USA > Connecticut > Tercentenary pamphlet series, v. 3 The Beginnings of Roman Catholicism in Connecticut > Part 43
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The two sisters of Richard Alsop, Fanny and Mary, recognized his scholarly nature. The former said of Richard, "He seemed to know every variety of birds and I might almost say, every feather." She assisted him in preserving his large collection of natural history speci- mens. Mary Alsop wrote poems with a strong religious undertone and with evidences of careful reading of his- tory and Plutarch's Lives. Some examples of her verse, in manuscript, are among the Dwight Papers at the New York Public Library. Richard Alsop spent some time in
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New York where his brother, John, had a bookstore and where his brother-in-law, Isaac Riley, was a publisher. Perhaps the expense of publishing the Echo series with other verses was borne by Alsop; he was, doubtless, the editor of the papers and he carefully selected the examples of wit and political counsel.
In studying the poetry by Richard Alsop one finds the longer poem, Charms of fancy, which was highly rated in his day and issued with a memorial sketch of the author in 1856, less praiseworthy, by modern standards, than some of his shorter verses. It is a vision of America's future in art, music, and poetry, typical of the ardent patriotism of the day but stiff in diction. Akenside's Pleasure of the imagination, an English poem of the time, may have been the model. Far more worthy of tribute was his elegy, A poem sacred to the memory of George Washington (Hartford, Hudson & Goodwin, 1800). In the writer's judgment the most remarkable poem by Richard Alsop is not found among his collected works, as pub- lished, but is given, with his name as author, in Kettell's Specimens of American poetry (vol. 2, p. 60). The title is "Verses to a shearwater on the morning after a storm at sea." There is found here the author's love of birds and knowledge of their habits; there is, also, a startling re- semblance to Bryant's lines "To a waterfowl," one of the latter's master poems. An example is in this last stanza of Alsop's poem :
Without star or magnet's aid, Thou thy faithful course dost keep! Sportive still, still undismay'd, Lonely wanderer of the deep!
As translator, Richard Alsop left portions of the Eddas, and of Italian and Spanish verse; such was The enchanted lake of the fairy Morgana (New York, 1806) from the
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Orlando inamorata. Although his name does not appear on the title page, he is often chosen as the probable editor of a strange but actual story of adventure, told in the manner of Defoe, Narrative of the adventures and sufferings of John R. Jewett, only survivor of the crew of the ship Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the savages of Nootka Sound (Middletown, 1815). This was published in the year of Richard Alsop's death.
The domestic life of this "millionaire poet" brought him as much happiness as he found in his studies and writings. Among his friends he was noted for his fertile imagination and playful humor. His marriage to Miss Mary Wyllys Pomeroy of Hartford gave him three chil- dren, Frances Marie, Richard, the sixth of that name, and Mary Caroline. His son, Richard, born in Middle- town, traveled for business and pleasure to South American ports where he established the firm of Alsop and Company. After an absence of twenty years from this country he returned to Philadelphia where he mar- ried and became an honored citizen but he had no chil- dren. The widow of the poet married, for her second husband, Samuel W. Dana of Middletown, who was a representative in the state legislature and in congress. If Richard Alsop was ranked among the less distinguished literary lights of his generation he has come into his own today. His broad knowledge and appreciation of modern foreign languages was a trait seldom found in his genera- tion among Americans who were prone to stress the supremacy of their own deeds and words and were unwill- ing to admit their dependence upon European peoples for their inspiration and examples.
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VIII
SUCH an ardent American, self-satisfied as well as loyal to high ideals for his country, and overrated by his con- temporaries, was David Humphreys. This group of Hartford Wits was a mutual admiration society; they gave to each other, in printed words, tribute that sounds often more bombastic than effective. Their chosen two for the most fervent praise were John Trumbull and David Humphreys. When Joel Barlow wrote his long poem, The Columbiad, he thus extolled these two friends, as writers:
See Trumbull lead the train. His skilful hand Hurls the keen darts of satire round the land. Pride, knavery, dulness feel his mortal stings, And listening virtue triumphs while he sings; Britain's foil'd sons, victorious now no more, In guilt retiring from the wasted shore, Strive their curst cruelties to hide in vain, The world resounds them in his deathless strain.
