert Stephenson—however, were among those who later met with federal commissioners and agreed to accept the tax in return for guarantees of general amnesty for paticipants in the uprising. McKinley stated that he had no desire to oppose the tax except “in a Constitutional way.” Neither he nor most West Virginians were ready to engage in armed resistance at a time when Wayne's army was advancing into the Indian country.1
The Partisan Spirit in National Politics. The political cleavages engendered by the excise tax deepened in succeeding months. George Jackson of Clarksburg won election to Congress in 1795 partly with the support of anti-excise men in Monongalia, Ohio, and Harrison counties. McKinley and Sutherland achieved positions of trust after their fight against the tax. On the other hand, Daniel Morgan and James Machir, who had supported Hamilton's moves, were elected to Congress from the Eastern Panhandle in 1797.
Political lines hardened following the enactment of the Alien and Sedition acts in 1798. The partisan character of the acts, which aimed at curbing Republican strength and unrestrained criticisms of the Federalist administration, angered Republicans. The Virginia and Kentucky legislatures adopted resolutions charging the administration of Federalist John Adams with violation of its constitutional powers. The resolutions, based on a compact theory of government, asserted the right of the states to take steps leading to repeal of the acts.
West Virginia members of the General Assembly divided in their votes on the Virginia Resolutions. Ten delegates supported the resolutions, and five opposed them. Two opponents, Magnus Tate and John Dixon, both of Berkeley County, contended that the federal government was the “result of a compact, not between the States, but between the People of the United States, and as such not under the control of the State Legislatures, but of the people themselves.”2 One of the staunchest defenders of the resolutions, young John G. Jackson, the son of Congressman George Jackson and a delegate from Harrison County, later referred to them as “the great cause I espoused in 1798 & of which I have never ceased to be the zealous advocate.”3
Sentiment among the people was equally divided. The Greenbrier County court was so incensed over attacks on the Adams administration that it destroyed copies of the Virginia Resolutions and of Madison's Report, which contained replies to arguments against the resolutions. “A True Republican,” writing in the Martinsburg Potomak Guardian, the only newspaper then published in West Virginia, condemned the Sedition Act as a “dreadful law” that struck at constitutional guarantees of freedom of the press.4
Republicans laid careful plans designed to place Thomas Jefferson in the White House in 1800. They established organizations in all counties and set up a central committee in Richmond. In West Virginia, however, much residual Federalist strength remained. Richard Claiborne, a member of the Monongalia County committee, attributed it to “the personal influence of a few old Residents , grown into the character of Federalists by habit or premeditation” and to a lack of understanding by others.5 The Republicans, nevertheless, swept Virginia, and Jefferson carried the state with a majority of 13,363 in a total of 20,797 votes.
The Jefferson Era. After the centralization of authority under the Federalist administrations, many West Virginians welcomed the more strict construction of the Constitution during the Jefferson era. Their wholehearted approval of the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, however, demonstrated that they did not object to a powerful central government when it appeared to serve their interests. The acquisition not only promised economic advantages, but it also fanned the flames of patriotism and nationalism by offering seemingly unlimited prospects for future expansion.
West Virginians gave additional evidence of their support for the Jefferson administration during the Aaron Burr conspiracy. When he tied Jefferson for the presidency in the electoral college in 1801, Burr allowed his political ambitions to draw him into a bitter contest in the House of Representatives, which deprived him of much of his influence in the Republican Party. The duel in 1804 in which he killed Alexander Hamilton cost him most of his remaining support in the eastern states and ruined his chances of ever becoming president. His popularity generally remained intact in the West, where Hamilton was held in low esteem. Burr turned to that region to rebuild his shattered career.
The precise nature of Burr's plans remains obscure, but he evidently intended to create a new empire in the Southwest. Presumably it would have included parts of the Spanish possessions west of the Mississippi River and possibly sections of the United States south of the Ohio. In 1805 he made a journey into the southwestern part of the United States, where leaders, most of them unaware of his intentions, received him with warmth and hospitality.
Among those upon whom Burr called was Harman Blennerhassett, who resided on an island in the Ohio River near the mouth of the Little Kanawha. Born into the Irish gentry, Blennerhassett attended Trinity College, Dublin, and studied law at King's Inn, London. He migrated to the United States under some social ostracism arising from his marriage to his niece, Margaret Agnew. On his Ohio River island he built a mansion, provided with elegant furnishings and wings for a library and scientific laboratory and surrounded by handsome gardens. The Blennerhassetts were gracious and welcomed as visitors many of the distinguished travelers on the Ohio River.
Burr's visit ended their idyllic life. Flattered by Burr's attentions, tiring of his isolated life, eager to replenish his dwindling fortune, and dazzled by visions of a high position in some new government, Blennerhassett readily succumbed to Burr's nebulous schemes. Following a second visit by Burr in August 1806, he contracted with a business partner in Marietta for supplies and arranged for the construction of boats, which he assembled at Blennerhassett Island. As “Querist,” he published a series of articles in the Marietta Ohio Gazette in September in which he emphasized exploitation of the agricultural West by the commercial East and suggested secession of western areas from the Union.
When reports of the Burr conspiracy began to circulate, cordiality toward Blennerhassett and his wife turned to suspicion and scorn. While they were in Lexington, Kentucky, residents in a mass meeting called by Federalist Alexander Henderson condemned their actions, pledged support to President Jefferson, and laid plans to raise a corps of militiamen in case of an emergency. Almost oblivious to public concern, Blennerhassett returned and continued to oversee preparations for the move down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Upon orders of Governor Edward Tiffin of Ohio, Judge Return Jonathan Meigs and General Joseph Buell seized ten boats and confiscated others at boatyards on the Muskingum River. In danger of arrest, Blennerhassett and his associates hurriedly left the island on December 10 aboard four of the boats that they had acquired. The following day Colonel Hugh Phelps and Wood County militia arrived at the island. Despite the entreaties of Mrs. Blennerhassett, they did considerable damage to the property.
Blennerhassett reached the Mississippi Territory, where his wife soon joined him. Later he was arrested in Lexington, Kentucky, and sent to Richmond to stand trial with Burr, who had by then been apprehended. The court, over which Chief Justice John Marshall presided, acquitted Burr, who was not at Blennerhassett Island, where the overt act of treason with which he was charged allegedly occurred. After it acquitted Burr, the court declined to proceed with the indictment against Blennerhassett. Unrealistic to the end, Blennerhassett returned to the island estate, only to behold the destruction and wreckage left by the militia and by looters who had carried away nearly everything of value.
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