CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 WORDSWORTH COLLECTION 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924104091511 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
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JOSEPH DENNIE: 
 
 EDITOR OF 
 
 •The Port Folio," and author of "The Lay Preacher. 
 
 NOT PUBLISHED. 
 
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 CAMBRIDGE: 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON, 
 
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 1880. 
 
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The following sketch of Joseph Dennie is presented in this 
 form, with a view to preserve a more permanent memorial of 
 him than has yet appeared. Within a few months, his name has 
 twice been recalled by the presentation of historical matter con- 
 nected with his life. 
 
 The portrait accompanying these few pages has been copied by 
 
 the heliotype process from an original picture in the possession of 
 
 the family. 
 
 W. W. dLpLjala 
 
 Boston, April, iSSo. 
 
JOSEPH DEN N IE. 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL sketch of Joseph Dennie will pos- 
 sess an interest to a very limited number of readers. 
 Dennie was the most prominent of the pioneer literateurs, 
 not only of New England, but of the United States. He lived 
 during a period when the sterner realities of life engrossed 
 the attention of the citizens of the young Republic. The 
 possessors of mental acquirements found occupation which 
 promised a more rapid grasp upon fame and fortune than 
 could be attained by literary pursuits. If they laid aside 
 professional cares, or relinquished the duties of the counting- 
 room, it was only as a temporary relaxation. The develop- 
 ment of a new country demanded the exercise of faculties 
 which give form and permanency to society. To select lit- 
 erature as a profession when there was little encouragement 
 from the general public, and only a few congenial spirits to 
 extend a helping hand, indicates at least an innate love of let- 
 ters, which is the more commendable when the barriers to 
 literary success, which then existed, are taken into account. 
 
 It is claimed that Dennie left nothing deserving of reputa- 
 tion, — a judgment somewhat harsh, when it is considered 
 what he accomplished under adverse circumstances. Mr. 
 S. Austin Allibone is more just in his comments upon the 
 literary achievements of Dennie ; for he says : " Patriarchs of 
 the 'lean and slippered pantaloon' — who perhaps composed a 
 part of the 'mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease' about the 
 beginning of this century — still extol the melodious cadence 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 and liquid flow of the essays of the American Addison. We 
 ourselves are so old-fashioned as to consider Dennie a charm- 
 ing writer." 
 
 Joseph Dennie was born in Boston^, August 30, 1768. 
 His father was a merchant, who later in life retired to Lex- 
 ington, Mass., where he died Sept. 28, 181 1. His son received 
 the usual instruction given to boys. At an early age he en- 
 tered a store, but mercantile pursuits were little adapted to 
 his literary turn of mind, which developed itself quite early 
 in life. He prepared himself for college in Needham, under 
 the tuition of Rev. Samuel West, and, after two years of dili- 
 gent application, he was examined for the Sophomore Class 
 at Harvard College, and was admitted in 1787. With Den- 
 nie's college Hfe commenced the trials peculiar to a man of 
 his sensitive nature, the unsuccessful result of which had a 
 great influence upon his future career. He was a man of 
 strong prejudices, and formed rash conclusions. Among his 
 classmates he was regarded as possessing a strong intellect 
 and a brilliant genius. His ready wit and his easy address, 
 united to an attractive person, made him the chosen com- 
 panion of a large number of his classmates, while his readi- 
 ness at repartee and his brilliant social attractions made him 
 an acquisition on all festive occasions. Dennie, upon enter- 
 ing college, conceived a dislike to many of the tutors, whose 
 censure he received for his open denunciation of what he 
 regarded as the imperfections of the regime. He was equally 
 outspoken against those classmates who sought preferment by 
 a cringing demeanor and a total renunciation of independent 
 sentiments. He was keenly touched by the alleged neglect 
 of his merits on the part of the government in the distribu- 
 tion of parts at several exhibitions ; and he asserted " that 
 every rational student was ready to suppose that there was 
 a general combination among the government in favor of 
 stupidity," — the rash assertion, possibly, of a disappointed 
 competitor for academic honors. 
 
 In the spring of 1789 he returned home to pass the vaca- 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 tion, and was absent, owing to sickness, until the following 
 autumn. When he returned to Cambridge, he imprudently, as 
 he admits, insulted a tutor. For this act and his unexplained 
 absence, he was reprimanded by the President, and degraded in 
 his Class. While smarting under this punishment, which he 
 thought disproportionate to the offence, he delivered a decla- 
 mation, in which he alluded in the severest terms to the officers 
 of the College. The result of this unwise effort at retaliation is 
 contained in the following extract from the official record : — 
 
 " At a meeting of the President, Professors, and Tutors, 
 Dec. 2 1st, 1789. 
 
 " Upon examination had, it appeared that Dennie's conduct 
 has for some time past been irregular and disrespectful to the 
 authority of the College in general, and of ill tendency with 
 respect to the other students, which conduct received aggra- 
 vation from his being under a college censure, during said 
 time. And in particular, that he had prepared, and on Thurs- 
 day last past spoke, a declamation in the College Chapel, 
 which, from its contents and the manner in which it was 
 spoken, considered in connection with his aforesaid irregular 
 and disrespectful conduct, afforded strong presumption of a 
 design to insult the said authority. Therefore, — 
 
 " Voted, That Dannie be suspended the term of six months, and 
 that he be placed under the care of the Rev. Mr. Parsons, of 
 Amherst, or the Rev. Mr. Chaplin, of Groton, and that, during the 
 time above mentioned, he prosecute the same course of studies 
 which his class will pursue during the same term ; and that, upon 
 the expiration of the same, he shall be critically examined in the 
 several branches of science he shall have studied during his 
 absence, and that his restoration, and consequently his degree the 
 next Commencement, shall depend as well upon the evidence his 
 examination shall afford of his good improvement in literature, as 
 upon his procuring ample testimonials of his good conduct, during 
 his suspension/' &c., &c. 
 
 In a letter written a few months after his suspension, 
 Dannie remarks, alluding to his declamation : — 
 
lO JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 " Whatever might have been my views in pronouncing that 
 pariiamentary speech in the manner I did, yet, as they never 
 could prove my crime, and the whole was presumptive, it was 
 a downright star-chamber proceeding, and such slight grounds 
 did by no means justify my condemnation. With regard to 
 the Government, I shall ever feel a rooted prejudice against 
 them for their conduct towards me, — a prejudice which no 
 time shall destroy." 
 
 The punishment was severely felt, and stung Dennie to the 
 quick. During his lifetime he never forgave the Government, 
 and wherever his pen was employed in after life he gave evi- 
 dence of his indignation. 
 
 Early in 1 790 Dennie took up his residence at Groton, in 
 the family of the Rev. Mr. Chaplin, and pursued his studies 
 with the idea of returning to college. It was while here 
 that he formed an acquaintance with Mr. Timothy Bigelow, 
 then just commencing the practice of law in Groton, and with 
 whom he was on terms of intimacy. Many of his leisure 
 hours were passed in the office of Mr. Bigelow, and in after 
 life Dennie alludes to conversations which then passed be- 
 tween them as moments productive of much good. 
 
 While it cannot be claimed that there was much method in 
 his course of studies, he was diligent, covering in his researches 
 a wide range of topics. His letters to his classmates, especially 
 those addressed to Roger Vose, who subsequently attained 
 to high honors as a legislator in Congress and as a jurist 
 in New Hampshire, indicate his love of general literature, by 
 the demands made upon the College library. His six months' 
 residence in Groton was one of the happiest periods of his 
 life. He enjoyed the acquaintance of those who appreciated 
 his attainments, and he found that society which he craved. 
 While he desired to receive his degree from the College, he 
 wished to avoid the means necessary to secure it. " To be 
 examined for a degree," he wrote to Vose, May 24, 1790, 
 " after the treatment I have received, is too humiliating. I 
 cannot brook the idea. They are acquainted with my abil- 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. II 
 
 ities. They can have no other motive to examine, except to 
 humble your friend." 
 
 At the expiration of his six months' suspension, he returned 
 to Cambridge. The record of a meeting of the College offi- 
 cers, held July 8, 1790, gives a report of his renewal of his 
 connection with the College : — 
 
 " Dennie, who has been suspended for six months past, hav- 
 ing now returned and made application for restoration to the 
 College, and to the Class to which he belonged ; and it appear- 
 ing from the testimonials given by the Reverend Mr. Chaplin 
 of Groton, under whose care he was placed, that he has con- 
 ducted with propriety during his absence, was admitted to 
 examination ; and after examination had in several branches 
 of science which the Class have pursued since his suspension, 
 
 " Voted, that Dennie be and he hereby is restored to the 
 College and to his Class." 
 