See Humphreys glorious from the field retire, Sheathe the glad sword and string the soothing lyre;
His country's wrongs, her duties, dangers, praise, Fire his full soul and animate his lays: Wisdom and War with equal joy shall own So fond a votary and so brave a son.
David Humphreys was esteemed as "a favorite son of Connecticut" during his lifetime and for many later years. His virtues and achievements are recorded on his monument, near the entrance to the old cemetery in New Haven, in Latin words chosen by his friend and ardent admirer, John Trumbull. When Frank Landon Hum-
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phreys wrote the Life and times of David Humphreys, soldier, statesman, poet, "Belov'd of Washington" (2 vols., New York, 1917) he chose a true subtitle, for Humphreys was a trusted friend of the first president.
He was the fourth son of David Humphreys, the minister in Derby, Connecticut. He was born in the old house long associated with memories of his mother, Sarah Riggs Humphreys, in whose honor a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has been named. Gracious and queenly, she was known as Lady Hum- phreys. Her fine features and attractive personality, which were portrayed by Gilbert Stuart, she transmitted to her son, David. At Yale College Humphreys was a friend of John Trumbull and Joel Barlow. After gradua- tion he studied law for a brief time, and then, while seeking a place in the army, he taught school, visited camps, and wrote a poem which he dedicated to George Washington. He began his military services as an adju- tant in Colonel Jabez Thompson's regiment; then he was aide-de-camp to General Israel Putnam. In due time he was made, first, a major and then a colonel as aide to Washington.
Colonel Humphreys was brave and efficient in war service. Congress later voted him a sword in recognition of his "gallantry" at Yorktown. With his militant quali- ties was an abiding desire to write poetry. This urge had many expressions and, during his lifetime and after, his verses were read and quoted both in this country and in England. One of the best-known favorites was A poem on the happiness of America; addressed to the citizens of the United States. This appeared the same year in both London and Hartford and, in three years, there had been nine editions. He wrote elegies on heroes of the Revolu- tion; in A poem on the love of country are some lines of
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sincere tribute to General Israel Putnam, lines less strained than are many of his verses:
His body rough with scars, near Gates and Greene, Unletter'd Putnam's louring brow was seen; Stern as he stood, none more for woe could feel, His heart all softness, but his nerves all steel;
In peace a lamb, in fight a lion fierce,
And not a name more honour'd decks my verse.
His biography of Putnam, which was issued, with vary- ing titles, from 1788 to 1834, was completed at Mount Vernon while he was serving as Washington's secretary.
Humphreys must have rejoiced in his selection as secretary of the group of commissioners-Franklin, John Adams, and Jefferson-who were appointed, in 1784, to make treaties of commerce with European nations. For nearly two years he lived abroad, part of the time in London, part in Paris. He came into friendly contacts with foreign statesmen and writers; to his great delight he found that, by many whom he met, he was regarded not alone as a soldier but also as a poet. With pride he learned that his verses, Address to the armies of the United States of America, which had been twice printed in New Haven (1780, 1785), was translated into French and issued in Paris, in 1786.
When he returned to Connecticut, after his first so- journ in Europe, he lived part of the time in Derby, with frequent visits to Hartford. He was elected as a member of the state legislature. It was during these years, 1786- 1788, that he collaborated with his friends and probably gave to them the original incentive to write the Anarchiad. With Trumbull, Barlow, and Hopkins he was on intimate terms, a sharer in their literary and social interests.
After serving as the first private secretary to Washing- ton as president, Humphreys spent nearly twelve years,
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from 1790 to 1802, in Europe on diplomatic missions, in- cluding service as the minister of the United States at the courts of Lisbon and Madrid. It was at the legation in Madrid, on July 4, 1800, that he delivered his poem, often printed and extolled, On the death of General Wash- ington. When a second edition of his Miscellaneous works was published, in 1804, he dedicated the book to the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, who had been "an intimate friend in Paris," during his first European sojourn.
