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JOEL BARLOW (1754-1812)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 407 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOEL See also:BARLOW (1754-1812)  , See also:American poet and politician, See also:born in Redding, See also:Fairfield See also:county, See also:Connecticut, on the 24th of See also:March 1754 . He graduated at Yale in 1778, was a See also:post-See also:graduate student there for two years, and from See also:September 178o until the See also:close of the revolutionary See also:war was See also:chaplain in a See also:Massachusetts See also:brigade . He then, in 1783, removed to See also:Hartford, Connecticut, established there in See also:July 1784 a weekly See also:paper, the American See also:Mercury, with which he was connected for a See also:year, and in 1786 was admitted to the See also:bar . At Hartford he was a member of a See also:group of See also:young writers including Lemuel See also:Hopkins, See also:David See also:Humphreys, and See also:John See also:Trumbull, known in American See also:literary See also:history as the " Hartford Wits." He contributed to the Anarchiad, a See also:series of satirico-See also:political papers, and in 1787 published a See also:long and ambitious poem, The See also:Vision of See also:Columbus, which gave him a considerable literary reputation and was once much read . In 1788 he went to See also:France as the See also:agent of the Scioto See also:Land See also:Company, his See also:object being to sell lands and enlist immigrants . He seems to have been ignorant of the fraudulent See also:character of the company, which failed disastrously in 1790 . He had previously, however, induced the company of Frenchmen, who ultimately founded See also:Gallipolis, See also:Ohio, to emigrate to See also:America . In See also:Paris he became a liberal in See also:religion and an advanced republican in politics . He remained abroad for several years, spending much of his See also:time in See also:London; was a member of the See also:obnoxious " London Society for Constitutional See also:Information "; published various See also:radical essays, including a See also:volume entitled See also:Advice to the Privileged Orders (1792), which was proscribed by the See also:British See also:government; and was made a See also:citizen of France in 1792 . He was American See also:consul at See also:Algiers in 1795-1797, securing the See also:release of American prisoners held for See also:ransom, and negotiating a treaty with See also:Tripoli (1796) . He returned to America in 180.5, and lived near Washing-ton, D.C., until 1811, when he became American plenipotentiary to France, charged with negotiating a commercial treaty with See also:Napoleon, and with securing the restitution of confiscated American See also:property or See also:indemnity therefor . He was summoned for an interview with Napoleon at Wilna, but failed to see the See also:emperor there; became involved in the See also:retreat of the See also:French See also:army; and, overcome by exposure, died at the See also:Polish See also:village of Zarnowiec on the 24th of See also:December 1812 .

In 1807 he had published in a sumptuous volume the Columbiad, an enlarged edition of his Vision of Columbus, more pompous even than the See also:

original; but, though it added to his reputation in some quarters, on the whole it was not well received, and it has subsequently been much ridiculed . The poem for which he is now best known is his See also:mock heroic Hasty See also:Pudding (1793) . Besides the writings mentioned above, he published See also:Conspiracy of See also:Kings, a Poem addressed to the Inhabitants of See also:Europe from another See also:Quarter of the Globe (1792); View of the Public See also:Debt, Receipts and See also:Expenditure of the See also:United States (1800); and the Political Writings of See also:Joel See also:Barlow (2nd ed., 1996) . He also published an edition, " corrected and enlarged," of See also:Isaac See also:Watt's See also:Imitation of the See also:Psalms of David (1786) . See C . B . Todd's See also:Life and Letters of Joel Barlow (New See also:York and London, 1886) ; and a See also:chapter, " The Literary Strivings of Joel Barlow," in M . C . See also:Tyler's Three Men of Letters (New York and London, 1895) .

End of Article: JOEL BARLOW (1754-1812)
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