 At the same meeting, Dennie, who was degraded Oct. 7, 
 1789, presented the following petition praying for restoration 
 to his place in his Class : — 
 
 " To the President,. Professors, and Tutors of Cambridge 
 University, the petition of Joseph Dennie, Junior, humbly 
 showeth, — 
 " That your petitioner, in consequence of an insult offered 
 to a member of the government of the University having in- 
 curred the displeasure of that body, was in the month of Oc- 
 tober degraded from his proper station in the Senior Class. 
 Your petitioner, convinced of the impropriety of his conduct 
 towards the gentleman insulted, would intreat his forgiveness, 
 and pray that, influenced by this unfeigned contrition, the 
 governors of the University would pass an act of oblivion with 
 regard to the past unjustifiable behavior of their petitioner, and 
 would generously restore him to that station from which by 
 his own imprudence he has been excluded." 
 
 It was voted that the prayer of the petitioner be granted. 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 It appears from a memorandum appended, that the next morn- 
 ing, July 9, after prayers in the chapel, Dennie standing up 
 in his degraded place while the petition and the vote were 
 read by the President, was restored to his place in the Class 
 of 1790. 
 
 Dennie's desire to secure his degree induced him to accept 
 the conditions which were then imposed ; but he protested 
 against the humiliation which was the price to be paid for it. 
 That discipline under a milder regime was unattainable may 
 perhaps be inferred from the spirit of insubordination which 
 Dennie exhibited. 
 
 In the latter part of the same year we find Dennie a resident 
 of Charlestown, N. H., studying law in the office of Mr. West. 
 At the first onset he was sanguine of success, and in a letter 
 written a short time after his arrival he remarks : — 
 
 "With regard to my future prospect — a subject of my se- 
 rious consideration — thus much may be safely hazarded. At 
 the expiration of my clerkship, provided I deem the opening 
 of an office in Boston a romantic attempt, I can find an estab- 
 lishment in Vermont, where, though I should be enveloped in 
 solitude and woods, yet, in consequence of the people's love 
 of litigation, bread and independence might be secured. It is 
 true some sacrifices must be made, and liberality often bleeds 
 at the shrine of interest. Yet in the infancy of a profession 
 'tis chimerical to talk of undeviating integrity. Let hair- 
 brained enthusiasts prate in their closets as loudly as they 
 please to the contrary, a young adventurer in any walk of life 
 must take advantage of the events and weaknesses of his 
 fellow-mortals, or be content to munch turnip in a cell amidst 
 want and obscurity." 
 
 The expression of such sentiments as these would lead one 
 to suspect that it proceeded from a person whose path would 
 be onward, right or wrong. But the whole life of Dennie 
 gives assurance that it was his fixed determination not to 
 barter his integrity for an inheritance, and the pride of a hio-h 
 spirit which made him the enemy of all sycophants, that 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 13 
 
 were the obstacles in the road to pecuniary success. Ow- 
 , ing to the constitutional debility of Dennie he was the sport 
 of the elements, the wintry winds often obliging him to keep 
 his room, and all his efforts were paralyzed by the hand of 
 disease. In one of his letters he writes : " I wish you would 
 grasp the pen of erasure, and strike out Consumption and 
 Hectic from my vocabulary. I hate the discordant sounds." 
 During these hours of confinement he was subjected to periods 
 of great depression of spirits, when he resorted to artificial 
 stimulants for support ; and as we are all desirous to lay the 
 blame of our conduct upon fate and fortune, in his case they 
 were certainly copartners. It was his endeavor, however, 
 to lead a regular philosophic life, listening as attentively as 
 possible to reason, and keeping wild, delusive passion at a 
 distance. 
 
 In the month of October, 1791, a visit to Connecticut and 
 participation at the Commencement of Yale College appears 
 to have given him fresh impulses, and he renewed his studies 
 with great vigor. At this time a sense of dependence upon 
 his parents — a bounty never extended but with the greatest 
 cordiality — appears to have taken strong hold of his mind, 
 and occasioned him many useless hours of trouble ; but while 
 alluding to their long-continued, ample, and frequently unde- 
 served favors, he regrets the forced obligation of still being a 
 recipient of their bounty, and adds : " I have not been able, 
 honorably, to earn a shilling since my return ; and your 
 wishes, as well as my own sense of propriety, forbid me to 
 'wring from the hand of a peasant his vile trash' by any 
 indiscretion." 
 
 One of the leading traits in Dennie's character was his kind 
 remembrance and affectionate fondness for his parents. To 
 his mother he was attached most sincerely, and towards her 
 he always turned for advice and aid. During absence, his 
 letters to her breathed that pure filial love which had its birth 
 in the cradle and increased with his years. " During the 
 course of my pilgrimage," he writes, " I have found many 
 friends, but only one mother. For two and twenty years you 
 
14 ■ JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 have been uniformly my guide and patroness. To you I am 
 indebted not only for existence, but its happiness and con- , 
 tinuance. This frail and feverish being long since would have 
 dissolved had not your lenient hand smoothed the pillow of 
 sickness and arrested the arm of death. When I reflect on 
 these things, when I see you in my ' mind's eye' the same 
 affectionate friend in all circumstances, and in every change 
 of situation, I feel almost ready to sink under the pressure of 
 obligations. May I live to reward your kindness, and may you 
 live to witness my gratitude. 
 
 ' Me may the tender office long engage 
 To rock the cradle of your drooping age, 
 With lenient arts extend my mother's breath, 
 Make languor smile and smooth the bed of death.' " 
 
 Dennie's letters to his parents journalize his daily life. He 
 wrote from the impulse of the moment, and his style fully ex- 
 presses the uncertain portion of health which fell to his lot. 
 At times, when in the enjoyment of fine spirits, his letters 
 were lively and gay, and then again, when fatigued with study, 
 or suffering as he did from the effects of cold, he was splenetic 
 and morose. He toiled hard to acquire mastery of the art of 
 writing and speaking with that brilliant, seducing, command- 
 ing eloquence which is necessary in the legal profession, both 
 for fame and money, believing, as he did, that law is a nause- 
 ous pill, not to be poured down the throats even of the vulgar 
 without gilding. Addressing his mother, he asks : " Do you 
 wish to know once more how I live .-" I have told you so often 
 myself, that I am determined now to employ another. Ot- 
 way's Chaplain, describing to Chamont his own life, describes 
 mine : — 
 
 ' I rise in the morning early, study diligently, 
 Eat and drink soberly, live cheerfully, 
 Take my innocent pleasures freely, 
 So meet with respect, and am not the jest of the family.' " 
 
 After a sickness of many weeks' duration, Dennie alludes to 
 his hopes and anxieties in one of his letters, from which we 
 make the following extract : — 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 15 
 
 " This ramble, through what John Bunyan of pious mem- 
 ory calls the valley of the shadow of death, excepted, nothing 
 remarkable has intervened since my last. I was very pensive 
 when your letter came to hand. There are moments in the 
 most active life when the world holds to us a frowning aspect, 
 when we add to the number of our foes and subtract from the 
 sum of our friends. Even I, aided by my cheerful spirits, 
 sometimes think so curiously, as Horatio says, as to think 
 thus. In this moody sadness your letter was read, and af- 
 forded me so much consolation, that, though prior to its perusal 
 this world appeared to me ' a sterile promontory,' yet by the 
 time it was finished I exclaimed, It is good for us to be here, 
 and to set up tabernacles of rest. I judged from many parts 
 of your letter that you really wished to see me, and thought as 
 well as I that our "absence -was irksome. To me it is so in 
 very deed. Not that objects are unpleasant here, but because 
 they are pleasant at home. The Swiss, it is reported, feel de- 
 jection when away from their bleak mountains ; even the Cal- 
 edonian loves his country, barren and comfortless as it is. I 
 too love my natal soil, where I can see the frequent faces of 
 friends, and where the tender charities of parent and sister are 
 known. I have been separated from you nearly fifteen months, 
 but the recollection of home is ever present with me, and some 
 few untoward circumstances flowing from ill-health excepted, 
 I will do your fireside the justice to assert that we can be more 
 happy than in any other situation. I have become quite 
 moderate in my desires ; my fancy, tired like Noah's dove with 
 flying to and fro, is at length satisfied to trudge in the footway 
 of life. Ambition formerly took me to an exceeding high 
 mountain, and showed me all the kingdoms of the world and 
 the glory of them ; but of late I avoid the sigJit, conscious that 
 I never shall have possession. I mean by these sentiments 
 that romantic projects I have laid aside, and that I now con- 
 template only the probable and the true. I have found an in- 
 convenience in castle-building. I derive pleasure from the 
 erection of these goodly edifices, but next morning, or next 
 
l6 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 week, when I see the cement fail and the foundation rotten, I 
 pity the workman, who has worked while day lasts, but who 
 has walked to his building in a vain show, and has disquieted 
 himself in vain. Themistocles, when asked what price he could 
 afford for the art of remembrance, replied that he could afford 
 a much higher one for the art of forgetting. Had I this latter 
 art as it respects many things, it appears to me I should give 
 no money for the secret of happiness. Not that the past inci- 
 dents of my life are of so black a nature that memory cannot 
 view them without remorse, but I wish for the power of for- 
 getting or avoiding those ideas which induce disquietude." 
 
