The Death of Gen. Wahsington [sic], with some remarks on Jeffersonian policy

The Death of General Washington has a double, even triple focus. It may be that the first three verses were written before the rest and the poem grew with several hands’ involvement. The first three verses are an elegy on Washington that seems complete in itself. The opening line reflects Isaac Watts’s well-known “Funeral Thoughts” which begins, “Hark from the tomb a doleful sound.” The fourth verse is a resignation to fate: “man is born to die.” This verse has a new chorus.

Behold the dismal change of late,
See Jefferson in chair of state.

Counting on the Washington connection for sales, the text then becomes Federalist and political. It develops into a diatribe reviewing errors that Jefferson and his secretary of state and later fourth president, James Madison, have fallen into, to the point of calling Jefferson a coward (verse 9) and a drinker (verse 10). The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 was roundly criticized at the time as a huge waste of money and support for a double-crossing despot (verse 11). The criticism of Jefferson continues for thirteen verses and ends with the Federalist hope to “chuse a better in his stead.” It is interesting to note that the same basic text as a pro-Jefferson piece was printed in the Green Mountain Songster.