Life and letters of Joel Barlow, LL.D., poet, statesman, philosopher, with extracts from his works and hitherto unpublished poems

Front matter

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Chapter I. 1754-1778

In Fairfield County, in south-western Connecticut, near the New York border, lies the quiet rural town of Redding, — a town founded by one of the most distinguished jurists of the Massachusetts Colony — John Read — and settled by the choicest of that "sifted wheat " for which, to the sowing of New England, three kingdoms were winnowed. The place is rich in all that could fashion or stimulate poetic fancy.

It is situated on the lower slope of the beautiful hillcountry of Connecticut. Its salient features are three great parallel ridges running north and south and separated by deep valleys, the channels of watercourses. Westward, the tumbled masses of the Taghkanics, hill beyond hill, rise from the deep valley of the Saugatuck. In summer, all the accessories of the pastoral — green fields, furrowed hills, thick wood, deep glen, and foaming cascades — were to be found here ; nor were historic scenes and points of interest wanting to lend them dignity. On the westernmost of these ridges, barely eight miles from the granite pillar separating New York from Connecticut, in along-roofed farmhouse, Joel Barlow was born. The Barlows were what is known in Connecticut as " good stock," that is, they were respectable landholders, paid their tithes promptly, and gave no one occasion to speak

I ill of them. Samuel Barlow, the poet's father, was descended from John Barlow, of Fairfield, who first appears in that town about 1668. Samuel removed to Redding about 1740, and on the death of his first wife married, in 1744, Esther, daughter of Nathaniel Hull, a member of a ^ family which gave to the American navy one of its brightest ornaments. Her fourth son was Joel, the poet, born March 24, 1754. The boy owed his bias toward a liberal career, it is said, primarily, to an unconquerable passion for rhyming, which manifested itself while he was j among his books, and secondarily, to the Rev. Nathaniel Bartlett, pastor of the village church which his parents attended. Fully to make our meaning clear it will be necessary to notice briefly the state of society in his native town at this period ; this was highly oligarchical, as throughout New England at that time ; a few " first families " were the ruling element in both church and state. Social privileges and distinctions were rigidly observed. The pews were " dignified," and assigned to families according to their tax-lists and social position — the patricians beneath the pulpit, the plebeians nearer the door; while the Burrs, Reeds, Sanfords, Hulls, Herons, and other first families exacted a homage from the commonalty the same in kind if not in degree with that paid the English squire by his dependents. The central figure in such a parish was the clergyman ; he was priest, teacher, oracle, monitor in manners and morals. Happy was it when the man was not dwarfed by the ofifice. In the case of Parson Bartlett this was not the case. Wise with such learning as the Yale College of that day could furnish, eloquent, unaffectedly and simply pious, possessed of rare tact, he presided over the church in Redding for fifty years, including the stormy days of the Revolution, with such dignity and moderation that no breath of calumny or whisper of complaint arose, and he only yielded up his trust at the command of death. To his parochial duties the clergyman added those of the ped-

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agogue, maintaining a " select school," which attained a high degree of excellence, insomuch that it secured a foreign constituency. Parson Bartlett, like most educated men of his day, was ardently looking forward to the advent of a national poet, and certain pencilHngs of verse by the lad which fell into his hands awakened in his breast the liveliest interest in their author. He at once declared that the boy's talent should be fostered and stimulated by a liberal'training and contact with other minds. The parents interposed no objection — in such a case the minister's word was law — and the lad was soon conning his Alphas, Betas, Kappas, under the direction of Parson Bartlett himself. His progress seems to have been rapid, for in a year's time his preceptor declared he could take him no farther, and began looking for a school in which he might be fitted for matriculation.

There was at this time a school at Hanover, N. H., recently instituted on a charity foundation, chiefly to train young men for the ministry, or as missionaries to the Indians, and here the lad was placed, no doubt because of the leanness of his father's purse. Boys educated at this school generally matriculated at Dartmouth College, and at the Commencement of 1774 we find Barlow enrolled in the freshman class of that institution. The death of his father, soon after, placed quite a little patrimony at his disposal, and he determined to avail himself of the superior advantages of Yale. These, judged by modern standards, were ridiculously small. Two small buildings and a chapel were all that the pretty campus could then boast. The college butler was still an institution, and the students were still gathered in the Commons Hall, under the eye of tutors. A few young members of the faculty, by strenuous efforts, had just succeeded in admitting English composition and oratory to a curriculum which had before embraced only the dead languages, mathematics, philosophy, and polemic divinity. Poetry, belles-lettres, and the modern languages were largely ignored, the commencement poem having onlycome in with the graduation of such favorites of the Muse as Trumbull and Dwight. To offset this, however, there was Dr. Daggett at the head of affairs, and such men among the professors and tutors as Timothy Dwight, Abraham Baldwin, and Joseph Buckminster. The latter was the young poet's favorite, and, as we shall have occasion to note, exerted a greater influence over his mind than the remainder of the faculty combined. The class which he entered, that of 1778, was remarkable for the cahbre of its members. It is evident that he who excelled in mental rivalry with Oliver Wolcott, Noah Webster, Zephaniah Swift, Uriah Tracy, and Josiah Meigs possessed undoubted talent, and the necessary application to bring it into play.

