Various the sports, as are the wits and brains, who had the costly engravings made at his own expense. The work was enriched by a portrait of the author, painted by Fulton himself. It was a Politics and poetry, those unprofit- most pleasing tribute of friendship, as able pursuits, did not engross the whole well as a monument of liberality, for attention of Barlow while abroad. He the great inventor was by no means became employed, in 1795, as a private wealthy when he undertook this deed. legal or commercial agent to the north The dedication holds this generous of Europe, and the same year was ap- offering in pleasing remembrance. pointed, by Washington, Consul to "Take it," writes the author, "to your Algiers, to redeem the captives taken self, and let it live as long as it is to by the Barbary powers, and negotiate live, a monument of our friendship; a treaty with that offending race. He you cannot need it as a monument of was successful in this mission, and on your fame. Your inventions and dis his return to Paris, having made some coveries in the useful arts, the precision profitable speculations, purchased the and extension of your views in the hotel of the Count Clermont de Ton- physical sciences, and in their applica nerre, and lived like a man of wealth. tion to the advancement of society and It was during this residence at Paris morals, will render it proper that the that he entertained Fulton, assisted him lines you have selected and written in his inventions, and formed with him under my portrait, should be transferred a lasting intimacy. to yours. Posterity will vindicate the right, and fix them in their place.” The lines thus alluded to are these: "The warrior's name, Sounds less harmonious to the grateful mind, In 1805, he returned to the United States, after an absence of seventeen years, purchased an estate, and built a fine house in the District of Columbia, overlooking the Capitol, and gave to his prospect the name Kalorama. He there mingled freely in society, and took an earnest interest in public affairs, Of the work itself we have already devoting his attention more especially given the general outline in our notice to matters of science, education, and of the "Vision of Columbus." It prepolitical philosophy. Having com- sents some of the points of that work pleted his revision of the "Vision of with greater care in the scientific and Columbus," the improved work, “The other tributes, and the events of the Columbiad" was brought out in sump-war. tuous style, in Philadelphia, in quarto, are confirmed in the peaceful progress with plates, designed by the English of his country, its early triumphs in artist, Smirke, and executed by the best arms, arts, and science; he looks for London engravers. The subjects for ward, anticipating Tennyson's dream, the designs were pointed out by Fulton, "The parliament of man, the federation The aspirations of the author of the world," which he sees in the ex-growing out of the aggressions of pansion of the American Confedera- France in the Berlin and Milan decrees, tion: when he was invited to visit the Emperor, who was then on his Russian Expedition, at Wilna. He set off on the journey, was taken ill with an inflam 'Each land shall imitate, each nation join The well based brotherhood, the league divine, Extend its empire with the circling sun, And band the peopled globe beneath its federal zone."" mation of the lungs, in consequence of The whole ends with "a general congress from all nations, assembled to establish the political harmony of mankind." The "Columbiad" is animated in style, fervent in expression, has some good lines, but it lacks the diviner merits of a great poem. It is wanting in simplicity, is disfigured by affected expressions, and is much of it inferior to the author's prose, which is manly and to the point. Some such judgment would appear to have been formed by the public of the work, for though it was once republished in 1809, it has not reached another edition, and is now known only as a literary curiosity. One of the favorite ideas of Barlow, while at Washington, was a grand scheme of education, to be centred at the capital, and sustained by appropriations from Government. He also planned a history of the United States, a work which, if he seriously entered upon, he was prevented from prosecuting, by his appointment as minister to France in the administration of President Monroe, and under the rule of Napoleon. He was engaged in the duties of his mission, in negotiations exposure to the severity of the weather, and perished as he was returning towards Paris, at an inn at Zarnawika, a village near Cracow, in Poland, December 22, 1812, at the age of fifty-four. One of his last acts was dictating from his bed a caustic poem on Napoleon, which was copied in diplomatic characters, and sent to his wife in Paris. It is entitled, "Advice to a Raven in Russia." He tells that bird of prey, the scavenger of the imperial armies, that it must seek elsewhere for its food than among the dead, covered and concealed amidst the snows of Russia. In his days of health and youth, the author never exceeded the point and vigor of this composition. The character of Barlow is well exhibited in his writings. He was ingenuous, bold, and aspiring, a man of the eighteenth century, somewhat of the Jeffersonian stamp, a diligent student, more quick than profound, rapid in his perceptions, always bent upon activity and usefulness. He was married early in life to the sister of Abraham Baldwin, a well-known Georgia politician. This lady survived him at the mansion which he had built near Washington, nearly six years. JAMES MADISON. JAMES MADISON, the fourth President | have added largely to the attractions of the United States, was descended of the social, as she undoubtedly did in from an old family of Virginia planters, the highest degree, to the happiness, which is traced to the first annals of comfort and usefulness of the domestic the country, in the records of the great scene. Nothing is more touching and pioneer, Captain John Smith. A beautiful in the life of her illustrious branch of the family is distinguished son, than the devoted tenderness for in the history of western settlement be- his mother, with which her virtues and yond the Alleghanies. The first bishop character inspired him—ever recurring of the Protestant Episcopal Church with anxious thoughtfulness, in the of Virginia bore the same name with midst of his most important occupathe President, and was related to him. tions, to her delicate health, and after The family seat of the branch of the the close of his public labors, personMadisons, which gave birth to the sub- ally watching over and nursing her old ject of our sketch, was Montpelier, in age with such pious care, that her life Orange County, Virginia. It was the was protracted to within a few years home of his father and grandfather, and of the term of his own. His father became celebrated as his own residence was, no less, the object of his dutiful when years and public services brought and affectionate attachment and respect. pilgrims to the spot. His birthplace, The correspondence between them, from however, was some fifty miles distant, the period of young Madison's being on the banks of the Rappahannock, sent to Princeton College in 1769, to near Port Royal, at the estate belonging the installation of the matured and hoto his maternal grandmother, where his nored statesman in the office of Secremother was then on a visit. tary of State in 1801, when the father died, has been carefully preserved, and shows how much they were bound to each other by sentiments of mutual confidence and respect, even more than by ties of natural affection."1 Mr. Rives, the latest biographer of Madison, speaks of the ancient seat of hospitality, Montpelier, and "the pic turesque grandeur of its mountain scenery," enhanced by "the heartiness and cordiality of its possessors. The mother of Mr. Madison, Eleanor Conway," he continues, "must in her day William C. Rives, I. 8–9. 1 History of the Life and Times of James Madison. by |