Chapter V: Part II: The First Poetic Period. 1775-1781 (3)

"When it is considered that few Advertisements are reasonably to be
expected in these more eastern parts of New-Jersey, the terms of
subscription will appear low, and, it may be added, are within the
power of almost every man who has the will and inclination to
encourage literature, promote the interests, or enlarge the ideas
of the rising generation, and contribute to the general diffusion
of knowledge among his fellow citizens.

"Should the publication of The Jersey Chronicle be suitably
encouraged, the Editor will in due time enlarge the size of the
sheet; but that now published on is, in his opinion, every way
adequate to an experiment whether the attempt be practicable or
not."

Freneau's essays contributed to the _Chronicle_ are among the most notable prose productions from his pen. He began a series of studies "On Monarchial and Mixed Forms of Government;" he wrote "Observations on Monarchy," and discussed at length the leading arguments for and against Jay's Treaty with England. On May 23d he began to publish a series of papers entitled "Tomo Cheeki, the Creek Indian in Philadelphia," in which the manners and absurdities of the Americans are described from the standpoint of an observant savage. In nearly every issue of the paper there was an elaborate essay on some political subject. Of poetry there was very little. The _National Gazette_ had contained little poetry from the editor's pen, save earlier verses reprinted, and a few political satires and republican lyrics. The influence of Peter Pindar was becoming more and more manifest in the poet's style. Politics and party strife had for a time displaced the muse. This is nowhere more evident than in the collected edition of his poems printed on his own press and issued in June, 1795.

In many respects this is the most interesting of Freneau's collections: it brings us into the very presence of the poet. The earlier editions had been published without his supervision, the material for this one passed all of it under the author's critical eye. Scarcely a poem escaped revision. After noting the scrupulous care with which he changed adjectives, improved rhymes, added new stanzas, or cut out old ones, repunctuated sentences, and rearranged material, one cannot join the somewhat large band of hasty and superficial critics who allude flippantly to the poet as a hasty and careless improviser of ephemeral trash. As a matter of fact, Freneau was a miser with his verses. When a newspaper poem suspected to be his, especially in the period previous to 1795, cannot be found in any of his collections, grave doubts at once arise as to whether the poem is his. He was never tired of revising, and cutting, and pruning. The poems so carefully edited in 1795 were again carefully revised in 1809. As an instance of his concern for the fate of his poems let me quote a letter, written August 29, 1781, to Matthew Carey:

"I see by this day's paper that my verses on General Washington's
arrival, etc., are to appear in your next _Museum_. If it is not
too late, I would request the favour of you to rectify an error
(which was entirely of the press) in the fifth line of the
thirteenth stanza, as it materially affects the sense. Instead of
'whom' please to read 'who.'"

The 1795 edition is interesting from another standpoint. The resources of the little country office were taxed to the utmost in the production of the book. At best it is a crude piece of printing. There is manifest everywhere an effort to keep the work within bounds, to economize space. Titles are abbreviated, mottoes dropped, foot notes cut out, and many earlier poems reduced, or omitted entirely. The list of omissions is very suggestive: scenes one and two were cut from the "Pictures of Columbus," the long song of Ismenius was dropped from "The Monument of Phaon," "The Jamaica Funeral," and "The House of Night" were reduced to mere fragments, "Female Frailty" was dropped save for the opening lyric, and there were other notable changes. In every case it will be found that the poet threw overboard the light and imaginative element, the purely poetic.

The reason for these omissions has been often sought. Prof. C. F. Richardson in particular has wondered at the dropping of the intensely original and weirdly strong poem "The House of Night,"--in his opinion the best thing Freneau ever did. It is not difficult to answer the question after a careful study of the evolution of Freneau's poetic ideals. He began to write poetry after a thorough course of reading in the Latin and English classics. His early work is redolent of Virgil's "Eclogues," of Horace, of Shakespeare, of Milton's minor poems, of Gray's "Elegy." If ever there was a sensitive, beauty-loving, poetic soul, the young Freneau was one. In his early inexperience he even dreamed of a poetic career in which he might perhaps win a place beside the great masters of song. His early work like the "Ode to Fancy," and similar pieces, and the strong and original "House of Night" and "Santa Cruz" show what he might have done in another environment.

