James McHenry: A Minor American Poet

Abstract

This article concerns James McHenry(November 16, 1753 – May 3, 1816), known as a figure of some prominence in our early political life, but almost completely unknown as a writer of verse. A short time ago, however, the Rutgers University Library came into the possession of a sheaf of McHenry's manuscript poems, running to over a hundred pages in all, the majority of which display a sufficient poetic merit to justify their publication here, for, in the editor's belief, they may enrich in some slight degree the lean period to which they belong.