.IBRARY V 
 
 DIVERSITY OF 
 :ALIFC" J " AV 
 \NTA 
 
 
Mr. Whittier in 1845 
 
LIFE AND LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL T. PICKARD 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 bc litocrsiDc press, Cambridge 
 
Copyright, 1894, 
 BY SAMUEL T. PICKARD. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghtou and Company. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE thought that at some time the story of his 
 life would be called for was not a pleasant one 
 to Mr. Whittier ; but fearing that, in the absence 
 of correct data, a biography full of inaccuracies 
 might be given to the public, about ten years 
 before his death he authorized the collection of 
 material for such a work, and assisted the friend 
 to whom it was confided by suggestions of a gen- 
 eral character. He had never kept a journal, nor 
 charged his memory with dates, but he remembered 
 his correspondents, and gave information which 
 resulted in a large collection of letters, illustrating 
 nearly every year of his life. The editor has re- 
 garded the use of this material as a sacred trust, 
 and in accordance with Mr. Whittier's wish has 
 allowed him, as far as practicable, to speak for 
 himself. 
 
 In editorial work, and in his correspondence, he 
 always expressed himself freely upon every sub- 
 ject which interested him. His familiar and un- 
 studied letters have special value, revealing as 
 they do the warmth and steadfastness of his friend- 
 ships, the genuineness of his sympathy, his earnest- 
 ness in philanthropic reforms, the spontaneity 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 of his humor, and his constant interest in public 
 affairs. 
 
 Mr. Whittier's editorial work upon partisan 
 papers developed a taste for politics and ambition 
 for political preferment, as shown by letters now 
 for the first time published. These letters do not 
 fairly represent him when judged by the tenor of 
 his later life, but without them we could have no 
 true idea of his early manhood, and of the great 
 change which marked his religious, literary, and 
 political life when about twenty-seven years of 
 age. Previous to this time, while irreproachable 
 in morals, no deep conviction of duty seems to 
 have nerved him to self-denying, heroic action. 
 He was evidently looking forward to a political 
 rather than a literary career. Comparatively little 
 has hitherto been known of the first thirty years 
 of his life, beyond the fact that he edited political 
 papers in Boston, Haverhill, and Hartford, and it 
 may surprise his friends of the present generation 
 to find that he was an aspirant for congressional 
 honors, which, but for the constitutional limit as 
 to age, he had a fair prospect of obtaining, in a 
 district where he enjoyed exceptional popularity. 
 As a power in politics, even when working in a 
 small minority, Whittier has never been rightly 
 estimated. In several of his poems he speaks of 
 his consecration to the cause of freedom as involv- 
 ing a change in all the motives of his life; but 
 
PREFACE v 
 
 this has not hitherto been taken so literally as it 
 will now be seen was intended. While his serious 
 work at this period was in politics, he was at the 
 same time winning reputation as a poet, by verses 
 which, though highly complimented by poets and 
 critics of national repute, were suppressed by the 
 more cultivated taste and judgment of his later 
 years. 
 
 At the age of twenty-five we find him entering 
 upon a contest in which every talent was to be 
 used as a weapon of assault against a system which 
 he had no reason to suppose would be overthrown 
 in his day. In this field, the skill he had acquired 
 in politics was not thrown away, and we can read- 
 ily understand why he favored the political wing 
 of the anti-slavery forces. With his genius for 
 statecraft, nothing else could have been expected, 
 and the reader can but admire the skill he exer- 
 cised in keeping his despised cause before the peo- 
 ple, and compelling the unwilling help of able 
 men, who at heart were opposed to his aims and 
 measures. As the trusted adviser of statesmen, 
 the extent of his influence has never been fully 
 appreciated beyond the circle of his intimate 
 friends. 
 
 To those who have loved Whittier as a poet 
 whose utterances have quickened their religious 
 spirit, and given expression to their highest and 
 holiest aspirations, the pages of this memoir de- 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 voted to his political activities, and a reform long 
 since happily accomplished, may seem of small in- 
 terest, and yet it must be admitted that the experi- 
 ence and labors of the years thus spent, with their 
 important bearing upon the development of his 
 character, could not be lightly passed over. 
 
 The editor would express his sincere thanks for 
 the kind courtesy of relatives and friends of Mr. 
 Whittier, in placing at his disposal letters and 
 other interesting material for the preparation of 
 this memoir. He would also acknowledge the 
 valuable assistance of Mr. Whittier's cousin, Ger- 
 trude Whittier Cartland. No one now living 
 enjoyed longer the intimate friendship of the poet, 
 or was more fully in his confidence and in sym- 
 pathy with his religious, philanthropic, and literary 
 work. 
 
 S. T. P. 
 
 PORTLAND, MAINE, September, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD. 1807-1826 . . 1 
 
 II. SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES. 1820-1828 41 
 
 III. EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE AND LITERARY VEN- 
 
 TURES. 1828-1832 73 
 
 IV. ENLISTMENT IN THE WAR AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 1832-1837 119 
 
 V. INITIATION INTO POLITICS. 1836-1838 . . .158 
 
 VI. EDITORIAL WORK IN PHILADELPHIA. 1837-1840 215 
 
 VII. A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. 1840-1850 . 255 
 
 VIII. POETRY AND POLITICS. 1850-1856 . 347 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. From a daguerreotype 
 taken in the winter of 1845 .... Frontispiece 
 
 WHITTIER HOMESTEAD AT HAVERHILL, MASS. From a 
 photograph by A. A. Ordway ...... 16 
 
 MATTHEW FRANKLIN WHITTIER. From a photograph 32 
 MERCY HUSSEY. From a silhouette .... 34 
 
 MARY WHITTIER CALDWELL. From a photograph . . 48 
 ELIZABETH HUSSEY WHITTIER. From a crayon portrait 
 
 by A. L. McPhail 96 
 
 MR. WHITTIER'S RESIDENCE AT AMESBURY. From a pho- 
 tograph 158 
 
 JOSEPH STURGE. From an engraving .... 268 
 CHARLES SUMNER. From a photograph by J. W. Black, of 
 
 Boston 356 
 
 JAMES T. FIELDS. From a photograph by Mrs. Cameron 396 
 
LITE AND LETTEKS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 1807-1826. 
 
 JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER was born on the 
 17th of December, 1807, in a house built by his 
 paternal ancestor, in the East Parish of Haverhill, 
 Mass. This ancestor, Thomas Whittier, was the 
 first of his name in America, and is supposed to 
 have been of Huguenot descent. He was born in 
 England in 1620, and came to this country when 
 eighteen years of age. He sailed from Southamp- 
 ton, England, for Boston, Mass., in the ship Con- 
 fidence, April 24, 1638. Among his companions 
 on this voyage were his uncles, John and Henry 
 Rolfe, and a distant relative, Ruth Green, whom 
 he married a few years after his arrival, and whose 
 name appears in every subsequent generation. He 
 settled in Salisbury, Mass., on land now within the 
 limits of the town of Amesbury and bordering on 
 the Powow River, a small tributary of the Merri- 
 mac. The hill which to this day bears his name 
 
2 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 was included in the grant he received. It is a tra- 
 dition in the family that he was a man of gigantic 
 size, weighing more than three hundred pounds 
 before he was twenty-one years of age, and he was 
 possessed of great muscular strength. It is certain 
 also that he had a high degree of both moral and 
 physical courage. 
 
 He was sent as a deputy to the General Court 
 from Salisbury, and served his town in other 
 offices of trust. Eemoving across the Merrimac, 
 he lived for a short time in the town of Newbury. 
 In 1647, he took up his permanent residence in the 
 town of Haverhill, and was again on the north 
 side of the Merrimac, about ten miles above his 
 former home in Salisbury. As before, he settled 
 a mile or two from the " great river," and upon 
 the bank of a small affluent now known as 
 " Country Brook," but then as " East Meadow 
 Brook." His first house was built of logs, and 
 situated about half a mile southeast of the present 
 " Whittier homestead." Here all but the eldest of 
 his ten children were born. He had five sons, all 
 possessing the stalwart proportions of their father, 
 each of them being more than six feet in height. 
 
 In this log house he lived with his large family 
 until about sixty-eight years of age, when he began 
 to hew the oaken beams for a new and more capa- 
 cious dwelling. The site which he selected was 
 near by, upon the bank of a pretty rivulet, tum- 
 bling in a series of cascades through a ravine run- 
 ning along the north base of Job's Hill. In this 
 retired and picturesque spot he built the house 
 which he occupied until his death, November 28, 
 
THOMAS WHITTIER 8 
 
 1696, and which has sheltered generation after 
 generation of his descendants. The erection of the 
 new house is supposed to have been in 1688. The 
 foundations of the log house built by his pioneer 
 ancestor, the poet used to see in his youth, but he 
 was unable to find them when last visiting the 
 place, in 1882. 
 
 Haverhill was first settled in 1640, and was for 
 seventy years a frontier town, an unbroken wil- 
 derness stretching to the north for more than a 
 hundred miles. During the first forty years of 
 the settlement, there was no trouble from the Indi- 
 ans who fished in the lakes and hunted among 
 the mountains of New Hampshire ; but during 
 the next thirty years they were frequently hos- 
 tile, and Haverhill suffered all the horrors that 
 accompany savage warfare. When these hostili- 
 ties began, in 1676, Thomas Whittier had been 
 living in his log house on East Meadow Brook for 
 nearly thirty years, receiving frequent visits from 
 the Indians, whose respect and friendship he won 
 by the fearlessness and justice he displayed in his 
 dealings with them. 
 
 When friendly intercourse with the pioneers was 
 broken, and the savages began to make their fo- 
 rays upon this exposed settlement, several houses in 
 the town were fitted up as garrisons, and we find 
 that in 1675 Thomas Whittier was one of a com- 
 mittee appointed to select the houses that should be 
 fortified as places of refuge. But though many of 
 his townspeople were killed or carried into cap- 
 tivity, he never availed himself of this shelter for 
 himself or his family, and it is the tradition that 
 
4 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 he did not even bar his doors at night. His frame 
 house, now standing, was built in the midst of the 
 Indian troubles, and he had occupied it several 
 years before the principal massacres, the records of 
 which make the bloodiest pages in the annals of 
 Haverhill. The Hannah Dustin affair occurred in 
 1697, a year after the death of the pioneer. The 
 Dustins lived in the western part of the town, re- 
 mote from the Whittiers, and nearly all the tragic 
 events of these troublous times in Haverhill were 
 beyond the limits of the East Parish. But the In- 
 dians in their war paint occasionally passed up the 
 Country Brook, and the evening firelight in the 
 Whittier kitchen would reveal a savage face at 
 the window. But this household was never harmed. 
 Thomas Whittier was a contemporary of George 
 Fox, and appears to have had much respect for 
 the doctrines of the new Society of Friends. In 
 1652, he was among the petitioners to the General 
 Court for the pardon of Robert Pike, who had 
 been heavily fined for speaking against the order 
 prohibiting the Quakers Joseph Peasley and 
 Thomas Macy from exhorting on the Lord's Day. 
 The meetings of the Quakers had been held in 
 their own dwelling-houses. A petition against this 
 order had been signed by many of the residents of 
 Haverhill, and when it was presented in the Gen- 
 eral Court, a committee of that body was appointed 
 to wait upon the petitioners, and command them to 
 withdraw it or suffer the consequences. Some of 
 them did retract when thus called upon, but two of 
 the sixteen who refused were Thomas Whittier and 
 Christopher Hussey, both of them ancestors of the 
 
THOMAS WHITTIER 5 
 
 poet. The only punishment they received was 
 withdrawal for some years of their rights as " free- 
 men." The disability in the case of Whittier 
 was removed in May, 1666, when he took the oath 
 of citizenship. The franchise at this time was 
 granted only to those who were named as worthy 
 by the General Court. He not only had the right 
 to vote, but was an office-holder and a man of mark 
 in Salisbury and Newbury for many years previous 
 to his residence in Haverhill, and had also been a 
 member of the General Court ; and there can be 
 little doubt that the delay in conferring upon him 
 the full rights of citizenship in the last-named 
 town was due to doubts respecting his orthodoxy. 
 It may be that his interest in the doctrines of the 
 new sect carried him beyond the point of desiring 
 for its preachers fair play and freedom of utter- 
 ance, but there is no evidence that he joined the 
 Society of Friends. Indeed, we find him in his 
 later years acting upon the ecclesiastical commit- 
 tees of the church then dominant in the colony. 
 
 His capacity for civic usefulness was recognized 
 for years before the right to vote was conferred 
 upon him. In laying out roads, fixing the bounds 
 of the plantation, and in other ways, his engineer- 
 ing skill was drawn upon. When he came to 
 Haverhill from Newbury, in 1647, it was consid- 
 ered of sufficient importance to note in the town 
 records the fact that he brought with him a hive 
 of bees that had been willed to him by his uncle, 
 Henry Rolfe. This incident seems emblematic of 
 the industry and thrift which have so largely 
 characterized his posterity ; and it has furnished a 
 
6 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 device which has beeft woven by some members of 
 the family into the Whittier monogram. 
 
 His youngest son, Joseph, through whom we 
 trace the poet's lineage, married, in 1694, Mary 
 Peasley, granddaughter of Joseph Peasley, the 
 leading Quaker in the town, and one of the ex- 
 horters for whom Thomas Whittier asked in vain 
 the clemency of the General Court forty-two years 
 earlier. 1 In the mean time, George Fox had been 
 preaching in America, and his adherents had so 
 increased in numbers in all the colonies that 
 further persecution was out of the question. For 
 four generations nearly all the descendants of 
 Joseph Whittier retained their connection with the 
 Society of Friends, but that some of them lost 
 their membership is shown by the fact of their 
 holding military titles during the wars of the eigh- 
 teenth century. 
 
 The East Parish of Haverhill is one of the most 
 rugged and hilly sections of Essex County. Two 
 centuries ago, as now, this county was more thickly 
 populated than any other on this side the Atlantic 
 that included no great city. And yet, here in its 
 northeast corner was a spot so isolated that from 
 the date of the erection of the Whittier mansion 
 to the present time no neighbor's roof has been in 
 sight Whittier refers to the seclusion in " Snow- 
 Bound," where he says : 
 
 " No social smoke 
 Curled over woods of snow-hung 1 oak." 
 
 1 The house of Joseph Peasley, Jr., the father of Mary, was 
 built of hricks brought from England, and is still standing neat 
 Rocks Village in the East Parish. It was used as a garrison 
 house in the French and Indian wars. 
 
HA VERHILL 7 
 
 While thus shut in from the busy world, there 
 have always been neighbors within half a mile, and 
 when the wind favors, the bells of Haverhill and 
 Newburyport, and the roar of the storm waves 
 breaking on Salisbury beach, are heard in this 
 secluded valley. 
 
 In a letter written in 1881, Mr. Whittier says 
 of the Ayer house, which is the nearest to the old 
 homestead, that it was built within his remem- 
 brance, and that he recollected well the old gar- 
 rison house that stood in the same place. It was 
 of two stories, with only a single room below, and 
 two small diamond-paned windows. The door was 
 of massive oak plank, and the entry was paved 
 with rough flat stones. The fireplace occupied 
 nearly one side of the room. The ceiling was un- 
 plastered. 
 
 The principal settlement of Haverhill, now a 
 city of about 28,000 inhabitants, is three miles 
 away. The town originally stretched twelve miles 
 along the north bank of the Merrimac, and was six 
 miles wide. But when the long-disputed boundary 
 between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was 
 settled by royal commissioners appointed in 1737, 
 a strip only three miles wide north of the river fell 
 to the share of Massachusetts, and the northern 
 half was given to New Hampshire. The windings 
 of the Merrimac are to some extent followed ty 
 the boundary line, with the result that the East 
 Parish is inclosed in an elbow of the river. Three 
 beautiful ponds separate it from the city proper. 
 
 The rounded, dome-like summits of the gravelly 
 bills were in the days of the pioneers, and indeed 
 
8 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 down to the poet's time, covered with a heavy hard- 
 wood growth, the oak predominating. In Mr. 
 Whittier's youth there were no evergreens on the 
 farm, except a few hemlocks. But upon clearing 
 an acre of oaks there sprang up a growth of white 
 pine covering the whole tract, the only pines in 
 the neighborhood. The noble elm not far from 
 the house, centuries old, but still flourishing, its 
 trunk eighteen feet in circumference at the small" 
 est point, and casting a shadow at noonday a hun- 
 dred feet in diameter, is known as " the "Whittier 
 elm." 
 
 Thomas "Whittier's widow died in July, 1710. 
 After the estate had been divided among the ten 
 children, Joseph, the youngest, bought most of the 
 land that was apportioned to his brothers and 
 sisters. He died at the age of seventy, December 
 25, 1739, leaving nine children. His youngest 
 child, also named Joseph, born in March, 1716, 
 married Sarah Greenleaf, of West Newbury, July 
 12, 1739, and died October 10, 1796. They had 
 eleven children, of whom five died in infancy or in 
 youth, and only three of the others were married. 
 The three who were married were Joseph, Obadiah, 
 and John. Five of Joseph's children settled in 
 Maine ; seven of Obadiah's nine children settled in 
 New Hampshire; and John, the youngest son who 
 married, remained upon the Haverhill farm, with 
 his younger brother, Moses. In April, 1802, John 
 and Moses, in partnership, bought the interest of 
 the other heirs in the estate, paying them therefor 
 about $1700. The partnership continued until the 
 death of Moses, in 1824. 
 
THE WHIT TIER FAMILY 9 
 
 John Whittier, father of the poet, was born 
 November 22, 1760, and died June 11, 1830. 
 He was forty-four years old when he married Abi- 
 gail Hussey, October 3, 1804, and she was twenty- 
 one years his junior. Abigail was a daughter of 
 Samuel Hussey, of Somersworth (now Rollins- 
 ford), N. H., and Mercy Evans, of Berwick, Me. 
 She was born in 1781, and died December 27, 
 1857. John and Abigail had four children : Mary, 
 John Greenleaf, Matthew Franklin, and Elizabeth 
 Hussey. 
 
 Those who are curious in vital statistics may 
 find something of interest in the following sum- 
 mary : Thomas Whittier was forty-nine years old 
 when his son Joseph was born, and he lived to be 
 seventy-six years of age. Joseph was forty-seven 
 years old when his son, the second Joseph, was 
 born, and he died at the age of seventy. The sec- 
 ond Joseph was forty-five years old when John 
 was born, and he lived to be eighty. John was in 
 his forty-eighth year when John Greenleaf, the 
 poet, was born, and he lived to be nearly seventy. 
 These five lives extended over the unusual period 
 of two hundred and seventy-two years. Although 
 each Whittier in this list lived to good old age, 
 they each passed away without seeing their grand- 
 sons. The poet's grandfather, who lived to be 
 eighty, died eleven years before the birth of his 
 grandson. His father died in good old age, when 
 he was a young man of twenty-two. These were 
 all accounted stalwart men, while he who seemed 
 to have the frailest physique lived to be five years 
 older than either of his Whittier ancestors. The 
 
10 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 delicacy of his physical frame and the unusual de- 
 velopment of intellectual and spiritual force may 
 be taken as confirmation of the theory that the 
 older children of a family inherit a larger share 
 of physical strength, while the younger ones come 
 into possession of a corresponding share of nerve 
 and brain power. 
 
 Abigail Hussey, mother of the poet, was a de- 
 scendant of Christopher Hussey, who was in early 
 life, as we have seen, a leading citizen of Haver- 
 hill, and a contemporary and friend of Thomas 
 Whittier. The Husseys came from Boston, Eng- 
 land, and were people of distinction in both the 
 English and American branches of the family. 
 Christopher Hussey, before he came to this coun- 
 try, married Theodate, daughter of Eev. Stephen 
 Bachiler. As some of the personal characteristics of 
 Parson Bachiler were transmitted to recent gener- 
 ations in several branches of his family, and were 
 particularly observable in the subject of this 
 memoir, a brief sketch of his rather remarkable 
 career may not be out of place here. 
 
 Rev. Stephen Bachiler, born in England in 
 1561, was educated at Oxford, and in 1587 was 
 made vicar of a church in Hampshire, where he 
 remained until 1605, when he was deprived of his 
 living because of nonconformity. He preached in 
 England for twenty-five years thereafter, and then, 
 at the age of seventy-one years, came to America. 
 He arrived in Boston, June 5, 1632, and at once 
 proceeded to Lynn, with the little company who 
 had made the voyage with him. His daughter 
 Theodate, who had married Christopher Hussey, 
 
STEPHEN BA CHILER 11 
 
 was already settled in Lynn. Mr. Bachiler, a 
 stanch nonconformist in old England, retained 
 his independent ways during his twenty-two 
 years' residence in New England. Notwithstand- 
 ing his advanced age, he caused much annoyance 
 in the Puritan community. Prince speaks of him 
 as " a man of form in his day, a gentleman of 
 much learning and ingenuity." Governor Win- 
 throp in his journal tells some strange stories about 
 him, which for more than two centuries have be- 
 clouded his reputation, but recent investigations 1 
 show that the scandals, which were inherently im- 
 probable, were false accusations growing partly out 
 of religious bitterness, and partly out of the intrigues 
 and aggressions of the Massachusetts Bay Colony 
 which were being resisted by the New Hampshire 
 settlements. While residing in Lynn he was 
 brought before the court for some irregularity, 
 and enjoined from preaching or teaching for a 
 year because of his " contempt of authority, and 
 until some scandals be removed." These " scan- 
 dals," as it now appears, did not affect his moral 
 character, but refer to his independence of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay authority. He received a grant of 
 land in Ipswich in 1636, and removed thither, but 
 difficulties arose and he did not remain. Soon 
 after, the town of Newbury made him a similar 
 grant, but his stay was equally short. In 1639, at 
 the age of seventy-eight years, with his son-in-law, 
 Christopher Hussey, he planted the town of Hamp- 
 ton, N. H., and was the first minister settled there. 
 
 1 See article by Charles E. Batchelder in N. E. Hist, and Gen. 
 Register, January, 1892. 
 
12 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 He was excommunicated on a charge for which he 
 was never tried, though he demanded trial, and 
 in three years restored to communion, but not to 
 the ministry. The people of Exeter called him to 
 be their pastor, but the court refused permission. 
 At the age of eighty-nine he married his third 
 wife, from whom he soon found abundant cause 
 for separation. But the court passed a stringent 
 order requiring them to live together. This order 
 was maliciously unjust to Bachiler. Whereupon, 
 at the age of ninety-two, he returned to England, 
 and died at Hackney, near London, in 1660, in 
 the one hundredth year of his age. Probably the 
 passage in " The Wreck of Rivermouth " which 
 indicates the poet's belief in the guilt imputed to 
 his ancestor would have been revised, if the evi- 
 dence now found in his favor had earlier come to 
 light. 
 
 To this remarkable man several New England 
 families of note trace their origin, and he seems to 
 have transmitted to his descendants some marked 
 physical and mental peculiarities that are still dis- 
 cernible, after a lapse of several generations. It 
 was the Bachiler eye, dark, deep-set, and lustrous, 
 which marked the cousinship that existed between 
 Daniel Webster and John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 Susannah Bachiler, the grandmother of Webster, 
 was a daughter of one of the sons of the eloquent 
 nonconformist clergyman whose troublous old age 
 has been sketched, and Whittier was a descendant 
 of his oldest daughter. In several other families 
 descended from Bachiler, the physical peculiarity 
 referred to is quite noticeable. The eyes which 
 
SARAH GREENLEAF 13 
 
 first saw the light before Shakespeare was born 
 have repeated themselves, generation after genera- 
 tion, to this day. 
 
 Mr. Whittier was named for his father aud for 
 the family of his father's mother, Sarah Greenleaf. 1 
 His grandmother was descended from Edmund 
 Greenleaf , who was born in the parish of Brixham, 
 Devonshire, England, about the year 1600. The 
 
 1 The home of Sarah Greenleaf was upon the Newbury shore 
 of the Merrimac nearly opposite the home of the Whittiors. 
 The house was standing until a recent date. Among Mr. Whit- 
 tier's papers was found the following 1 fragment of a ballad 
 about the home-coming, as a bride, of his grandmother, Sarah 
 Greenleaf, now first published : 
 
 " Sarah Greenleaf, of eighteen years, 
 
 Stepped lightly her bridegroom's boat within, 
 Waving mid-river, through smiles and tears, 
 
 A farewell back to her kith and kin. 
 With her sweet blue eyes and her new gold gown, 
 
 She sat by her stalwart lover's side 
 Oil, never was brought to Haverhill town 
 
 By land or water so fair a bride. 
 Glad as the glad autumnal weather. 
 
 The Indian summer so soft and warm, 
 They walked through the golden woods together, 
 
 His arm the girdle about her form. 
 
 " They passed the dam and the gray gristmill, 
 
 Whose walls with the jar of grinding shook, 
 And crossed, for the moment awed and still, 
 
 The haunted bridge of the Country Brook. 
 The great oaks seemed on Job's Hill crown 
 
 To wave in welcome their branches strong, 
 And an upland streamlet came rippling down 
 
 Over root and rock, like a bridal song. 
 And lo ! in the midst of a clearing stood 
 
 The rough-built farmhouse, low and loiie, 
 While all about it the unhewn wood 
 
 Seemed drawing closer to claim its own. 
 
 " But the red apples dropped from orchard tree^ 
 
 The red cock crowed on the low fence rail, 
 
 From the garden hives came the sound of bees, 
 
 On the barn floor pealed the smiting flail." 
 
14 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 Greenleaf family, it is believed, were of Hugue- 
 not origin, and the name was probably translated 
 from the French Feuillevert, as is suggested in 
 Mr. Whittier's poem, " A Name." Edmund 
 Greenleaf married Sarah Dole, and had several 
 children born in England. He settled in New- 
 bury, Mass. His son Stephen, born in 1630, mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Coffin, daughter of Tristram Coffin, 
 and their son Tristram, born in 1667, married Mar- 
 garet Piper in 1689. Tristram's son Nathaniel, 
 born in 1691, married Judith ; their daugh- 
 ter Sarah, born March 5, 1721, married Joseph 
 Whittier, 2d, and her son John was the father of 
 the poet. The Harvard professor, Simon Green- 
 leaf, descended from John, an older brother of 
 Tristram Greenleaf, above named. The name of 
 Whittier was spelled in many ways by various 
 members of the family with the license that pre- 
 vailed not only in this country but in England 
 in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 
 the Essex County records may be found eighteen 
 different ways of spelling this name. Thomas 
 Whittier spelled it with one " t." 
 
 Mr. Whittier has himself sketched in prose, in 
 " The Fish I did n't Catch," the old homestead in 
 which his childhood and youth were spent. He 
 speaks of the house as having been built about the 
 time that the Prince of Orange drove out James 
 the Second, and adds : 
 
 " It was surrounded by woods in all directions 
 save to the southeast, where a break in the leafy 
 wall revealed a vista of low green meadows, pic- 
 turesque with wooded islands and jutting capes of 
 
GREAT HILL AND JOB'S HILL. 15 
 
 upland. Through these, a small brook, noisy 
 enough as it foamed, rippled, and laughed down 
 its rocky falls by our garden-side, wound, silently 
 and scarcely visible, to a still larger stream, known 
 as the Country Brook. This brook in its turn, 
 after doing duty at two or three saw and grist 
 mills, the clack of which we could hear in still 
 days across the intervening woodlands, found its 
 way to the great river, and the river took it up 
 and bore it down to the great sea." 
 
 Great Hill, in the immediate vicinity, which 
 was one of the poet's favorite resorts, is one of the 
 highest elevations in the county, from which por- 
 tions of more than thirty cities and towns may be 
 seen, with Monadnock rising dome-like in the west, 
 and Wachusett a little to the south, while the 
 billowy Deerfield range edges the horizon in the 
 north, and in the east the ocean, with its white sails, 
 may be traced from Boar's Head to Cape Ann. 
 
 The great dome of Job's Hill, which took its 
 name from an Indian chief of the neighborhood, 
 though now almost bare of trees, was in Whittier's 
 youth well covered with giant oaks, which must 
 have added much to its apparent height. This 
 hill rises so steeply from the right bank at the foot 
 of the garden that it is difficult for many rods to 
 get a foothold. Its height is so great that it ma- 
 terially shortens the winter afternoons for the 
 dwellers in the valley. From the left bank of the 
 noisy brook the garden lot sloped gently upward 
 toward the front of the house, till it met a terrace, 
 upon which were the flower garden and the well 
 with its ancient sweep. 
 
16 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 A little way up the brook may still be seen the 
 remains of a series of dams constructed by some 
 of the earlier Whittiers, perhaps by the pioneer 
 himself, when the water was utilized for grind- 
 ing grain or sawing lumber. It is possible that 
 Thomas Whittier, when erecting his buildings, 
 had this water power in view, as the brook in those 
 days before the forests were cleared away was a 
 much larger and more reliable stream than now. 
 The house faces southeast, and just beyond the 
 brook the main road from Amesbury to Haverhill 
 climbs over a shoulder of the hill, while a cross- 
 road bridges the brook, and passes the eastern end 
 of the house. 
 
 Between the brook and the house was a row of 
 butternuts, walnuts, and maples, and at the gate- 
 way stood picturesque Lombardy poplars, which 
 have now disappeared, as from most New England 
 landscapes. The bridle-post mentioned in " Snow- 
 Bound " is a large boulder at the left of the gate- 
 way, with a projection in its inner face that served 
 as a step. It can be readily imagined how this 
 bridle-post with its step and mantle of snow might 
 suggest an old man sitting 
 
 " With loose-flung coat and high cocked hat." 
 
 The doorstone of the porch is a small granite 
 millstone, probably one of those used in the 
 ancient gristmill upon the hillside brook. On the 
 opposite side of the road were the barn, a granary, 
 and an ancient shop once supplied with a forge. 
 The barn was built by John and Moses Whittier, 
 when the poet was thirteen years of age. The old 
 
The Haverkill Homestead 
 
I'l 
 
THE HOMESTEAD BARN 17 
 
 barn, on the same side of the road with the house, 
 stood for some years after the erection of the new 
 one. Mr. Whittier once told the writer that the 
 old barn had no doors, and the winter winds 
 whistled through it, and snow drifted upon its 
 floors, for more than a century. The horses and 
 cattle were but slightly protected in their stalls 
 and " tie-up." This was the early practice through- 
 out New England. Our fathers, coming from the 
 milder climate of England, had the traditional 
 English slowness in adapting themselves to changed 
 climatic conditions. The pioneers and their de- 
 scendants for four or five generations adopted the 
 policy of " toughening " themselves by exposure to 
 cold, and they saw no reason for making their 
 cattle more comfortable than themselves. Their 
 boys were expected at an early age to take their 
 part in the work of subduing the wilderness, and 
 they housed and dressed themselves much as they 
 had done in the milder climate of the mother 
 country. Almost two centuries passed away before 
 barns were made comfortable, and flannels and 
 overcoats ceased to be regarded as extravagances. 
 
 Mr. Whittier was accustomed to attribute the 
 delicacy of his health throughout life to the meth- 
 ods of toughening the constitution in vogue when 
 he was a lad. No flannels were worn in the 
 coldest weather, and the garments of homespun, 
 though strong and serviceable, were of open tex- 
 ture compared with modern goods. Only a short 
 spencer for overcoat, and mufflers and mittens 
 were provided for extremely cold weather ; and 
 the drive to the Friends' meeting at Amesbury, 
 
18 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 eight miles away, twice a week, on First and 
 Fifth days, with no buffalo robes or warm wraps, 
 was thoroughly chilling and uncomfortable, and 
 the meeting-houses of those days were seldom 
 provided with means of heating. These were 
 among the hardships of the time and country, 
 common to all classes of the people, and were 
 endured as inevitable. But, while lamenting this 
 needless exposure to cold, Whittier never com- 
 plained of other hard youthful experiences, the 
 unending contest with the rocky acres of his 
 father's farm, and the difficulties of obtaining an 
 education. 
 
 The new barn on the Whittier estate was 
 built in 1821, with most of our modern conven- 
 iences. This was the barn to which that famous 
 path was cut through " a fenceless drift " that 
 "once was road." Of late years this treasure- 
 house of the farm has been doubled in length, but 
 the end toward the road is nearly the same as on 
 that December day, when the boys reached it 
 
 " with merry din, 
 And roused the prisoned brutes within." 
 
 The house built by Thomas Whittier has a 
 heavy oaken frame, the principal beams being 
 hewed from timber that gave a width of fifteen 
 inches. This building is about thirty -six feet 
 square, and built in the ancient fashion around 
 a massive central chimney. At the northeastern 
 corner, which is nearest the road, is a porch 
 giving entrance to the kitchen. This room is by 
 far the largest, as it is the most notable, room in 
 
THE OLD KITCHEN 19 
 
 the house, being about thirty feet in length, and 
 of proportionate width. What other kitchen in 
 the world is more hallowed by associations that 
 touch the universal heart? Its first suggestion to 
 the imagination is the deep content and peace 
 of a happy, united family, gathered of a winter 
 evening around their blazing hearth-fire, while a 
 storm rages without. The great fireplace is of 
 itself almost as wide as the average kitchen of the 
 present day. The chimney is broad enough at its 
 base to allow a space of about eight feet between 
 the jambs. The oven is at the back of the fire- 
 place on the right side, and if there were a large 
 fire upon the hearth, it would be difficult to man- 
 age the baking, as one must step into the fire- 
 place to reach it. The old crane, swinging on its 
 stout hinges at the left, and the ancient trammels 
 and hooks remain, curious reminders of the clumsy 
 methods of cooking in olden times. When Mr. 
 Whittier last visited the place, the hearth was 
 worn and broken, and the Turk's head andirons 
 were gone. But a fire was readily kindled, and 
 " the great throat of the chimney " made to laugh 
 again, with its roaring draught, while in the gleam 
 of the crackling flames 
 
 " the old, rude-furnished room 
 Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom." 
 
 On the opposite side of the kitchen is a cupboard, 
 at which the tramp mentioned by Whittier in his 
 " Yankee Gypsies," prospecting for brandy, filled 
 his mouth with whale oil, and spluttered inartic- 
 ulate imprecations. A little bedroom, that was 
 
20 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 known as " mother's room," opens at the north- 
 west corner of the kitchen. The ancient sashes 
 with their small panes remain in most of the 
 windows. Perhaps some of these panes in the 
 kitchen are the identical ones through which the 
 painted savages wonderingly peered at the stout 
 old pioneer and his family. It was certainly 
 through these panes that the poet saw the mimic 
 flames that appeared to glow in the sparkling 
 drifts outside, and told its meaning in the old 
 rhyme : 
 
 "Under the tfee, 
 
 When fire outdoors burns merrily, 
 There the witches are making tea." 
 
 The front rooms are the family sitting-room, 
 in the southeast corner, and the spare room, some- 
 times used as parlor and sometimes as bedroom, 
 in the southwest corner. It was in the last- 
 named room that the poet was born. Doors into 
 each of these front rooms open directly from the 
 kitchen on either side of the great fireplace. 
 The front entry is small, and the front stairs turn 
 in a cramped space against the back of the chim- 
 ney. There is a straight and steep flight of back 
 stairs leading up from the western porch. It was 
 down these stairs that in his tenderest infancy the 
 poet, wrapped in a blanket, was once rolled, as 
 an experiment, by a little girl who had charge of 
 him. 
 
 Originally, the roof sloped on the northern side 
 down to the first story, but this was raised in 1801 
 to correspond with the front. In the second story 
 is a large open and unfinished chamber, around 
 
THOMAS WHIT TIER'S HOUSE 21 
 
 which four more or less finished chambers are 
 grouped. The boys' chamber was the little one 
 over " mother's room," and above is a large attic, 
 with its rafters studded with nails and pegs, from 
 which five generations of careful Quakers have 
 suspended braids of seed-corn, bunches of medici- 
 nal herbs, and all the articles to which the ancient 
 New England attic is consecrate, and on the floor 
 of which the boys of two centuries have spread 
 butternuts, walnuts, and acorns, around the great 
 chimney. 
 
 This was the home in which Whittier spent his 
 childhood and youth, and where he dreamed the 
 ambitious dreams of his young manhood. It af- 
 forded something more than the average comfort 
 of farm life at that time. Whatever hardships he 
 encountered were shared with the majority of 
 farmers' families in New England. The meadows 
 were boggy and undrained. The uplands that had 
 been cleared of trees by the fathers were still in- 
 cumbered with stumps, and strewn with boulders, 
 large and small, which interfered with the easy 
 working of the soil. Fair crops could be raised 
 only at the expense of hard work. This was taken 
 for granted, and as a rule was not shirked by the 
 boys. Young Whittier did his share of the house- 
 hold chores, and as he gained strength worked 
 with his father and uncle Moses in the fields and 
 forests. When he last visited the homestead, in 
 1882, he pointed out a stone wall he helped to 
 build, which is now standing between the brook 
 and the gate. It is the garden wall referred to in 
 The Barefoot Boy : " 
 
22 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 " Laughed the brook for my delight 
 Through the day and through the night, 
 Whispering at the garden wall , 
 Talked with me from fall to fall." 
 
 He attained the full height of his mature years, 
 five feet, ten and one half inches, when he was 
 about fifteen years of age ; but he was always 
 slender, and never strong of muscle. At the age 
 of seventeen he sustained injuries from over-exer- 
 tion in farm work, from the effects of which he 
 never fully recovered. Some phases of farm life 
 he always enjoyed, such as watching the growth 
 and development of the crops, the harvesting of 
 such as did not overtax his strength, and the com- 
 panionship of the domestic animals, especially the 
 oxen. He had seven cows to milk, and this work 
 he never relished. Beside the cows, there were 
 kept on the farm a yoke of oxen, a few sheep, 
 and one horse. His mother made butter and 
 cheese which had such a reputation that it brought 
 much better prices than the average. Their bread 
 was supplied from grains raised on the farm. Rye 
 was largely used instead of wheat, and much In- 
 dian corn. The only method of threshing grain, in 
 his youth, was with the flail, the wielding of which 
 required more strength than he possessed. 
 
 His brother, Matthew Franklin, nearly five years 
 younger than himself, was his superior in strength, 
 and led off in " breaking " the steers and colts, 
 and in other enterprises requiring bodily vigor. 
 Of a warm summer afternoon, when no work was 
 pressing, the top of Job's Hill was the favorite re- 
 sort of the boys, and of the cattle as well. The 
 
THE OUTLOOK FROM JOB'S HILL 23 
 
 summit is a plateau of several acres, which was 
 formerly dotted with large oaks. To this pasture 
 came the cattle, to lie in the shade of the wide- 
 spreading trees. All the winds found their way to 
 this breezy height, and in the sultriest day the air 
 was never stagnant. The varied charms of the 
 fine outlook were not lost upon the young poet and 
 his lively brother. Directly beneath them was 
 the ancient homestead, and they could almost look 
 down into the flues of the great chimney. A wide 
 stretch of beautifully diversified country spreads 
 away on all sides to a distant horizon. The dome- 
 shaped hills peculiar to the lower valley of the 
 Merrimac River were all about them. The south- 
 ern ranges of the New Hampshire mountains 
 could be seen at the north, and eastward rose Aga- 
 menticus, standing as a sentinel upon the coast of 
 Maine. At the west, across the Great Pond (since 
 christened Kenoza by the poet), were the spires of 
 Haverhill. Southeast was a glimpse of the blue 
 sea in Ipswich bay, with the rocks of Cape Ann 
 beyond, and just across the Merrimac were the 
 rolling hills of Newbury. Only five miles away, 
 in Byfield, was the ancestral homestead of the 
 Longfellows, where the grandfather of Henry 
 Wadsworth Longfellow was born. A little to the 
 left rose the spires of Newburyport, and the beau- 
 tiful Po Hill in Amesbury, at the foot of which 
 the poet was to find a home for more than fifty-six 
 years, was another conspicuous feature in the 
 wide landscape. 
 
 The boys delighted in petting the oxen, which 
 were large ones, and seemed to appreciate all the 
 
24 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 kindness that was shown them. They were named 
 " Buck " and " Old Butler." On the hill was one 
 oak so much larger than all the rest that it was 
 called " The Oak." As the oxen lay chewing 
 their cuds under this tree the boys would often sit 
 on their foreheads and lean on their horns as on 
 an armchair. Although always disposed to tease 
 his pets, Whittier secured the love of every living 
 thing that came under his care. Old Butler 
 once saved his life by a remarkable exhibition of 
 strength, and by what would be called " presence 
 of mind " if shown by a man. One side of Job's 
 Hill is exceedingly steep, too steep for such an 
 unwieldy animal as an ox to descend rapidly in 
 safety. Greenleaf went to the pasture one day 
 with a bag of salt for the cattle, and Old Butler 
 from the brow of the hill recognized him and knew 
 his errand. As the boy was bent over, shaking 
 the salt out of the bag, the ox came down the hill 
 toward him with flying leaps, and his speed was 
 so great that he could not check himself. He 
 would have crushed his young master, but by a 
 supreme effort, gathering himself together at the 
 right moment, the noble creature leaped straight 
 out into the air, over the head of the boy, and 
 came to the ground far below with a tremendous 
 concussion and without serious injury to himself. 
 
 Another incident of his childhood, in which Old 
 Butler figured, was once related by Mr. Whittier. 
 Quaker meetings were sometimes held in the large 
 kitchen at his father's house. One summer day, 
 on such an occasion, this ox had the curiosity to 
 put his head in at the open window and take a 
 
INCIDENTS OF CHILDHOOD 25 
 
 survey of the assembly. While a sweet-voiced 
 woman was speaking, Old Butler paid strict atten- 
 tion, but when she sat down and there arose a 
 loud-voiced brother, the ox withdrew his head 
 from the window, lifted his tail in air, and went 
 off bellowing. This bovine criticism was greatly 
 enjoyed by the younger members of the meeting. 
 
 Mr. Whittier could not remember incidents that 
 happened before he was six years old. His first 
 recollection was of the auction sale of a farm in 
 the neighborhood, and he was surprised to find the 
 next morning that the farm had not been taken 
 away by the purchaser, and a large hole left in its 
 place ! 
 
 When he was nine years of age, President Mon- 
 roe visited New England, and happened to be at 
 Haver hill on the same day that a menagerie with 
 a circus attachment was exhibited in that village. 
 The Quaker boy was not allowed the privilege of 
 seeing either the collection of wild beasts or the 
 chief magistrate of the nation. He did not care 
 much for the former, but he was anxious to see a 
 President of the United States. The next day, he 
 trudged all the way to Haverhill, determined to 
 see at least some footsteps in the street that the 
 great man had left behind him. He found at 
 last an impression of an elephant's foot in the 
 road, and supposing this to be Monroe's track, he 
 followed it as far as he could distinguish it. Then 
 he went home, satisfied he had seen the footsteps 
 of the greatest man in the country. 
 
 When he was an old man, a little girl in Penn- 
 sylvania wrote to him inquiring about his child- 
 
26 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 hood on the farm. These passages are from his 
 reply : 
 
 " I think at the age of which thy note inquires I 
 found about equal satisfaction in an old rural home, 
 with the shifting panorama of the seasons, in read- 
 ing the few books within my reach, and dreaming 
 of something wonderful and grand somewhere in 
 the future. Neither change nor loss had then 
 made me realize the uncertainty of all earthly 
 things. I felt secure of my mother's love, and 
 dreamed of losing nothing and gaining much. ... I 
 had at that time a great thirst for knowledge and 
 little means to gratify it. The beauty of outward 
 nature early impressed me, and the moral and 
 spiritual beauty of the holy lives I read of in the 
 Bible and other good books also affected me with 
 a sense of my falling short and longing for a bet- 
 ter state." 
 
 To illustrate the fact that children suffer intensely 
 from causes which their elders regard as trivial, 
 and which they themselves are inclined to laugh at 
 in later life, Mr. Whittier once told this story of 
 his boyhood to a friend who was passing with him 
 the scene of the incident. It was at an ancient 
 farmyard on a side-hill midway between East 
 Haverhill and the village of Merrimac. In ascend- 
 ing this hill, his father was in the habit of reliev- 
 ing his horse by walking, and Greenleaf was ex- < 
 pected. to walk also. It was a terrible trial to 
 him, and the sight of the place recalled vividly the 
 terrors of his youth, though seventy years had 
 passed. A gander would begin his warlike threats 
 as soon as he saw the boy, and in later life Mr. 
 
HIS FATHER 27 
 
 Whittier could have marched up a hill towards a 
 hostile battery without such a sinking of the heart 
 as he felt whenever he approached this harm- 
 less but noisy fowl. If he had dared to tell his 
 father of his agony of dread, he could have re- 
 mained safely in the carriage. But the fear of 
 being laughed at prevailed over every other consid- 
 eration. He thought this was the experience of 
 many children, and that parents should treat their 
 apparently petty troubles with more seriousness 
 than is their custom. 
 
 In " Snow-Bound " Mr. Whittier has sketched 
 each member of the family in which his early life 
 was moulded. John Whittier, his father, was a 
 tall, strongly-built man, who had been famous in 
 his youth for the strength and quickness he dis- 
 played in athletic games and exercises. He was a 
 man of few words, but prompt and decisive in his 
 utterances. He was several times elected a select- 
 man of Haverhill, and was often called upon to act 
 as arbitrator in settling neighborhood differences. 
 In speaking of his father's connection with town 
 affairs, Mr. Whittier once quoted this saying of 
 his, illustrating his opinion in regard to public 
 charities: "There are the Lord's poor, and the 
 Devil's poor ; there ought to be a distinction made 
 between them by the overseers of the poor." Be- 
 fore his marriage he made several trips to Canada 
 through the wilds of New Hampshire, carrying on 
 a barter trade in various commodities. To these 
 excursions the poet refers in " Snow-Bound." 
 
 In repairing an old desk that is an heirloom in 
 the family, a few years ago, this memorandum was 
 
28 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 found written by John Whittier upon the back of 
 one of the drawers : " Last time Canada, I believe, 
 1799." It is probably a vow he then registered 
 not to make another of those wilderness journeys. 1 
 The poet's comment upon his taciturnity, 
 
 "No breath our father wasted," 
 
 is illustrated in this brief inscription meant for 
 no eye but his own. He was a devout member of 
 the Society of Friends, and carefully observant 
 of Quaker traditions. He had little or no sympa- 
 thy with the literary tastes and aspirations of the 
 young poet, who, however, found in his mother, 
 sisters, and brother all the appreciation and encour- 
 agement his nature demanded. 
 
 The poet's mother, Abigail Whittier, was es- 
 teemed by all who knew her as one of the loveliest 
 and saintliest of women. She was a person of 
 much native refinement of feeling and manners, 
 with a dignity of bearing and benignity of expres- 
 sion that impressed and charmed all who knew her. 
 Her face was full and very fair, her eye dark 
 and expressive. For fifty years she was the guide, 
 
 1 Mr. Whittier had from his father this anecdote of his visit to 
 the Canadian frontier : " He joined a party of horsemen and they 
 rode through the wilds up to the Lake Memphremagog. There 
 they met a tribe of friendly Indians. The country was wild. 
 No settlement had been made there by the whites. On the day 
 of my father's arrival there these Indians had gone on a spree, and 
 every man in camp was tipsy, with but one exception, and he was 
 kept busy looking after his .companions to prevent them from 
 rolling into the lake, and getting into mischief. My father asked 
 the sober Indian if he never got drunk. He replied, * Oh, yes ; 
 me get drunk some time ; not now ; me keep watch this time ; 
 next time me get drunk.' " 
 
HIS MOTHER AND SISTER 29 
 
 counselor, and friend of her illustrious son, who 
 repaid her devotion with a love as deep and tender 
 as her own. Her memory, as well as that of her 
 sister, Mercy Hussey, is cherished with affection 
 and respect not only in the family, and in the 
 religious sect to which they belonged, but among 
 all with whom they came in contact. 
 
 Of the poet's two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, 
 the older possessed many of the characteristics 
 of her father, while the younger had the milder, 
 sweeter nature of her mother. Mary, born Sep- 
 tember 3, 1806, married Jacob Caldwell of Haver- 
 hill, had two children, Louis Henry and Mary 
 Elizabeth, and died January 7, 1860. 
 
 Perhaps the tenderest touch in " Snow-Bound " 
 may be found in the lines referring to his sister, 
 Elizabeth Hussey, who spent her whole life with 
 the poet, sharing the enthusiasm and the dangers 
 of his labors in behalf of unpopular reforms, and 
 the cares and pleasures of his home life. Eight 
 years younger than himself, she was from child- 
 hood his special pet and favorite, and as she grew 
 older, she responded to his love with all the wealth 
 of her warm affections and keen appreciation of his 
 gifts. She became his most intimate and confiden- 
 tial literary friend, and with the same poetic tem- 
 perament and tastes she possessed some qualifica- 
 tions in which he was deficient. His shyness and 
 reticence found its complement in her easy social 
 intercourse, her affability, and facility of expres- 
 sion ; and with her quick sympathies and spar- 
 kling wit their frequent and various guests found 
 most charming entertainment. Her conversation 
 
30 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 abounded in happy phrases, not readily forgotten. 
 Of a friend who had just returned from her wed- 
 ding trip to western New York, she said : a She 
 was very happy, the glory of Niagara shone in 
 her face." Like Dorothy Wordsworth, her life 
 was one of unselfish devotion to her brother, and 
 as a critic her assistance was highly prized by him, 
 who, after she had passed away, thus touchingly 
 recalls 
 
 " the dear 
 
 Memory of one who might have tuned my song 
 To sweeter music by her delicate ear." 
 
 She, too, was a writer of no small merit, as 
 indicated by her correspondence and published 
 poems, which are included in all the complete 
 editions of Whittier's poems. It was her brother's 
 opinion that " had her health, sense of duty, and 
 almost morbid dread of spiritual and intellectual 
 egotism permitted, she might have taken a high 
 place among lyrical singers." She was born De- 
 cember 7, 1815, and died September 3, 1864. 
 " Snow-Bound " was written by her brother the 
 year after her death, and while the grief for her 
 loss, never outgrown, was still fresh. 
 
 Thomas Wentworth Higginson, during his pas- 
 torate in Newburyport, frequently visited Mr. 
 Whittier, and he has in a recent sketch referred 
 to three members of the family whom he regarded 
 as "most typical Quaker women." The mother, 
 placid, equable, elevating almost into religious 
 rites the whiteness of her bread and the purity of 
 her table linen, a nature simple, noble, direct ; 
 and the gentle " Aunt Mercy " of " Snow-Bound," 
 
TYPICAL QUAKER WOMEN 31 
 
 " The sweetest woman ever Fate 
 Perverse denied a household mate." 
 