In spite of his vanity (which was surely excusable in view of these attentions from foreign associates) and although he had married an English lady and indulged in many luxuries that were more in keeping with court life than provincial America, Humphreys was an ardent patriot in acts and words. After the War of 1812 was declared he organized a company of Veteran Volunteers and was commissioned brigadier general by the governor of Connecticut. He rejoiced in that rank and used it in later writings like The Yankey in England: a drama in five acts. There is no date nor place on the copy in the Boston Athenaeum but the Preface is signed "D. Hum- phreys, Humphreysville, Sept. 1, 1815." The plot is fantastic and melodramatic, based upon the hidden identity and romantic adventures of two children, son and daughter, respectively, of "two American young men who had been educated at the same college in America." The hero, an impoverished sailor and then "a handy man" for Mr. Newman ("controller of the House- hold in Count St. Luc's family") speaks Yankee dialect and mingles cunning with credulity. This play was "pre- sented" after the annual examination of the school and institutions belonging to the Humphreysville Manufac- turing Company, which was "fathered" by Humphreys; he took a part in the play.
Not all Englishmen whom he met were favorably
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impressed by the "literary genius" of Humphreys. Robert Southey had met the American minister at Lisbon and he gave his impressions in a letter to a friend. Southey recorded that Humphreys loaned to him Timothy Dwight's Conquest of Canaan; he added, "I had heard of it, and long wished to read it, in vain; but now the American Minister (a good-natured man, whose poetry is worse than anything except his criticism) has lent me the book. There certainly is some merit in the poem; but when Colonel Humphreys speaks of it, he will not allow me to put in a word in defense of John Milton."
When his diplomatic services were over, Humphreys returned to Connecticut to his native town, with desire and resources to improve industrial conditions. While he was at Lisbon, he had written a Poem on the industry of the United States of America which was published in Philadelphia in 1794. In 1802 he brought from Spain one hundred merino sheep as a part of his equipment for making woolen cloth. He opened some mills near Derby on land which he had purchased. The settlement, which was called Chusetown at first and later was renamed Humphreysville, is now a part of Seymour. There he had a fulling mill, a cotton mill, and a paper mill, giving employ- ment to several hundreds. At the age of forty-five he had married the daughter of an English banker who was helpful in these ventures. From England Humphreys secured superintendents who knew the business of weaving and finishing the goods that soon became popu- lar with Jefferson and other men of political influence.
Combined with his patriotic motives for the encourage- ment of American industry, he united wise and produc- tive efforts for social betterment. Some of his apprentices came from institutions, in New York, for orphans and neglected boys. He arranged for them recreation rooms, a library, and instruction in military drill; he wrote plays
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and encouraged any ability that he found in music or writing. In his neighbors, who were often blessed by his care and bounty, he could visualize that humble, happy American whom he pictured in his Poem on the happiness of America:
The cattle fed-the fuel pil'd within -- At setting day the blissful hours begin: "Tis then, sole owner of his little cot,
The farmer feels his independent lot;
Hears with the crackling blaze that lights the wall, The voice of gladness and of nature call,
Beholds his children play, their mother smile,
And tastes with them the fruit of summer's toil.
IX
JOEL BARLOW, like his friend, David Humphreys, wrote lines of genuine sentiment and faithful pictures of "the American scene," as well as long, ambitious poems of inferior worth. Both these men lived abroad for many years, giving diplomatic service to their country and meeting foreign potentates and writers. Humphreys re- turned to pass his last days of usefulness and influence in his native state but Barlow's home, on his return from Europe in 1807, after an absence of seventeen years, was in Washington. After 1788, therefore, he seldom had inti- mate contacts with his Connecticut friends of earlier days; by some of them he was later misjudged and severely criticized.
The life story of Joel Barlow is one of the most pic- turesque in American literary history. It has never been adequately told nor has full use been made of the mass of letters and papers that remain as his own record, though a beginning has been made by Theodore Albert Zunder, in The early days of Foel Barlow (New Haven, 1934).
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This is a recital of the incidents of his life from 1754 to 1787, the year in which his Vision of Columbus was first issued. In both his political views and his writings, Joel Barlow was paradoxical. At certain periods he was over- praised by his contemporaries; at other times, he was scorned and condemned. Writing in the 1880's, Edmund Clarence Stedman said, "The author of The Columbiad and Hasty Pudding was a man of might in his day, and will not pass out of literature or history." Donald Grant Mitchell concluded a sympathetic account of his career with the declaration that "It was full of grit-full of Yankee capacity for bargainings-full of ambitions; there were little poetic up-lifts in it, but none of them very high."