 In a letter dated July lOth, 1793, is the first allusion that we 
 have to his practising law. He says he " plead two afternoons 
 successively and successfully, for I gained some applause for 
 my prattle and two dollars for my labor," a small sum for such 
 work, and less than lawyers now ask for ten civil words. 
 
 In the fall of 1793 Dennie engaged in a new profession. 
 His own account of this episode is so well related by himself 
 that we give it in full. 
 
 Charlestown, N. H., January, 1794. 
 
 My dear Parents : — In my last letter, written some time 
 in August, I hinted at a visit in September. Some arrange- 
 ments made for that journey were frustrated by the influ- 
 enza, which attacked me with violence, and continued long. 
 As soon as my feeble voice could be again heard, I contracted 
 to periodically exercise it in a manner that has precluded 
 hitherto a sight of Lexington. I was unwilling to announce 
 this contract till permanently made, and till its fruits should 
 appear. I shall now, as Matthew Henry saith, " this mystery 
 exposite and unfold." 
 
 The clergyman of this village died in July. Of course, for 
 a few weeks after his demise, the pulpit was vacated. That I 
 could read, perhaps with more than mediocre propriety, was 
 early suggested to some of the chief characters here by the 
 partiahty of those juvenile friends whom, amid the dulness of 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 1/ 
 
 a winter's eve, I had amused with the scenes of Shakespeare. 
 On a Sunday, when, in expectancy of a neighboring curate, the 
 villagers had convened and were disappointed of their homily, 
 Esquires Stephens and Hubbard, at the request of the people, 
 requested me to read the Liturgy of the Church and a ser- 
 mon of Sterne. I diffidently complied, and was candidly 
 heard. The inimitable union of grandeur and simplicity that 
 Paley asserts is discoverable in the Church service, operating 
 on ambition, induced such a degree of exertion in the reader 
 as to gain, though perhaps not deserved, the applause of the 
 hearers. A candid Claremonter, who, in Goldsmith's phrase, 
 with open mouth swallowed my words, favorably reported to 
 the wardens and vestry of a vacant church at his native vil- 
 lage. Accordingly the ensuing week I received an official 
 message from Judge Kingsbury, a leading member of the Epis- 
 copal Society, desiring me to be at the trouble of a visit there 
 to read prayers on the next Sunday. This was the first 
 moment that I conceived the project of rendering my talent 
 gainful, — of allaying in some small degree my thirst for inde- 
 pendence, and partially relieving you from the Justly intoler- 
 able burden of my support. I cheerfully conned my task on 
 Saturday afternoon, and foreseeing from a knowledge of my 
 ear-soothing powers and the blind admiration that mob has for 
 sound, — foreseeing the probable issue of this business, on Sun- 
 day morning I sallied forth on this clerical enterprise, like 
 Haman, joyful, and with a glad heart. I read the popular ser- ■ 
 mon of Sterne on the character of the Good Samaritan. The 
 next day, in full vestry meeting, it was tina?iimously voted, that 
 a committee of the wardens should request me to contract for 
 four months as a Reader, at the rate of 24 s. per Sunday. 
 I obligated myself and regularly officiate. This business, 
 when in embryo, was darkly suggested to you by my friend 
 and landlord Hedge ; has been erroneously understood in 
 Boston ; grossly, I believe, misrepresented to you, and probably 
 the source of some disquietude. Some, as I am informed, 
 have ingeniously conjectured that I have renounced my pro- 
 
 3 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 fession ; others wonder how the airy levity of my spirit can be 
 confined in a pulpit without evaporating indecorously, and all 
 talk of the fantastic junction of lawyer and priest. But that 
 sage, though small, portion of Massachusetts soothsayers, who 
 have chosen to augur so inauspiciously my fate, cannot discern, 
 though your good sense easily can, a capital distinction be- 
 tween Reader and Inducted Clergyman. A casual glance on 
 the ecclesiastical etiquette of Great Britain, which the Epis- 
 copalians here servilely copy, discovers to you, that a mere 
 ReadersJiip does not in the least militate with my secular and 
 lay employments, that it demands not hypocrisy of heart or 
 face, but deceticy of life and such a mode of reading as your 
 kindness, the instructions of Dame Rogers, and the boijhood 
 perusal of your little library have inspired. My priestly en- 
 gagements have created nothing like fickleness, nothing like 
 disgust of law or abjuration of the bar. The revenues of the 
 Church of these infant Republics are too scanty to allure from 
 an avowedly lucrative profession a young man whose ambition 
 is daring, and who, though despising Pelf for its own sake, 
 loves it for the consequence that in these " costermonger 
 times " it procures. Nothing is more remote from my inten- 
 tion than a resignation of law practice. The task of Sunday 
 does not in the least derange the study of Blackstone. The 
 essence of the whole is this, that a day formerly passed va- 
 cantly on in miscellaneous reading, is now dedicated to a use- 
 ful exercise in elocution, which, by accustoming me to the 
 sight and criticism of the many, inspires confidence, furnishes 
 me with energetic Biblical phrases, and fancy with happy 
 allusions, and lastly furnishes a small stipend that pays my 
 board and defies the mechanic's dun. You know, or may 
 know, that such is the versatility of Alcibiades that on Sunday 
 he can seriously read a homily, and on Monday fluently chatter 
 in a cause. No more difficult than to put on or lay aside a 
 hat. This is a picture of my actual situation. I have plead 
 often within six months at justice's courts and received 12 s. for 
 each harangue. 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. IQ 
 
 In this prolix, though necessary narration, I have fairly 
 tried, and perhaps have fully exhausted, your patience ; but I 
 deem it dutiful and expedient to develop my situation and my 
 views ; and having filled so much paper concerning the Pulpit, 
 it now remains to mention the Bar. It is now three years 
 since I commenced the study of law, and you naturally ask 
 why tarry the wheels of my chariot ? Agreeably to the eti- 
 quette of the Hampshire courts it is necessary that a student 
 be proposed, as the phrase is, three months prior to his admis- 
 sion into an office, and three months prior to his taking the 
 oath of qualification at the expiration of his clerkship. As 
 I did not arrive at Charlestown in September, but on the 
 eighth of December, consequently I was proposed in Decem- 
 ber term for admission in March ; therefore, by the same 
 rules, it most aritJnnetically follows that I am not admitted to 
 my oath till March ensuing. Then I sally forth a rural attor- 
 ney, armed at all points for the wordy war. 
 
