Humphreys

alone is sufficient to explain the confidence that
Humphreys inspired in both his own soldiers and
in his superior officers.

The greatest reward of his practical capacity
was not so much his fame among patriots as the
warm personal friendship of Washington, more
important for Humphreys' future than the fact
that he ended the war as lieutenant-colonel. He
appeared with the Commander-in-Chief in im-
posing paintings of the American general's staff;
he celebrated Washington in verse; and he visited
him at Mount Vernoa On May 24,1784, he ac-
cepted—it was the beginning of his career as
diplomat—the "Secretaryship to the Commission
for Negotiating Treaties of Commerce with For-
eign Powers," and within three months was in
Paris, discussing with Benjamin Franklin the
duties of his new' office. For the minister's son
from Derby, Conn., the "circle of noble and Liter-
ary Characters" (all of whom, he tactfully as-
sured Washington by letter, "are passionate ad-
mirers of your glory") was a new and colorful
experience, but he was unabashed. His energy
and practical sense served him well, and the two
years in France and England, whether at the
King's levees or at the dinners of the Duke of
Dorset, strengthened the habit of success with
which nature seems to have endowed him. His
biographer says that he "returned . . . with
added grace of manner and polish of speech; but
with the same strong patriotism and desire for
America's glory as when he had fought in her
battles" (F. L. Humphreys, post, I, 352).

New honors were awaiting him. After stays at
Mount Vernon with his "Dear General," he was
elected in 1786 a member of the Assembly of
Connecticut, and in the same year he was ap-
pointed commandant of a new regiment created
for operations, should these be necessary, against
the Indians on the middle-western frontier. Amid
all the tumult of these years of conventions, re-
bellions, political controversies, and animad-
versions against the new government, Hum-
phreys by letter, oration, and poem upheld the
principles of Washington. In 1790, when war
threatened between Spain and England, he was
chosen as a special secret agent to obtain infor-
mation for the American government, at London,
Lisbon, and Madrid. His letters from Europe to
Thomas Jefferson, then secretary of state, show
his capacity for this new task, and also reveal the
mteresting relations of the new republic to the
fagrigiies of the old European nations. He
arfiimd, in an amateur way, considerable knowl-
edge of Spanish aad Portuguese affairs, and out
ci his mission came his appointment in 1793 ^
safe ccnTOs^to^r in Algerine affairs, and his

Humphreys

appointment three years later as minister pleni-
potentiary to Spain. Meanwhile he had fallen in
love, and in 1797 he wrote Washington of his en-
gagement to Ann Frances, daughter of John
Bulkeley, a lady, he told the General, who has
"formed exactly that opinion of you . . . which
she ought to entertain." It was almost his last
letter to his benefactor, whose death two years
later moved Humphreys to write to his widow a
stately, solemnly poetic, but sincere letter of con-
dolence,

Humphreys' sagacity in public affairs had won
him success in Spain and Portugal. One triumph
was his successful negotiation, in conjunction
with Joel Barlow, of a treaty with the Algerine
states for the freeing of American prisoners. He
was now one of the Royal Society of London, and
he enjoyed the intimacy of the Due de la Roche-
foucauld-Liancourt Nevertheless, in 1801, the
new president, Jefferson, recalled him abruptly.
He returned in the spring of 1802 laden with
honors, with a belt and sabre presented him by
the Dey of Algiers, and plans to improve the
breed of sheep in New England. One sees him,
not without amusement, bringing his famous
merinos across Spain and Portugal, leading them
into his well-named sloop, Perseverance, sailing
with them across the ocean, and up the Housa-
tonic River to Derby, and receiving, in the same
year, the gratitude of Connecticut farmers and a
gold medal from the Massachusetts Society for
Promoting Agriculture. Humphreys' tremen-
dous energy was exceeded apparently only by
the variety of his interests.

In the year of his return he moved to Boston.
His career now took on the air of the retired
soldier, statesman, and successful merchant. In
1806 and 1807 he again traveled in Europe, but
his chief interest during these last years was in
mills for the manufacture of cloth, at Humphreys-
ville, near Derby, of which his political enemy,
Thomas Jefferson, became a patron. Their suc-
cess was partly a result of the importation of the
merino sheep, some of which brought in the
market the sum of two thousand dollars each.
The capital stock of the Humphreysville Manu-
facturing Company in 1810 was $500,000. Hum-
phreys was, in addition, still active in the affairs
of his country. During the War of 1812 he be-
came captain-general of Veteran Volunteers,
wrote addresses to the President, and, as usual,
supported the powers of conservatism. At the
end we see him, in his prosperous home in Bos-
ton, with Madame Humphreys, a very incarna-
tion of those conservative ideals of the eighteenth
century in America for which he fought "I re-
member him," wrote a lady who as a little girl

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