Editing Joel Barlow

{{Short description|American poet, diplomat, politician and businessman (1754–1812)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Joel Barlow 
|image = Robert Fulton - Portrait of Joel Barlow - 64.30 - Indianapolis Museum of Art.jpg 
|birth_date = {{birth date|1754|3|24}} 
|birth_place = [[Redding, Connecticut|Redding]], [[Connecticut Colony]] 
|office = [[List of ambassadors of the United States to France|United States Minister to France]]
|term_start = November 17, 1811
|term_end = December 26, 1812
|predecessor = [[John Armstrong Jr.]]
|successor = [[William H. Crawford]]
|president = [[James Madison]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1812|12|26|1754|3|24}} 
|death_place = [[Żarnowiec, Silesian Voivodeship|Żarnowiec]], [[Duchy of Warsaw]]
|nationality = [[United States|American]] 
|education = [[Yale University]]
|occupation = poet, businessman, diplomat, politician
}}
'''Joel Barlow''' (March 24, 1754 – December 26, 1812) was an American poet, diplomat, and politician.<ref>Modern biographies are James Woodress, ''A Yankee's Odyssey: The Life of Joel Barlow'', 1958, and Samuel Bernstein, ''Joel Barlow: A Connecticut Yankee in an Age of Revolution'', 1985; an essay on Barlow's ruminations on the planetary [[hydrological cycle]] is part of [[Simon Schama]], ''Landscape and Memory'' 1995:245ff.</ref> In politics, he supported the [[French Revolution]] and was an ardent [[Jeffersonian democracy|Jeffersonian]] republican.

He worked as an agent for American speculator [[William Duer (Continental Congressman)|William Duer]] to set up the [[Scioto Company]] in [[Paris]] in 1788, and to sell worthless deeds to land in the [[Northwest Territory]] which it did not own. Scholars{{who|date=February 2021}} believe that he did not know the transactions were fraudulent. He stayed in Paris, becoming involved in the French Revolution. He was elected to the Assembly and given French citizenship in 1792.

In his own time, Barlow was known especially for the epic poem ''[[The Columbiad]]'', a later version of the ''Vision of Columbus'' (1807),<ref name="papers.ssrn.com">Brian Pelanda, [https://ssrn.com/abstract=1941506 Declarations of Cultural Independence: The Nationalistic Imperative Behind the Passage of Early American Copyright Laws, 1783-1787], ''[[Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A.]]'' Vol. 58 (2011), pp. 431, 442-448 .</ref> though modern readers{{who|date=February 2021}} rank ''[[The Hasty-Pudding]]'' (1793) more highly.

As American consul at [[Algiers]], he helped draft the [[Treaty of Tripoli]] in 1796, to end the attacks of [[Barbary pirates]] of North Africa city states. He also served as U.S. minister to [[France]] from 1811 to his death on December 26, 1812, in [[Żarnowiec, Silesian Voivodeship|Żarnowiec]], Poland.

==Early life and education==
Barlow was born in [[Redding, Connecticut|Redding]], [[Fairfield County, Connecticut|Fairfield County]], [[Connecticut Colony|Connecticut]]. He briefly attended [[Dartmouth College]] before he graduated from [[Yale University|Yale College]] in 1778, where he was a member of [[Brothers in Unity]], along with [[Noah Webster]], who was a good friend at the time.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}} In 1778, he published an anti-slavery poem entitled "The Prospect of Peace".

== Career ==
[[File:Coat of Arms of Joel Barlow.svg|175px|thumb|left|Coat of Arms of Joel Barlow]]
Barlow was an ardent [[Patriot (American Revolution)|patriot]] in the [[American Revolution]]. He was engaged in the [[Battle of Long Island]] and served as a chaplain for the 4th Massachusetts Brigade from September 1780 until the close of the Revolutionary War.<ref name="goetzmann142">Goetzmann, William H. (2009) ''Beyond the Revolution: A History of American Thought from Paine to Pragmatism'', New York: Basic Books, Perseus Books Group, p. 142</ref><ref>Schama observes that "he had found schoolmastering too humdrum, Yale too sober, and a chaplaincy to a Massachusetts regiment of the line during the American Revolution had not survived his natural irreverence" (Schama 1995:248).</ref> He was an original member of the [[Society of the Cincinnati]] in the State of Massachusetts (and Connecticut).<ref>Metcalf, Bryce. Original Members and Other Officers Eligible to the Society of the Cincinnati, 1783-1938: With the Institution, Rules of Admission, and Lists of the Officers of the General and State Societies  (Strasburg, Va.: Shenandoah Publishing House, Inc., 1938), p. 44.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Officers Represented in the Society of the Cincinnati|url=https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/soldiers-and-sailors-of-the-revolutionary-war/officers-represented-in-the-society-of-the-cincinnati/|access-date=March 14, 2021|website=The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati.}}</ref>  He was a [[Freemasonry|Mason]]<ref>"Enlightenment and Freemasonry", Commonwealth Books. http://www.thomasjeffersonsenlightenment.org/Freemasonry.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201040817/http://www.thomasjeffersonsenlightenment.org/Freemasonry.html |date=2017-12-01 }}</ref> and he became a good friend to [[Thomas Paine]]. In 1809, Barlow was elected as a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in [[Philadelphia]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Joel+Barlow&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-02|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