Of the poet's college course, though covering a pregnant and exciting period, we have only meagre details. The i^merican Revolution opened during his first year in the cloisters, yet of the many letters that must have been written to his friends from college we have but one containing any reference to this subject. July 6, 1775, he wrote his mother, " The students are sensibly affected with the unhappy situation of public affairs, which is a great hinderance to their studies, and for that reason there has been talk of dismissing college ; but whether they will is uncertain." The college was not dismissed, however, except for a brief period in 1777, when the pupils were scattered, the junior class (Barlow's) being sent to Glastonbury, Conn., in charge of tutor Buckminster, but in deference to the unhappy condition of the country no public commencement was held during the war. Barlow himself did not enter the army, although four of his brothers did, one dying in the service, and another, Aaron, rising to the rank of colonel ; but during the long summer vacations he more than once joined his brothers in the field, and twice at least saw active service — once in the sharp engagement at Long Island, and again at

JOEL BARLOW.

White Plains. This period was one of almost as great activity in the affairs of the college as of the country : the transition from the narrow, pedantic training of the old regime to the broader, fuller curriculum of Trumbull and D wight was being effected, and it is evident, from the nature of the poet, that he must have taken a deep interest in the success of the innovations. Two other traits of character marked this period in his career — ^a deep devotion -to the Muses, and a fitting appreciation of the charms of the lovely young women whose beauty illumined the somewhat sombre atmosphere of the little university town. Scraps of the poetry written at this time were collected and sacredly preserved by Mrs. Barlow after their marriage, and remain to pleasantly indicate these efforts of budding genius. There were amorous epistles in verse, sentimental addresses in the Coryn and Phyllis style, scraps of song and madrigal.*

One of these ladies had the honor of ensnaring the poet's heart, insomuch that they were engaged to be married before his college career ended. Her name was Ruth Baldwin. She was not so high in worldly station as the poet might fairly have aspired to : it was whispered over more than one tea-table, that the President's

* Some of these were melodious, though manifest imitations— the following, for instance, " To a Young Lady " :

" Go, Rose, my Chloe's bosom grace ! How happy should I prove, Might I supply that envied place

With never fading love ; There, Phoenix-like, beneath her eye, Involved in fragrance, burn and die.

" Know, hapless flower, that thou shalt find

More fragrant roses there ; I see thy withering head reclined

With envy and despair : One common fate we both must prove— You die with envy, I with love."

daughter had set her cap for him. Michael Baldwin, her father, had begun life as the village blacksmith in Guilford, and a few years before had removed to New Haven with two objects in view — the enlargement of his business, and the education of his children. The family was, however, a remarkably intellectual one. There were three sons — Abraham, Dudley, and Henry — and three daughters — Ruth, Clara, and Lucy. All three of the sons graduated at Yale College and became eminent. Abraham was a man of undoubted talent, and in the hands of a republican purveyor of history would have figured as one of the leading characters of his day. He filled the office of Senator from Georgia for several terms with great ability. He aided Milledge in founding Georgia University and drew up its charter, and the task of drafting the famous Constitution of 1787 was committed to him, his success in that work earning him the soubriquet of " the Father of the Constitution." Dudley studied law and settled at Greenfield, Conn,, and acquired great reputation as a lawyer. Henry also studied law, settled in Pittsburg, and became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ruth to great personal beauty added a piquancy of manner and amiability of character that afterward made her an object of adoration in the polite circles of Europe. She inspired in the poet's breast a remarkable passion, one that survived all the mutations of a most adventurous career, and glowed as fervently at fifty as at twenty-five. The elder brother of this lady, Abraham Baldwin, was a tutor in the college during a part of Barlow's term, and often invited the poet to his home, where the attachment was formed.

Barlow's standing at college is satisfactorily shown by the fact that the coveted honor of delivering the commencement poem was awarded him. The term " commencement poem " is, however, a misnomer, the poem having been delivered at the last examination of the senior year, which occurred in 1778, on the 23d of July.

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During the war, as has been remarked, no public commencements were held, the graduating exercises being limited to the conferring of degrees. There was, however, a public exhibition in the college chapel at the closing examination of the senior year, and it was on this occasion that the poem was delivered and its author first introduced to the public. The programme for that day, as printed in the newspapers of the next week, introduced other members of the poet's class who later became known to fame ; it read as follows : —

A Cliosophic Oration in Latin, by Sir Meigs.

A Poetical Composition in English, by Sir Barlow.

A Dialogue in English, by Sir Chaplin, Sir Ely, and Sir

Miller.

A Cliosophic Oration in English, by Sir Webster.

A Disputation in English, by Sir Swift, Sir Wolcott, and Sir Smith.

A Valedictory Oration in English, by Sir Tracy.

An Anthem.

This programme was carried out in the presence of the President, fellows, students, and a large body of invited guests. The poem followed the salutatory, and from contemporary notices seems to have been one of the features of the occasion. With rare good judgment, the poet had chosen a theme of the deepest interest to his audience, the return of peace and the glorious future it — presaged for Columbia. For the poem the reader is referred to Dr. Smith's work. It would be regarded as a respectable effort for commencement day even now, but in the paucity of poets which then existed, it was received with the highest marks of favor. The newspapers printed it with commendatory notices : it soon appeared in pamphlet form, and finally reached the summit of a fugitive poem's career by being embalmed in Dr. Smith's collection of American Poems, published at Litchfield, Conn., in 1793.

A few days later the associations of four stirring years were sundered, and the young men departed to win fame and fortune in a wider arena. A bright future awaited some of them. It was perhaps the strongest class thct Yale had ever graduated. Most of its members made a respectable figure in society, and there were several who achieved national fame. Sir Webster became the great lexicographer, Noah Webster ; Sir Swift — Zephaniah Swift — Chief Justice of Connecticut and Member of Congress ; Sir Tracy — Uriah Tracy — the famous jurist and statesman; Sir Meigs — Josiah Meigs — President of Georgia University and a well known educator, and Sir Wolcott — Oliver Wolcott — Washington's Secretary of the Treasury after Hamilton, and later, Governor of Connecticut. These brave young spirits emerg'ed from the cloisters, parchments in hand, and little else wherewith to begin the battle of life. With the exception of Wolcott, they were without money or friends. Our hero's patrimony had been expended in his education, and although, by the death of his mother in 1775, he had fallen heir to a small sum, he was sensible that his bread in the near future depended on his own exertions. Marriage, and a home too, were promised him as soon as he could command a settled position in life. His desires all centred in a literary career. His commencement poem was only the iiiitiu})i, the nucleus of a great patriotic epic which had already taken shape in his mind, and to which he longed to devote the best powers of mind and body. But the gaunt wolf — poverty — which has dogged the steps of almost every man of genius, confronted him. Literature, so poorly rewarded in our day, was far less remunerative then. The most sanguine could see no prospect of breadwinning in it. The poet's fancies, if indulged at all, must be pursued in connection with some avocation that

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would afford support and the necessary leisure. Divinity and a tutorship in the college were the only two professions which seemed at all conducive to this end. Barlow's friends recommended the former, as being, all things considered, the most lucrative, congenial, and least exacting : none of his friends urged this with more vehemence than his former tutor, the Rev. Joseph Buckminster, now settled over the North Church in Portsmouth, N. H.,as successor to Dr. Stiles, and who seems to have formed a very high opinion of the capacities of his pupil. Barlow, however, shrunk from the sacred calling ; he doubted his fitness for its grave responsibilities. But a tutorship in the college he ardently desired ; he expected it, since it was the custom of the corporation to thus honor students who had won distinction in the course, and he spent two years at New Haven in post-graduate studies, waiting for the honor which never came, supporting himself in the mean time by fitting a class of boys for college. The failure undoubtedly engendered a bitterness toward his Alma Mater which time never wholly effaced. His chief correspondents during this crucial period were Mr. Buckminster, Noah Webster — who on leaving college had taken a school at Glastonbury, Conn. — and Miss Baldwin. The letters from Mr. Buckminster were the most important and interesting. This gentleman, who will be remembered as one of the most eloquent and liberal divines of his day, and the father of Joseph Stevens Buckminster, of Boston, a leader in the Unitarian movement of the succeeding generation, on leaving his tutorship at Yale had accepted, as before remarked, a call to the old North Church at Portsmouth, N. H., a connection which terminated only with his death thirty-three years later. Certain letters addressed by him to Barlow at this time materially encouraged the poet to continue his literary efforts, and were largely responsible for his later successes. We present them seriatim.

lO LIFE AND LETTERS OF

" Portsmouth, Oct. 5, 1778.