 And above all " there was the gifted sister Lizzie, 
 the pet and pride of the household, one of the 
 rarest of women, her brother's complement, pos- 
 sessing all the readiness of speech and facility of 
 intercourse which he wanted ; taking easily in his 
 presence the lead in conversation, which the poet 
 so gladly abandoned to her, while he sat rubbing 
 his hands, and laughing at her daring sallies. She 
 was as unlike him in person as in mind ; for his 
 dignified erectness, she had endless motion and 
 vivacity ; for his regular and handsome features, 
 she had a long Jewish nose, so full of expression 
 that it seemed to enhance, instead of injuring, the 
 effect of the large and liquid eyes that glowed with 
 merriment and sympathy behind it. ... Her quick 
 thoughts came like javelins ; a saucy triumph 
 gleamed in her great eyes ; the head moved a little 
 from side to side with the quiver of a weapon, and lo ! 
 you were transfixed. Her poems, tragic, sombre, 
 imaginative, give no impression of this side of her 
 nature. . . . She was a woman never to be for- 
 gotten ; and no one can truly estimate the long 
 celibate life of the poet without bearing in . mind 
 that he had for many years at his own fireside the 
 concentrated wit and sympathy of all womankind 
 in this one sister." 
 
 Whittier's only brother, Matthew Franklin, was 
 born July 4, 1812, and died January 7, 1883. 
 In middle life, during his residence in Portland, 
 Matthew Whittier took a deep interest in the anti- 
 slavery cause, and wrote a series of humorous 
 
32 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 letters over the signature of "Ethan Spike of 
 Hornby," satirizing in a most caustic manner the 
 foibles of the pro-slavery politicians of the day. 
 The last thirteen years of his life were spent in 
 Boston, where he had a place in the custom-house. 
 He left three children: Charles Franklin, Eliza- 
 beth Hussey, and Alice Greenwood. 
 
 The family group, in Whittier's youth, was 
 completed by the presence of his bachelor uncle, 
 Moses Whittier, and of his maiden aunt, Mercy 
 Evans Hussey, both of whom their nephew has 
 sketched with loving touch. Moses, the youngest 
 brother of the poet's father, spent his whole life 
 at the homestead, in which he owned an equal 
 share with John. He delighted in hunting, fish- 
 ing, and story-telling. He had never read much 
 or traveled far, but he was wise in the traditions 
 of the family and neighborhood, an oracle to be 
 consulted about the weather, and a charming 
 companion for his nephews in their rambles. 
 In Greenleaf, especially, " Uncle Moses " had a 
 sympathetic listener. As they worked together 
 in the fields, or sat by the evening fireside, he 
 enjoyed the marvelous stories of the denizens of 
 the forest and stream, traditions of witchcraft, 
 and tales of strange happenings in his own times. 
 We can imagine the moods in which these stories 
 were received, and how they would be warmed 
 and colored in the kindling fancy of the youth. 
 As he stood at his uncle's knee at such times, he 
 fell into reveries from which the good man would 
 arouse him by the sharp exclamation, " Come, 
 
M. F. Whittier 
 
UNCLE MOSES AND AUNT MERCY 33 
 
 boy, get out of that stood ! " Uncle Moses was 
 born in 1762, and died January 23, 1824. He 
 was fatally injured by the falling of a tree, which 
 he had cut down, and which, taking an unex- 
 pected direction, pinned him to the ground. His 
 faithful dog gave warning at the house, and he 
 was soon found and extricated ; but he did not 
 long survive the accident. 
 
 " Aunt Mercy," a younger sister of the poet's 
 mother, lived in the family from his earliest 
 memory to the time of her death, in 1846. 
 With less of dignity and i4 presence " than her 
 sister, she had a singular sweetness of disposition, 
 and loving, helpful ways. Her gentle ministra- 
 tions at the bedside of the sick and suffering gave 
 a peculiar significance to the name her parents 
 bestowed on this Quaker " sister of mercy." 
 
 Even the story of Aunt Mercy's quiet life was 
 not without a tinge of romance. In her youth, 
 according to the tradition of the family, she was 
 betrothed to a worthy young man. Late one 
 evening, as she sat musing by the fire in the old 
 kitchen, after the rest of the family had retired, 
 she felt impelled to go to the window, and, look- 
 ing out, she recognized her lover 011 horseback 
 approaching the house. As she had reason to 
 suppose that he was then in New York, she was 
 surprised at his unexpected return, and his call at 
 so late an hour. Passing the porch window as 
 she hastened to open the door, she saw her lover 
 ride by it, and turn as if to dismount at the step. 
 The next instant the door was open, but no trace 
 of man or horse was to be seen. Bewildered and 
 
34 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 terrified, she called her sister, who listened to her 
 story, and tried to soothe her and efface the pain- 
 ful impression. " Thee had better go to bed, 
 Mercy; thee has been asleep and dreaming by 
 the fire," she said. But Mercy was quite sure 
 she had not been asleep, and what she had seen 
 was as real as any waking experience of her life. 
 In recalling the circumstances of her vision, one 
 by one, she at length took notice that she had 
 heard no sound of hoofs ! It may be imagined 
 what was the effect of all this upon the sensitive 
 girl, and she was not unprepared, after a weary 
 waiting of many days, to learn through a letter 
 from New York, written by a strange hand, that 
 her lover had died on the very day, and at the 
 hour, of her vision. In her grief she did not shut 
 herself away from the world, but lived a life of 
 cheerful charity. She did not forget her first 
 love, and gave no encouragement to other suitors. 
 
 Among the characters mentioned in " Snow- 
 Bound " is the " master of the district school," who 
 
 " Held at the fire his favored place." 
 
 Until near the end of Mr. Whittier's life, he 
 could not recall the name of this teacher whose 
 portrait is so carefully sketched, but he was sure 
 he came from Maine. At length, he remem- 
 bered that the name was Haskell, and from this 
 clue it has been ascertained that he was George 
 Haskell, 1 and that he came from Waterford, Me 
 
 1 George Haskell was born at Harvard, Mass., March 23, 1799. 
 His father, Samuel Haskell, removed to Waterford, Me., in 
 1803. In 1821 he went to Phillips Exeter Academy, and entered 
 
Mercy Hussey 
 
HARRIET LIVERMORE 35 
 
 The unwelcome guest, mentioned in " Snow- 
 Bound," was Harriet Livermore, 1 an eccentric 
 
 Dartmouth College in 1823 ; left his college class in the Sopho- 
 more year, and studied medicine until 1827, when he received 
 the degree of M. D. from the college. While in college, he 
 taught one term of district school in East HaverhilL He com- 
 menced practice at East Cambridge, Mass., in 1827 ; removed to 
 Ashby, Mass., in 1828, and to Edwardsville, 111., in 1831. Two 
 years later he settled at Alton, 111., where he was actively en- 
 gaged in founding Shurtleff College, of which he was trustee 
 and treasurer. In 1838, he removed to Rockford, 111., where he 
 practiced his profession until 1845, after which date he devoted 
 his attention chiefly to raising of fruit. He gave to Rockford 
 the land for its public park. In 1866, he removed to New Jer- 
 sey, was engaged in founding an industrial school, and purchased 
 with others a tract of 4000 acres, which was laid out for a model 
 community. In 1857, Dartmouth College gave him the degree 
 of A. B., as of the year 1827. He died in Vineland, N. J., in 
 1876. He does not appear to have been aware of the fact that 
 his Haverhill pupil had immortalized him in the poem Snow- 
 Bound. His nephew, Rev. Dr. Samuel Haskell, of Kalama- 
 zoo, Mich., says of him that " he was a man of scholarship and 
 enthusiasm, a friend of struggling students, many of whom he 
 befriended in his home and with his means." 
 
 1 Harriet Livermore was born in Concord, N. H., April 24, 
 1788, and was a daughter of Hon. Edward St. Loe Livermore, 
 who afterward resided in Newburyport, and represented the 
 North Essex district in Congress from 1801 to 1811. Before he 
 came to Massachusetts he sat upon the bench of the Supreme 
 Court of New Hampshire, as did also his father, Samuel Liver- 
 more, and his brother Arthur before him. His Newburyport 
 house, the early home of Harriet Livermore, was the same now 
 owned and occupied by Joseph Cartland, where Mr. Whittier 
 spent much time during the last years of his life. At the period 
 referred to in Snow-Bound, Harriet Livermore had embraced 
 the doctrine of the Second Advent, and went about proclaiming 
 the Lord's speedy coming. She had but slight control over a 
 violent temper, and quarreled with nearly every one with whom 
 she associated. She spent many years hi travel over Europe and 
 the Holy Land. Harriet Livermore was at one time converted to 
 Quakerism, and lived with a Friend at Amesbury ; but she got 
 into an argument on some doctrinal point with a young man in the 
 
36 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 personage, whose wanderings occasionally brought 
 her to East Haverhill, and her coming was 
 dreaded by Whittier in his boyhood. In later 
 years he did much to befriend her. She obtained 
 opportunities to lecture in Philadelphia and in 
 Washington through his influence. 
 
 The Whittier family had from the first held a 
 leading social position in the East Parish. Their 
 religious views were respected, although none of 
 their immediate neighbors were of the same faith, 
 and the pastor of the Congregational church in 
 the same vicinity seldom passed them by, when 
 making his pastoral calls. On First days, when 
 the weather was suitable, the parents, or uncle 
 and aunt, always drove to their meeting at Ames- 
 bury, taking with them, by turns, as many of the 
 children as their one-horse carriage would accom- 
 modate. 1 A portion of the afternoon was gener- 
 ally spent by the assembled family in reading the 
 Holy Scriptures, and such other religious books as 
 their scanty library afforded. 
 
 These readings seem to have been characterized 
 by much freedom of comment, in which the young 
 poet sometimes expressed his doubts regarding the 
 
 family, and knocked him down with a stick of wood. That was 
 the end of her connection with the Society. She went with her 
 father, when he was a member of Congress, to Washington, 
 attended parties, danced, and was fond of the gay society of the 
 capital. Samuel Livermore, a brother of Harriet, was chaplain 
 on board the Chesapeake when that frigate was captured by 
 the British. When his ship was boarded, he wounded a British 
 officer, and was himself wounded in that affair. 
 
 1 Mr. Whittier's father had a chaise, the only one owned in the 
 neighborhood. We find a receipt for an internal revenue tax of 
 one dollar on this chaise for the year 1817. 
 
SOCIAL PRIVILEGES 37 
 
 morality of certain acts recorded in the Old Testa- 
 ment, on one occasion questioning whether King 
 David, man of war as he was, could have been a 
 member of the Society of Friends. In conse- 
 quence of such criticisms, his parents deemed it 
 best at one time to confine his study of the Bible 
 mostly to the New Testament. To this faithful 
 teaching in the home may be attributed in large 
 measure Whittier's familiarity with the Scriptures 
 and frequent quotations in his writings. As Sted- 
 man has truly said, " The Bible is rarely absent 
 from his verse, and its spirit never." 
 
 While the home life was thus pure and elevating 
 in its influence, the social privileges of the family 
 were among the best in their vicinity. The fa- 
 ther, holding offices of trust in the town, was asso- 
 ciated with many of its notable citizens, and the 
 proverbial hospitality and refinement of the mo- 
 ther and aunt drew around them a circle of more 
 than usual cultivation. The visits of the itiner- 
 ant ministers of the Friends were an element not 
 to be overlooked in the religious development of 
 the younger members of the family. These visits 
 to the meetings and families of their fellow-mem- 
 bers were more frequent seventy-five years ago 
 than in later times, and often proved a source of 
 much comfort and encouragement. One of these 
 ministers from England, William Forster, the fa- 
 ther of the Eight Honorable William Edward 
 Forster, who was entertained at the Whittier man- 
 sion, is referred to in the poem " William Forster." 
 
 Before the days of steam and electricity, the 
 Eastern members of the Society, attending their 
 
38 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 Yearly Meeting at Newport, K. L, generally per- 
 formed the journey in their own carriages, depend- 
 ing largely upon their friends for entertainment 
 by the way, in which pleasant service the Whit- 
 tiers had their full share, sometimes receiving 
 under their roof from ten to fifteen guests. 
 
 Among the incidents of his boyhood which made 
 a lasting impress upon his memory was a visit to 
 Salem with his parents to attend a Quarterly Meet- 
 ing. They passed a tree then standing on Gal- 
 lows Hill, dead and leafless, but with the heart still 
 apparently alive, or left sound, and he was told that 
 this was the tree upon which the witches were 
 hanged. He recollected having pointed out to him 
 on the Rocks Bridge, at East Haverhill, the place 
 where Mr. Davis, the draw-tender, died, in exact 
 fulfillment of a vision he had in which he saw the 
 manner of his death. He never doubted the reality 
 of this prophetic vision. 
 
 These memories of the village nearest to his 
 birthplace we find in a letter written by Mr. Whit- 
 tier in 1875 to a friend who was also a native of 
 East Haverhill : 
 
 " Your note carries me back to my boyhood, to 
 the time when I used to know you at 4 Rocks 
 Village.' How well I remember the place and 
 the people ! Colonel Johnson and his tavern ; 
 Esquire Frost and his store ; Esquire Ladd and 
 his blacksmith shop ; Ephraim B. Orne and his 
 combs ; Poyen and his cigars ! How plainly rises 
 before me the figure of Dr. Weld in his drab coat 
 and breeches, a true gentleman of the old school, 
 - a skillful physician, and benefactor of the peo- 
 
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHIC FRAGMENT 39 
 
 pie ! Colonel Poor, who used to search our woods 
 for ship timber ; widow Pettee, who used to make 
 my homespun coats and trousers ; old ' aunt 
 Morse,' who was regarded by the average juvenile 
 mind as a witch, all these and many more are 
 associated with my recollections of Eocks Village." 
 
 This fragment of an autobiography was found 
 among Mr. Whittier's papers, and was evidently 
 written in the days of " Union-saving " com- 
 promises : 
 
 " In the order of Providence I was born within 
 the pale of a society which had relieved itself of 
 the wrong and inconsistency of slave-holding by 
 voluntary emancipation on the part of its mem- 
 bers. My father was an old-fashioned Democrat, 
 and really believed in the Preamble of the Bill of 
 Rights, which reaffirmed the Declaration of In- 
 dependence. My mother used to tell us the sad 
 story of the kidnapping and transportation of the 
 negro children. At district school I learned the 
 Decalogue without any hint on the part of my 
 instructors that its every command might be 
 piously violated for the sake of fulfilling prophecy, 
 and insuring the curse of Canaan. The standard 
 reading-book was the 4 American Preceptor/ lib- 
 erally sprinkled with anti-slavery prose and po- 
 etry. One of the pieces rings in my memory even 
 now. It was the story of an insurgent slave, 
 a black John Bruce : 
 
 ' First of his race, he led his band 
 
 Guardless of dangers hovering round, 
 Till by his bold, avenging hand, 
 Full many a despot stained the ground.' 
 
40 ANCESTRY AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 His arrest, at last, and cruel death by torture were 
 described, closing with an appeal to the reader's 
 admiration and sympathy : 
 
 ' Does not the soul to Heaven allied 
 
 Feel the full heart as greatly swell 
 As when the Roman Cato died, 
 Or when the Grecian victim fell ? ' 
 
 " In those days there was no Union-saving com- 
 mittee to do the work of expurgation, and prevent 
 the young idea from shooting in the direction of 
 Liberty. It was never my privilege to hear a pro- 
 slavery sermon, and I grew up in blissful igno- 
 rance of the Gospel according to Parson Adams." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES. 
 
 1820-1828. 
 
 UNTIL lie was nineteen years of age, the only 
 schools young Whittier had attended were the 
 meagre ones supplied during a small part of the 
 year by the district. He was accustomed to say 
 that only two of the teachers who were employed in 
 that district during his schooldays were fit for the 
 not very exacting position they occupied. Both of 
 these were Dartmouth students : one of them George 
 Haskell, to whom reference has already been made, 
 and the other Joshua Coffin, who afterward became 
 known as an antiquary and as the historian of New- 
 bury. Coffin was associated with Garrison and 
 Whittier in the beginning of their crusade against 
 slavery, and enjoyed their friendship through life. 
 
 Whittier 's first appearance in school was before 
 he was of " school age," during a term when Joshua 
 Coffin was teaching in the district. He accompa- 
 nied his older sister, Mary, and was too young to 
 be placed in any class except that in which the al- 
 phabet was taught. The schoolhouse was undergo- 
 ing repairs at that time, and the school was held 
 in the ell of a dwelling-house now standing. The 
 other part of the house was occupied by a tipsy 
 and quarrelsome couple, reference to which fact 
 
42 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 will be found in the poem " To My Old School- 
 master." Some years afterward, in 1821, Coffin 
 was again a teacher in that district, and he spent 
 many of his evenings at the Whittier homestead, 
 a most welcome guest. 
 
 There were few books in the house, and most of 
 them not of a kind to satisfy the literary appetite 
 of a boy in his teens, who found poor picking among 
 the dry journals and religious disquisitions of the 
 pioneers of Quakerism. 1 There were not more than 
 thirty volumes in all. These and the Bible he had 
 read and re-read until he knew them by heart. It 
 may be readily imagined what a new life was opened 
 to him when a lively student, fresh from college, 
 sat at the fireside and spoke familiarly of other lit- 
 eratures. His teacher brought with him books of 
 travel and adventure, and read them to his mother 
 and aunt, as they sat knitting by the fire. He 
 little thought that the boy of fourteen was the most 
 eager of his listeners. Coffin told wise and merry 
 stories, and read from books such as otherwise 
 would scarcely have entered this strictly Quaker 
 household. One evening the teacher brought a vol- 
 ume of Burns, and read many pages from it, explain- 
 ing the Scottish dialect as he proceeded. Greenleaf 
 listened spellbound in his corner. A fire was that 
 evening kindled upon an altar that grew not cold 
 for seventy years. Coffin had only thought of his ~ 
 older listeners as he read and explained. But as 
 
 1 Speaking 1 of the journals of Friends which made so large a part 
 of his father's library, he said in later life that in his youth he read 
 them so much that he had steeped his mind with their thoughts. 
 He loved their authors because they were so saintly, and yet so 
 humbly unconscious of it. 
 
THE WESTMINSTER CATECHISM 43 
 
 he shut the book he noticed that his tall, shy pupil 
 was in what Uncle Moses had quaintly called his 
 " stood." He recalled the lad to his ordinary senses 
 by offering to leave the book with him, if he was 
 interested in it. The offer was, of course, gladly 
 accepted. What this little volume thus loaned to 
 him was to young Whittier has since been told 
 in one of the finest tributes to Burns that have yet 
 been written. He soon began to try his own wings, 
 but at great disadvantage, hampered as he was by 
 his surroundings. He early developed a love for 
 books of biography and travel, and borrowed all 
 that were to be found in the neighborhood. 
 
 A story has been published to the effect that 
 young Whittier was punished at school for refusal 
 to learn the Westminster catechism. It had only 
 slight foundation in fact. The teacher required 
 the scholars to learn the catechism on Saturdays 
 from the New England Primer. Greenleaf had 
 no Primer, and was told by the teacher to get 
 one. His father told him he need not study the 
 catechism, as it contained errors. He reported this 
 to the teacher, and the study of the Primer was 
 not enforced in his case. 
 
 The room occupied by the boys during part of 
 their childhood was the chamber in the northwest- 
 ern corner of the second story. The clapboards 
 were gone from some portion of the western gable 
 at that time, and the snow of winter sometimes 
 sifted through the cracks upon their bed. In this 
 room occurred the incident that has been made 
 the theme of a poem by J. T. Trowbridge. The 
 two little Quaker boys had found they could lift 
 
44 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 each other, and one evening experimented upon 
 the proposition made by the elder, that by lifting 
 each other in turn they could rise to the ceiling, 
 and there was no knowing how much further, if 
 they were out of doors ! To make it easy in case 
 of failure the prudent lads first tried the experi- 
 ment of standing upon the bed in this little room. 
 Trowbridge says : 
 
 " 'T was a shrewd notion none the less, 
 And still, in spite of ill success, 
 
 It somehow has succeeded. 
 Kind Nature smiled on that wise child, 
 
 Nor could her love deny him 
 The large fulfillment of his plan ; 
 Since he who lifts his brother man 
 
 In turn is lifted by him." 
 
 Whittier's first visit to Boston was made while 
 he was yet in his teens, and he was accustomed to 
 tell with much amusement his adventures on that 
 occasion. He was the guest of his relative, Mrs. 
 Nathaniel Greene, wife of the postmaster of Bos- 
 ton, who was also editor of the " Statesman." Mrs. 
 Greene was a descendant of his own ancestor, 
 Rev. Stephen Bachiler, and she had visited the 
 Whittiers at their East Haverhill homestead. On 
 this occasion, he wore for the first time in his life 
 " boughten buttons " upon his homespun Quaker 
 coat, and it was a surprise to him that the bravery 
 of his apparel did not seem to impress those who 
 passed him in the street. He wore a broadbrim 
 Quaker hat made for him by his Aunt Mercy out 
 of pasteboard, covered with drab velvet. One 
 event which signalized this visit was his purchase 
 of a copy of Shakespeare. He had been strictly 
 
SURREPTITIOUS READING 45 
 
 cautioned by his mother to avoid the theatre, and 
 when he learned that a brilliant lady he met at 
 the table of Mrs. Greene, who had been very kind 
 in her attentions to the quaint, shy boy, and who 
 had quite won his heart by her simplicity and 
 grace, was an actress, it was a great shock to him ; 
 but he had the courage to refuse her invitation to 
 the play-house, and cut short his visit to the city 
 to avoid the terrible temptation to which he was 
 subjected. He had gone quite too far in buying 
 Shakespeare's plays, and fled homeward lest he 
 should bring disgrace upon his Quakerism. His 
 family were surprised to see him back so soon, but 
 he did not dare to tell them the startling episode 
 of his encounter with a live actress. 
 
 A copy of one of the Waverley novels, then fresh 
 from the hand of its unknown author, was some- 
 where obtained by young Whittier, but the fact 
 was kept from the knowledge of his parents, and 
 the book was read with surreptitious enthusiasm, 
 his sister enjoying with him the literary banquet. 
 He used to tell how they sat reading until late one 
 night, when just as they reached a critical part of 
 the story, their candle burned to its socket, and, 
 sadly disappointed, they were compelled to retire 
 in the dark, 
 
 Of the no doubt crude literary work undertaken 
 by Whittier during the next two years after he 
 made the acquaintance of Burns, from 1821 to 
 1823, scarcely any vestige remains. His school- 
 mates say he was in the habit of covering his 
 slate with rhymes, which were passed about from 
 desk to desk to the great amusement of the 
 
46 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 school. 1 When a small boy, it was noticed by 
 the family that after his "nightly chores" were 
 done, and they were gathered around their eyen- 
 ing fire, instead of doing sums on his slate, like 
 many other boys, he was covering it with verses, 
 one of which was rescued from oblivion by the 
 memory of his older sister, and ran thus : 
 
 " And must I always swing the flail, 
 And help to fill the milking pail ? 
 I wish to go away to school ; 
 I do not wish to be a fool." 
 
 Another of his earliest effusions was an attempt 
 to make a rhymed catalogue of the books in his 
 father's library. Here are a few of the verses : 
 
 " The Bible towering o'er the rest, 
 Of all other books the best. 
 
 " William Penn's laborious writing 
 And a book 'gainst Christians fighting. 
 
 " A book concerning John's Baptism, 
 Elias Smith's Universalism. 
 
 " How Captain Kiley and his crew 
 Were on Sahara's desert threw. 
 
 " How Rollins, to obtain the cash, 
 Wrote a dull history of trash. 
 
 " The Lives of Franklin and of Penn, 
 Of Fox and Scott, all worthy men. 
 
 " The Life of Burroughs too I 've read, 
 As big a rogue as e'er was made. 
 
 " And Tufts, too, though I will be civil, 
 Worse than an incarnate devil." 
 
 1 It is a tradition that his first verses were written upon the 
 beam of his mother's loom. 
 
AN OLD DESK 47 
 
 Greenleaf began a diary when he was fourteen 
 years old, his mother making a book for him by 
 folding and stitching some foolscap paper. He 
 could not think of anything to write in the diary, 
 his life on the farm was so uneventful. His mo- 
 ther suggested that he write of some striking event 
 in the past that had come under his observation. 
 The only great event he could think of was the 
 wind-storm of 1815, six years before ; l so he wrote 
 an account of that, and never afterward made an 
 entry in this, or in any other diary. 
 
 The desk upon which young Whittier wrote 
 his first rhymes was even at that time an ancient 
 piece of furniture. It had stood by the eastern 
 window of the kitchen in the old homestead at 
 Haverhill ever since the days of his great-grand- 
 father, the son of the pioneer, Thomas Whittier, 
 more than a century before the birth of the poet. 
 When the family removed to Amesbury, it was 
 taken with them, but was soon after replaced by 
 a new one, and the old desk went " out of com- 
 mission." In the summer of 1891, Mr. Whittier's 
 niece had this ancient desk repaired, and as her 
 uncle was to spend the next fall and winter in 
 Newburyport, it was sent to the house of his cous- 
 ins, the Cartlands. Mr. Whittier was greatly 
 pleased, upon his arrival, to find in his room the 
 heirloom which was hallowed by so many associa- 
 tions connected not only with his ancestry, but 
 
 1 This cyclone's path was a few miles away from the East 
 Parish, but Greenleaf saw the whirling cloud and heard its roar. 
 It took off the roof of the house of his Aunt Ruth Jones, in 
 Amesbury, and this fact probably deepened the lines of his mem- 
 ory of it. 
 
48 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 with his own early life. Nearly all the literary 
 work of his last year was Aone upon this desk. 
 To his niece he wrote : 
 
 " I came here day before yesterday, and found 
 it very homelike. I am writing at the old desk, 
 which Gertrude has placed in my room, but it 
 seems difficult to imagine myself the boy who used 
 to sit by it and make rhymes. It is wonderfully 
 rejuvenated and is a handsome piece of furniture. 
 It was the desk of my great-grandfather [the first 
 Joseph Whittier], and seemed to me a wretched 
 old wreck when thee took it to Portland. I did 
 not suppose it could be made either useful or orna- 
 mental. I wrote my first pamphlet on slavery, 
 4 Justice and Expediency,' upon it, as well as a 
 great many rhymes which might as well have never 
 been written. I am glad that it has got a new 
 lease of life." 1 
 
 One of Whittier's earliest efforts at verse was a 
 parody on " The Old Oaken Bucket," and was en- 
 titled " The Willows." It was never sent to the 
 press by him, and exists only in manuscript, being 
 now in the possession of Mr. Charles Aldrich, of 
 the Iowa State Library. This is the first stanza : 
 
 1 The old desk has been given by Mrs. Pickard, tog-ether with 
 nearly all the family heirlooms which originally belonged at East 
 Haverhill, and which came into her possession, to the trustees 
 having the ancient homestead in charge, and it will have a per- 
 manent place in the same corner of the old kitchen in which it 
 stood for more than a century. In renovating it, the memo- 
 randa of farm events, written upon the backs and bottoms of 
 the drawers by his father and grandfather, have been preserved. 
 Among the inscriptions upon the outside of the desk, at the back, 
 are the letters " J. W." and the date " 1786," written large in 
 black paint, by his grandfather, the second Joseph Whittier. 
 
Mary Whittier Caldwell 
 

 
EARLY ASPIRATIONS 49 
 
 " Oh, dear to my heart are the scenes which delighted 
 
 My fancy in moments I ne'er can recall, 
 When each happy hour new pleasures invited, 
 
 And hope pictured visions more holy than all. 
 Then I gazed with light heart, transported and glowing, 
 
 On the forest-crowned hill and the rivulet's tide, 
 O'ershadowed with tall grass and rapidly flowing 
 
 Around the lone willow that stood by its side, 
 The storm-battered willow, the ivy-bound willow, the water- 
 washed willow that grew by its side." 
 
 It is written in small, neat, old-fashioned chiro- 
 graphy, on a foolscap sheet, on the back of which 
 is another poem never published, entitled "The 
 Emerald Isle." There is a clump of willows upon 
 Country Brook, near the Whittier homestead, and 
 close by the Country Bridge, which the young poet 
 probably had in mind when he wrote the first- 
 named poem. 
 
 While not shirking any of the tasks that fell to 
 him as the son of a farmer who expected him to 
 spend his life, as had several generations of his 
 ancestors, in tilling the soil, it became evident at 
 an early age that other thoughts and aspirations 
 were agitating the mind of the lad, although he 
 was himself hardly aware of any disloyalty to the 
 farm. His father discouraged what he thought a 
 foolish waste of time over his day-dreams, but his 
 mother " hid these things in her heart," a little 
 hope mingling with her apprehension of an unset- 
 tled life for her son. His sister Mary actively 
 encouraged him. He filled many foolscap pages 
 with neatly written verses on " Lafayette," " Con- 
 tentment," " William Penn," " Benevolence," the 
 "Death of Alexander of Russia," and on other 
 themes, with no expectation of ever seeing them 
 
50 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 in print. Several of these pages are now extant, 
 but the verses written upon them he never wished 
 to have reproduced in any collection of his poems. 
 They are of interest chiefly as showing the steps 
 in which he groped, amid unpromising surround- 
 ings, toward literary culture. These first poems 
 bear date from 1823 to 1826 inclusive. They 
 were written before he had any advantage of the 
 academy or access to libraries. 
 
 His sister Mary, feeling confident that some of 
 his poems were as good as those she saw in the 
 poet's corner of the " Free Press," determined to 
 offer one of them to that paper without giving the 
 editor any hint of the source from whence it came. 
 William Lloyd Garrison had just started this 
 weekly paper, in Newburyport, and its humanita- 
 rian tone so pleased the Quaker John Whittier 
 that he subscribed for it. Garrison was only two 
 years older than Whittier, but he began editorial 
 work at an early age, and was in literary experience 
 very much the senior of the young poet. One day 
 he found under the door of his office a poem en- 
 titled " The Exile's Departure," and signed " W." 
 The piece was written during the previous year, 
 and Mary had selected it as in her opinion the 
 one most likely to be accepted. She sent it with- 
 out her brother's knowledge. It was therefore a 
 great surprise to the young poet when he opened 
 the paper, and turned to the column in which 
 poetry was usually printed, to find his own verses 
 conspicuously displayed. The paper came to him 
 when he was with his father mending a stone wall 
 by the roadside, picking up and placing the stones 
 
THE FREE PRESS 51 
 
 in position. As they were thus engaged, the post- 
 man passed them on horseback, and tossed the 
 paper to the young man. His heart stood still a 
 moment when he saw his own verses. Such de- 
 light as his comes only once in the lifetime of any 
 aspirant to literary fame. His father at last called 
 to him to put up the paper, and keep at work. But 
 he could not resist the temptation to take the pa- 
 per again and again from his pocket to stare at 
 his lines in print. He has said he was sure that 
 he did not read a word of the poem all the time he 
 looked at it. 
 
 The date of the " Free Press " that contained 
 this poem was June 8, 1826. The date of compo- 
 sition was June 1, 1825. It did not appear in an 
 early collection of his works, but may be found 
 in the appendix of the Riverside edition of 1888. 
 The success of this venture induced the sending 
 of another poem, entitled " The Deity," an ampli- 
 fication of the sublime passage of Scripture to 
 be found in the llth and 12th verses of the 19th 
 chapter of First Kings. This also was written in 
 1825, and was published in the " Free Press " of 
 June 22, 1826. Mr. Garrison introduced it with 
 the following eulogistic paragraph : 
 
 " The author of the following graphic sketch, 
 which would do credit to riper years, is a youth 
 of only sixteen, who we think bids fair to prove 
 another Bernard Barton, of whose persuasion he 
 is. His poetry bears the stamp of true poetic gen- 
 ius, which, if carefully cultivated, will rank him 
 among the bards of his country." 
 
 By inquiring of the postman, Mr. Garrison had 
 
52 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 learned the locality from which the Haverhill 
 poems emanated, and drove out to call upon his 
 new and premising contributor, a distance of 
 fourteen miles. The editor was a neatly dressed, 
 handsome, and affable young gentleman, and his 
 coming to the farmhouse accompanied by a lady 
 friend caused quite a sensation. Whittier was at 
 work in a field, clad with reference to comfort in 
 a warm day, and was disposed to excuse himself, 
 but his sister Mary persuaded him to make himself 
 presentable and receive his city visitors. This was 
 the beginning of the life-long acquaintance and 
 friendship of those two remarkable men. It ante- 
 dates by some years the anti-slavery agitation in 
 which they were afterward intimately associated. 
 Garrison, with the social tact that distinguished 
 him, put the shy youth at his ease at once. He 
 heartily commended his work, and assured him of 
 his belief in his capacity for better things. He 
 advised him to secure an education. Young Whit- 
 tier's father came into the room, and Garrison 
 urged upon him his duty to send his son to better 
 schools than those kept in the district. The old 
 gentleman was not pleased with the turn matters 
 were taking, and told Garrison he did not wish 
 him to put such notions into the boy's head. 1 
 For a time the thought of sending Greenleaf to 
 
 1 In a letter to Mr. Garrison, written in 1859, Mr. Whittier says 
 of this incident : " My father did not oppose me ; he was proud of 
 my pieces, but as he was in straitened circumstances he could 
 do nothing to aid me. He was a man in advance of his times, 
 remarkable for the soundness of his judgment, and freedom from 
 popular errors of thinking. My mother always encouraged me, 
 and sympathized with me," 
 
THE HAVERHILL GAZETTE 53 
 
 an academy was given up ; Garrison had removed 
 to Boston, and the young poet offered his verses to 
 the Haverhill " Gazette," which had recently come 
 into the possession of Mr. Abijah W. Thayer, who 
 had previously edited a paper in Portland. Mr. 
 Thayer had such a high opinion of his young 
 contributor that in January, 1827, he went to his 
 father, as Mr. Garrison had done a few months 
 earlier, to urge him to give his son a classical edu- 
 cation. A new academy was soon to be opened in 
 Haverhill, and he could attend it and spend a part 
 of each week at his home. The old gentleman 
 took into consideration the fact that two years 
 before Greenleaf had seriously injured himself by 
 attempting farm work that was too heavy for him, 
 and was at length inclined to yield, though pro- 
 testing it was contrary to Friends' custom to ac- 
 quire the polish of literary culture. The mother 
 asked Mr. Thayer if he would take Greenleaf into 
 his family, and this was readily promised. The 
 only problem that now proved troublesome was 
 how to obtain the money needed to defray ex- 
 penses. When John Whittier bought the interest 
 of the other heirs in his father's estate, he assumed 
 a debt that was not yet fully paid. There was a 
 mortgage of $ 600 upon the farm, and it was diffi- 
 cult to get ready money for their farm products, 
 beyond what was required to pay taxes and the 
 interest on the debt. The Whittier orchard at 
 that time had no grafted apples ; there were plenty 
 of cranberries in the meadow, and other berries in 
 the upland ; enough of ship-timber and firewood in 
 the forests, but there was then no market for any 
 of these things. 
 
54 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 The young man had permission to attend the 
 academy, but he must pay his own way. This 
 task he set about with a glad heart. An opportu- 
 nity soon appeared. A man who worked in the 
 summer upon his father's farm made a cheap kind 
 of slippers in the winter, and he offered to instruct 
 young Whittier in the art. The offer was gladly 
 accepted, and, as it was the simplest kind of sandal 
 that was to be made, the mystery of the trade was 
 soon acquired. The retail price of the slippers 
 was only twenty-five cents a pair, and he received 
 but eight cents a pair for his work ; and yet dur- 
 ing the winter of 1826-27 enough was earned to 
 pay the expense of a term of six months at the 
 academy. He calculated so closely every item of 
 expense that he knew before the beginning of the 
 term that he would have twenty-five cents to spare 
 at its close, and he actually had this sum of money 
 in his pocket when his half year of study was over. 
 It was the rule of his whole life never to buy any- 
 thing until he had the money in hand to pay for 
 it, and although his income was small and uncer- 
 tain until past middle life, he was never in debt. 
 
 James F. Otis, a nephew of Harrison Gray Otis, 
 while reading law in the office of Hon. Nathan 
 Crosby, in 1827, found in a newspaper a piece of 
 poetry which he was told was written by a shoe- 
 maker in Haverhill, and he wished to go and find 
 him. Upon his return, he told Mr. Crosby that 
 he found a young man by the name of Whittier, 
 at work in his shoe-shop, and making himself 
 known to him, they spent the day together in 
 wandering over the hills, and on the shores of the 
 
AT THE HAVERHILL ACADEMY 55 
 
 Merrimac, in conversation on literary matters., 
 Otis, who was himself a poet, afterward became 
 an intimate friend of Whittier, and accompanied 
 him to Philadelphia, as a delegate to the anti- 
 slavery convention of 1833. Later, Otis went 
 South, and became an apologist for slavery. 
 
 On the first day of May, 1827, Whittier began 
 his " higher education " at the Haverhill Academy, 
 and the event was signalized in a way that gave 
 him a reputation at once. It was the first term 
 of a new academy, for which a fine brick building 
 had just been completed. The institution was 
 formally opened on the 30th of April, and the 
 dedicatory oration was delivered by the Hon. 
 Leverett Saltonstall, of Salem. The programme 
 announced that an ode was to be sung, " composed 
 for the occasion by John G. Whittier, of this 
 town." ' The principal of the new school was 
 Oliver Carlton. The fact that a young citizen of 
 the town, who was to be a student in the school, 
 had written the ode for an important public cere- 
 mony gave him a certain social and literary dis- 
 tinction at the start. He studied the ordinary 
 English branches, and also took lessons in French. 
 He took especial delight in the access he obtained 
 to the best private libraries in the village. 1 
 
 One can imagine the surprise and pleasure of 
 such a mind as his when great fields of literature 
 
 1 At the dedication of the Haverhill Library, in 1875, Mr. 
 Whittier wrote to Mayor Currier : " When my old friend James 
 Gale set up his circulating librai-y, it was the opening of a new 
 world of enjoyment to me. I can still remember the feeling of 
 mingled awe and pleasure with which I gazed for the first time 
 on his croAvd^d bookshelves." 
 
56 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 hitherto closed to him were thrown open. He was 
 in the prime of his young manhood when he took 
 his first plunge into the glorious Shakespearian 
 flood. While reveling in the poetry of the great 
 masters, in the adventures of travelers, in the his- 
 tory of nations, and in the wit and satire of Sterne 
 and Swift, he neither neglected his studies, nor 
 omitted frequently to try his own wings in song. 
 These first six months of academy life were full 
 of intense activity. He had written in 1825 
 and 1826 about a dozen poems, which are extant, 
 although some of them were never printed. In 
 1827, there were published, in the Haverhill 
 " Gazette " alone, forty-seven of his poems, and 
 forty-nine in 1828. As he found these copied by 
 other papers, he occasionally sent his work to the 
 Boston " Statesman," edited by Nathaniel Greene, 
 a kinsman of his, and to the "National Philan- 
 thropist," edited by Garrison after he gave up the 
 "Free Press." He used a variety of signatures, 
 a favorite one being " Adrian ; " when he wrote 
 in the Scottish dialect he took the name of " Don- 
 ald ; " and still further to conceal his identity he 
 occasionally signed his poems "Timothy," "Mi- 
 cajah," and " Ichabod." All not signed with 
 either of these names had the letter " W." for sig- 
 nature. The first poem that appeared with his 
 full name was a long one, entitled " The Outlaw," 
 printed in the "Gazette," October 28, 1828. 
 Nearly all have dates indicating the year and the 
 month of their composition. There were ten 
 poems written in the two months before he entered 
 the academy, besides the ode sung at the dedica- 
 tion. Of this ode no copy has been found. 
 
WARFARE UPON THE SALOONS 57 
 
 On the 8th of November, 1828, the " Gazette " 
 had a prose article by Whittier on Robert Burns. 
 The next week he contributed an article on " Tem- 
 perance." Mr. Thayer was one of the first editors 
 in the country to publish regularly articles on this 
 1 theme, and he secured the ill-will of the dealers in, 
 and distillers of, intoxicants by his plain speaking. 
 He was also justice of the peace, and had a hand 
 in disciplining the "rummies." Mr. Whittier 
 assisted him in this warfare upon the saloons, and 
 after Mr. Thayer removed to Philadelphia, Whittier 
 wrote to him February 16, 1836 : " Esquire Parker 
 wishes me to remember him to thee. We have 
 been lamenting over thy departure, and wishing it 
 were possible for thee to sit once more in judgment 
 over the rascals that are now 4 unwhipped of jus- 
 tice.' Parker wishes me to tell thee, that as the 
 only way of keeping the streets clear of the ' rum- 
 'uns,' he has lately sent them off by the baker's 
 dozen to Ipswich." 
 
 One year later he had the satisfaction of writing 
 from Amesbury, whither he had meantime removed, 
 " I have one item of good news from Haverhill. 
 The old distillery has had its fires quenched at last. 
 C. has sold out, and the building is to be converted 
 into stores." 
 
 While attending the academy he boarded, accord- 
 ing to promise, in the family of Mr. Thayer, who 
 proved to be a valuable friend and adviser, not 
 only at that time but in later years. In a letter 
 to Mr. Thayer's son, 1 written in 1877, he says: 
 " I never think of thy mother without feelings of 
 
 1 Professor James B. Thayer, of the Harvard Law School. 
 
58 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 love and gratitude. She and thy father were my 
 best friends in the hard struggle of ray school- 
 days." Every Friday night he walked to East 
 Haverhill, spent the Sabbath at the old homestead, 
 and delighted the hearts of his family with his 
 companionship and his reports of school life. 
 Mrs. Thayer, in her reminiscences of the poet 1 as 
 he appeared in those days, said she remembered 
 his handsome face and figure, and the appearance 
 of extreme neatness he always bore ; but she had 
 more to say of the liveliness of his temper, his 
 ready wit, his perfect courtesy, and infallible sense 
 of truth and justice. On account of his abilities 
 and his exemplary conduct, no less than on account 
 of his reputation as a rising poet, his society was 
 much sought after. Whenever he came to Ha- 
 verhill, in after years, he made his home with 
 the Thayers, until they removed to Philadelphia, 
 where Mr. Thayer set up a new paper. When 
 Mr. Whittier went to Philadelphia, he again be- 
 came an inmate of their house. 
 
 The late Mrs. Harriet Minot Pitman, a daughter 
 of Judge Minot, an intimate and lifelong friend 
 and correspondent of Mr. Whittier, wrote the fol- 
 lowing sketch of his personal appearance and man- 
 ners in his youth : 2 
 
 " He was nearly nineteen years old when I first 
 saw him. He was a very handsome, distinguished- 
 looking young man. His eyes were remarkably 
 beautiful. He was tall, slight, and very erect ; a 
 bashful youth, but never awkward, my mother 
 
 1 Underwood's Life, p. 73. 
 
 2 Underwood's Life, pp. 75-77. 
 
APPEARANCE AND MANNERS 59 
 
 said, who was a better judge than I of such mat- 
 ters. There were pupils at the academy of all 
 ages, from ten to twenty-five. My brother, George 
 Minot, then about ten years old, used to say that 
 Whittier was the best of all the big fellows, and 
 he was in the habit of calling him ' Uncle Toby.' 
 Whittier was always kind to children, and under 
 a very grave and quiet exterior there was a real 
 love of fun, and a keen sense of the ludicrous. In 
 society he was embarrassed, and his manners were, 
 in consequence, sometimes brusque and cold. 
 With intimate friends he talked a great deal, and 
 in a wonderfully interesting manner ; usually ear- 
 nest, often analytical, and frequently playful. He 
 had a great deal of wit. It was a family charac- 
 teristic. The study of human nature was very 
 interesting to him, and his insight was keen. He 
 liked to draw out his young friends, and to suggest 
 puzzling doubts and queries. When a wrong was 
 to be righted, or an evil to be remedied, he was 
 readier to act than any young man I ever knew, 
 and was very wise in his action, shrewd, sensi- 
 ble, practical. The influence of his Quaker bring- 
 ing-up was manifest. I think it was always his 
 endeavor 
 
 * to render less 
 The sum of human wretchedness.' 
 
 This, I say, was his steadfast endeavor, in spite 
 of an inborn love of teasing. He was very modest, 
 never conceited, never egotistic. One could never 
 flatter him. I never tried, but I have seen people 
 attempt it, and it was a signal failure. He did 
 not flatter, but told very wholesome and unpala- 
 
60 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 table truths, yet in a way to spare one's self-lovfe 
 by admitting a doubt whether he was in earnest or 
 in jest. The great questions of Calvinism were sub- 
 jects of which he often talked in those early days. 
 He was exceedingly conscientious. He cared for 
 people, quite as much for the plainest and most 
 uncultivated, if they were original and had some- 
 thing in them, as for the most polished. He was 
 much interested in politics, and thoroughly posted. 
 I remember, in one of his first calls at our house, 
 being surprised at his conversation with my father 
 upon Governor Gerry and the Gerrymandering of 
 the State, or the attempt to do it, of which I had 
 until then been wholly ignorant. He had a reten- 
 tive memory, and a marvelous store of information 
 on many subjects. I once saw a little common- 
 place book of his, full of quaint things, and as 
 interesting as Southey's." 
 
 In a letter written a dozen years after this date, 
 Whittier refers to himself at this period in the 
 following terms : 
 
 " For myself, I owe much to the kind encour- 
 agement of female friends. A bashful, ignorant 
 boy, I was favored by the kindness of a lady who 
 saw, or thought she saw, beneath the clownish 
 exterior something which gave promise of intel- 
 lect and worth. The powers of my own mind, the 
 mysteries of my own spirit, were revealed to my- 
 self, only as they were called out by one of those 
 dangerous relations called cousins, who, with all 
 her boarding-school glories upon her, condescended 
 to smile upon my rustic simplicity. She was so 
 learned in the to me more than occult mysteries 
 
THE POEMS OF ADRIAN 61 
 
 of verbs and nouns, and philosophy, and botany, 
 and mineralogy, and French, and all that, and 
 then she had seen something of society, and could 
 talk (an accomplishment at that time to which I 
 could lay no claim), that on the whole I looked 
 upon her as a being to obtain whose good opin- 
 ion no effort could be too great. I smile at this 
 sometimes, this feeling of my unsophisticated 
 boyhood, yet to a great degree it is still with 
 me." 
 
 In January, 1828, Mr. Thayer issued the pro- 
 spectus of a book to be published by subscription, 
 from which we make this extract : 
 
 " THE POEMS OF ADRIAN. Many of the poems 
 now proposed to be published originally appeared 
 in the * Essex Gazette,' and were very favorably 
 received by its readers. Some of them have been 
 copied into the most respectable papers, in various 
 sections of the Union, with strong expressions 
 of approbation. When the circumstances under 
 which these poems were written are known, they 
 will be particularly interesting. The author (a 
 native of this town) is a young man, about nine- 
 teen years of age, who has had, until very recently, 
 no other means of education than are afforded in a 
 common district school, and such as he improved 
 in the leisure hours of an apprenticeship to a me- 
 chanical business. It is believed by his friends 
 that these poems indicate genius of a high order, 
 which deserves all possible culture. The design 
 of thus offering his juvenile writings to the public 
 is to raise money to assist him in obtaining a clas- 
 sical education. He is a worthy member of the 
 
62 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 Society of Friends, and it is hoped that from them 
 the volume will receive a liberal patronage." 
 
 The proposed volume was to be printed on 
 superfine paper, to contain about two hundred 
 pages, and be done up in boards, at the price of 
 seventy-five cents. For some reason, this enter- 
 prise was not carried out by Mr. Thayer. During 
 his second term in the academy, Mr. Whittier 
 made considerable progress in compiling a history 
 of the town of Haverhill, but when he was called 
 away to Boston in the fall of 1828, he gave the 
 materials he had collected to Mr. B. L. Mirick, 
 who completed the work, and it was published by 
 Mr. Thayer in 1831. 
 
 The Carrier's New Year's Address of the " Ga- 
 zette," for 1828, was written by Mr. Whittier, as 
 was also that for 1829, which he sent from Boston. 
 The year's doings in the town are recounted in a 
 lively way in each of these poems. There was a 
 fire in the village in 1827, which called out several 
 amusing stanzas, of which one is given below, and 
 also one about the ghost that was troubling the 
 East Parish. A note gives the information that 
 many years previously a ghost was sent in " quest 
 of wretches," and ordered to traverse the space 
 between Country Bridge and the residence of 
 Black Peter, and it was grimly added that " the 
 ghost is still doing duty : " 
 
 " The old dumbetty engine poised on high 
 Wet all around, but kindly spared the fire ; 
 And strangers, dripping as they hurried by, 
 Cursed the old wreck, and bade them push it nigher ; 
 For, like the gun that honest Paddy bore, 
 It carried all behind it and before ! 
 
THE COUNTRY BRIDGE GHOST 63 
 
 " Shad Parish still continues much the same ; 
 The unwearied ghost still watches Country Bridge, 
 Or walks with clattering teeth and eyes of flame 
 From his old station up to Peter's Ridge ; 
 Nay, smile not, reader, but as truth receive it. 
 Shad Parish women to a man believe it ! " 
 
 Mr. Whittier wrote a series of prose articles OE 
 War, which were published in the " Gazette " in 
 1828. His poems began to be plagiarized in the 
 same year. In February, 1828, the Philadelphia 
 " Saturday Evening Post " apologized for an in- 
 stance of this kind, by which it was hoaxed. 
 
 This anecdote, in which reference is made to 
 the " Country Bridge ghost," is told by Rebecca 
 I. Davis, author of " Reminiscences of Merrimac 
 Valley," as part of a conversation she had with 
 Whittier in 1884. She had told him of a recent 
 visit to his birthplace, and spoke of " Peter's 
 Ridge " (mentioned in " The Countess ") and 
 " Country Bridge," and his eye caught some of 
 its youthful fire, she says, as he laughingly related 
 an incident of his boyhood days in connection with 
 the haunted bridge, where it is said the " unwea- 
 ried ghost still watches." 
 
 " I remember," he said, " when a small boy, of 
 being extremely startled by a woman coming to 
 our house in the evening in great fright, saying 
 she had seen a headless ghost as she came by 
 Country Bridge, which fact caused several of us 
 lads to go one moonlight night, myself promising 
 to run upon the bridge, and call for the headless 
 ghost. Never shall I forget how my courage failed 
 when in sight, but true to my promise, I ran, and 
 shouted for the ghost to come forth, and imme- 
 diately ran from the scene with all my might." 
 