 It was my original intention, when I first entered the office 
 of West, to practise law somewhere in the Massachusetts 
 County of Middlesex br of Suffolk. But the information of my 
 law acquaintance in Boston, a long and particular conversation 
 with Rufus G. Amory, a thorough read lawyer, grown gray in 
 this knowledge, and my own acquaintance with the subject, 
 have induced a departure from my original plan. In the vil- 
 lages within fifty miles on every side of the capital there is 
 such a hatred of litigation on the one hand, and such a host of 
 able attorneys to foment this Norman spirit on the other, that 
 to establish myself there would be the dernier ressort of des- 
 peration. K In Boston, the rational inhabitants of that vain 
 port most wisely suppose that none but Parsons and Sullivan 
 can draw a declaration upon a common note of hand. Hence 
 we behold a shoal of junior lawyers keeping vacant offices, 
 mere barber shops, for the purpose of idle assemblage and chat, 
 never darkened by the shadow of clients. Without a writ to 
 fill or a cause to support, and begirt on every side by ten 
 thousand allurements to exorbitant dissipation, they are com- 
 
20 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 pelled to seek a precarious support from the gaming-table, or 
 else, in mere desperation, marry some Tristram Shandy bon- 
 neted girl of fortune, vilely suffer themselves to be carried 
 home by her to a father's house, there to lead a life, in Shake- 
 speare's phrase, most slinkingly dependent. Now I would 
 rather cut my throat with a penny razor than suffer even a 
 plan of such a life to sweep across my mind. No resource 
 therefore remains but to tolerate the inconveniences which ac- 
 company new settlements, and choose a station somewhere in 
 this northern corner of New Hampshire. Lawyers here are in 
 estimation. They are considered depositaries of information. 
 They have influence, for they have property. An aristocrati- 
 cal order of men in any government command respect ; and 
 our lawyers are perhaps more allied to aristocracy than yours. 
 Bills of cost are high, and notwithstanding the scarcity of 
 money y^^i' are promptly paid. The upper counties on this 
 river offer plausible encouragement to lawyers, and as soon as 
 the spring opens, if a better chance present not itself in the 
 lower part of Cheshire, I shall commence practice at the 
 Grafton courts. No man, however prescient, can determine 
 the color of future fate. Whether I prove, therefore, an em- 
 ployed or neglected advocate, is yet to be proved. I shall not 
 be a silent one. With modesty I cannot predict now and 
 boldly pronounce myself a future Thatcher or Parsons. Cum- 
 berland, the author of the Observer, struck the first numbers 
 at a rural press, with this calculation, — if his essays were jejune, 
 the obscurity of their birthplace would save the author ; if, on 
 the contrary, they had the stamp of genius, they would soon 
 be current in cities. I imitate this prudent plan. If in three 
 years I can gain property and reputation, I will emigrate and 
 7r open an office in Boston. If my tongue should falter or my 
 
 wits abate, still in this frugal country I can live decently, and 
 my failure will not be so conspicuous as in the eyes of expect- 
 ing or disappointed friends. 
 
 By accurate calculation I can live one third cheaper here 
 than in any part of Massachusetts. I am, through your bounty, 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 21 
 
 reasonably tinged with literature. Men of learning in these 
 wilds are rare. Hence much of that sort is soon recognized 
 and generously rewarded. Full justice is done me on the 
 scale of abilities. The inhabitants of Cheshire are too partial. 
 They are determined to enter court with the unshaken belief 
 that I prove a speaker. So that, if I am merely decent in my 
 first abord, I shall have more credit and more business than in 
 Massachusetts would be attendant on the most brilliant ex- 
 ertion. 
 
 I am daily more convinced that Spanish reals are a man's 
 b|gt friend. Without property, genius, merit, virtue, are 
 nOTning. I cannot be respected in Boston or its environs 
 while I am poor, and while that poverty obliges me to wear a 
 threadbare coat. Much stress is laid there on externals ; and 
 unless the guinea is expended at the tavern, unless the glossy 
 vest is worn, characters, however amiable and knowing, are 
 sedulously shunned. I will not give the showy men of Suffolk 
 a chance of turning up the nose at my " clouted shoon." My 
 spirit disdains, in ecclesiastical phrase, a residence there, with- 
 out pbiralities. 
 
 These reasons will convince you of the propriety of my 
 inflexible resolution to commence business in this part of New 
 Hampshire. 
 
 The inhabitants of Claremont are very importunate that I 
 should, in the spring, enter their church " a priest forever after 
 the order of Melchisedec " ; that I should go to New London 
 and receive ordination from Bishop Seabury. They have 
 offered to settle me immediately, to allow me ^80 per annum 
 and the profit of glebe lands leased in Claremont and seven 
 adjoining towns, and have pledged themselves that in ten 
 years the profits of the glebe should rise in duplicate propor- 
 tion, or an equivalent should be paid. Lest they should pay 
 me for present services reluctantly, when they were apprised 
 that the period of four months should forever close my en- 
 gagements, I told them that, previously to a renunciation of 
 my present profession, it was absolutely necessary that I 
 should consult my parents for their sanction. In your reply 
 
22 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 to this letter, therefore, which reply I will show them, insert a 
 clause of refusal, that I may bid them in March an honorable 
 adieu, and have my otherwise painful rejection of their pro- 
 posals gratified by your positive denial. 
 
 The Church of St. John's, at Portsmouth, has indirectly 
 sounded me on the subject of a settlement there, and has 
 said that I should be remunerated with ;;^200 per annum. 
 
 My neglect of law for the first year of my clerkship, and the 
 frequent lapse in study since from ill health and dejection, 
 induce a very vigorous prosecution of business now. For 
 some time I have read nothing but law, and have relinqui^ed 
 the belles-lettres. At the time I have assigned I shall, I can 
 candidly assure you, be competently skilled in the ordinary 
 practice of law. You know that my natural fluency is such 
 that, when I have a stock of ideas, words of course will 
 follow. 
 
 In moments of dreary vacancy I have amused myself, and 
 enlarged my knowledge of English style, by writing, at differ- 
 ent times and in various vehicles, "The Farrago." This is a 
 miscellaneous essay, which was first commenced in the winter 
 of 1792, was printed originally at a village in Vermont, on the 
 Cumberland calculation. In the press of Obscurity I knew 
 that I should risk nothing either in censure or praise. The 
 pubHc, however, saw or fancied some merit; _and, as American 
 essays have been hitherto unmarked except for flimsy ex- 
 pression and jejune ideas, they have allowed me praise of 
 reviving, in some degree, the Goldsmith vivacity in thought 
 and the Addisonian sweetness in expression. The editor of 
 the Boston Centinel has frequently republished these trifles, 
 and twelve or fourteen of the most generally circulated ga- 
 zettes have devoted a column to the P"arrago. 
 
 I wish that you would, without reserve, communicate your 
 sentiments respecting the affairs of the Church. Some of my 
 friends here are of opinion that I should appear to greater 
 advantage myself, and benefit others more, as a church divine 
 than an advocate. I confess to you that, were the emoluments 
 equal, I should not hesitate in choice. Undoubtedly one is 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 23 
 
 the more honest vocation. I often witness a degree of oppres- 
 sion in a lawyer's office almost unavoidable ; but to me, whose 
 hands have not yet grown callous with the receipt of guilty 
 bribes, there is something painful to the moral sense in wring- 
 ing farthings from the poor misguided peasant. If liberty of 
 election were fully allowed, my superficial talents — for (as 
 some character of the drama says, "Let no man hear me") I 
 am superficial — would have a better effect on the eye of mob, 
 surveyed rather from a pulpit than the bar. I have the ready 
 faculty of speech, but I doubt whether /r(7/(??^«^ thought keeps 
 pace with volubility of tongue. 
 
 A charge of fickleness, grounded on the above sentiments, 
 would be wrong. Till I swept a warehouse the twelfth month 
 I could not determine my unfitness to retail calico : till I 
 accidentally read the Liturgy of the Church, I thought that 
 law pleadings were the surest road to renown. 
 
 Mr. West this day told me, that, amid the present discour- 
 agements to bar practice, he thought the Portsmouth benefice 
 would be a fortunate exchange. 
 
 Adieu, my dear friends ; I'm just about launching into the 
 turmoiled ocean of life. Your best pilotage is necessary to 
 the success of my voyage. 
 
 Jos. Dennie, Jun. 
 
 In March, 1794, Dennie was admitted to practice at the 
 Court of Common Pleas, and shortly after opened an office 
 in Charlestown, where he continued to labor in his profession 
 and write for several papers. Money did not pour in upon 
 him ; but he gained sufficient to enjoy a high station on the 
 "Rock of Independence," as he expresses it, and "slept in 
 his office soundly, unscared," as Pope says, " by the spectre 
 of poverty." Dennie's want of assurance was a severe draw- 
 back to him, and he acknowledged his superficiality in law 
 knowledge when others, more shrewd and cunning, would 
 have assumed the appearance of sages. Possessing the feel- 
 ings of a gentleman, he desired to have the appearance of one, 
 and a close observer of men he must have been to write the 
 
24 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 following : " I am determined, if I am poor, never to feel, 
 much less look so, — to wear glossy coats, and shift them before 
 they are threadbare. Then, and not in general till "then, can 
 I, or any other new man, expect to receive it. 'Tis the dispo- 
 sition of the world to withhold benefit from those who want 
 it, and give the sum of more to him that has too much." 
 
 The want of a law library induced Dennie, in the early 
 part of 1795, to visit Boston, in hope of being able to make 
 arrangements whereby he could dispose of the products of his 
 pen for a handsome equivalent, — to secure a stipend from 
 town without its militating with his legal practice in the coun- 
 try, but on the contrary to extend his circle of acquaintance 
 and increase his business. Arriving in Boston he applied for 
 such employment to Thomas and Russell ; but their limited 
 means did not allow them to offer him the encouragement 
 requisite to his expectations. At this time Mr. Dennie's fame 
 as a writer began to increase. He was caressed and flattered 
 by the leading families in town. The gay were pleased with 
 the vivacity and originality of the P'arrago, the aristocracy 
 were pleased that his satire had been levelled against the foes 
 of Federahsm, and a host of friends offered their services to 
 aid any literary undertaking he might propose. Many were 
 anxious that he should write a comedy ; but, knowing that 
 this was not his forte, he finally concluded to establish a 
 literary weekly journal. A friend offered his services to over- 
 see the publication, and Mr. William Spotswood, then a book- 
 seller and a publisher at 55 Marlborough Street, undertook to 
 run the whole risk, furnishing type, and receiving half the 
 profits, — the other half to be paid over to Mr. Dennie. It 
 was agreed that Mr. Dennie should furnish a weekly number of 
 the Farrago, and it was calculated that his share of the profits 
 would amount to £1^0, an important addition to the income 
 of a country attorney. The design of such a publication — 
 novel in those days — was cordially greeted, and the prospectus 
 received the names of the most influential citizens. All the 
 numbers of "The Tablet" that appeared are before us, the 
 first issue of which bears the title : — 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 25 
 
 THE TABLET. 
 
 A Miscellaneous Paper, devoted to the Belles Lettres. 
 
 "As a Stranger, Give It Welcome." — Shakespeare. 
 
 Vol. I. TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1795. No. i. 
 
 The paper is printed on a sheet eight by twelve, and was 
 furnished to subscribers at the rate of three dollars per annum, 
 paid quarterly in advance. Mr. Dennie received his share of 
 the first quarter's payments, and returned to Charlestown. 
 Several writers contributed to make it an agreeable literary 
 sheet, among whom was the Rev. J. S. J. Gardiner ; and its 
 pages bear testimony that other pens of ability were employed 
 to render it acceptable to the public. To use Dennie's own 
 language, " The Tablet, a favorite child, after buffeting the 
 billows of adverse fortune for thirteen short weeks, sickened 
 and died." The disappointment at this failure, and the origin 
 of another series of papers, entitled " The Lay Preacher," the 
 most elaborate of all his literary compositions, is contained in 
 the following extract of a letter from the author, dated Wal- 
 pole (N. H.), 26 April, 1797 : — 
 
 " Returning in the summer of 1795, animated with expecta- 
 tion of realizing fortune and fame from ' The Tablet,' I sat 
 down to the desk of composition, and was making extensive 
 arrangements, when an unexpected and mortifying billet from 
 Spotswood announced the death of my child ! I never felt 
 the inconvenience of being poor, and the anguish of disap- 
 pointment, till then. For if I had been in possession of 
 property, neither the waywardness of the times, nor the dul- 
 ness of the Bostonians, would have repulsed the growth of 
 my miscellany. I was obliged to submit ; and with a little 
 purse, and spirit nearly as diminutive, began to conceive 
 
 4 
 
26 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 that my ill-luck was to be a life estate, and that I was one of 
 Dryden's unfortunates, who had but an hour, and lost even 
 that. In this cruel moment, the memory of what I owed to 
 myself urged me to make one more attempt before I bowed 
 to the Genius of Disappointment. Musing on the fate of my 
 paradoxes, and a vagabond like George Primrose, I sat out one 
 evening for this place, without the merit or the consolation 
 of being a philosophic adventurer like him. On the road I 
 formed that plan which I have since realized, and which has 
 attached some success. There was a press here conducted 
 by a young man (David Carlisle), honest, industrious, and 
 then a partner of Thomas. I determined, by the agency of 
 my pen, to convince him that I could be useful ; and then — 
 my humble knowledge of human agency taught me — I was 
 sure he would encourage me when his own interest was the 
 » prompter. Without saying a syllable respecting a stipend, I 
 \ wrote and gave him an essay on ' Wine and New Wine,' and 
 I called it the Lay Preacher. It had been objected to my 
 / earliest compositions that they were sprightly rather than 
 '• moral. Accordingly, I thought I would attempt to be useful, 
 by exhibiting truths in a plain dress to the common people." 
 " The Farmer's Weekly Museum " was the paper to which 
 -- Dennje contributed this first Lay Preacher. The journal was 
 then (in 1795, when Mr. De'nnie first took up his residence in 
 Walpole) under the charge of David Carlisle, and had been 
 in existence about two years. Such was the popularity of the 
 Lay Preacher that the essays were extensively copied into 
 every paper throughout the Union, and at the expiration of 
 six months (1796) Mr. Dennie became the editor of the 
 Museum. The original manuscript of the Lay Preacher is 
 before us, and bears on the back of it, in the author's hand- 
 writing, the following : — 
 
 " As this is the original first Lay Preacher ever published, 
 I wish you to preserve it. It was the corner-stone of my 
 literary undertaking. It was a sudden and accidental effort, 
 like most works in their origin. I composed it in the greatest 
 hurry, as will appear from the bad style of penmanship." 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 2/ 
 
 We give the first of the Lay Preacher's discourses : — 
 
 "Wine and New Wine take away the heart." 
 
 Prophet Hosea. 
 
 — And cloud the head, and empty the purse, and beget 
 writs of attachment, and an intimacy with deputy-sheriffs and 
 jails ; and — I should become quite out of breath, and " the 
 time would fail me " to recount all the mischiefs which Wines, 
 and new Wine, occasion. 
 
 But I hear young Clod, my neighbor's hired man, whisper 
 to the schoolmaster of the village : " Our grapes are frost 
 grapes, from which we cannot press new wine. You can't get 
 a drop in all Hampshire, except what our traders sell, and that 
 comes over sea, and is mixed with molasses in the vessel ; 
 and when it reaches us becomes new cider rather than new 
 wine." Now young Clod, having ploughed our intervale, and 
 chopped wood in our forests, and read Morse's Geography, has 
 some right to conclude that the "hearts" of Hampshire cannot 
 be taken away because we lack wine and new wine, and expe- 
 rience not when the time of the vintage of the grape is near. 
 
 But the wise prophet who sang to the men of Judah, many 
 hundred years ago, the many woes of wine, though he used 
 that particular word, meant Intoxication in its broadest 
 sense. Had Hosea lived on Connecticut River, and seen our 
 laborers lifting a tin measure to their mouths at five o'clock in 
 the morning, swearing at noon, and staggering at night, he 
 would doubtless have prophesied that new rum, yea, and gin 
 sling and brandy grog, " take away the heart." 
 
 Hear me, my dear countrymen. I am not a Universalist, 
 nor a New Light, but I am a moral preacher. Though I do 
 not whine to you from a pulpit, and have not the voice of the 
 charmer, charming never so wisely, yet I have your good at 
 heart, and will promote it all in my power ; and I ask no 
 salary, but your reformation. 
 
 You complain that lawyers oppress, and that Congress tax 
 you ; that you have no money ; that you must work hard ; 
 and that, though some of you wish to read useful books and 
 pamphlets, you have not cash to exchange with the bookseller. 
 
28 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 I will hint that mode of conduct which escapes a bill of costs, 
 supports government, makes labor light, and procures you a 
 whole library. It will render you in very deed that virtuous 
 and enlightened yeomanry which shall be the pride and pro- 
 tection of our empire. 
 
 You inhabit the banks of a river, which, though it has not 
 been celebrated by the poets, though its waters are not so 
 warm as those which feel a Southern sun and roll through 
 Italy and France, has a territory on each side productive of 
 all the essentials to health and happiness. The sharp air of 
 your hills blows away disease, and your juicy beef is a better 
 bracer than the bark. If you will sow your intervale, pay 
 necessary debts, contract no superfluous ones, and drink wine 
 atid nezu wine, and ntm and brandy, zvitli moderation, believe 
 me, you will have property enough for your occasions ; you 
 will not be haled before the judge, neither will the officer cast 
 you into prison ; but your barns will be full ; your kine will, 
 like those of Jeshurun, " wax fat " ; and the shade of the 
 prophet, if it hovered around you, might whisper, " Hearts 
 like these shall never be taken away." 
 
 The Lay Preacher. 
 
 Mr. Dannie's management of the paper was highly accept- 
 able to the public. The paper obtained a large circulation 
 throughout the States. Mr. Buckingham, in his "Reminis- 
 cences," says : — 
 
 " As a literary periodical, the Museum had now no rival. 
 Its circulation extended from Maine to Georgia, and large 
 packages filled weekly an extra mail-bag, to supply the sub- 
 scribers in New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, and inter- 
 vening cities. 
 
 " For three years succeeding this arrangement the Museum 
 was more richly suppUed with original communications of a 
 literary character than any other paper that had then, or has 
 since, been published in the United States. ' Colon and 
 Spondee ' came out, almost every week, with new varieties of 
 their small wares ; T. G. Fessenden produced his political 
 lampoons, under the signature of ' Simon Spunkey'; Isaac 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. i 29 
 
 Story opened a shop, with the sign of ' Peter Quince,' and 
 endeavored to rival Peter Pindar in his humorous style of 
 versification ; ' Common Sense in Dishabille ' was furnished 
 by David Everett ; and besides these ' The Meddler,' ' The 
 Hermit,' 'The Rural Wanderer,' 'Peter Pencil,' ' Beri Hes- 
 den,' and numerous other writers, whose contributions I am 
 not able to assign to the authors by name, enriched the Mu- 
 seum, and gave to it an unprecedented popularity. Dennie, 
 however, was not merely the responsible editor, but was the 
 enlivening spirit, around which the others congregated, and to 
 which they made their obeisance, as the sheaves of Jacob's 
 sons, of old, did to the sheaf of Joseph. The selected articles 
 were of his choosing. He gathered the exotics, and his criti- 
 cism stamped them as genuine products of the garden of 
 genius. The weekly summary of 'Incidents Abroad' and 
 ' Incidents at Home,' which was not the least attractive feature 
 of the Museum, was prepared by him ; and though this 
 feature of the Museum has had many imitators, I know of 
 none which can claim any near relationship or striking resem- 
 blance. The notes ' To Readers and Correspondents ' make, 
 of themselves, an amusing department. These were also the 
 sole composition of Dennie, and were frequently written in 
 the printing-office, and extended or contracted in length, so as 
 precisely to fit the space in which the last column of the form 
 might be deficient of matter." 
 
 Mr. Dennie labored with continued exertion; but he derived 
 only £\\o per annum for his literary efforts, though this, 
 added to his law practice, which amounted to about ^go 
 more, enabled him to live and dress according to his inclina- 
 tion. It was during the year 1796 that a volume of sermons, 
 by the Lay Preacher, was published, which met with consid- 
 erable success, and increased the author's literary fame. In 
 politics, Mr. Dennie was a strong Federalist ; and his articles 
 procured for him the commendation of the government. 
 Among his manuscript papers we find letters from Fisher 
 Ames, Jeremiah Smith, L. R. Morris, Benjamin Russell, 
 Samuel Eliot, and others, either approving of his paper, or 
 
30 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 J 
 
 / 
 
 conveying substantial proofs of the acceptance it met with. 
 Of Mr. Dennie's personal appearance, and minor traits of 
 character, Mr. Buckingham, in his " Reminiscences," gives an 
 account which is fully substantiated by others who recollect 
 him. Mr. B. writes: — 
 
 " I have a vivid recollection of Dennie's personal appear- 
 ance, in 1796, when I began my apprenticeship in the printing- 
 office of David Carlisle. In person he was rather below than 
 above the middle height, and was of a slender frame. He was 
 particularly attentive to his dress, which, when he appeared in 
 the street on a pleasant day, approached the highest notch of 
 the fashion. I remember, one delightful morning in May, he 
 came into the office dressed in a pea-green coat, white vest, 
 nankin small-clothes, white silk stockings, and shoes, or pumps, 
 fastened with silver buckles, which covered at least half the 
 foot from the instep to the toe. His small-clothes were tied 
 at the knees, with ribbon of the same color, in double bows, 
 the ends reaching down to the ankles. He had just emerged 
 from the barber's shop. His hair, in front, was well loaded 
 with pomatum, frizzled, or craped, and powdered ; the ear-locks 
 had undergone the same process ; bcJiind, his natural hair was 
 augmented by the addition of a large qneiie (called, vulgarly, 
 \h& false tail), which, enrolled in some yards of black ribbon, 
 reached half-way down his back. Thus accommodated, the 
 Lay Preacher stands before my mind's eye, as lifelike and 
 sprightly as if it were but yesterday that I saw the reality. 
 
 " Among his familiar acquaintance, and in the Company of 
 literary men, Dennie must have been a delightful and fascinat- 
 ing companion. In the printing-office, his conversation with 
 the apprentices was pleasant and instructive. His deportment 
 toward them was marked with great urbanity and gentleness. 
 Being the youngest apprentice, — in vulgar phrase, the. print- 
 er s devil, — it was my lot to call upon him for copy, and carry ' 
 the proof to him. Thus, for seven or eight months, my inter- 
 course with him was almost daily, and was as familiar as pro- 
 priety would sanction between an editor and an apprentice. I 
 never saw him otherwise than in good humor. 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 31 
 
 " Dennie wrote with great rapidity, and generally postponed 
 his task till he was called upon for copy. It was frequently 
 necessary to go to his office, and it was not uncommon to find 
 him in bed at a late hour in the morning. His copy was often 
 given out in small portions, a paragraph or two at a time ; 
 sometimes it was written in the printing-office, while the com- 
 positor was waiting to put it in type. One of the best of his 
 lay sermons was written at the village tavern, directly oppo- 
 site to the office, in a chamber where he and his friends were 
 amusing themselves with cards. It was delivered to me by 
 piecemeal, at four or five different times. If he happened to 
 be engaged in a game when I applied for copy, he would ask 
 some one lo play his hand for ]iini zvhile he could give the devil 
 his due. When I called for the closing paragraph of the ser- 
 mon, he said, ' Call again in five minutes! ' No,' said Tyler, 
 ' I '11 write the improvement for you.' He accordingly wrote 
 the concluding paragraph, and Dennie never saw it till it was 
 put in print." 
 
 In the year 1798 Carlisle, the publisher, became a bank- 
 rupt, and Mr. Dennie lost his share in the published volume 
 of the Lay Preacher and about ^500 fairly and laboriously 
 earned by editing. It was a severe loss to Dennie, and one 
 calculated to affect a man of his nervous temperament. The 
 paper reverted back to its former owner, Isaiah Thomas, and 
 Dennie, with a reduced salary of ^400, continued as its editor 
 till June, 1798, when Alexander Thomas, the brother of the 
 publisher, took charge of editing it, the Lay Preacher still 
 contributing sermons, literary essays, and summaries of news 
 to its columns. The paper, however, fell off in circulation. 
 
 During this year Mr. Dennie entered the political arena, and 
 was nominated as Representative to Congress, but was de- 
 feated. Many brilliant offers were made to him from various 
 parts of the Union (Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York), 
 to assume the editorial charge of well-established journals, or 
 become part proprietor ; but a want of means and a thirst for 
 political life induced him to refuse these overtures. Speaking 
 
32 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 y 
 
 of a situation tendered to him for editing the " Independent 
 Chronicle," then published at Boston by Mr. James White, 
 Mr. Dennie writes : " If he had offered me twelve millions of 
 dollars annually to conduct a Democratic paper, I must have 
 refused the offer. It would have belied my feelings, my habits, 
 my principles, my conscience. I should have been an infa- 
 mous apostate." 
 
 Mr. Dennie's friends at court were not unmindful of his 
 abilities and past services, for in May, 1799, he received the 
 appointment of private and confidential Secretary to the De- 
 partment of State. Mr. Timothy Pickering (then Secretary 
 of State) in making this selection, wrote to Mr. Dennie, that, 
 "if your genius and taste could in some degree relinquish the 
 pursuits of hterature, and submit to the drudgery of political 
 business, I should be glad to employ you, and congratulate 
 myself in being the instrument in availing myself of your 
 talents." Mr. Dennie wrote to Mr. Pickering, that, in his con- 
 tract with Thomas, he had agreed to give him three months' 
 notice whenever he should withdraw his contributions from 
 the paper, and the reply of Mr. Pickering is characteristic of 
 the man. 
 
