SOURCE: Bowden, Mary Weatherspoon. “Prose: Newspapers and Essays.” In Philip Freneau, pp. 87-122. Boston: Twayne Publishers: 1976.

In the following excerpt, Bowden surveys Freneau's prose writings from 1790 to 1800, including his newspaper articles and humorous essays.

The ten years from 1790 to 1800 were the most active and public ones of Freneau's life. Although he showed during these years a marked desire to settle down in New Jersey, national events called him forth to employ his talents, ones shown earlier with the Freeman's Journal, as a newspaper editor and political essayist. Although he published one book of verse, printing himself the 1795 Poems, Written between the years 1768 and 1794, his poetry was generally written and published only to emphasize his editorial stands. In these years he married, reared a family, moved from New York to Philadelphia to New Jersey and back to New York. He retained his former intellectual interests and causes: he continued...