64 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 A reminiscence of the same period, pertaining 
 to the witchcraft fancies of the time, occurs in a 
 letter by Mr. Whittier, in 1883, to his old school- 
 mate, Mr. C. C. Chase : 
 
 " It was old Mrs. C , wife of Moses C , 
 
 of Rocks Village, a brother of Uncle Aaron's father, 
 who lived at Corliss Hill, whose relatives believed 
 her a witch, and one of her nieces knocked her 
 down in the shape of a persistent bug that troubled 
 her, and at the same time the old woman fell and 
 hurt her head ! Old Aunt Morse, on one occasion, 
 went before Squire Ladd, the old blacksmith and 
 justice of the peace at the Rocks, and took her 
 oath that she was not a witch ! I visited the site 
 of our old schoolhouse a year ago. I thought of 
 Ossian's lament, ' I passed by the walls of Bal- 
 clutha and found them desolate ; the fox looked 
 out of the window.' Not a fox, but a striped 
 squirrel sat on the wall, and watched me as I pon- 
 dered on old days." 
 
 Whittier's first and only experience as a school- 
 master was in the winter of 1827-28. He took 
 a school in the Birch Meadow district, in West 
 Amesbury, now Merrimac, and earned enough to 
 pay for another term at the academy. He went 
 to be examined as to his qualifications for teaching 
 with many misgivings ; but the committee asked 
 only for a specimen of his handwriting. He had 
 no reason to be ashamed of this, for his penman- 
 ship, modeled upon the style prevailing during the 
 previous century, was neat and regular. His prin- 
 cipal trouble as a pedagogue was with the mathe- 
 matical puzzles the large boys would bring him for 
 
A RHYMED EPISTLE 65 
 
 solution. A failure to solve these was a disgrace 
 to a teacher in those days. As a descendant of the 
 Greenleaf s he inherited some facility with figures ; 
 but the problems handed him by the mischievous 
 young men among his scholars cost him many a 
 sleepless night. He wrote several poems during 
 this winter, one of which, never published, was a 
 rhymed epistle to the editor of the Haverhill 
 " Gazette." It has been preserved by his daughter, 
 Sarah S. Thayer, and is here given : 
 
 [WEST] AMESBURY, February 15, 1828. 
 
 FRIEND THAYER : 
 
 The troubles of a pedagogue 
 
 Nae mair my wanderin' muse shall clog ; 
 
 The management of fool and rogue 
 
 Is fairly done with, 
 An' I can rhyme the same auld jog 
 
 My muse begun with. 
 
 Last night the Rev. Mr. Eaton 
 My Pandemonium took a seat in, 
 With half a dozen mair completin* 
 
 The school committee, 
 With questions hard my rabble treatin', 
 
 Devoid of pity. 
 
 It turned out weel enough, however ; 
 My scholars answered pretty clever, 
 And baffled somehow each endeavor 
 
 To prove them fools, 
 And for the full time really never 
 
 Transgressed my rules. 
 
 I thank'd them for 't. I wish you could 
 Have heard my speech 't was really good. 
 I said they had the gratitude 
 
 Of friends an' tutor, 
 And then advised them how they should 
 
 Behave in future. 
 
66 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 No parson's sermon e'er was graver, 
 
 It had the very pulpit flavor, 
 
 Yet with the unction and the savor 
 
 Of my entreating 
 Was doubtless something of the quaver 
 
 Of Monthly Meeting. 
 
 This scrawl by Nathan Chase I send it, 
 In haste as thou may see I penned it ; 
 To write a lengthy song or mend it, 
 
 I have no leisure. 
 To see thee soon I sure intend it, 
 
 With greatest pleasure. 
 
 If you have got the " Rustics " done, 
 By Nathan please to sen' me one, 
 And I will try my hand upon 
 
 A short review, 1 
 Before the critics have begun 
 
 To search it through. 
 
 But Nathan on his old gray mare 
 
 Sits waiting I 've no time to spare - 
 
 My best respects to Mrs. Thayer, 
 
 An' all who trouble you 
 With any question, how may fare 
 
 Their young friend, 
 
 " W." 
 
 In the edition of the poems of Robert Dinsmoor, 
 there is a poem addressed to the author by John 
 G. Whittier which is not included in his complete 
 works. It was the first poem of his to appear in 
 any book. This stanza of it sounds like the pre- 
 monitory call of the " Voices of Freedom : " 
 
 1 This review of a volume of poems by Robert Dinsmoor, of 
 Windham, N. H., known as the "Rustic Bard," may be found, 
 with some additions, in Mr. Whittier's Prose Works, vol. ii. pp. 
 245-260. The poems were printed at the office of the Haverhill 
 Gazette, during the winter of 1827-28. 
 
THE SONG GF THE VERMONTERS 67 
 
 " Shall vice an' crime that taint the nation, 
 
 Pass on unheeded ? 
 No ! let the muse her trumpet take 
 'Til auld offenders learn to shake, 
 An' tremble when they hear her wake 
 
 Her tones of thunder ; 
 'Til pride an' bloated ignorance quake, 
 
 An' gawkies wonder." 
 
 Mr. Whittier returned to the academy in the 
 spring of 1828, and after six months of study his 
 schooldays were ended. He had partially defrayed 
 the expenses of his last term at the academy by 
 posting the ledgers of a Haverhill merchant. 
 
 It was during his schooldays that Whittier 
 wrote " The Song of the Vermonters, 1779," and 
 some years after sent it anonymously to J. T. 
 Buckingham, who published it in the " New 
 England Magazine " in 1833. As it was not a 
 " Quakerly " poem, its author never claimed it as 
 his, and it was a surprise to him when, nearly 
 sixty years after it was written, it appeared with 
 his name attached to it. In the long meantime 
 it had been extensively copied, and in some cases 
 credited to Ethan Allen. In March, 1887, there 
 was controversy about the authorship, and Mr. 
 Whittier wrote this letter to the Boston " Tran- 
 script : " 
 
 "'The Song of the Vermonters, by Ethan 
 Allen,' was a piece of boyish mystification, written 
 sixty years ago and printed anonymously. The 
 only person who knew its authorship was my old 
 friend Joseph T. Buckingham, and I supposed the 
 secret died with him. We were both amused to 
 find it regarded by antiquarian authorities as a 
 
68 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 genuine relic of the old time. How the secret was 
 discovered, a few years ago, I have never known. 
 I have never intentionally written anything in 
 favor of war, but a great deal against it." 
 
 THE SONG OF THE VERMONTERS, 1779, 
 
 Ho all to the borders ! Vermonters, come down, 
 With your breeches of deerskin and jackets of brown ; 
 With your red woolen caps, and your moccasins, come, 
 To the gathering summons of trumpet and drum. 
 
 Come down with your rifles ! Let gray wolf and for 
 Howl on in the shade of their primitive rocks ; 
 Let the bear feed securely from pig-pen and stall ; 
 Here 's two-legged game for your powder and ball. 
 
 On our south come the Dutchmen, enveloped in grease ; 
 And arming for battle while canting of peace ; 
 On our east, crafty Meshech has gathered his band 
 To hang up our leaders and eat up our land. 
 
 Ho all to the rescue ! For Satan shall work 
 No gain for his legions of Hampshire and York ! 
 They claim our possessions the pitiful knaves 
 The tribute we pay shall be prisons and graves ! 
 
 Let Clinton and Ten Broek, with bribes in their hands, 
 Still seek to divide and parcel our lands ; 
 We 've coats for our traitors, whoever they are ; 
 The warp is of feathers the filling of tar : 
 
 Does the "old Bay State " threaten? Does Congress com- 
 plain ? 
 
 Swarms Hampshire in arms on our borders again ? 
 Bark the war-dogs of Britain aloud on the lake 
 Let 'em come ; what they can they are welcome to take. 
 
 What seek they among us ? The pride of our wealth 
 Is comfort, contentment, and labor, and health, 
 And lands which, as Freemen, we only have trod, 
 Independent of all, save the mercies of God. 
 
THE SONG OF THE VERMONTERS 69 
 
 Yet we owe no allegiance, we bow to no throne, 
 Our ruler is law, and the law is our own ; 
 Our leaders themselves are our own fellow-men, 
 Who can handle the sword, or the scythe, or the pen. 
 
 Our wives are all true, and our daughters are fair, 
 With their blue eyes of smiles and their light flowing hair, 
 All brisk at their wheels till the dark even-fall, 
 Then blithe at the sleigh-ride, the husking, and ball ! 
 
 We 've sheep on the hillsides, we 've cows on the plain, 
 And gay-tasseled corn-fields and rank-growing grain ; 
 There are deer on the mountains, and wood-pigeons fly 
 From the crack of our muskets, like clouds on the sky. 
 
 And there 's fish in our streamlets and rivers which take 
 Their course from the hills to our broad-bosomed lake ; 
 Through rock-arched Winooski the salmon leaps free, 
 And the portly shad follows all fresh from the sea. 
 
 Like a sunbeam the pickerel glides through the pool, 
 And the spotted trout sleeps where the water is cool, 
 Or darts from his shelter of rock and of root 
 At the beaver's quick plunge, or the angler's pursuit. 
 
 And ours are the mountains, which awfully rise, 
 
 Till they rest their green heads on the blue of the skies j 
 
 And ours are the forests unwasted, unshorn, 
 
 Save where the wild path of the tempest is torn. 
 
 And though savage and wild be this climate of ours, 
 And brief be our season of fruits and of flowers, 
 Far dearer the blast round our mountains which raves 
 Than the sweet summer zephyr which breathes over slaves! 
 
 Hurrah for Vermont ! For the land which we till 
 Must have sons to defend her from valley and hill ; 
 Leave the harvest to rot on the fields where it grows, 
 And the reaping of wheat for the reaping of foes. 
 
 From far Michiscom's wild valley, to where 
 Poosoonsuck steals down from his wood-circled lair, 
 From Shocticook River to Lutterlock town 
 Ho all to the rescue ! Vermonters, come down ! 
 
70 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 Come York or come Hampshire, come traitors or knaves, 
 If ye rule o'er our land, ye shall rule o'er our graves; 
 Our vow is recorded our banner unfurled, 
 In the name of Vermont we defy all the world ! 
 
 While Whittier was at the academy, his friend 
 Garrison was in Boston, editing the " Philanthro- 
 pist," a weekly paper devoted mainly to the cause 
 of temperance, and published by William and 
 William R. Collier. It was the first temperance 
 paper ever published. The young agitator did not 
 find in this occupation so wide a field of usefulness 
 as he wished ; there were other reforms he desired 
 to advocate that his publishers did not favor. He 
 thought of his Haverhill friend, and procured for 
 him the offer of the editorship of the " Philan- 
 thropist." This offer came to Whittier while he 
 was anxiously considering the question of a pro- 
 fession. In the following letter he asked the ad- 
 vice of a friend he had learned to trust : 
 
 SHAD PARISH, 28th of llth mo., 1828. 
 
 FRIEND A. W. THAYER, I have been in a quan- 
 dary ever since I left thee, whether I had better 
 accept the offer of Friend Collier, or nail myself 
 down to my seat, for, verily, I could not be kept 
 there otherwise, and toil for the honorable and 
 truly gratifying distinction of being considered " a 
 good cobbler." . . . No no friend, it won't 
 do. Thee might as well catch a weasel asleep, or 
 the Old Enemy of Mankind in a parsonage-house, 
 as find me contented with that distinction. 
 
 I have renounced college for the good reason 
 that I have no disposition to humble myself to 
 meanness for an education crowding myself 
 
THE PHILANTHROPIST 71 
 
 through college upon the charities of others, and 
 leaving it with a debt or an obligation to weigh 
 down my spirit like an incubus, and paralyze every 
 exertion. The professions are already crowded full 
 to overflowing ; and I, forsooth, because I have a 
 miserable knack of rhyming, must swell the already 
 .enormous number, struggle awhile with debt and 
 difficulties, and then, weary of life, go down to my 
 original insignificance, where the tinsel of classical 
 honors will but aggravate my misfortune. Verily, 
 friend Thayer, the picture is a dark one but from 
 my heart I believe it to be true. What, then, 
 remains for me ? School-keeping out upon it ! 
 The memory of last year's experience comes up 
 before me like a horrible dream. No, I had rather 
 be a tin-peddler, and drive around the country with 
 a bunch of sheepskins hanging to my wagon. I 
 had rather hawk essences from dwelling to dwell- 
 ing, or practice physic between Colly Hill 1 and 
 Country Bridge [the most sparsely settled portion 
 of the East Parish]. 
 
 Seriously the situation of editor of the " Phi- 
 lanthropist " is not only respectable, but it is pecul- 
 iarly pleasant to one who takes so deep an interest, 
 as I really do, in the great cause it is laboring to 
 promote. I would enter upon my task with a heart 
 free from misanthropy, and glowing with tha,t feeling 
 that wishes well to all. I would rather have the 
 memory of a Howard, a Wilberforce, and a Clark- 
 son than the undying fame of Byron. 
 
 I may be wrong, but I confess I cannot see the 
 
 1 " Corliss Hill " was usually called " Colly Hill " by those liv- 
 ing in the neighborhood. 
 
72 SCHOOLDAYS AND EARLY VERSES 
 
 why and wherefore. I have written to friend Col- 
 lier, but have entered into no engagement. Will 
 you be kind enough to send by Chase the " Philan- 
 thropist " of to-day ? I prepared the piece on card- 
 playing for the " Gazette," but I own I was afraid 
 of having my wig pulled, and so sent it to Boston. 1 
 I should like to see or hear from Mr. Carlton [the 
 principal of the academy] before I do anything. 
 He is one of the best men to use a phrase of my 
 craft " that ever trod shoe leather." 
 
 If I had not written something about him, I 
 would wish you to let Mr. Carlton see this. He 
 will see my reasons some of them, I mean for 
 they are " plenty as blackberries." 
 
 A poem entitled " To the Merrimack," written 
 by Whittier, was published in the " Philanthropist " 
 of June 6, 1828. A few lines of introduction by 
 Garrison commend these verses, and call for origi- 
 nal poems from other sources, with the proviso, 
 " This invitation is meant for poets only." 
 
 Thus ended his schooldays, but this was only 
 the beginning of his student life. By wide and 
 well-chosen reading, he was constantly adding to 
 his stores of information. While reveling in the 
 fields of English literature, he became familiar 
 through translations with ancient and current lit- 
 erature of other nations, and kept abreast of all 
 political and reformatory movements. 
 
 1 A short prose sketch, entitled "The Gamester," which was 
 published in tjhje Philanthropist, November 28, 1828, is here re- 
 ferred to. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE AND LITERARY VENTURES. 
 
 1828-1832. 
 
 MR. WHITTIER decided to enter the printing-office 
 of the Colliers, and in December, 1828, we find 
 him in Boston, a member of the household of Rev. 
 Mr. Collier, a Baptist clergyman, the senior part- 
 ner of the publishing firm. The Colliers, father 
 and son, published two weekly papers and a 
 monthly magazine. One of the weeklies was the 
 " American Manufacturer," a political journal, 
 friendly to Henry Clay. The monthly was the 
 " Baptist Preacher." The partisan politics of the 
 " Manufacturer " suited Mr. Whittier as well as 
 did the cause represented by the "Philanthropist," 
 and it was the Henry Clay paper that bore his 
 name at the head of its editorial columns, on the 
 1st of January, 1829. The new editor began a 
 spirited discussion of the tariff question, favoring 
 duties to protect American industries, and also 
 wrote sketches and poems for each number of his 
 paper. It was a temperance poem with which he 
 led off, entitled " Take Back the Bowl." This is 
 the first stanza : 
 
 "Take back the bowl! I wUl not seal 
 The hallowed memories of the past ; 
 They add no pangs to those I feel, 
 Nor shadows on the future cast. 
 
74 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 Aye, take it back ! let others bring 
 
 Oblivion o'er the haunted soul ; 
 My memory is a blessed thing 
 
 Away ! away ! take back the bowl." 
 
 Nearly every number of the "Manufacturer" 
 contained a poem by its editor, but scarcely any 
 of them were considered by him worth preserving, 
 even when he made his first collection of poems ; 
 and yet they were widely copied and gave him a 
 constantly increasing reputation as a poet. In 
 April, 1829, he began a series of satirical political 
 poems, under the title of " Tariffiana." It was 
 soon after this he wrote the poetical tribute to 
 Henry Clay, which was recited by the partisans 
 of that statesman throughout the country in each 
 campaign when the gallant " Harry of the West " 
 was a candidate. 1 About ten years ago, the editor 
 of a literary journal asked permission to republish 
 this poem as a literary curiosity. Mr. Whittier's 
 reply was : " I have looked over the Henry Clay 
 ballad, and have come to the conclusion that the 
 least said about it the better. ... It strikes me 
 as grandiloquent and highfalutin." He was not 
 ashamed in his later years of his youthful enthusi- 
 asm for Clay, but thought that he was in his day 
 
 1 This poem was written for the Cincinnati American, and the 
 date of its composition was 4th mo. 17, 1830, while he was at 
 his home in Haverhill. In a note to the editor he says : " The 
 perusal of an article from your paper has prompted the following 
 feeble tribute to the services and merits of the Western states- 
 man." It was copied into nearly all the papers of the party in 
 the Union. The enemies of Clay had made vigorous assertion 
 that he had been guilty of " bargain and corruption " in taking 
 a place in the cabinet of J. Q. Adams, whose election he had se- 
 cured by his influence in the House of Representatives. 
 
THE AMERICAN MANUFACTURER 75 
 
 much overrated. His influence was not so perma- 
 nent as that of Calhoun, whom he considered the 
 most powerful intellect of his period. 
 
 While Whittier was editing the "Manufac- 
 turer," the question of the tariff was complicated 
 with that of the personal fitness of General Jackson 
 for the Presidency. It is not surprising that the 
 young Quaker non-resistant should fall in with the 
 general feeling of his State, at that time, that it 
 was unsafe to intrust to a warrior the destinies of 
 a country that more than anything else needed 
 years of peace for its growth and development. 
 The mills of Massachusetts, from which much 
 and as it has proved not too much was expected, 
 were just beginning to be anxious for the success 
 of the policy of the brilliant Kentuckian. Pre- 
 vious to 1828, all New England opposed the plan 
 of developing American industries, to which Clay 
 had converted the West and a part of the South. 
 Webster opposed it for a while with all his massive 
 strength, fearing it might put restraint upon the 
 commerce of New England. Of the great men of 
 that period, Clay alone had favored this policy 
 from first to last, so that his name was thoroughly 
 identified with it. When Clay was a candidate 
 for the Presidency against Jackson, in 1832, Mas- 
 sachusetts was one of the few States that supported 
 him, and by his earnest advocacy Whittier won 
 political popularity, which was then as pleasing to 
 him as literary reputation. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. A. W. Thayer, Mr. Whittier 
 says under date 2d mo. 6, 1829: "The 'Manu- 
 facturer ' goes down well, thanks to the gullibility 
 
76 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 of the public, and we are doing well, very well. 
 Have had one or two rubs from other papers, but 
 I have had some compliments which were quite as 
 much as my vanity could swallow. Have tolerable 
 good society, Mrs. Hale and her literary club, etc. 
 I am coming out for the tariff by and by have 
 done something at it already but the astonisher 
 is yet to come! Shall blow Cambreling and 
 McDuffie sky-high." 
 
 When Garrison gave up his paper at Benning- 
 ton, Vt., and went to Baltimore in company with 
 Benjamin Lundy, Whittier said of him : " A bolder 
 pen never portrayed the evils of slavery, and a 
 better or kinder heart never throbbed with sym- 
 pathy for the sufferings of humanity." At another 
 tune he wrote to Garrison : " I admire your plan 
 of directing your efforts against those fearful evils, 
 slavery, intemperance, and war. Heart and hand 
 I unite with you in denouncing them. It shall be 
 my endeavor to merit that name which I consider 
 of all others the most worthy of our ambition, 
 the friend of man." 
 
 The following anecdote, as told by Mr. Whittier, 
 illustrates this part of his career : Kev. Mr. Collier 
 used to travel through the State canvassing for 
 subscribers to his " Baptist Preacher," leaving his 
 son William in charge of the office. Each number 
 of the magazine contained a sermon by some emi- 
 nent Baptist divine. On one occasion, when the 
 old clergyman was away, no sermon was left for 
 copy, and the day of publication of the " Preacher " 
 was perilously near. William proposed to young 
 Whittier to write a sermon in place of the one that 
 
WRITING A SERMON 77 
 
 had failed to arrive. At this period of his life, 
 Mr. Whittier said he felt more confident than he 
 ever had since that he could do anything, from 
 the writing of a sermon to the conducting of a 
 political campaign. So the young Quaker readily 
 undertook to fill the columns set apart for the 
 great divines of that day, young Collier promis- 
 ing to lend his valuable assistance. The sermon 
 was actually written and partly in type when the 
 old gentleman returned, and a discourse under 
 which a congregation had actually slept took the 
 place of Mr. Whittier's effort. It is easy to be- 
 lieve that this first and only sermon of the young 
 poet was more than worthy of the space it came so 
 near occupying, for it was a serious essay, and no 
 burlesque. 
 
 It was during his employment in this office that 
 he first met Charles Sumner. An anti-Masonic 
 journal, in which Sheriff Sumner was interested, 
 was for a time printed in the office of the " Manu- 
 facturer." One day the sheriff's son, Charles, 
 came in with the copy. He was then a student at 
 Harvard, seventeen years of age, a tall, slender, 
 graceful youth. Whether the copy he brought 
 was written by himself, or sent by his father, 
 Mr. Whittier did not recall, but he had a vivid 
 remembrance of the young man who in twenty 
 years was to become one of his most intimate 
 friends. 
 
 He remained in this Boston printing-office until 
 August, 1829, when he was called home by the 
 failing health of his father, and the necessity of 
 caring for the farm. Of his meagre salary of 
 
78 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 nine dollars a week he saved about one half, and 
 this went toward freeing the farm from the incum- 
 brance of the mortgage. His residence in Boston 
 had given him access to large libraries, an oppor- 
 tunity he improved to the utmost. He wrote 
 several poems during these few months that were 
 widely copied. "The Sicilian Vespers," "The 
 Earthquake," and "The Spirit of the North" 
 belong to this period. 
 
 Soon after he gave up the editorship of the 
 " Manufacturer," he wrote from Haverhill to a 
 friend in New York, who had been a fellow-boarder 
 at the Colliers', and who had expressed surprise at 
 his giving up the paper : " Why should you be 
 surprised ? You know what kind of a concern it 
 was ; you know, if I mistake not, my dissatisfac- 
 tion." From this it would appear that he had 
 other reasons beside the illness of his father for 
 resigning his first editorship. 1 We find hints in 
 
 1 In the same letter, he makes this reference to his former 
 room-mate, Garrison: "Have you seen Garrison's Baltimore 
 paper, the Genius of Universal Emancipation ? I had a letter 
 from him the other day ; he says he has been in low spirits ever 
 since he left Boston ; says he is home-sick, and what is worse, 
 love-sick, which last sickness he justly supposes will be immortal. 
 ... I have become a notable fellow in gallantry of late ; I 
 mean old-fashioned gallantry, however. I have given my whis- 
 kers a more ferocious appearance, and take the liberty of fright- 
 ening into good nature those who will not be complaisant of their 
 own accord." His correspondent, more than thirty years after, 
 sent him this old letter, and received the following comment 
 upon it, dated Amesbury, 1st mo. 2, 1860 : "I was about as 
 much surprised to read that old letter of my boyhood as if I had 
 seen the ghost of my former self. It was a very absurd and 
 ridiculous epistle, and the utter folly of it is more striking 
 from the fact that at that very time I was in reality a shy, timid 
 
FRIENDSHIP WITH PRENTICE 79 
 
 other letters of this period that he had to contend 
 with jealousy and detraction in the office of his 
 employers. 
 
 Whittier remained in Haverhill until his father's 
 death, in June, 1830, spending all his spare hours 
 in study, and in preparing contributions in prose 
 and verse for various periodicals. For the first six 
 months of 1830 he edited the Haverhill " Gazette," 
 doing most of his work upon this paper at home, 
 three miles away from the office of publication. 
 He also contributed poems and political essays to 
 the " New England Review," of Hartford, Conn., 
 a political paper then edited by George D. Pren- 
 tice. Mr. Whittier's ambition at this time had 
 taken a political turn, and his studies were in that 
 direction. Mr. Prentice was much pleased with 
 the contributions he received from the young 
 Quaker on the Haverhill farm, and a friendly 
 correspondence sprang up between them. The 
 only letter that is preserved of this correspondence 
 is one from Prentice, written January 2, 1830. 
 He was at a hotel in Providence, enjoying a short 
 respite from his editorial work. The letter, which 
 is a long one, is frolicsome in its tone, and gives 
 the impression that he and his correspondent were 
 intimate friends. And yet they had never met. 
 If Prentice had been better acquainted with the 
 Quaker lad he was addressing, he would hardly 
 have written the first paragraph here quoted : 
 
 recluse, afraid of a shadow, especially the shadow of a woman. 
 There is a period in life a sort of tadpole state, between the 
 boy and the man when any sort of pretense, egotism, and self- 
 conceit may be expected." 
 
80 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 " Whittier, I wish you were seated by my side, 
 for I assure you that my situation, just now, is 
 very much to my particular satisfaction. Here am 
 I in my hotel, with a good-natured fire in front of 
 me, and a bottle of champagne at my left hand. 
 Can you imagine a situation more to a good fel- 
 low's mind? . . . Then you have more imagina- 
 tion than judgment. . . . The gods be praised 
 that I am not a member of the temperance society ! 
 
 " Would to fortune I could come to Haverhill, 
 before my return to Hartford but the thing is 
 impossible. I am running short both of time and 
 money. Well, we can live on and love, as we have 
 done. Once or twice I have even thought that 
 my feelings towards you had more of romance in 
 them than they possibly could have if we were ac- 
 quainted with each other. I never yet met for the 
 first time with a person whose name I had learned 
 to revere, without feeling on the instant that the 
 beautiful veil with which my imagination had 
 robed him was partially rent away. If you can- 
 not explain this matter, you are no philosopher." 
 
 It would be easy to quote a great many compli- 
 mentary newspaper comments on Whittier's poetry 
 appearing from week to week, as when the " New 
 England Eeview" copied some lines from "The 
 Minstrel Girl," a poem not thought worthy of 
 being published in any, not even in the first, of 
 Whittier's collections of verse, with the sweeping 
 statement, " We do not know that we have ever 
 seen the following description of sunset equaled." 
 The wonder is that such a reputation as he was 
 certainly acquiring should have grown out of a 
 
INCREASING LITERARY FAME 81 
 
 series of poems that so soon sank into oblivion. 
 For about five years, say from 1827 to 1832, Whit- 
 tier was writing and publishing a poem almost 
 every week, scarcely twenty of which are now ex- 
 tant. They are to be found only in the files of the 
 several papers in which they first appeared, or into 
 which they were copied. The literary fame so 
 freely promised for him has indeed crowned his 
 work, but it is not based on anything then ac- 
 complished. 
 
 As the elder Whittier's failing health had called 
 the young editor away from his office, so now the 
 death of his father left him free to resume his 
 occupation, and the acquaintance which he had 
 formed with Prentice led to a new opening. Pren- 
 tice had been asked by Henry Clay to come to 
 Lexington, Ky., and write his biography, in antici- 
 pation of a nomination for the Presidency in 1832. 
 The "New England Review," which Prentice 
 edited, was owned by leading politicians of Connect- 
 icut, of the party favorable to Clay. When they 
 learned they were to lose Prentice for a time, they 
 asked him to recommend some one to fill his place. 
 His advice to send for Whittier was acted upon. 
 This call to edit the leading party paper of a State, 
 with the local politics of which he had no acquaint- 
 ance, was a great surprise to the young poet; 
 but it was in the line of his principal ambition, 
 and he did not hesitate to accept the position. 
 While connected with the "Manufacturer," he 
 had come into personal communication with the 
 principal men of his party in Massachusetts, and 
 had been making a study of political economy, in 
 
82 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 the expectation of taking up political journalism as 
 his life work. He had never received pay for his 
 verses, and had not thought of depending upon 
 poetry for his bread. The salary offered him as 
 editor of the " Review " was about $500 a year. 
 Small as it was, he now saw a prospect, by the 
 practice of strict economy, of wiping out the debt 
 that had incumbered the Haverhill farm. This 
 part of his ambition was soon gratified. 
 
 If he was surprised by the offer of this editor- 
 ship, he was accustomed to say he thought the Con- 
 necticut statesmen, who came into the office of the 
 " He view " to see the new editor, were equally sur- 
 prised to find at the desk that had been occu- 
 pied by the genteel and spirited Prentice a shy 
 lad, in homespun clothes of Quaker cut, straight 
 from a Massachusetts farm. He must at first 
 glance have appeared out of place in the editorial 
 chair of their State paper, in the midst of a fierce 
 political campaign, and as the successor of one of 
 the most trenchant and dashing editors America 
 had produced. Among his intimates, Whittier was 
 always a ready and sprightly talker, but among 
 strangers he held his peace. His bright eyes, and 
 the quick intelligence of his handsome face, must 
 have speedily reassured those interested in the paper 
 he was to edit. They saw that his homely Quaker 
 clothes covered a youth of good parts, honest, ear- 
 nest, intelligent, and ambitious. By listening to 
 the talk of the party leaders who made his office 
 their rendezvous, he soon mastered the shibboleth 
 of local politics, and gave good satisfaction. 
 
 It would be difficult to find two men more entirely 
 
THE NEW ENGLAND REVIEW 83 
 
 unlike than were Prentice and Whittier. Pren- 
 tice delighted in giving pain with his caustic pen, 
 and he used his great power of satire with reckless 
 disregard of the feelings of his opponents. Whittier 
 was a man of the sweetest nature, kind and courte- 
 ous, but of the truest courage. He was content to 
 disarm an antagonist without drawing a drop of his 
 blood. They had each achieved some distinction as 
 writers of both prose and verse. Prentice was 
 five years the senior, and is now best remembered 
 as the witty and slashing editor of the Louisville, 
 Ky., " Journal." He did not come back to Con- 
 necticut as he had expected. In his editorial of 
 farewell Prentice said of his successor : 
 
 " I cannot do less than congratulate my readers 
 on the prospect of their more familiar acquaintance 
 with a gentleman of such powerful energies, and 
 such exalted purity and sweetness of character. I 
 have made some enemies among those whose good 
 opinion I value, but no rational man can ever be 
 the enemy of Mr. Whittier." 
 
 An intimate friend of the poet contributes to 
 this memoir the following report of a conversation 
 she once had with Mr. Whittier about his accept- 
 ance of the editorship of the Hartford paper : 
 
 George D. Prentice, he said, had been writing 
 letters to his own paper, purporting to come from 
 the " Man in the Moon." After a while they 
 were discontinued for several weeks, and then one 
 appeared which Whittier thought was from a dif- 
 ferent hand ; so he tried one himself and sent it 
 on, hardly expecting ever to hear from it again ; 
 
84 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 but in course of time back it came to him in print, 
 with a letter from Prentice saying he would like 
 to hear from him again. It was upon this letter 
 that he first saw himself called "Mr." After a 
 while there came another letter he did not have 
 many letters then saying Mr. Prentice was to 
 be gone six months and would like to have him 
 take charge of the paper during his absence. He 
 told his mother, but no one else, thinking they 
 would laugh at him. His father had recently 
 died, and he felt he was needed at home. He lay 
 awake all night, and finally concluded he would 
 go. Being asked how he could know in the least 
 what to do, he said he did not he knew nothing 
 about it but took care to conceal his ignorance. 
 When he was going to write on any subject he 
 read up on it. After he had been in Hartford a 
 few weeks, he opened one of the exchanges, the 
 "Cat skill Recorder," he believed, and there 
 was a long article headed "John Gr. Whittier," 
 filled with abuse and ridicule of him and his editor- 
 ship. It was a terrible blow to him. He hid the 
 paper so that his publishers and the people about 
 the office should not see it, and every once in a while 
 he would take it out and read it over. He went 
 home to his boarding-house, and some of the young 
 ladies, seeing marks of trouble in his face, asked 
 him what was the matter ; but he did not tell them. 
 Every paper he opened, he expected to see this cop- 
 ied at full length. He did not dare say much about 
 it in his paper, because he did not want his readers 
 to know what had been said of him. Finally, he 
 wrote a letter to the Catskill man, remonstrating 
 
THE NEW ENGLAND REVIEW 85 
 
 with him ; to which an answer came worse than the 
 original offense, saying that if he was so thin- 
 skinned as that he would better quit the news- 
 paper business, for it was not a circumstance to 
 what would happen as time went on; A few days 
 afterward, the New York " Courier and Enquirer," 
 then edited by the Noahs, he thought, and Mr. 
 James Brooks, came to the office with a flattering 
 notice, and marked " Please exchange ; " this com- 
 forted him. He thought if a great paper like this 
 praised him, it was not so much matter about the 
 little Catskiller. Bryant's paper, the " Evening 
 Post," followed suit, and some editors asked him 
 to call on them if he ever came to New York. 
 Prentice did not return, and he stayed in Hart- 
 ford eighteen months. There was much dissipation 
 there. He had been in town but a little while 
 before they made him a member of a club com- 
 posed of the young men of the first families, who 
 did little but drink and carouse. He only went 
 one night ; did not care about such things. He 
 would not drink with them. During his residence 
 in Hartford, he once visited New York, and, as 
 requested, called upon the editors of the " Courier 
 and Enquirer." Major Noah was in, a large, 
 portly Jew. "Is this Mr. Whittier ? " "Yes." 
 Of the Hartford ' Review ' ? " " Yes." " Ah ! 
 yes, yes, a younger man than I supposed." Mr. 
 Brooks was ill, so he called at his house and was 
 very courteously entreated, and went to the club 
 in the evening where he saw oysters for the first 
 time. Did he enjoy it ? No, not very much ; he was 
 rather shy and knew scarcely any one. While go- 
 
86 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 ing by a theatre one night, he saw a man, too drunk 
 to stand alone, holding on by the railings of the 
 steps. As he turned to look at him, the man said, 
 " Don't thee come in here, Quaker, this is no place 
 for thee. I will report thee to Friend Jenkins, and 
 he will turn thee out of the Monthly Meeting." 
 
 If he had been disposed to attend places of vain 
 amusement, his Quaker dress, he found, would have 
 been a constant protection. He entered heartily 
 into social life in Hartford, and left a pleasant 
 memory in many families. In a reminiscent letter 
 that is published in the " History of Hartford 
 County," he says : 
 
 " I boarded first at the old Lunt tavern, and 
 afterward at Jonathan Law's, formerly postmaster 
 of Hartford. I knew well some of the best people 
 in the little city, Judge Euss, Hon. Mr. Trumbull, 
 Hon. Martin Welles, Dr. Todd, Mrs. Sigourney ; 
 Isaac E. Crary afterward General Crary, mem- 
 ber of Congress from Michigan and Charles 
 Emerson, then young lawyers there, wrote for my 
 paper, as did also F. A. P. Barnard, now presi- 
 dent of Columbia College, New York." 
 
 The intimacy with Barnard, who was at that 
 time a teacher in the asylum for the deaf and 
 dumb, sprang from the fact that both of them 
 were especially interested in Eastern history and 
 romance. It was for this reason that " Miriam," 
 an Eastern poem, was dedicated to him ; its open- 
 ing lines refer to the old days at Hartford : 
 
 " The years are many since, in youth and hope, 
 Under the Charter Oak, our horoscope 
 We drew thick-studded with all favoring stars." 
 
HARTFORD FRIENDS 87 
 
 Mrs. Sigourney was in the height of her popu- 
 larity as a writer, when Whittier was in Hartford, 
 and of her he says in a letter written long after 
 her death : " I knew Mrs. Sigourney well, when 
 as a boy I came to Hartford. Her kindness to 
 the young rustic stranger I shall never forget." 
 Late in life he wrote these lines for the tablet 
 placed near her pew in Christ Church : 
 
 " She sang alone, ere womanhood had known 
 
 The gift of song which fills the air to-day : 
 Tender and sweet, a music all her own 
 May fitly linger where she knelt to pray." 
 
 The first two or three weeks of the month of 
 January, 1831, were spent by Mr. Whittier in the 
 city of New York. He was at this time editing 
 the " Review," but there is not a word in his 
 paper referring to this visit, and only an indirect 
 reference after his return to his editorial desk to 
 the fact that he had been absent. All that we know 
 of this episode is found in his correspondence with 
 his friend, Jonathan Law, 1 of Hartford, in whose 
 family he resided for some months while editing 
 the " Review." It was a two days' journey from 
 Hartford to New York, by stage to New Haven, 
 and by steamboat thence to New York. The steam- 
 boat was caught in the severest storm known for 
 many years, and the first letter to Mr. Law, written 
 in mid-passage, gives a graphic description of the 
 miseries of the voyage, enlivened with humorous 
 
 1 Mr. Law was an educated and scholarly man, familiar with 
 the poets, and Mr. Whittier had occasion to acknowledge great 
 indebtedness to him for his aid. He had a large house and a 
 good library. He was postmaster at Hartford from 1800 to 1829. 
 
88 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 comment upon many distressing situations. The 
 letter closes with the enigmatical remark, " To- 
 morrow I shall be busy ; whether for good or ill, I 
 know not. All that men in our situation can do 
 shall be done." He was accompanied and assisted 
 by a young lawyer, Mr. Isaac E. Crary. 1 They ar- 
 rived Saturday, January 1, and on the next day 
 he wrote : 
 
 "I have reached New York at last, and am 
 already surrounded with papers and musty docu- 
 ments. I find not so much difficulty as I antici- 
 pated. The Ghent treaty is safe. It was not 
 among the missing. My first letter was dated on 
 board the steamboat that floating pandemo- 
 nium that pestilential hospital ship. I shud- 
 der even now at the bare thought of it. We 
 spent Friday night on the boat, a few miles be- 
 low the city. It was almost a sleepless one. We 
 are now sitting in our room, Crary and myself; 
 there is a noble fire in the grate, and we are work- 
 ing away for dear life. W T e are, in fact, perfect 
 hermits, and we abide by our room as Diogenes 
 did in his tub. . . . We have no news to relate, 
 none in the world ; and yet, as I promised to write, 
 I fulfill my engagement. I have seen no one as 
 yet. The editor of the ' Mercantile Advertiser ' 
 has just called on me, in the name of Forrest, the 
 tragedian, of Halleck, Wetmore, and Leggett, of 
 
 1 Crary went to Michigan soon after, and became delegate 
 from the Territory in Congress. He was also member of Congress 
 from Michigan when it became a State, and was largely instru- 
 mental in developing the plans by which the grant of the general 
 government for educational purposes became a fund of great 
 and permanent value. 
 
POLITICAL WORK 89 
 
 New York, and of Hill, of Boston, to attend a 
 convivial meeting of the Literati, this evening. 
 I have declined. I have no idea of soaking my 
 brains in champagne or Madeira, when I have so 
 much use for them. At present I must have a 
 clear lookout, or all may go for the ' Old Harry ' 
 instead of our own Harry." 
 
 This last sentence and the reference to the 
 Treaty of Ghent indicate that the search was for 
 some part of the record of Henry Clay ; and that 
 the results of the search were not encouraging ap- 
 pears in a reference to it, in a passage not here 
 quoted, as an " ugly affair " he would be glad to 
 have off his hands. After a fortnight's work upon 
 this mysterious business, he writes to his Hartford 
 friend, under date of Seventh day evening, 1st mo. 
 15th: 
 
 " I am yet in the land of the living, and would 
 give half a kingdom to be in your goodly city of 
 Hartford. We have had a wearisome time of it, 
 and the end has not yet come. We have been sick, 
 and given over to the buffeting of the ' Indigo 
 Demons.' Verily, we have seen enough of vexa- 
 tion, enough of agony, spiritual and bodily, to 
 make our very hairs as white as those of Methuse- 
 lah when a thousand winters had gone over his 
 venerable head. We have ransacked every street ; 
 we have turned over the huge folios of every 
 library; we have read, inquired, cogitated, and 
 written and rewritten, until our brains are in a 
 worse state than Ovid's chaos." 
 
 The files of the " Eeview," from July, 1830, to 
 March, 1831, show a large amount of work from 
 
90 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 Whittier's own hand, not only in political leaders, 
 but in poems and sketches. There are twenty- 
 three poems signed with his initials, beside several 
 that are probably his, not signed ; also, several 
 legends and short stories. In the first number of 
 the paper after he took charge of it, July 19, 
 1830, appears a poem, " To L. E. L., Author 
 of the Improvisatrice," which was copied in other 
 periodicals during the lifetime of Letitia E. Lan- 
 don, but which Mr. Whittier never placed in any 
 collection of his works. Another poem, " Christ 
 in the Tempest," was published August 16, 1830. 
 This became familiar to the public in Emerson's 
 " First Class Reader." Of this he wrote to Rev. 
 R. H.Howard, in 1888: 
 
 " It was for some reason omitted by my pub- 
 lishers ; I think because it was not thought valu- 
 able in a merely literary point of view. I had not 
 seen it for a long time ; but I have just hunted it 
 up, and find it better than many things in my col- 
 lected poems. The storm on the little lake may 
 have been exaggerated ; but as a whole the piece 
 is not altogether unworthy, certainly, so far as the 
 sentiment is concerned." 
 
 Here are the first and last stanzas of the poem : 
 
 " Storm on the midnight waters. The vast sky 
 Is stooping 1 with the thunder. Cloud on cloud 
 Keels heavily in the darkness, like a shroud 
 
 Shock by some warning spirit from the high 
 
 And terrible wall of heaven. The mighty wave 
 Tosses beneath its shadow, like the bold 
 
 Upheavings of a giant from the grave 
 Which bound him prematurely to its cold 
 
 And desolate bosom. Lo, they mingle now 
 
CHRIST IN THE TEMPEST 91 
 
 Tempest and heaving wave, along whose brow 
 Trembles the lightning from its thick fold. 
 
 " Dread Ruler of the tempest ! Thou before 
 
 Whose presence boweth the uprisen storm, 
 To whom the waves do homage round the shore 
 
 Of many an island empire ! If the form 
 Of the frail dust beneath Thine eye may claim 
 
 Thine infinite regard, oh, breathe upon 
 The storm and darkness of man's soul the same 
 Quiet and peace and humbleness which came 
 
 O'er the roused waters, where Thy voice had gone, 
 A minister of peace to conquer in Thy name." 
 
 The other poems of this period which appear in 
 his collected works are: "Isabella of Austria," 
 " The Frost Spirit," " The Fair Quakeress," " The 
 Cities of the Plain," and "Bolivar." This last- 
 named poem was written one month after the death 
 of the South American patriot. In the " Review " 
 for October 18, 1830, three of his poems appear, 
 and the best of the three, " New England," was 
 unsigned, but to the copy found among his papers 
 he has appended his initials. This poem, with the 
 exception of the last stanza, appears in "Moll 
 Pitcher." The self-assertion in this last stanza 
 probably seemed to him too strong at the time of 
 its publication. But it reveals the high spirit of 
 his youth, and now that its speculation may be 
 looked upon as fulfilled prophecy, it properly be 
 longs in these pages : 
 
 " Land of my fathers ! if my name, 
 Now humble and unwed to fame, 
 Hereafter burn upon the lip, 
 
 As one of those which may not die, 
 Linked in eternal fellowship 
 
 With visions pure and strong and high 
 
92 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 If the wild dreams, which quicken now 
 The throbbing pulse of heart and brow, 
 Hereafter take a real form 
 Like spectres changed to being warm ; 
 And over temples worn and gray 
 
 The star-like crown of glory shine, 
 Thine be the bard's undying lay, 
 
 The murmur of his praise be thine ! " 
 
 He busied himself also at this time in the prepa- 
 ration of his first book, " Legends of New England, 
 in Prose and Verse." No advertisement of this 
 book appeared in the paper he was conducting until 
 the week before it was issued. 1 It was printed in the 
 office of the " Keview." There are now but few 
 copies of this earliest venture of his in existence. 
 Whenever, in later life, Mr. Whittier obtained pos- 
 session of a copy, he destroyed it. On one occasion 
 he paid five dollars for a copy, and burned it. He 
 said he looked it through, and" it seemed like some- 
 body else." 
 
 When his "Legends of New England" ap- 
 
 1 This book was published February 23, 1831, by Havener & 
 Phelps, Hartford. The first announcement of it contained the name 
 of the author, but the advertisements that appeared after it was 
 issued do not mention the author's name. The table of contents 
 was as follows : " The Midnight Attack ; The Weird Gathering ; 
 The Rattlesnake Hunter ; Metacom ; The Murdered Lady ; The 
 Unquiet Sleeper : The Haunted House ; The Spectre Warriors ; 
 The Powow ; The Spectre Ship ; The Human Sacrifice ; The In- 
 dian's Tale ; A Night among the Wolves ; The White Mountains ; 
 The Black Fox: The Mother's Revenge ; The Aerial Omens ; The 
 Last Norridgewock." Nine of these pieces are poems, and of 
 these only two are to be found in his complete works, published 
 in 1888, viz., " Metacom " and " Mount Agiochook," which last 
 title has been substituted for " The White Mountains." Not one 
 of the prose sketches has been deemed worthy of preservation. 
 
LEGENDS OF NEW ENGLAND 93 
 
 peared, he had been five years before the public 
 as a writer. At this time more than one hundred 
 poems of his had been printed in various periodicals. 
 Only twenty of these are to be found in any extant 
 edition of his works. It must be acknowledged that 
 his judgment in suppressing them was correct. The 
 few specimens of his early work that he allowed to 
 appear in the latest and fullest collection of his 
 poems are sufficient to show the first steps of his 
 literary progress. 
 
 It may be said that some of the discarded early 
 poems are devoted to phases of " the tender passion." 
 There is no reason to suppose that he was not pos- 
 sessed of at least the average susceptibility of young 
 people, and yet the verses to which reference is 
 here made must not be taken as the measure of 
 that susceptibility. His youthful letters to intimate 
 friends abound in passages like this to Edwin Har- 
 riman, written from Boston, in 1829, while editing 
 the " Manufacturer : " 
 
 " Here I have been all day trying to write some- 
 thing for my paper, but what with habitual lazi- 
 ness, and a lounge or two in the Athenaeum 
 Gallery, I am altogether unfitted for composition. 
 . . . There are a great many pretty girls at the 
 Athenaeum, and I like to sit there and remark 
 upon the different figures that go flitting by me, 
 like aerial creatures just stooping down to our dull 
 earth, to take a view of the beautiful creations of 
 the painter's genius. I love to watch their airy mo- 
 tions, notice the dark brilliancy of their fine eyes, 
 and observe the delicate flush stealing over their 
 cheeks, but, trust me, my heart is untouched, cold 
 
94 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 and motionless as a Jutland lake lighted up "by 
 the moonshine. I always did love a pretty girl. 
 Heaven grant there is no harm in it! ... Mr. 
 Garrison will deliver an address on the Fourth of 
 July. He goes to see his Dulcinea every other 
 night almost, but is fearful of being c shipped off,' 
 after all, by her. Lord help the poor fellow, if it 
 happens so. I like my business very well; but 
 hang me if I like the people here. I am ac- 
 quainted with a few girls, and have no wish to be 
 so with many." 
 
 In March, 1831, he was called home to assist his 
 mother in the settlement of his father's estate, and 
 he remained until June of that year. From Ha- 
 verhill he sent several letters to the " Review." 
 One of these gives a lively account of his stage- 
 ride homeward, and another is devoted to politics. 
 Gideon Welles, afterward Abraham Lincoln's Sec- 
 retary of the Navy, was then a leader in the Dem- 
 ocratic party of Connecticut, and edited the Hart- 
 ford " Times." Mr. Whittier's political discussions 
 during his stay in Hartford were mainly with this 
 champion of the Democracy. While at Haverhill 
 he continued his work upon the " Review," his ar- 
 ticles being sent by mail. In one of his letters he 
 says : "A little sister of mine, a girl of sixteen 
 summers, has, like her luckless brother, a disposi- 
 tion to make rhymes. The following, which I 
 have somewhat feloniously and of malice afore- 
 thought abstracted from her writing-desk, is a speci- 
 men of her versifying." The poem is a description 
 of an autumn sunset, of which this is the first 
 stanza : 
 
POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS 95 
 
 " Oh, there is beauty in the sky a widening of gold 
 Upon each light and breezy cloud, and on each vapory fold ! 
 The autumn wind has died away, and the air has not a sound, 
 Save the sighing of the withered leaves as they fall upon the 
 ground." 
 
 Then follows a familiar political talk, of which 
 this is a specimen : 
 
 "How goes on the politics of the State? In 
 supporting the ticket nominated by the convention 
 I act not from personal feeling. I might even 
 have preferred other men to those now nominated, 
 but I conceive it to be the duty of every man who 
 would maintain a consistent support of the great 
 principles for which we are exerting ourselves at 
 the present time, to lay aside everything local and 
 unimportant, and act for the general good. In op- 
 posing the corruption and misrule of the adminis- 
 tration we must move on unitedly, if we hope for 
 success. Without union we may fail, even where 
 five eighths of our citizens are enemies of Jackson- 
 ism. The Calhotm business looks encouraging. 
 Crawford is to all intents ' nullified,' and the 
 friends of ' the greatest and best of men ' are leav- 
 ing him, as his political horoscope seems at the 
 present time so very ill-boding. This place [Essex 
 North Congressional District] has been the theatre 
 of a warm political warfare. Mr. Gushing is the 
 most popular candidate for Congress, and I trust 
 he will be elected." 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1831, he wrote to his 
 friend, Jonathan Law : 
 
 " I have been driving about ' from pillar to post ' 
 ever since I left Hartford, The worst of it is, that 
 
96 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 all this locomotion has not improved my health, 
 which is still in a rather suspicious state. I have 
 been away ' Down East,' and have just returned. 
 I have not received a line from Hartford since I 
 left ; I do wish to hear from you, as I shall proba- 
 bly remain in this section two or three weeks 
 longer. I want some information about political 
 matters in Connecticut. . . . My sister Elizabeth 
 has been obliged to leave the academy on account 
 of her health. What' a poor miserable thing is 
 human nature, after all ! 
 
 ' The slightest breath can shake it, 
 And the light zephyr easily can break it.' " 
 
 Before definitely giving up his editorial work 
 on the " Review," he made another trip to his 
 home in Haverhill, and was accompanied by Dr. 
 Crane, as in the condition of his health it was not 
 thought prudent for him to travel alone. But he 
 sent the physician home with this note to Mr. 
 Law, dated October 27, 1831 : " You have got 
 Dr. Crane ; but for me, I am off for Salem, not- 
 withstanding the doctor's pledge to return me 
 'hale and breathing,' or with my bones neatly 
 done up in his traveling trunk. I shall probably 
 see Hartford in the course of a week or ten 
 days." 
 