In 1783, Barlow moved to [[Hartford, Connecticut]]. In July 1784, he established a weekly paper called ''[[American Mercury (newspaper)|American Mercury]]'', with which he was connected for a year. After "reading the law" in an established office, in 1786 he was admitted to the bar. In Hartford, Barlow became a member of a group of young writers including [[Lemuel Hopkins]], [[David Humphreys (soldier)|David Humphreys]], and [[John Trumbull]], known in American literary history as the "[[Hartford Wits]]". He contributed to [[The Anarchiad|''The'' ''Anarchiad'']], a series of satirico-political papers. In 1787, he published a long and ambitious poem, ''The Vision of Columbus'',<ref name="papers.ssrn.com"/> which gave him a considerable literary reputation and was once much read.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Barlow, Joel|volume=3|pages=406–407}}</ref>

=== Land speculator ===
In 1788, he went to France as the agent of Colonel [[William Duer (Continental Congressman)|William Duer]] and the [[Scioto Land Company]], which had been registered in [[Paris]] the year before. He was to sell lands in part of the newly organized [[Northwest Territory]] (this section is now in Ohio), and recruit immigrants for new settlements. He seems to have been ignorant of the fraudulent character of the company, which did not hold title to the lands it sold and failed disastrously in 1790.<ref name="EB1911"/> He had previously recruited a group of French to emigrate to America. Known as the French 500, most of them were among the founders of [[Gallipolis, Ohio]], the second-oldest European-American city founded in the new [[Northwest Territory]].<ref name="hometown">[https://www.ohiomagazine.com/ohio-life/article/best-hometowns-2013-gallipolis John Gladden, "Best Hometowns 2012: Gallipolis"], ''Ohio Magazine'', November 2012; accessed 06 September 2018</ref>

=== French politics and citizenship ===
In [[Paris]], Barlow became a liberal in religion and an advanced republican in politics. He believed that "American civilization was world civilization", and was enthusiastic about the cause of world republicanism. He became involved with the [[French Revolution]], going so far as to be elected to the French Assembly, and being granted [[French citizenship]] in 1792.<ref name="goetzmann144"/> Although he dedicated his "Vision of Columbus" to [[Louis XVI]], he joined royal opponents in calling for the execution of the king.<ref name="goetzmann144">Goetzmann (2009) ''Beyond the Revolution'', p144.</ref> Barlow helped [[Thomas Paine]] publish the first part of ''[[The Age of Reason]]'' while Paine was imprisoned during [[The Reign of Terror]] in France.

Barlow remained abroad for several years, spending much of his time in London. There he was a member of the [[Society for Constitutional Information|London Society for Constitutional Information]]. He also published various radical essays, including a volume entitled ''Advice to the Privileged Orders'' (1792). This was proscribed by the British government.<ref name="EB1911"/>

=== Diplomacy ===
Barlow served as American consul in [[Algiers]] from 1795 to 1797, during the period when [[Barbary pirates]] were preying on United States and European shipping. He used [[United States Department of State]] funds for bribes and ransoms to free more than 100 American merchant sailors held by pirates. He helped negotiate treaties with the Barbary states of Algiers, [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]], and Tunis to avert future seizures of American ships.<ref>Peter P. Hill, ''Joel Barlow: American Diplomat and Nation Builder'' (2012)</ref> He returned to the United States in 1805, where he lived in the national capital at his mansion, known as [[Kalorama Triangle Historic District|Kalorama]], now the name of a neighborhood in Northwest [[Washington, D.C.]]