But Revolutionary America had little encouragement for an imaginative poet. There was something in the air that seemed to put into men the Franklin spirit. It was the era of common-sense, of stern reality, of practical affairs. Madison voiced the age when in 1774 he advised Bradford, the cultured and imaginative young lover of poetry and all art, to turn to sterner things:

"I was afraid you would not easily have loosened your affections
from the Belles Lettres. A Delicate Taste and warm imagination
like yours must find it hard to give up such refined & exquisite
enjoyments for the coarse and dry study of the Law. It is like
leaving a pleasant flourishing field for a barren desert; perhaps
I should not say barren either because the Law does bear fruit but
it is sour fruit that must be gathered and pressed and distilled
before it can bring pleasure or profit.... I myself use to have
too great a hankering after those amusing studies. Poetry wit and
Criticism Romances Plays &c captivated me much: but I begin to
discover that they deserve but a moderate portion of a _mortal's_
Time and that something more substantial more durable more
profitable befits our riper age. It would be exceeding improper
for a labouring man to have nothing but flowers in his Garden or
to determine to eat nothing but sweet-meats and confections.
Equally absurd would it be for a Scholar and man of Business to
make up his whole Library with Books of Fancy and feed his mind
with nothing but such Luscious performances."[15]

The first half of Freneau's life, as we have seen, was one of disillusion. It took twenty-five years to kill the spark in his breast, but the process though slow was sure. After the fierce period of the _National Gazette_ he thought of himself only as a worker in the tide of practical affairs, a champion of the rights of man, a protestor against tyranny and wrong, and his muse had become a mere drudge, aiding by satire and song what he now conceived to be his life work. He had taken a deliberate though sorrowful leave of his early muse in 1787, one year after the appearance of his first volume of poems:

"On these bleak climes by fortune thrown
Where rigid Reason reigns alone,
Where flowery Fancy holds no sway
Nor golden forms around her play,
Nor Nature takes her magic hue,
Alas what has the muse to do!
An age employed in painting steel
Can no poetic raptures feel;
No fabled Love's enchanting power
No tale of Flora's shady bower.
Nor wood-land haunt, or murmuring grove
Can its prosaic bosom move.
The muse of love in no request,
I'll try my fortune with the rest;
Which of the nine shall I engage
To suit the humor of the age?
On one, alas, my choice must fall,
The least engaging of them all!
Her visage stern, severe her style,
A clouded brow, a cruel smile,
A mind on murdered victims placed,
She, only she, can please the taste."

One cannot read long the columns of the _Jersey Chronicle_ without realizing forcibly the change that had come over Freneau. The poet who emerged from the crucible of the _National Gazette_ was not at all like the poet of "The House of Night" period. He could look upon this product of his early imagination much as Madison would have done, and he could in cold blood cut it down to a mere fragment which would voice his new French Deistic ideas, that he might have room for his Republican songs. The poem "To the Americans of the United States," written in 1797, gives us a true picture of this later Freneau. He would be no courtly singer "beneath some great man's ceiling placed," no solitary dreamer. He would be a man of action travelling over lands and seas, a poet who caught his subjects from the varying scene of human things.

"To seize some _features_ from the faithless past;
Be this our care--before the century close:
The colours strong! for, if we deem aright,
The _coming age will be an age of prose_:
When _sordid cares_ will break the muses' dream,
And COMMON SENSE be ranked in seat supreme."

With the fifty-second number of the _Chronicle_, published April 30, 1796, the paper came to an end. Freneau's final editorial stated that:

"In number one of the Jersey Chronicle the editor announced his
intention of extending the publication beyond the first year,
provided the attempt should in the meantime be suitably encouraged
and found practicable. But the necessary number of subscribers
having not yet appeared, scarcely to defray the expenses of the
undertaking, notwithstanding the very low rate at which it has been
offered, the editor with some regret declines a further prosecution
of his plan at this time. He embraces the present opportunity to
return his sincere thanks to such persons in this and the
neighboring counties as have favored him with their subscriptions;
and have also by their punctuality in complying with the terms
originally proposed, thus far enabled him to issue a free,
independent, and republican paper."