" I RECEIVED under cover from our worthy friend, Mr. Baldwin, two of your poems upon the Prospect of Peace, with an intimation that you desired they might be conveyed in that way. I am very much obliged to you for them, but not so much as I should have been had they been accompanied with a letter from you. I am sure you are not so little acquainted with my disposition, or my particular tenderness for your class and for you, as to think that a letter would not have been particularly agreeable. The long acquaintance I have had with your class, the many favors I have received from them, the particular tenderness and respect with which most of them have treated me, joined to the pecuHar share of genius and merit with which, as a class, they were distinguished, have begotten and cherished such feelings in me as time can never totally remove, and as I never shall feel for any other members of society. . . . Your poem does you honor in this part of the country, and every person that has seen it speaks very highly of it. It is particularly agreeable to me, perhaps because my vanity would assume part of the merit, as it grew up, in a sort, under my auspices. But I am so little of a poet that I think the smallest share only is thus due to me. I advise you to encourage and cultivate your turn for poetry. I should think myself particularly honored if you will favor me with a view of some of your fugitive lucubrations. . . ."

He wrote again, March 9, 1779 : — " I am exceedingly pleased with your letter, and the rather, as it intimated that your mind is not idle, but that you are at least meditating something above the common level. Efforts of genius are ever to be commended, and it is in that way that we are to expect any improvement in those things which ennoble human nature. Your sentiments respecting divinity give me some reason to hope that you will make that your study. I certainly hope to see you in the sacred desk. ... I ever encouraged freedom of inquiry in your class, and though it sometimes occasioned me a little difficulty, I never repented it. In the sacred history you will find a variety of subjects which will assure a field for your poetic genius, and that which you mention is by far the most interesting and affecting ; but I fear you poets are so fond of fiction, that in writing upon this you would introduce rather too much of it to suit the solemnity of the subject, or please the serious and devout heart. The history of Joseph has never had justice done it in poetry that I have seen ; of Cain and Abel, in which a little machinery and fiction would do very well ; of Daniel, and a variety of others. If you will be kind enough to send along some of your poetic lucubrations, I shall esteem it a particular mark of friendship."

The poet's reply has not been preserved. The correspondence continued, and, in a succeeding letter, Mr. Buckminster returned to the subject as follows : —

** I am glad you have not given up the design of attempting something in poetry, and your " Vision of Columbus " I fancy must be interesting and improving. You will be kind enough to give me the plan at some time or other. I wish you might obtain a place where you might attend principally to this poem till it was finished, and happy should I be to recommend a family in this part of the country which would be agreeable tQ you ; but the times have reduced our best characters to moderate means of subsistence, and those that are now rising are but mushroom gentry, and knowing but little of learning themselves, they are but little anxious that their children should know more. I believe, my dear friend, unless something unexpected opens, you must follow the advice I gave you, perhaps twelve months past, and with the help of a few sermons support yourself in application to your proposed poem for a time. But let me hear still further from you upon this matter, and I will endeavor to digest my thoughts upon this subject." And again, Dec. 26, 1779 • " I have not yet had much time to turn my attention to your plan for the poem styled, ' The Vision of Columbus,' but will soon, and give you my thoughts upon it with my wonted freedom. The few lines that you have subjoined increase my desire of your having leisure to complete your wishes, for I think they give us reason to believe that you will answer all reasonable expectations. . . . I believe I could procure something of a subscription for you here among several gentlemen of liberality if you desired it ; and if there is any prospect of your being able to pursue your plan write to me particularly, and you maybe assured of all possible assistance." And again, Jan. 11, 1780: "The marks of sincerity and confidence that I discover in it (the letter) give me peculiar pleasure, and I shall be very happy if I can be instrumental in promoting your interests at this frightful distance. I find you feel as young men usually do upon receiving the honors of college, and going out into the world, as it is termed. Were I to say all I think of your abilities, you would, perhaps, judge it flattery, and your fondness for the quiet scenes of literature will perhaps be productive of something that will hereafter do you honor and benefit mankind. ... I think a number of years may be as profitably spent at college after a person has received its honors as before, and especially at Yale with its present governors. Your President is a most worthy man ; he is a living library, a fund of good humor and sociability, and you may always obtain from him something new and useful. Mr. Baldwin is as improving a companion as you will ever find.