=== Poetry and writing ===
In 1807, he published the epic ''Columbiad'', an extended edition of his ''Vision of Columbus''. It added to his reputation in some quarters, but on the whole it was not well received.<ref name="EB1911"/>

The poem for which he is now best known is his mock heroic ''The Hasty-Pudding'' (1793), first published in ''[[New York Magazine]]'' and now a standard item in literary anthologies.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lemay|first=J. A. Leo|year=1982|title=The Contexts and Themes of 'The Hasty-Pudding'|journal=[[Early American Literature]]|volume=17|issue=1|pages=3–23|jstor=25056448}}</ref> In addition, Barlow published ''Conspiracy of Kings, a Poem addressed to the Inhabitants of Europe from another Quarter of the Globe'' (1792). He continued writing political essays, publishing ''Political Writings of Joel Barlow'' (2nd ed., 1796) and ''View of the Public Debt, Receipts and Expenditure of the United States'' (1800).<ref name="EB1911"/> But much of his political speculation never passed beyond his voluminous notebooks, many of which are conserved in Harvard's [[Houghton Library]].

He also composed a satirical version of the British national anthem "[[God Save the King]]", called "[[God Save the King#Historic republican alternative|God Save the Guillotine]]".<ref>[https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/8410734 A song. Tune-"God save the guillotine"]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, stanford.edu catalogue</ref>

Historian William H. Goetzmann describes Barlow as a [[cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]], along with [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], engineer [[Robert Fulton]], and [[Thomas Paine]], the last two of whom Barlow befriended in France. Barlow believed that the new country of America was a model [[civilization]] that prefigured the "uniting of all mankind in one religion, one language and one Newtonian harmonious whole"<ref name="goetzmann143">Goeztmann (2009), ''Beyond the Revolution'', p. 143</ref> and thought of "the American Revolution as the opening skirmish of a world revolution on behalf of the rights of all humanity."<ref name="goetzmann142"/> An optimist, he believed that scientific and republican progress, along with religion and people's growing sense of humanity, would lead to the coming of the Millennium. For him, American civilization was world civilization. He projected that these concepts would coalesce around the rebuilding of the temple in [[Jerusalem]].<ref name="goetzmann143"/>

=== Mission to France and death ===
In 1811, Barlow was appointed as [[United States Ambassador to France|U.S. minister to France]]; he sailed across the Atlantic on the ''[[USS Constitution]]''. His task was to negotiate an end to the [[Berlin Decree]] and the [[Milan Decree]], as well as obtain the release of American ships and crews held by the French during the Napoleonic wars.<ref name="somers" /> He befriended, and was served as consul and prize agent, by the [[Society of United Irishmen|United-Irish exile]] [[David Bailie Warden]].<ref name="Gilmore">{{cite book |last1=Gilmore |first1=Peter |last2=Parkhill |first2=Trevor |last3=Roulston |first3=William |title=Exiles of '98: Ulster Presbyterians and the United States |date=2018 |publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation |location=Belfast |isbn=9781909556621 |pages=25–37 |url=https://www.ancestryireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Exiles-lo-res.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122211244/https://www.ancestryireland.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Exiles-lo-res.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |access-date=16 January 2021 }}</ref><ref name="Butler">{{cite journal |last1=Butler |first1=William E. |title=David Bailie Warden and the Development of American Consular Law |journal=Journal of the History of International Law |date=2011 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=377–424, 317 |doi=10.1163/15718050-13020005 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jhil/13/2/article-p377_5.xml?language=en |access-date=16 January 2021}}</ref> In October 1812, Barlow set off for [[Vilnius]] to negotiate a treaty with the French foreign minister, who was based in [[Lithuania]] to prepare for the [[French invasion of Russia]]. By the time he arrived, the French army was already in full retreat from [[Moscow]].
[[File:Joel Barlow monument Zarnowiec cementery 2014 P01.JPG|thumb|Monument to Barlow in [[Żarnowiec, Silesian Voivodeship|Żarnowiec]], Poland]]
Barlow chose to take the southerly route to return to Paris, by way of [[Kraków|Krakow]] and [[Vienna]]. He became ill and died of [[pneumonia]] on December 26, 1812, in the Polish village of [[Żarnowiec, Silesian Voivodeship|Żarnowiec]].<ref name="somers">{{cite web|last1=Sommers|first1=William|title=American Writers Who Were Diplomats: Joel Barlow|url=http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2012/0106/ca/sommers_barlow.html|website=American Diplomacy|publisher=American Diplomacy Publishers|access-date=2017-06-18|archive-date=2018-04-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180411091928/http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2012/0106/ca/sommers_barlow.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> A monument was later erected to him there.

