The Poems of Philip Freneau Volume I Part 3

"Tho' I know not your person, I well know your merit, Your satires admire--your muse of true spirit; Who reads them must smile at poetical story Except the k--g's printer, or some such like tory; Sir William, sir Harry, and would-be sir John, Cornwallis, the devil, those bucks of the ton; Black Dunmore and Wallace with sun-setting nose, Who steak hogs and sheep, secure--_under the Rose_.[A]

But a fig for the anger of such petty rogues, To the devil we pitch them without shoes or brogues!

"Pythag'ras' choice scheme my belief now controuls, I sign to his creed--transmigration of souls; Euphorbas's shield he no doubt did employ, And bravely let blood on the plains of old Troy: The souls of great Marlbro' and warlike Eugene Conspicuous in Washington's glory are seen: Sage Pluto beams wisdom from Franklin's rich brain, And sky-taught sir Isaac[B] is seen here again.

But Hugh when he migrates may daily be found Cracking bones in a kitchen in form of a hound; When his compeer shall die--while no Christian shall weep him, Old Pluto, below, for a devil will keep him; Unless he's sent up on some hasty dispatch, The whigs to abuse, and more falsehoods to hatch.

Thou red-jerkin'd fops, whom your muse I've heard sing From Hounslow's bold heroes successively spring; From Tyburn they tumble as supple as panders, Then migrate straightway into knights and commanders.

But you, worthy poet, whose soul-cutting pen In gall paints the crimes of all time-serving men, The fiend of corruption, the wretch of an hour, The star-garter'd villain, the scoundrel in pow'r, From souls far unlike may announce your ascension, The patriot all-worthy, above bribe or pension, The martyr who suffered for liberty's sake Grim dungeons, more horrid than h.e.l.l's bitter lake: Your name to bright honor, the spirits shall lift, That glow'd in the bosoms of Churchill and Swift.

"And when you are number'd, alas! with the dead, Your works by true wits will forever be read, Who, pointing the finger, shall pensively shew The lines that were written, alas! by Freneau."

_Philadelphia, June 8, 1786._

[A] He commanded the _Rose_ sloop.

[B] David Rittenhouse, Esq., the Ingenious inventor of the celebrated perpendicular Orrery.

The second volume of poems did not appear promptly. One year after the first proposals, Bailey advertised that the book was at last in press.

"An unusual hurry of other business (of a nature not to be postponed), has unavoidably delayed the printer in its publication to so late a period." It is notable that of the four hundred and sixty-three subscribers, two hundred and fifty, or over half, were in Charleston, S. C., and one hundred and twenty-six in New York. Philadelphia subscribed for very few of the volumes.

The printer's advertis.e.m.e.nt was as follows:

"The following Essays and Poems, selected from some printed and ma.n.u.script papers of Mr. Freneau, are now presented to the public of the United Slates in hopes they will prove at least equally acceptable with his volume of poems published last year. Some few of the pieces in this volume have heretofore appeared in American newspapers; but through a fatality, not unusually attending publications of that kind, are now, perhaps, forgotten; and, at any time, may possibly never have been seen or attended to but by very few."

Of the forty-nine poems in the volume, one, "Slender's Journey," had been published separately by Bailey early in 1787, and nearly half of the others had first seen the light between April, 1786, and January, 1788, in the columns of the _Freeman's Journal_. The greater number of the others were doubtless printed from the poet's ma.n.u.scripts. A few of the prose papers, like "The Philosopher of the Forest," were selected from the columns of the _Journal_, especially from the series ent.i.tled "The Pilgrim," but much of the rest was from the poet's ma.n.u.scripts now first published.

In the meantime the poet was leading a stormy and adventurous career upon the sea. As master of the sloop _Industry_, and later of the schooner _Columbia_, plying irregularly on all kinds of coastwise voyages between Georgia and New York, he experienced every phase of life upon the ocean. As a sample of his adventurous career during this period, note the following letter[8] to Bailey, written from Norfolk, Va., in the summer of 1788:

"_Norfolk, Virginia, August 6, 1788._

"_Mr._ BAILEY,

"I have the mortification to inform you that, after leaving New-York on the 21st of July, I had the misfortune to have my vessel dismasted, thrown on her beam ends, shifted and ruined the bulk of her cargo, lost every sail, mast, spar, boat, and almost every article upon deck, on the Wednesday afternoon following, in one of the hardest gales that ever blew upon this coast. Capt.

