David Humphreys

1753 - 1818  Famous poet

He was educated at Yale College, with Dwight, Thumbull, and Barlow, and soon after being graduated, in 1771, joined the revolutionary array, under General Parsons, with the rank of captain. He was for several years attached to the staff of General Putnam, and in 1780 was appointed aid-de-camp to General Washington, with the rank of colonel. He continued in the military family of the commander-in-chief until the close of the war, enjoying his friendship and confidence, and afterward accompanied him to Mount Vernon, where he remained until 1784, when he went abroad with Franklin, Adams and Jefferson, who were appointed commissioners to negotiate treaties of commerce with foreign powers, as their secretary of legation.(1)

Soon after his return to the United States, in 1786, he was elected by the citizens of his native town a member of the Legislature of Connecticut, and by that body was appointed to command a regiment to be raised by order of the national government. On receiving his commission, Colonel Humphreys established his head-quarters and recruiting rendezvous at Hartford; and there renewed his intimacy with his old friends Trumbull and Barlow, with whom, and Doctor Lemuel hopkins, he engaged in writing the "Anarchiad," a political satire, in imitation of the "Rolliad," a work attributed to Sheridan and others, which he had seen in London. He retained his commission until the suppression of the insurrection in 1787, and in the following year accepted an invitation to visit Mount Vernon, where he continued to reside until he was appointed minister to Portugal, in 1790. He remained in Lisbon seven years, at the end of which period he was transferred to the court of Madrid, and in 1802, when Mr. Pinckney was made minister to Spain, returned to the United States. From 1802 to 1812, he devoted his attention to agricultural and manufacturing pursuits; and on the breaking out of the second war with Great Britain, was appointed commander of the militia of Connecticut, with the rank of brigadier-general. His public services terminated with the limitation of that appointment. He died at New Haven, on the twenty-first day of
February, 1818, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
The principal poems of Colonel Humphreys are an "Address to the Armies of the United States," written in 1772, while he was in the army; "A Poem on the Happiness of America," written during his residence in London and Paris, as secretary of legation; "The Widow of Malabar, or The Tyranny of Custom, a Tragedy, imitated from the French of M. Lemierre," written at Mount Vernon; and a "Poem on Agriculture," written while he was minister at the
court of Lisbon. The "Address to the Armies of the United States" passed through many editions in this country and in Europe, and was translated into the French language by the Marquis de Chatellun, and favourably noticed in the Parisian gazettes. The "Poem on the Happiness of America" was reprinted nine times in three years; and the "Widow of Malabar" is said, in the dedication of it to the author of "McFingal," to have met with "extraordinary success" on the stage. The "Miscellaneous Works of Colonel Humphreys" were published in an octavo volume, in New York, in 1790, and again in 1804. The Works contain, besides the authors poems, an interesting biography of his early friend and commander, General Putnam, and several
orations and other prose compositions. They are dedicated to the Duke de Rochefoucault, who had been his intimate friend in France. In the dedication he says: "In presenting for your amusement the trifles which have been composed during my leisure hours, I assume nothing beyond the negative merit of not having ever written any thing unfavourable to the interests of religion, humanity, and virtue."He seems to have aimed only at an elegant mediocrity, and his pieces are generally simple and correct, in thought and language. He was one of the "four bards with Scripture names," satirized in some verses published in London, commencing

" David and Jonathan, Joel and Timothy, Over the water, set up the hymn of the" etc.,

and is generally classed among the "poets of the
Revolution."....

(1) In a letter to Doctor Franklin, written soon after the appointment of Humphreys to this office, General Washington, says: "His zeal in the cause of his country, his pood sense, prudence, and attachment to me, have rendered him dear to me; and I persuade myself you will find no confidence which you may think proper to repose in him, misplaced. He possesses an excellent heart, good natural and acquired abilities, and sterling integrity, as well as sobriety, and an obliging disposition. A full conviction of his possessing all these good qualities makes me less scrupulous of recommending him to your patronage and friendship."
Sparks's Life of Washington, vol. ix. p. 40.

Biography From: The Poets And Poetry Of America, by Rufus Griswald, 1847 (Public Domain)