USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume II > Part 17
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There had been an attempt made in 1783 to launch a jour- nal under the laudable heading of the "Freeman's Chronicle or American Advertiser ;" but not receiving public support it languished and died in the first year of its existence. Besides those already mentioned, an attempt was made in 1794 to publish a semi-weekly called the "Hartford Gazette;" this proved another yearling. These projects completed the news- paper efforts in Hartford up to the close of the eighteenth century.
In the sister city of New Haven, the "New Haven Ga- zette" was started as a weekly in May, 1784; two years later, "Connecticut Magazine" was added to its title. Its seven years of existence were marked with various changes of title and proprietorship; lacking pecuniary support, it finally suc- cumbed to the inevitable. An enterprising firm of publishers in 1788 began the publication of the "American Musical Magazine," but after issuing ten numbers it was discon- tinued. The last newspaper enterprise in the "City of Elms," prior to the opening of the nineteenth century, were the "Fed- eral Gazette," a weekly devoted to the Federalist party, and the "Messenger," which survived about two years.
In other parts of the State, newspapers were established, of which we mention a few of the important ones. The "Middlesex Gazette" was started in 1785, at Middletown, and had an existence of nearly half a century. The first number of the "Litchfield Monitor" appeared in 1784, and the "Farmer's Journal" at Danbury in 1790. The "Ameri- can Telegraph and Fairfield County Gazette" was started in 1790 at Newfield. Among the Norwich publications was the "Weekly Register," which blossomed into life in 1790, to die
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at seven years of age; its successor to claim public favor was the "Chelsea Courier," which name was afterwards changed to the "Norwich Courier." The "Weekly Oracle" and "The Bee" were short-lived journals published in New London; they expired about the end of the eighteenth century. The ambitious Norwich editor, John Trumbull, established in 1798 at Stonington Point a small-sized paper which he called the "Journal of the Times"; the following year it was enlarged, and the name changed to the "Impartial Journal." Notwithstanding its taking titles, it was not a recipient of public patronage, and collapsed about two years later.
The early colonial literature was mostly crude and form- less, or imitative and pedantic. Its subjects were chiefly religion and histories of the Indian wars. The writings of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, which consisted exclusively of ser- mons, of which one hundred were published in England, were Connecticut's principal contribution to this period of Ameri- can Literature. Her first secular writer and earliest poet was Roger Wolcott. A volume entitled "Practical Meditations" was published in New London in 1725; it contained a lengthy preface by Reverend Mr. Bulkley of Colchester, and a poem of sixty pages by Mr. Wolcott, the latter being a brief account of the agency of the "Honorable John Winthrop, Esquire, at the court of King Charles the second, Anno Dom- ini 1662." There is nothing noteworthy in the shorter pieces of the book, nor can much be said of their literary merits. The political genius of this early rhymester descended to his grandson Oliver, who scribbled many poems, among which was one entitled "The Vision of Paris"; but proved his pos- session of common sense by retaining them in their original manuscript. His letters and State papers, which fill fifty
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folio volumes, are deposited in the Connecticut Historical Society, and are documents of real value.
Connecticut, in the absence of anything worth calling a colonial literature, merely shared the condition of her neigh- bors, and for the same reasons. A new and mostly poor dem- ocratic society, with few independent incomes and no great scholarly foundations, engaged in rough material work, and cut off from the literary currents of the Old World and its leisured classes, produced few who had time to cultivate lit- erary gifts, no sympathetic companionship or audience, and no market. An occasional "sport" might arise, a great nat- ural litterateur like Franklin or a great thinker like Jonathan Edwards; but there could be no class of literary men or women.
