JOHN TRUMBULL 137

past eighty years; yet he is known to history as
the author of that satire. The later events of his
life were personal in the main, and only indirectly
associated with political history. That he had a
prominent part in the writings of "the Hartford
wits," in behalf of internal harmony and federal-
ism, will be indicated in the next chapter. How-
ever, this service was done in collaboration, and
his special writings have only been partially iden-
tified. "The Genius of America," an ode of thir-
teen stanzas, written in 1777 after the capture of
Burgoyne, was included in Trumbull's Poetical
Works, but it has slight value either as a his-
torical record or as poetry. His earlier fame,
nevertheless, clung to him among his Connecticut
friends, and he was generally considered the
leader of the patriot-wits of Hartford. With ex-
travagant tribute, Timothy Dwight testified to
this leadership, in his "Epistle to Col. Humph-
reys," in 1785 :
Hence, too, when Trumbull leads the ardent throng.
Ascending bards begin the immortal song:
Let glowing friendship wake the cheerful lyre.
Blest to commend, and pleas'd to catch the fire."

In Spite of such excursions into literature,
Trumbull's mature success was achieved in law.
After his return from Boston in 1776, and his
marriage to Sarah, daughter of Leverett Hub-

" American Poems, Selected and Original (1793), p. 83.
138 HERALDS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

bard, of New Haven, he practiced law in New
Haven and Waterbury. The next few years must
have been full of trial, for he was frequently ill,
largely from excess of nervous activity. In 1780
he was considered fatally sick, but he recovered
and moved to Hartford for his future home.