 His expectation of returning to Hartford was 
 not realized, although early in December he 
 started from Haverhill with that intention. In 
 his absence he had been appointed a delegate 
 from Connecticut, to attend a convention of the 
 National Republican party, that was to meet in 
 Baltimore on the 12th of December, to nominate 
 
Elizabeth Hussey Whittier 
 
GIVES UP THE REVIEW 97 
 
 a President and Vice-President of the United 
 States. As a friend of Henry Clay, he desired to 
 attend this convention, and to visit Hartford on 
 his way. He made the attempt, but upon reach- 
 ing Boston found he had not the strength to pro- 
 ceed farther ; indeed, he was too ill to return at 
 once to Haverhill. 
 
 It became necessary now definitely to resign 
 his editorship of the " New England Review," and 
 to give up his Hartford life, which he did the first 
 of January, 1832. He left behind, apparently, 
 the copy for the " Literary Remains of J. G. C. 
 Brainard," a Connecticut poet, who died in 1828. 
 He edited the volume and wrote a biographical 
 sketch, but in a letter to a Hartford friend, 
 written in the autumn of 1832, he says : "I have 
 not seen a copy of it ; the proof was not sent, and 
 from an extract or two which I have seen, it is 
 pretty well spiced with mistakes." Meanwhile he 
 was living at home in Haverhill, with more leisure 
 indeed, and with many plans, but with that con- 
 sciousness of physical weakness which thereafter 
 was seldom absent. 
 
 The following letter to his friend, Jonathan 
 Law, dated Haverhill, January 5, 1832, shows 
 how hard it was for him to give up his political 
 and literary work, at the demand of a persistent 
 disease : 
 
 " Well, I have at last written, or am going 
 to, being the third time in which I have actually 
 written to you since I left Hartford, and delayed 
 because I expected to be the bearer of my own 
 epistle. I have been at home that is to say, in 
 
98 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 this vicinity all the time, half sick, half mad. 
 For the last fortnight I have been kept close. 
 Mr. Barnard has doubtless told you that I started 
 for Hartford about three or four weeks since, and 
 was obliged to return. Now you may suppose 
 that I have got the 'hypo.' No such thing. It 
 is all as real as the nose on my face, this illness 
 of mine, alas, too real. Nor am I under the 
 cerulean influence of the blue devils now. The 
 last blue-visaged imp has departed with my exor- 
 cism ringing in his ears ' Conjuro te, scelera- 
 tissime, abire ad tuum locum.' But nonsense 
 apart, my dear sir, what shadows we are, and 
 what shadows we pursue ! We start vigorously 
 forward with something for our object up, up, 
 among the very clouds ; we toil on, we sacrifice 
 present ease and present happiness ; we turn from 
 real blessings to picture future ones unsubstan- 
 tial as the fabric of the summer cloud or the 
 morning mist. We press on for a time, the over- 
 taxed nerves relax from their first strong tension, 
 until the mysterious machinery of our existence is 
 shattered and impeded, until the mind realizes 
 that, chained down to material grossness, and 
 clogged with a distempered and decaying mor- 
 tality, it cannot rise to heaven. Perhaps it is well 
 indeed we know it is that this should be the 
 end of human ambition. But, oh, how humiliat- 
 ing to the vanity of our nature ! 
 
 "Now, don't imagine for one moment that I 
 have become morose and melancholy. Far from 
 it. I am among anxious friends. I have a thou- 
 sand sources of enjoyment, even in the midst of 
 
PHYSICAL WEAKNESS 99 
 
 corporeal suffering. I have an excellent society 
 here to visit and receive visits from, my early 
 companions and those who have grown up with 
 me, who have known me long and well. I have 
 spent some time in Boston, Salem, Marblehead, 
 Andover, etc., among 'brave men and fair wo- 
 men;' have dabbled somewhat in local politics, 
 and am extensively popular just now on that ac- 
 count. The girls here are nice specimens of what 
 girls should be. You will find a description of 
 one or two of them in a poem which I shall send 
 you in a few weeks, perhaps in less time, a 
 poem partly written at your house, and which is 
 being published. It lay around in fragments, 
 staring me everywhere in the face, and at last, to 
 get rid of it, I have given it over to the book- 
 makers. They will have a hard bargain of it. 
 
 " Decency forgive me ! I 've filled up two pages 
 with that most aristocratic little pronoun which 
 represents the writer of this epistle. Misery 
 makes a man an egotist, the world over." 
 
 In a letter to Mrs. Sigourney, a month later, 
 February 2, 1832, he repeats this information 
 about his work, but adds intimation of another 
 literary scheme not elsewhere noted. 1 
 
 " A thousand thanks for your kind letter, which 
 is now before me ! It has acted upon my melan- 
 choly feelings like a spell of exorcism. 
 
 ' Welcome as the odor fanned 
 
 Around the weary seaman's keel 
 From some unseen and flowery land.' 
 
 1 This and a subsequent letter to Mrs. Sigourney have been 
 kindly furnished by Hon. Charles T. Hoadley, of Hartford, 
 
100 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 I say melancholy feelings they are so only in 
 consequence of ill health, and visit me only at 
 long intervals. In this vicinity I have everything 
 to make me happy, quiet, contentment, and a 
 large circle of warm and kind-hearted friends. 
 And yet, I long to visit Hartford ; it has for me 
 a thousand pleasant associations ; and the op- 
 portunity which my residence there afforded me of 
 a personal acquaintance with yourself is to me 
 a constant source of self-congratulation. When 
 your letter arrived, I had just been reading for the 
 second time your admirable story in the 4 Ama- 
 ranth.' I know not what others may say, in- 
 deed I care not, but I do honestly think that 
 the short story of Jehiel Wigglesworth, aside from 
 the laudable object which the author evidently had 
 in view, contains more nature, a better delinea- 
 tion of New England character, and a closer 
 imitation of the real Yankee dialect, than all the 
 tales and novels which have heretofore filled the 
 circulating libraries or the newspapers of this 
 country. 
 
 " I intended when I left Hartford to proceed im- 
 mediately to the West. But a continuance of ill 
 health has kept me at home. I have scarcely done 
 anything this winter. There have been few days 
 in which I have been able to write with any degree 
 of comfort. I have indeed thrown together a poem 
 of some length, the title of which ( 4 Moll Pitcher ') 
 has very little connection with the subject. This 
 poem I handed to a friend of mine, and he has 
 threatened to publish it. It will not have the ad' 
 vantage or disadvantage of my name, however. 
 
WRITING A WORK OF FICTION 101 
 
 I have also written, or rather begun to write, a 
 work of fiction, which shall have for its object the 
 reconciliation of the North and the South, being 
 simply an endeavor to do away with some of the 
 prejudices which have produced enmity between 
 the Southron and the Yankee. The style which I 
 have adopted is about half-way between the abrupt- 
 ness of Laurence Sterne and the smooth graceful- 
 ness of W. Irving. I may fail, indeed I suspect 
 I shall, but I have more philosophy than poetry 
 in my composition, and if I am disappointed in 
 one project, I have only to lay it aside and take 
 another up. If I thought I deserved half the 
 compliments you have been pleased to bestow upon 
 my humble exertions, I should certainly be in 
 danger of becoming obnoxious to the charge of 
 vanity. The truth is, I love poetry, with a love 
 as warm, as fervent, as sincere, as any of the more 
 gifted worshipers at the temple of the Muses. 
 I consider its gift as something holy and above the 
 fashion of the world. In the language of Francis 
 Bacon, 'The Muses are in league with Time/ 
 which spares their productions in its work of 
 universal desolation. But I feel and know that 
 
 * To other chords than mine belong 
 The breathing of immortal song.' 
 
 And in consequence, I have been compelled to 
 trust to other and less pleasant pursuits for dis- 
 tinction and profit. Politics is the only field now 
 open for me, and there is something inconsistent 
 in the character of a poet and modern politician. 
 People of the present day seem to have ideas 
 
102 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 similar to those of that old churl of a Plato, who 
 was for banishing all poets from his perfect re- 
 public. 
 
 " Did you ever read these lines from Halleck ? 
 
 ' But when the grass grows green above me, 
 And those who know me now and love me 
 
 Are sleeping by my side, 
 Will it avail me aught that men 
 Tell to the world with lip and pen 
 
 That I have lived and died ? 
 No ; if a garland for my brow 
 
 Is growing, let me have it now, 
 
 While I 'm alive to wear it ; 
 And if in whispering my name 
 There 's music in the voice of fame, 
 Like Garcia's, let me hear it ! ' 
 
 Now I feel precisely so. I would have fame with 
 me now, or not at all. I would not choose be- 
 tween a nettle or a rose to grow over my grave. 
 If I am worthy of fame, I would ask it now, now 
 in the springtime of my years ; when I might 
 share its smile with the friends whom I love, and 
 by whom I am loved in return. But who would 
 ask a niche in that temple where the dead alone 
 are crowned ; where the green and living garland 
 waves in ghastly contrast over the pale, cold brow 
 and the visionless eye ; and where the chant of 
 praise and the voice of adulation fall only on the 
 deafened ear of Death ? 
 
 " I have written to my friend B. on the subject 
 of the ' Amaranth,' and will take care to do your 
 other errand in Boston. I have a book in my pos- 
 session the poems of Alonzo Lewis, who wished 
 me to hand it to you. I shall be in Hartford as 
 
MOLL PITCHER 103 
 
 soon in the spring as the traveling will admit. 
 Will you remember me kindly to my friend Sta- 
 miatiades ? I am happy to see that the people of 
 Hartford are alive on the subject of education in 
 Greece. My friend Mr. Law will hand you this. 
 Excuse this hasty, and I fear incoherent, letter, 
 and believe me that nothing would afford me 
 greater pleasure than a speedy return to Hartford.'* 
 
 The poem to which he refers in the above letters 
 was being printed in Newburyport. It was pub- 
 lished by Carter & Hendee, Boston, in a pamphlet 
 of twenty-eight octavo pages. It was dedicated to 
 Dr. Eli Todd, of Hartford, and the name of the 
 author does not appear on its title-page. The 
 following note is given by way of preface : 
 
 " The following pages, dear reader, are published 
 neither for a poetical reputation nor for money. 
 The former is unfortunately a most indefinite, and 
 too often ' stale, flat, and unprofitable,' commodity, 
 inasmuch as it could puzzle the French cook, who 
 made fifty different dishes of a parsnip, to make 
 either meat or drink of it. As for the latter, I 
 have not enough of the poetical mania in my dis- 
 position to dream of converting, by an alchemy 
 more potent than that of the old philosophers, a 
 limping couplet into a brace of doubloons ; or a 
 rickety stanza into a note of hand. 'Moll Pitcher' 
 (there 's music in the name) is the offspring of a 
 few weeks of such leisure as is afforded by indis- 
 position, and is given to the world in all its origi- 
 nal negligence, the thoughts fresh as when first 
 conceived." 
 
 The story of the poem is of a maiden consulting 
 
104 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 the witch in regard to her lover, who is at sea. 
 The witch has some cause of grievance against the 
 maiden, and frightens her into a mild insanity by 
 predictions of dire calamity. The lover returns 
 safely, and, finding his betrothed in this demented 
 condition, gradually, by love's ministrations, recalls 
 her to her right mind, and at length " the thousand 
 fancies which were nursed in madness vanish one 
 by one." The concluding scene is at the death- 
 bed of the witch, whose last hours are soothed by 
 the gentle care of a daughter of the woman she so 
 cruelly wronged, and to whom in dying she gives 
 her blessing. 
 
 In 1840, a revised edition of "Moll Pitcher" 
 was published by Joseph Healy, of Philadelphia, 
 this edition for the first time connecting Mr. 
 Whittier's name with the poem, and with it was 
 printed " The Minstrel Girl," which was originally 
 published in John Neal's " Yankee," in 1829. 
 This last-named poem as a whole is unworthy of re- 
 production, but contains some stanzas of merit. It 
 makes eight pages of the 12mo pamphlet. 
 
 Mr. Whittier was more successful in suppressing 
 " Moll Pitcher " than he was with his later poem, 
 " Mogg Megone." It has never been published in 
 any collection of his works, and as a whole does 
 not deserve to be perpetuated. 
 
 Mr. Whittier sent several contributions of prose 
 and verse to the " Pearl," published by Isaac C 
 Pray, first in Hartford and afterward in Boston. 
 
 " The Prisoner for Debt " was originally pub- 
 lished in the " Pearl " for December 12, 1835, and 
 the date, 1849, given to it in the edition of 1888 is 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO PERIODICALS 105 
 
 an error. It had when first published these lines 
 of Pierpont as a preface : 
 
 " Cast down, great God, the fanes 
 That to unhallowed gains 
 
 Round us have risen ; 
 Temples whose priesthood pore 
 Moses and Jesus o'er, 
 
 Then bolt the poor man's prison." 
 
 Among the periodicals to which Mr. Whittier 
 contributed from 1829 to 1832, beside those already 
 named, were the " Columbian Star," the " Connecti- 
 cut Mirror," and the " Ladies' Magazine,," Mrs. 
 Sarah J. Hale was then editing the magazine 
 last named. When the publication of the " Yan- 
 kee " was suspended, its subscription list was trans- 
 ferred to Mrs. Hale's magazine, and John Neal 
 for a short time assisted in editing it. To illus- 
 trate the personal style of journalism in those days, 
 N. P. Willis's editorial comment upon this arrange- 
 ment may be cited. He mentioned the union of 
 the two totally dissimilar periodicals, and added, 
 41 The mustard-pot is upset in the milk-pan." 
 
 The Haverhill " Iris," of September 29, 1832, 
 contains a poem entitled " To a Poetical Trio in the 
 City of Gotham," which was signed by no name, 
 and was not known to be Whittier's until since his 
 death. But among his papers was found a letter, 
 written many years after the publication of this 
 poem, by one of the " Trio " satirized in it, which 
 fixes its authorship, even if the internal evidence 
 were not convincing. It is an appeal to Bryant, 
 Leggett, and Lawson, well-known poets of that 
 day, and at the same time editors of leading Jack- 
 
106 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 son papers in New York city, to give up their par- 
 tisan work, and come out for Freedom, as Moore, 
 Campbell, and Bulwer were doing in Great Britain. 
 Here is the poem in full, with the notes that ac- 
 companied it : 
 
 TO A POETICAL TRIO IN THE CITY OF GOTHAM. 
 
 Three wise men of Gotham 
 Went to sea in a bowl. 
 
 BARDS of the island city ! where of old 
 
 The Dutchman smoked beneath his favorite tree, 
 
 And the wild eyes of Indian hunters rolled 
 On Hudson plunging 1 in the Tappaan Zee, 
 
 Scene of Stuyvesant's might and chivalry, 
 
 And Knickerbocker's fame, I have made bold 
 
 To come before ye, at the present time, 
 
 And reason with ye in the way of rl 
 
 Time was when poets kept the quiet tenor 
 
 Of their green pathway through th' Arcadian vale, 
 
 Chiming their music in the low sweet manner 
 
 Of song-birds warbling to the " Soft South " gale ; 
 
 Wooing the Muse where gentle zephyrs fan her, 
 Where all is peace and earth may not assail ; 
 
 Telling of lutes and flowers, of love and fear, 
 
 Of shepherds, sheep and lambs, and " such small deer." 
 
 But ye ! lost recreants straying from the green 
 
 And pleasant vista of your early time, 
 With broken lutes and crownless skulls are seen 
 Spattering your neighbors with abhorrent slime 
 Of the low world's pollution ! l Ye have been 
 
 So long apostates from the Heaven of rhyme, 
 That of the Muses, every mother's daughter 
 Blushes to own such graceless bards e'er sought her. 
 
 " Hurrah for Jackson ! " is the music now 
 
 Which your cracked lutes have learned alone to utter, 
 
 1 Editors of the Mercantile Advertiser and the Evening Post 
 in New York, the present organs of Jacksonism. 
 
TO A POETICAL TRIO IN GOTHAM 107 
 
 As, crouching in Corruption's shadow low, 
 
 Ye daily sweep them for your bread and butter, 1 
 
 Cheered by the applauses of the friends who show 
 Their heads above the offal of the gutter, 
 
 And, like the trees which Orpheus moved at will, 
 
 Heel, as in token of your matchless skill ! 
 
 ' Thou son of Scotia ! 2 nursed beside the grave 
 
 Of the proud peasant-minstrel, and to whom 
 
 The wild muse of thy mountain-dwelling gave 
 A portion of its spirit, if the tomb 
 
 Could burst its silence, o'er the Atlantic's wave, 
 To thee his voice of stern rebuke would come, 
 
 Who dared to waken with a master's hand 
 
 The lyre of freedom in a fettered land. 
 
 And thou ! once treading firmly the proud deck 
 O'er which thy country's honored flag was sleeping, 
 
 Calmly in peace, or to the hostile beck 
 
 Of coming foes in starry splendor sweeping, 
 
 Thy graphic tales of battle or of wreck, 
 
 Or lone night-watch in middle ocean keeping, 
 
 Have made thy " Leisure Hours " more prized by far 
 
 Than those now spent in Party's wordy war. 8 
 
 And last, not least, thou ! now nurtured in the land 
 Where thy bold-hearted fathers long ago 
 
 Rocked Freedom's cradle, till its infant hand 
 Strangled the serpent fierceness of its foe, 
 
 1 Perhaps, after all, they get something better ; inasmuch aa 
 the Heroites have for some time had exclusive possession of the 
 Hall of St. Tammany, and we have the authority of Halleck that 
 
 " There 's a barrel of porter in Tammany Hall, 
 And the Bucktails are swigging it all the night long." 
 
 2 James Lawson, Esq., of the Mercantile. A fine, warm-hearted 
 Scotchman, who, having unfortunately blundered into Jacksonism, 
 is wondering " how i' the Deil's name " he got there. He is the 
 author of a volume entitled Tales and Sketches, and of the tragedy 
 of Giordano. 
 
 8 William Leggett, Esq., of the Post, a gentleman of good tal- 
 ents, favorably known as the editor of the New York Critic, etc. 
 
108 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 Thou, whose clear brow in early time was fanned 
 By the soft airs which from Castalia flow ! x 
 Where art thou now ? feeding with hickory ladle 
 The curs of Faction with thy daily twaddle 1 
 
 Men have looked up to thee, as one to be 
 
 A portion of our glory ; and the light 
 And fairy hands of woman beckoned thee 
 
 On to thy laurel guerdon ; and those bright 
 And gifted spirits, whom the broad blue sea 
 
 Hath shut from thy communion, bid thee, " Write" 
 Like John of Patmos. Is all this forgotten, 
 For Yankee brawls and Carolina cotton ? 
 
 Are autumn's rainbow hues no longer seen ? 
 
 Flows the " Green River" through its vale no more ? 
 Steals not thy " Rivulet " by its banks of green ? 
 
 Wheels upward from its dark and sedgy shore 
 Thy " Water Fowl " no longer ? that the mean 
 
 And vulgar strife, the ranting and the roar 
 Extempore, like Bottom's, should be thine, 
 Thou feeblest truck-horse in the Hero's line ! 
 
 Lost trio ! turn ye to the minstrel pride 
 Of classic Britain. Even effeminate Moore 
 
 Has cast the wine-cup and the lute aside 
 For Erin and O'Connell ; and before 
 
 His country's altar, Bulwer breasts the tide 
 Of old oppression. Sadly brooding o'er 
 
 The fate of heroes struggling to be free, 
 
 Even Campbell speaks for Poland. Where are ye ? 
 
 Hirelings of traitors ! know ye not that men 
 
 Are rousing up around ye to retrieve 
 Our country's honor, which too long has been 
 
 Debased by those for whom ye daily weave 
 Your web of fustian ; that from tongue and pen 
 
 Of those who o'er our tarnished honor grieve, 
 Of the pure-hearted and the gifted, come 
 Hourly the tokens of your master's doom ? 
 
 l William C. Bryant, Esq., well known to the public at large 
 as a poet of acknowledged excellence ; and as a very dull editor 
 to the people of New York. 
 
TO A POETICAL TRIO IN GOTHAM 109 
 
 Turn from their ruin ! Dash your chains aside ! 
 
 Stand up like men for Liberty and Law, 
 And free opinion. Check Corruption's pride, 
 
 Soothe the loud storm of fratricidal war, 
 And the bright honors of your eventide 
 
 Shall share the glory which your morning saw ; 
 The patriot's heart shall gladden at your name, 
 Ye shall be blessed with, and not " damned to fame " ! 
 
 Both Bryant and Leggett, in a few years, be- 
 came champions of freedom, to the great delight 
 of Whittier, who wrote not only a spirited poetical 
 tribute to Leggett, when " St. Tammany " proposed 
 to build a monument to the man whom living they 
 persecuted, but a brilliant eulogy in prose of one 
 who gave up a splendid prospect of political prefer- 
 ment rather than forswear his allegiance to the 
 despised cause of abolitionism. The poem, " Bry- 
 ant on his Birthday," gives Whittier's later esti- 
 mate of his older brother in poetry. Lawson l was 
 the only one of the " Poetical Trio " who did not 
 take part in anti-slavery work ; but that the Scotch- 
 man retained his personal friendship for Whittier 
 is shown by a letter written by him thirty-six years 
 after the publication of the sharp satire given 
 above. But for this letter, found among the pa- 
 pers of Mr. Whittier, no one would have guessed 
 that it was the Haverhill poet who had taken these 
 three stalwart New Yorkers over his knee. The 
 
 1 James Lawson, born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1799. Resided 
 in New York city and in Yonkers, after 1815. Published Tales 
 and Sketches, by a Cosmopolite, in 1830, and, at various times, Gior- 
 dano, a tragedy, and many fugitive prose and poetical articles in 
 periodicals. Allibone says he was one of the first to introduce 
 American letters to the notice of British readers. He retired from 
 active literary work in 1833. 
 
110 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 poem does not appear to have been copied in the pa- 
 pers of the day, and is now reproduced for the first 
 time. 
 
 Other articles, both in prose and verse, from the 
 pen of Whittier, may be found in files of the 
 Haverhill "Iris" for 1832. In the number for 
 April 12 is a prose sketch entitled " The Stormed 
 Fort," a tale of the East Indies in the year 1766. 
 A drunken Irish sailor captures a well-garrisoned 
 fort, single-handed and against orders, and when 
 threatened with punishment for his foolhardy act, 
 vows he will never take another fort so long as he 
 lives, which so amuses the admiral that he is let off. 
 
 From 1831 to 1835 Mr. Whittier contributed 
 prose and verse to the " New England Magazine," 
 edited by Joseph T. Buckingham, afterwards editor 
 of the " Boston Courier." It was in this magazine 
 that " Mogg Megone " first appeared, and eight 
 shorter poems, including " Toussaint L'Ouverture," 
 "The French Martyr," "A Lament," "Song o 
 the Yermonters," and " The Demon of the Study." 
 His prose contributions to this monthly included! 
 *' The Opium Eater," " Passaconaway r " and 
 " Powow Hill." This last named hill is now known 
 as Po Hill, an abbreviation of its original name ; 
 the river which flows at its base is still called the 
 Powow. The legend opens with the following de- 
 scription of the hill, and account of the origin of its 
 name : 
 
 " On the border of the Merrimac, some eight or 
 ten miles from the ocean, there rises a steep eminence 
 called Powow Hill. It is a landmark to the skip- 
 pers of the coasting craft that sail up Newburyport 
 
THE NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE 111 
 
 harbor, and strikes the eye by its abrupt elevation 
 and orbicular shape, the outlines being as regular 
 as if struck off by the sweep of a compass. It 
 obtained its name from that pagan ceremonial of 
 the aborigines ; for in ancient times, ere our worthy 
 and pious ancestors routed these heathen from the 
 land, the hill in question was the grand high place 
 of Indian worship, and the nocturnal powows upon 
 its summit were the terror and abomination of the 
 whole neighborhood. While the savages lingered 
 in these parts they never failed annually to assemble 
 on this consecrated mount and practice their mys- 
 terious orgies, greatly to the scandal and annoyance 
 of all the Christian folk that dwelt round about, they 
 having a pious horror of the practice of powowing, 
 deemed by Cotton Mather as damnable and demo- 
 niacal. Even when the last of the red men had 
 disappeared from the country, the scene of their 
 mystic incantations continued to be regarded with 
 profound awe. A spirit of the pagan mysteries 
 dwelt about the spot. Strange sights were seen. 
 A marvelous legend was current." 
 
 The legend as told by Whittier is of a bewitched 
 Yankee who was taken by his runaway horse to 
 the top of the hill, into the midst of a spectral 
 powow of savage ghosts. It is one of a large num- 
 ber of sketches written by Whittier between the 
 years 1829 and 1833, which he did not care to have 
 reproduced in any collection of his works. 
 
 As intimated, and as the letters already printed 
 plainly show, Whittier's interest was divided be- 
 tween literature and politics ; and how strongly the 
 latter absorbed his attention may be most clearly 
 
112 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 seen by the manner in which it forces itself into 
 a letter to Mrs. Sigourney, who naturally would be 
 his literary rather than his political confidante. 
 The letter was written in January, 1833. 
 
 " I have often feared, and perhaps not without 
 reason, that those whom I most truly love and 
 esteem, and whose good opinion I value above all 
 other human considerations, are sometimes inclined 
 to doubt the sincerity of my friendship and the 
 warmth of my heart. In my personal intercourse 
 with them a boyish diffidence, which manhood 
 has not been able to forget, and a most unpardon- 
 able lack of words, a want of the ready coin, 
 the circulating medium of conversation, have, I 
 am well aware, too often made me appear cold, dis- 
 tant, and as incapable of appreciating the delicate 
 attentions and generous sympathies of friendship 
 as of returning them. And, in my epistolary cor- 
 respondence, my habit of procrastination per- 
 petually resolving to do to-morrow what should be 
 done to-day has made me liable to the charge 
 of neglecting my friends. But if I know my own 
 heart (and I have long been in the habit of turn- 
 ing a severe eye upon myself, and closely analyz- 
 ing my own feelings), I am incapable of will- 
 fully neglecting any one who feels an interest in 
 my welfare, and, however unfortunate I may be 
 in their expression, however ambiguous and con- 
 tradictory may seem their revelation to others, I 
 have warm and deep and kind feelings. I believe 
 there is not a particle of misanthropy in my dis- 
 position ; and I am more at peace with the whole 
 world than with myself, not that I and myself are 
 
LETTER TO MRS. SIGOURNEY 113 
 
 much in the habit of quarreling. But, I believe 
 in the holy realities of friendship, pure, lofty, 
 intellectual; a communion of kindred affinities, 
 of mental similitudes, a redemption from the 
 miserable fetters of human selfishness ; a prac- 
 tical obedience to the beautiful injunction of our 
 Common Friend, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.' 
 I believe, too, that the pure love which we feel 
 for our friends is a part and portion of that love 
 which we owe and offer to our Creator, and is 
 acceptable to Him, inasmuch as it is offered not 
 to the decaying elements of humanity, but to 
 those brighter and holier attributes which are of 
 themselves the emanations of the Divinity, to 
 those pure emotions of the heart and those high 
 capacities of the soul in which that Divinity is 
 most clearly manifested ; and that, in proportion 
 as we draw near to each other in the holy commun- 
 ion and unforbidden love of earthly friendship, we 
 lessen the distance between our spirits and their 
 Original Source, just as the radii of a circle in 
 approaching each other approach also their common 
 centre. 
 
 " I hope, my dear Mrs. S., you will not attribute 
 my neglect to answer your letter, and to acknow- 
 ledge my obligations for the beautiful notice of 
 Brainard, to anything like disregard on my part. 
 All my friends are complaining of me for not 
 answering their letters. Continued ill health 
 and natural indolence, and the daily duties of 
 a large farm, must be my excuse. Of poetry I 
 have nearly taken my leave, and a pen is getting 
 to be something of a stranger to me. I have been 
 
114 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 compelled again to plunge into the political whirl- 
 pool ; for I have found that my political reputa- 
 tion is more influential than my poetical : so I try 
 to make myself a man of the world and the public 
 are deceived, but / am not. They do not see that 
 I have thrown the rough armor of rude and tur- 
 bulent controversy over a keenly sensitive bosom, 
 a heart of softer and gentler emotions than I 
 dare expose. Accordingly, as Governor Hamilton, 
 of South Carolina, says, I have 'put on athletic 
 habits for the occasion.' 
 
 "And speaking of South Carolina, what think 
 you of the prospect in the political heavens ? To 
 me, all is dark and fearful. If the Protecting 
 System is abolished, New England must suffer 
 deeply and wrongfully ; and if, on the other 
 hand, the bloodthirsty old man at the head of our 
 government shall undertake to put down South 
 Carolina with the bayonet, from that moment our 
 Union will be broken up never to unite again. 
 Blood cannot cement it. For one, I thank God 
 that He has given me a deep and invincible horror 
 of human butchery, that I am not one of those 
 who ' look on blood and carnage with composure.' 
 When Paine put forth his strong, and at that 
 time, at least, well-directed, energies in favor of 
 sparing the life of Louis XVI. before the French 
 Convention, Marat fiercely denounced him as ' a 
 Quaker, destitute of that philosophic liberality 
 requisite for putting men to death.' I meet with 
 a great many Marats at the present day. 
 
 " I have occasionally seen an article of your poetry 
 during the last year. I wish you would take the 
 
LETTER TO MRS. SIGOURNEY 115 
 
 trouble to send me, if convenient, such new pieces 
 as you may publish. I have written two or three 
 prose articles for 4 Buckingham's Magazine.' Have 
 you seen the 4 Knickerbocker,' published by Pea 
 body & Cole, of New York? I don't think much 
 of No. 1. There is not an article of poetry in it 
 which you would think paid the trouble of readingo 
 Halleck, Irving, Paulding, Hoffman, and Bryant 
 are engaged in it, I understand. I have been re- 
 quested to write for it, but don't know as I shall 
 be able to. I am glad to see that the ' Bouquet ' 
 still continues ; 't is the last light in your benighted 
 literary horizon. Hartford is by no means a lit- 
 erary place, and it has been remarked that were 
 it not for yourself it would be only known as the 
 place where a certain Convention once assembled. 
 Have you seen Garrison's 4 Thoughts on Coloni- 
 zation ' ? I wish you would read that book. I 
 know your predilection for the Colonization Soci- 
 ety, but I regret it. 
 
 " This letter will be handed you by Mr. Law, 
 with whom I occasionally correspond. Is Mr. Sta- 
 miatiades with you now ? If so, remember me 
 kindly to him, and assure him of my best wishes ; 
 and, for yourself, let me assure you that your let- 
 ters, whether frequent or far between, are to me 
 as angel visits." 
 
 The following letter to Jonathan Law, written 
 on the 13th of September, 1832, gives a further 
 glimpse of his life on the farm, while relieved of 
 editorial work, and shows how the Asiatic cholera, 
 which was then spreading over New England, 
 affected the public mind : 
 
116 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 " I have not forgotten my kind friends at Hart- 
 ford. Whatever may be my faults, I trust ingrati- 
 tude is not among their number. I already owe 
 you and your family more than I shall ever suit- 
 ably repay. But if my life and health are spared 
 me, you may always rely upon me as a firm, and 
 I hope not altogether useless, friend. My health 
 has been bad, nay, is so at this moment, but I 
 have still tolerable courage, and I am able to see 
 to the affairs of the farm. I am happy to find 
 that your city continues healthy. We have had 
 only one case [of cholera] in our village, and the 
 patient is now nearly recovered. The disease has 
 at last broken out in Boston ; five fatal cases have 
 occurred within the last day or two. For my own 
 part, I felt extremely nervous about the cholera 
 when it broke out in Montreal and Quebec ; but it 
 has now come to our doors, and familiarity softens 
 its terrors. It is a singular fact in the philosophy 
 of the human mind that in proportion as the 
 dangers which we most fear at a distance gather 
 closer around us, we become reckless, hardened, 
 and secure. I have vainly tried to analyze my 
 own feelings in this matter. ... I send you a copy 
 or two of the ' Essex Gazette/ containing two 
 numbers of a series of articles upon that scandal- 
 ous veto of Amos Kendall's. I have written no- 
 thing of late save local political paragraphs, with 
 the single exception of a piece published in the 
 Haverhill 'Iris,' which you probably noticed, 
 headed ' Stanzas,' and prefaced by two extracts 
 from the speeches of Henry Clay. . . . Do you 
 often see our mutual friend, Mrs. Sigourney? I 
 
LETTER TO JONATHAN LAW 117 
 
 think highly of that woman, she has fine talents, 
 and they are all devoted to the best of causes. 
 
 "If I recollect aright, in your last letter you 
 spoke despairingly of a matter connected with the 
 elevation of Mr. Clay to the Presidency. [Mr. 
 Law had been postmaster of Hartford, but was 
 displaced by Jackson. Probably he had expressed 
 the opinion that Clay, if elected, would not replace 
 him.] I do not view the matter as you do. I 
 believe that justice will be done if that desirable 
 event takes place. I see no reason now for de- 
 spairing of Mr. Clay's election. New York is lost, 
 and so is Kentucky, and so is Pennsylvania to the 
 Jackson cause. If Henry Clay is elected, all will 
 be well. Restoration must follow as a necessary 
 consequence of our abhorrence of proscription for 
 opinion's sake. ... I know not when I shall be in 
 Hartford again ; even if my health was restored 
 I should not leave this place. I have too many 
 friends around me, and my prospects are too good 
 to be sacrificed for any uncertainty. I have done 
 with poetry and literature. I can live as a farmer, 
 and that is all I ask at present. I wish you could 
 make me a visit, you and Mrs. Law ; our situation 
 is romantic enough, out of the din and bustle 
 of the village, with a long range of green hills 
 stretching away to the river ; a brook goes brawl- 
 ing at their foot, overshadowed with trees, through 
 which the white walls of our house are just visible. 
 In truth, I am as comfortable as one can well be, 
 always excepting ill health." 
 
 There are other letters of this period which 
 show that it was political and not literary ambition 
 
118 EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE 
 
 that was animating him in the years immediately 
 preceding his consecration to the cause of the op- 
 pressed. When he speaks of his prospects being 
 "too good to be sacrificed for any uncertainty," 
 his meaning is that he is aware of his political 
 popularity in his district. At about the time when 
 this letter was written, he was considering a prop- 
 osition made by his friends that he should become 
 a candidate for Congress. All that prevented his 
 doing so was the fact that he was not yet quite 
 twenty-five years old, and therefore, as he sup- 
 posed, barred out by a provision of the Consti- 
 tution. 
 
CHAPTER IV, 
 
 ENLISTMENT IN THE WAR AGAINST SLAVERY. 
 
 1832-1837. 
 
 UP to 1832, when he returned from Hartford 
 to his home in Haverhill, Mr. Whittier's highest 
 ambition, as we have seen, had been to make his 
 mark in politics. To be sure, he had written, in 
 about three years, more than a hundred poems, 
 counting only those that were published. He must 
 have taken some pride in seeing his verses widely 
 copied, and in the reputation as a rising poet that 
 was accorded him by some of the best writers of 
 his time. But poetry was praised and not paid for 
 in those days, and literature offered no alluring 
 prizes to American youth. The academies and 
 colleges were turning out a mob of amateur rhyme- 
 sters. Theological students were intent upon giv- 
 ing a new twist to the Psalms of David. Young 
 doctors and lawyers were translating the Odes of 
 Horace while waiting for patients and clients. 
 Even Daniel Webster, in his ponderous way, dal- 
 lied with the Muses, and John Quincy Adams, 
 the busiest man of his day, spent hours in fashion- 
 ing rhymed lines for albums. Scarcely a profes- 
 sional man of that generation was so utterly prosaic 
 as to escape the infection. The field was certainly 
 not an encouraging one for a poet who should de- 
 
120 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLA VERY 
 
 pend upon his verses for a living. Mr. Whittier 
 had tried his wings in the gusty air of politics and 
 found they would bear him, and it was in this 
 direction that he was looking for his life work. 
 While managing his farm, he kept up his contri- 
 butions to political papers, and took an active part 
 in the politics of his native town, and of Essex 
 County. 
 
 Caleb Cushing, of Newburyport, had just re- 
 turned from Europe, and was beginning to feel 
 the stirrings of political ambition. Young Whit- 
 tier helped him to secure a seat in Congress, and 
 Cushing, who was seven years his senior, encour- 
 aged his aspirations to political preferment. For 
 a time, all his impulses were in that direction. 
 His work as a political editor had brought him in 
 contact with the leaders of his party, and his 
 marked ability as a writer and his honesty and 
 sagacity in the party councils were appreciated. 
 He was becoming known as an anti-slavery man, 
 it is true, but that did not then disqualify one for 
 leacjership in either party, in New England. 
 Besides, his Quakerism was a good excuse for his 
 conscience. Our orthodox fathers in that genera- 
 tion were taking more kindly to Quakers than to 
 heretics in other sects, like Unitarians and Uni- 
 versalists, and were ready to humor what were 
 regarded as their whims. So that up to 1833, 
 when Whittier was in the twenty-sixth year of his 
 age, whatever thought he had for the future, out- 
 side of his work as a farmer, was in the direction 
 of politics. In 1833, his attention had been called 
 by Garrison, of whom he had seen little for the 
 
POLITICAL AMBITION 121 
 
 past three years, 1 to the importance of arousing 
 the nation to a sense of its guilt in the matter of 
 slavery. He did not need any change of heart to 
 become an abolitionist. As a birthright Quaker 
 he inherited the traditions of his sect against the 
 institution of slavery. But he had been hoping 
 by moral means, and by efforts within the lines of 
 the old parties, to secure the gradual extinction of 
 a system so out of harmony with our otherwise 
 free institutions. A word from Garrison caused 
 him thoroughly to study the situation. All the 
 literature of the subject within his reach was 
 examined carefully. Among the Southern news- 
 papers to which he had access he found evidence 
 that whatever thought of extinguishing slavery 
 had animated the fathers of the republic, and 
 prompted the anti-slavery utterances of Washington 
 and Jefferson, no such idea was now entertained 
 by any of the Southern people. The demand for 
 slave labor in the rice swamps and cotton fields of 
 the extreme South had made the raising of slaves 
 profitable in Virginia, and in other States in which 
 hitherto the " institution " had seemed doomed to 
 extinction as an economic mistake. He found, too, 
 that both the great parties of the North were 
 beginning to discipline their members who were 
 too urgent in pressing measures that might lose to 
 them the support of the Southern States. He had 
 learned something of this change in the popular 
 
 1 It is to be noted that in November, 1831, he published in the 
 Haverhill Gazette his poem, " To William Lloyd Garrison," which 
 now introduces the section Anti-Slavery Poems in his collected 
 works. 
 
122 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 feeling from the experience of his friend Garrison, 
 who had been imprisoned at Baltimore for his free 
 utterance of anti-slavery sentiments. This inci- 
 dent occurred at about the time when Whittier took 
 the editorship of the " New England Review," in 
 1830. In January, 1831, Garrison began the 
 publication of the " Liberator," in Boston. He 
 uttered his memorable ultimatum : " I am in ear- 
 nest, I will not equivocate, I will not excuse, I will 
 not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard." 
 Whittier counted the cost with Quaker coolness of 
 judgment before taking a step that closed to him 
 the gates of both political and literary preferment. 
 He realized more fully than did most of the early 
 abolitionists that the institution of slavery would 
 not fall at the first blast of their horns. When 
 he decided to enter upon this contest, he under- 
 stood that his cherished ambitions must be laid 
 aside, and that an entire change in his plans was 
 involved. He took the step deliberately and after 
 serious consideration. 
 
 In later life, in giving counsel to a boy of fifteen, 
 Mr. Whittier said that his own early ambition had 
 been to become a prominent politician, and from 
 this ideal he was persuaded only by the earnest 
 appeals of his friends. Taking their advice, he 
 united with the persecuted and obscure band of 
 abolitionists, and to this course he attributed all 
 his after success in life. Then, turning to the 
 boy, he placed his hand on his head, and said in 
 his gentle voice : " My lad, if thou wouldst win 
 success, join thyself to some unpopular but noble 
 
JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY 123 
 
 In the spring of 1833, while caring for his 
 farm, and doing some literary work for the 
 Haverhill " Gazette " and other journals, he wrote 
 the pamphlet entitled " Justice and Expediency," 
 and published it at his own expense. It must 
 have cost him a good part of his year's earnings, 
 beside the time spent in examining the many 
 authorities he cites. It is an argument to prove 
 the expediency of being just. The injustice of 
 slavery is shown with much warm rhetoric. The 
 entire literature of the subject had evidently been 
 carefully studied. Every statement is backed up 
 by quotations from unquestioned authority, and 
 by references in footnotes. Probably no single 
 anti-slavery paper ever published covered the 
 ground so completely as this. It is thorough in 
 statement, carefully reasoned, and enforced by di- 
 rect appeals to the conscience and the heart of the 
 nation. Many good men, both at the North and 
 at the South, had satisfied their consciences by 
 promoting the scheme of the African Colonization 
 Society. A few slaveholders had freed their 
 slaves, and many thousands of dollars had been 
 spent in colonizing them in Liberia. With these 
 freed slaves had been sent a large number of ne- 
 groes who had never been slaves. Henry Clay 
 was the President of the Colonization Society, a 
 position he had held for twenty years, and there- 
 after until his death. The political party with 
 which Whittier had acted numbered among its 
 leaders many active promoters of the colonization 
 scheme. Collections for it were taken up regu- 
 larly in the churches. To denounce this society, 
 
124 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 as not a help, but a great hindrance to the cause 
 of the blacks, was therefore a bold act for a young 
 man who had been looking forward to a life in 
 politics. The pamphlet gives six reasons why the 
 Colonization Society was unworthy of support, 
 and fortifies them by citations from the official 
 papers of the society. It points out the ludi- 
 crous inconsistency of the advocates of coloniza- 
 tion, who in one breath say with Henry Clay, 
 " Each emigrant is a missionary, carrying with 
 him the holy cause of civilization, religion, and 
 free institutions ; " and in the next breath say, 
 with the official organ of the society, " Free 
 blacks are a greater nuisance than even slaves 
 themselves." It shows that the only adequate 
 remedy for slavery is abolition. The pamphlet is 
 published in full in the prose works of Mr. Whit- 
 tier. 1 
 
 It attracted immediate attention, and the edi- 
 tion he had issued was soon exhausted. Lewis 
 Tappan, of New York, caused it to be printed in 
 the monthly organ of the American Anti-Slavery 
 Society, and paid for issuing an extra edition of 
 5000 copies. Moses Brown, of Providence, an 
 aged and wealthy Quaker philanthropist, had influ- 
 ence enough to procure its publication in the Prov- 
 idence " Journal," although the conductor of that 
 paper had no sympathy with its tone. Some idea 
 of the temper with which this pamphlet was re- 
 ceived at the South is shown by the fact that, for 
 lending to a brother doctor this pamphlet of Mr. 
 Whittier's, Dr. Reuben Crandall, of Washington, 
 
 1 Riverside edition, vol. vii. 
 
JUSTICE AND EXPEDIENCY 125 
 
 was in 1834 arrested, and confined in the old city 
 prison, until his health was destroyed, and he 
 was liberated only to die. This incident is re- 
 ferred to in the poem " Astraea at the Capitol : " 
 
 " Beside me gloomed the prison cell 
 
 Where wasted one in slow decline 
 For uttering simple words of mine, 
 And loving freedom all too well." 
 
 At the time when Mr. Whittier was writing this 
 pamphlet, he was not calculating upon the far- 
 reaching effect it might have upon his own for- 
 tunes. It did not occur to him until his man- 
 uscript was ready for publication that it would 
 seriously interfere with his political ambitions. He 
 was all that summer actively helping the canvass 
 of Caleb Gushing, writing spirited communications 
 to the " Iris " over various signatures, and sending 
 them with private notes of political advice to Ed- 
 itor Harriman. 1 
 
 His letters to Gushing and other political asso- 
 ciates at this time are also full of enthusiasm for 
 his party. But as he was about to issue his pam- 
 phlet, a prophetic glimpse of its real effect came to 
 him, and it caused him sleepless nights. A deci- 
 sion to follow the path of duty at all hazards ended 
 the struggle, and the decision was never regretted, 
 
 1 As a specimen of the style of these notes, take this, dated at 
 his farm, "5th mo. 15, 1833:" "Fullington, at the Rocks, says 
 there is no chance for Gushing, and thinks it would be better to 
 take a Gushing man from Lowell. I don't see the use of this ; 
 you can do nothing with the Lowell folk ; choose a man there for 
 this Congress, and he will stand for the next. If Osgood [the 
 Jackson candidate] is elected, National Republicanism in this 
 district will go to its long home." 
 
126 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 although it crowded his life with hardships for 
 many years, and ended all his dreams of political 
 preferment. He announced to Caleb Gushing his 
 intention to publish "Justice and Expediency," 
 in the following letter, dated "5th mo., 1833." 
 After urging his friend not to decline the candi- 
 dacy, even if the next ballot should go against 
 him, and prophesying ultimate election, he says : 
 "About a fortnight ago, I took up a pamphlet 
 containing your remarks at the colonization meeting 
 in Boston. In that frankness which accords with 
 my ideas of doing to others as I would be done by, 
 I cannot but say that I deeply regret this publica- 
 tion. So far as literary merit is concerned the 
 speech is worthy of you, but I dissent from your 
 opinions most radically, and so do a great majority 
 of the people in this vicinity. I shall probably send 
 you in a week or two a pamphlet on the subject 
 of slavery, written hastily and under many disad- 
 vantages. Most of the facts it contains you are 
 probably already acquainted with. There may be 
 some, however, which have escaped your observa- 
 tion. I beg of you to lend your mind to the in- 
 vestigation of this most momentous question, be- 
 lieving as I do that you can do a great deal for 
 the cause of suffering humanity. I should like to 
 have you make this pamphlet and others recently 
 published on the subject the basis of an article in 
 some of our reviews or magazines. That you will 
 differ from me I know, and shall therefore expect 
 to be handled without gloves, but credit me, my 
 dear sir, I had much rather fall under the stoccado 
 of a gentlemanly and scientific swordsman than be 
 
WORKING FOR HENRY CLAY 127 
 
 bunglingly hewed in pieces like Agag of old under 
 the broadaxe of the Prophet. I have only time 
 again to beg you, whatever may be the result of 
 this trial, to allow yourself to be a candidate still. 
 Sooner or later we must triumph. 
 
 " I am almost sorry that I troubled you in a for- 
 mer letter with my own private matters. But that 
 letter was written under an exciting sense of unpro- 
 voked injury. With all my Quakerism, I cannot 
 but sometimes give way to indignant feeling, when 
 my best motives are tortured into evil ones." 
 
 Both Garrison and Whittier had been actively 
 friendly to the Colonization Society up to 1830. 
 The papers conducted by them set forth its claims, 
 and in his Fourth of July address, delivered in 
 Park Street Church, Boston, in 1829, Mr. Garrison 
 made an earnest appeal for the cause. Even after 
 his pamphlet was issued, in 1833, Whittier contin- 
 ued for a year working for the cause of Henry Clay, 
 in the hope that eventually he would assume the 
 role of the champion of freedom. But in 1834 he 
 wrote : " We regret that truth and the cause of 
 humanity, which he has betrayed, compel us to 
 speak of Henry Clay as the enemy of Freedom." 
 His last tribute to the Kentucky statesman, writ- 
 ten in 1833, began with this stanza : 
 
 " The Grecian as he feeds his flocks, 
 In Tempe's vale, on Morea's rocks, 
 Or where the gleam of bright blue waters 
 Is caught by Scio's white-armed daughters, 
 While dwelling on the dubious strife 
 Which ushered in his nation's life, 
 Shall mingle in his grateful lay 
 Bozzaris with the name of Clay." 
 
128 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 In 1830, when Garrison was imprisoned at Bal- 
 timore, Whittier appealed to Clay for his release, 
 and Clay, who recognized the value of Whittier' s 
 friendship, promptly responded to the appeal. But 
 Arthur Tappan, of New York, had even more 
 promptly paid Garrison's fine, else the young agi- 
 tator would have owed his release to the Kentucky 
 slave-owner. 1 
 
 Among the Southern papers that took notice of 
 Whittier's pamphlet was the Richmond " Jeffer- 
 sonian," which complained that no sooner had the 
 accursed tariff ceased to be the stone of stumbling 
 and the rock of offense, than Northern enthusiasts 
 began to interfere with the domestic institutions 
 of the South. Whittier, well primed with anti- 
 slavery quotations from Jefferson and other Virgin- 
 ian statesmen, made a ringing reply to the " Jeffer- 
 sonian " in the " Essex Gazette," published at 
 Haverhill. He showed that the doctrines of the 
 men for whom their paper was named were every 
 whit as anti-slavery as those of the enthusiasts who 
 were accused of furnishing a sufficient reason for 
 " poising the Ancient Dominion on its sovereignty," 
 and rousing every slave-owner to military prepa- 
 ration. This reply to the " Jeffersonian " is a far 
 more pointed paper than the original pamphlet. 
 Like that, it is full of quotations, and abounds in 
 footnotes, showing great research, and a special 
 familiarity with Virginia politics, not only of that 
 
 1 Mr. W. H. Smith, who has possession of Clay's papers, and is 
 preparing his biography, has found a letter of Whittier's, written 
 in 1837, earnestly urging the Kentuckian to come out as the 
 champion of freedom ; so strong still was the personal attraction 
 which his early political idol had for him. 
 
REPLY TO A SOUTHERN PAPER 129 
 
 time but of former generations. He quotes at every 
 turn from Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe ; from 
 Blackstone, Lafayette, and O'Connell; from the 
 statute-books of South Carolina, and from the sta- 
 tistics of the census. He acknowledges they have 
 under the Constitution the power to hold their slave 
 property, but denies they have any moral right to 
 take advantage of the power. New England, he 
 says, will abide unto the death by the Constitution 
 of the land, but she asks to be relieved of the duty 
 of hunting down fellow-men like wild beasts, when 
 they are struggling desperately for liberty. In 
 attacking slavery, the abolitionists recommend no 
 measure conflicting with the Constitution. They 
 would not excite or encourage a rebellion among 
 slaves. They hold such attempts in utter abhor- 
 rence, by whomsoever made. They are opposed to 
 any political interposition of the government in 
 regard to slavery, as it exists in the States. He 
 goes on at some length to reiterate and emphasize 
 this disclaimer. He says slavery has made deso- 
 late and sterile one of the loveliest regions of the 
 whole earth, and points to the hillsides gullied and 
 naked, the fields run over with brier and fern. 
 Then he shows how the rocky soil of New England 
 lies green and luxuriant beneath the sun of our 
 brief summer. Free labor has changed a landscape 
 wild and savage as the night scenery of Salvator 
 Kosa into one of pastoral beauty, the abode of inde- 
 pendence and happiness. One of the concluding 
 paragraphs of the paper makes this reference to 
 John Randolph, then recently deceased : 
 
 " The late noble example of the eloquent states- 
 
130 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 man of Roanoke, the manumission of Ms slaves, 
 speaks volumes to his political friends. In the 
 last hour of his existence, when his soul was 
 struggling from its broken tenement, his latest 
 effort was the confirmation of this generous act 
 of a former period. Light rest the turf upon 
 him, beneath his patrimonial oaks ! The prayers 
 of many hearts made happy by his benevolence 
 shall linger over his grave, and bless it." 
 