A letter[16] written by Freneau from New York, to Madison, dated December 1, 1796, reveals what was in the poet's mind during the months following the abandonment of the _Chronicle_:

"Having three or four months since formed a resolution to bid adieu
for a few years to some old Trees in Jersey under the shade of
which I edited, amongst ditching and grubbing, a small weekly Paper
entitled the Jersey Chronicle, I did not know how to employ that
interval better than in striking out here with some printer, if
such could be found, already engaged in supporting the good old
Republican cause. After experiencing one or two disappointments in
accomplishing this object, I am now through the kind aid of some
friends here nearly completing the project of a copartnership with
Thomas Greenleaf in his two Papers, _The Argus_, a daily
publication, and the New York Journal, twice a week; both on a
pretty respectable footing, and noted for a steady attachment to
Republican principles, though open to all decent speculations from
any party if they choose to transmit them. In short, I would wish
to revive something in the spirit of the National Gazette, if time
and circumstances allow, and with proper assistance hope to
succeed--Thus,

A Raven once an acorn took
From Bashan's strongest stoutest tree;
He hid it near a murmuring brook,
And liv'd another oak to see.

As I consider the bargain the same as concluded, my next object is
to make all the friends here that I decently can among men of
eminence and ability. This I have in some small degree attempted
and gained, but for want of certain insinuating qualities, natural
enough I suppose to some men, I feel myself sadly at a loss to get
acquainted with some characters here to whom I could wish to be
known upon motives of public as well as private utility.

"Among these is the chancellor of this State, Robert R. Livingston,
with whom, if I recollect right, you are upon terms of intimacy. If
I am not mistaken in this point, and you can with propriety accede
to my request, you would confer a favor upon me by mentioning me to
him in your next Letter, in such manner as you may think best, so
that this new connexion may attract some share of his attention,
and thereby the countenance of the Livingston family in general,
which would operate greatly, through this State at least, in
advancing our Subscription and printing Interest in general."

The partnership with Greenleaf, mentioned to Madison, for some reason was never consummated. On March 13, 1797, however, Freneau issued in New York the first number of a new journal, _The Time Piece and Literary Companion_, to be devoted to "literary amusement and an abridgement of the most interesting intelligence foreign and domestic." He "associated himself," as he expressed it, "as a partner in the typographical line of business with Mr. Alexander Menut of that profession, sometime since from Canada," though, during the first year at least, Freneau had entire control of the editing of the paper. His address to the public is of considerable interest:

"Several months having elapsed since the publication of a
periodical paper in this city was first contemplated by the
subscriber, he now informs his friends and the public in general
that he has at length so far matured his plan as to attempt a paper
of this kind to be published three times a week and transmitted to
city subscribers early on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.

"The _Time Piece and Literary Companion_ will on all occasions be
open to political, moral, or other interesting discussion from any
quarter whatever provided such communications are written with
candor, decency, and liberality, their object such as to promote
the general good of our great Confederate Commonwealth, or the
common interest of man, and conceived in that disinterested spirit
which while it carefully avoids as far as possible irritating the
feelings of individuals, holds itself obligated under any
circumstances whatever to consider truth, the moral and political
happiness of our species, social harmony, and good order, the basis
of all its exertions, the end of all its aims, views and
endeavors."

The paper is a tastily arranged and neatly printed sheet, and its contents show constantly its editor's rare ability to cater to the public needs. Refinement and a fastidious taste are evidenced everywhere in its columns. Duyckinck comments on "the skill of the selection and the general elegance of the material," which were certainly unusual in those early days of American journalism. The paper had a large number of feminine contributors, who gave freely of their sentimental lyrics and sprightly letters. The poet himself contributed many poems, the most of them, as usual, concerned with contemporary affairs. He republished his translation from the Abbé Robin made in 1783 since, as he declared, only a small edition was then printed, and the work was in the hands of a very few. He republished also his "Tomo Cheeki" letters, introducing them thus:

"A number of eccentric writings under the subsequent title and to
the amount of a considerable volume are in the hands of the editor
of the Time Piece said to be translated from one of the Indian
languages of this country. They were transmitted to him more than
two years ago and a few numbers published in a gazette edited by
him in a neighboring State, but discontinued with that paper. If
the contributions of a rude aboriginal of America shall appear to
afford any gratification to the generality of our readers the whole
will be occasionally offered to the public through the medium of
the Time Piece."

