What we know for sure is that
(a) Theodore Dwight was one of the often-satirical poets known as the
"Connecticut Wits" or "Hartford Wits."
(b) Dwight was one of the organizers of the memorial service at which
the lyric to Mount-Vernon is believed to have been either read or sung
to Jenks' tune:
http://cthistoryonline.org/cdm-cho/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cho&CISO...
(c) The Connecticut Courant published a longer iambic pentameter poem
on Washington's death, as a broadside with the paper on Jan. 6, 1800
( the broadside itself is dated Jan. 1). The Connecticut Historical
Society attributes the poem to Theodore Dwight, though possibly only
because of a penciled inscription in what appears to be a 19th-century
hand:
http://cthistoryonline.org/cdm-cho/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cho&CISO...
One can certainly see resemblances between the two. E.g., compare
Behold that venerable band--
The rulers of our mourning land,
With grief proclaim from shore to shore,
Our guide, our Washington's no more.
with
What sullen grief hangs o'er yon Martial Band?
What deep distress pervades the extended land?
In sad responses sounds from shore to shore --
"Our Friend, our Guide, our Father is no more."
It seems unlikely that the authors of these two poems would be
different -- it would take a foolhardy plagiarist to borrow openly
from a work his audience had heard a week earlier.
(d) In addition to the report in "Historical Towns...," Samuel
Griswold Goodrich, in "Recollections of a Lifetime" (1856), gives this
account of the death of Washington:
-- begin quotation --
I remember the death of Washington, which took place in 1799, and was
commemorated all through the country by the tolling of bells, funeral
ceremonies, orations, sermons, hymns, and dirges, attended by a
mournful sense of loss,
seeming to cast a pall over the entire heavens. In Ridgefield, the
meeting-house was dressed in black, and we had a discourse pronounced
by a Mr. Edmonds, of Newtown. The subject, indeed, engrossed all
minds. Lieutenant Smith came every day to our house to talk over the
event, and to bring us the proceedings in different parts of the
country
Among other papers, he brought us a copy of the Connecticut Courant,
then, as now, orthodox in all good things, and according to the taste
of the times, duly sprinkled with murders, burglaries, and awful
disclosures in general. This gave us the particulars of the rites and
ceremonies which took place in Hartford, in commemoration of the Great
Man's decease. The paper was bordered with black, which left its
indelible ink in my memory. The celebrated hymn, written for the
occasion by Theodore Dwight, sank into my mother's heart--for she had
a constitutional love of things mournful and poetic--and she often
repeated it, so that it became a part of the cherished lore of my
childhood. This hymn has ever since been to me suggestive of a solemn
pathos, mingled with the Ridgefield commemoration of Washington's
death--the black drapery of the meeting-house, and the toll of those
funeral bells, far, far over the distant hills, now lost and now
remembered, as if half a dream and half a reality--yet for these
reasons, perhaps, the more suggestive and the more mournful. I give
you these scenes and feelings in some detail, to impress you with the
depth and sincerity of this mourning of the American nation, in cities
and towns, in villages and hamlets, for the death of Washington. It
seems to me wholesome to go back and sympathize with those who had
stood in his presence, and catch from them the feeling which should be
sacredly cherished in all future time.
-- end quotation --
In a footnote, Griswold quotes the lyric and says it was "sung" at the
memorial service.
Can we trust Griswold? He was only a boy of 6 or 7 at Washington's
death, and wasn't at the Hartford service, but he says he knew the
poem well through his mother. He lived in and around Hartford his
whole life. He knew Theodore Dwight, his uncle's next-door neighbor
in Hartford. It seems unlikely to me that he would have been so
certain about the attribution of a "celebrated hymn" if there had been
any doubt about it in Hartford. It's possible that he might have
confused the author of the lyric with the author of the broadside
poem, but those works probably have the same author. "Success has
many fathers," but I don't think anyone writing for a primarily local
audience, some of them presumably actual attendees at the service
half a century earlier, would have made the attribution without
certainty (and he had a source for the poem itself, though what this
source was we don't know).
There were other Hartford area papers besides the Courant that might
have printed an account of the service, such as the American Mercury.
The Library of Congress turns out to be missing the most interesting
issue for this purpose (Jan. 2, 1800) of the Mercury. Perhaps a more
research-entitled person than I (I'm neither an academic nor a CT
resident, and so lack ready access to Readex, iConnect, etc.) can find
a copy of this, or some other area papers?
I would be surprised if there hadn't been a printed program of the the
service, and if many of those weren't kept as mementos. Perhaps one
can be tracked down in someone's papers, and might tell the tale..
--John Martin
On Jul 16, 6:59 pm, "B.E. Swetman" <bswet...@hamilton.edu> wrote:
> I wonder on what authority "Historic Towns of the Connecticut River
> Valley" attributes the poem to Dwight. I have examined the Connecticut
> Courant for Dec. 30, 1799 and there is no reference to Dwight. Later
> republication in hymn books also have no attribution.
> All mention of Dwight is outside the actual quotation.
> Note that Mt. Vernon uses the 1st & 4th verses of the original.
> Barbara
