Joel Barlow

From Philosopedia

Barlow, Joel (24 March 1754 - 24 December 1812)

Born in Redding, Connecticut, Barlow was educated at Dartmouth College and Yale, where he served as chaplain in the Revolutionary War. His edition of The Book of Psalms, issued in 1785, was widely used by the Congregationalists. Barlow left the ministry, took up law, and was admitted to the bar in 1786.

As a writer and poet, he was a member of the well-known "Hartford Wits," and made his name with The Vision of Columbus, written in 1787. His enduring work is the mock-heroic humorous poem, "The Hasty Pudding."

Barlow became a deist after traveling in France, according to C.B. Todd, who wrote the Life and Letters of J. Barlow (1886). Barlow translated Ruins by Volney.

Barlow's claim to freethought fame was as consul to Algiers, when he secured the release of prisoners and negotiated the Treaty with Tripoli of 1796-97, which stated that the United States was not a Christian nation. It was written in Algiers in Arabic, and signed at Tripoli on Nov. 4, 1796:

• . . . the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion . . . .

Barlow translated the treaty, which was ratified by the U.S. Senate on May 29, 1797, and proclaimed in Philadelphia on June 10, 1797. George Washington was President when the treaty was signed in Tripoli, but it was signed by President John Adams. Barlow also befriended Thomas Paine and was responsible for getting Paine's The Age of Reason published during Paine's imprisonment in Paris - while Paine was in a Paris jail, Barlow looked after details of the publication of his The Age of Reason.

His own book, The Hasty Pudding (1796), is a mock epic that he claimed was inspired by his being homesick for New England and its corn mush. His Vision of Columbus and his being American ambassador to France made him well-known in Europe and America. His biographer, James Woodress, notes that in his Advice to the Privileged Orders,

• Barlow makes a clear distinction between the state church as an ally of authoritarian government and plain religion. He argues that the wedding of church and state is a great evil and points to the blessings enjoyed by the United States without a state church. As a result, he asserts, “in no country are the people more religious.”

The clergy attacked him, citing his translation of Volney’s Ruins and accusing him of being an atheist. While negotiating a commercial treaty with Napoleon I, Barlow died from exposure, caught in the disastrous retreat of the armies from Moscow.

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