Papers of John Adams, volume 18

From John Adams to Joel Barlow, 4 April 1786 Adams, John Barlow, Joel

To Joel Barlow

Sir. Grosvenor square April 4th. 1786—

I am much obliged to you for your favour of December 12th. 1785, and for the oppertunity of reading the vision of Columbus a Poem of very great Merit— as soon as I had read it, I went out with it to my friend Dr. Price at Newington Green, and left it with him, together with your Letter to him— The Doctor will do you every service in his Power & I will do what may be in mine.

As the English is very little read in any Country of Europe, except England, a Poem in that Language will never, or at least for many years to come make any fortune in any part of the World except England & America,— In French, if it had the same merit it would sell to some degree every where— I hope that you & your friends Dwight, Trumbull and Humphreys will contribute with other causes 226 to make our Language more generally Studied— But this must be the work of time— There is not extant a Poem, written by any Englishman now living, that will bear any Comparison, with the Vision of Columbus, or the Conquest of Canaan— There is indeed no very eminent Poet on the stage— Sherriden, Anstey Mason, Hayley, Day1 & some others have written some things well. As Day & Hayley have been rather favourable to America, it may be proper to consult one of them—

The Dedication to the King of France, will do it honour in that Kingdom but not in this— It is even questionable whether it would not ruin the sale of it here where alone it can be sold at all, very few Copies will ever be disposed of in france, or any other part of Europe, at least for many years to come. You must consider that the public opinion here is very different from that in America— This Nation is & ever has been profoundly Ignorant of what has happened in America, and all the Channels of information are so stopped up by Influence & Power, that it is utterly impossible to convey the truth to their minds.

There are some Expressions in the Vision of Columbus which would be adjudged libellous by any Court & Jury in the Kingdom: And the Attorney General, ex officio would think himself bound to prosecute the Printer & Publisher for Example in what you say of Adams, whether you mean John or Samuel, I know not: but as it is left doubtfull it will be here applyed to me, and as I am the public Minister from the U. States here, if I were to be instrumental, or only accessory to the Publication of it for what I know it might produce a Declaration of War. “From all the tyrants guileful plotts the Veil he drew”2 I have taken the liberty to write guileful, instead of Tyrants, a Word that never has been tolerated in England They never dared even to publish the declaration of Independance without gutting it— The Poem must be revised by somebody who will determine what Corrections of this Sort are indispensable for no Printer will run the risk of a Pillory & Imprisonment for the sake of publishing a Poem that notwithstanding its beauty, harmony & Sublimity, too probably will have a dull sale. Neither America nor her Heroes nor her sages, are popular here, Much otherwise— The United States must encourage their own Poets, as well as Warriors— or they will be discouraged— all Europe is too Jealous of both to do this Duty for us—

You may depend however upon every thing in my power to do, 227 and when the Poem is printed, I will consult the Imperial Ambassadors here, to know if a Copy may be presented to each of their sovereigns, without offence.3 I shall be glad at any time to hear from you & am with great esteem / Yours

J A

LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr. Joel Barlow—”; APM Reel 113.

JA’s “eminent” writers were: playwright and Stafford M.P. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816), poet Christopher Anstey (1724–1805), writer and book collector George Mason (1735–1806), poet and biographer William Hayley (1745–1820), and Thomas Day (1748–1789), author and friend of Henry Laurens and John Laurens.

An 1823 London edition of Poems and Plays by William Hayley is in JQA’s library at MQA. A copy of Day’s Reflexions upon the Present State of England, and the Independence of America, London, 1782, is in JA’s library at MB. But Day, who wrote several poems honoring John Laurens after his death in 1782, is perhaps best known for his authorship, with John Laurens Bicknell (1746–1787), of the abolitionist poem The Dying Negro, London, 1773 ( DNB; Catalogue of JA’s Library ; Catalog of the Stone Library; Laurens, Papers , 9:588).

The version of Vision of Columbus that Barlow sent to JA has not been found, but in the 1787 edition published in Hartford, Conn., Barlow adopted JA’s suggestion, for there the passage reads: “Adams, enraged, a broken charter bore, / And lawless acts of ministerial power; / Some injured right, in each loose leaf appears, / A king in terrors and a land in tears; / From all the guileful plots the veil he drew, / With eye retortive look’d creation thro’, / Oped the wide range of nature’s boundless plan, / Traced all the steps of liberty and man; / Crouds rose to vengeance while his accents rung, / And Independence thunder’d from his tongue” (p. 165).