William Cannon, whom I think you know, who was going pa.s.senger with me to Charleston, and Mr. Joseph Stillwell, a lad of a reputable family in New-Jersey, were both washed overboard and drowned, notwithstanding every effort to save them. All my people besides, except one, an old man who stuck fast in one of the scuttles, were several times overboard, but had the fortune to regain the wreck, and with considerable difficulty save their lives.--As to myself, I found the vessel no longer under any guidance--I took refuge in the main weather shrouds, where indeed I saved myself from being washed into the sea, but was almost staved to pieces in a violent fall I had upon the main deck, the main-mast having given way six feet above the deck, and gone overboard--I was afterward knocked in the head by a violent stroke of the tiller, which entirely deprived me of sensation for (I was told) near a quarter of an hour.--Our pumps were now so choaked with corn that they would no longer work, upward of four feet of water was in the hold, fortunately our bucket was saved, and with this we went to baling, which alone prevented us from foundering in one of the most dismal nights that ever man witnessed.

"The next morning the weather had cleared away and the wind came round to the N. E. which during the gale had been E. N. E.--the land was then in sight, about 5 miles distant, lat.i.tude at noon 36-17, I then rigged out a broken boom, and set the fore top-sail, the only sail remaining, and steered for cape Henry; making however but very little way, the vessel being very much on one side and ready to sink with her heavy cargo of iron, besides other weighty articles. We were towed in next day, Friday, by the friendly a.s.sistance of capt. Archibald Bell, of the ship Betsey, from London--I have since arrived at this port by the a.s.sistance of a Potowmac pilot.--Nothing could exceed our distress--no fire, no candle, our beds soaked with sea water, the cabbin torn to pieces, a vast quant.i.ty of corn damaged and poisoning us to death, &c. &c.

&c. As we entered this port, on the 29th of July, the very dogs looked at us with an eye of commiseration--the negros pitied us, and almost every one shewed a disposition to relieve us. In the midst of all this vexation the crew endeavoured to keep up their spirits with a little grog, while I have recourse to my old expedient of philosophy and reflection. I have unloaded my cargo, partly damaged, partly otherwise--This day I also begin to refit my vessel, and mean to proceed back to New-York as soon as refitted, which cannot be sooner than the 25th, perhaps the 30th of this month. It is possible, however, that I may be ordered to sell the vessel here; if so, I shall take a pa.s.sage to Baltimore, and go to New-York by the way of Philadelphia, to look out for another more fortunate barque than that which I now command.

Your's &c. PHILIP FRENEAU."

I cannot forbear quoting another letter[9] written nearly a year later, since it gives us a charming glimpse of the Freneau of this period:

"Yamacraw, Savanna, March 14th, 1789.

"SIR: Amongst a number of my good natured acquaintance, who have lately sympathized with me, on account of what they term my misfortunes, during great part of last year, I know of no one more ent.i.tled to my acknowledgments, on the occasion, than yourself.

When an old woman talks of witches, ghosts, or blue devils, we naturally make an allowance for bad education, or the imbicility of intellect, occasioned by age. When one man seriously supposes another unfortunate, for the sake of two or three successive disasters, which no prudence or foresight could have avoided, the same allowance ought to be made, provided the same excuses could be a.s.signed.

"Can you be serious, then in advising me to quit all future intercourse with an element, that has for some years, with all its dangers and losses, afforded to your humble servant attractions, far more powerful than those of Apollo! Formerly, when I wrote poetry, most of those that attended to it, would not allow my verses to be good. I gave credit to what I deemed the popular opinion, and made a safe retreat in due time, to the solitary wastes of Neptune. I am not, however, inclined to believe people so readily now, when they alledge my vessel is not sound, and when several gentlemen, for reasons best known to themselves, and perhaps not over willing to risque the uncertainties of the world to come, effect to doubt of her ability to waft their carcases in safety.