 These letters in reply to the Richmond paper 
 were written in July, 1833, less than one month 
 after the death of Randolph, and published in the 
 " Essex Gazette." The passage last quoted, as 
 he wrote it in prose, probably awakened the in- 
 spiration of his noble poem, " Randolph of Roa- 
 noke," which was first published in the " National 
 Era," in January, 1847, it being one of his earli- 
 est contributions to that paper when he assumed 
 the position of corresponding editor. It had prob- 
 ably been lying in his portfolio for more than thir- 
 teen years. Several lines in the poem indicate 
 that it was written not long after Randolph's 
 death, 1 which occurred June 24, 1833. 
 
 The die was now cast. Whittier had com- 
 
 1 The manumitted slaves of John Randolph, three hundred in 
 number, could not be allowed to remain free in Virginia. Ran- 
 dolph's executor bought land, erected buildings, and made other 
 preparations for them in Bremen, Mercer County, Ohio, at an ex- 
 pense of over $30,000. But when it came to settling them on 
 the new purchase, the people of the vicinity, including the very 
 men who sold the land and had the money in their pockets, raised 
 a mob, and insisted on driving them back into Virginia. A bond 
 had to be given that the negroes should not become paupers, be- 
 fore they were allowed to remain upon the land purchased for 
 them. 
 
VOICES OF FREEDOM 131 
 
 mitted himself to a cause he was sagacious enough 
 to see was not to be a winning one for a long 
 series of years. He had sacrificed to it the am- 
 bitions of his young manhood, and knew as a poet 
 and editor he had lost all chance of gaining the 
 position to which he had been aspiring. Now 
 came years in which he felt the pinch of poverty, 
 as he had not before experienced it. The poems 
 that were arousing the conscience of the nation 
 brought him no income. His mother and sister 
 heartily approved his course, and aided him in 
 maintaining it. Strict economy enabled him to 
 keep out of debt, meagre as were the supplies 
 from such editorial and book-keeping work as he 
 found to do. His pen was kept busy in advo- 
 cating the cause he had espoused, and the poems 
 known as the " Voices of Freedom " came rapidly 
 one after another, hammer strokes against flinty 
 prejudice. Sparks followed each blow. Those 
 who are old enough remember how these spirited 
 verses stirred and warmed the young hearts of the 
 North, and prepared the soil from which sprang 
 the great political party which took from him the 
 watchword, " Justice the highest expediency." 
 
 There was a sudden, even startling change in 
 the character of Whittier's poetry, when he made 
 up his mind to champion the cause of the slave. 
 The hundreds of poems he had written previous to 
 1833 were mere exercises in rhetoric and versifi- 
 cation ; they had none of the vivifying spirit which 
 breathes in all he wrote after he consecrated him- 
 self to the holy cause of liberty. Whittier himself 
 was always ashamed of his early literary work, 
 
132 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 both prose and verse, and little of it was with 
 Tiis consent saved from oblivion. And yet, as we 
 have seen, these early writings gave him a lit- 
 erary reputation which would have been highly 
 valued by any other author of that time. They 
 were widely copied in the newspapers of the land. 
 It is in accordance with the wish of Mr. Whittier 
 that his biographer, who has before him great num- 
 bers of these early and forgotten poems, decides to 
 bring to light only the few verses to be found in 
 preceding pages, to show their quality, and to in- 
 dicate the remarkable change to which reference 
 has been made. When this change came, as has 
 been said of him by another, " he became the Voice 
 for which a few had been wearily waiting, yet 
 which exasperated and terrified the whole country. 
 To these few, therefore, Whittier at once became a 
 prophet; to the many, an object of detestation." 
 His first years of literary work had given him 
 a reputation at once general and flattering, which 
 was thrown aside without regret when the voice 
 which called him to higher duty was heard. 
 
 Early in November, 1833, Mr. Garrison wrote 
 to Whittier, asking him to go as one of the dele- 
 gates from Massachusetts to the National Anti- 
 Slavery Convention, to be held in Philadelphia 
 in December. In answer to this call, he wrote to 
 Garrison from Haverhill, November 11, 1833 : 
 
 " I long to go to Philadelphia, to urge upon the 
 members of my religious Society the duty of 
 putting their shoulders to the work, to make their 
 solemn testimony against slavery visible over the 
 whole land ; to urge them by the holy memories 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION 133 
 
 of Woolman, and Benezet, and Tyson, to come 
 up as of old to the standard of Divine Truth?*- 
 though even the fires of another persecution 
 should blaze around them. But the expenses of 
 the journey will, I fear, be too much for me, as 
 thee knows our farming business does not put 
 much cash in our pockets. I am, however, greatly 
 obliged to the Boston Young Men's Association 
 for selecting me as one of their delegates. I do 
 not know how it may be, but whether I go or 
 not, my best wishes and my warmest sympathies 
 are with the friends of emancipation. Some of 
 my political friends are opposed to my anti- 
 slavery sentiments, and perhaps it was in some 
 degree owing to this that, at the late convention 
 for the nomination of Senators for Essex, my 
 nomination was lost by one vote. I should have 
 rejoiced to have had an opportunity to cooperate 
 personally with the abolitionists of Boston. . . . 
 Can thee not find time for a visit to Haverhill 
 before thee goes on to Philadelphia? I wish I 
 was certain of going with thee. At all events, do 
 write immediately on receiving this, and tell me 
 when thee shall start for the Quaker City." 
 
 The pecuniary difficulty was removed by the 
 generosity of Samuel E. Sewall, one of the earliest 
 and most efficient supporters of the cause of eman- 
 cipation. The journey to Philadelphia was mostly 
 by stagecoach. Mr. Whittier, the youngest dele- 
 gate to the convention, was accompanied by other 
 members from New England, including William 
 Lloyd Garrison, Joshua Coffin, Arnold Buffum, 
 and eight others from Massachusetts, and Rev. 
 
134 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 David Thurston, of Winthrop, Maine, the oldest 
 delegate in the convention. Mr. Whittier was 
 appointed one of the secretaries, and he was also 
 on the committee, of which Garrison was chair- 
 man, that drafted the memorable " Declaration of 
 Sentiments." 
 
 In an article published in the "Atlantic 
 Monthly," February, 1874, 1 Mr. Whittier gives 
 reminiscences of this convention, with pen-portraits 
 of some of his associates. He makes in this con- 
 nection an interesting remark in regard to the di- 
 vision that had recently taken place in the Society 
 of Friends. This division was regarded as unfor- 
 tunate for the interests of the convention, as the 
 cooperation of the Society had been counted upon 
 when Philadelphia was selected as the place of 
 meeting. He says : 
 
 " The Society of Friends had but recently been 
 rent asunder by one of those unhappy contro- 
 versies which so often mark the decline of prac- 
 tical righteousness. The martyr age of the so- 
 ciety had passed, wealth and luxury had taken the 
 place of the old simplicity, there was a growing 
 conformity to the maxims of the world in trade 
 and fashion, and with it a corresponding unwilling- 
 ness to hazard respectability by the advocacy of 
 unpopular reforms. Unprofitable speculation and 
 disputation on the one hand, and a vain attempt on 
 the other to enforce uniformity of opinion, had 
 measurably lost sight of the fact that the end of 
 the gospel is love, and that charity is the crown- 
 
 1 Reprinted in vol. vii. of the Riverside edition of Whittier'a 
 writings. 
 
DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS 135 
 
 ing virtue. After a long and painful struggle the 
 disruption had taken place, the shattered fragments 
 under name of Orthodox and Hicksite, so like, and 
 yet so separate in feeling, confronted each other as 
 hostile sects." 
 
 In these words he describes the closing scenes of 
 the convention : 
 
 " On the evening of the last day of our session, 
 the Declaration, with its few verbal amendments, 
 carefully engrossed on parchment, was brought 
 before the convention. Samuel J. May rose to 
 read it for the last time. His sweet, persuasive 
 voice faltered with the intensity of his emotions as 
 he repeated the solemn pledges of the concluding 
 paragraphs. After a season of silence, David 
 Thurston, of Maine, rose as his name was called 
 by one of the secretaries, and affixed his name to 
 the document. One after another passed up to 
 the platform, signed, and retired in silence. All 
 felt the deep responsibility of the occasion ; the 
 shadow and forecast of a life-long struggle rested 
 upon every countenance." 
 
 Mr. Whittier's own appearance at this conven- 
 tion is sketched by J. Miller McKim : 
 
 " He wore a dark frock-coat, with standing col- 
 lar, which, with his thin hair, dark and sometimes 
 flashing eyes, and black whiskers, not large, but 
 noticeable in those unhirsute days, gave him, to 
 my then unpracticed eye, quite as much of a mili- 
 tary as a Quaker aspect. His broad square fore- 
 head and well-cut features, aided by his incipient 
 reputation as a poet, made him quite a noticeable 
 feature of the convention." 
 
136 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 Of the sixty-two members of the convention, 
 twenty-one were Quakers. There were twelve 
 delegates from Massachusetts. The Declaration 
 of Sentiments, drafted by Garrison, urged imme- 
 diate emancipation as a moral duty, to be accom- 
 plished by peaceful measures only, and conceded 
 the right of the States to manage their domestic 
 institutions, without interference from the general 
 government. But the duty of suppressing the 
 slave-trade between the several States, and of 
 abolishing slavery altogether in the District of 
 Columbia and in the Territories, was set forth 
 with much force. This declaration was engrossed 
 on parchment, and signed by all the delegates. 
 Of his own signature to this declaration Mr. 
 Whittier said : " I set a higher value on my name 
 as appended to the Anti-Slavery Declaration of 
 1833, than on the title-page of any book." A fac- 
 simile of this document, framed in oak from the 
 ruins of Pennsylvania Hall, destroyed by the mob 
 of 1838, was always given a conspicuous place in 
 his home at Amesbury. 1 
 
 In January, 1834, the New England Anti- 
 Slavery Society held its annual meeting in Boston. 
 Mr. Whittier was not able to attend, but sent a 
 letter the reading of which is said to have had a 
 thrilling effect upon the audience. 
 
 In March, 1834, Mr. Whittier wrote the follow- 
 ing letter to Kev. Dr. William Ellery Channing, 
 
 1 Since his death it has been given to the youngest son of 
 William Lloyd Garrison, who has also the table upon which the 
 document was signed and the inkstand which was used on this 
 historic occasion. 
 
LETTER TO DR. CHANNING 137 
 
 hoping to induce this eminent divine to lend the 
 cause of immediate emancipation the weight of his 
 great influence. Channing had already been con- 
 sidering the subject of slavery, and had begun to 
 write his clear, logical, dispassionate, but incisive 
 essay against the institution. His letter to Dr. 
 Follen upon this theme was soon after made public, 
 and later, in the same year, a sermon was delivered 
 by him against the mobs which had then begun to 
 disgrace New England cities. His great work on 
 slavery was published the next year. He took 
 his own way, as was his wont in all matters, in 
 dealing with this reform, and this led to severe 
 criticism upon him from one wing of the anti- 
 slavery reformers ; but from the first, Whittier 
 recognized the great value of his service to the 
 cause, and did not join in the detraction. His 
 letter to Channing was written from Haverhill, on 
 the 24th of 3d month, 1834. He said : 
 
 " A recent perusal of thy sermons published in 
 1832, by Bowen, has induced me, although a 
 stranger, to address thee. From all that I have 
 seen of thy writings, it has seemed to me that it was 
 thy aim to make Christianity a practical matter ; 
 a living, a beneficent reality, such as its Founder 
 intended ; a real bond of holy brotherhood which 
 should unite all the human family, unshackle 
 mind and body, and bless all the children of our 
 Heavenly Father with that liberty wherewith He 
 has made them free. My attention has been par- 
 ticularly directed to the sentiment expressed in 
 the sermons above mentioned in pages 153, 162, 
 165, 166. To my mind the elevated sentiment of 
 
138 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 these passages has a direct bearing upon a great 
 question now agitating the community, I allude 
 to the slavery question, the doctrine of imme- 
 diate emancipation. I am but an humble individ- 
 ual, and were my subject less important I should 
 not seek with my feeble voice the ear of one 
 whose name and fame have no narrower limits 
 than those of Christianity itself ; but I cannot for- 
 bear expressing to thee my heartfelt desire, my 
 earnest hope, that these great powers of intellect 
 with which a merciful God has favored thee may 
 be exerted at this crisis in the great cause of 
 emancipation. I cannot doubt thy sentiments on 
 this subject ; may I beg of thee to openly cooper- 
 ate with that great and deserved influence which 
 Providence has allotted to thy profession, with 
 those who are now striving in this cause, 4 to break 
 every chain of selfishness, to enlarge and invig- 
 orate the kind affections, to identify themselves 
 with other beings, to sympathize not with a few, 
 but with all the living and rational creatures of 
 God.' [An extract from Channing's writings.] So 
 shall the blessings of many who are ready to per- 
 ish come upon thee. The deep interest which I 
 feel in this great point of Christian duty must be 
 my apology for this abrupt epistle." 
 
 We now come to the period when Mr. Whittier 
 was to experience some of the difficulties attending 
 the warm advocacy of an unpopular cause. Mr. 
 Garrison began the publication of the " Liberator" 
 in January, 1831. He had previously, at Balti- 
 more and Bennington, Vt., shown his strong pur- 
 pose to fight the institution of slavery to the death. 
 
THE COLONIZATION SOCIETY 139 
 
 At first, he had sympathy and help from all classes 
 of people at the North. The colonization scheme 
 had for some time been looked upon with favor by 
 philanthropists, at the South as well as at the 
 North ; but, as it afterward appeared, for widely 
 different reasons. At the North it was looked 
 upon as a means of gradually extinguishing slavery, 
 by removing the negroes to Africa. At the South, 
 there was less and less purpose to do away with 
 the institution, either gradually or at all. It was 
 just beginning to be profitable. Colonization 
 meant to the slaveholders a way of disposing of 
 the free people of color, who made the slaves un- 
 easy, and occasionally helped them to escape, 
 while at the North, the Colonization Society was 
 generally regarded as engaged in a worthy mission 
 of Christian philanthropy indeed as a branch of 
 the foreign mission work. For would not the 
 Christianized negroes carry to benighted Africa 
 the religion and the civilization they had acquired 
 during their stay with us ? 
 
 It was when Garrison began to denounce the 
 Colonization Society as u the handmaid of slavery " 
 that he stirred up a tempest among the churches. 
 For a long series of years they had been taking up 
 collections for this handmaid of the missions, as 
 they had regarded it. The call for immediate 
 emancipation had not given much offense among 
 the churches outside the commercial cities, as slav- 
 ery was universally considered at the North an evil 
 to be done away with at some time, and the gen- 
 eral feeling was, the sooner the better. 
 
 All over the North, it was for a tune an easy 
 
140 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 matter to organize an anti-slavery society. Hun- 
 dreds of them were at work upon public sentiment 
 in New England, and every town in some parts of 
 Ohio had such societies, and they were approved 
 by all the churches. There was comparatively 
 little objection (except in the cities) to the word 
 " immediate," which was insisted upon by Garrison. 
 But many prominent clergymen, statesmen, and 
 merchants, who were identified with the coloniza- 
 tion movement, were angered at once when their 
 pet philanthropy was denounced as a bulwark of 
 slavery. Whittier's pamphlet and his replies to 
 the Virginia editors had strongly reinforced the 
 position taken by Garrison. 
 
 The mobs that for a series of years disgraced 
 the cities of New England had their origin 
 partly in the feeling that the abolitionists were in 
 conflict with the churches, and partly in the fear 
 of business men that our commercial relations 
 with the South were imperiled by the agitation. 
 The dirty work of these riots was done by men 
 who had no care about the principle involved, but 
 who saw that they had license for rough sport and 
 even violence, and that they would not be inter- 
 fered with by the classes which usually insisted 
 upon order. 
 
 When Garrison was in England, in 1833, he 
 invited George Thompson to visit this country, 
 and deliver anti-slavery addresses. Thompson 
 was one of the most eloquent of the English 
 reformers who had secured the abolition of slavery 
 in all the British colonies. He came to America 
 in September, 1834, and wherever he appeared 
 
IN THE GENERAL COURT 141 
 
 was at first well received. Garrison says of him 
 that he was a young man of thirty, tall, graceful, 
 and with a sweet voice. " As an orator," he adds, 
 "he surpasses any speaker I have ever heard." 
 He was prudent enough at the start, not to attempt 
 addressing audiences in New York or Boston. 
 He spoke at several small places in Massachu- 
 setts, where his eloquence was greatly admired. 
 He went to Maine, and was well received in Port- 
 land and Brunswick, but met his first demonstra- 
 tion of violence at Augusta, where his windows 
 were broken. 
 
 At length, the word seems to have been passed 
 over the whole country that he was a "British 
 emissary," who had come to make trouble between 
 North and South, and cause a disruption of our 
 Union, for the benefit of the manufacturers and 
 merchants of England. The jealousy of our mo- 
 ther country was intense at that time, and it was 
 easy to stir the passions of the populace against 
 an Englishman. Thompson's life was thereafter 
 often endangered, but when driven out of one city 
 he appeared in another, with the unwelcome mes- 
 sage he was bravely determined to deliver. 
 
 This was the condition of things when Mr. 
 Whittier was entering upon his work as an oppo- 
 nent of slavery and of the Colonization Society. 
 In 1835, his native town sent him to represent her 
 in the General Court. He had already written 
 and published in the " Liberator " of September 
 13, 1834, the " Stanzas " l beginning with the line : 
 
 1 This poem, originally called Stanzas, was afterward en- 
 titled Pollen, and in the latest edition of Whittier's collected 
 
142 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 " Our fellow-countrymen in chains ! " 
 
 It happened to be first printed just one week be- 
 fore the arrival of Thompson in this country. It 
 was a passionate outburst of indignation against 
 the system of slavery, and it rang at once through 
 the North. It was recited by anti-slavery orators 
 with great effect in their meetings, and the school- 
 boys found ifc a piece suitable for declamation. 
 The number of the " Liberator " in which this 
 poem originally appeared has this appreciative 
 comment upon it from the hand of Garrison : 
 
 " Our gifted brother Whittier has again seized 
 the great trumpet of Liberty, and blown a blast 
 that shall ring from Maine to the Rocky Moun- 
 tains." 
 
 As a member of the legislature of Massachu- 
 setts, Mr. Whittier was active and influential, 
 though not a debater. He took especial interest 
 in a movement to abolish the death penalty, and 
 secured a petition of sixty-seven citizens of Haver- 
 hill, headed by his own name, for this object. 
 He was reflected as representative from Haver- 
 hill for the year 1836, but his physician assured 
 him it would be unsafe for him again to undertake 
 the work that had seriously injured him in 1835. 
 Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr., represented Gloucester 
 in the Massachusetts legislature at the time when 
 Mr. Whittier represented Haverhill. They had 
 rooms together for a time at a boarding place in 
 Franklin Street, by the Bulfinch urn. Their rela- 
 
 works is named Expostulation. Neither of these names can 
 be regarded as adequate for such a noble outburst of hot indig- 
 nation. 
 
MOBBING OF GARRISON 143 
 
 tions were intimate so long as Rantoul lived, and 
 how his memory was cherished after his death is 
 shown in several poems in which he is directly or 
 indirectly mentioned. 
 
 It was while he was in attendance upon a spe- 
 cial session of the legislature, October 21, 183.5, 
 that Whittier witnessed the Boston mob, led by 
 " men of property and standing," which broke up a 
 meeting of the Female Anti-Slavery Society, and 
 dragged Garrison in the street, with a rope about 
 his body. Hearing of the disturbance, while in 
 his seat in the State House, and knowing that his 
 sister Elizabeth was at the meeting, he hurried to 
 the spot. In a letter written on the occasion of 
 the semi-centennial commemoration of the affair, 
 in 1885, he says : 
 
 " I found the street thronged and noisy with tur- 
 bulent respectability and unwashed rascality. I 
 was anxious for my young sister, who I knew was 
 in the women's anti-slavery meeting ; but I heard 
 that the ladies had all left and were safe. The 
 fury of the mob seemed to be directed against 
 George Thompson, but failing to find him, they 
 seized upon Garrison. I heard their shout of ex- 
 ultation and caught a glimpse of their victim just 
 as he was rescued and driven off to Leverett Street 
 jail. Thither Samuel J. May and myself followed, 
 and visited him in prison. I could sympathize 
 with him, for only a short time before, the Concord 
 mob, which could not get hold of Thompson, fell 
 upon me with stones and missiles, and my escape 
 with nothing worse than a few bruises was some- 
 thing to be thankful for. The rioters had just 
 
144 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 roughly used a poor traveling Quaker preacher, 
 quietly passing through the town, who had the 
 misfortune of being mistaken for myself. It 
 seemed to be a case of suffering by proxy all 
 around. From our present standpoint we can pity 
 and forgive the actors in those scenes." 
 
 The Concord riot, referred to by Mr. Whittier 
 in this letter, happened September 4, 1835, and 
 the circumstances that led to it will now be traced. 
 An anti-slavery society was organized in Haverhill 
 in the spring of 1834, and Mr. Whittier acted as 
 its corresponding secretary. The speakers from 
 other places who lectured before this society were 
 welcome guests at the Whittier homestead in East 
 Haverhill. On the 21st of August, 1835, George 
 Thompson came to Haverhill to rest from the ex- 
 ertions incident to a series of mobs through which 
 he had passed, and made his home with Whittier. 
 He delivered a lecture in Haverhill which was well 
 received. In a diary kept by Elizabeth Whittier, 
 under date 24th of 8th month, 1835, is this entry : 
 
 " The three past days have been full of incident 
 and excitement. Oh, we have been too proud of 
 our country ; we have been flattered, inordinately 
 flattered, till like the self-glorying Pharisee we 
 have thanked God we were not like other nations. 
 America is working everlasting disgrace for her 
 future name. The shameful record must be written 
 down, that in this land of Bibles and law and 
 learning and freedom, a minister of Christ, a 
 Paul in his zeal for the promotion of every cause of 
 righteousness and truth, a stranger, led by the 
 holiest impulses of humanity, coming among us to 
 
GEORGE THOMPSON AT HAVERHILL 145 
 
 proclaim in his own wonderful and fervid eloquence 
 the eternal principles of justice to mankind, that 
 such a man, with such purposes, was slandered by 
 Americans, hated by Americans, and mobbed by 
 Americans ; that in Massachusetts thousands of 
 dollars were offered for his assassination ! Oh, I 
 am sure I shall never be proud of my country. I 
 shall much sooner be ashamed of my fatherland, 
 while it is thus unchristianized." 
 
 Three days afterward there is a record in the 
 diary that George Thompson had left for his home 
 " day before yesterday." It appears that he went 
 to Salem, and that Mr. Whittier and his mother 
 also went to Salem, to attend a Quarterly Meeting 
 of the Society of Friends. Among Elizabeth's 
 papers is found a note hurriedly written by her 
 brother, which reads as follows : 
 
 SALEM, 5th day afternoon, 
 
 8th mo. 27. 
 
 I write by our good friend, Thomas Spencer, to 
 request thee to welcome brother Thompson to our 
 house, as his friends are somewhat fearful for his 
 personal safety at this time. Mother and myself 
 will be at home on Seventh day, if nothing hap- 
 pens. In great haste, 
 
 J. G. WHITTIER. 
 
 Thompson will remain with us some days at 
 Haverhill. 
 
 But Thompson did not arrive at East Haverhill 
 on Friday, as was expected, and this record is found 
 in Elizabeth's diary : 
 
146 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 " 1th day eve. Never have I felt so deeply the 
 necessity of Christian forbearance and long suf- 
 fering on the part of the abolitionists as at present. 
 George Thompson was to have been in 
 Haverhill, on his way to New Hampshire, yesterday 
 afternoon ; but he has not come. What can have 
 detained him ? I have watched very anxiously for 
 his coming, and have been fearful that all was not 
 well. Heaven grant it may be, and I trust it is. 
 Sickness or something of less importance may have 
 kept him. I wish I was good enough to pray ac- 
 ceptably for his and all our dear friends' safety." 
 
 Her prayers were answered promptly, for Thomp- 
 son arrived safely on the evening the above entry 
 was made in her diary. On Monday, August 31, 
 she writes : 
 
 " Our friends, George Thompson and Samuel J. 
 May, came late on Seventh day eve, and their 
 coming relieved us of much anxiety. Yesterday 
 morning, Greenleaf left here in company with 
 George Thompson on a short tour to New Hamp- 
 shire. Yesterday afternoon S. J. May occupied 
 the pulpit of N. Gage. He had come to Haverhill 
 with the expectation of addressing the people on 
 the subject of American slavery, on last evening, 
 in the First Parish meeting-house. But for reasons 
 best known to themselves the gentlemen comprising 
 the committee saw fit to refuse the house, and the 
 Christian church was obtained ; the house was filled 
 to overflowing ; at half past seven the lecturer arose, 
 and in his peculiarly winning tones commenced an 
 appeal in behalf of the two and a half millions of 
 our countrymen who are in slavery in our land. 
 
A HAVERHILL MOB 147 
 
 He was listened to with almost breathless attention ; 
 the interest of the audience was so intense that the 
 noise outside the house had not been noticed. Most 
 of the people did not believe how could they ? 
 that there were those among us sufficiently misled 
 to do what has scarcely ever been done in our 
 country, violate the sanctity of the Sabbath by 
 a reckless and outrageous assault upon a peaceable 
 assemblage. But we were made to believe it when 
 a stone was thrown, breaking the window, and scat- 
 tering the glass among the startled audience. But 
 all were soon still, and listening to the calm tones 
 of the speaker. I only felt fear for the speaker, 
 as his figure was visible on the outside, and I was 
 not mistaken, for the next moment a heavy missile 
 was thrown forcibly against the window of the 
 pulpit. The speaker paused an instant, and then 
 endeavored to proceed. But another heavy stone 
 thrown among the crowd drove most of the audience 
 from their seats, and a fourth and heavier stone 
 from without completed the scene of confusion. 
 The lecturer was anxious to proceed, but expressed 
 his willingness to be guided by the advice of his 
 friends. Rev. E. N. Harris arose, and remarked 
 that the unlawful proceedings had so disturbed the 
 meeting that it would be useless for his brother 
 May to attempt to go on with his remarks. Yield- 
 ing to the advice of his friend, and to the dictate 
 of prudence, the speaker closed his notes, and the 
 crowd who were hurrying towards the door paused 
 as the blessing of the God of all peace was invoked 
 by the outraged advocate of human rights." 
 
 Elizabeth Whittier does not tell to her diary 
 
148 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 how she and her friend, Harriet Minot, daughter 
 of Judge Minot, took the hands of Mr. May, one 
 on each side, and pushed their way through the 
 mob of their townsmen, and, though rudely 
 treated, were not injured. Neither does she tell 
 the most shameful part of the story. A heavily 
 loaded cannon had been dragged near the 
 church, and at the same time the wooden steps 
 at the doors had been pulled away. The plan 
 of the miscreants was to break the windows and 
 discharge the cannon, thus causing a rush to the 
 doors, and, the steps being removed, the audi- 
 ence would have been precipitated several feet ; 
 limbs would have been broken, and perhaps 
 lives lost in the panic. For some reason, the gun 
 was not fired, and the brief pause for the benedic- 
 tion gave time to discover that the steps were re- 
 moved and to replace them. Miss Whittier and 
 Miss Minot were well known to the citizens of 
 Haverhill, and that Mr. May was not roughly 
 handled when he came out of the church was due 
 to their protection. The mob was composed of 
 about two hundred men and boys. It was proba- 
 bly known in the town that Thompson arrived on 
 Saturday, and it was supposed he was at this 
 meeting. Perhaps the disturbance grew out of 
 this misunderstanding, for there was a bitter feel- 
 ing against the famous English orator, which was 
 just then working like leaven throughout New 
 England. 
 
 Whittier and Thompson, entirely unconscious 
 of the disturbance they left behind them, were 
 on their way to meet a more violent mob. The 
 
THE CONCORD RIOT 149 
 
 object of their journey was to visit Nathaniel P. 
 Kogers, at Plymouth, N. H. They arrived on 
 Monday, and Thompson delivered three lectures in 
 the place, which were well received. On their way 
 to Plymouth, they had stopped for the night at 
 Concord, at the house of George Kent, who was a 
 brother-in-law of Rogers. Kent made preparations 
 during their absence for an anti-slavery meeting, to 
 be held in Concord upon their return. He caused 
 handbills to be circulated, announcing a meeting at 
 the court house, Friday evening, September 4, at 
 which " the principles, views, and operations of the 
 abolitionists would be explained, and questions 
 answered, by George Thompson and John G. 
 Whittier." Nearly all his life Mr. Whittier 
 avoided public speaking, but in those days he 
 occasionally addressed anti- slavery meetings. 
 Kent's handbill made a great stir. At a politi- 
 cal meeting held Thursday evening, a protest was 
 made against allowing the abolitionists a hearing 
 in Concord. The selectmen warned those who 
 were active in the matter that it would be unsafe 
 to hold the proposed meeting, but they persisted. 
 As the hour set for the meeting approached, a 
 crowd, evidently bent on mischief, filled the street 
 in front of the court house, and the selectmen 
 ordered that the doors should not be opened. 
 Thereupon the multitude, determined that " the 
 incendiary Thompson " should not escape them, 
 began the search for him, and the cry was 
 raised, " To George Kent's, and the wine in his 
 cellar." On their way they met Whittier, who 
 was with J. H. Kimball, editor of the " Herald." 
 
150 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 His Quaker coat did not prevent the mob from 
 supposing lie was Thompson. They began to pelt 
 him with rotten eggs, 1 with mud and stones, al- 
 though Kimball assured them he was not the man 
 they sought. He received only slight injuries, 
 for though the missiles fell around them and upon 
 them, no stone happened to touch their heads. 
 They were somewhat lamed by those which struck 
 them elsewhere, and were covered with the dirt of 
 the street which had been cast at them. In 
 speaking of it in later years, Mr. Whittier said 
 he could remember the sound of the stones that 
 missed their aim and struck the wooden fences by 
 their side, and that it made him realize how 
 St. Paul felt when he was thrice stoned. Mr. 
 William A. Kent, a brother of George Kent, saw 
 them passing his house, while thus beset, and 
 though not an abolitionist, he opened his door to 
 them, and they thankfully sprang up the steps 
 three at a time. As soon as they were safely in- 
 side, the crowd, who were disposed to enter and 
 pull them out, were bravely met by Mr. Kent, who 
 told them that if they came in it would be over 
 his dead body. The crowd were soon after con- 
 vinced, by Rev. Mr. Thomas, a Unitarian clergy- 
 man (whose wife was a niece of N. P. Rogers), 
 that they had mistaken their man, and passed on 
 
 1 The coat Mr. Whittier wore on this occasion was so soiled by 
 rotten eggs that it could never be cleansed. It was kept as a 
 relic until after the war, when boxes of clothing were sent from 
 Amesbury to the needy freedmen. Mr. Whittier contributed the 
 old coat, among other things, and at least one Southern negro 
 derived a benefit from the little affair that happened in New 
 Hampshire thirty years earlier. 
 
THE CONCORD RIOT 151 
 
 to George Kent's, where a small company of anti- 
 slavery people had assembled to pay their respects 
 to the famous English orator, and to the poet, his 
 companion. Among these were two nieces of 
 Daniel Webster, daughters of his brother Eze- 
 kiel. When the mob reached the house, Thomp- 
 son had left it by a back street, accompanied by 
 Mr. Kent. A demand was made that Thompson 
 be sent out to them, which was answered with the 
 assurance that he had gone, and that there were 
 only ladies in the house. General Davis then ad- 
 dressed the crowd, and told them they had done 
 all they came for ; they had prevented Thompson 
 from speaking, and he advised them to go borne. 
 They went away, but not homeward. After visit- 
 ing the liquor saloons, they constructed an effigy, 
 labeled it " George Thompson," and burned it in 
 the State House park. Then they indulged in 
 fireworks, and brought out a cannon to celebrate 
 their victory. 
 
 In the mean time, Mr. Whittier, hearing the 
 guns, and being anxious for the safety of his 
 friends, changed his Quaker hat for that of Rev. 
 Mr. Thomas, and, thus disguised, ventured again 
 into the street, passed through the mob, which was 
 frenzied with drink, and soon found Mr. Thompson, 
 who had also returned to George Kent's. The mob 
 came back from the State House to Mr, George 
 Kent's, and kept up a disturbance from two o'clock 
 to daybreak, having a suspicion that Thompson 
 had returned. In the early morning, while the 
 noisy multitude were shouting and firing guns 
 about the house, an escape was effected. Their 
 
152 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 horse was harnessed and brought to a side door. 
 When Whittier, Thompson, and Rev. Mr Putnam, 
 of Dunbarton, were in the carriage, the gate was 
 suddenly opened, and the horse was driven at a 
 gallop through a mob too surprised to stop the car- 
 riage. They were soon out of hearing of the yells 
 and gunshots of the maddened crowd. They left 
 Concord by the way of the Hookset bridge, all other 
 avenues being guarded, and hastened back towards 
 Haverhill. Stopping at an inn, for breakfast, they 
 found a little knot of rough men to whom the land- 
 lord was telling extravagant stories of the brave 
 times at Haverhill, the last Sunday night, when 
 George Thompson, the English incendiary, and a 
 fanatical Quaker named Whittier, were so roughly 
 handled that they could not soon address another 
 abolition meeting. They had escaped into New 
 Hampshire, and he showed a printed notice asking 
 all good citizens to aid in securing Thompson, and 
 giving him his just deserts. Whittier inquired 
 how the rascal was to be recognized, and was an- 
 swered, " Easily enough, he is a tonguey fellow." 
 As they were about to leave, being already in the 
 carriage, Whittier said to the landlord, " This is 
 George Thompson, and my name is Whittier." 
 The man stared with open mouth until they were 
 out of sight. Brief accounts of the Concord mob . 
 were given to the press by both Whittier and 
 Thompson, soon after the occurrence. They both 
 make light of the affair, and mention but few of 
 the incidents that have since been gathered from 
 conversations with Mr. Whittier and from other 
 sources. Thompson was so many times in jeopardy 
 
PERILS AMONG FALSE BRETHREN 153 
 
 in 1835, and had escaped unhurt so often from the 
 hands of previous mobs, that the Concord violence 
 made little impression upon him. Nearly fifty 
 years after the event, Mr. Whittier met in Portland 
 a man who confessed that he was one of the mob. 
 Whittier asked what would have been done to 
 Thompson and himself, if they had fallen into the 
 hands of the crowd, and the man replied that prep- 
 arations had been made to blacken their faces so 
 that it would have been difficult to remove the 
 coloring matter. Tar and feathers were also in 
 readiness. Thompson returned with Whittier to 
 East Haverhill, and spent a week at the old home- 
 stead, Elizabeth's talks with her diary are sus- 
 pended during these days, but after their guest has 
 gone she has time to write again, and says : 
 
 " It must have been a noble sight ! Five hundred 
 patriotic citizens of New Hampshire, marching 
 with cursing and shouting to the rescue of the 
 Constitution ! Even the Quaker coat of J. G. W. 
 does not quite defend him from the chivalry of the 
 brave band ! It was a manifestation of extraor- 
 dinary courage on the part of the belligerents to 
 venture an attack on two Quaker gentlemen, walk- 
 ing soberly and peaceably under their broadbrims. 
 Was there not a manifestation of Satanic influence 
 in the rush of the crowd to George Kent's with the 
 evident purpose of destruction to the beautiful man- 
 sion of an intelligent Christian, and kind-hearted 
 fellow-citizen ? . . . On First day evening, a 
 prayer meeting was holden in our little school- 
 house, and George Thompson, the man who passed 
 triumphant and applauded through all the great 
 
154 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 cities of England and Scotland, as the eloquent 
 pleader for the poor down-trodden slaves of the 
 British colonies, whose appeals have been listened 
 to and admired by immense audiences, was present, 
 and at the earnest request of Rev. J. R. Gushing 
 briefly addressed the meeting, before closing it 
 with a truly fervid and Christian prayer. . . . 
 George Thompson left us on Second day morning, 
 and I was very, very sorry to have him go. I had 
 begun to think of him not with the reverence and 
 awe I used to connect with the name of George 
 Thompson, the eloquent English orator, but quite as 
 a dear friend. It is altogether too high, too happy 
 a station. I am not worthy to be Ms friend, but I 
 am proud that I am privileged to think of him as 
 my friend. . . . As an appendix to our loss of 
 Second day, Greenleaf left us on Third day, to 
 recommence his legislative duties at Boston " 
 
 One other mob Mr. Whittier encountered in 
 these times, and the story of it is as follows : An 
 Essex County anti-slavery convention was to be 
 held in Newburyport, in 1837, but no hall or church 
 could be obtained, and so the meeting was held 
 in the garden of Mrs. Charles Butler, on Brown 
 Square. A rough crowd from the wharves, led 
 by citizens who considered themselves respectable, 
 broke up the meeting by beating upon tin pans, 
 blowing fish-horns, and howling. They also as- 
 saulted some of the speakers, causing little injury, 
 however, except to clothing. Henry B. Stanton, 
 who was one of the speakers, had the buttons cut 
 from his coat. Mr. Whittier relates this incident 
 of the affair : 
 
ASSAILED AT NEWBURYPORT 155 
 
 " As we were being assailed with decayed eggs, 
 sticks, and light missiles, I thought discretion the 
 better part of valor, and hurried away at what my 
 friend N. P. Rogers called ' an undignified trot,' 
 in company with an aged Orthodox minister, one 
 of the few who had the moral courage to attend 
 an anti-slavery meeting in those days, and who 
 was settled in a neighboring town. As soon as we 
 stopped to recover breath, I said to him : ' I am 
 surprised that we should be disturbed in a quiet, 
 Puritan city like Newburyport. I 've lived near 
 it for years, and thought it was a pious city.' 
 Laying his hand on my shoulder the clergyman 
 said, ' Young man, when you are as old as I am 
 you will understand that it is easier to be pious 
 than it is to be good.' " 
 
 In these New England mobs Mr. Whittier has 
 said he never apprehended serious danger to life 
 or limb, and indeed he was better prepared for 
 such danger than for anything like personal indig- 
 nity. The thought of such indignities affected 
 him more than even the dread of death. In 
 an article published in the "Atlantic Monthly," 
 February, 1874, he says : 
 
 "I had read John TrumbulFs description of 
 the tarring and feathering of his hero, McFin- 
 gal, when, after the application of the melted tar, 
 the feather-bed was ripped open and shaken over 
 him, until 
 
 * Not Maia's son, with wings for ears, 
 Such plumes about his visage wears, 
 Nor Milton's six- winged angel gathers 
 Such superfluity of feathers ; ' 
 
156 ENLISTMENT AGAINST SLAVERY 
 
 and I confess I was quite unwilling to undergo a 
 martyrdom which my best friends could scarcely 
 refrain from laughing at." 
 
 In a letter to his friend Thayer, who was then 
 editing the " Commercial Herald " in Philadelphia, 
 under date Haverhill, 29th of llth mo., 1835, Mr. 
 Whittier writes that he is busy with farm work, 
 and adds : " Anti-slavery is going on well in spite 
 of mobs, Andover Seminary, and rum. This town 
 has gone for Jackson, and our senators have got in 
 (four of them) with the skin of their teeth. The 
 State is almost Van Burenized." 
 
 Early in 1836, Mr. Thayer urged him to come 
 to Philadelphia, to engage in a newspaper enter- 
 prise with him. He replied from the old home- 
 stead in Haverhill (where he appears to have been 
 snowbound again), under date of 16th of 2d mo., 
 1836: 
 
 " Blocked up by a four-feet snow I have had no 
 means of sending to the village. ... I must de- 
 cline thy proposal ; my health recently has been 
 uncertain, and I am just getting over an attack 
 of my old complaint, palpitation of the heart. 
 I should not dare to engage in such an undertaking 
 at present. I nevertheless have wished a hundred 
 times that we could be together as formerly, as we 
 used to agree so perfectly on most points." 
 
 During part of the year 1836, Mr. Whittier 
 was editing the Haverhill " Gazette," while man* 
 aging his farm. Early in 1837, he had again a call 
 to Philadelphia, this time to edit an anti-slavery 
 paper. At about the same time he had a call to 
 Portland. The following paragraphs from a letter 
 
CALLED TO PHILADELPHIA 157 
 
 to Mr. Thayer were written while undecided. He 
 writes from Amesbury, 31st of 3d mo., 1837 : 
 
 " I have a wish on many accounts to live in your 
 city ; but the Portland folks are very desirous of 
 getting me to go ' Down East.' They have of- 
 fered me $1200 per annum. The climate would 
 not, however, suit me so well as yours, and, to tell 
 the truth, there is hardly field enough for doing a 
 great deal of good in Maine, at present. Our 
 friends in Boston are fully persuaded that the 
 grand battle is now to be fought in Pennsylvania, 
 between mobocracy (excited by the slaveholding 
 influence of Virginia and Maryland, and by the 
 President's outrageous and abominable sentiments 
 expressed in his inaugural message) and the 
 friends of liberty. One word, sub rosa : If Rit- 
 ner can be sustained in his own State, the entire 
 North, save New Hampshire and Maine, would go 
 for him for the Presidency. I have not felt at 
 liberty to go to Portland until I have heard from 
 Philadelphia. On the receipt of a letter I shall be 
 able to decide immediately." 
 
 The decision arrived at, some months later, was 
 in favor of Philadelphia. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INITIATION INTO POLITICS. 
 
 1836-1838. 
 
 IN April, 1836, the Haverhill farm, of one hun- 
 dred and forty-eight acres, was sold to Aaron 
 Chase, and a cottage in the village of Amesbury 
 was bought a few weeks afterward. This one-story 
 cottage, which was enlarged and remodeled at 
 various times, was the poet's home until his death, 
 a period of a little more than fifty-six years. The 
 farm was sold for $3000, and the house and lot 
 in Amesbury cost $1200. Two reasons induced 
 the selling of the farm and the removal to Ames- 
 bury. Mr. Whittier was so fully occupied with 
 his literary and reform work, and at the same time 
 so broken in health, that it became necessary for 
 him to give up the care of a difficult farm ; more- 
 over, there was no Friends' meeting nearer than 
 Amesbury, and his mother and sister found it be- 
 yond their strength to attend meetings regularly 
 at such a distance. When the farm was sold, the 
 horse was given up, and the poet never afterward 
 owned one. The new home was located nearly 
 opposite the Friends' meeting-house. The present 
 meeting-house, built more than forty years ago, 
 upon plans made by Mr. Whittier, is not far dis- 
 tant on the same street. 
 
The Ames bury Home 
 
THE AMESBURY COTTAGE 159 
 
 Three successive meeting-houses have been built 
 by the Friends in Amesbury during the past two 
 hundred years, all of them on Friend Street, upon 
 which Mr. Whittier's house stands. In the oldest 
 one, Thomas Story, one of William Penn's coun- 
 cilors of state, held forth in 1704, when he de- 
 fended his faith in a notable debate. He was the 
 first man to express a doubt about the world being 
 made in six literal days, and the first to suggest 
 that the days alluded to in the Scripture account 
 of the creation were ages in length. The present 
 edifice was erected in 1851, and the details of its, 
 construction were left by the society to the care 
 of Mr. Whittier. But as the poet had at that 
 time mixed with the world's people more than most 
 of his brethren, there was some fear among the 
 more conservative that he would provide too many 
 modern comforts for the worshipers perhaps 
 even give them a steeple ! Mistrusting this, and 
 to set their hearts at rest, he wisely employed as 
 builders three venerable carpenters, one of whom 
 was a Quaker minister, and the other two elders 
 of the society. The result of their joint labors 
 was, as might have been expected, a perfectly 
 orthodox Quaker meeting-house, without steeple or 
 filigree work of any kind, 1 but very neat and com- 
 fortable. 
 
 1 Several years ago a worthy missionary, anxious to reform a 
 pagan neighborhood in a town just over the New Hampshire 
 border, called upon Mr. Whittier for a subscription. " Does thee 
 propose to put a steeple on thy church ? " he inquired. " Yes, 
 sir." " Well, I am glad thee has undertaken to christianize that 
 neighborhood, and am willing to help thee. But I am sorry 
 about the steeple. I will subscribe, however, on condition that 
 no part of my money goes into that extravagance." 
 
160 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 The lot upon which the Amesbury cottage was 
 built afforded a garden that every year produced 
 a great variety of fruits and vegetables. Mr. 
 Whittier gave much attention to it, enjoying the 
 work as he could not enjoy the heavier labor on 
 his ancestral acres. About forty years ago, the 
 eastern end of the cottage was made two stories in 
 height, and at the southeastern corner an addition 
 was made of the same height. The lower room 
 in the addition was fitted up for a study, and the 
 upper room, after the death of his sister Elizabeth, 
 in 1864, became Mr. Whittier's chamber. The 
 study was always known as the "garden room." 
 Mr. Whittier objected to the use of the word 
 " study," or " library," for such an unpretentious 
 literary workshop. It was warmed by a Franklin 
 stove. In the recess on one side of the chimney 
 were book-shelves, and in the corresponding recess 
 on the other side was placed his writing-desk. 
 
 The book-shelves held only a small part of Mr. 
 Whittier's constantly increasing library, which 
 overflowed into nearly all the rooms. The north- 
 ern window, next the desk, was in a door opening 
 upon a little veranda, and gave a view of the 
 street and the southern slope of Po Hill, which is 
 close at hand. This pleasant little room natu- 
 rally became the sitting-room of the family. For 
 Mr. Whittier loved domesticity, and could read 
 and write without disturbance in the midst of 
 household affairs. It is the room held in most 
 loving remembrance by the friends and visitors of 
 the poet. In it he did his best work. Here 
 " Snow-Bound " was written, and many of his 
 
THE GARDEN ROOM 161 
 
 most popular poems. The western end of the 
 house remained one story in height until the year 
 1884, when another story was added, giving the 
 house its present appearance. In the midst of all 
 'the alterations here described, the little parlor, at 
 the northwestern corner of the original cottage, 
 has remained unchanged. This room also has its 
 open fireplace. 
 
 The ancient towns of Amesbury and Salisbury, 
 until within a few years, when they were consol- 
 idated, were divided by the Powow River, and the 
 principal village of each town was located at the 
 falls in this rapid stream. To a stranger they 
 seemed but a single village, the river for most 
 of its course being entirely hidden by the wide 
 arches which span it to bear up the main street, 
 and by the factories on each side of the stream. 
 The part which is thus concealed is a fall of 
 about eighty feet over jagged ledges, and here the 
 power for the mills is obtained. In a letter to a 
 friend who suggested that he celebrate Po Hill, the 
 picturesque eminence overlooking his Amesbury 
 residence (as Job's Hill overlooks his birthplace), 
 he says : " I quite agree with thee that Po Hill 
 is well worthy of being celebrated in song. I 
 have mentioned it in my poem, ' Abram Morri- 
 son,' and in the prelude to ' Miriam.' It is also 
 referred to in ' Cobbler Keezar's Vision,' in which 
 the swift Powow stream is described as it appeared 
 to the early settlers, coming down from the south 
 side of the hill in a series of cascades, the finest of 
 which are now hidden by the mills, or arched 
 over by the main street of busy Amesbury : 
 
162 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 " Woodsy and wild and lonesome, 
 
 The swift stream wound away, 
 
 Through birches and scarlet maples, 
 
 Flashing in foam and spray, 
 
 " Down on the sharp-horned ledges 
 
 Plunging in steep cascade, 
 Tossing its white-maned waters 
 Against the hemlock's shade." 
 
 The family removed from Haverhill to Ames- 
 bury on the 6th of July, 1836. Seven weeks 
 after, Elizabeth writes in her diary : 
 
 " So now we are here at Amesbury, and must 
 henceforth call it home. How strange ! The 
 evening I left our home at [East] Haverhill 
 there was quite too much confusion to allow us to 
 think. I spent a fortnight with sister Mary at 
 Haverhill, and on our way to Amesbury we rode 
 up to the old gateway which always before had 
 worn the cheerful look of home. There was no- 
 thing there to welcome us, save my own poor cat 
 and she was right glad. ... I have been here 
 now five weeks, and save my brothers and sister 
 have seen but five of my Haverhill friends, and cer- 
 tainly these few seemed dearer than ever. I won- 
 der if I shall ever love Amesbury or its people ! 
 I shall when I forget the dear ones and things at 
 Haverhill, perhaps. I know scarce any of the abo- 
 lition people here, but expect to like them all or 
 at least their abolition." 
 
 She was soon after elected president of the Wo- 
 men's Anti-Slavery Society of Amesbury. 
 
 In bringing into one chapter the introduction 
 of Whittier to the work which was so strongly 
 to affect his nature and his occupation we have 
 
LETTERS TO MR. HARRIMAN 163 
 
 anticipated the narrative, and now we partially re- 
 trace our steps to speak of his relations to political 
 parties after leaving Hartford. Mr. Whittier's edi- 
 torship of political papers in Boston and Hartford 
 gave him a taste for political life which he enjoyed, 
 and woke an ambition to be serviceable to his State 
 and the nation, not only in moulding the policy of 
 his party so as to aid the reforms he favored, but 
 in selecting the men who were to carry its princi- 
 ples into effect. The following notes to Mr. Har- 
 riman, editor of the Haverhill " Iris," indicate how 
 eagerly he followed public events from the seclusion 
 of his farm. 
 
 EAST PARISH, 1831. 
 
 I have been embargoed for the past three weeks, 
 unable to stir; and for a week past unable to 
 see, the same persistent influenza having finally 
 taken possession of my eyes. I send you something 
 which I scrawled yesterday with a bandaged eye. 
 Try to set it up correctly, for 't is horribly written. 
 If you could notice my leaving the paper at Hart- 
 ford, and mention at the same time that I was for 
 some time editor of the " Essex Gazette," and that 
 had I remained so I should have warmly advo- 
 cated the cause of Mr. Gushing, it might do good 
 at this time. But say nothing disparagingly of 
 Mr. Thayer. He is on the wrong side, but he does 
 pretty well with a bad cause. Did you ever read 
 Burke's speeches and writings ? If not, read them 
 attentively. They will prove valuable to you, as 
 they have to me. 
 
164 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 EAST PARISH, 2d of 2d mo., 1832. 
 