His pen was constantly active. He wrote vigorous editorials on all passing political measures, and on September 1, 1897, proposed to edit Ledyard's Journals:

"The subscriber having procured from the hands of his relatives the
original MSS. of Mr. Ledyard now offers to the public of the United
States an opportunity of gratifying their curiosity and at the same
time paying a token of respect to the memory of Ledyard. Ledyard's
travels will be compiled by P. Freneau from the original MSS. of
the author, consisting of letters, journals, notes, etc., etc., and
such documents as have appeared in print, both in America and
Europe, particularly a work published by the British African
Society, in whose service, with a view of exploring the interior of
Africa, his last expedition was undertaken and terminated in his
death at Cairo, in Egypt.

"One vol. at least 250 pages.

"A life of the author collected from authentic materials will be
prefixed to the work, with some other preliminary matter."

Freneau evidently made some progress with the work, for on August 30, 1798, the following advertisement appeared in the _Time Piece_, as well as in the Charleston _City Gazette_:

"The interesting travels of John Ledyard, with a summary of his
life, are now in the hands of the printer.

"It shall be printed on fine paper with new type ornamented with a
full length portrait of the author in the attitude of taking leave
on his departure for Africa. Page octavo, handsomely bound and
lettered. Calculated to contain between 400 and 500 pages. $2 per
volume."

The volume, whether from a failure to secure subscribers or other reasons, was never published.

The partnership of Freneau and Menut was dissolved September 13, 1797, and shortly after, the imprint of the paper was changed to read "Published by P. Freneau and M. L. Davis, No. 26 Moore Street, near Whitehall." On January 3, 1798, Freneau made a visit to Charleston, taking passage in the sloop _Katy_, and arriving after a rough voyage of thirty-one days. During the following month he was the guest of his brother, Peter, and in the words of his daughter, of "his many friends there, among whom were Charles Pinckney, Governor of South Carolina, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, General Bull, Edge, and many others where he was as much at home as at his brother's." He embarked from Charleston March 7th and arrived in New York after a week's voyage.

The affairs of the _Time Piece_ were in a critical condition. A part of the subscribers lived at a distance from New York and the expenses were large. Freneau was unwilling to run further risks, and a few days after his return from the South, he withdrew from the firm, having been editor of the paper just one year. He thereupon retired with his family to the little estate at Mount Pleasant, where he made his home for the rest of his life.

VI.

The quiet period after the anxiety and stress of editorship in a great city was for a time grateful to the poet. He managed the farm in a desultory way, but his main occupation was composing verses under his favorite locust tree which had been planted by his father and which had increased in size and numbers until in the words of his daughter, "it was a complete grove of locust trees surrounding a house grown old with its time worn owner, his venerable mother and maiden sister beloved and respected for her many virtues. Her decease, which took place a few years previous to his own, he says in an obituary, he can say no more nor less than that 'she was as good and innocent as an angel.'" This sister, Mary Freneau, a beautiful woman, had been wooed at one time by Madison, but for some reason she had refused him.

Freneau's family consisted of four daughters: Eleanor, born in 1791; Agnes W., born June 22, 1794; Catherine L., born February 25, 1798; and Margaret Alaire, born June 10, 1801. Eleanor married a Mr. Hammill, and the four daughters of this union died unmarried; Agnes married Dr. Edward Leadbeater, and the eldest son of this union, at the earnest request of the poet, was christened Philip Leadbeater Freneau, his grandfather putting into his infant hands the ancestral Bible, which was the family treasure. The descendants of Agnes Freneau and Dr. Leadbeater are very numerous. The two younger daughters of the poet never married.

The active pen of Freneau, so long practiced in discussing the affairs of the day, could not rest idle during his period of retirement. He began a series of letters to the Philadelphia _Aurora_ and other papers, and on December 30, 1799, issued them in a volume entitled "Letters on Various Interesting and Important Subjects, many of which have appeared in the Aurora." It bore his old pen name, Robert Slender, with the added title, O. S. M., interpreted later to mean "One of the Swinish Multitude." The book has surprising merit. The letters are written in a breezy, colloquial style, and the simple-minded old cobbler is well characterized. Freneau has actually succeeded in making him a living creature, and his opinions and "whim whams" are full of hard sense and practical wisdom. The book is by all means the best prose that Freneau ever wrote. So easy is the style and so natural is the characterization that I cannot forbear quoting at some length from a chapter chosen almost at random: