Joseph Dennie
Encyclopedia
Joseph Dennie was an American author and journalist who was one of the foremost men of letters of the Federalist Era
Federalist Era
The Federalist Era was a time period in American history from roughly 1789-1801 when the Federalist Party was dominant in American politics. This period saw the adoption of the United States Constitution and the expansion of the federal government. In addition, the era saw the growth of a strong...

. A Federalist, Dennie is best remembered for his series of essays entitled The Lay Preacher and as the founding editor of Port Folio
Port Folio (magazine)
Port Folio was a Philadelphia literary and political magazine, published 1801-1812 by Joseph Dennie and Asbury Dickens. Dennie wrote under the pen name of Oliver Oldschool. Many other contributors to the magazine wrote under pseudonyms, including members of the Federalist Party...

, a journal espousing classical republican
Classical republicanism
Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism developed in the Renaissance inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity. The earliest examples of the school were classical writers such as Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero...

 values. Port Folio was the most highly-regarded and successful literary publication of its time, and the first important political and literary journal in the United States. Timothy Dwight IV
Timothy Dwight IV
Timothy Dwight was an American academic and educator, a Congregationalist minister, theologian, and author...

 once referred to Dennie as "the Addison
Joseph Addison
Joseph Addison was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison...

 of America" and "the father of American Belles-Lettres
Belles-lettres
Belles-lettres or belles lettres is a term that is used to describe a category of writing. A writer of belles-lettres is a belletrist. However, the boundaries of that category vary in different usages....

."

Early life and career

Dennie was born on August 30, 1768, in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 to Joseph Dennie, a member of a well-to-do merchant family, and his wife Mary Green, whose father was Bartholomew Green, Jr.
Bartholomew Green (printer)
Bartholomew Green Jr. was a son of Bartholomew Green, printer of the Boston News-Letter.Green married Hannah Hammond in 1724 and they had five children. He apprenticed with his father until he went on his own in 1725. Almost immediately he began printing the Boston Gazette which was a rival to his...

 The Greens were a prominent printing family in colonial America
Colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history from the start of European settlement and especially the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain until they declared independence in 1776. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain and the Netherlands launched major...

; the progenitor of the family, Samuel Green
Samuel Green (printer)
Samuel Green was an American printer and progenitor of the Green family of printers, which included Bartholomew Green, Bartholomew Green, Jr. and Joseph Dennie. Born in England, he came to Cambridge, Massachusetts with John Winthrop in 1630...

, emigrated from England with John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...

 and was one of the first printers in the colonies. Having moved to Lexington
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,399 at the 2010 census. This town is famous for being the site of the first shot of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.- History :...

 at the age of seven, Dennie returned to Boston in 1783 to study bookkeeping
Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions. Transactions include sales, purchases, income, receipts and payments by an individual or organization. Bookkeeping is usually performed by a bookkeeper. Bookkeeping should not be confused with accounting. The accounting process is usually...

 and later clerk in a counting house
Counting house
A counting house, or compting house, literally is the building, room, office or suite in which a business firm carries on operations, particularly accounting. By a synecdoche, it has come to mean the accounting operations of a firm, however housed...

. He began preparing to enter Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 in 1785, under the guidance of Reverend Samuel West. West had a significant impact on Dennie, fostering his pupil's interest in literature, as well as instilling in Dennie a decidedly pro-British
Anglophilia
An Anglophile is a person who is fond of English culture or, more broadly, British culture. Its antonym is Anglophobe.-Definition:The word comes from Latin Anglus "English" via French, and is ultimately derived from Old English Englisc "English" + Ancient Greek φίλος - philos, "friend"...

 mindset.

In 1787 Dennie was admitted to the sophomore class of Harvard College, where he was very popular with his peers. This popularity did not extend to his tutors, and he was suspended
Suspension (punishment)
Suspension is a form of punishment that people receive for violating rules and regulations.- Workplace :Suspension is a common practice in the workplace for being in violation of an organization's policy...

 in December 1789 for six months after insulting the faculty. Dennie had difficulty finding suitable employment after earning his degree in 1790, but by 1793 he was practicing law (though earning very little for his work). In a January 1794 letter to his parents, however, Dennie reports that he had been appointed as a reader
Lay Reader
A lay reader is a layperson authorized by a bishop of the Anglican Church to read some parts of a service of worship. They are members of the congregation called to preach or lead services, but not called to full-time ministry.Anglican lay readers are licensed by the bishop to a particular parish...

 for the Episcopalian
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...

 church in Charlestown
Charlestown, New Hampshire
Charlestown is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,114 at the 2010 census. The town is home to Hubbard State Forest and the headquarters of the Student Conservation Association....

, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

. Nevertheless, he insisted that this new vocation would not deter him from his goal of practicing law, though by then he was planning on remaining in New Hampshire to practice rather than returning to Massachusetts. Shortly after writing the letter, Dennie was admitted to the Court of Common Pleas
Court of Common Pleas
Court of Common Pleas may refer to several different courts:England and Wales and Ireland:* Court of Common Pleas * Court of Common Pleas...

 and opened a practice in Charlestown. However, he rarely appeared in open court
In open court
In open court is a legal term in the United States defined by the appearance by a party or their attorney in a public court session such as during a trial...

; indeed, he probably made only one appearance.

Publishing career

Throughout the 1790s Dennie contributed to various journals, including the Federal Orrery and the Massachusetts Magazine
Massachusetts Magazine
The Massachusetts Magazine was published in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1789 through 1796. Also called the Monthly Museum of Knowledge and Rational Entertainment, it specialized in "poetry, music, biography, history, physics, geography, morality, criticism, philosophy, mathematics, agriculture,...

, often using pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

s such as Academicus and Socialis. In 1795, his writing being enthusiastically received, Dennie was persuaded to begin a literary journal, The Tablet. William Spotswood, a Boston printer and bookseller, agreed to oversee the entire enterprise, splitting the profits evenly with Dennie. Such a literary journal was a novel idea at the time, and it was well received among the city's elite. Despite the initial excitement surrounding the project and content from noted writers such as John Sylvester John Gardiner
John Sylvester John Gardiner
John Sylvester John Gardiner , aka John S. J. Gardiner, was Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts, president of Boston's Anthology Club, and active in the Boston Athenaeum....

, The Tablet lasted only a few months before folding, having published thirteen issues.

Dennie's disappointment over the failure of The Tablet inspired him to begin work on The Lay Preacher, the first of which appeared in The Farmer's Weekly Museum, a New Hampshire newspaper which was the leading literary journal of the 1790s. After Dennie took over as editor of the paper in 1796, its circulation increased dramatically, stretching, as one commentator put it, "from Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

 to Georgia." Under Dennie's leadership the paper had a decidedly Federalist slant, supporting both the Quasi-War
Quasi-War
The Quasi-War was an undeclared war fought mostly at sea between the United States and French Republic from 1798 to 1800. In the United States, the conflict was sometimes also referred to as the Franco-American War, the Pirate Wars, or the Half-War.-Background:The Kingdom of France had been a...

 and the Alien and Sedition Acts
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress in the aftermath of the French Revolution's reign of terror and during an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War. They were signed into law by President John Adams...

. Dennie collaborated often with his friend Royall Tyler
Royall Tyler
Royall Tyler , American jurist and playwright who wrote The Contrast in 1787 and published The Algerine Captive in 1797. He wrote several legal tracts, six plays, a musical drama, two long poems, a semifictional travel narrative, The Yankey in London , and essays...

; the two wrote a satirical column by the name of "The Shop of Messrs. Colon and Spondee" which appeared in the Museum. In 1798 Dennie lost a considerable amount of money when the paper's printer went bankrupt
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

. He remained as editor for a few months afterward at a reduced salary, but was soon replaced by the printer's brother. The paper's circulation dropped precipitously following Dennie's departure. Later in the year Dennie ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

; following this defeat, he turned down offers to edit several prominent journals, including a generous offer from Boston's Independent Chronicle, as he refused to work for a Democratic paper. Instead, he accepted an appointment from Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering was a politician from Massachusetts who served in a variety of roles, most notably as the third United States Secretary of State, serving in that office from 1795 to 1800 under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.-Early years:Pickering was born in Salem, Massachusetts to...

 (at the time United States Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

) to a position as Pickering's personal secretary.

Once in Philadelphia, Dennie resumed his editorial career with the Gazette of the United States
Gazette of the United States
The Gazette of the United States was an early American partisan newspaper first issued on April 15, 1789, as a biweekly publication friendly to the administration of George Washington, and to the policies and members of the emerging Federalist Party...