Edwards was by far the greatest of all Connecticut's chil- dren since its foundation : one of the four Americans who as pure thinkers apart from literary or executive work, have overpassed the bounds of State, sectional, or even national fame and influence, and belong to the World. It is signifi- cant, and might give pause to those who unthinkingly parrot the sneers at the Puritan system that every one of these was the product of the "blue" New England order. Three were Massachusetts men-Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Thomp- son, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, the fourth was Edwards, recognised even by Europeans as one of the great metaphy- iscians of all time. Worthy to stand beside Aquinas and Spinoza and Kant. His life was simple on the outside : the great events of such men's lives are internal, or the embodi- ments of unseen mental processes. Edwards remained twen- ty-three years in charge of a Congregational church at North- ampton, Mass., and with a rudimentary flexibility of temper (or a little of that sense of humor which means a balanced
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view of life) might have remained till his death. But to him his logic was no mental diversion, but the inexorable law of life or death; and the Sacraments were instruments and Sig- nets of the Almighty, which it was simple blasphemy to use outside their assigned function or by others than their legiti- mate beneficiaries. The doctrinaire would not bend, the church would not alienate a large body of its helpers and sacrifice its potential members; and they parted.
Edwards penniless but undaunted, went to teach in 1750 among the Indians of Stockbridge. Doubtless he accom- plished some good in that sphere; but his work for the world lay in the wonderful metaphysical treatises we owe to his enforced leisure and solitude, and which, in lack of money to buy stationery, he wrote on such odd scraps as he could find or save. Chief of these is his treatise on "The Freedom of the Will" one of the immortal classics of metaphysical specula- tion. As pure reasoning, no detail of its close knit fabric is open to assault. The conclusions which revolt the modern soul are due to the acceptance of theological premises no longer held valid.
Thence he was called to the presidency of the College of New Jersey now Princeton University. He was reluctant to accept the position, which involved duties and personal man- agement for which, with his "flaccid solids and vapid fluids" he felt himself insulted. Fate was kind to him in sparing the trial. Two months later he died, at fifty-four. It is among the sardonic curiosities of heredity that his grandson was Aaron Burr.
The first signs of a new intellectual era showed themselves in the years between the fall of Quebec and the Revolution. Connecticut's first man of letters proper, John Trumbull, was a son of a clergyman of the same name; he was born in what
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is now Watertown, April 24, 1750. He was a sickly child, carefully taught by his mother, a woman of superior educa- tion. ' His precocity was such that he passed the entrance examination to Yale College at seven, though he was not admitted as a student until six years later. In collaboration with Timothy Dwight, in his second year in college, he issued a series of essays modeled on the "Spectator." Two years later he wrote a satirical poem on the educational methods of the day, entitled "The Progress of Dullness," reminiscent of the "Dunciad." After his graduation he was tutor at Yale; was admitted to the bar in 1773, and finished his law studies in the Boston office of John Adams, afterwards Presi- dent; and the next year began practice in New Haven. On the breaking out of the war, he became an active patriot. Trumbull's contributions to Revolutionary literature were an "Elegy on the Times," and his famous "McFingal," a close imitation of "Hudibras." The "hero" (or villain) was a supposable American Tory, and the poem resembled its pro- totype in being mostly disquisition, with little action; the tar- ring and feathering of McFingal answering to Hudibras' being put in the stocks. It had wit enough to save it from being a mere copy, however; some of its lines would not dis- credit its original, and are often quoted as belonging to that. The first part was written in 1775, and immediately pub- lished; its author removed to Hartford in 1781, when he: completed the remaining cantos, and the epic was published in its entirety the following year.
Trumbull served from 1801 as Judge of the Superior Court, and from 1808 as Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors, until 1819, when he retired from the bench. Six years later he removed to Detroit, Michigan, where he died. May 10, 1831.
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The triad of American poets of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, John Trumbull, Joel Barlow, and David Humphrey, in conjunction with other writers, after the close of the war, wrote a series of poetic essays entitled "American Antiquities," pretended extracts from a poem which they styled "The Anarchiad"; it was designed to check the spirit of anarchy then prevalent in the United States.
