their destined element the ocean of forgetfulness. However, I have concluded to remain here this Summer, and have them published in a respectable manner, and free as possible from the blemishes imputable to the two former Editions, over which I had no controul, having given my manuscripts away, and left them to the mercy of chance. I am endeavouring to make the whole work as worthy of the public eye as circumstances will allow. 1500 copies are to be printed, only; but I have a certainty, from the present popular frenzy, that three times that number might soon be disposed of. I will attend to what you direct on the subject, and will forward the ten you mention by the middle of July or sooner. I will consider of what you say relative to the insertion of a piece or two in prose, but suspect that anything I have written in that way is so inferior to the Poetry, that the contrast will be injurious to the credit of the Publication. — I feel much in the humour of remaining here about two years, to amuse myself as well as the Public, with such matter as that of the fat man you refer to, and if the Public are in the same humour they shall be gratified. But I am intruding on your time and will add no more at present. I had almost said, Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus My best wishes, Sir, will ever await you, and in particular that your Presidential Career may be equally honourable, though less stormy than that of your predecessor. My best compliments and respects to Mrs. Madison, and remain with esteem and respect, Your sincere friend Madison's reply to these two letters, if they were preserved by Freneau, were probably consumed in the burning of his house; but Freneau's third letter, proving that there had been such, bears the date of the following August. PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7th, 1809. SIR,- The two volumes of Poems that in April last I engaged to have published, are finished, and will be ready for delivery in two or three days. The ten Setts you subscribed for I am rather at a loss how to have safely transmitted to you at your residence in Virginia, where I find by the newspapers, you mean to Continue until the end of September. Will you on receipt of this, send me a line or two informing me whether you would prefer having the Books put into the hands of some Confidential person here, to be sent, or, that they be sent to the Post Office at Washington; or that they be forwarded directly to yourself in Orange County. The precise direction is not in my power. I am Sir, with respect and esteem, PHILIP FRENeau. No 80 SOUTH FRONT STREET or 10 NORTH ALLEY PHILADA. Letter from Jefferson to Freneau in relation to same work.2 MONTICELLO, May 22, 09. DEAR SIR, I subscribe with pleasure to the publication your volumes of poems. I anticipate the same pleasure from them which the perusal of those heretofore published has given me. I have not been able to circulate the paper because I have not been trom home above once or twice since my return, and because in a country situation like mine, little can be done in that way. The inhabitants of the country are mostly industrious farmers employed in active life and reading little. They rarely buy a book of whose merit they can judge by having it in their hand, and are less disposed to engage for those yet unknown to them. I am becoming like them myself in the preference of the healthy and cheerful employment without doors, to the being immured within four brick walls. But under the shade of a tree one of your volumes will be a pleasant pocket-companion. Wishing you all possible success and happiness, I salute you with constant esteem and respect. TH. JEFFERSON. MR. FRENEAU. 1 Twenty volumes. • Jefferson Papers. Series 2, vol. 34, P. 135. Freneau to Jefferson.1 PHILADELPHIA, May 27th, 1809. SIR,-Yesterday your Letter, dated May 22d, came to hand. - Perhaps you a little misunderstood me, when I wrote to you from this place in April last, inclosing the Proposal Paper, respecting the Poems. I only wished your name to be placed at the head of the list, and did not wish you to be at the pains of collecting Subscriptions, further than as any of your neighbours might choose to put down their names. - Indeed the whole Subscription plan was Set a going without my knowledge or approbation, last Winter. But as I found the matter had gone too far to be recalled, I thought it best to Submit, in the present Edition, to the course and order of things as they are and must be.Sir, if there be anything like happiness in this our State of existence, it will be such to me, when these two little Volumes reach you in August ensuing, if the sentiments in them under the poetical Veil, amuse you but for a single hour. This is the first Edition that I have in reality attended to, the other two having been published, in a strange way, while I was wandering over gloomy Seas, until embargoed by the necessity of the times, and now again, I fear, I am reverting to the folly of scribbling Verses. That your shade of Monticello may afford you complete happiness is the wish and hope of all the worthy part of mankind, and my own in particular. In such the philosophers of antiquity preferred to pass life, or if that was not allowed, their declining days. Will you be so good as to read the enclosed Verses? They were published early in March last in the Trenton True American Newspaper, and in the Public Advertiser, of New York. I am, Sir, with all esteem Your obedient humble Servant In New York City, Freneau was ever a most welcome guest, at Governor Clinton's and at the residence of Dr. Francis, who then resided in Bond Street. 1 Jefferson Papers. Series 2, vol. 34, p. 134. The latter generally had some of the literati to meet him there. Dr. Francis, in his " Reminiscences," describes Freneau as being somewhat below the medium height and slightly stooped, thin and muscular, with a firm step even in age; his forehead he describes as being very high, with soft and beautiful flowing hair of an iron-gray color; his eyes dark-gray, deeply set, and eyelids slightly drooping; his habitual expression pensive, but lighting up with animation when speaking. He retained the small-clothes, long hose, buckled shoes, and cocked hat of the colonial period until his death. The same writer also mentions the aversion Freneau evinced to sitting for his portrait, or even having it taken at all. The reason for this peculiarity Dr. Francis could never fathom; and Freneau never gave it. Although not so strikingly handsome as his brother, who was considered the handsomest man in South Carolina, Freneau was, especially in his younger days, considered a handsome man; yet he never wished to have himself reproduced on canvas.1 Rembrandt Peale once waited upon him with a request from a body of Philadelphia gentlemen to allow his portrait to be taken, but he was "inexorable." dinner given by Dr. Hosack of Philadelphia, the artist Jarvis was concealed in the room that he might catch his likeness, but in some way Freneau detected the design and frustrated it. It was caught once in a parlor, and, although he acknowledged it to be a good picture, he compelled its destruction. The picture in this book was executed after his death, from suggestions of the family, and was considered by them to be an excellent likeness. At a Freneau, like his brother, was a man of extensive reading; his mind was logical and philosophical 1 His brother Pierre had this same peculiarity. rather than credulous; but he was full of imagination. and fancy, and withal clear-headed. In manners, we are told, he was courteous and refined; and towards ladies, with whom he was a favorite, he was gallant. His general bearing won the admiration of all parties; his knowledge of the men and events of the times was extensive; and it is said that few knew as much about the early history of our country, the organization of the government, and the origin of political parties; and he could enter into any topic of conversation that interested his companions. "With Gates he compared the achievements of Monmouth with those of Saratoga; with Colonel Hamilton Fish he reviewed the capture of Yorktown; with Dr. Mitchell he rehearsed from his own sad experience the physical sufferings and various diseases of the prison ships; and he descanted on Italian poets and the piscatory eclogues of Sannazarius, and doubtless furnished Dr. Benjamin Dewitt with data for his dissertation on the eleven thousand and five hundred American martyrs; with Pintard he enjoyed Horace and talked of Paul Jones; with Major Fairlie he discussed the tactics and charity of Baron Steuben; with Sylvanus Miller he compared political clubs in 1795 with those of 1810. He could share with Paine his ideal of a democracy, and with DeWitt Clinton and D. Calhoun debated the project of internal improvements and artificial navigation based upon the former's procedure of the Languedoc Canal; with Francis Hopkinson he talked politics and the poets; with Bishop Provost he interchanged intimate conversation based on kindred sentiments; and with Gulian C. Verplanck, Cadwallader Colden, and Dr. Francis, he discussed old men and old times with rare ability." He could relate Jefferson's account of the hasty signatures affixed to the Declaration of Independence, which he, Jefferson, attributed to the fact of the loca |