But my ambition is greatly concerned in this matter: a schooner is confided to my care, humble, indeed, when compared to those lofty piles which I have seen you so much admire, but which is, nevertheless, really capable of an European, nay of an India voyage. Read all history, ransack libraries, call tradition to your aid, search all records, examine a million of ma.n.u.scripts on vellum, on parchment, on paper, on marble, on what you please, and I defy you to find the most distant hint of any _poet_, in any age or country, from Hesiod down to Peter Pindar, having been trusted with the controul or possession of anything fit to be mentioned or compared with the same barque, which you say, _I have the misfortune to command._

"To be serious: misfortune ought to be only the topic of such men as do not think or reason with propriety, upon the nature of things. Some writer says, it is but another name for carelessness or inattention: Though that may not at all times be the case, it is in the power of every man to place himself beyond the supposed baneful influence of this inexorable deity, by _a.s.suming_ a dignity of mind, (if it be not the gift of nature) that will, in the end, get the better of the untoward events, that may frequently cross our best purposes. Indeed, the _sea_ is the _best_ school for philosophy (I mean of the moral kind); in thirteen or fourteen years' acquaintance with this element, I am convinced a man ought to imbibe more of your right genuine _stoical_ stuff, than could be gained in half a century on sh.o.r.e.--I must add that, be our occupations what they may, or our fortunes what they will, there is a certain delectable, inexpressible satisfaction in now and then encountering the rubs and disasters of life, and I am entirely of the opinion which (says Dr. Langhorne)

"Weakness wrote in Petrarch's gentle strain, When once he own'd at love's unfavouring shrine _A thousand pleasures art not worth one pain_!"

"I must now conclude this scrawl, with telling you, that I am receiving on board my vessel a small cargo of lumber, at a place called Yamacraw, a little above Savanna. The weather is extremely warm, I am tired of my letter, and must, of course, conclude. I do not know whether you ever mean to make a voyage to sea--if you should, thrice welcome shall you be to such accommodations as my little embarkation affords. Poets and philosophers, shall ever travel with me at a cheap rate indeed! Not only because they are not generally men of this world, but because, even supposing the barque that bears them, should make an external exit to the bottom of the ocean, the busy world, as things go, will regret the loss of most of them very little, perhaps not at all.

Your's, &c., P. FRENEAU."

On the 24th of April, 1789, when Washington arrived in New York to enter upon the duties of the presidency, in the fleet that accompanied him from Elizabethtown Point was the schooner _Columbia_, Capt. Freneau, eight days from Charleston. In June the _Columbia_ again entered New York Harbor, and on December 28th she was at Sunbury, Georgia. On February 12th, 1790, Freneau arrived in New York, pa.s.senger from Middletown Point in the brig _Betsy_, Capt. Motley, to become editor of Child and Swaine's _New York Daily Advertiser_. For several months negotiations had been pending. Every appearance of the poet in New York for a year past had been marked by a small budget of poems in the _Advertiser_ from the pen of "Capt. Freneau," but it was not until February, 1790, that he was induced to leave his beloved _Columbia_ and settle down to a life upon sh.o.r.e. The poem "Neversink," written some months later, is his valedictory to the ocean.

"Proud heights: with pain so often seen (With joy beheld once more) On your firm base I take my stand, Tenacious of the sh.o.r.e: Let those who pant for wealth or fame Pursue the watery road;-- Soft sleep and ease, blest days and nights, And health, attend these favoring heights, Retirement's blest abode."

The poem "Constantia" may record the poet's reasons for leaving the ocean, for on the 19th of May, 1790, there appeared in Peter Freneau's Charleston paper, the _City Gazette_, _or the Daily Advertiser_, the following:

"_Married_, on the fifteenth of April, at Middletown Point, East New Jersey, Capt. Philip Freneau to Miss Eleanor Forman, daughter of Mr. Samuel Forman, of that place."

The Forman family with which the poet allied himself was one of great respectability and even prominence in New Jersey. Its record during the Revolution had been a conspicuous one, and its connection included the Ledyards, the Seymours, and many other prominent families. Mrs. Freneau, in the words of her daughter, "was remarkable for her gentle, lady-like manners, amiable disposition and finely informed mind. She was affable and sprightly in her conversation, and there were, even when she had reached the advanced age of eighty-seven, few handsomer women." In her early years she dabbled a little in poetry herself, and there is a tradition in the family that the prenuptial correspondence was for a long time wholly in verse.

Freneau was now fairly settled in life, and for the next seven or eight years he was engaged almost continuously in newspaper work.

V.