The cosmopolitan poet of Connecticut was Joel Barlow, who was born at Redding, March 24, 1754. His father was a farmer with ten children, of whom Joel was the youngest; there was enough money to give him a liberal education, and he entered Dartmouth in 1774, afterwards becoming a stu- dent at Yale and graduating in 1778. At the commencement exercises in that year he delivered an original poem entitled the "Prospect of Peace." He abandoned the study of law for theology, was licensed to preach, and became a chaplain in the army. While engaged in military pursuits he partially composed his celebrated poem, the "Vision of Columbus," which was an enlargement of his early effort. These two compositions were the foundation of the "Columbiad." At the close of the war he resumed the study of law, and settled at Hartford, where he engaged in editorial work, and published an edition of the "Vision of Columbus." He also revised Dr. Watts' version of the Psalms, adding several devotional pieces of his own. The following rhyme was occasioned by the meeting of Mr. Barlow and Oliver Arnold, a cousin of the traitor, in a book-store in New Haven; Mr. Arnold had gained a reputation for extemporizing verse, and Mr. Barlow desired a specimen of his art:
"You've proved yourself a sinful cre'tur,
You've murdered Watts and spoiled the metre,
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You've tried the word of God to alter, And for your pains deserve a halter."
Mr. Barlow relinquished his editorial duties in 1786, and opened a book-store in Hartford. The following year he embarked for England as agent for a land company. On the breaking out of the French Revolution he proceeded to France, where he became connected with the Girondists. On his return to England in 1791 he published "Advice to the Privileged Orders," also "A Letter to the National Conven- tion" and "The Conspiracy of Kings"; these were in favor of the French Revolution, and made the author obnoxious to the majority party of England. Barlow returned to France, and actively engaged in the Revolution. While at Chambery he wrote the mock didactic poem called "Hasty Pudding," which is his one real literary claim to remembrance. He sub- sequently returned to Paris and withdrew from political affairs, shocked by the atrocities of the Revolution. The United States government appointed him in 1795 consul to Algeria, where he negotiated a treaty with the Dey. The following year he consummated a league with the authorities of Tripoli, by which all the American prisoners were released from captivity. He resigned his consulship in 1797 and returned to Paris, where he engaged in trade and amassed a comfortable fortune.
Disposing of his real estate in France, he returned to his native land; but his supposed authorship of the "Song of the Guillotine," in connection with the assistance he gave Paine in the publication of the "Age of Reason," caused him to be coldly received by the New England people. He therefore bought an estate in the District of Columbia, in the vicinity of Georgetown, where he built an elegant mansion, and gave
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From the painting by Robert Fulton.
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it the name of "Kalorama." Here he revised the "Colum- biad" in 1808 and published an edition de luxe, which excelled anything previously issued by the American press. He was engaged in gathering material for a history of the United States, when in 1811 he was appointed minister plen- ipotentiary to the French Court. On Oct. 12, 1812, he was invited to Wilno to hold a conference with Napoleon, who was retreating from Moscow. Caught in the snows and cold of the terrible Polish winter, with wretched food and accom- modations, he succumbed to the hardships of the journey, and died on Dec. 24, at the obscure village of Czernowice, near Cracow. His figure remains prominent in American history, as much for what he was as for what he did.
David Humphrey, the son of Rev. Daniel Humphrey, the established minister of Derby for over half a century, was born July 1752 in that town, and graduated from Yale in 1771. He entered the army as captain of a Connecticut com- pany of negro volunteers, and in 1778 was appointed aide to General Putnam, with the rank of major. Two years later he was made a member of Washington's staff, where he remained until the close of the war. Colonel Humphrey in 1784 went to France as secretary to the commission for negotiating foreign treaties; after two years abroad he returned to his native town, which he represented in the General Assembly, and made Hartford his residence. In 1790 he was appointed United States representative to the court of Portugal; after four years' residence at Lisbon he returned to America, and was sent as commissioner plenipotentiary to the Spanish court. His connection with the manufacturing interests of Connecti- cut will be dealt with in another volume of this work. He served as a brigadier-general in the war of 1812, and died at New Haven, Feb. 21, 1818. His writings consisted of
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political tracts, patriotic poems, a memoir of General Put- nam, and an elegy on the burning of Fairfield by the British; his miscellaneous works were published in 1804.