Barlow sent copies of the published poem to JA on 14 June 1787, along with “drafts of letters to their Majisties to be covered if sent, otherwise to be burnt” (Adams Papers). As promised, JA forwarded the books and letters to Friedrich Graf von Kageneck Karl Emmerich Reviczky, Baron von Revisnie , the Austrian envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, and to Count Semon Romanovich Vorontsov, the Russian minister, on 4 September. Describing the poem as a “Curiousity” to be “reckoned among the First Fruits of the Arts, in the United States of America,” JA cautioned that Barlow’s zealous depiction of revolutionary events, while “excellent,” also made him “very apprehensive” of its royal reception abroad (LbC’s, APM Reel 112; Repertorium , 3:76, 355).

From John Adams to Timothy Dwight, 4 April 1786 Adams, John Dwight, Timothy

To Timothy Dwight

Sir Grosvenor square April 4th. 1786—

I have received your Letter, & the Conquest of Canaan,1 with more pleasure than you will easily believe. before I took any measures towards the publication of this Poem, I was determined, whatever affairs might interrupt me, to read it, & I found so much pleasure, in this Employment, that it was very soon compleated.

My taste as well as my Impartiallity may be disputed: but I will venture to say that I know of no heroick Poem Superior to it, in any modern Language, excepting alway’s Paradise lost: & If I am not wholly blinded by prejudice it not only does honor to America, but would do honor to any nation in Europe.

228

As Mr. Barlow has transmitted his Vision of Columbus to my friend Dr. Price, I went out to Newington Green to consult him—2

The Doctor will do what he can to assist the printing & sale of both these works, but he is of opinion that it will not be possible to find a Printer or Bookseller who will give much for the Copy if we can find even one who will print either at his own Expence & Risque It is the mode, that governs— When a Writer has made himself a name, in England, the Booksellers, are eager to have his Copies. having no Judgement of their own, they are timid, untill they know the publick has an Enthusiasm for the Reputation of the writer— But it is scarcely possible for any new Writer to force himself into Reputation without the aid of Government, If neither administration nor opposition, espouse the Cause, it is desperate, during the late War, there was an opposition in Parliament consisting of many noblemen & Gentlemen whose Rank Families & Fortunes gave them great Power in the Nation. These were able to give a Currency & Popularity to many American publications: but at present the Case is altered. America has now no Interest in Parliament No Party, No Character of any influence that is favourable to it, and Popularity is entirely under the Guidance of Parliamentary factions. For these Reasons I think, that your Poems will meet a cold reception. it will be made unpopular to read them. I have consulted a Bookseller,3 concerning yours, & have put it into the Hands of a very able Man, and a very good Poet for his Judgement—4

You may depend upon it every thing in my power shall be done to have it printed sold, read & productive of advantage to you, but I fear you must be content with no Profit & little fame for some time. The Genius & taste for Poetry are much declined, and the encouragement of it, which was never very much is now nothing at all. The Muses have crossed the atlantic and there may be happy, Music & painting are now the ton in England, The King has brought into fashion the first, and Commerce for the purposes of manufatures & Profit has given a spur to the last— But Poetry is little Cherished by either, and the people are so burthened, that they have no spirit left to read—so exhausted by taxes that they have no money to purchase Books.

The Principal Poets here are Sherridan, Anstey Mason, Hayley, & Day. the first is too much in politicks at present, the two next are at a distance in the Country. the two last may be consulted if necessary. I have begun with Mr: Day—

I shall ever be glad to hear from you

Your

J. A— 229

LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Rev’d. / Mr. Dwight—”; APM Reel 113.

Of [ca. 8–12 Dec. 1785], above.

JA sent copies of Dwight’s and Joel Barlow’s poems to JQA in a 19 March 1786 letter. Of their efforts, JA wrote, “I will Say thus much in favour of our Country that in Poets and Painters, She is not at present outdone by any nation in Europe” ( AFC , 7:96).

Joseph Johnson (1738–1809), a London bookseller and friend of Dr. Joseph Priestley, published Dwight’s Conquest of Canaan in 1788. In May of the same year, Johnson established the Analytical Review, which featured strong criticism of British policy and ardent promotion of French revolutionary ideas for the next decade. Johnson, who acted as a patron of Mary Wollstonecraft and as an agent for William Cowper, also printed England’s first medical periodical, Medical Facts and Observations, from 1791 to 1800 ( DNB ).

That is, Thomas Day.