==Legacy==
{{section citations needed|date=November 2024}}
*Barlow was painted by [[Robert Fulton]] and [[John Vanderlyn]] (1798).<ref>Illustrated in Schama 1995:246.</ref>
*[[Barlow, Ohio]], is named in his honor.
* He was one of the contributing editors of the first agricultural magazine in America, the ''Agricultural Museum''.
* [[Joel Barlow High School]] in Redding, Connecticut, is named for him.
* A monument to him was installed in the village of [[Żarnowiec, Silesian Voivodeship|Żarnowiec]], now in Poland, where he died.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* 1787 - [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-vision-of-columbus-_barlow-joel_1787 ''The vision of Columbus: a poem, in nine books'']. London
* 1792 - [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_the-conspiracy-of-kings_barlow-joel_1792/page/n1/mode/2up ''The conspiracy of kings; a poem: addressed to the inhabitants of Europe, from another quarter of the world'']. London: J. Johnson
* 1792 - [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-letter-to-the-national_barlow-joel_1792/page/n3/mode/2up ''A letter to the National Convention of France, on the defects in the constitution of 1791, and the extent of the amendments which ought to be applied'']. London: J. Johnson
* 1794 - [https://books.google.com/books?id=22ReAAAAcAAJ ''Avis aux ordres privilégiés, dans les divers etats de l'Europe, tiré de la nécessité, dans le sens proprement dit, d'une révolution génèrale dans le principe de gouvernement'']. Londres: J. Jonhson
* 1795 - [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-letter-addressed-to-t_barlow-joel_1795 ''A letter, addressed to the people of Piedmont, on the advantages of the French Revolution, and the necessity of adopting its principles in Italy'']. London: Daniel Isaac Aeton
* 1800 - [https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_letters-from-paris-to-t_barlow-joel_1800 ''Letters from Paris, to the citizens of the United States of America, on the system of policy hitherto pursued by their government relative to their commercial intercourse with England and France, &c.'']. London: James Ridgway
* 1970 - [https://archive.org/details/worksofjoelbarlo01barl/page/n5/mode/2up ''Works of Joel Barlow. Volume I: Prose'']; [https://archive.org/details/worksofjoelbarlo02barl/page/n5/mode/2up Volume II: Poetry].  Gainesville, Fla.,: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints

==Further reading==
* Bernstein, Samuel. ''Joel Barlow: a Connecticut Yankee in an age of revolution'' (1985)
* Brant, Irving. "Joel Barlow, Madison's Stubborn Minister." ''William and Mary Quarterly'', 3rd series (1958): 438–451.
*Buel, Richard. ''Joel Barlow: American Citizen in a Revolutionary World'' (Johns Hopkins University Press; 2011) 448 pages
* Hill, Peter P. ''Joel Barlow: American Diplomat and Nation Builder'' (2012); 271 pp. [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=38750 online review]
* Woodress, James. ''A Yankee's Odyssey:the life of Joel Barlow'' (1958)
*Pelanda, Brian. [https://ssrn.com/abstract=1941506 Declarations of Cultural Independence: The Nationalistic Imperative Behind the Passage of Early American Copyright Laws, 1783-1787] Journal of the Copyright Society of the US, Vol. 58, p.&nbsp;431, 2011.
*{{Appletons|wstitle = Barlow, Joel}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=2849| name=Joel Barlow}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Joel Barlow}}
* {{Librivox author |id=9541}}
* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/49/ The Conspiracy of Kings; A Poem: Addressed to the Inhabitants of Europe, from Another Quarter of the World] (London, 1792) online PDF edition.
* [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou01285 Guide to Joel Barlow's works] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20111121125844/http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/houghton/ Houghton Library], Harvard University
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.barlow|Joel Barlow Collection.]] Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
*[http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org Society of the Cincinnati]
*[http://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org The American Revolution Institute]

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{{succession box|title=[[United States Ambassador to France|U.S. Minister to France]]|before=[[John Armstrong, Jr.]]|after=[[William H. Crawford]]|years=1811&ndash;1812}}
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{{US Ambassadors to France}}

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[[Category:1754 births]]
[[Category:1812 deaths]]
[[Category:Clergy in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People of Connecticut in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:Dartmouth College alumni]]
[[Category:Yale College alumni]]
[[Category:Hartford Wits]]
[[Category:People from Redding, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to France]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of France]]
[[Category:Epic poets]]
[[Category:Poets from Connecticut]]
[[Category:18th-century American diplomats]]
[[Category:19th-century American diplomats]]
[[Category:18th-century American poets]]
[[Category:18th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:American male poets]]
[[Category:American satirical poets]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]