The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barlow, Joel

​BARLOW, Joel, author, was born at Redding, Conn., March 24, 1754. He was graduated at Yale college in 1778 as class poet. During his college course he served in the patriot army during vacations and fought at White Plains, N.Y. He entered the ministry after graduating and served as chaplain in the army until the conclusion of the war, when he settled at Hartford, and was admitted to the bar in 1786. He subsequently engaged in literature, and attained notoriety upon the publication of his epic poem, "The Vision of Columbus," in 1787. He went to Europe to find customers for the Scioto land company, controlling 3,500,000 acres of government land in Ohio. He failed in his efforts, and became interested in politics in France as a Girondist, contributing largely to the political literature. In 1791 he went to London, where he was one of a circle of artists, wits, poets and journalists, who formed among the American colony the Constitutional society, which was intensely republican in tone, and his "Advice to the Privileged Orders," published in London, was proscribed by the government. He took refuge in France, and in 1792-'93 joined the deputation of the national ​convention organized to erect Savoy into the 84th department of France, and was defeated in the election for deputy. While at Chambery he wrote "Hasty Pudding." He returned to Paris, wrote "The Columbiad" and prepared the groundwork for a history of the American revolution and one of the French revolution, and in 1795 was appointed by President Washington consul at Algiers, and he succeeded in negotiating a treaty of peace with the Dey, and in redeeming the American captives held by Barbary. In 1805 he returned to America, declined all political honors and devoted himself to literature. In 1811 he was appointed United States minister to France, sailed on the Constitution, Commodore Hull, and after nine months of skillful diplomacy received an invitation from Napoleon, then engaged in his Russian campaign, to meet him at Wilna, Poland, to sign the treaty already agreed upon. He became involved in the retreat of the French army from Russia, and, overcome by cold and privation, died at Yarmisica, in Poland, Dec. 24, 1812.