These were not the only ones stirred by the new spirit. Among others was Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, the projector of "The Anarchiad," first published in parts in the "New Haven Gazette and Connecticut Magazine." It was written in the style of a fable with the utmost license of parody and imita- tion, embodied the Federalist political views of the auth- ors, and had an extensive circulation; much of the composi- tion was by Dr. Hopkins. He was born in Waterbury June 19, 1750, studied medicine, and in 1776 began practice at Litchfield. He removed to Hartford in 1784, and passed his life as a physician and man of letters. He was one of the founders of the Medical Society of Connecticut. In personal appearance he was tall, lean, and long-legged, and uncouth, with large features and light eyes, which made him a striking spectacle. He was the author of a few short poems, the best known of which is an "Epitaph on a Patient Killed by a Can- cer Quack." The use of an improper remedy for a hereditary pulmonary complaint caused his death in April 14, 1801.
There appeared in Hartford in 1791 a medley of bur- lesque and satirical pieces, which was given the name of "The Echo." Richard Alsop and his brother-in-law Theo- dore Dwight were responsible for its production; it ridiculed the bombast and bathos of the newspaper writers of the day, and caricatured the political doctrines and measures of the Anti-Federalists. It was entirely the work of its projectors, excepting that one number contained a few lines by Dr. Ma- son F. Cogswell, and parts of one or two numbers were by Dr. Lemuel Hopkins and Dr. Elihu H. Smith. A collection of these pieces, humorously illustrated, was published in
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1807. The contributors to the "Echo," with the exception of Theodore Dwight, were all natives of Connecticut. Rich- ard Alsop was born in Middletown Jan. 23, 1761; though a student of Yale College, he did not become a graduate, but engaged in trade. He occasionally devoted himself to belles- letters, and his work embraced a variety of subjects. He pub- lished his own French and Italian translations. He wrote "Monody on the the Death of Washington," in heroic verse, in 1800; "The Enchanted Lake, or The Fairy Morgana," was written in 1808. He died at Flatbush, New York, Aug. 20, 1815. He left a number of unpublished manuscripts, among them a poem of considerable length entitled "Charms of Fancy."
Elihu Hubbard Smith was born at Litchfield, Sept. 4, 1771. On graduating from Yale he studied medicine, and began the practice of his profession in New York city, in 1793. He lived in Wethersfield previous to locating in New York, and was the editor of the first collection of American poetry. He was associated with Dr. S. L. Mitchell in estab- lishing the "Medical Repository" in 1793. He died in New York city, Sept. 24, 1798, a victim of yellow fever.
Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell was born at Canterbury Sept. 17, 1761; he was the youngest and most distinguished mem- ber of the Yale College class of 1780. Studying medicine, he located in Stamford, but afterwards removed to New York city. Dr. Cogswell finally settled in Hartford, and became noted as a skillful surgeon; he died in that city, Dec. 17, 1833.
This aggregation of literary minds was known throughout the country as "The Hartford Wits." and made the city a recognized literary centre in that epoch.
Noah Webster, the great lexicographer and philologist,
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was born in what is now West Hartford, Oct. 17, 1758. He entered Yale at sixteen, but his college course was interrupted by the disturbance of the current events of the Revolution. We find him in 1777 present at the surrender of Burgoyne; but the following year he resumed his studies, and received his collegiate degree. He removed to Hartford, having a monetary capital of one dollar with which to begin life; this was supplemented, however, by an indomitable will, a good education, a great power of work, and still greater indepen- dence of mind. Webster became a teacher in the public schools, and spent his leisure hours in the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1781; but his clientage not being remunerative, he opened a high school at Goshen, New York, which he called "The Farmer's Hall Academy." His practical work as a teacher showed him the defects of the existing text-books; he was always interested in philology and had ideas of his own as to mitigating the chaos of Eng- lish spelling; and he thought this newly emancipated country ought to throw off the shackles of English orthography as it had of English political supremacy. He prepared the first part of a "Grammatical Institute of the English Language," which was published in 1783 at Hartford; this was followed by a second and third part, and by his American Spelling Book.