 I am starving for newspapers ; I now and then 
 get one from Boston and Washington, but not 
 until they are gray-headed with age. Could you 
 send me a lot of papers of any kind ? Cushing's 
 speech is excellent, admirably calculated for the 
 Lowell meridian. If he should be nominated, he 
 would get it next trial. I don't like, however, 
 what he says of General Jackson. 
 
 Have you Mr. Choate's speech on the tariff, 
 made last session ? I have never seen it. I see 
 that he has lately made a speech on Verplanck's 
 bill, in which he unequivocally admits the necessity 
 of reducing the revenue to fifteen millions. You 
 mention a rumor about Clay and Webster. I 
 trust that Mr. Webster will beware how he lends 
 himself to Jacksonism, and that Mr. Clay will 
 hold aloof from Nullification. The one is Scylla, 
 the other Charybdis. But I do hope that Mr. Clay 
 will oppose the placing of the whole military 
 force of the United States in the hands of General 
 Jackson. I would as soon trust it in the hands of 
 the devil. To be consistent he must do so. Both 
 Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun denounced the lawless- 
 conduct of the military chieftain in Pensacola, and 
 in the Seminole war. 
 
 1832. ' 
 
 There is no other way but to go right ahead with 
 Cushing. The other party hold a sort of conven- 
 tion to-day, I understand. But whatever they may 
 offer, beware of them. 
 
 I have got the rheumatism to pay for riding in 
 the teeth of the northwest wind from Newburyport. 
 
BELIEF IN PARTIES 165 
 
 To the end of his life he cherished all the privi- 
 leges of citizenship, and, believing in parties, 
 abandoned no political organization so long as he 
 saw a chance of keeping it engaged in the re- 
 forms upon which he set his heart. Beginning his 
 political life as a partisan of Clay, he did not give 
 him up until he saw it was useless to expect the 
 great Kentuckian to come out as the champion of 
 freedom. He stood by other political friends with 
 the same steadfastness, even when he had much to 
 criticise in their conduct, and he never shirked the 
 duty of criticising. 1 Nothing but the delicacy of 
 his health, at critical times, prevented his being the 
 candidate of his party for important places when a 
 nomination was equivalent to an election, in the 
 early part of his career. In a letter never before 
 published, dated Haverhill, 8th mo., 1832, to an 
 early and valued friend in Cincinnati, he wrote : 
 
 " Six months ago I really considered myself a 
 citizen of Cincinnati. I had determined upon 
 going to the West. I left Hartford with regret, 
 
 1 " His natural interest in affairs, and strong love of humanity, 
 made him a willing and active worker in the field of politics and 
 reform. For he was by instinct a political as well as a moral 
 reformer, and dearly loved the conflict of ballots. He often gave 
 expression to his views of public policy in the newspapers, in 
 later life, and his opinions on political measures carried weight 
 with leaders of national repute. His interest in party success 
 sometimes brought him to the border line of expediency, jarring 
 upon the uncompromising notions of his non-voting abolition 
 friends. It was hard for him to abandon the Whig party, and 
 impossible to cut loose from the Republican, but his political sa- 
 gacity and judgment were maintained. While advocating the 
 reelection of Harrison in 1892, he foresaw and prophesied the 
 success of Cleveland." W. L. Garrison in Brooklyn Address, 
 December 17, 1892. 
 
166 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 for I had formed acquaintances there and estab- 
 lished friendships which had become, as it were, a 
 part of my being. I returned to Haverhill, and 
 started for the South the first of December [1831]. 
 Being a member of the National Republican con- 
 vention [a delegate from Hartford] I intended to 
 spend a part of the winter in Baltimore and 
 Washington. On reaching Boston, I was taken 
 with the influenza, which, added to previous ill 
 health, kept me at home during the whole winter. 
 In the spring [of 1832] the precarious state of 
 my health, and some prospects which were held 
 out to me by my political friends, induced me to 
 remain in this section of the country. These pros- 
 pects might have been realized before this but 
 for a circumstance over which I had no control. 
 You know what a tedious time we have had here 
 relative to the choice of Eepresentative to Con- 
 gress. My political friends insisted upon my 
 allowing myself to be a candidate. Astonished as 
 I was at such an unexpected prospect, I could 
 only assure them that my age presented, to say 
 nothing of anything else, an insuperable barrier, 
 the Constitution requiring twenty-five years, and 
 my age being only twenty-four. ... I should 
 not have mentioned it but to account for my re- 
 maining in this section of the country. ... I 
 have written little for a long time save upon dry 
 politics. I hate Jackson, or rather Jackson's 
 measures, most cordially. I admire Clay, and 
 shall do all I can to promote his success." 
 
 The "tedious time" referred to in the above 
 letter was in connection with the candidacy of 
 
CALEB GUSHING 167 
 
 Caleb Gushing, who began his efforts to get into 
 Congress in 1826, and did not succeed until 1834. 
 He had many enemies in his own party, which pre- 
 vented his election in a district where his side was 
 usually in the ascendant. He was occasionally 
 disposed to transfer to some friend who could 
 unite the factions of his party the burden of the 
 candidacy. There were seventeen Congressional 
 elections in the North Essex district between 1831 
 and 1833, and the seat in the national legislature 
 to which this district was entitled was vacant dur- 
 ing nearly the whole term. In the summer of 1832 
 there was a suggestion to unite the party by nom- 
 inating Mr. Whittier. Mr. Thayer, editor of the 
 Haverhill " Gazette," had been an opponent of Cush- 
 ing, but could be depended upon to favor Whittier, 
 and the young poet was quite willing to accept the 
 position. His few years' experience in " practical 
 politics " had fostered an ambition for power and 
 patronage, of which those can have no idea who 
 knew him only after he had devoted himself to 
 philanthropic labors. After leaving his political 
 editorship in Boston and Hartford, and coming 
 back to his farm, he found his friend Edwin Har- 
 riman editing the Haverhill " Iris," a Cushing 
 paper. He contributed many political articles to 
 the " Iris," and one or two partisan poems, like the 
 satirical verses addressed to the " Poetical Trio," 
 given in a preceding chapter. Here is a private 
 letter to Harriman which illustrates the motives 
 and methods of Whittier's ambition, before the 
 great change which came over his spirit a year or 
 two later. He suggests that an election can be 
 
168 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 prevented in November by keeping Gushing in the 
 field, if the Kittredge faction also nominate a can- 
 didate, while the Newburyport friends of Gushing 
 may be encouraged to hope there will be no Kit- 
 tredge candidate. After the November trial he 
 will himself be old enough to go to Congress. 
 The letter is dated " East Parish, Wednesday morn- 
 ing," probably in August, 1832. 
 
 "Since conversing with you yesterday, a new 
 objection to our project has occurred to me, the 
 Constitution requires that the Eepresentative shall 
 be twenty-five years of age. I shall not be twenty- 
 five till the 17th of December. So that I would 
 not be eligible at the next trial in November. 
 This, you will see, gives a different aspect to the 
 whole affair. Perhaps, however, if the contest is 
 prolonged till after the next time, the project might 
 be put in execution. 
 
 " Suppose you advocate a holding on to Mr. C. 
 in your Newburyport letter ? Suppose, too, that you 
 nominate in your paper Mr. Gushing without any 
 one-sided convention ? After the trial in Novem- 
 ber, you can then use the arguments in favor of 
 our plan which you propose to do now ; and if it 
 suits Mr. C. he can then request his friends to give 
 their votes for some other individual for the sake 
 of promoting peace in the district. The Kittredge 
 committee would in that case probably nominate a 
 candidate, if one could be found, but, I un- 
 derstand Mr. Thayer, not with the expectation of 
 his being elected. 
 
 " If I were nominated after the November trial, 
 Mr. Thayer, situated as he and I relatively are, 
 
WHITTIER'S AMBITION 169 
 
 would support the nomination, and let the other 
 candidate go, as he did John Merrill. Purdy, the 
 4 Telegraph,' and the ' Essex Register ' would do 
 the same. 
 
 " The truth of the matter is, the thing would be 
 peculiarly beneficial to me, if not at home it 
 would be so abroad. It would give me an oppor- 
 tunity of seeing and knowing our public characters, 
 and in case of Mr. Clay's election might enable 
 me to do something for myself or my friends. It 
 would be worth more to me now, young as I am, 
 than almost any office after I had reached the 
 meridian of life. 
 
 " In this matter, if I know my own heart, I 
 am not entirely selfish. I never yet deserted a 
 friend, and I never will. If my friends enable 
 me to acquire influence, it shall be exerted for 
 their benefit. And give me once an opportunity 
 of exercising it, my first object shall be to evince 
 my gratitude by exertions in behalf of those who 
 had conferred such a favor upon me. 
 
 " If you write to Newburyport to-day, you can 
 say that we are willing and ready to do all we can 
 at the next trial ; say, too, that the Kittredge folks 
 will scarcely find a candidate, and that there may 
 be a chance for Gushing better than he has yet had ; 
 that at all events it can do no harm ; and that if 
 after that trial Mr. C. sees fit to request his friends 
 not to vote for him for the 22d Congress, there 
 will be as good a chance then of electing a Gushing 
 man as there is now. Say, too, if you please, that 
 I am ready to go on with the contest, and you had 
 better recommend mildness in the process of elec- 
 tioneering." 
 
170 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 In October, 1833, he wrote to his old Hartford 
 friend, Jonathan Law : 
 
 " I am happy to hear that the overthrow of our 
 political party has not depressed thee. Alas for 
 National Republicanism ! It yet lingers here in 
 this State, but desertions are rapidly thinning its 
 once firm ranks, and in a year those who know it 
 now will know it no more forever. I speak of 
 the great majority. For myself, I see no reason 
 for a change of opinion, and I should as soon 
 think of worshiping the devil with the Mani- 
 cheans, as to fall down and do homage to Andrew 
 Jackson with the idolatrous ' spoils party ' of the 
 day. No, the old man is no better than he was 
 when we battled him in Hartford ; nay, I am in- 
 clined to think age has improved him, as death 
 did Sheridan's fat friar, ' in the wrong way.' 
 His late manifesto on the United States Bank is 
 as full of egotistical authority as an imperial 
 ukase, or a Turkish firman. And then, there is 
 that 'foregone conclusion,' Martin Van Buren, 
 clinging to the skirts of the old General, and who- 
 ever does homage to the latter is aiding the ' polit- 
 ical grimalkin ' (as Clinton called him) to slip 
 into the Presidency, nolens volens. J. Q. Adams 
 is nominated for governor by the anti-Masons in 
 this State ; he is a strong candidate, but he will 
 not go down. John Davis, our candidate, is a 
 very able man, and popular withal. There will 
 probably be no choice by the people. Edward 
 Everett has joined the anti-Masons, and there 's 
 a terrible hubbub about it. Daniel Webster, they 
 say, is anti-Masonic, but Dan is crafty, and will 
 
THE ANTI-MASONS 171 
 
 not hang out his flag at present. As for you in 
 Connecticut, you are disgracing yourselves as much 
 as possible by black laws and grog-shop laws. 
 God grant you a speedy deliverance from Jackson- 
 ism. ... I am busy on my farm as a beaver 
 building his dam. My health is vastly improved ; 
 the blues have left me ; I go to husking frolics, 
 and all that sort of thing. I have put the veto 
 upon poetry ; read all I can find, politics, history, 
 rhyme, reason, etc., and am happy, at least I 
 believe I am. I have written some considerable 
 upon slavery, and have been pretty roughly han- 
 dled by the Southerners. But so long as I can 
 intrench myself behind my Quakerism, as a tor- 
 toise does under his shell, I am perfectly safe. 
 The slavery question is getting to be an absorbing 
 one, and the recent noble act of Great Britain will 
 contribute to effect a change in this country. . . . 
 As to your suggestion about poetry, I must decline 
 attending to it. I have knocked Pegasus on the 
 head, as a tanner does his bark-mill donkey, when 
 he is past service. I am fixed at Haverhill, as 
 Pope says, 
 
 4 Fixed as a plant to one peculiar spot, 
 To draw nutrition, propagate and rot.' " 
 
 The feeling against slavery had been growing 
 strong enough to have a marked effect upon the 
 National Republican party in Massachusetts, al- 
 though for several years no third party took the 
 field. The abolitionists, led in Essex County by 
 Whittier, questioned the candidates as to their 
 opinion in regard to the right of petition and 
 slavery in the District of Columbia. They would 
 
172 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 vote only for those who promised to present and 
 defend petitions for the abolition of slavery in the 
 District and in the Territories. Gushing was dis- 
 trusted by the anti-slavery men generally. But 
 Whittier recognized his great ability, and wished 
 to turn it to account in aiding the cause of 
 liberty. Before each election, in 1834, 1836, and 
 1838, he secured Cushing's unqualified pledges in 
 favor of some of the measures demanded by the 
 abolitionists. He then used his whole influence, 
 and secured his election each time. Gushing 
 acknowledged that he owed his success to his 
 young Quaker friend, and redeemed his pledge by 
 presenting the anti-slavery petitions which Whit- 
 tier caused to be poured in upon him from every 
 part of the Essex district. That Cushing's heart 
 was not in it is shown by the disclaimers he made 
 as he presented the petitions. But he supported 
 John Quincy Adams in his demand that every 
 petition should be received, no matter what was 
 called for, and respectfully referred to the appro- 
 priate committee. His spirited speeches equaled 
 those of Adams himself, in eloquence and in cour- 
 age. The "gag rule" introduced by Jarvis, of 
 Maine, was opposed by him with great ability, 
 but he took pains to say that he did not fully 
 approve of the petitions he insisted should be 
 received. Whittier kept him up to his work by 
 canvassing the Essex North district and forward- 
 ing petitions from every town where he could ob- 
 tain signers to them. 
 
 As an illustration of the manner in which 
 Whittier plied Gushing with material for speeches 
 
LETTERS TO CALEB GUSHING 173 
 
 and sought to keep him in line, the following let- 
 ters have an interest. 
 
 NEWBURYPORT, 25th of 10th mo., 1834. 
 I am disappointed in not seeing thee at this 
 place and this time, as I called to apprise thee of 
 the fact that at our meeting of the Essex County 
 Anti-Slavery Society yesterday at Danvers, it was 
 unanimously agreed upon to write letters to the 
 candidates for Congress and state legislature on the 
 subject of slavery and of their views of action in 
 Congress and in the legislature upon it. Until 
 after the passage of this resolution I did not reflect 
 that it would embrace thyself and Osgood [his 
 Democratic opponent] , as we were thinking of Sal- 
 tonstall and Rantoul [in the other Essex district] . 
 As it is, however, I hope thee will favor the Soci- 
 ety with an explicit answer, as the one hundred 
 and twenty delegates present pledged themselves 
 to vote for no man of any party who was not in 
 favor of abolition in the District of Columbia. I 
 heard, too, from a gentleman in the meeting, that 
 two or three hundred of the legal voters of Lowell 
 have pledged themselves to this effect. 
 
 HAVERHILL, 3d of llth mo., 1&34 
 
 Several individuals, personally and politically 
 thy friends, have suggested to me the idea of ad- 
 dressing thee in regard to thy sentiments in relation 
 to slavery in the District of Columbia. From this 
 I have uniformly dissuaded them by assuring 
 them that, although friendly to Colonization and 
 consequently opposed to Immediate Emancipation 
 
174 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 and many of their views, I could have no manner 
 of doubt of thy willingness to do all in thy power 
 to remove slavery from the District, where it ex- 
 ists without warrant from the Constitution, and in 
 its most aggravated form. By this assurance I 
 have, I believe, fully satisfied the individuals to 
 whom I allude. Perhaps in making it I have 
 unintentionally misrepresented thy views and feel- 
 ings. If so, I can only say that my motives were 
 of the most friendly nature. In the present pos- 
 ture of affairs in this district any formal inter- 
 rogation of candidates in reference to matters of 
 this kind is certainly to be deprecated. But no- 
 thing is more certain than that the time is close 
 at hand when it cannot be avoided. The spirit 
 working deep in the heart of New England will not 
 slumber. Party machinery will not much longer 
 repress it. If I have rightly represented thy views 
 it would be a great satisfaction to myself to be able 
 to put a line from thee to that effect in the hands 
 of two or three gentlemen previous to the coming 
 election. If on the other hand I have mistaken 
 them, thee will oblige me by making no reply what- 
 ever in reference to the particular subject of this 
 letter. Thayer has been acting with a great deal 
 of prudence as well as firmness in the support of 
 the Whig nominations. 
 
 20th of 2d mo., 1836. 
 
 I send thee three small petitions, and will 
 trouble thee no more for the present session. 
 Many thanks for thy defense of Adams, and of 
 the petitioners of Massachusetts. We have just 
 
LETTERS TO CALEB GUSHING 175 
 
 got the question before the legislature in relation 
 to the right of petition, as violated by the resolu- 
 tion in Congress of the 18th of January. It will 
 probably be protested against on the part of our 
 legislature, and thus you will be fully supported 
 at home. 
 
 HAVERHIIX, 1st of 3d mo., 1836. 
 
 I am greatly obliged to thee for thy account of 
 the state of politics at Washington. It is, how- 
 ever, pretty much as I had previously supposed. 
 My object in making the remark thee allude to 
 was to put thee on thy guard in reference to the 
 state of parties here. Our last election was omi- 
 nous. The Whig party cannot stand much 
 longer in Massachusetts. The Whig men, with 
 the exercise of a prudence and forecast perfectly 
 consistent with sound principles, may. I notice 
 that the Southern and Western Whigs take every 
 possible occasion in Congress to attack Van Buren 
 and his friends at the North. This course would 
 be fatal to the Massachusetts delegation. A firm 
 and steady support of Daniel Webster, without 
 playing into the hands of the White and Harri- 
 son parties, or volunteering attacks upon the Van 
 Buren party, is, it appears to me, the safest course 
 for yourselves, and the best for the true interests 
 of the State. Thy skirmish with Hardin, of Ken- 
 tucky, and its triumphant result on thy part, has 
 gained thee no small degree of credit among all 
 parties here. It discovered an untrammeled and 
 independent spirit, and a determination to defend 
 the honor and the interests of thy constituents, 
 
176 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 irrespective of partisan feelings. I like the old- 
 fashioned democratic tone of thy speech on the 
 right of petition. The Van Bur en organ in this 
 district copied two paragraphs of it with approba- 
 tion. On the right of free speech and communi- 
 cations there will be a splendid opportunity to 
 maintain the vital principles of democracy; to 
 hold up before the nation the now universally 
 detested Sedition Law ; to speak of those who 
 suffered by it, and to set the Democrats of Vir- 
 ginia and South Carolina of 1800 in battle array 
 against the position of these " chivalrous " sov- 
 ereignties at the present time. It will be sport to 
 see the "engineer hoist with his own petard." 
 I wish that some one of the Massachusetts delega- 
 tion would just tell the Southerners that the old 
 Bay State was never a slave State; that, al- 
 though slavery existed here, it was recognized by 
 our laws only as an existing evil, and stood only 
 upon its own execrable foundation of robbery and 
 wrong ; that our courts of justice were temples 
 of refuge for the slaves long before the Constitu- 
 tion of 1780. Thus, in 1770, a suit was instituted 
 by a slave in our judicial courts for freedom and 
 recompense for his services after attaining the age 
 of twenty-one years, and the court decided in his 
 favor. Other suits were in consequence insti- 
 tuted, and all terminated in favor of liberty. 
 (Vide Dr. Belknap's answer to Judge Tucker.) 
 On the part of the slave it was pleaded that servi- 
 tude was a violation of the colony's charter, and 
 of the fundamental law of England, that no person 
 could be deprived of liberty but by the judgment 
 
LETTERS TO CALEB GUSHING 177 
 
 of his peers. These facts are doubtless familiar 
 to thee, and I only wish to call thy attention to 
 them. 
 
 HAVEKHILL, 12th of 12th mo., 1836. 
 I send thee three or four petitions, and there 's 
 " mair a-cominV We need not tell thee that we 
 want a hearing before Congress, and that we must 
 have it somehow or other. The next year we 
 shall send double the number, and so on, until the 
 united voice of New England thunders upon the 
 ear of Congress. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 16th of 1st mo., 1837. 
 I expected to have been in Washington ere 
 this ; but shall remain here until after the Har- 
 risburg fanatical convention. . . . How are the 
 abolition petitions received ? I am looking with 
 a good deal of anxiety for the presentment of the 
 petitions from Essex County. 
 
 BOSTON, 13th of 3d mo., 1837. 
 
 I send with this a copy of the report and reso- 
 lutions of the committee on the subject of slavery 
 and the right of petition. These resolutions, or 
 others stronger, will pass in both Houses. The 
 message of Van Buren, and the course of the Van 
 Buren party in Congress, have induced the lead- 
 ing Whigs to take this course. Many of the Van 
 Buren men will go for the report. I am thankful 
 that Massachusetts will thus nobly sustain her 
 Representatives, and assert the right of her citi- 
 zens " peaceably to assemble and petition for the 
 
178 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 redress of grievances." I regret we have not yet 
 been favored with thy speech in Congress in the 
 great debate on the John Quincy Adams petition. 
 It would have done good [in promoting the pas- 
 sage of the resolutions before the legislature]. 
 What is the meaning of Van Buren's message? 
 Is it the settled policy of " the government " to 
 "go to the death" for slavery? Will the old 
 Calhoun party accept the veto pledge of Van 
 Buren as a sufficient peace offering, ground their 
 arms, and wear the brands and ear-marks of " the 
 party " ? I have been amused in looking at 
 Ritchie's comments on the message. They are full 
 of the childishness and garrulousness of dotage 
 gratified in its childish whims. But one thing is 
 certain : Van Buren will lose Rhode Island, Con- 
 necticut, and Pennsylvania by his extraordinary 
 veto threat. How much he will gain by it at the 
 South remains to be seen. 
 
 AMESBURY, 14th of 4th mo., 1837. 
 
 Our county anti-slavery society holds its quarterly 
 meeting in this place on the 21st. As the secretary of 
 the society and the person who forwarded the peti- 
 tions to Congress, I wish to state to the meeting what 
 was the fate of their petitions. The reports of 
 Congressional proceedings are not accurate or full. 
 Next session our American society will have two 
 reporters in Washington. Could thee write me a let- 
 ter in reference to the reception of the petitions, and 
 permit me to read it as a private but not strictly 
 confidential letter to myself? A similar request 
 will be made to Mr. Phillips. Of course I do not 
 
PETITIONS TO CONGRESS 179 
 
 expect you to avow yourselves to be other than 
 what you are now understood to be, anti-abolition. 
 But as an abolitionist I am grateful to both of you 
 for your defense of the character of the petitioners, 
 and for your manly stand for the periled right of 
 petition. 
 
 The first draft of Cushing's reply to the above 
 note is folded with it among his papers. He gives 
 the list of petitions, and tells which have been 
 presented and which are to be hereafter offered. 
 
 The records of Congress show that Haverhill 
 and Amesbury did more than their share in peti- 
 tioning, and Mr. Whittier's hand is to be seen in 
 the whole movement in that part of Massachusetts. 
 The famous Haverhill petition of 1842 created a 
 remarkable scene in the national House of Repre- 
 sentatives. The Southern members were exasper- 
 ated by the persistency with which these petitions 
 were offered by John Quincy Adams and Caleb 
 Gushing. They threatened a dissolution of the 
 Union, unless even the right of petition was de- 
 nied upon topics that directly or indirectly affected 
 their " peculiar institution." It was in part to 
 rebuke these hollow threats of dissolution that 
 the Haverhill petition, with forty-three signers, 
 was presented by John Quincy Adams. It read 
 as follows : 
 
 " The undersigned, citizens of Haverhill, in the 
 Commonwealth of Massachusetts, pray that you 
 will immediately adopt measures, peaceably to 
 dissolve the union of these States : First, because 
 no union can be agreeable or permanent which 
 
180 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 does not present prospects of reciprocal benefit; 
 second, because a vast proportion of the resources 
 of one section of the Union is annually drained to 
 sustain the views and course of another section 
 without any adequate return; third, because 
 (judging from the history of past nations) this 
 union, if persisted in, in the present course of 
 things, will certainly overwhelm the whole nation 
 in utter destruction." 
 
 The wildest storm ever witnessed in the House 
 was raised by this petition. A resolution to expel 
 Mr. Adams for presenting it was debated for four 
 days, on the ground that he had offered the deepest 
 indignity to the House, the greatest insult to the 
 American people, and that he was even guilty 
 of high treason. Mr. Adams's intrepid bearing 
 throughout the tumult his action had caused saved 
 that venerable statesman from an expulsion that 
 was meant to be ignominious. He had explained 
 at the outset that he did not favor the petition, 
 but demanded that all respectful petitions should 
 be considered. Whether this particular petition 
 was written by Mr. Whittier is not certain, but as 
 it came from his native town at a time when he 
 was actively circulating petitions, it is probable he 
 had something to do with it. One of the petitions 
 sent to Adams, which, however, he did not present, 
 though he tantalized his opponents by exhibiting 
 it, was a satire upon the objection that most of the 
 petitioners were women, who had no business to 
 mingle in public affairs. This petition prayed 
 that Congress would memorialize the British gov- 
 ernment to dethrone Victoria, on the ground that 
 
GUSHING AND THE LIBERTY PARTY 181 
 
 women had departed from their proper sphere of 
 duty when they assumed the management of public 
 affairs ! 
 
 When nominated by the Whigs in 1838, Gush- 
 ing was not inclined to pledge himself again to his 
 anti-slavery constituents. . He thought he was 
 strong enough in his district to get along without 
 making again the disagreeable pledges by which 
 he had been bound in former years. Besides, 
 Whittier had gone to Philadelphia, where he was 
 editing the " Freeman," and Cushing thought he 
 had a fair field for an unpledged election. But 
 his hopes were dashed by the appearance of his 
 Quaker friend on the scene at the last moment. 
 Whether Whittier came home on purpose to man- 
 age this election does not appear ; but he was 
 present at the Liberty party convention in Salem 
 to which Cushing sent an ingeniously worded but 
 non-committal letter, referring to his past record in 
 the matter of the right of petition and the domestic 
 slave trade in the District of Columbia. A ques- 
 tion had been asked him in regard to the Territo- 
 ries ; and he replied that he objected to interfering 
 with the institution in Florida, while a Territory. 
 He called attention to the fact that in a previous 
 session he voted against a resolution declaring that 
 Congress ought not to interfere with slavery in the 
 District. He had also voted against the admission 
 of Arkansas as a slave State. He would do the 
 same in the case of Florida, when it should call 
 for statehood. He was in favor of restricting the 
 domestic slave trade, which he said had not even 
 the poor excuse of the foreign slave trade, that it 
 
182 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 transfers men from a barbarous to a civilized com- 
 munity. But he declined to pledge himself to 
 specific measures, saying, " I cling to my personal 
 independence as the choicest and richest of all 
 possessions. I will take my place in Congress 
 as a freeman or not at all, pledged only to Truth, 
 Liberty, and the Constitution, with no terror be- 
 fore my eyes but the terror to do wrong. Thus, 
 or not at all, will I reascend the giant stairs of 
 the Capitol." Whittier was determined to get 
 a more explicit pledge or prevent his election. 
 At his suggestion, his friend Henry B. Stanton 
 read Cushing's letter and commented upon it in a 
 humorous and caustic way, and the convention 
 adjourned without any action in his favor. Gush- 
 ing, who was anxious to secure the Liberty vote, 
 was in a corner of the gallery while his communi- 
 cation was being criticised. In the evening, he 
 met Whittier at the hotel, and expressed his 
 chagrin- at the reception given his careful letter. 
 He said, " What shall I do? " Whittier replied, 
 " Thee cannot expect the votes of our people, unless 
 thee speaks more plainly." " But how can I do 
 that now?" said Cushing. Whittier suggested, 
 " Write a short letter to me, and do not hide thy 
 meaning under many words." Cushing did not 
 feel like doing it, but said at length, " Let me see 
 you in the morning." Whittier was to leave for 
 home by stage quite early, and promised to call for 
 Cushing. He found the anxious statesman half- 
 dressed, and waiting for him. He had decided to 
 sign any letter that Whittier would write. Whit- 
 tier thereupon wrote the short letter that follows, 
 
GUSHING AND THE LIBERTY PARTY 183 
 
 which Gushing copied and signed, and it was sent 
 to all parts of the Essex district by special mes- 
 sengers : 
 
 SALEM, November 8, 1838. 
 
 MY DEAR SiK, I should regret to have any 
 doubt remain on your mind as to the import of 
 those points of my letter which are referred to by 
 you. In respect to the District of Columbia, I am 
 in favor of the abolition of slavery and the slave 
 trade therein, by the earliest practicable legislation 
 of Congress, regard being had for the just rights 
 of all classes of the citizens, and I intended to be 
 so understood. 
 
 In the concluding part of the letter, I stated 
 that I felt bound to withhold stipulation in detail, 
 as to my future course in Congress. But I did 
 not design it to be understood that I entertained 
 any desire or disposition to change my course in 
 regard to the subjects embraced in the letter ; but, 
 on the contrary, being resolved to continue to 
 maintain on all suitable occasions, as I have here- 
 tofore done, the principles and spirit of the re- 
 solves of the legislature of Massachusetts, apper- 
 taining to the right of petition, and to slavery and 
 the slave trade, in their various relations. 
 I am, very faithfully, yours, 
 
 CALEB GUSHING.* 
 
 To JOHN Q. WHITTIER, Esq. 
 
 1 This letter got into the papers at the South, and they taunted 
 Gushing with having given a double pledge to the abolitionists. 
 Wbittier came to his defense in the Pennsylvania Freeman, ex- 
 plaining the matter as follows : " A private note from him in re- 
 ply to one from ourself as his former neighbor and personal friend, 
 
184 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 This letter was satisfactory, gave Gushing the 
 Liberty votes, elected him by 1800 majority, and 
 made him a third time indebted to Whittier for 
 his election. He was kept up to his promises by 
 constant reminders, and his course during this 
 term also was in general satisfactory to his anti- 
 slavery constituents. The tactics of Whittier in 
 his dealings with Gushing, throughout the Con- 
 gressional career of that statesman, are amusingly 
 shown in a letter written from Haverhill, January 
 10, 1836, to his friend Thayer in Philadelphia : 
 
 " The anti-slavery folks have circulated a peti- 
 tion to Congress in the village, and it has been 
 signed by about one hundred and twenty legal 
 voters. We shall plague Gushing with it, but he 
 had as lief see the Old Enemy himself as see it. 
 'T is nothing to the dose we shall fix for Congress 
 next year. We '11 haunt 'em, and torment 'em, 
 till they behave better. We '11 prosecute our suit 
 with a pertinacity which shall rival that of William 
 Vans, or Walter Scott's Peter Peebles. . . . What 
 has got into the Pennsylvania Quakers? Who 
 would have expected to see them tossing their 
 broadbrims into the air for the ' Hero of Tippe- 
 
 asking an explanation of some points in his letter to the anti- 
 slavery committee, was published and circulated in the district 
 on our own responsibility. He was not elected as an abolitionist, 
 but his whole course in Congress on this question has been honor- 
 able to himself manly, open, and consistent. Whatever else 
 the papers may say of him, they cannot accuse him of being a 
 'dough-face.' He has never betrayed his constituents, nor com- 
 promised the honor and dignity of the Pilgrim State, on the ques- 
 tion of human liberty." 
 
WHITTIER'S POLITICAL SKILL 185 
 
 In 1840, all kinds of hat-brims were being tossed 
 up for the " Hero of Tippecanoe," and in the midst 
 of the general enthusiasm, Gushing thought he 
 could safely cut loose from the bondage to the 
 " anti-slavery folks " that had galled him for his 
 first three terms in Congress. He made no pledges 
 that year, and was nevertheless elected, but he 
 found to his sorrow that he was not yet done with 
 Whittier. In 1841, the Whigs came into power, 
 and Gushing looked for some office of national 
 importance. He would have obtained it but for the 
 anti-slavery record Whittier had forced upon him, 
 and perhaps in spite of that record, if Whittier 
 had held his peace. President Tyler three times 
 nominated him as Secretary of the Treasury ; but 
 the Senate rejected him each time with increasing 
 majorities. 1 Whittier had taken pains to repub- 
 lish that letter of 1838, which Gushing had signed 
 at his direction, and had prefaced it with these 
 comments : 
 
 " CALEB GUSHING. As our distinguished and 
 talented fellow-citizen of Essex North may erelong 
 be before the Senate of the United States for a 
 high post, we think it well to let them understand 
 in good season that Mr. Gushing is no less an ab- 
 olitionist than Edward Everett [whom the Senate 
 had previously rejected]. When questioned by 
 the abolitionists previous to his election in 1838, 
 his reply was rather vague and unsatisfactory. 
 It was so judged by the abolitionists in convention 
 
 1 Ten years later, Gushing-, then a member of the Massachusetts 
 legislature, when trying to prevent the election of Sumner to the 
 Senate, again came into unsuccessful collision with Whittier. 
 
186 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 assembled, and the prospect was that he would lose 
 his election. At the eleventh hour, his personal 
 friend, John G. Whittier, went to him and told 
 him of his danger, and he penned the following 
 explanation, which saved his election by 1800 
 votes. We shall see whether he will eat back this 
 explanation for the sake of being premier or any- 
 thing else under John Tyler of Virginia." 
 
 Whittier's skill in handling all the weapons of 
 politics in behalf of a cause which both the great 
 parties at the North were then doing their best to 
 keep out of the field of their controversies, was 
 shown in many ways even before he assisted in 
 forming the great party of freedom which in 
 twenty years placed Abraham Lincoln at the head 
 of our government. From first to last, he refused 
 to come out from his party until he had done all 
 that could be done to induce it to assist in the 
 work of reform. He would not cast aside a strong 
 man, if he could get ever so little of his strength 
 committed to the cause he had at heart. This was 
 strikingly illustrated in the Gushing incident, re- 
 lated above, and it is to be noticed in his whole 
 career as a philanthropist. When he entered the 
 field as an opponent of slavery, he took with him 
 every weapon he could handle, and refused to 
 throw away the ballot, as did many of his associ- 
 ates. In an editorial article written in those days , 
 he says : " What an absurdity is moral action 
 apart from political ! " His pen was consecrated 
 to the cause, and he refused editorial positions 
 that would keep him off the field toward which 
 a sense of duty urged him. In 1835-36, his 
 
HIS SENSE OF DUTY 187 
 
 friend Thayer was, as we have seen, calling him to 
 Philadelphia to engage in a promising newspaper 
 enterprise. Here is an extract from one of his 
 letters in reply : 
 
 " I should like to be in Philadelphia, more es- 
 pecially since thee and thy folks are there, but . . . 
 I feel too deep an interest in the struggle now go- 
 ing on between Slavery and Freedom, especially as 
 I have been somewhat active in the cause of Eman- 
 cipation, and as my apparent withdrawal from it 
 might be construed very unfavorably to the cause 
 as well as to myself. I have, I hope, no fanaticism 
 about me ; cant of all kinds, religious, political, 
 or moral, I abhor. But I regard the contest now 
 going on as of vital interest to the welfare of man- 
 kind, not in our country alone, but in all the world. 
 It is a struggle for the rights of man everywhere. 
 In such a cause, I must not seem to yield, especially 
 at a time like this, when its advocacy is so unpop- 
 ular that its abandonment would subject me to the 
 charge of cowardice and insincerity. I must, 
 therefore, with many thanks for thy offer, which 
 under other circumstances might have been most 
 acceptable, decline accepting it. Believe me, I 
 should like to be with you, but I cannot there be 
 entirely free." l 
 
 1 Another extract from the letter above quoted, written in mid- 
 winter from the old homestead at East Haverhill, shows how his 
 hands were employed in these days when his heart was so fully 
 occupied with philanthropic work. He says, " I live out of the 
 way of the post office, and only see it about once a fortnight. . . . 
 I have been teaming and sledding and feeding my cattle, for 
 
 " From the hens on the roost to the pigs in the Sty 
 I am lord of the fowl and the brute." 
 
188 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 In explanation of Mr. Whittier's frequent assis- 
 tance to politicians who were not at heart in favor 
 of the cause to which he had consecrated all his 
 powers, it may be said that it was the policy of his 
 life to accept whatever aid he could obtain by in- 
 direct as well as by direct methods. He did not 
 expect even from the politicians of his own party 
 the same unselfish devotion to duty which he ex- 
 acted of himself, and much less did he expect it of 
 others. He took men as he found them, encouraged 
 them to go part way with him, and was not inclined 
 to lose any little advantage to his cause which they 
 might render. This habit of charitable allowances 
 for men who had a capacity for serving a cause 
 he had at heart, even if they sometimes made grave 
 mistakes, is shown in his reply to a friend who 
 was complaining of a party leader who had been 
 accused of wrong-doing. " Has thee found many 
 saints or angels in thy dealings with either polit- 
 ical party ? Do not expect too much of human 
 nature." He had a genius for coalitions, and 
 could accept assistance from unfriendly sources 
 in furtherance of a philanthropic object. While 
 he did not purchase such aid by an abandonment 
 of principle, he secured it sometimes by appeals to 
 the selfish ambitions of statesmen. His letters 
 to Rantoul and Gushing show his skill in dealing 
 with strong men who were not of his party. 
 Through Rantoul he secured, in 1837, the almost 
 unanimous condemnation of President Van Buren's 
 pro-slavery course from the Massachusetts legisla- 
 ture. Through Gushing he held up the hands of 
 John Quincy Adams in his memorable contest in 
 
LAUREATE OF THE LIBERTY PARTY 189 
 
 Congress for the right of petition. Neither of 
 these objects could have been secured but by the 
 means he adopted. Although one of a small mi- 
 nority, he was often able by his tactics to turn the 
 scale of the great parties in his district and in the 
 State, and secure for the cause of freedom impor- 
 tant advantages. It will be seen later how largely 
 he contributed to the election of Charles Sumner 
 to the United States Senate, by holding the anti- 
 slavery vote to a coalition distasteful to many of 
 his followers, which gave to pro-slavery Demo- 
 crats the governorship of Massachusetts, and the 
 principal state offices. He thought it of the first 
 importance, at that time, to secure a voice for 
 freedom in the Senate, and was willing to give up 
 a great deal to secure it. 
 
 Whittier has been called the Laureate of the 
 Liberty party, but it will be found that he did a 
 great deal more than write verse for it. He was 
 active in conventions that inaugurated and shaped 
 the policy of the party, beginning his work for a 
 third party only when all hope of reforming the 
 others had to be given up. If not in personal at- 
 tendance as a delegate, he wrote letters expressing 
 his views, so as to have a voice in the councils of 
 the party. This brought him into collision with a 
 large number of his friends among the abolitionists, 
 who believed in the policy of abstaining from all 
 political action under a Constitution which they 
 called " a covenant with death and a league with 
 hell," and who spent much time in denouncing 
 churches that failed to do their whole duty to the 
 slave. Whittier 's position in regard to this mat* 
 
190 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 ter is explained in a letter written to the anti- 
 Texas convention of 1845, in which he said " that 
 though as an abolitionist he was no blind worshiper 
 of the Union, he saw nothing to be gained by an 
 effort, necessarily limited and futile, to dissolve it. 
 The moral and political power requisite for dis- 
 solving the Union could far more easily abolish 
 every vestige of slavery." 
 
 Though running counter to the teachings of Gar- 
 rison in this matter, and coining under the censure 
 of his friend, he maintained his position with 
 steadiness. He was ready to go with any party 
 that was marching in his general direction, even if 
 he could not keep step to all its music. He re- 
 fused to enter into controversy about non-essentials, 
 and thought that the contest into which Garrison 
 led the American Anti-Slavery Society against the 
 Constitution and the church was a waste of strength 
 that had better be applied more directly to the 
 overthrow of the system of slavery. As a Quaker, 
 he had been a " come-outer " all his life, and had 
 learned the art of coming out quietly and in order. 
 Many of the leading abolitionists had recently left 
 Orthodox churches, and were ablaze with the ex- 
 citement of the act. The Quaker of course did 
 not disapprove of their cutting loose from a church 
 that hampered them, but thought they made an 
 unnecessary fuss about it. They considered it 
 their duty to hammer away not only at the church, 
 but at all abolitionists whose consciences allowed 
 them to remain in the church. Against this spirit 
 Whittier constantly protested, and continued to 
 make his influence felt in politics by questioning 
 
A SHREWD JUDGE OF MEN 191 
 
 candidates, and supporting only those who pledged 
 themselves to the cause of freedom. 
 
 When a state legislature was to be influenced 
 to pass an act or a resolve bearing upon any 
 scheme of philanthropy in which he was interested, 
 Whittier was a most skillful and efficient " lobby- 
 ist," in the best sense of that word. Though he 
 served but a single term in the legislature, and 
 after 1837 could not have been elected, yet his was 
 a familiar form in the lobby of the State House 
 for many years. He was a shrewd judge of men, 
 knew how to touch their weak points, and scrupled 
 not to reach their consciences along the line of 
 least resistance. He was by nature and by study 
 a practical politician, never taking the motto, " My 
 party, right or wrong," but rather, " My party in 
 preference to a worse one," or, " My party as I am 
 trying to make it." Wendell Phillips once said 
 of him that he was a superb hand at lobbying. 
 He never worked for any personal advantage, but 
 only for a cause he considered worthy of consci- 
 entious effort. His keen sense of the ridiculous 
 kept him from being in the least degree " cranky " 
 in his philanthropy. 1 
 
 1 Mr. Whittier once related this incident of his early political 
 life in Haverhill : A drunken neighbor of his asked to be taken to 
 the town-house on election day in Mr. Whittier's wagon, promising 
 to vote for Whittier, then a candidate for the legislature, if he 
 could be thus accommodated. As his affiliation had heretofore 
 been with the opposite party, Whittier thought it best to watch 
 him carefully. He could not be prevented from stopping at a 
 liquor saloon on the way, and being already drunk when he started, 
 became difficult to manage upon arrival at the polls. But he 
 was not too drunk t:> determine to vote against Whittier, whom he 
 tried to shake off. He was, however, started for the ballot-box, 
 
192 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 In May, 1836, Mr. Wliittier assumed editorial 
 charge of the Haverhill " Gazette," and retired 
 from the position on the 17th of December of the 
 same year. His opposition to Governor Everett 
 led to dissatisfaction among some of the Whig 
 readers of that paper, who did not like the anti- 
 slavery tone he gave to their party organ. The 
 " Gazette " was owned by Jacob Caldwell, husband 
 of Whittier's older sister. To placate the friends 
 of Everett, Mr. Caldwell sold half his inter- 
 est in the paper to Dr. Jeremiah Spofford, of 
 East Bradford, now Groveland, and it was an- 
 nounced that while Whittier was to edit the liter- 
 ary and poetical departments, Spofford was to be 
 the political editor. Whittier's hand is neverthe- 
 less to be seen in many anti-slavery touches in the 
 editorial columns, though Everett was not directly 
 attacked. The following extracts from letters to 
 Spofford show the spirit with which Whittier ac- 
 cepted the situation, and the interest which he 
 still had in the success of the Whig party. He 
 was at this time living in Amesbury, but was con- 
 sidering a plan of buying Caldwell's interest in 
 the " Gazette," and returning to his native town, 
 but his abolitionism proved an insurmountable 
 obstacle. 
 
 with the right vote in his hand, and carefully supported by his 
 Quaker neighbor. But at the last moment, an opposition vote 
 was handed him, and Whittier had the mortification to see this 
 deposited in the box. " Did not take the man home, did you ? " 
 Mr. Whittier was asked, when he told this story. " Oh yes, I 
 did," he said ; " I promised his wife I would see him home safely, 
 and I had to do it. I took him home dead drunk in the bottom 
 of my wagon ! " 
 
LETTERS TO JEREMIAH SPOFFORD 193 
 
 HAVERHILL, 27th 8th mo., 1836. 
 
 Having a proof-sheet of a work I am publishing 
 in Boston l to examine and alter, I suppose that 
 nothing will be gained by visiting Bradford, be- 
 yond what may be by my writing. I have received 
 a long letter in relation to Governor Everett from 
 one of his personal friends, who says that if the 
 " Gazette " supports him after what I have said, it 
 will surprise and mortify my friends everywhere. 
 On this point I do feel as if it would not do for 
 me to act inconsistently. I should lower myself 
 in my own estimation, and in that of the public. 
 It seems to me that there are many advantages 
 which will result from thy coming in as editor 
 after the election. If we bend our whole energies 
 to the Whig cause, if we fill our paper with 
 Whiggism, and resolve to sink or swim with it, 
 why, if that cause is unsuccessful, we shall go 
 down with it. If, on the other hand, the paper 
 pursues the even tenor of its way until after the 
 election, on thy coming in it can then, so far as is 
 consistent with principle and truth, govern its 
 course by the circumstances and result of the great 
 struggle. We shall have a meeting here this 
 week to choose delegates to Worcester. I expect 
 Webster will be present and speak on the occa- 
 sion. I have thought some of thy name as a 
 candidate for elector; probably, however, some 
 Salem man will be designated. 
 
 1 Mogg Megone. 
 
194 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 HAVEKHILL, 23d of llth mo., 1836. 
 
 DEAR DOCTOR, I have just learned that a 
 good deal of dissatisfaction exists in this village 
 in regard to my connection with the " Gazette." 
 Many say they will not take the paper so long as I 
 am the editor. They want a thorough-going ex- 
 clusive Whig press. My aim has been to make 
 the paper as interesting as possible, and at the 
 same time temperately advocate my sentiments on 
 the subject of slavery. In so doing I have had no 
 compensation except $90, and the pay for my ex- 
 penses in circulating petitions in Essex County. 
 I did not expect to make money ; on the contrary, 
 I did not by any means consult my pecuniary in- 
 terest in the matter. I am attached to Haverhill, 
 and would like to stay here. Of late, however, 
 some of the Whigs have told Caldwell that he 
 must get rid of me, that my abolition made me 
 indifferent as to politics. Caldwell is uneasy 
 about it, but I cannot promise that next year I 
 will go for Everett ; on the contrary I must oppose 
 him. Of the two I prefer Marcus Morton. Situ- 
 ated as we are I have been willing to sacrifice 
 many of my feelings, but on this subject I cannot. 
 I have had some idea of buying CaldwelTs half 
 myself, but if the Whig leaders are against me I 
 shall hardly have courage to do it, much as I wish 
 to permanently locate myself in this village. I 
 did not before to-day understand that there was 
 any particular opposition to me. 
 
LETTERS TO JEREMIAH SPOFFORD 195 
 HAVERHILL, 1st of 12th mo., 1836. 
 
 DEAR DOCTOR, I have felt rather unpleas- 
 antly about leaving the paper, and could I con- 
 sistently with what I conceive to be my duty take 
 such a course as would be satisfactory to its 
 patrons, I would do so. ... In case thee as- 
 sume the entire control of the editorial depart- 
 ment, it is important that it should not be sup- 
 posed that there is any personal difficulty between 
 ourselves. The truth is, we have always been 
 friends, and I trust we always shall be so. So far 
 as my influence can go, I shall do all I can to 
 procure thy election as a member of the Executive 
 Council this winter. As far as I can judge, few if 
 any of the anti-slavery folks out of town will drop 
 the paper in consequence of my leaving it. Two 
 or three individuals in the village will probably 
 discontinue it. But on the other hand from 
 twenty to thirty will take hold of it. Our anti- 
 slavery folks generally understand thee to be a 
 friend of free discussion, although not an aboli- 
 tionist, and that is sufficient, provided the paper 
 does not say anything against them. Nothing 
 ought to be said publicly about my being com- 
 pelled to leave the paper, as it would only irritate 
 some of my friends. For my own part, I shall 
 have it understood, so far as I am able, that it is 
 only a business transaction between my brother- 
 in-law and thyself or others. 
 
 In January, 1837, he started for Washington, 
 where John Quincy Adams, assisted by Caleb 
 Gushing, and the entire Massachusetts delegation 
 
196 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 in Congress, were battling for the right of peti- 
 tion. His intention was to help them in their pre- 
 paration for the debates, but when he arrived at 
 Philadelphia he learned that a despotic rule had 
 been passed cutting off debate and annihilating the 
 right of petition. He therefore gave up his in- 
 tended visit to Washington, and went to Harris- 
 burg, to attend an anti-slavery state convention. 
 Here he met Governor Ritner, " who alone of all 
 the governors of the Union in 1836 met the insult- 
 ing demands and measures of the South in a 
 manner becoming a freeman," as he says in his 
 preface to his poetical tribute to this independent 
 farmer and high-souled statesman. The poem en- 
 titled " Ritner " was written immediately after his 
 return to Boston from Pennsylvania. 
 
 Massachusetts had a governor in 1836 who in 
 his inaugural address invoked " the patriotism of 
 all classes to abstain from discussion of the sub- 
 ject of slavery," and to Edward Everett at once 
 Mr. Whittier made indignant reply : " We can 
 neither permit the gag to be thrust in our mouths 
 by others, nor deem it the part of ' patriotism ' to 
 place it there ourselves." This letter fills five col- 
 umns as printed in the " Liberator " of February 
 20, 1836. Its tone may be judged from this para- 
 graph : 
 
 " Is this the age, are ours the laws, are the sons 
 of the Pilgrims the men, for advice like this? . . . 
 Far fitter is it for the banks of the Bosphorus 
 and the Neva than for those of the Connecticut 
 and the Merrimac. It is not suited to our hard- 
 handed artisans and free farmers. . . . They have 
 
REPLY TO EDWARD EVERETT 197 
 
 seen demands gravely made by slaveholding legis- 
 latures and governors upon the authorities of free 
 and sovereign States for the delivery of their 
 fellow-citizens to torture and death, and for the 
 passage of laws against the liberty of speech and 
 of the press. By things like these has the North- 
 ern laborer been summoned to discussion." 
 
 In reply to Governor Everett's statement that 
 the framers of the Constitution provided for the 
 perpetuity of the institution of slavery, he quotes 
 passages from Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, 
 and others, to show that they looked for its speedy 
 extinction. Then comes this memorable passage : 
 
 " George Washington was another signer of the 
 Constitution. I know that he was a slaveholder ; 
 and I have not forgotten the emotions which swelled 
 my bosom, when in the metropolis of New England, 
 the Cradle of Liberty, a degenerate son l of the 
 Pilgrims pointed to his portrait, which adorns the 
 wall, with the thrice-repeated exclamation, ' That 
 slaveholder ! ' I saw the only blot on the other- 
 wise bright and spotless character of the Father 
 of his Country held to open view, exposed by 
 remorseless hands to sanction a system of oppres- 
 sion and blood. It seemed to me like sacrilege. 
 I looked upon those venerable and awful features, 
 while the echoes, once wakened in that old Hall by 
 the voice of ancient Liberty, warm from the lips 
 of Adams and Hancock and the fiery heart of 
 James Otis, gave back from wall and gallery the 
 exulting cry of ' Slaveholder,' half expecting to see 
 the still canvas darken with a frown, and the pic 
 
 1 Peleg- Sprague. 
 
198 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 tured lips part asunder with words of rebuke and 
 sorrow. 1 I felt it, as did hundreds more on that 
 occasion, to be a reproach and a cruel insult to the 
 memory of the illustrious dead. Did not the 
 speaker know that the dying testimony of Wash- 
 ington was against slavery ? " 
 
 Mr. Whittier took occasion, while commenting 
 upon the message, to refer with cutting severity to 
 some pro-slavery utterances which Everett had 
 made while he was in Congress. The boldness 
 and spirit of the letter attracted much attention, 
 and the governor was greatly annoyed by it. Until 
 they met in the electoral college, in 1864, Everett 
 did not again encounter his unwelcome corre- 
 spondent. On that occasion he came up cordially 
 to Whittier, and expressed his pleasure that at last 
 they were agreed. 
 
