BARLOW (Jou.), an American literary and politi cal character of considerable note, was born in the year 1756, in the village of Reading, State of Connecti cut; and appears to have been the youngest of ten children. His father died when he was yet a boy; but his friends, attentive to his instruction, em ployed his portion of the paternal inheritance for his education, at the college of Newhaven, in his native state. Here he commenced his studies in 1774. In the course of the prescribed exercises of composition, he discovered a taste for poetry; and two productions crept into public view ; one entitled The Prospect of Peace ; the other, An Elegy on the Death of Mr Howler, Member of the American Congress. It appears that Mr Barlow was destined for the clerical profession ; and that his friends so licited and obtained for him the appointment of chaplain to a militia company of Massachusets, the functions of which he performed till the event of peace. • One of his panegyrists has observed, in re ference to his subsequent change of profession, that, " amongst the Presbyterians of New England, the priesthood is nothing else than a species of civil or dination. He who receives it may pass to another employment ; and it is common enough to see young men preach the gospel in order to have time to pre pare themselves for another profession." This ex planation, however, is hardly reconcileable with the spirit of the New England theologians, who even now require from the candidate for holy orders a solemn declaration, that he is moved to this calling by a certain species of inspiration, or divine impulse, and not by any carnal or interested motive.
In 1781, while he followed the an in quality of chaplain, he contracted a marriage with Miss Bald win of Newhaven ; and it was during this period of his life that he planned the edifice of his future fame in his poem destined to celebrate the discovery and prospects of America.
It was also during this period that the patriarchs of Connecticut proposed to adopt a new metrical translation of the Psalms, which excited to emula tion all the poetical genius of the state. The version
of Barlow carried the prize ; and is to this day sung in the churches of New England.
At the conclusion of peace between the United States and Great Britain, he abandoned the eccle siastical life, and settled at the village of Hart ford, where, two years afterwards, he published the poem alluded to, entitled, The, Vision 10 position in the Senate, and passed only by a small majority.
He sailed for his destination on board of the Con stitution frigate, disembarked at Cherburg in Sep tember 1812, and to the French capital, where he was received, in the Emperor's absence, by the minister of foreign affairs, who " was instructed to say the most flattering things relative to his ap pointment." The great object of his mission was to obtain compensation for the American property con fiscated in virtue of the Berlin and Milan decrees. This arrangement was to be regulated in a manner the least onerous to the French treasury. Ameri can ships and cargoes were, at the same time, to be freed from unjust detention, and a new commercial treaty to be formed on principles of national justice and reciprocity.
In pursuit of this object, he followed the Emperor Napoleon to Wilna, in the memorable winter of 1812 ; but this diplomatic journey was without ad vantage, and the failure was the more mortifying, as it was undertaken without the advice or instruc tions of the American Government. Mr Barlow was returning to when he was seized with a violent inflammatory disease, of which he died, on the 26th of December in the 58th year of his age. His ne phew, late midshipman on board of the Constitution frigate, whom he took from his studies to accom pany him in this journey, and a secretary of the French Legation in the United States, were witnesses of his last moments, and saw him interred at the place where he closed his eyes, an obscure village of Po land.