SOME PROMINENT NAMES 269 



"Wasbingtou's tliirteeu generals, elected by Congress, 

 Montgomery was second to none. He was " the embodi- 

 ment of the true gentleman and chivalrous soldier," and 

 in his veins flowed the best of the French and English 

 blood. 



IV 



Philip Feeneau, Poet 



So expert a critic as the late Mr. Stedman asserted that Laureate 



^ of the 



the "first essential poetic spirit" in American letters is Revolution 

 to be found in the earlier odes and lyrics of Philip 

 Freneau. He has been fitly called the "Laureate of the 

 Revolution," and his name will always be remembered 

 in connection with the history of American literature as 

 the first poet to be produced on this continent. Mr. 

 Stedman says further of Freneau that he was "a true 

 poet, one of nature's lyrists, who had the temperament 

 of a Landor and was much what the "Warwick classicist 

 might have been if bred, afar from Oxford, to the life of 

 a pioneer and revolutionist, spending his vital surplusage 

 in action, bellicose journalism and new- world verse." 



Philip Freneau was born in New York on January 2, Birth in 1752 

 1752. The best Huguenot blood flowed in his veins, the 

 Freneaus being an able and distinguished family. His 

 grandfather, Andre Fresneau, emigrated to Boston in 

 1705 ; journeyed thence to Connecticut, where he was en- 

 gaged for a while in mining ventures ; and finally arrived 

 in New York to take a position with the Royal West 

 India Company. Here his son Pierre was born, who was 

 the father of the poet. Pierre was so successful in his 

 business afiairs that the year his son Philip was born he 

 was able to pm^chase a large estate in Monmouth County, 

 New Jersey, and build thereon a handsome spacious 

 mansion. Two years later he retired fi'om active business 

 and withdrew with his family to his picturesque estate. 

 Here Philip was surrounded by everything that might 

 tend to develop his poetic impulse. 