 Philadelphia, June 7, 1799. 
 
 Sir : — I have this morning received your letter of the ist 
 inst. I cannot possibly desire you to depart in the smallest 
 degree from your engagements with the proprietor of the VVal- 
 pole newspaper ; on the contrary, I should have consiiiered any 
 disposition to neglect the fulfilment of your contract as a dis- 
 qualification for a public employment. Perhaps, too, it may 
 be fortunate that you will thereby be prevented coming to this 
 city at the season most inconvenient, and which, to strangers 
 to our excessive heats, often proves distressing. I shall, there- 
 fore, advise your delaying your journey hither till the expira- 
 tion of August, when the weather begins to be more tolerable. 
 After that, the sooner you arrive the more you will gratify me. 
 I am, with great regard and esteem, 
 
 Sir, your ob't serv't, 
 
 Timothy Pickering. 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 33 
 
 Mr. Dennie left Walpole in September, 1799, to enter upon i/" 
 his office, which yielded him a salary of one thousand dollars per 
 annum. He had also engagements with Thomap to contribute 
 to the Museum, and with Fenno, of the United States Gazette, ^ 
 published at Philadelphia. To the latter journal he was, for a 
 brief period, a large contributor. His office, and his reputa- 
 tion as a man of letters, gave hini at once an entree into the 
 first society, and he availed himself of every opportunity to en- 
 rich his mind by conversation with the learned, and succeeded 
 during his leisure moments in acquiring a tolerable knowl- 
 edge of the French language. In one of his letters written 
 at this time, he pays the following tribute of respect to the 
 Christian religion, — which the reader must bear in mind was 
 not intended for publication, lest the charge of egotism be urged 
 against its author. It is simply the honest expression of a 
 candid searcher after the truth. 
 
 " I can truly and religiously assert, that my long and assidu- 
 ous habit of investigating the sacred writings has ended 
 with me, as with Mr. Locke and Grotius and Sir William 
 Jones, in a perfect and settled conviction of their Divine ori- 
 gin and matchless utility to mankind. In a concluding num- 
 ber of my Essays I shall add the testimony of one more 
 layman to the verity, beauty, and use of the Christian religion. 
 The Bible is truly a blessed book, and happy and safe is that 
 man whose conduct, as far as mortal imbecility will allow, 
 comports with that most salutary doctrine contained in the 
 Gospels." 
 
 Towards the latter part of 1800, in company with Asbury ^ 
 Dickens, a bookseller of Philadelphia, Mr. Dennie commenced 
 the publication. of a literary journal entitled "The Port FoUo," 
 which appeared in quarto form, but was afterwards changed to 
 the octavo. This pubhcation when in its prime was the first ^ 
 Hterary journal in the country, and contained not only literary 
 and scientific essays, but papers on arts and politics, and con- 
 tributions relating to the humorous and amusing. Under the 
 cognomen of " Oliver Oldschool," Mr. D. catered acceptably 
 
34 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 for a large list of subscribers, but the form of government 
 under which he lived did not meet with approval in his eyes, 
 and his attacks were frequent and severe. In the year 1803, 
 his bitterness against the Constitution of the country found 
 vent in an article, which was justly censured, and which 
 brought upon the author an indictment for libel, which set 
 forth that the " said Joseph Dennie, on the twenty-third day 
 of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
 and three, at the city aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of 
 this court, with force and arms, and falsely, maliciously, fac- 
 tiou,sly, and seditiously, did make, compose, write, and publish, 
 and did cause and procure to be made, composed, written, and 
 published, a certain false, wicked, malicious, factious, seditious, 
 and scandalous libel, of and concerning the form of govern- 
 ment of the said United States," etc. The trial resulted, as 
 Mr. Dennie remarks in a number of the Port Folio for 1807, 
 " in a most signal victory." The purport of the article is less 
 seditious and less obnoxious in its teachings than the denun- 
 ciations of more modern agitators. 
 
 Mr. Dennie continued to edit the Port Folio with varied suc- 
 cess, receiving aid from the " Literary Club," and we cannot 
 give a briefer and better idea of the independence and zeal 
 which he brought to a discharge of the duty than by quoting 
 the following from a number in 1807 : — 
 
 "With mingled regret and indignation, the editor has been 
 recently apprised, from authentic authority in the North, that a 
 report has been industriously propagated and generally believed, 
 which has induced many to assert, as a sort of axiom, that the 
 property of the Port Folio had passed into other hands, and that 
 for more than two years the editor had merely lent his name 
 to assist the sale of that work. This rumor, false as well as 
 injurious, must be instantly quelled, as dishonorable to the 
 editor's character and pernicious to his property. He is the 
 sole proprietor of this paper, of which for years he has had 
 the absolute direction, and, if any emoluments arise from the 
 subscription, the property is exclusively his. It is absolutely 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 35 
 
 necessary to make this statement, because it is understood 
 that many who would wiUingly patronize the work have with- 
 held their names from a persuasion that they were only ad- 
 vancing the interest of some venal mechanic, who walked 
 abroad with a vizor mask, disgracefully borrowed from the 
 editor. It is presumed that to the men of honor and cavaliers, 
 to the real friends of his paper and party, and to those who 
 have hourly opportunities of surveying his actions, and scruti- 
 nizing their motives, it is superfluous to declare, from educa- 
 tion, temper, and habit, he is utterly incapable of an imposture 
 so venal and flagitious. This for his friends. With respect 
 to his foes, the fanatics, the propagators of this story, however 
 they may persevere in the mahgnancy of their designs, or the 
 audacity of their assertions, proofs shall be given, as long as 
 the Port Folio is published, that the editor is deeply inter- 
 ested in the work, that he writes habitually in that journal, and 
 that, if for no other purpose, he considers that paper his prop- 
 erty, as affording him the means of ridiculing absurdity, of chas- 
 tising faction, and of branding hypocrisy. 
 
 " It does not become the editor to dilate on the character of 
 this journal, or to court favor by the speciousness of profes- 
 sion, or the magnificence of promise. His labor has for many 
 years been before the public, and, if he has been censured by 
 fanatic folly and party prejudice, he has been applauded and 
 encouraged by the most venerable of his friends, and by a Nes- 
 bit, a Gifford, and a Reeves, — by a Father, — by a politician, 
 a poet, and a divine. This is consolatory. In any fortune he 
 will remember this and be comforted. In any fortune he will 
 remember this, and go on, without the smallest compliance with 
 the vagaries of the multitude, and without the least change, 
 or shadow of turning. So far from the remotest attention of 
 relinquishing this journal, or making it an object for sale and 
 barter, he will continue to publish it upon the most indepen- 
 dent principles, while that Power, who at least has given him 
 spirit, graciously indulges him with the use of his eyes, however 
 dim, or his hand, however unskilful." 
 
36 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 In this spirit Mr. Dennie continued to discharge his duties ; 
 but, for many months previous to his death, his habits of con- 
 viviahty had made such deep inroads upon a constitution fra- 
 gile by nature, that he was unable to execute what his spirit 
 dictated, and when he finally passed into the grave, on the 
 7th of January, 18 12, there was a cause for thankfulness 
 that the light of so fine a mind had been kept burning to the 
 last. His death-bed is described as that of a man firm in the 
 conviction of the truth and efficacy of religion, and though his 
 days were ended without the attainment of that fame, or the 
 realization of that fortune, which he appeared ever to think 
 awaited his efforts, he had laid aside his hopes of an earthly for 
 an eternal reward, with the resignation of one whose conscience 
 brought peace and comfort in his last moments. 
 
 The funeral of Mr. Dennie took place on the 9th, and his 
 remains were followed to the grave by a large and most re- 
 spectable concourse of the residents of Philadelphia, who were 
 sincere mourners for the loss of a man " who commanded the 
 admiration and esteem of all who enjoyed the privilege of his 
 acquaintance." The various newspapers of the day recorded 
 eulogies on the departed, one of which, from a Philadelphia 
 journal, we give : — 
 
 "On Tuesday, the 7th instant, departed this life, in the 45th 
 year of his age, Joseph Dennie, Esq., a native of the State of 
 Massachusetts, but for several years past resident in this city. 
 A liberal education, ingrafted upon a mind endowed with the 
 most active and energetic powers, and an imagination fertil- 
 ized by various and extensive reading, and glowing with all the 
 fervor and brilliancy of genius, together with a heart overflow- 
 ing with benevolence, and ennobled by every private and social 
 virtue, rendered him a distinguished ornament of general so- 
 ciety, and the delight and solace of an extensive circle of 
 friends and acquaintance." 
 