Redding, Connecticut, was the birthplace of Joel Barlow in 1754. His ancestors were of good farmer stock, men of industry and vision. Upon this youth there came the potent influence of his minister and tutor, Nathaniel Bartlett, a Yale graduate, who recognized ability of un- usual promise in his pupil. This parson-pedagogue (who was to remain in the same parish for fifty-seven years) persuaded the father of Joel Barlow to send him to Moor's Indian Charity School in Hanover, New Hamp- shire, where the terms were "easy" for Indian students and others who might become ministers or missionaries. Here the youth "did chores" and prepared for Dart- mouth. After a few months at that college, which then had about one hundred students, he transferred to Yale where he graduated in the class of 1778.
Barlow had a jovial, keen nature and a deep affection for his family, especially for his mother who became a widow while he was in Hanover. To Acting President Naphtali Daggett of Yale he brought a letter from President Eleazar Wheelock of Dartmouth, commending
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Barlow for "sober regular and good Behaviour" which had so recommended him "to universal Esteem that we Should be quite unwilling to part with him." At Yale, where he was elected to Brothers in Unity, he made devoted friends, among them Oliver Wolcott, Jr., Noah Webster, and Uriah Tracy. A Yale tutor, Joseph Buck- minster, inspired Barlow to study literature and to write and declaim in English and Latin. His mother died in 1775 but sufficient funds were left to Joel so that he could complete his college course. During his later years at Yale he began to "pay visits" to the home of one of the tutors, Abraham Baldwin, where he met the sister, Ruth Baldwin, who was to become his devoted and stimulating wife. They were married January 26, 1781, but this was "a secret" for a year.
Two ambitions dominated Barlow in college and in the years that followed-a desire to excel in law and in litera- ture. The Revolution delayed the fruition of both pro- fessions. Like other youths of his time and college, Joel Barlow was eager to get into service. He stressed, as evidence of his fitness for a position as chaplain, both his brief training as a minister and his "gift of eloquence," and he secured an appointment in General Poor's brigade from Massachusetts. He was present at the execution of Major André. Of this English soldier-spy, Barlow wrote: "A politer Gentleman or a greater character of his age, perhaps is not alive ... . With the Appearance of Phi- losophy & heroism he observed that he was buoyed above the fear of Death by a consciousness, that every action of his had been honorable, that in a few minutes he should be out of all pleasure or pain." The next day, a Sabbath, Barlow preached "a flaming political sermon occasioned by the treachery of Arnold."
The war over, Barlow studied law and wrote steadily
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on his poem which was to bear the title of The vision of Columbus. In revising some of the 4,700 lines he was aided by Noah Webster, by David Humphreys, and by Richard Alsop, as letters testify. Eight hundred subscribers were found for this long poem which was published, in 1787, by Hudson & Goodwin of Hartford. It passed into four editions. He had earlier received a commission from the general association of ministers of Connecticut to edit a revised edition of Watts's Psalms (Hartford, 1785). Here again, he was given suggestions by his Hartford friends, Trumbull and Alsop. Barlow rewrote Psalm CXXXVII, polished many others into an elegant version," and added a few hymns. During these years in Hartford he was editing the American Mercury and conducting a bookstore in partnership with Elisha Babcock.
Into his life, hampered by lack of money and of broad opportunities to use his knowledge of law and of the French language, came an unexpected chance to travel and to test his business abilities; should he succeed he would win both wealth and renown. He was offered the foreign agency for the Scioto Land Company, an auxil- iary of the Ohio Land Company of which Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper, both Revolutionary soldiers of rank, were leading promoters. The inside story of the Scioto Land Company, where the responsibility should rest for its false promises and failure, has been told with variations. How far congress was the aggressor, how far it was the victim, is a mooted question. When "the bubble burst" and the victims who had been allured by the promises of Barlow, as well as by other promoters, found that they lacked titles, Joel Barlow was attacked in this country and abroad. In recent years, however, belief has grown that this Connecticut writer was not deliberately deceitful, that he was not fully informed
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about the enterprise. He never received his promise returns. The fortune which was gained by him in late years, in France, was due largely to the purchase, at al opportune time, of securities in French business, in : hotel and a ship, and in other affairs managed partly by his thrifty, well-informed wife. The French Revolu tion interfered with the Land Company but it gave stimulus to Barlow in other ways. In a letter to his wife who was then staying with her brother, Dudley, at Greenfield Hill, he wrote from Paris, July 28, 1789:
My dearest love,
The sudden and glorious revolution that has taken place in Paris within the last fortnight has prevented my completing the business which I had promised myself should be done before now .... It is really no small satisfaction to me to have seen two complete revolutions in favor of liberty .... Every- thing now is quiet at Paris. I look upon affairs of this nation to be on the point of being settled on the most rational and lasting foundation.4
The limits of this study must focus attention upon Joel Barlow, the writer, rather than upon the diplomat and political philosopher but the aspects of his life were fully blended. Like all the Hartford Wits, he believed that he would "live as a poet." Some of his most sig- nificant writings, however, were in prose. One of the latter was Advice to the privileged orders in the several states of Europe, which was quoted and denounced by friends of Burke and praised by Fox. A poem, The con- spiracy of kings, added to this unpopularity with many English people who placed his name beside that of the liberal, Thomas Paine, whose Rights of man had been acclaimed by Barlow. Consequently, he returned from England to France where he was given citizenship and 4 Letter in Pequot Library, Southport, Connecticut; used by permission.