, a Federalist-friendly newspaper. In 1800 Dennie, along with Philadelphia bookseller Asbury Dickens, began work on the Port Folio. Under the pseudonym Oliver Oldschool, Esq., Dennie wrote, in 1803, a scathing attack on Jeffersonian democracy
Jeffersonian democracy
Jeffersonian Democracy, so named after its leading advocate Thomas Jefferson, is a term used to describe one of two dominant political outlooks and movements in the United States from the 1790s to the 1820s. The term was commonly used to refer to the Democratic-Republican Party which Jefferson...

, for which he was brought up on charges of seditious libel
Seditious libel
Seditious libel was a criminal offence under English common law. Sedition is the offence of speaking seditious words with seditious intent: if the statement is in writing or some other permanent form it is seditious libel...

. Dennie wrote, in part:
A democracy is scarcely tolerable at any period of national history. Its omens are always sinister, and its powers are unpropitious. It is on its trial here, and the issue will be civil war, desolation, and anarchy. No wise man but discerns its imperfections, no good man but shudders at its miseries, no honest man but proclaims its fraud, and no brave man but draws his sword against its force. The institution of a scheme of policy so radically contemptible and vicious is a memorable example of what the villany of some men can devise, the folly of others receive, and both establish in spite of reason, reflection, and sensation.
This paragraph was reprinted in Federalist newspapers throughout the country. While Dennie was acquitted, the severity of the attacks leveled in Port Folio would henceforth be lessened. However, when Dennie criticized democracy, it was not the republican democracy
Republican democracy
A republican democracy is a republic which has democratic forms of government. One of the key principles is free and open debate prior to casting a vote. A republic in the modern understanding is a nation or state where the people are sovereign. It is not a monarchy, where the king or queen is the...

 found in the United States today, but rather the "democracy" found in France under Robespierre and Napoleon. Dennie was invoking Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

's argument that "an absolute democracy is not to be reckoned among the legitimate forms of government. It is the corruption and degeneracy, and not the sound constitution of a republic."

Death

Dennie had health trouble throughout his life, as well as a predilection for wine. His father (who had battled mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

) died on September 28, 1811; Dennie was not able to attend his father's funeral, as he himself was gravely ill at the time, and this caused him great grief. He briefly recovered, but succumbed to cholera morbus four months after his father's death. Dennie died on January 7, 1812, and was interred two days later at St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia
St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia
St. Peter's Church is a historic church located on the corner of Third and Pine Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It opened for worship on September 4, 1761 and served as a place of worship for many of the United States Founding Fathers during the period of the Continental Congresses. The...

. His epitaph was written by John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

. The epitaph erroneously gives Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington, Massachusetts
Lexington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,399 at the 2010 census. This town is famous for being the site of the first shot of the American Revolution, in the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775.- History :...

 as his birthplace; in fact, Dennie was born in Boston, but his family moved to Lexington shortly thereafter.

Supplemental Bibliography

  • Rothman, Irving N. (1973). "Alexander Wilson's Forest Adventure: the Sublime and the Satirical in Wilson's Poem 'The Foresters.'" Journal of the Society in the Bibliography of Natural History [British Museum] 6142-54. [The Port Folio]
  • Rothman, Irving N. (1979). "An Imitation of Boileau's Fourth Satire in the American Republic." Revue de Litérature Comparée 53 (Jan.-March): 76-85. [The Port Folio]
  • Rothman, Irving N. (1973). "John Trumbull's Parody of Spenser's Epithalamium," The Yale University Library Gazette 47 (April): 193-215. [The Port Folio]
  • Rothman, Irving N. (2003). “Joseph Dennie, a Sceptic, and Philip Freneau, a Celebrant, on Ballooning in Early America.” Y2002 Annual Report of the Institute for Space Systems Operations. Houston: ISSO, 118-23. [The Port Folio]
  • Rothman, Irving N. (1973). “Niagara Falls and The Port Folio.” Aldus [University of Houston] 11:242-54.[The Port Folio]
  • Rothman, Irving N.(1968). "Structure and Theme in Samuel Ewing's Satire, the 'American Miracle,'" American Literature 40 (November):294-308. [The Port Folio]
  • Rothman, Irving N. (1971). "Two Juvenalian Satires by John Quincy Adams." Early American Literature 6:234-51. [The Port Folio]
  • Rothman, Irving N. (1967). Verse Satire in The Port Folio, an Early American Magazine, Edited by Joseph Dennie, 1801-1812. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. i-viii, 1-220.

External links

  • Joseph Dennie collection at Harvard University Library
    Harvard University Library
    The Harvard University Library system comprises about 90 libraries, with more than 16 million volumes. It is the oldest library system in the United States, the largest academic and the largest private library system in the world...

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