Philip Freneau

Philip Morin Freneau (January 2, 1752 – December 18, 1832) was an American poet, nationalist, polemicist, sea captain and early American newspaper editor sometimes called the "Poet of the American Revolution". Through his Philadelphia-based newspaper, the National Gazette, he was a strong critic of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Federalist Party, and a proponent of Jeffersonian policies.

Freneau was born in New York City, the oldest of the five children of Huguenot wine merchant Pierre Freneau and his Scottish wife. Freneau was raised Calvinist by parents who were part of a Presbyterian congregation led by a New Light evangelical, Rev. William Tennent, Jr. Freneau later attended a grammar school directed by Tennent. Philip was raised in Matawan, New Jersey. He attended the College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton University, where he studied under John Witherspoon.

At Princeton, Freneau was close friends with James Madison, and his relationship with Madison later was a factor in his co-founding the National Gazette with Madison and Thomas Jefferson. Freneau family tradition suggests that Madison became acquainted with and fell in love with the poet's sister, Mary, during visits to their home while he was studying at Princeton. While tradition has it that Mary rejected Madison's repeated marriage proposals, this anecdote is undocumented and unsupported by other evidence.