BARLOW, Joel, American poet and diplo matist: b. Redding, Conn., 24 March 1754; d. near Cracow, Poland, 24 Dec. 1812. In 1774 he was placed at Dartmouth College, New Hamp shire, and after a short residence entered Yale College, New Haven, where he displayed a tal ent for versification, which gained him the friendship of Dr. Dwight, then a tutor there. Barlow, more than once during the vacations of the college, served as a volunteer in the army of the Revolution. In 1778 he applied himself to the study of law, but soon after accepted the position of chaplain in the army, which he held till the close of the war (1783). During this period his songs and addresses were said to have animated and encouraged the soldiers; at this time, too, he planned and partly com posed his
England in 1791, and was deputed in the fol lowing year by the London Constitutional So ciety to present an address to the French Con vention. In 1795 he was appointed American consul at Algiers, a post he held for only two years. Returning to Paris he made some suc cessful commercial speculations and acquired a considerable fortune. He returned, after an absence of 17 years, to his native country (1805). In 1811 he was appointed Minister plenipotentiary to France. In the following year, owing to the fatigues and privations of a journey to Wilna to hold a conference with Napoleon, he died at an obscure village near Cracow. His principal poem, the (Columbiad,' has never been popular; it is defective in plan and execution, overloaded with philosophical discussions and political tirades, and disfigured by pedantic and uncouth words of his own coinage. His prose writings bear the stamp of an active and energetic intellect, but lack that ripeness of judgment required by the complex nature of the subjects he examines. Consult Todd, 'Life and Letters of Joel Barlow' (1&96).