pability, notwithstanding Graves, in the course of their correspondence, declared to him, "I always have, and now do, most emphatically exempt you from all blame or censure growing out of your connection with the affair. I, and I only, am justly responsible for whatever was done by myself or those representing me as my friends on that

occasion."

One of the most stinging accusations against Mr. Wise was made by ex-President John Quincy Adams, in the House of Representatives on the 26th of January, 1842, when a resolution, offered by Mr. Gilmer, of Virginia (killed by the bursting of the "Peacemaker" on the "Princeton," in February, 1844), was under discussion, declaring that Mr. Adams had justly incurred the censure of the House in presenting for its consideration an abolition petition for the dissolution of the Union. Mr. Wise took a leading part in the discussion, in the course of which the venerable ex-President was led to say that, "four or five years ago, there came to the House a man [Wise] with his hands and face dripping with the blood of a murder, the blotches of which were yet hanging upon him." This, in nearly the same language, he twice repeated, and at the same time said: "I never did believe but he [Wise] was the guilty man, and that the man who pulled the trigger was but an instrument in his hands. This was my belief in the beginning."

Of the actors in this deplorable affair, the only survivor (December, 1891) is George W. Jones, of Iowa, Mr. Cilley's second. Mr. Graves, after long and intense suffering, both mental and physical, died in Louisville, Ky., on the 27th of September, 1848, aged forty-three years.

Jonathan Cilley was born at Nottingham, N. H., on the 2d of July, 1802, and was, therefore, at his death in the thirty-sixth year of his age. He was a man of fine personal appearance, in size and weight about medium, and of rather dark complexion. He was a graduate of Bowdoin

College. His friend Nathaniel Hawthorne describes him, while at college

“As a young man of quick and powerful intellect, endowed with sagacity and tact, yet frank and free in his mode of action; ambitious of good influence; earnest, active, and persevering, with an elasticity and cheerful strength of mind which made difficulties easy and the struggle with them a pleasure. In the summer of 1837 I met him for the first time since our early youth, when he had been to me almost an elder brother. In his person there was very little change, and that little was for the better. He had an impending brow, deep-set eyes, and a thin and thoughtful countenance, which, in his abstracted moments, seemed almost stern; but in the intercourse of society it was brightened with a kindly smile that will live in the recollection of all who knew him."

One who had been a bosom friend and constant companion through an acquaintance of sixteen years says of him :

"He was the kindest and gentlest of human beings, with a constant and happy flow of animal spirits and the innocence of a child, while at the same time as independent, courageous, and firm in his purposes as he was clear in his judgments and upright in his every thought."

Mr. Cilley left a wife and three children,-two sons and a daughter, the latter an infant whom he never saw. It is a singular fact that on the Sunday succeeding the Saturday on which he fell, Mrs. Cilley, wholly unconscious of the terrible news already on its way to her, was so impressed from reading the well-known hymn, commencing with the lines

"Far, far o'er hill and dale on the winds stealing,
List to the tolling bell, mournfully pealing,"

that she was induced to mark it with a pencil. The second and third stanzas read:

"Now, through the charmed air slowly ascending,
List to the mourner's prayer solemnly bending:
Hark! hark! it seems to say,

Turn from those joys away

To those which ne'er decay,

For life is ending.

"O'er the father's dismal tomb see the orphan bending,

From the solemn churchyard's gloom hear the dirge ascending:
Hark! hark! it seems to say,

How short ambition's sway,
Life's joys and friendship's ray,

In the dark grave ending!"

Alas! the soul-chilling, heart-rending news of the tragic death of the husband and father was soon to place beyond doubt the sad reality of what seemed to have been thus mysteriously foretokened. Mrs. Cilley never entirely recovered from the fearful shock. She died on the 15th of October, 1844.

CHAPTER X.

THE BATTLE OF BLADENSBURG-BURNING OF WASHINGTON IN 1814.

PRIOR to the late civil war, during many years, we had for Second Assistant Postmaster-General Mr. William H. Dundas, who was somewhat of a wag, and who delighted in rallying the mild and staid John Smith, one of the clerks of the Department, on having served in a militia company at the battle of Bladensburg, otherwise reproachfully called "the Bladensburg races." Said he, "The red-coats got a little the better of you at the start, but you beat them in the long run."

There having been so many meagre and often conflicting stories about this famous battle and the fall of Washington, I determined, if possible, to sift the various accounts, and present within reasonable limits an intelligible record. To this end I examined the files of many of the prominent newspapers of the day, and read all I could find on the subject in books. It appears that no serious fears were felt for the safety of the capital until within a few days of its

capture. We can imagine what consternation prevailed among the citizens when the danger suddenly became imminent. The Boston Centinel of August 24, 1814, contained a letter from Washington, dated August 16, saying, "We are all in alarm here. The enemy are said to be in great force in the Chesapeake. It is apprehended this city is their object, and that they will land in the Patuxent or near Annapolis, near which several of their ships have been

seen.

It is expected the President will issue another proclamation, directing Congress to assemble at some other place except Washington,-say Lancaster, Pennsylvania." President Madison had already summoned Congress (August 8) to meet on the 19th of September. Another item in the Centinel of a later date was, "The public papers began to be removed from Washington 21st August, and all the horses, carriages, and drivers are pressed. The roads are crowded with women and children, and the greatest distress prevails." A correspondent of the Baltimore Patriot wrote from Washington that, "On Sunday (21st) the public officers were all engaged in packing and sending off their books, and the citizens their furniture. On Monday this business was continued with great industry, and many families left the city. The specie was removed from all the banks in the District." A gentleman wrote from Washington at one o'clock in the morning of the day of the battle, "I cannot find language to express the situation of the women and children, who are running the streets in a state bordering on distraction; their husbands, fathers, and brothers all under arms, scarce a man to be seen in the city. Enemy reported to be thirteen thousand strong."

The British squadron under command of Vice-Admiral Cockburn entered Chesapeake Bay on the 16th of August. On the 18th a part of their ships with the British troops, under General Ross, then estimated, as one account states, "at from five thousand to ten thousand, probably rising

seven thousand," entered the Patuxent River, and a part ascended the Potomac,-in all then reported to be "composed of fifty sail, including transports." It was known that the troops were largely made up from the army of the Duke of Wellington-tried veterans in the regular service -whose embarkation for the United States our Government had been advised of as early as the month of June succeeding the triumphant entry of the allied forces into Paris, March 30, when Napoleon abdicated to give place to Louis XVIII. (on the 6th of April, 1815), and the pacification of Europe. The report soon came that these British troops were landing at Benedict, twenty-seven miles east of Washington, on the Patuxent, and that they were preparing to march to Washington, although there was great uncertainty as to whether Washington, Annapolis, or Fort Washington, on the Potomac, was their objective point. Meantime more active preparations for defence were hastily made by calling out all the available militia and regular United States troops in the District of Columbia, as well as from Baltimore and other sections not far distant. General W. H. Winder was ordered to the command, and under date of August 20 issued two "General Orders," calling on his soldiers "to do their duty without regard to sacrifice and privation," and upon the people within or contiguous to his command "to rally round the standard of their country in defence of the capital and their own firesides." These orders were supplemented by a similar stirring appeal from James H. Blake, the mayor of Washington.

There is undoubted evidence that President Madison was early alive to the importance of adopting effective measures for the safety of the capital. At a special Cabinet meeting called for this purpose on July 1, 1814, the subject was fully discussed and a plan of defence agreed on, which, had it been carried out, might have proved successful. But this failed, it appears, through the inefficiency or indifference, or both combined, of General Armstrong, Secretary