JOEL BARLOW.

" If you will allow me to advise, you will be contented with your present circumstances, and pay a general attention to all branches of education : you may pay a more particular attention to that which best suits your humor and inclination. This seems to be poetry, and you modestly intimate a scruple whether you have anything more than an inclination.

" I believe you are the only person that has this scruple who has seen the 'Prospect of Peace.' . . . But you must remember that neither our country nor our countrymen are sufficiently refined, enriched, and improved to give a sufficient support to works of genius merely, and had you the genius of a Pope or a Milton, nay, as much superior as you wish, you might starve upon the pittance that a few persons capable of relishing your productions would give. Persons that give themselves up to the Muses

must have a patron, and if you have a either in

your own pocket or elsewhere, you may make this desideratum for yourself. The question then arises, which of the learned professions is the most favorable to the Muses? I don't hesitate to pronounce, it is the ministry. The study of the law is dry, far from insuring refined or ennobling sentiments or feelings; that of physic we should think would inspire tender and sympathetic feelings, but experience contradicts our theory. Divinity contains the most sublime subjects, the most elevated thoughts and exalted ideas, and in the Bible we shall find poetry that has never been equalled by mere man, and forces from us the confession that it is the breathing of a God. . . . The work of the ministry will afford you the fairest opportunity of indulging your poetic genius, and you will find connected with its study the noblest subjects to excite it."

The following July he wrote in reference to the plan of the " Vision of Columbus " which Barlow had submitted to him :

" I forget whether I have written since you were kind enough to favor me with your plan for the ' Vision of Columbus'; if I have, I was not prepared to make any considerable observations upon it. I have in some of my leisure hours, which are very few, turned my attention to it. I have read it, with the sample you were kind enough to transcribe, to several gentlemen, to procure their sentiments: they all approve and applaud, wish to see it executed, and encourage pretty raised expectations. For my own part, I am exceedingly pleased with it, and long for the execution with all the avidity that my attachment to you, to Yalensia, and the fine arts can inspire. You will perhaps find in your progress that the plan may in some parts be abridged and others will want enlargement ; some of the articles may be too trivial to need a particular description, and will only be hinted at or their places supplied with some others. In the contents of the second book, as they stand in your letter, you have supposed the reformation in religion to be the effect of the discovery of America. Though it might be the means of reviving learning, and perhaps awakening an attention to the rights of mankind, yet I think the reformation in religion must be ascribed to a different cause ; but perhaps it may be justified by the license of the poets. I have no kind of hesitancy as to your poetic ability to execute your plan so far as that can go, but it requires an amazing, universal knowledge to treat of the great variety of articles that you propose. A man must be not only a poet and man of letters, but a lawyer, politician, physician, divine, chemist, natural historian, and an adept in all the fine arts. Your knowledge in all these branches is as great as any person of your age and advantages, but you must depend, I presume, in some of those branches upon those who have turned their particular attention to them. You will need to be careful in your choice. Another article that you will need particularly to attend to is the choice of those in whose judgment and criticism you can confide. You must be open to

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all, and the more observations you have made, whether in a way of praise or blame, the better ; but you will not let them influence you greatly, for you will find the tastes of mankind as different as their faces. There was never yet a sentence written but what somebody thought might be altered to advantage, and in your large design what touches upon any person's profession every one will think he has a right to judge. It will be of advantage to you to have a select number in whom you can confide to assist you, but do not confide so much in any as to give up entirely your own opinion, unless in some article where they have had greatly the advantage. Be open to conviction ; keep your eyes, your ears, and your heart open ; note what is well said by those in the lower walks of life, and be unmoved by what is ill said, though the person be ever so distinguished."

The poem on which all these fears and hopes were based was the " Vision of Columbus," the first important poem distinctively American in subject and authorship ever projected, and which had so far taken form in the author's mind that in the summer of 1779 an elaborate draft of it was drawn up at Northampton, Mass., whither business of an unknown nature had taken him. This draft was as follows :

"THE VISION OF COLUMBUS.

" A plan for a poem on the subject of America at large, designed to exhibit the importance of this country in every point of view as the noblest and most elevated part of the eaj-th, and reserved to be (the) last and greatest theatre for the improvement of mankind in every article in which they are capable of improvement. The poem will be rather of the philosophic than epic kind. The machinery is simple, and it is hoped will be natural. As an angel is employed in unfolding these scenes to Columbus, nothing ought to be mentioned but what is