 Mr. Dennie was interred in the burying-ground of St. 
 Peter's Church, and a monumental column, bearing the fol- 
 lowing appropriate inscription, marks the spot : — 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 37 
 
 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 Born at Lexington,i in Massachusetts, 
 
 August 30th, 1763, 
 
 Died at Philadelphia, January 7th, 1812. 
 
 Endowed with talents, and quaUfied 
 
 By Education, 
 
 To adorn the Senate, and the Bar, 
 
 But following the impulse of a Genius, 
 
 Formed for converse with the Muses, 
 
 He devcted his life to the Literature of his Country. 
 
 As author of the Lay Preacher, 
 And as First Editor of the Port Folio, 
 He contributed to chasten the morals, and to refine 
 the taste of the Nation. 
 To an imagination, lively, not licentious, 
 A wit, sportive, not wanton, 
 And a heart without guile, 
 He united a deep sensibility, which 
 Endeared him to his 
 Friends, and an ardent piety, which we humbly trust 
 Recommended him to his God ; 
 Those friends have erected this tribute 
 To his Memory. 
 To the Mercies of that God is their resort 
 For themselves, and for Him. 
 MDCCCXIX. 
 
 On the north side of the column is inscribed in letters of gold, the name of 
 "Joseph Dennie." 
 
 During his residence in Philadelphia Dennie organized the 
 Tuesday Club, which contained the notable literary men of the 
 day. He was the centre of a brilliant coterie, which charmed 
 ""all strangers who found admittance to its circle. He was wel- 
 comed to the fireside of many families, and, though there are 
 few living who remember him, pleasant memories of him have 
 been handed down. The late Hon. William M. Meredith, 
 Secretary of the Treasury in 1849, i" ^ letter written many 
 
 1 Mr. Dennie was born in Boston. 
 
38 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 years ago, says: " He was very intimate at my father's house, 
 and both my parents entertained a high regard for him. He 
 was one of the friends that I recollect from my earliest boy- 
 hood as frequently enlivening a fireside which was never dull. 
 As he died before I was thirteen years old, I cannot pretend to 
 give any details of his lively and agreeable conversation." 
 
 No collection of the writings of Dennie was ever pubUshed, 
 though such a project was entertained at the time of his death. 
 In 1796 a small volume containing the sermons of the Lay 
 Preacher was published at Walpole, N. H. In 1801 a vol- 
 ume entitled " The Spirit of the Farmers' Museum and Lay 
 Preacher's Gazette " was published at Walpole. It contained 
 many of the brightest papers of its contributors, and a few of 
 the sermons of the Lay Preacher. In 18 16 Mr. John E. 
 Hall, of Philadelphia, collected a number of the best of these 
 sermons, which he published in a small volume. 
 
 In the " Life of Josiah Ouincy, by his Son," the late Edmund 
 Quincy, there are some allusions to Mr. Dennie which may 
 appropriately find a place in this monograph. 
 
 "The member of the Class of 1790 who was the most 
 widely known in after life was Joseph Dennie, of whom my 
 father speaks thus in recalling the images of those early com- 
 panions : — 
 
 "'The most talented, taking light literature as the standard, 
 was Joseph Dennie, whose acquaintance with the best English 
 classics was uncommon at that period. His imagination was 
 vivid, and he wrote with great ease and felicity. In after life 
 he attained local eminence as an essayist, first by a series of 
 essays under the title of " The Lay Preacher," then by others 
 written in connection with Royall Tyler, under the firm of 
 "Colon & Spondee," and finally as editor of a literary peri- 
 odical called "The Port Folio," published in Philadelphia, and 
 which obtained uncommon celebrity and circulation. While 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 39 
 
 at college he might unquestionably have taken the highest 
 rank in his class, for he had great happiness both in writing 
 and elocution ; but he was negligent in his studies, and not 
 faithful to the genius with which nature had endowed him.' 
 
 "Mr. Dennie was a most charming companion, brilliant in 
 conversation, fertile in allusion and quotation, abounding in 
 wit, quick at repartee, and of only too jovial a disposition. My 
 father used to tell of the gay dinners which celebrated the not 
 infrequent visits Mr. Dennie made him when he was keeping 
 house with his mother. On these white days he would sum- 
 mon the flower of the youth of Boston to enjoy the society of 
 their versatile friend, and the festivity which set in at the 
 sober hour of two would reach far into the night before the 
 party were willing to break up. In those good old three-bottle 
 days, and indeed for the greatest part of his life, my father was 
 visited with a mortal headache, not merely after any excess in 
 wine, but even after the least indulgence in the good creature. 
 This made him perforce, for many years, practically 'a. teeto- 
 taller,' though he never accepted the philosophy of total ab- 
 stinence, and it may be,", etc 
 
 " Mr. Dennie made a profession of studying the law, but he 
 did not waste much of his time upon the practice of it. The 
 story goes that he opened an office in Charlestown, N. H., 
 ready for the entertainment of clients. On a day one strayed 
 in, but the interruption he caused to the leisure and favorite 
 occupations of his counsel learned in the law was so great, that 
 a repetition of the annoyance was carefully guarded against. 
 Mr. Dennie thenceforward kept his office-door locked on 
 the inside, and bade defiance to the busy world without. 
 But as this mode of practising the law, however agreeable in 
 itself, was not greatly refnunerative, he soon afterwards wisely 
 • abandoned the profession, and betook himself to the more con- 
 genial pursuits of literature and editorship. 'The Port Folio,' 
 which he established in Philadelphia, and conducted from 1800 
 until his death in 1812, was very far superior in literary ability 
 to any magazine or periodical ever before attempted in this 
 
 y 
 
40 JOSEPH DENNIE. 
 
 country. Indeed, it was no whit behind the best English mag- 
 azines of that day, and would bear no unfavorable comparison 
 with -those of the present time on either side of the water. 
 Its influence was greatly beneficial in raising the standard of 
 literary taste in this country, and in creating a demand for a 
 higher order of periodical literature, and for more exact and 
 careful editorship. It was strongly Federalist in its politics, 
 and Mr. Dennie had the assistance of some of the best minds 
 of that party in the political portions of his magazine. Among 
 others Mr. Ouincy furnished a series of papers under the sig- 
 •l nature of 'Climenole,' the name of the 'flappers' employed 
 by the philosophic inhabitants of the island of Laputa to 
 awake them from their scientific reveries, as is related by that 
 
 veracious voyager. Captain Lemuel Gulliver 
 
 "Mr. Dennie became the centre of a brilliant circle of schol- 
 arly and accompHshed men in Philadelphia, to whose social 
 and convivial virtues the poet, Thomas Moore, has recorded 
 his authentic testirnony in his 'Poems relating to America.' 
 While in Philadelphia, in 1804, he was made free of this con- 
 genial guild, and shared with them the pleasures of their 
 symposia. It was to them that he addressed the passage in 
 the Letter to Spencer, beginning, 
 
 ' Yet, yet forgive me, O ye sacred few, 
 Whom late by Delaware's green banks I knew, 
 Whom, known and loved through many a social eve, 
 'T was bliss to live with, and 't was pain to leave.' 
 
 We were not fortunate enough in this country to please the 
 young Irish Anacreon, as a general thing ; and, as he says in 
 a note to this poem, it was ' in the society of Mr. Dennie and 
 his friends' that he passed the few agreeable moments of his 
 tour. Whatever value we may attach to Mr. Moore's opinions 
 as to American institutions, he may be admitted as a com- 
 petent witness as to the quality of the 
 
 ' nights of mirth and mind. 
 Of whims that taught, and follies that refined,' 
 
JOSEPH DENNIE. 41 
 
 which he passed in that gay society ; and also as to ' the love 
 for sound literature which he feels so zealously himself, that 
 Mr. Dannie had succeeded in diffusing through this cultivated 
 little circle.' Some of Moore's poems appeared first in the 
 Port Folio, among which was the beautiful song beginning, 
 
 ' Alone by the Schuylkill a wanderer roved.' 
 
 Whenever Mr. Quincy passed through Philadelphia on his 
 way to and from Washington, his personal intercourse with 
 his old college friend was renewed, and their intimacy was 
 interrupted only by the death of Mr. Dennie in 181 2. The 
 Port Folio languished on for a few years, but did not long sur- 
 vive its founder." """""' ---p. 
 
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