During the next year and more Freneau, as editor of the _Daily Advertiser_, brought to bear upon the paper all the vigor and literary skill which had so marked the _Freeman's Journal_. The tone of the editorial comment was patriotic and spirited. The note of reform, of opposition to everything that was degrading to high ideals, or that in any way threatened personal liberty, was never absent. Despite the manifold duties inc.u.mbent upon the editor of a city daily, he found time to write finished prose sketches and to woo the muses. His poetry of this period is notable both as to quant.i.ty and quality. Some of it was drawn from the notebooks of his years of wandering, but the greater part dealt with more timely topics. In June he published the advertis.e.m.e.nt:

"Mr. Freneau proposes publishing a volume of original poems, to contain about two hundred and fifty pages, 12mo, neatly printed.... As soon as there appears a sufficiency of subscribers to defray the expenses of paper and printing, the collection shall be put to press."

Judging from several poems of this period which were printed as from the author's new volume, "The Rising Empire," this was to be the t.i.tle of the book. The advertis.e.m.e.nt was dropped in October, and "The Rising Empire" never appeared, though most of its poems were printed in the edition of 1795.

On September 20, 1791, Freneau's daughter, Eleanor, was born at Mount Pleasant. His salary as editor of the _Advertiser_ was not large; the little family, it appears, was in straightened circ.u.mstances. A letter[10] from Aeda.n.u.s Burke of Charleston to Madison, dated September 13, 1801, throws light upon the period.

"I remember, it was about the last fortnight that we served together in Congress, in 1791, I one day called you aside, and mentioned the name of Mr. Phillip Freneau to you, as one I knew you esteemed, and then lay strugling under difficulties, with his family. My memory brings to my recollection, that you mentioned the matter to the Secretary of State, Mr. Jefferson. Freneau was invited from N. York, and had the place of interpreter, with a mere trifle of Salary. Little did William Smith know, that you were the author or cause of bringing Freneau from New York; or he might have turned against you, his terrible battery of the slanders and invectives which he poured forth against Mr. Jefferson for three or four years afterwards."

Madison acted promptly. On the 28th of February, 1791, Jefferson wrote to Freneau as follows:

"SIR: The clerkship for foreign languages in my office is vacant the salary indeed is very low, being but two hundred & fifty dollars a year; but also it gives so little to do as not to interfere with any other calling the person may chuse, which would not absent him from the seat of government. I was told a few days ago that it might perhaps be convenient to you to accept it--if so, it is at your service. It requires no other qualification than a moderate knowledge of the French. Should anything better turn up within my department that might suit you, I should be very happy to bestow it as well. Should you conclude to accept the present, you may consider it as engaged to you, only be so good as to drop me a line informing me of your resolution. I am with great esteem, Sir, Your very humble serv't, TH. JEFFERSON."

Freneau's letter in reply has been lost. On May 1st, however, Madison wrote Jefferson, so that we may gather its import:

"I have seen Freneau also and given him a line to you. He sets out for Philada. today or tomorrow, though it is not improbable that he may halt in N. Jersey. He is in the habit, I find, of translating the Leyden _Gazette_ and consequently must be fully equal to the task you have alloted for him. He had supposed that besides this degree of skill, it might be expected that he should be able to translate with equal propriety into French: and under this idea, his delicacy had taken an insuperable objection to the undertaking.

Being now set right as to this particular and being made sensible of the advantages of Philada. over N. Jersey for his private undertaking, his mind is taking another turn; and if the scantiness of his capital should not be a bar, I think he will establish himself in the former. At all events he will give his friends there an opportunity of aiding his decision by their information & counsel. The more I learn of his character, talents and principles, the more I should regret his burying himself in the obscurity he had chosen in N. Jersey. It is certain that there is not to be found in the whole catalogue of American Printers, a single name that can approach towards a rivalship."

Jefferson replied on May 9th:

"Your favor of the 1st came to hand on the 3d. Mr. Freneau has not followed it. I suppose therefore he has changed his mind back again, for which I am really sorry."

That Jefferson had made overtures to Freneau about the establishing of a paper at the seat of government, or at least had discussed the matter with those who had, is evident from the following letter written to his son-in-law, Randolph, six days later:

"I enclose you Bache's as well as Fenno's papers. You will have perceived that the latter is a paper of pure Toryism, disseminating the doctrines of Monarchy, aristocracy, & the exclusion of the people. We have been trying to get another _weekly_ or _half weekly_ set up, excluding advertis.e.m.e.nts, so that it might go through the states & furnish a _whig vehicle_ of intelligence. We hoped at one time to have persuaded Freneau to set up here, but failed."