 The whole month of March, 1837, Mr. Whittier 
 spent in Boston in work among the members of 
 the legislature, to secure the passage of acts and 
 resolves to show that Massachusetts did not re- 
 spond favorably to the inaugural address of Presi- 
 dent Van Buren. This message, by its tone of 
 subserviency to the South, created great indignation 
 
 1 The famous sentence of Wendell Phillips, " I thought those 
 pictured lips would have broken into voice, to rebuke the rec- 
 reant American," was clearly plagiarized, says Kennedy, by an 
 unconscious act of memory, from the above eloquent passage by 
 Whittier, written nearly two years previous to the Faneuil Hall 
 speech by Phillips. Young Phillips had been mightily aroused 
 by the Garrison mob, some months before the date of Whittier's 
 open letter to Everett, and had resolved to devote his life to the 
 cause of Freedom. He had undoubtedly, therefore, read Whit- 
 tier's strong and manly letter to the governor, and remembered, 
 dimly, the passage in question. 
 
VAN BUREN'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS 199 
 
 throughout the North, wherever the abolitionists 
 had been educating the consciences of the people. 
 Whittier saw the opportunity to commit the State 
 to anti-slavery action, and promptly made the 
 effort. On the last day of March he wrote to his 
 friend Thayer : 
 
 " Just look at old Massachusetts ! The legisla- 
 ture is abolitionized, the whole State is coming. 
 For the last four weeks I have been in Boston, 
 aiding and abetting in the plan of tumbling our 
 six hundred representatives off the fence upon the 
 abolition side. We have caucused in season and 
 out of season, threatened and coaxed, plead and 
 scolded, until we Ve got the day. The Van Buren 
 men are persuaded to look to the people of Massa- 
 chusetts, and not to orders from Washington. 
 And they have done as we advised : to save them- 
 selves they have joined hands with the abolition- 
 ists. . . . We shall get a bill through, moreover, 
 granting a jury trial for fugitive slaves. Kantoul, 
 the Van Buren leader, will make a great effort for 
 it. Among those who have been ' taking care ' 
 of the legislature with myself, I would mention 
 Gardner B. Perry, Dr. Farnsworth of Groton, 
 George Bancroft of Springfield, and a number of 
 other abolitionists." 
 
 The " orders from Washington," to which refer- 
 ence is made in this letter, were contained in the 
 inaugural address, in which the President an- 
 nounces that he is " an uncompromising opponent 
 of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish 
 slavery, in the District of Columbia, against the 
 wishes of the slaveholding States," and calls for a 
 
200 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 cessation of discussion about the matter. The 
 Boston papers of both parties opposed the intro- 
 duction of the resolves favoring the rights of peti- 
 tion and the abolition of slavery in the District ; 
 but, in spite of them, Whittier and his little band 
 of abolitionists secured a unanimous vote of the 
 Massachusetts Senate in favor of the resolutions, 
 and there were only sixteen who voted against 
 them in the House. The Boston " Atlas " of the 
 day complainingly says that John G. Whittier, the 
 Quaker poet, and others whom it names, "were 
 indiscriminately mingled with the members in the 
 Representatives' Hall during the whole debate." 
 The journals that had been angered by the intro- 
 duction of the resolves were silenced by the una- 
 nimity of the vote. The bill securing jury trial 
 for runaway slaves was passed by both Houses with 
 scarcely a dissenting voice. It was while Mr. 
 Whittier was engaged in influencing the legislature 
 to pass the acts and resolves to which reference 
 has just been made, that he wrote the following 
 letter to his friend Robert Rantoul, Jr., the Demo- 
 cratic leader in the House of Representatives. It 
 was written from No. 1 Pitts Street, Boston, on 
 the 13th of March, 1837 : 
 
 " I am fearful that I am troubling thee too often 
 with the question of slavery, but the deep interest 
 I feel must be my excuse. To thee, as to a friend, 
 I have spoken freely. I am certain that the reso- 
 lutions [favoring the right of petition and the 
 abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia] 
 would pass even without thy aid. But, if they did 
 so, there would be a party aspect given to the mat- 
 
APPEAL TO RANTOUL 201 
 
 ter, which I should regret exceedingly. It would 
 insure, I fear, the reelection of Edward Everett, 
 as long as he pleased to occupy the Chair of State, 
 and upon thyself, as far as Massachusetts or New 
 England is concerned, the effect would be injuri- 
 ous. No party in the country is now so thor- 
 oughly organized and so united as the Aboli- 
 tionist. Asking nothing for themselves, and 
 contending only for great principles, under the 
 impulse of duty, there is nothing but harmony 
 and unison among them. They move in a mass, 
 and that without concert, because they are gov- 
 erned, under all circumstances, by the same prin- 
 ciples of action. So long as they remain thus 
 they are invincible. 
 
 " It does seem to me that the present responsi- 
 bility of thyself in this matter is very great. Thy 
 talents, eloquence, and thus far steady devotion to 
 equal rights, thy influence almost unbounded with 
 the administrative party of the State, all combine 
 to render thy decision, whatever it may be, of no 
 trifling importance. Whatever may be thought of 
 it now, the present is a crisis in the affairs of this 
 State. Thy course on this question will be a mat- 
 ter of history. Never since Patrick Henry electri- 
 fied the Assembly of Virginia has there been a 
 nobler opportunity for advancing the cause of 
 righteous liberty. What are the paltry offices 
 which men contend for, which the vile, the im- 
 becile, the sordid struggle for, as the reward of 
 partisan fraud and management, to that which is 
 received from a grateful, intelligent, and virtuous 
 people, not for services rendered to themselves, 
 
202 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 but for those rendered to the cause of pure demo- 
 cracy, humanity, and truth I In coming years the 
 greenest wreath in the memory of Jefferson will 
 be the record of his sentiments on the subject of 
 slavery. I know that thy own sentiments are 
 similar to those of Jefferson. I feel assured that 
 slavery, in any form, is odious to thy feelings. 
 Why not, then, say so ; carry out thy democratic 
 principles, and insure the approbation of the wise 
 and good, throughout the world, and for all time ; 
 nay more, secure that self -approval, that answer of 
 a good conscience, which, when the exciting ambi- 
 tions and hopes of the partisan are lost, in the hour 
 of sickness, and in the decline of life, will be 
 dearer than any earthly honor. Never had any 
 one a more excellent opportunity of doing honor 
 to himself and to the cause of republican liberty 
 than thyself at this time. It would prove to the 
 people of Massachusetts that thy democracy is not 
 a partial and time-serving principle, but radical 
 and based upon the equality of the human family, 
 and zealous for the rights of all classes. In a word, 
 it would prove that to be a friend of the policy 
 and principles of Mr. Van Buren, as regards 
 other matters, does not necessarily imply a slavish 
 acquiescence in his extraordinary views on the 
 subject of liberty and slavery. It would win the 
 respect and command the admiration of all parties. 
 It would disappoint thy enemies ; it would in- 
 crease the esteem of all thy present friends, and 
 add to their number. It would do much for the 
 cause of humanity, and truth, and justice. May 
 we not hope that it will be done ? Excuse the lib- 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY POEMS 203 
 
 arty I have taken, and believe me cordially thy 
 friend, JOHN Go WHITTIER. 
 
 P. S. Ill health prevents me from getting out 
 much in the evening ; will it be in thy power to 
 call at this place to-morrow evening ? 
 
 The poems written by Mr. Whittier during the 
 first years of his anti-slavery work, from 1833 to 
 1837, were with few exceptions devoted to the 
 cause he had so warmly espoused. They were 
 published in the "Liberator," the Boston "Cou- 
 rier," the "Anti-Slavery Reporter," the "New 
 England Magazine," and the Haverhill " Gazette." 
 They include "Toussaint L'Ouverture," "The 
 Yankee Girl," "Our Fellow Countrymen in 
 Chains," " The Hunters of Men," " Song of the 
 Free," "Is This the Land Our Fathers loved," 
 "Ritner," "O Thou Whose Presence went before," 
 and several poems not to be found in any collection 
 of his works. In the "Liberator" of September 
 3, 1836, is a poem of his " To the Daughters of 
 James Forten," beginning : 
 
 " Sisters ! the vain and proud may pass you by." 
 
 The poem " Mogg Megone " belongs to this period. 
 It was published originally in the " New England 
 Magazine," in the numbers for March and April, 
 1835, and Mr. Whittier never tried so persistently 
 and unsuccessfully to suppress any other poem. 
 In the edition of 1888 he succeeded in relegating 
 it to the appendix. He began writing it while at 
 home, in the spring of 1830, and laid it aside when 
 he went to Hartford to edit the " Review." The 
 
204 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 finishing touches were given to it in 1834, while 
 he was managing his farm at Haverhill, and busy- 
 ing himself with the politics of his county. It 
 probably would not have been finished but for 
 material which came to his hand in two books of 
 history l published after some lines of it had been 
 written. " Mogg Megone " was the first bound 
 volume, exclusively of verse, ever issued by Whit- 
 tier. It was published in 1836, by Messrs. Light 
 & Stevens, Cornhill, Boston, making a tiny book 
 of sixty-nine pages, 24mo. It was so very modest 
 in its size that it seems to have escaped the 
 attention of reviewers for several months after 
 its publication. But the "North American Re- 
 view" for April, 1837, contains an appreciative 
 notice from the pen of Professor C. C. Felton, 
 which concludes with these words : " He has in 
 various forms displayed his power, and if he 
 will choose a less revolting theme, and construct 
 his fable skillfully, and give to the execution all 
 the finish of which he is capable, he will make 
 a poem that shall live." 
 
 In a letter to Lucy Hooper, written in August, 
 1837, Mr. Whittier says: "I send thee a copy 
 of 'Mogg Megone.' I was unable to finish it 
 as I could have wished. It is, in my mind, liable 
 to one grave objection. It is not, I fear, calcu- 
 lated to do good. But a small edition, however, 
 was printed, and it is some satisfaction to believe 
 that it cannot do much evil. The ' North Ameri- 
 
 1 These were Folsom's History of Saco and Biddeford, and 
 Williamson's History of Maine, published respectively in 1830 
 and 1832. 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY WORK IN NEW YORK 205 
 
 can Keview,' I understand, gave a very favorable 
 notice of it." 
 
 In 1837, he spent a few months in New York, 
 acting as one of the secretaries of the Ameri- 
 can Anti-Slavery Society. He also occasionally 
 wrote for Joshua Leavitt's " Emancipator." He 
 occupied a room in which James G. Birney, Theo- 
 dore D. Weld, Elizur Wright, Henry B. Stanton, 
 and Joshua Leavitt had desks. The editing of 
 the " Emancipator " and the " Anti-Slavery Ee- 
 porter " was but a small part of their work. They 
 wrote personal appeals to public men, distributed 
 petitions to Congress against the interstate slave 
 trade, in favor of freedom in the District of 
 Columbia, and in opposition to the annexation of 
 Texas. They wrote tracts, operated an " under- 
 ground railroad " for fugitive slaves, and employed 
 lecturers. There were several wealthy men like 
 Gerrit Smith, Lewis and Arthur Tappan, and 
 Joseph Sturge of England, who supplied a large 
 part of the needed funds. Weld and Stanton were 
 brilliant orators ; Birney, the candidate of the 
 Liberty party for the Presidency, wrote long and 
 elaborate letters and essays; Elizur Wright and 
 Leavitt were writers of sharp and pungent edito- 
 rials ; Whittier was sagacious in counsel, and was 
 occasionally inspired to write a poem that electri- 
 fied the North. The state of his health did not 
 allow him to keep regular office hours, but he came 
 and went as he pleased, boarding in Brooklyn, 
 and crossing the ferry to reach the office on Nassau 
 Street. Mr. Weld says that Whittier and he 
 were much together in those days, and held long 
 
206 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 discussions upon themes in which they were both 
 interested. One summer evening, at about nine 
 o'clock, they went up to the balcony over the 
 entrance to the New York City Hall, and the 
 topic under discussion was so interesting to them 
 both that they paid no heed to the great clock 
 that tolled the hours over their head, and it was 
 nearly daylight before it had occurred to them 
 that it was time to seek their homes. 
 
 TO ELIZABETH H. WHITTIER. 
 
 NEWPORT, 6th mo. 14, 1837. 
 
 Thee hardly expected to hear from me at this 
 place ; certainly I did not expect to be here 
 when I left Amesbury. On reaching Boston, I 
 found none of the Portland people at the con- 
 vention, and after waiting a week in Boston I 
 received a letter from General [James] Appleton, 
 stating that, owing to the present pecuniary em- 
 barrassments, it was impossible to obtain a 
 sufficient number of subscribers to warrant the 
 undertaking of a paper in Portland at present. 
 Thus situated, I came on to the Yearly Meeting, 
 and agreeably to the request of Professor [Elizur] 
 Wright, I shall spend two or three months with 
 him as one of the corresponding secretaries of 
 the American Anti-Slavery Society, after which 
 time there will probably be an opening for me in 
 Portland or Philadelphia. I shall leave to-day or 
 to-morrow for New York, and on arriving there 
 will take an early opportunity to write more fully. 
 The Yearly Meeting, at the suggestion of some 
 Philadelphia Friends, has concluded to shut OUT 
 
LETTERS TO ELIZABETH WHITTIER 207 
 
 meeting-houses against anti-slavery lecturers. I 
 regret the step exceedingly. Sarah M. and An- 
 gelina E. Grimke* are now in Boston. Next week 
 they go to Lynn and Salem, and next to Ipswich, 
 Newburyport and Amesbury. They are excellent 
 speakers, and cannot fail to make a good impres- 
 sion wherever they go. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 NEW YORK, 4th of 7th mo., 1837. 
 I have now been in this city between two and 
 three weeks, and shall perhaps stay here three 
 weeks longer, or more. My paper will not start 
 in Maine until the Ninth month, if it does then, 1 
 and I have some doubts about its agreeing with 
 me to write very steadily, as since the warm 
 weather I have been troubled with my old com- 
 plaint of palpitation. I am lounging away my 
 time here, not closely applying myself to anything, 
 overseeing the sending out of petitions. 
 
 There had been a division in the ranks of the 
 abolitionists, and the "new organization," which 
 included Whittier, the Tappans, J. G. Birney, 
 Samuel E. Sewall, H. B. Stanton, Joshua Leavitt, 
 Amos A. Phelps, and Gerrit Smith, favored politi- 
 cal action, while Garrison, and those who adhered 
 to him, refused to recognize the possibility of 
 attaining their end without the overthrow of the 
 
 1 The plan of starting an anti-slavery paper in Portland, 
 which he was to edit, was given up because of business troubles 
 in Maine growing out of ruinous land speculations, which made 
 it an unpropitious time for beginning the publication of such a 
 paper. 
 
208 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 Constitution. From first to last, as we have said, 
 Whittier never wavered in his determination to 
 fight slavery at the ballot-box, and he considered 
 it useless waste of strength to tug at the pillars of 
 the Union, and attempt to overthrow the church 
 or to carry along reforms for which the time was 
 not yet ripe. To the criticism he received from 
 his friends of the "old organization" he made 
 temperate and good-natured replies, reserving all 
 his sharpest arrows for the common enemy. 
 
 It was in 1837 that he wrote "The Pastoral 
 Letter," called out by the action of an association 
 of clergymen which met at Brookfield, Mass., and 
 issued a letter to the churches warning them 
 against discussions of " agitating and perplexing 
 subjects," and especially against the mission of the 
 South Carolina sisters Grimke, which "threatens 
 the female character with widespread and perma- 
 nent injury." 
 
 In 1837, John Quincy Adams wrote a series of 
 remarkable letters to his constituents, telling the 
 whole story of his great fight in Congress for the 
 right of petition. These letters were published in 
 the Quincy " Patriot," which had a small circu- 
 lation, limited to his Congressional district. As 
 Adams at this time belonged to neither of the great 
 parties that divided the country, none of the party 
 organs copied these letters, the spirit and brilliancy 
 cf which would have insured their appearance in 
 every leading journal of the country if the journal- 
 istic enterprise of the present time had prevailed 
 in those days. The friends of liberty were not 
 willing that this record of a splendid forensic con. 
 
TO HARRIET MINOT 209 
 
 test should be thus smothered. It was decided to 
 publish the letters in a pamphlet for general circu- 
 lation, and Mr. Whittier was called upon to edit 
 them. He went to Quincy and conferred with Mr. 
 Adams, who was glad to have added publicity 
 given to what he justly regarded as the crowning 
 work of his long and useful life. The pamphlet 
 was published by Isaac Knapp, of Boston, and its 
 pages cannot be read even now without such a 
 thrill as the highest eloquence and most pungent 
 satire impart to sympathetic nerves. 
 
 TO HARRIET MINOT. 
 
 NEW YORK, 8th mo. 6, 1837. 
 
 I am now boarding in the family of Don F. Del 
 Floys, a Spanish refugee, whose wife is a sister of 
 Captain Charles Stuart. 1 I see all the French 
 and Spanish ladies in the city. As a general thing 
 they are not so beautiful as the American ladies. 
 There is more dignity and haughtiness in the 
 Spanish ladies ; yet on acquaintance they are very 
 agreeable. . . . Dr. Channing has written a long 
 letter to Henry Clay on the Texas question. The 
 good cause of emancipation goes on with unpre- 
 cedented rapidity. ... I am sorry to learn that 
 
 is offended with me. She is certainly wrong. 
 
 I never give my friends occasion for offense. 
 Phrenologically, I have too much self-esteem to be 
 troubled by the opinions of others, and I love my 
 old friends too well to deny them the gratification, 
 if it be one, of abusing me to their hearts' content. 
 
 1 An officer in the English army who came to this country and 
 threw himself heart and soul into anti-slavery work. 
 
210 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 But I fear nothing from you Haverhill folks in the 
 way of slander ; you never speak evil of any one ; 
 no prying into the business of others ; no society 
 small-talk ; no tea-table scandals ; no adepts in the 
 science of dissecting characters ; all is peace and 
 harmony and good will. . . . Thee would not judge 
 perhaps from the tone of this letter that my mind 
 has been a good deal exercised of late on the sub- 
 ject of religious obligation. Yet such is the fact. 
 The prayer of Cowper is sometimes in my mind, 
 " Oh, for a closer walk with God." I feel that 
 there are too many things of the world between me 
 and the realization of a quiet communion with the 
 pure and Holy Spirit. Why is it that we go on 
 from day to day, and week to week, in this manner ? 
 Alas for human nature in its best estate. There 
 is no upward tendency in it. It looks downward. 
 It is indeed of the earth. 
 
 It was in the summer of 1837, while residing 
 in New York, that Mr. Whittier made the ac- 
 quaintance of Lucy Hooper, who was then only 
 twenty years of age. She was a native of Essex 
 County, and was at that time living with her 
 parents in Brooklyn. Mr. Whittier had a board- 
 ing-place in the same city, and was a frequent 
 visitor at the house of the Hoopers. He encour- 
 aged the literary ambition of the charming young 
 poetess, who had already published many verses, 
 and who was considering the advisability of col- 
 lecting them in a book. The next year, when 
 Mr. Whittier was editing the " Pennsylvania 
 Freeman," he called for and received occasional 
 
TO LUCY HOOPER 211 
 
 poems from her. It was in 1839 that one Au- 
 gust afternoon he walked with her by the river 
 of their childhood, an event commemorated in 
 the elegy he wrote on the occasion of her death 
 in 1841. 
 
 TO LUCY HOOPER. 
 
 NEW YORK, 8th mo. 21, 1837. 
 
 In perusing some of thy brief and fugitive 
 pieces of poetry, I have been impressed with the 
 belief that it is in thy power to write a poem 
 of some considerable length, which would be 
 worth infinitely more to thee and to the litera- 
 ture of the country than all the hurried sketches 
 and " bits of poetry " which thou and myself and 
 a score of others who might be named have 
 ever written. The truth is, the " small craft " of 
 poetry in which we have indulged ourselves is 
 not fitted for the voyage of Immortality. We 
 shall perish, and verily our works will follow us. 
 The hearts which now know us and love us will 
 also soon cease to beat, and with them our very 
 memories will die. The utilitarian of the twen- 
 tieth century will not heed whether, in treading 
 on our graves, he shakes the dust of prose or 
 poetry from his feet. And after all what matters 
 it? Who cares for the opinions of the twentieth 
 century? Not I, for one. But we do all care 
 for the opinions of the good and the wise and 
 the pure-hearted around us ! If we strive for fame, 
 or riches, or honor, it is because we wish to 
 share their smile with the friends whom we love, 
 and in the matter of poetry, a poetical reputation. 
 
212 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 If we write at all, why not use our talents to the 
 best advantage ? Why not write a poem upon 
 which we can concentrate all our powers ? I have 
 long thought of doing this myself, but I have 
 nearly abandoned the idea. An accumulating 
 pressure of other matters compels me to forego 
 the undertaking. But what should hinder thee 
 from doing it ? Nothing that I can conceive of. 
 
 I send thee with this a poem by Mrs. Maria 
 G. Brooks, a Massachusetts lady. The poem 
 [" Zophiel, or the Bride of Seven "] was written, I 
 believe, in the West Indies. It has been repub- 
 lished in fine style in England, edited by, and 
 under the sanction of Southey. There are some 
 very exquisite passages, but as a whole the poem 
 is defective in plot, and full of weaknesses and 
 hard, ungraceful rhyme. Yet the true gems in 
 it are none the less conspicuous for the foil of 
 bad taste and the lack of general interest. 
 
 Now I do not wish to flatter thee; first, be- 
 cause I should despise myself for the meanness 
 of the attempt, and second, because I know that 
 by so doing I should deservedly forfeit thy esteem. 
 But in perfect sincerity allow me to say that I 
 believe thee able to produce within six months 
 of this time a poem which would be received with 
 general commendation on both sides of the Atlan- 
 tic. Pray think of it ! I wish very much to have 
 the pleasure of the walk proposed so long since, 
 but fear I shall not find leisure before I go to 
 New England. I will try, however, and call 
 again before I leave. 
 
TO LUCY HOOPER 213 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 BOSTON, 8th mo. 27, 1837. 
 
 I did not receive thy note until after my return 
 from Brooklyn the other day, or I should have 
 alluded to it when I saw thee. I did not wish 
 to throw any obstacle in the way of thy pub- 
 lishing thy fugitive poems, but simply to suggest 
 the expediency of deferring their publication until 
 thou couldst have time for the completion of 
 a longer and more elaborate poem. I know it 
 would require a good deal of patient perseverance 
 arid severe intellectual toil; and for myself I 
 frankly confess that I have not resolution to 
 attempt anything of the kind. Besides, unless 
 consecrated to the sacred interests of religion 
 and humanity, it would be a criminal waste of 
 life, and abuse of the powers which God has 
 given for his own glory and the welfare of the 
 world. Mere intellectual renown is valueless. Do 
 the best that we can, in the matter of intellect, 
 the devil is wiser than any of us. The humblest 
 and weakest follower of the meek and lowly Re- 
 deemer is more to be envied than a Voltaire, a 
 Rousseau, or a Byron, and the lowliest teacher of 
 that sublime philosophy which " the wisdom of the 
 world accounteth foolishness " is wiser and better 
 than the prodigies of intellect, whose learning and 
 acquirements only enable them, in the words of 
 another, " sapienter descendere ad infcrnum" 
 
 Shouldst thou conclude to publish a small and 
 select volume of thy poems, I have no doubt of 
 their success. They are better than a great pro- 
 portion of Mrs. 's, although the sentiment and 
 
214 INITIATION INTO POLITICS 
 
 the moral are not always so good as hers, in a 
 religious point of view. There is an originality 
 and a freshness of poetic feeling in them which 
 
 cannot be found in Mrs. 's writings. She says, 
 
 besides, a great deal too much of " babies," " dead 
 infants," "sick infants," "sleeping infants," 
 " smiling infants," infants ad infinitum, so that her 
 book might not be inaptly termed " The Chronicles 
 of the Nursery." This no doubt results from the 
 fact that her affections have all been forced into 
 one channel. If I can do anything to promote the 
 publication of thy poems, I herewith cheerfully, 
 and grateful for the opportunity of so doing, ten- 
 der my services. Please write me thy intention. 
 
 For the coming fortnight I shall probably be 
 at Amesbury, and should be happy to hear from 
 thee at any time. My health has suffered from 
 my residence in New York, a place which, with 
 all due deference to thyself, I must consider unfit 
 for Christian, or heathen even, to dwell in. The 
 present is a favorable time, in some respects, to 
 publish. There are few new books in the market. 
 Remember me kindly to thy sisters, mother, and 
 brother, and believe me, very sincerely thy friend. 
 
 In 1837, while Mr. Whittier was in New York, 
 Isaac Knapp, of Boston, publisher of the " Liber- 
 ator," without consulting him, published a volume 
 of over one hundred pages, entitled " Poems writ- 
 ten during the Progress of the Abolition Question 
 in the United States, between the years 1830 and 
 1838. By John G. Whittier." This was the first 
 edition of Whittier's poems ever published. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EDITORIAL WORK IN PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 1837-1840. 
 
 THE political and in a measure the literary 
 interests of Mr. Whittier had made the editorial 
 occupation a natural one, and but for family rea- 
 sons he might have continued in it. His devotion 
 to the anti-slavery cause led to his return to this 
 work. Late in the autumn of 1837, he heeded a 
 call to Philadelphia, and went to the assistance 
 of the venerable anti-slavery pioneer, Benjamin 
 Lundy, who was editing the " National Enquirer." 
 In March, 1838, Lundy, worn out in the cause to 
 which he had devoted his life, retired from the 
 management of the paper, the name of which was 
 changed to " Pennsylvania Freeman," and in the 
 issue of March 15 Whittier pledged the entire 
 devotion of his energies to the cause of Universal 
 Freedom, as he became the responsible editor. 
 
 In Philadelphia, Mr. Whittier made his home 
 again with his good Haverhill friends, the Thayers, 
 and among the Quakers found congenial com- 
 panionship in many families ; one of his steadfast 
 friends was John Dickinson, father of Anna E. 
 Dickinson, who in later years became celebrated 
 as a public speaker, and of Susan E. Dickinson, 
 well known as a writer. The last-named daughter 
 
216 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 contributes these reminiscences of Whittier's Phil- 
 adelphia life : 
 
 " I saw him once, when, a young child clinging 
 to my mother's hand on the way home from 
 Twelfth Street meeting, she said to me, ' Look at 
 the young man walking with thy father ; that is 
 the poet, John G. Whittier.' Young as I was 1 
 knew his name ; for I had heard from her lips 
 already the story of how some years before she 
 had rushed bareheaded from her home on Arch 
 Street, near Third, up to Sixth Street, as the fire 
 bells clanged out, and the word came that Pennsyl- 
 vania Hall was mobbed and on fire ; and but half 
 an hour before her husband had left her to join 
 Whittier and Thomas Shipley and a few other 
 faithful ones, for the first meeting there after the 
 dedication. She told how calm and quiet Whit- 
 tier was outwardly, looking on at the destruction 
 of the hall, his office, and his books and his papers, 
 and how helpful to others in the rush of the mob 
 and the whirl of the flames. The late Edward M. 
 Davis, son-in-law of Lucretia Mott, once wrote to 
 me that it was difficult to give many incidents of 
 Whittier's life in Philadelphia ; he went so little 
 into social circles, was so quiet, doing steadfast 
 and indefatigable work on the paper, and on com- 
 mittees ; a great amount of writing, but very little 
 public speaking ; his work was far more prominent 
 than he was. Mr. Whittier himself told me, in 
 1867, that my father and he went to Harrisburg 
 as delegates to form the state anti-slavery society, 
 and that he was one of the committee that drafted 
 the constitution of the society. The time at which 
 
REMINISCENCES 217 
 
 I mentioned first seeing him must have been when 
 he stopped for two or three days on his return 
 from Washington, whither he was sent in 1845 as 
 one of the commissioners to present the remon- 
 strance of Massachusetts against the annexation 
 of Texas. Perhaps the dark, spirituelle beauty of 
 his face which stamped itself on my childish 
 memory was made clearer by the likeness (a 
 daguerreotype) of him sent to one of my Western 
 schoolmates a few years later, and which kindled 
 the enthusiasm of all the pupils over him into 
 flame. Two of my classmates there were the 
 daughters of Joseph Healy, who did most of the 
 anti-slavery printing and publishing in Philadel- 
 phia for years ; and one of my most treasured pos- 
 sessions is the little paper-covered revised edition 
 of 'Moll Pitcher and the Minstrel Girl,' pre- 
 sented by one of them. Among the young women 
 to whom we girls looked up with interest and ad- 
 miration in those days was Elizabeth Lloyd, Jr., 
 author of many beautiful poems, 1 and there was 
 a special glamour attached to her because she 
 was understood to be one of the very few with 
 whom Whittier was really on terms of warm per- 
 sonal friendship, outside of his firm and faithful 
 comradeship with his anti-slavery friends. My 
 father died suddenly but a few weeks after the 
 time when he and Whittier walked from meeting 
 together, which explains why I can tell nothing 
 from the lips of the friend who was so dear to 
 him." 
 
 Some of the Philadelphia Friends, who were 
 
 1 The best known of these is Milton on his Blindness. 
 
218 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 accustomed to hear the voices of women raised in 
 their meetings, objected to the appearance on the 
 anti-slavery platform of several young women who 
 had trained themselves for public speaking in a 
 lyceum of their own ; and one of the young women 
 wittily said that the conservative Friends believed 
 that Paul meant to say that women were bound to 
 keep silence except in the churches! In those 
 days Mr. Whittier was accustomed in a humorous 
 vein to discourage the would-be feminine orators ; 
 his real attitude is set forth in this letter to Eliza- 
 beth Neall : 
 
 TO ELIZABETH NEALL. 
 
 1839. 
 
 For myself, abolition has been to me its own 
 "exceeding great reward." It has repaid every 
 sacrifice of time, of money, of reputation, of health, 
 of ease, with the answer of a good conscience, and 
 the happiness which grows out of benevolent ex- 
 ertions for the welfare of others. It has led me 
 to examine myself. It has given me the acquain- 
 tance of some of the noblest and best of men and 
 women. It owes me nothing. So, then, two of 
 the youngest members of the Women's Society 
 are to hold forth. . . . Shade of the Apostle 
 Paul ! What is this world coming to ? Never 
 mind, " I like it hugely," as Tristram Shandy 
 said of Yorick's sermon, and would like it better 
 to see them wield in their delicate fingers the 
 thunderbolts of abolition oratory. As the author 
 of John Gilpin said of the hero and his horse, 
 
 " And when he next doth ride abroad, 
 May I be there to see ! " 
 
REMINISCENCES 219 
 
 Seriously, I see no good reason why they should 
 not speak as well as their elders. " Let the 
 daughters prophesy," agreeably to the promise 
 of the prophet Joel, and let the doors be thrown 
 open to all without distinction of sex, and then 
 another part of the promise will be verified, 
 " the young men shall see visions " ! I go the 
 whole length as regards the rights of women, 
 however, although I sometimes joke a little about 
 it. I am afraid it is a besetting sin of mine to 
 do so in reference to many things in which I 
 feel a sober and real interest. I have repented 
 of it a thousand times, especially as it gave those 
 who were not intimately acquainted with me a 
 false idea of my character. . . . 
 
 Of his life in Philadelphia, his cousin, Ann 
 E. Wendell, contributes these reminiscences : 
 
 " I can recall but little of Greenleaf 's first visit 
 to us in the winter of 1836-1837, but the picture 
 of the first evening is very vivid. I remember 
 his dignified entrance, his dress a light overcoat 
 and a sealskin cap, there my memory of that 
 evening closes ; but that he was in a genial mood, 
 ready to enjoy what came, I judge from his ac- 
 cepting an invitation from my brother Isaac to 
 visit him at his home ten miles out of town, and 
 to take with him my sister Margaret and my 
 little brother Evert. The winter was very cold, 
 and the sleighing good, so they were to go in a 
 sleigh. Greenleaf became much interested in tell- 
 ing Margaret some interesting story, and the result 
 was an upset in a snow-drift, which was a source 
 
220 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 of much merriment then and afterward. He came 
 several times, talked a good deal, and was very 
 entertaining. I cannot now recollect much of 
 his conversation, except what he said of his fear 
 of ghosts, and his dread of passing the grave-yard. 
 We did not see him again until 1838, when he 
 came to edit the 'Pennsylvania Freeman.' He 
 was with us a good deal during the next winter. 
 I think the portrait of him by Bass Otis was 
 painted at about this time, and not in 1836. I rec- 
 ollect sitting on a sofa and holding this portrait 
 before Joseph Sturge for his inspection, and his 
 remark, ' John, I do not quite like it.' I do not 
 recollect the objection. I always fancied there 
 was a similarity in a smile in all the portraits by 
 Otis, and perhaps he saw it did not look quite 
 natural. But the position was lifelike. Otis 
 placed him at the table, turned his attention to 
 something else, and then addressed him a little 
 suddenly with, ' Mr. Whittier ! ' When Greenleaf 
 started up to respond, he said, ' Keep that posi- 
 tion,' and he was so taken. 1 . . . Joseph Healy at 
 that time lived on Seventh Street, and his house 
 was a gathering-place for the abolitionists. Green- 
 
 1 It was after this painting that the engraving in the first vol- 
 ume of the edition of 1888 was executed. A few years after this 
 portrait was painted, the ladies of Philadelphia had an anti- 
 slavery bazaar, and wished to have an engraving of it made by 
 Sartain to be sold at the fair. One of them wrote to Mr. Whit- 
 tier, asking his permission, and this was his reply : " I have no 
 great fancy for having my face made use of in the manner thee 
 suggests ; but if it will be of any service to the bazaar it would 
 perhaps be foolish to object to it. My heart has been too long 
 devoted to the good cause in which you are laboring to allow me 
 to withhold my head when it is needed." 
 
REMINISCENCES 221 
 
 leaf was there a good deal, but I think he boarded 
 with his old friend and townsman, A. W. Thayer. 
 Abolitionism at that time was so blended with 
 transcendentalism and ultra-liberalism, in both the 
 social and religious point of view, that the Ortho- 
 dox Friends of Philadelphia, although fully believ- 
 ing in the right of abolition, were very shy of 
 joining in the public movements of the abolition- 
 ists. This threw Greenleaf almost entirely with 
 the Hicksite division of the society, and he being 
 always retiring did not soon make many personal 
 acquaintances on our side, although he belonged to 
 the Orthodox division. 
 
 " When Pennsylvania Hall was burned we lived 
 on the same street, six or seven squares from it. 
 Greenleaf did not come to see us that night, as he 
 was in the midst of the crowd at the fire. There 
 were other riots about that time. One evening the 
 mob attacked a colored institution not far from us, 
 and the police were ordered there. They came, a 
 line of men reaching from one side to the other of 
 the street, and stopped in front of our house. An- 
 other line came, another and another, until they 
 formed a solid square of men. At a given signal 
 all sprang their rattles together, and marched down 
 to the scene of trouble. 
 
 " One incident I recall, of 1838. My sister Mar- 
 garet entertained a small company at our house, 
 and the amusement of the evening was taking pro- 
 files on the wall, from the shadow cast upon a 
 paper pinned upon it. I have kept Greenleaf's 
 until this time, and not long ago pasted it on 
 black cloth and had it photographed. It is like 
 
222 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 the old-fashioned silhouettes, and I think it a per- 
 fect likeness. I prize it for the curiosity of its 
 origin. When the last collection of his works was 
 made, I asked him if he wanted this likeness en- 
 graved; but he wrote to me he had a side face 
 taken 1 by William Gray's grand-daughter. I 
 suspect he thought it would be a rather ridiculous 
 affair, but I don't think it is. 
 
 " Greenleaf was with us a great deal during the 
 next two or three years. I very rarely went from 
 home, and was much confined to the sofa. In the 
 evening, the centre table was rolled to the sofa so 
 that I could enjoy the light. Greenleaf often 
 came home very weary, and seated himself at the 
 table, looking as though he felt there was nothing 
 more to do, and both body and soul could rest. 
 That memory makes the picture taken from Miss 
 Gray's photograph valuable to me, as it looks as he 
 did at such times, although William J. Allinson 
 said it looked as though he had never received the 
 breath of life. 
 
 " He was very uncertain ; we could never make 
 an engagement and be sure he would be with us. 
 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, in the ' Century,' 
 describes our experience exactly. He did not like 
 little companies, where he would be an object of 
 particular interest. On one occasion he did, I 
 think, intend to be present, and then gave up the 
 intention ; but knowing how much sister Marga- 
 ret would be disappointed, he sent the following 
 lines : 
 
 1 The picture in the fourth volume. 
 
ANTI-SLAVERY POEMS 223 
 
 'To cousin Margaret Wendell, greeting : 
 
 This may inform thee that to-night 
 There '11 be an anti-slavery meeting, 
 
 To set the world and so forth right ! 
 And I, bear witness all slaveholders, 
 
 Must hold therein a lofty station 
 A moral Atlas on whose shoulders 
 
 Shall rest the ark of reformation. 
 And therefore, cousin Margaret, seeing 
 
 My present duty pardon me ! 
 Since nothing but the world's well-being 
 
 Shall keep me, dearest coz, from thee. 
 '12th mo., 12th, 1839.' 
 
 " The poem ' To a Friend on her Return from 
 Europe ' was addressed to Elizabeth Neall [Mrs. 
 Sidney Howard Gay] . The lines, in the edition of 
 1838, ' In the Commonplace Book of a Young 
 Lady ' were written for my sister Margaret, at 
 least the prelude was. 'The Quaker of Olden 
 Time ' and the poem ' The Relic ' were written 
 at our house in Philadelphia in 1839. In the win- 
 ter of 1840, Mr. Whittier edited a small collection 
 of poems for an anti-slavery fair, entitled 'The 
 North Star.' The poems were contributed by 
 friends interested in the cause ; among them were 
 John Quincy Adams, James T. Fields, Lucy 
 Hooper, John Pierpont, Greenleaf, and his sister 
 Elizabeth. 1 ... It was his intention at that 
 time to go to the World's Convention held in Lon- 
 don the next summer, and we did not know his 
 reason for remaining at home, although aware that 
 he was ill during the winter." 
 
 The following incident of Mr. Whittier's resi- 
 
 1 Whittier's own contributions to the collection were The Exiles 
 and The World's Convention. 
 
224 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 dence in Philadelphia is told by Mr. Edwin H. 
 Coates, who was one of a committee of twelve 
 persons organized in 1834, and acting with a still 
 larger association, for the purpose of aiding fugi- 
 tives from slavery. One member of this com- 
 mittee was John P. Burr, a natural son of Aaron 
 Burr. Mr. Coates says that when Mr. Whittier 
 took up his residence in Philadelphia he came to 
 him to learn the workings of the " underground 
 railroad " : 
 
 " Like all of us he learned that the great secret 
 of our success was to be cautious, discerning, and 
 never to make a mistake. A mistake, a blunder, 
 meant the penitentiary, and years of painful im- 
 prisonment. A Virginia slave named Douglass 
 applied to the committee for help to get his wife 
 and children into a free State. We dispatched 
 an agent to Baltimore to consult with the vigilance 
 committee there, and finally a letter was sent to 
 the family by an efficient female agent by the 
 name of Butler, who worked her plans and ours so 
 well that in a short time the little party landed in 
 Philadelphia. At eleven o'clock that night there 
 came to my house a consequential-looking indi- 
 vidual who handed me a copy of the Washington 
 4 Globe,' at the same time pointing to an adver- 
 tisement containing a reward for the recovery of 
 the runaways, and a full description of each one. 
 As may well be imagined, I began to grow 
 alarmed. So as soon as this person had with- 
 drawn, I started for the residence of Whittier, 
 and was closeted with him for an hour. A convic^ 
 tion for complicity in this scheme meant persona] 
 
UNDERGROUND RAILWAY 225 
 
 injury, or at least imprisonment for a long and 
 indefinite term. Without coming to any conclu- 
 sion as to the best course to pursue I went home 
 and to bed. I know I kept looking at the peni- 
 tentiary with one eye and on the God of the 
 oppressed with the other. But it providentially 
 turned out all right, and I had the unspeakable 
 pleasure of soon meeting the family in a secure 
 place and shaking hands with them all. I then 
 with joy rushed to Whittier's house, at the still 
 hour of midnight, and called my anxious friend 
 out of bed. From the room below I cried, ' Whit- 
 tier ! Whittier ! the Douglass family is safe ! ' 
 From his chamber came the exclamation : ' Glory ! 
 Hallelujah ! ' and this is the first time I remem- 
 ber hearing a Quaker shout. But he did, and it 
 came from his very soul. We soon had barbers 
 and dressmakers and others to assist in changing 
 the personal appearance and effecting a complete 
 disguise of the determined slaves, and when they 
 left that house, with their wigs, strange clothes, 
 and other changes, they could not have been 
 recognized as the same party who entered it." 
 
 In May, 1838, Mr. Whittier, accompanied by 
 his cousin, Joseph Cartland, visited Joseph 
 Healy's place in Bucks County, and in a letter 
 from there to a friend he says in regard to the 
 divisions in the Society of Friends : 
 
 " Here as everywhere else in Bucks County, 
 the ' heretics ' [Hicksites] have the ascendency in 
 point of numbers, and I fear that even those who 
 have in some degree maintained their integrity 
 have not always given evidence of soundness in all 
 
226 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 respects. . . . What will it avail us if, while 
 boasting of our soundness and of our enmity to 
 the delusion of Hicksism, we neglect to make a 
 practical application of our belief to ourselves ? if 
 we neglect to seek for ourselves that precious 
 atonement which we are so ready to argue in favor 
 of? I do not undervalue a sound belief. The 
 truth should be held, but at the same time I be- 
 lieve it may be 4 held ' in unrighteousness. I do 
 not dare to claim to be any the better for my or- 
 thodox principles. The mercy of God is my only 
 hope. ... I cannot forbear to mention one fact 
 which has come under my notice, as showing that 
 prejudice against color is not confined to human 
 bipeds. A hen at this place has disowned two of 
 a fine brood of chickens who happen to be black ! 
 Let this be communicated to Elliott Cresson 
 [an agent of the Colonization Society]." 
 
 Notwithstanding his well-known abolition senti- 
 ments, Mr. Whittier was invited to contribute to 
 the first number of the " Democratic Beview," 
 published at Washington, October, 1837. His 
 poem " Palestine " appeared in that number, 
 which also contained William Cullen Bryant's 
 " The Battle-Field." To the second number he 
 contributed " The Familist's Hymn," and there- 
 after for nearly ten years he sent to the " Ke- 
 view " most of his best work. 
 
 Busy as Mr. Whittier was with his work in the 
 fields of philanthropy and reform, while in Phila- 
 delphia, he then laid a plan that the state of his 
 health did not permit him to execute, for a literary 
 undertaking of considerable magnitude, the exact 
 
LITERARY PLANS 227 
 
 nature of which cannot now be known. But 
 among his papers is found a letter from an inti- 
 mate literary friend of his which gives some hint 
 of it. This friend writes : 
 
 " I am delighted with thy idea ; thou givest form 
 and substance to a vague desire of seeing some- 
 thing like a corner-stone laid for a Quaker temple 
 of literature. Thou art the man to undertake it. 
 ... I have never seen the Wordsworth sonnets 
 alluded to, but will look at them to understand 
 thy plan. Thy idea only needs the setting of J. 
 G. Whittier's poetry to make it the richest jewel 
 in his crown of fame. But I would have thee lay 
 it by, uncut and unpolished, till restored health 
 and the quiet occupation of a home life will allow 
 thee to work upon it, without paying the price 
 which has been the penalty of too many of thy 
 literary labors." 
 
 Slave-hunters were often following their prey 
 into Pennsylvania in those days, and many in- 
 stances are given in the newspapers of the time of 
 free colored people being kidnapped and taken to 
 the Southern States, either without giving them a 
 chance to prove their right to freedom in the 
 courts, or by false swearing as to their identity. 
 Mr. Whittier called attention, in the following 
 paragraph in the " Freeman," to what he properly 
 called " a desecration of the Hall of Independ- 
 ence " : 
 
 " It may not be generally known to our readers 
 that the building in which our National Independ- 
 ence was first proclaimed is not unfrequently 
 devoted to the vile purpose of trying colored 
 
228 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Americans charged, in the quaint language of a 
 New York mechanic, with having been 4 born con- 
 trary to the Declaration of '76,' and that from its 
 doors many a poor wretch has been borne away 
 into helpless bondage. Our indefatigable friend, 
 Samuel Webb, of Philadelphia, lately presented a 
 petition to the city council, praying that the build- 
 ing wherein, in the year 1776, was proclaimed to 
 an admiring world the sublime truth that all men 
 are created equal, may no longer be prostituted to 
 the purpose of sending men, women, and children, 
 unconvicted of crime, into hopeless, helpless, end- 
 less bondage, a purpose inconsistent with the uses 
 to which that building should be applied, which 
 was selected by the founders of the Republic in 
 which to 'proclaim Liberty throughout the land, 
 and to all the inhabitants thereof.' The memo- 
 rial was presented to the council, and it was 
 respectfully received and referred to the com- 
 mittee on city property. What action has been 
 taken on it we have not learned. The first trial 
 of a man charged with being a chattel, at which 
 we were ever present, was held not long ago in 
 that very hall ! " 
 
 He goes on to tell of a respectable-looking man, 
 who asserted his right to freedom, being delivered 
 to slave-hunters from Maryland, their word being 
 taken as sufficient evidence that he was a slave 
 who had escaped from his master. The justice 
 decided against him, and at once, in that sacred 
 hall, one of the slave-hunters drew from his pocket 
 a pair of handcuffs and took him away in triumph. 
 It was to arouse a people who had become accus* 
 
EDITORSHIP OF THE "FREEMAN" 229 
 
 tomed to such scenes, to the wickedness and incon- 
 sistency of permitting them to happen in a free 
 country, that Mr. Whittier was now devoting all 
 his energies. His connection with the " Freeman " 
 during the years 1838-39 was interrupted by ex- 
 cursions to western Pennsylvania, to New York, 
 and to his home in Massachusetts ; at times he was 
 incapacitated for work by serious illness. Very 
 few of his poems appear in the " Freeman " during 
 these two years of hard work, harassed by contin- 
 uous invalidism. In the second number after he 
 took charge appeared the pathetic "Farewell of 
 a Virginia Slave Mother : " 
 
 " Gone, gone, sold and gone 
 To the rice-swamp dank and lone." 
 
 The other poems of this period are " The Fami- 
 list's Hymn," which he copied into his own paper 
 from the " Democratic Review ; " a New Year's 
 Address in which he severely lashed C. G. Ather- 
 ton, of New Hampshire, author of the " gag rule " 
 in Congress ; the ode read at the opening of Penn- 
 sylvania Hall; a philippic against Governor 
 Porter of Pennsylvania, whose inaugural address 
 took strong grounds against the anti-slavery agita- 
 tion, and recommended a law to punish sedition ; l 
 
 1 This poem, published February 28, 1839, does not appear 
 in his collected works. The physician named in the following 
 stanza of it was Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, of Chester County, an 
 active abolitionist : 
 
 " Go hunt sedition ! Search for that 
 
 In every pedlar's cart of rags ; 
 Pry into every Quaker's hat 
 
 And Dr. FusselPs saddle-bags, 
 Lest treason wrap, with all its ills, 
 
 Around his powders and his pills." 
 
230 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 " Lines on Eeceiving a Cane," made from wood- 
 work of Pennsylvania Hall, which the fire had 
 spared ; and a poem suggested by being present at 
 the trial of a fugitive slave in the immediate vi- 
 cinity of Independence Hall, entitled " Republican 
 Man-Robbery." The slave referred to in the last- 
 named poem was handcuffed in the presence of the 
 court and spectators and sent South. These, with 
 the hymn " Worship," are the only verses of 
 Whittier's that appeared in the " Freeman " dur- 
 ing the two years he conducted it. 
 
 He refused to discuss, or to allow his corre- 
 spondents to dwell upon, political, religious, or re- 
 form topics not bearing directly upon the main 
 object of his paper. To a correspondent who asked 
 him to take up the cause of Peace he replied : 
 
 " We will not use the funds collected from per- 
 sons of all sects and parties and opinions for the 
 sole and express object of promoting the abolition 
 of slavery for other purposes. Common honesty 
 forbids." 
 
 On another occasion, he illustrated the same 
 policy with the following parable : 
 
 " When Anthony of Bourbon, during the French 
 King's minority, held the regency of France, he 
 informed the Danish ambassador that he hoped 
 in a short time to procure a free passage for the 
 gospel throughout France. The ambassador, a 
 zealous Lutheran, expressed his pleasure, but 
 hoped that Luther's, not Calvin's, doctrines might 
 pass current. ' Luther and Calvin,' answered the 
 Regent, ' agree in forty points, and differ but in 
 one. Let those therefore that follow the tenets of 
 
TWO ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTIONS 231 
 
 those two unite their strength against the common 
 enemy, and at better leisure, in a more convenient 
 season, compound their own differences.' " 
 
 Early in May, 1838, Mr. Whittier attended the 
 annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery 
 Society in New York, where he offered a resolu- 
 tion that led to an animated debate. This reso- 
 lution advised members and agents of the society 
 not to rely upon physical force for protection 
 against the violence of their enemies. There was 
 a small majority against this proposition. He re- 
 turned to Philadelphia in season to see his office 
 destroyed by the mob of May 17, 1838, spent a 
 week in straightening out matters, and then 
 started for Boston, where he attended the annual 
 meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Soci- 
 ety, and was a member of the business committee. 
 During his absence he sent letters to the " Free- 
 man." The New England convention was held in 
 Marlboro chapel, and a mob gathered as in Phila- 
 delphia, threatening to destroy the hall, but the 
 mayor promptly took measures to protect the con- 
 vention. Mr. Whittier says of the Marlboro 
 chapel that it was nearly equal in size and beauty 
 to Pennsylvania Hall. He describes a visit on 
 a June day to the ruins of the Ursuline convent 
 in Charlestown, which was destroyed by a mob 
 in 1834. He says : " The stone literally ' cries 
 out from the wall,' and the scorched timber 
 answers it. Would it not be well to let the walls 
 of our beautiful Hall remain like those of the 
 Charlestown convent, a monument and a warn- 
 ing ? " He returned to his work in Philadelphia, 
 
232 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 the last week in June. Fortunately the printing, 
 office of the " Freeman " was not in the building 
 that had been destroyed by the populace, and the 
 publication of the paper was not interrupted. 
 