In 1788 he was connected with the editorial management of the "American Magazine," but the following year he returned to Hartford and resumed the practice of law. In this year appeared "Dissertations on the English Language," a series of lectures delivered by Webster in the American cities. He wrote essays on national subjects, and traveled throughout the States, to interest parties in the passage of a copyright law. During Washington's presidency Webster removed his
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family to New York, and engaged in editing a daily news- paper called "The Minerva," also a semi-weekly entitled "The Herald"; these names were afterwards changed to "Commercial Advertiser" and the "New York Spectator." Returning to New Haven in 1798, he began the preparation of his first dictionary. His "Compendious Dictionary" was published in 1806; this was followed the next year by a "Philosophical Grammar of the English Language." The same year he began his great work, "A Dictionary of the English Language." His pecuniary means were limited, and to reduce his family expenses he removed to Amherst, Massa- chusetts, in 1812. He returned to New Haven in 1822, and Yale College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Civil Law.
He visited Europe in 1824 to obtain material for his dic- tionary, which was published in 1828 in two volumes; it was republished in England, and gained for its author a world- wide reputation. An enlarged edition was published in 1841. During nearly half a century Mr. Webster was engaged in lexicography; but he was no closet pedant. He practiced law, was a farmer, a legislator, and an academician. He was a prolific writer, an essayist and pamphleteer, and wrote books on political, economical, literary, historical, educa- tional, and moral subjects. He died at New Haven May 28, 1843, leaving a precious legacy to his country and man- kind at large. It has been said of him, "he taught millions to read, but not one to sin."
Another author of standard text-books was Nathan Daboll, who was born in Connecticut in 1750. He was famous as an educator, and published in New London "A School-master's Assistant," also a work on "Practical Navigation." He began in 1773 the annual publication of "The Connecticut
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Almanac," one of the most interesting of Connecticut pro- ducts; it is still issued at the same place by the fifth genera- tion of Daboll's descendants, having never intermitted publi- cation. This is unique in American history. Mr. Daboll died at Groton, March 9, 181I.
Connecticut had another son, Jedidiah Morse, who was the author of educational works. He was born in Woodstock, Aug. 23, 1761; graduating from Yale in 1783, he studied theology and was settled in 1789 over the First Congrega- tionalist Church at Charlestown, Massachusetts. At the age of twenty-three he prepared the first geography published in America; this was followed by larger works of the same character, accompanied by gazetteers of the world. For thirty years Mr. Morse was without a competitor in his field; his works were translated into German and French. He pub- lished in 1804 "A Compendious History of New England," and in 1824 "A History of the American Revolution." He was an opponent of Unitarianism, which he combated stur- dily; this opposition to liberalism in religion brought upon him a persecution that impaired his health, and in 1802 he resigned his pastoral charge. He died at New Haven Jan. 9, 1826.
The most noted early American traveler and explorer was John Ledyard, born at Groton in 1751. The loss of his father in early life caused his removal to Hartford, where he attended the public schools; he began the study of divinity, · and was for a time a student at Dartmouth. He was obliged to suspend his collegiate course on account of poverty, and reached Hartford by way of the Connecticut River without a shilling in his pocket. At twenty he shipped as a common sailor for Gibraltar; he accompanied Captain Cook on his third voyage of discovery as a corporal of the marines, and
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was present at the tragic death of that illustrious navigator. Ledyard returned to his native land in 1781, but the follow- ing year we find him in England, where he conceived the plan of journeying through northern Europe and Siberia, and crossing Bering's Strait to the American continent. Upon reaching the eastern shores of Asia, he found that the ice pre- vented navigation, so he retraced his steps to a Russian port in Siberia to await the coming of summer. He was seized by Russian soldiers, conveyed to the Polish frontier, and assured that if he returned to Russia he would be executed. After surmounting many obstacles, he reached England, and was induced to participate in an exploration tour through Central Africa. He proceeded to Cairo, and while making prepara- tions to penetrate the interior country, he was attacked with a bilious fever which caused his death, Jan. 7, 1789. Led- yard's "Journal of Captain Cook's last Voyage" was pub- lished in 1781.
Aaron Cleveland, son of Rev. Aaron, was born in Had- dam, Feb. 3, 1744; the death of his father deprived him of a college education, but he pursued his studies while appren- ticed to a Norwich manufacturer. He was nineteen when he produced his first poem, "The Philosopher and Boy." He became a Congregationalist minister, and was located near Hartford. Several sermons and a few of his poems have been published. He died Sept. 2, 1815. He was the great- grandfather of President Grover Cleveland.
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