Background

Henry Marie Brackenridge was born on May 11, 1786 and was the son of Hugh Henry Brackenridge and his first wife. He was born in the frontier village of Pittsburgh. His mother died in 1788 and the early years of his life were spent in the homes of various friends and relatives in and near Pittsburgh.

Education

The elder Brackenridge began his son's education by setting him to the hornbook at the age of two. From this time lessons were his daily regimen. At the age of seven, he was sent by flatboat on a rough and dangerous voyage to the village of St. Genevieve in upper Louisiana to learn French.

After returning to Pittsburgh three years later, he studied English and the classics chiefly under his father's guidance, although he spent a short time at the Pittsburgh Academy. He derived from his father a love of reading, a wide range of interests, and a liberal political philosophy. His wit, too, was an inheritance; he was known as "the comical son of a comical father".

He studied law in Pittsburgh and was there admitted to the bar in 1806. Then, after a few months with his father in Carlisle, he went to Baltimore, where, for over a year, he studied admiralty law and found solace in the social life of the city, and particularly in its bookstores and libraries, while he waited for the practice which never developed.

From Baltimore, he went to Somerset, Pennsylvania, but the western territory soon lured him with its promise of greater opportunities. The years 1810-14 were spent in Missouri and Louisiana in the practice of law, and in the pursuit of various studies suggested by his new environment.

In New Orleans, he studied Spanish law, thus laying the foundation for his later participation in Spanish American affairs, and continued his research on subjects of territorial interest.

Career

The Spanish language, which Brackenridge learned in St. Louis, was of great value in his later career, while his researches in natural history, geography, and Indian antiquities found expression in articles for the Missouri Gazette which attracted the notice of Thomas Jefferson. In 1811, he made a voyage up Missouri with Manuel Lisa of the Missouri Fur Company, keeping a journal which was later used by Irving as a source for his Astoria (1836). In November 1811, Brackenridge left St. Louis for New Orleans.

Chapters on Louisiana were added to his articles on Missouri and his journal of the Missouri River voyage to form his first book, Views of Louisiana. Until the War of 1812, Brackenridge was also very busy with legal work. He assisted in framing the legislative act for the judiciary system of Louisiana and served as deputy attorney general and as district judge.

During the war, he sent information to the government regarding British preparations for invading Louisiana. This correspondence led President Madison to suggest the possibility of his appointment to the diplomatic service. Tempted by the hope of a diplomatic career, Brackenridge went to Washington, but his appointment was not secured until 1817, and he spent the interim practicing law in Baltimore, and as a member of the Maryland legislature.

Also, he wrote, in six weeks, a spirited but rather rhetorical History of the Late War. His earlier studies in New Orleans were utilized in an article on the boundaries of Louisiana for Walsh's American Register (1817).

In 1817, when the question of recognizing the South American nations was the great political issue, Brackenridge published a pamphlet, South America, A Letter on the Present State of that Country to James Monroe. He urged recognition, recommending an American foreign policy such as was later defined in the Monroe Doctrine. In England, the pamphlet was viewed as being "in some degree official", and the Spanish minister employed an English writer to answer it.

In France, it was translated by the Abbé de Pradt, Bishop of Malines and diplomat, who commented on the brilliant talents of its author. In connection with this issue, Brackenridge found his opportunity for diplomatic service. He was made the secretary of the commission sent to study the political situation in South America. The character of his views and their weight with the ranking commissioner are indicated by a note in Adams's Diary: "Rodney, the President hinted, is under the influence of Brackenridge, a mere enthusiast".

The Voyage to South America (1819), a study of the political, social, economic, and intellectual status of the country, shows, however, that although Brackenridge was an enthusiast, he recognized the weaknesses of the Spanish American republics. After his return from South America, Brackenridge continued his service in the Maryland legislature where he supported such liberal measures as the bill designed to admit Jews to public office.

In 1821, his knowledge of Spanish affairs secured for him service under Andrew Jackson, then governor of Florida. First as secretary and translator, then as a judge, he remained in Florida until 1832, when Jackson removed him from office. In presenting his case in Letters to the Public (1832), he attacked Jackson bitterly. After this time, Brackenridge took little part in public affairs save for a brief reentry into politics in 1840-41 as the congressman, and as a member of the commission provided for in the Mexican Treaty of April 11, 1839.

His later years, spent in the town of Tarentum which he established on the large estate near Pittsburgh acquired through his marriage to Caroline Marie (1827), were devoted to private business and to literature.

His "Biographical Notice of H. H. Brackenridge" and his History of the Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania (1859) are largely concerned with a defense of his father's part in the Whiskey Rebellion. Most of his minor writings of this period deal with political and legal subjects.

When he died in 1871, his career had spanned almost the whole of the nation's history.

Achievements

• Brackenridge was deputy attorney general of the Territory of Orleans, in 1811; district judge of Louisiana, in 1812, secretary of a mission to South America in 1817 and was a judge for the western district of Florida, (1821-32). Returning to Pennsylvania in 1832, he became a large owner and founded the town of Tarentum. He also served as a member of the commission under the treaty with Mexico in 1841 and pursued literature interests until his death. In 1834, he published his Recollections of Persons and Places in the West, a valuable source for the early social history of the West, as well as for the personal history of his own early years.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Recollections of Persons and Places in the West.

    (Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary...)

  • Views of Louisiana: Together with a Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri River in 1811

    (Views of Louisiana: Together with a Journal of a Voyage u...)

  • Journal of a Voyage up the Missouri River, in 1811

    (About the author: Henry Marie Brackenridge (1786–1871) wa...)

  • Speeches on the Jew Bill, in the House of Delegates of Maryland, by H. M. Brackenridge, Col. W. G. D. Worthington, and John S. Tyson, Esquire: ... on Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, &C

    (Excerpt from Speeches on the Jew Bill, in the House of De...)

  • I. Journal of a Voyage Up the River Missouri, Performed in 1811, II. Narrative of a Voyage

    (I. Journal of a Voyage Up the River Missouri, Performed i...)

  • History of the Western Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, Commonly Called the Whiskey

Politics

In his politicfal affiliation Henry Brackenridge was a Whig, so in 1840, Brackenridge was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Richard Biddle, serving until 1841.

Views

Brackenridge had been, without attaining positions of the highest eminence, an intelligent and liberal participant in public affairs and an enlightened commentator on them.

Connections

Henry Marie Brackenridge was married to Caroline Marie.

Father:

Hugh Henry Brackenridge

1748 - 25 June 1816

Brother:

Hugh Brackenridge

1798 - 18 August 1800

Brother:

Judge Alexander Brackenridge

23 January 1792 - 4 May 1870

Brother:

William Henry Brackenridge

1797 - 24 April 1833

Sister:

Cornelia Brackenridge

2 November 1801 - 2 July 1823

Wife:

Caroline Brackenridge

1795 - 29 September 1852

Daughter:

Cornelia Caroline Brackenridge

1832 - 26 December 1835

Son:

Benjamin Morgan Brackenridge

5 November 1828 - 25 June 1862

References

• A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from Its Discovery to the Present Time; Volume 2
• A Voyage to South America, With an Account of a Shipwreck in the River La Plata, in the Year 1817: By the Sole Survivor (Classic Reprint)