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vas sent on a political mission to Chambéry, the capital f Savoy. It was while he was on this commission that he ound, to his surprise one evening at supper, at a rural nn in Savoy, in January, 1793, Indian meal pudding, or polenta, on the menu. Impelled by a mood of nostalgia nd memories of his boyhood, he wrote the stanzas of Hasty pudding (New Haven, 1796) which, in the judg- nent of many critics, will survive all his other writings. The poem, dedicated to Mrs. George Washington, was published in many places and stemmed the tide of cen- ure of Barlow as a renegade.
In 1795, he was appointed as United States consul to Algiers, where he lived amid dangers of all kinds. He negotiated affairs so well that many American prisoners of Barbary pirates were released. At that time, while he vas separated from wife and friends and threatened by he black plague, he wrote to his wife a letter, to be pened if he should die, which is noble and poetic in text ind sentiments. After seventeen years in Europe he eturned to acquire and furnish a mansion at Rock Creek, hear Washington, which he called Kalorama, or Fair View. He hoped to develop several projects for American betterment, in cultural and practical ways. Robert Fulton, inventor and designer, had been a housemate of Barlow in Paris; Barlow was deeply interested in his projects and Fulton's name is blazoned in the unfinished und unpublished poem, "The canal."5 Fulton made twelve llustrations for the complete edition of Barlow's Colum- iad, in ten books, dedicated to him (Philadelphia, 1807). Jntil 1825 reprints of this long, effusive poem proved its avor among his contemporaries, but it is wearisome reading today. In 1811 there came to Joel Barlow an
5 Among the Barlow Papers in the Pequot Library, Southport, Con- lecticut.
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unexpected call to reenter the diplomatic service. He was to negotiate for the United States a treaty with Napoleon. On arrival at Paris, Barlow found Napoleon busy with his Russian campaign, but finally he was summoned to the headquarters at Vilna for conference. The severe weather and discomforts of the retreat brought on a pulmonary attack and Barlow died at a little Polish village near Cracow. On the vault at Kalorama where lie buried his wife, who lived until 1818, and her brother, Senator Abraham Baldwin, is the me- morial inscription :
JOEL BARLOW PATRIOT, POET, STATESMAN AND PHILOSOPHER LIES BURIED
AT ZARNAWICA IN POLAND WHERE HE DIED, 24TH DEC. 1812 AGED 58 YEARS AND 9 MONTHS
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THE careers and writings of the Hartford Wits afford interesting and valuable studies in literary history. They are worthy of remembrance and honor, collectively and individually. They took their literary efforts seriously, though it is easy for the flippant or cynical reader of the twentieth century to ridicule their writings. In their time, however, as Professor Henry A. Beers has said, they did form "a school ... they had in common certain definite, coherent and conscious aims." In recognition of what they aspired to do and of what they left as memo- rials, true words have been written by such a critic of influence as Vernon Louis Parrington who observed: "As poetry, these old satires may seem feeble enough but as historical documents they are eloquent." Another writer
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n the Cambridge history of American literature concluded hat "the work of the Hartford Wits in fostering poetry n a period of political and social struggle and change deserves grateful recognition from the student of Ameri- ;an literature." All honor, then, to the Hartford Wits, a pioneer group, whose patriotic zeal and literary impulses ound such varied self-expression, whose names are high on the roll of Connecticut's men of scholarly minds, cultural influence, and public service!
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