 Pennsylvania Hall was the largest and finest 
 edifice of its kind in Philadelphia. It had been 
 built by an association of citizens, at a cost of 
 $43,000, that they might have a room in which 
 the principles of liberty and equality of civil rights 
 could be fully discussed, and the evils of slavery 
 portrayed. The dedicatory exercises had been in 
 progress three days, with crowded audiences in 
 attendance ; addresses had been delivered by 
 David Paul Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, 
 Arnold Buffum, Angelina Grimke Weld, and 
 others; letters read from John Quincy Adams, 
 Thaddeus Stevens, William Jay, and Gerrit Smith ; 
 and also an ode written for the occasion by John 
 G. Whittier. There were threats of violence from 
 a rabble in the streets, incited, it is said, by South- 
 ern men sojourning in the city. On the evening 
 of the third day, May 16th, while Garrison was 
 addressing a woman's meeting, the windows were 
 broken by stones, but the inner blinds prevented 
 injury to the audience. Mrs. Weld, a native of 
 South Carolina, delivered an eloquent address in 
 the midst of pauses in the tumult, and Lucretia 
 Mott and Maria W. Chapman, by the grace and 
 dignity of their presence, and the discretion of 
 their speech, prevented an outbreak of violence, 
 which was threatened in the crowded hall. Abby 
 Kelley, of Lynn, on this occasion made her first 
 public address. She said : 
 
PENNSYLVANIA HALL 233 
 
 " It is not the crashing of those windows, nor 
 the maddening rush of those voices, that calls me 
 before you. Those pass unheeded by me. But it 
 is the small voice within, which may not be with- 
 stood, that bids me open my mouth for the dumb, 
 that bids me plead the cause of God's perishing 
 poor." 
 
 When the meeting adjourned, the women passed 
 unharmed through the angry mob that blocked 
 the streets outside. The next morning, a crowd 
 again assembled in the streets, and Daniel Neall, 
 president of the managers of the hall, called upon 
 the mayor for protection. The mayor replied : 
 " It is public opinion that makes mobs, and ninety- 
 nine out of a hundred of those with whom I con- 
 verse are against you." The city solicitor gave 
 orders to the police not to arrest a single man. 
 Placards had been posted calling for mob violence. 
 The day passed, and nothing was done by the 
 authorities to insure order. In the evening there 
 were fifteen thousand persons assembled in the 
 streets. The mayor gave notice that he would 
 disperse the mob, if he could have possession of 
 the building. The keys were at once given him, 
 and he made this singular speech : 
 
 " There will be no meeting here this evening. 
 This house has been given up to me. The man- 
 agers had the right to hold their meeting, but as 
 good citizens they have at my request suspended 
 their meeting for this evening. We never call out 
 the military here. I would, fellow-citizens, look 
 upon you as my police, and I trust you will keep 
 order. I now bid you farewell, for the night! " 
 
234 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 The mob gave three cheers for their friend 
 the mayor, and commenced the attack as soon as 
 he was gone. The doors were forced open, the 
 papers from Mr. Whittier's editorial room, the 
 window-blinds, and other inflammable materials 
 were piled upon the speaker's platform in the 
 large hall above. They were set on fire, the gas 
 was turned on, and in a few hours only the black- 
 ened walls of the beautiful building were standing. 
 The fire department was called out, but the mob 
 prevented a drop of water from being thrown 
 upon the flames. They were allowed to save only 
 adjoining property. With a change of dress to 
 avoid recognition and assault, 1 Mr. Whittier was 
 active during the fire in saving what he could from 
 his office, which was in the lower story. His paper 
 went to press early the next morning, with this 
 brief account of the outrage from his pen : 
 
 " 18th of Fifth month, half past seven o'clock. 
 Pennsylvania Hall is in ashes ! The beautiful 
 temple consecrated to Liberty has been offered a 
 smoking sacrifice to the Demon of Slavery. In 
 the heart of this city a flame has gone up to 
 Heaven. It will be seen from Maine to Georgia. 
 In its red and lurid light, men will see more 
 
 1 Mr. Whittier went out to visit his office, found an excited 
 multitude in the street, and knowing that his life was imperiled 
 if he was recognized, went to the house of his friend, Dr. Par- ' 
 rish, put on a wig 1 and a long white overcoat, and again ventured 
 into the midst of the mob. It added to his security, that having 
 resided in Philadelphia only a few months, he was not much 
 known outside the circle of his friends. When his office was 
 being sacked, he went in with the crowd and secured some things 
 be wished to save from destruction. 
 
PENNSYLVANIA HALL BURNED 235 
 
 clearly than ever the black abominations of the 
 fiend at whose instigation it was kindled. . . . We 
 have no time for comment. Let the abhorred 
 deed speak for itself. Let all men see by what a 
 frail tenure they hold property and life in a land 
 overshadowed by the curse of slavery." 
 
 The convention that had been holding its annual 
 meeting in the hall adjourned to meet on the morn- 
 ing of the 18th, to elect officers and transact other 
 business. The meeting was held according to 
 adjournment, and its business transacted in the 
 open street, in front of the smoking ruins, and 
 surrounded by a mob not yet satisfied with vio- 
 lence, though cowed into silence for the time by 
 the dignity and solemnity of the proceedings. 
 Mr. Whittier took part in this meeting, to sustain 
 a resolution he had offered to the effect that the 
 right of suffrage should be held sacred to the cause 
 of freedom, and votes withheld from candidates 
 opposed to the abolition of slavery within the ju- 
 risdiction of Congress, who encouraged or in any 
 way sustained mob-law in its attempts to put down 
 freedom of speech and of the press, or favored the 
 disfranchising of colored citizens. 
 
 The excitement in the city did not subside for 
 several days. Outrages were frequent against 
 innocent negroes, and against newspapers and 
 individuals that ventured to oppose the mob-spirit. 
 On the evening of the 18th the rioters attacked 
 and set fire to a new building intended as a 
 " Shelter for Colored Orphans," and the next 
 day spent their fury on a Bethel church belonging 
 to colored people. The office of the "Public 
 
236 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Ledger " was threatened, because it had advocated 
 free discussion, but preparations for defense had 
 been made, and the mob did not venture upon an 
 attack. The governor of the commonwealth, to 
 whom Whittier had the year before addressed the 
 poem " Ritner," promptly issued a proclamation 
 expressing the deepest regret that the soil of Penn- 
 sylvania had been disgraced by acts of lawless 
 riot, and offering a reward of $500 for the appre- 
 hension and conviction of each and every person 
 engaged in the outrage. This action shamed the 
 mayor into issuing a similar proclamation, but he 
 took pains to word it so that only the person who 
 set the fire was to be apprehended. 
 
 The jury of inquiry to which was referred the 
 matter of damages the county would be required 
 to pay on account of the destruction of Pennsyl- 
 vania Hall were three years in making up their 
 decision. They reported in 1841 that the loss 
 amounted to $33,000. The value of the lot was 
 from 110,000 to 115,000. The lot was eventually 
 sold to the order of Odd Fellows, by which a hall 
 for their own purposes was erected and dedicated 
 in 1846. 
 
 Reference has been made above to an address 
 made by Mrs. Weld, a native of South Carolina. 
 It was a singular episode of those exciting days 
 that the marriage of Angelina Grimke* to Mr. 
 Weld took place the night before the burning of 
 the hall. Miss Grimke* was a Quakeress who had 
 freed her slaves, and was delivering eloquent abo- 
 lition addresses at the North. Mr. Whittier, then 
 editor of the " Freeman," was invited to the wed* 
 
LETTER TO CALEB GUSHING 237 
 
 ding, which was attended by a large number of the 
 foremost anti-slavery agitators in the country, Mr. 
 Garrison included. But, as Miss Grimke was 
 marrying " out of society," an orthodox Friend like 
 Mr. Whittier could not lend his countenance to the 
 wedding by assisting at the ceremony. He there- 
 fore was absent, but compromised his orthodoxy 
 by escorting a young lady to the house, and the 
 next morning he called again at the door with a 
 congratulatory poem he had written during the 
 night ! Both bride and groom were numbered 
 among his dearest friends. 
 
 The burning of Pennsylvania Hall was but one 
 sign of the terrible struggle which was at hand. 
 How deeply Whittier was moved, and how in- 
 stinctively he sought the use of political instru- 
 ments, will be seen from the two letters which 
 follow : 
 
 TO CALEB GUSHING. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 3d 6th mo., 1838. 
 
 In regard to some political queries in thy letter 
 of last spring, touching the course of the abolition- 
 ists in the presidential contest, I will answer 
 briefly. The abolitionists will not lend any sup- 
 port to Van Buren. The Clay resolutions have 
 cost him the votes of thousands. Yet even they 
 will not satisfy the South. He will be pressed to 
 commit himself entirely to the interest of slavery. 
 He will be required to write another North Caro- 
 lina letter, a la Van Buren. A veto pledge will 
 be required. Now will Henry Clay do this ? our 
 Henry Clay, the man we have all loved and 
 
238 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 honored and forgiven will he stoop to meanness 
 so ineffable ? I should greatly prefer him to Van 
 Buren or General Harrison. But his course in 
 the Senate has surprised and grieved me. Our 
 friends in Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, 
 New York, Michigan, and Ohio are not yet wholly 
 prepared to give him up. But a single further 
 " bowing of the knee " to slavery will drive them 
 from him. The extra ounce will break the camel's 
 back. As it is now, Henry Clay stands tolerably 
 well in the South. The extracts from the 
 " Emancipator " and from my paper, commenting 
 severely on his course, have been industriously 
 circulated at the South by his friends, in order 
 to prove that he is regarded by the abolitionists 
 as their sworn enemy. They have been (as I 
 anticipated they would) of essential service to his 
 cause. 
 
 Let him, if he has any regard for his former 
 professions, to opinions of the wise and good all 
 over the world, and to the suffrages of the people 
 of the free States, make no further effort to con- 
 ciliate the slaveholder. I say advisedly, and from 
 personal interviews and correspondence with abo- 
 litionists all over the country, that they will have 
 no more. Has it come to this, that even to be a 
 slaveholder and a colonizationist is not enough to 
 satisfy the slavery interest! What then ought 
 the free North to demand of a candidate for her 
 suffrage ? What ought abolitionists, whose lives 
 and liberty may be at stake on the issue of the 
 question, to ask? 
 
A VOLUME OF POEMS 239 
 
 TO J. E. FULLER, BOSTON. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 8th mo., 16, 1838. 
 
 Our cause here is slowly, and against unnumbered 
 obstacles, going ahead. You in New England 
 have got ^ro-slavery to contend with ; we have got 
 into a death-grapple with slavery itself. They 
 leave no stone unturned to put us down. The 
 clergy of all denominations are preaching against 
 us. The politicians are abusing us in their filthy 
 papers ; and dirty penny sheets, with most outra- 
 geous caricatures of Garrison, Thompson, Angelina 
 Grimke Weld, are hawked daily about the streets. 
 But we shall go ahead nevertheless. We are 
 slow-moulded, heavy-sterned, Dutch-built, out 
 hereaway ; but when once started on the right 
 track, there is no backing out with us. The abo- 
 litionists of old Pennsylvania are of the right 
 material ; many of them don't believe in the devil, 
 and those who do are n't afraid of him. I admire 
 and honor their stern moral courage, in manfully 
 maintaining their ground against a fiendish and 
 bitter opposition. 
 
 Mr. Whittier, much broken in health, returned 
 to his home in Massachusetts, in October, 1838, 
 took a hand in the Congressional election, and con- 
 tinued editorial work upon the " Freeman," send- 
 ing his articles by mail, until April, 1839, when 
 we find him again in Philadelphia. During his 
 absence, early in November, a small volume of his 
 poems was issued by Joseph Healy, the financial 
 agent of the Anti-Slavery Society of Pennsylvania. 
 It was a book of 180 pages, half of it devoted to 
 
240 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 poems bearing upon the subject of slavery, and the 
 remaining pages filled with selections from his 
 miscellaneous works. There are fifty poems in this 
 collection, none of them copied from "The Le- 
 gends of New England," and only eleven of them 
 to be found in the edition of his complete works 
 published just fifty years afterward. The volume 
 is dedicated to Henry B. Stanton, " as a token of 
 the author's personal friendship, and his respect 
 for the unreserved devotion of exalted talents to 
 the cause of humanity and freedom." The poems 
 in this volume were collected and arranged by Mr. 
 Whittier during the summer of 1888. Reference 
 to it is made in this letter to his sister, at Ames- 
 bury, written August 3, 1838 : 
 
 " What I want of thee is (if thee can do it) to 
 send by mail copies of ' The Fratricide ' and 
 4 The Pharisee.' An edition of my poetry is pub- 
 lishing in this city, and I want them very much. 
 ... My paper is beginning to attract attention, 
 and I should not think it strange if it got pretty es- 
 sentially mobbed before the summer is out. The 
 colonizationists can set on the dog of the mob just 
 when they choose. I wish I could escape from 
 the duties of an editor for a month or so. My 
 health needs it. I may go out into the country a 
 while, if I can get anybody to supply my place. 
 Last evening I had a delightful walk about one 
 mile and a half out of the city to the Fairmount 
 water works, with a company of ' young friends.' 
 It is a beautiful place ; nature has done much, but 
 art infinitely more : fountains are made to gush 
 up from the rocks of the cliffs which overhang 
 
A VOLUME OF POEMS 241 
 
 the Schuylkill, through the mouths of images 
 carved out of marble. The view of the river 
 winding down to the city is very fine. My health 
 is better than I could expect, but I have suffered 
 a great deal. I have been out in the country fre- 
 quently. Send me the two ' poetries ' as soon as 
 possible." 
 
 The poem "The Fratricide," written in 1831, 
 may be found in the appendix to the Riverside 
 edition of Mr. Whittier's works, but " The Phari- 
 see " is omitted. It is the story of Paul's conver- 
 sion, told in blank verse. 
 
 Whittier struck the keynote of his whole career 
 as a reformer when he quoted, upon the title-page 
 of this first authorized collection of his anti-slavery 
 poems, these noble words of S. T. Coleridge : 
 
 " ' There is a time to keep silence,' saith Solo- 
 mon. But when I proceeded to the first verse of 
 the fourth chapter of the Ecclesiastes, ' and con- 
 sidered all the oppressions that are done under 
 the sun, and beheld the tears of such as are op- 
 pressed, and they have had no comforter ; and on 
 the side of the oppressors there was power,' I 
 concluded this was not the time to keep silence ; 
 for Truth should be spoken at all times, but more 
 especially at those times when to speak Truth is 
 dangerous." 
 
 It was during this visit to his home in the fall of 
 1838, and just before returning to his editorial 
 duties in Philadelphia, that he wrote in the album 
 of Mary Pillsbury, of West Newbury, the follow- 
 ing lines, expressing his love of his New England 
 home : 
 
242 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Pardon a stranger hand that gives 
 
 Its impress to these gilded leaves. 
 
 As one who graves in idle mood 
 
 An idler's name on rock or wood, 
 
 So in a careless hour I claim 
 
 A page to leave my humble name. 
 
 Accept it ; and when o'er my head 
 
 A Pennsylvanian sky is spread, 
 
 And but in dreams my eye looks back 
 
 On broad and lovely Merrimac, 
 
 And on my ear no longer breaks 
 
 The murmuring music which it makes, 
 
 When but in dreams I look again 
 
 On Salisbury beach Grasshopper plain, 
 
 Or Powow stream or Amesbury mills, 
 
 Or old Crane neck, or Pipestave hills, 
 
 Think of me then as one who keeps, 
 
 Where Delaware's broad current sweeps, 
 
 And down its rugged limestone-bed 
 
 The Schuylkill's arrowy flight is sped, 
 
 Deep in his heart the scenes which grace 
 
 And glorify his " native place ; " 
 
 Loves every spot to childhood dear, 
 
 And leaves his heart " untraveled " here ; 
 
 Longs, 'midst the Dutchman's kraut and greens, 
 
 For pumpkin-pie and pork and beans, 
 
 And sighs to think when, sweetly near, 
 
 The soft piano greets his ear 
 
 That the fair hands which, small and white, 
 
 Glance on its ivory polished light, 
 
 Have ne'er an Indian pudding made, 
 
 Nor fashioned rye and Indian bread. 
 
 And oh ! whene'er his footsteps turn, 
 
 Whatever stars above him burn, 
 
 Though dwelling where a Yankee's name 
 
 Is coupled with reproach or shame, 
 
 Still true to his New England birth, 
 
 Still faithful to his home and hearth, 
 
 Even 'midst the scornful stranger band 
 
 His boast shall be of YANKEE LAND. 
 
 Something of the same spirit appears in this 
 letter: 
 
LOVE OF NEW ENGLAND 243 
 
 TO CALEB GUSHING. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 4th mo., 4th, 1839. 
 My fugitive poems have never been published, 
 except a few in a late volume bound up with my 
 abolition and incendiary verses. I am glad thou 
 hast undertaken to say something of our own Mer- 
 rimac, endeared to me by all the recollections of 
 childhood, and the ripple of whose waters I still 
 hear in my dreams, even on the banks of the 
 Schuylkill and the Delaware. Some time ago I 
 wrote a prose tale called " Passaconway," the scene 
 of which is on the banks of the Merrimac. I 
 long to return once more to New England, but 
 when I shall it is out of my power to decide. I 
 like the Quaker purity of this city, and its Quaker 
 hospitality, but I would rather live as an obscure 
 New England farmer. I would rather see the 
 sunset light streaming through the valley of the 
 Merrimac than to look out for many months upon 
 brick walls and Sam Weller's "werry beautiful 
 landscape of chimney pots.". . . I am sorry, but I 
 fear Van Buren will be reflected ; it will be hard 
 to give the New England States to Clay. 
 
 In July, 1839, he found it necessary, as already 
 mentioned, to give up the drudgery of editorial 
 work, and he called his cousin, Moses A. Cart- 
 land, afterwards widely known as a successful 
 teacher, to take his place for a few weeks. He 
 made a tour to western Pennsylvania, working for 
 the cause of anti-slavery reform wherever he went, 
 and sending occasional letters to his paper. Mr. 
 Cartland says of him, " He goes with the hope of 
 
244 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 restoring the tone of his worn and wasted energies, 
 exhausted as they have been by unremitting toil 
 in that cause which lies deepest in his affections, 
 the cause of freedom and humanity." 
 
 The election of Caleb Gushing having been 
 secured in the North Essex district, Mr. Whittier 
 did not return to his editorial duties in Philadel- 
 phia until he had arranged for the sending of pe- 
 titions from every part of his home district to the 
 next session of Congress, calling for the abolition 
 of slavery in the District of Columbia, and for the 
 restriction of the interstate slave trade. His first 
 effort when he resumed his duties as editor of the 
 " Freeman " was to wake up the anti-slavery peo- 
 ple of Pennsylvania to the importance of giving 
 their Congressmen no rest until their object was 
 attained. The petitions sent in response to this 
 call were refused reception by a rule adopted by 
 Congress, and the Northern author of this rule 
 received a terrible poetical castigation *t the hands 
 of Whittier, in his New Year's address to the 
 patrons of the " Freeman." 
 
 On the 14th of March, 1839, Miss Minot wrote 
 to her friend, Elizabeth Whittier, of an interest- 
 ing rumor, which had, however, no foundation in 
 fact : 
 
 " We have just heard of your brother's engage- 
 ment. Mr. [A. W.] Thayer and Mr. [H. B.] 
 Stanton brought the information some weeks ago, 
 but it has only now reached us. I congratulate 
 you with all my heart. She came to me in my 
 dreams last night, and so charming a creature I 
 never saw, or before imagined. I passed a few 
 
SARATOGA 245 
 
 hours in her society, and I loved her as if she had 
 been the most cherished friend of years. . . . We 
 hear that she is from Brooklyn, and that she is not 
 a Quakeress." 1 
 
 On the 20th of June, 1839, an urgent call was 
 sent to Mr. Whittier, signed by Joshua Leavitt 
 and Henry B. Stanton, to attend a national anti- 
 slavery convention to be held at Albany, N. Y., 
 July 31 of the same year. The American Anti- 
 Slavery Society had become a " close corporation," 
 and many persons favorable to its objects did not 
 find opportunity for efficient work in it. This con- 
 vention was called to devise means of uniting the 
 strength of all the friends of liberty, and Mr. 
 Whittier's cooperation was earnestly desired. If 
 he could not come, would he not write a letter that 
 could be sent to the convention ? He attended 
 the convention, and then went to Saratoga Springs, 
 in the height of the season. From Saratoga he 
 wrote to a Philadelphia friend who had accompa- 
 nied him to Albany, under date of August 8, 
 1839: 
 
 "A leisure moment being afforded me, I em- 
 brace it to tell thee my adventures since I parted 
 with thee at the Albany Congress Hall. I went 
 out to Saratoga that afternoon, and arrived there 
 about six o'clock, in company with our abolition 
 friends, Hon. Amasa Walker, of Massachusetts, 
 and Henry B. Stanton. On board the cars was a 
 Mississippi lawyer and slaveholder, with his ser- 
 vant. He seemed to take a fancy to me, as a 
 Quaker, and entered into conversation on 'the 
 1 This reference is probably to Lucy Hooper. 
 
246 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 vexed question ' at once. It was maintained very 
 warmly but pleasantly until our arrival at the 
 Springs. We found the best hotels crowded to 
 suffocation, and finally took lodgings at the Pavil- 
 ion. Here I found Dr. Farnsworth, of Massa- 
 chusetts, and his daughter, and several other 
 acquaintances, among others two young South 
 Carolinians, upon whom I had formerly bestowed 
 some attention, during their summer sojourn, 
 some years ago, in my native town. They were 
 apparently as pleased to meet me as if I had not 
 been opposed to their ' peculiar institution.' 
 Our Mississippi friend was full of politeness and 
 good nature, and I believe would have been ready 
 to lynch on the spot any one who should have 
 assailed his Quaker friend. He came to the con- 
 clusion that the abolitionists were shamefully 
 libeled, and that we were the true friends of the 
 South. Many of my Massachusetts friends have 
 arrived at the Springs, during the last two or three 
 days. I am on the whole enjoying myself quite 
 well, and my health is, I think, most decidedly 
 improved, not by drinking the rascally drugged 
 water here, but by travel, exercise, and open air. 
 I wish thee was here, that we might laugh together 
 at the ten thousand ridiculous things which are 
 constantly occurring around us. As it is, I have 
 laughed alone, and that is hard business. It is an 
 admirable place here to study human nature ; to 
 watch the manifestations of its pride, vanity, and 
 jealousy ; to note the early developments of love, 
 the agony of disappointment, of baffled aims, of 
 wasted affections, of unshared sympathies ; Hope 
 
NEWPORT 247 
 
 and Despair, Love and Hatred, chastened Desire 
 and unbridled Passion, all crowded together be- 
 neath the light of the same astrals, mingling in the 
 same dance and promenade. For myself, I have 
 been somewhat of a laughing philosopher, and 
 have found amusement wherever I could. . . . 
 Thou wilt perceive that my ink is of a new color, 
 in explanation whereof I will just state that since 
 the above was written, I have been floating New 
 England-ward, and am now writing in the parlor 
 of ' mine own inn,' at Newport, R. I., on the first 
 day of the week and between meetings. I arrived 
 here last night in company with a friend, Judge 
 Hunt, of Rensselaer County, New York, who has 
 been my traveling companion for some days past. 
 Last night, by dint of pushing and scolding, I 
 obtained a berth (not a trifling matter when at 
 least one third of the passengers were left without 
 any accommodations for sleeping whatever), but 
 on going to take possession of it, I found a sturdy 
 six-footer snoring away as regularly as if he had n't 
 stolen his quarters. I gave him a punch in the 
 ribs by way of admonition, and worried him off 
 the premises. He growled like a bear disturbed 
 in his hollow log. I threatened to call the captain, 
 and he set me at defiance. The captain came, 
 and was about to administer lynch law on the spot, 
 when the fellow thrust his berth card in the cap- 
 tain's face and bade him rectify his own blunders. 
 It turned out that the captain had assigned us 
 both one and the same lodging-place, whereupon 
 he pointed to the first empty berth he saw and 
 bade me occupy it. I did so, not without some 
 
248 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 compunctious visitations, however, for not long 
 after I had thrown myself upon it, a little bald- 
 headed Frenchman came and looked in upon me 
 and then at his card. He bowed, grinned, and 
 muttered his bad English at me. I made no 
 reply, and he left me. ' Diable ! ' said he, ' vat 
 vill I do for my sleep ? ' Headache and weari- 
 ness made me selfish, and I held possession and 
 left the poor Frenchman to his fate. 
 
 " I shall spend a day or two at Newport with 
 my cousins, the "Wendells, of Philadelphia. There 
 are a good many of our orthodox Friends here at 
 the present time. It is of course pleasant to meet 
 them, only I wish there was less formality and 
 precision among them. 
 
 " I was vexed with myself that I did not have 
 more of thy company at Albany. The vexatious 
 business of the convention, and one circumstance 
 and another, prevented me. I feel as if I had 
 been cheated, or, what is still worse, cheated my- 
 self out of a great deal of pleasure. But the past 
 may not be recalled. Probably the circumstances 
 which vexed me saved thee from vexation. Was 
 it not so ? I am desirous of hearing from thee 
 an account of thy excursion to Lebanon, Catskill, 
 etc., and shall expect thee to sit down at once and 
 answer this incoherent scrawl." 
 
 In August, 1839, his sister Elizabeth thus writes 
 to her friend, Harriet Minot, the anti-slavery war 
 to which she refers being the contest in regard to 
 the " new organization : " 
 
 " Greenleaf has left his paper with cousin Moses 
 Cartland, and gone to Saratoga and elsewhere for 
 
LIKENESS OF WHITTIER 249 
 
 his health. He was at the Albany meeting, which, 
 by the way, I hear was good, quite rational. Does 
 thee ever see the 4 Pennsylvania Freeman ' ? 
 Cousin Moses does nobly in his new station as 
 editor. ... I want to tell thee about the state 
 meeting at Concord, and to ask on which side thee 
 stands in regard to the anti-slavery war, it de- 
 serves no milder name. I am very sorry for this 
 sort of bitterness among us, and the dividing cry 
 of 'Every man to his tent, O Israel,' is abroad, 
 and each individual, however humble, is sum- 
 moned now, I think, to the place of decision." 
 
 In a letter to the paper Mr. Whittier says he 
 " met many Southern people, had many oppor- 
 tunities of laying our principles before them, and 
 hoped had made favorable impression." From 
 New York he returned to his home in Amesbury, 
 and remained in Massachusetts until October. 
 On the 10th of that month he was again at his 
 desk in Philadelphia, much refreshed and strength- 
 ened by his travels. His sister Elizabeth accom- 
 panied him on his return. While he was absent 
 Joseph Healy made this announcement in the 
 paper : " In the absence of the editor, we take the 
 liberty of announcing that we have obtained a good 
 likeness of him, with facsimiles of his signature, 
 and that a few (and only a few) copies are for sale 
 at this office, the profits, if any, to go to the cause 
 in which this estimable individual is so effectively 
 engaged." 
 
 In the summer of 1839, 1 Henry B. Stanton and 
 
 1 Mr. Stanton in his Random Recollections makes this date 
 1836, but he is in error. 
 
250 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 John G. Whittier were deputed by the American 
 Anti-Slavery Society to go through Pennsylvania 
 and employ seventy public speakers, if they could 
 find as many, who should go out to awaken the 
 conscience of the nation in the matter of slavery. 
 They went to the theological schools and other 
 institutions of learning, in the hope to enlist 
 young men in the work. Their mission brought 
 them, among other places, to the Lutheran Institu- 
 tion on Seminary Eidge at Gettysburg. They 
 were charmed with the lovely landscape in view 
 from this lofty outlook, which included the now 
 famous heights known as Cemetery Eidge, Gulp's 
 Hill, and the Eound Top ; but they little dreamed 
 that twenty-four years later these landmarks would 
 have a world -wide celebrity in connection with 
 one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of 
 modern times, waged for the cause they were there 
 to promote. Mr. Stanton, in his " Eandom Eecol- 
 lections," says of Whittier in connection with this 
 trip : 
 
 " He cheered me with his genial presence and 
 wise counsel. ... I am not so beside myself as to 
 imagine that any encomium from me could add to 
 Whittier' s literary fame. But having toiled by 
 his side for several years, and spent many a de- 
 lightful hour in his cottage at Amesbury, it may 
 become me to record that he rendered valuable aid 
 to the anti-slavery cause by his brave example, 
 while his pen sent ringing words of encourage- 
 ment and shed unfading lustre over the field 
 where the battle raged." 
 
 The following extracts from letters to Miss 
 
LETTERS TO ELIZABETH J. NEALL 251 
 
 Elizabeth J. Neall (afterward Mrs. Sidney How- 
 ard Gay), daughter of his friend Daniel Neall, of 
 Philadelphia, illustrate some attractive phases of 
 his character. They show how the deep earnest- 
 ness of that heroic time was lightened and cheered 
 by his sunny humor. He wrote from Carlisle,, 
 Pa., July 8, 1839, while he was making the excur- 
 sion with Mr. Stanton, to which reference has 
 been made : 
 
 " Here we are, or rather here I am, sitting in 
 the front parlor of our friend McKim's, solitary 
 and alone, a stranger in a strange place. Over 
 ' the mountains round about,' especially those which 
 skirt the northwestern horizon, a part of that 
 mountain-wall which girdles the great Cumberland 
 valley, broods a thick thunder-cloud, the lightning 
 flashing with keen brightness over woodland and 
 church-tower, and the thunder uttering its voices, 
 and as our friend Ralph Smith would say, ' rever- 
 berating through the valleys.' Miller McKim 
 and H. B. Stanton have gone out in the storm, 
 and I am left alone, an occasional light and 
 cautious step in an adjoining room only reminding 
 me that I am not the sole occupant of the mansion. 
 That step I feel persuaded, nay, I would make my 
 Quaker affirmation of it, is the step of Eliza 
 McKim, a sister of James, whom we met at the 
 tea-table. Why on earth don't she take pity on 
 my forlorn condition and bend her steps this way ? 
 What can she be doing ? Is she afraid to look 
 upon me ? Did she never see a live Quaker 
 before ? Maybe she has heard horrible stories of 
 the Yankees, and takes me to be a lineal descend- 
 
252 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 ant of one of the Salem witches ! Perhaps her 
 household duties detain her ; perhaps she is another 
 Martha ' troubled about many things.' Notable 
 must she be as a housewife, famous for her atten- 
 tion to ' the domestic relations ' of the pantry and 
 supper dishes. Well, let her have her own way, 
 and I '11 have mine ; so here goes for a letter to 
 thee, and whether welcome or unwelcome, a letter 
 thee shall have. 
 
 " Why didn't we get the breakfast at 325 Arch, 
 according to promise ? Why, for a very good rea- 
 son, nay, perhaps, for two good reasons. 1. We 
 lay abed too late. 2. Perhaps thee did also, and 
 if we had called at the hour specified, and in- 
 quired for thee and the breakfast, the report in 
 regard to both might have been ' non est inventus.' 
 We had hardly time as it was to get to the car 
 office and secure our seats. We rode about two 
 hours, and stopped at a dirty Dutch tavern for 
 breakfast. An execrable cup of tea, which would 
 have poisoned a Chinese mandarin ; ham, tough 
 and solid as sheet iron, which had probably been 
 smoked and salted annually for the last twenty 
 years ; and some hot cakes saturated with bad but- 
 ter, greasy and heavy, and anti-Grahamish, con- 
 stituted our wretched fare. It was such a ' trick 
 upon travelers ' as Yankee landlords even would 
 have been ashamed of. We pursued our way till 
 about one o'clock, when we stopped to dine. A 
 tremendous thunder - storm was raging, and the 
 rain falling in torrents. It would have given thee 
 a high opinion of our gallantry if thee could have 
 seen us wait upon the ladies out of the cars, into 
 
LETTERS TO ELIZABETH J. NEALL 253 
 
 the house. We got to Harrisburg about three 
 o'clock, and stopped at the splendid Hotel Wilson, 
 on Market Street. Yesterday Stanton lectured 
 twice, and I made some visits. This morning we 
 spent in looking up some anti-slavery matters, 
 and at three o'clock we again took the cars for 
 Carlisle. To-morrow, if nothing happens, we shall 
 go to Governor Ritner's, and from thence we shall 
 push on to Gettysburg in search of some one or 
 more lecturers to talk Dutch abolition. We have 
 been recommended to some half-dozen Schloshen- 
 burgers, and Quackenbosches, and Kakerspergers, 
 and Slambangers, with unpronounceable Dutch 
 names enough to crack the jaws of any Anglo- 
 Saxons, whom we hope to interest in our cause. 
 We must get the Germans with us, by some means 
 or other. These middle counties are full of Ger- 
 mans, and they are on this subject 4 thrice dead 
 and plucked up by the roots.' They must be 
 roused up at all events. 
 
 " 9th, Third-day morning. We have just re- 
 turned from a ride to Governor Ritner's farm, 
 about nine miles from Carlisle. The old man was 
 out on his farm, and his wife and daughters wel- 
 comed us with great hospitality. The governor 
 soon came in in his working dress. We stayed 
 about one hour and a half, and then rode back to 
 Carlisle, where we now are. This afternoon we 
 start for Chamber sburg and Gettysburg." 
 
 In January, 1840, he made a short visit to 
 Washington, and was in the gallery of the House 
 of Representatives during the great debate on the 
 right of petition, which ended in the shutting out 
 
254 IN PHILADELPHIA 
 
 of all petitions upon the subject of slavery. On 
 the 28th of January he wrote from Washington to 
 Joseph Healy, the publisher of the " Freeman : " 
 
 " We arrived here safe and well to-day, having 
 stopped last night at Baltimore. I have seen 
 Adams, Gushing, etc., and had some conversation 
 with several Southern as well as Northern mem- 
 bers, I hope with some effect. I feel better than 
 when I left ; expect to be at home on Seventh day. 
 You will see by the ' Globe ' of to-day that the 
 right of petition has been denied to us. Northern 
 subserviency has yielded all to the demands of the 
 South." 
 
 His friends had now become alarmed at the 
 condition of his health, and a skillful physician who 
 was consulted decided that there was serious 
 trouble with his heart, and that he must give up at 
 once the labor and anxiety of editorial life. On 
 the 20th of February he published his valedictory 
 as editor of the " Freeman," and the next week, 
 with his sister Elizabeth, he started for his home 
 in Amesbury, where they arrived after the journey 
 of a week. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 . A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME. 
 1840-1850. 
 
 WHEN Whittier resigned his editorial position 
 he planned to attend the world's anti-slavery con- 
 vention to be held in London, in the month of 
 June, 1840. It was hoped the sea voyage would 
 benefit him. He went so far as to procure his 
 outfit and to engage his passage. But upon con- 
 sulting his intimate friend, the skillful physician, 
 Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, he was told that while 
 the voyage might prove beneficial if he could avoid 
 all the excitements of society, there was a chance 
 of serious consequences from any mental or physical 
 exertion, and it would be advisable to remain at 
 home. He spent the summer of 1840 in visits 
 among friends, and before he returned to Ames- 
 bury attended the Yearly Meeting of Friends at 
 Newport. 
 
 TO ELIZABETH H. WHITTIER. 
 
 BUCKS COUNTY, PA., 5th mo., 1840. 
 I have been promising to write thee for some 
 days, but a severe cold from which I have as yet 
 but partially recovered has disinclined me to exer- 
 tion of every kind. My general health is about 
 as usual ; I fear not better. I have much pain 
 
256 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 in chest and head. I have been now for some 
 time at J. Healy's " Spring Grove Farm," on the 
 banks of the Delaware, or rather on a high bluff 
 overlooking the river, with a fine view of the New 
 Jersey side. Cousin Joseph Cartland came up 
 with me, and stayed five days. There are a great 
 number of Hicksites in this vicinity ; they have 
 possession of the old Friends' meeting-houses 
 all through the county. The " Orthodox " have 
 meetings at Solebury, three miles from Joseph 
 Healy's, and at Buckingham, five miles. We at- 
 tended meeting yesterday at the latter place, in 
 a large new stone building, beautifully situated 
 in a fine grove of forest trees. Some excellent 
 remarks were made by Christopher Healy, who 
 intends to visit New England Yearly Meeting. I 
 expect myself to return by way of Newport, 
 although my health is not equal to a constant at- 
 tendance of the meetings. I think I shall go back 
 to Philadelphia in a day or two, and after a short 
 visit in Wilmington, return to New York. It is, 
 I believe, well that I did not go to England. It 
 was a great disappointment to me, but it is all 
 right. I wish I could feel wholly resigned to all 
 the allotments of All- Wise Providence, and be 
 more thankful for the blessings still reserved to 
 me. It sometimes seems strange that I cannot do 
 as others around me, but I try to suppress any 
 feeling of repining or murmuring. I feel that I 
 have not deserved the least of the bounties be- 
 stowed on me. 
 
SPEECH OF J. J. GURNEY 257 
 
 TO ANN E. WENDELL. 
 
 NEWPORT, 6th mo., 12, 1840. 
 
 On reaching New York we received an accession 
 to our company, Joseph John Gurney, Richard 
 Mott, Samuel Parsons, and a large number of 
 younger friends, among them my young abolition 
 friend Mary Murray, who in course of the evening 
 drew out J. J. Gurney upon the subject of his late 
 West Indian tour, much to the edification of our- 
 selves and other passengers. The evening was the 
 most beautiful I ever spent upon the water, warm 
 enough to keep on deck, in view of the heavens 
 glorious with a sunset such as our stranger com' 
 panions had never seen flushing the cold gray sky 
 or reflected on the shingly beaches and white cliffs 
 of England. Landing at Newport I met a most 
 kind welcome at our friend David Gould's. On 
 First day J. J. Gurney spoke at great length upon 
 the Principles of our Religious Society, and in the 
 course of his remarks made an allusion to the 
 departure of a dear friend, Daniel Wheeler. He 
 spoke of the lips, now cold, which had been touched 
 by a coal from the Lord's altar, of the kind and 
 generous and benevolent heart which had ceased 
 to beat, of the eye of sympathy and love closed up 
 forever. Yet he trusted it was with the eye 01 
 faith that he looked into the world of spirits, and 
 felt that the reward of the righteous was sure. 
 He closed with a solemn and earnest appeal to the 
 younger class to prepare themselves by a sur- 
 render of all to Christ, for the work of sustaining 
 those principles and testimonies which the dear 
 departed had loved and been faithful to unto the 
 
258 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 last. I never saw or felt a more solemn meeting. 
 The immense audience, at least three thousand, 
 were silent as if the building had been closed and 
 tenantless, and tears in the eyes of many told how 
 deeply their hearts had been touched. 
 
 C. C. Burleigh, who succeeded Whittier as the 
 editor of the " Pennsylvania Freeman," declined 
 to publish an article sent him by Whittier in re- 
 gard to the exclusion of women delegates by the 
 London convention. Commenting upon it in a 
 letter to his cousin, Moses Cartland, he said : 
 " Burleigh has written me, declining to publish my 
 article. Very well, I shall not trouble him in 
 future. He says he has reason for believing that 
 had Lucretia Mott been Orthodox (instead of a 
 Hicksite Friend) she would have been admitted, 
 /don't believe it." It was difference of opinion 
 upon this unimportant matter which made the 
 first considerable break in the anti-slavery ranks. 
 Whittier agreed with Garrison as to the appropri- 
 ateness of giving public positions to women capa- 
 ble of holding them, but did not approve of the 
 attempt to force this issue upon a convention, a 
 majority of the delegates to which did not approve 
 of it. He would not drive out of the anti-slavery 
 ranks those who were not ready for the enfran- 
 chisement of women. His steadfastness to the anti- 
 slavery cause was too deeply rooted to give way 
 before any factional quarrel or misconception of 
 his attitude. 
 
LOYALTY TO QUAKERISM 259 
 
 TO MOSES A. CARTLAND. 
 
 AMESBUBY, 7th mo., 2, 1840. 
 
 T wish to contradict in terms as explicit as pos- 
 sible the rumor which thou mentions from New- 
 port Yearly Meeting. It is most preposterously 
 absurd. My abolitionism grows daily stronger, 
 my faith in its principles is deepening amidst all 
 difficulties and trials and perplexities and vexa- 
 tions of our organizations. Like the pine of Vich 
 Alpine, " Firmer it roots the louder it blow." But 
 I do fear that my faith in our organizations is not 
 of the " saving kind." I have just sent a letter to 
 Joshua Leavitt, declining to act as one of the 
 executive committee of the American and Foreign 
 Anti-Slavery Society, and another to the anti- 
 slavery convention in this State, declining to allow 
 my name to be on the electoral ticket for Birney 
 and Earle. I am now free from all trammels, 
 and I feel more at ease. Strong in my confidence 
 in the justice of our cause, in the beauty and 
 excellence of our principles, and in the wisdom 
 and expediency of our prominent measures, I am 
 still, as far as my failing health admits of, ready 
 to do and suffer, if need be, for abolitionism. As 
 a man, if not as an abolitionist, I have a right to 
 agree or disagree with the " no government " peo- 
 ple, without giving up my faith that a man is a 
 man, and not a mere thing ! At Newport, and at 
 Philadelphia, and at Lynn, I have spoken as freely 
 in disapprobation of the lukewarm course of a 
 portion of our Friends as the truth would justify, 
 while at the same time I am not prepared to give 
 up Quakerism, to throw myself body and soul into 
 
260 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 the antisectarian sect about Boston. Free I am 
 to say that I feel a deeper interest than formerly 
 in supporting the religious doctrines and testimo- 
 nies of our Society, and I hope I shall find 
 strength to manifest that interest ; but the cause 
 of the slave still rises solemnly before me, and 
 from the warfare of the oppressed I feel no re- 
 lease, I ask for none. For me, I am sick, but to 
 see thee would get me well again almost. We 
 have now a great excitement here about a parcel 
 of blacks, supposed to be runaways, landed from 
 some vessel on our coast, who are now in the great 
 swamp in this town and South Hampton. I have 
 been out to-day after them, and have seen a boy, 
 but he refuses to tell where he comes from. 
 Depend upon it, we shall get up a great negro 
 hunt here, and try to catch and tame them. 
 
 On the 13th of July, 1840, Mr. Whittier left 
 Amesbury for Boston, intending to take the 
 steamship Britannia for Halifax, in the hope of 
 benefit to his health ; but the excursion was given 
 up, as were so many projected trips for health 
 and pleasure during his whole life, because he 
 found himself not strong enough to undertake 
 them. In September of the same year he again 
 made preparation for an excursion to Halifax by 
 an ocean steamship, and again was stopped by 
 the delicacy of his health. As he was leaving 
 home on the first occasion, his sister wrote to a 
 friend : 
 
 " It will be lonely when he is away. I am not 
 homesick in Amesbury, but it never seems like 
 
SLAVES IN AMESBURY WOODS 261 
 
 home when Greenleaf is away. We have had a 
 grand ' negro hunt ' through our woods, four poor 
 hunted slaves having found their way to our 
 neighborhood. Our people became alarmed ; their 
 cows were milked, and sometimes to the frontier 
 farmhouses came stealing, from the woods, a weak 
 suffering man, asking for food, and fleeing when 
 the coarsest crust was given him. A fortnight 
 ago a boy of the gang was caught, but he was too 
 frightened to be able to tell anything, so they sent 
 him Canada-wards. I wish we could find his 
 father and brothers, now in the woods." 
 
 TO ANN E. WENDELL. 
 
 7th mo., 13, 1840. 
 
 Did I mention to thee in my letter from New- 
 port a circumstance in relation to Richard Mott ? 
 On Fifth day evening, I called to see J. J. Gur- 
 ney, agreeable to his request, in reference to aboli- 
 tion matters. After our interview was over, 
 Kichard Mott followed me to the door and wished 
 to accompany me to my lodgings. During our 
 walk he told me he knew not how it was or why, 
 but that his mind had been drawn into a deep and 
 extraordinary exercise of sympathy with me ; that 
 he had been sensible of a deep trial and exercise 
 in my own mind ; that he had felt it so strongly 
 that he could not rest easy without informing me 
 of it, although he had heard nothing and seen 
 nothing to produce this conviction in his mind. He 
 felt desirous to offer me the language of encour- 
 agement, to urge me to put aside every weight 
 that encumbers, and to look unto Him who was 
 
262 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 able to deliver from every trial. I confess I was 
 startled. Firmly as I believed the Quaker doc- 
 trine on this subject, its personal application to 
 myself in a manner so utterly inexplicable by 
 merely human reasoning awed me. I said little 
 to him, but enough to show him something of the 
 state of my mind. Pray for me that I may not 
 suffer this most evident day of the Lord's visita- 
 tion to pass over and leave me as before. The 
 suggestion of some lines on the death of Daniel 
 Wheeler seemed to strengthen a feeling in my 
 own mind which has resulted in my penning some 
 the other day. If I can publish it I will send it 
 to thee. I have no time to copy it now. 
 
 The following extract from a letter to Richard 
 Mott indicates a deep sense of his own spiritual 
 needs, and his desire to be in closer communion 
 with Him who alone could supply them. The 
 letter was written in November, 1840 : 
 
 " I have to lament over protracted seasons of 
 doubt and darkness, to shrink back from the dis- 
 covery of some latent unfaithfulness and insin- 
 cerity, to find evil at the bottom of seeming good, 
 to abhor myself for selfishness and pride and 
 vanity, which at times manifest themselves, in 
 short, to find the law of sin and death still binding 
 me. My temperament, ardent, impetuous, imag- 
 inative, powerfully acted upon from without, keenly 
 susceptible to all influences from the intellectual 
 world, as well as to those of nature, in her va- 
 ried manifestations, is, I fear, ill adapted to that 
 quiet, submissive, introverted state of patient and 
 
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 263 
 
 passive waiting for direction and support under 
 these trials and difficulties. I think often of our 
 meeting at Rhode Island, and at times something of 
 a feeling of regret comes over me, that I am so 
 situated as not to be permitted to enjoy the com- 
 pany and the care and watchful ministrations of 
 those whose labors have been signally owned by 
 the Great Head of the church. Sitting down in 
 our small meeting, and feeling in myself and in 
 the meeting generally a want of life, and of the 
 renewing baptism of that Spirit which alone can 
 soften the hardness and warm the coldness of the 
 heart, I sigh for the presence and the voices of the 
 eminent and faithful laborers in the Lord's vine- 
 yard. I know that this out-looking of the spirit, 
 this craving of the eye and of the ear, is wrong, 
 but in the depths of spiritual weakness, is it not 
 natural to crave the support even of an earthly 
 arm? 1 ' 
 
 In the article given below, and hitherto unpub- 
 lished, he defines his belief upon several doctrinal 
 points : 
 
 " The central thought, the root-idea of Qua- 
 kerism, so called, is as old as human needs. Not 
 only is it affirmed in the venerable Jewish Scrip- 
 tures, but with more or less distinctness also in 
 the remarkable Vedas of India, coming down to 
 us from the solemn remoteness of ages ; and in the 
 utterances of prophets, poets, priests, and philoso- 
 phers, of all peoples and times, which remain to 
 testify that at no period, and in no nation, God 
 hath left himself without witnesses. Its fitting 
 expression may be found in the word Immanuel^ 
 God with us. 
 
264 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 " God is One ; just, holy, merciful, eternal, and 
 almighty Creator, Father of all things. Christ, 
 the same eternal One, manifested in our Human- 
 ity, and in Time ; and the Holy Spirit, the same 
 Christ, manifested within us, the Divine Teacher, 
 the Living Word, the Light that lighteth every 
 man that cometh into the world. 
 
 " The Scriptures are a rule, not the rule of faith 
 and practice, which is none other than the living 
 omnipresent spirit of God. The Scriptures are a 
 subordinate, secondary, and declaratory rule, the 
 reason of our obedience to which is mainly that we 
 find in them the eternal precepts of the Divine 
 Spirit, declared and repeated, to which our con- 
 science bears witness. . . . They testify of Christ 
 within. We believe in the Scriptures, because 
 they believe in us, because they repeat the warn- 
 ings and admonitions and promises of the indwell- 
 ing Light and Truth, because we find the law and 
 prophets in our souls. We agree with Luther, 
 that ' the Scriptures are not to be understood but 
 by that very spirit by which they were written, 9 
 and with Calvin, that ' it is necessary that the 
 same spirit which spoke by the mouth of the pro- 
 phets should convince our hearts that they faith- 
 fully delivered that which God committed to 
 them.' " 
 
 While thus emphasizing the " Immanence of the 
 Holy Spirit," the spiritual work of Christ in the 
 heart, with its converting, sanctifying power, sev- 
 eral of his poems, especially " The Crucifixion," 
 indicate that he accepted with reverent gratitude 
 the solemn significance of the outward sacrifice, 
 
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS 265 
 
 the manifestation of the Father's infinite love for 
 his children, thus opening the way for their re- 
 demption from the guilt and power of sin. In a 
 letter to " The Friend," written in 1866, to correct 
 an error as to his religious belief, made by a lec- 
 turer, he says : 
 
 " My ground of hope for myself and for human- 
 ity is in that Divine fullness of love which was 
 manifested in the life, teachings, and self-sacrifice 
 of Christ. In the infinite mercy of God so re- 
 vealed, and not in any work or merit of our 
 nature, I humbly, yet very hopefully trust. I 
 regard Christianity as a life, rather than a creed ; 
 and in judging of my fellow-men I can use no 
 other standard than that which our Lord and 
 Master has given us, ' By their fruits ye shall 
 know them.' The only orthodoxy that I am espe- 
 cially interested in is that of life and practice." 
 
 With regard to our condition in the future life, 
 Whittier thus replies to a letter from an inquiring 
 friend : 
 
 " I think I understand thy inquiry. I am not a 
 Universalist, for I believe in the possibility of the 
 perpetual loss of the soul that persistently turns 
 away from God, in the next life as in this. But I 
 do believe that the Divine love and compassion 
 follow us in all worlds, and that the Heavenly 
 Father will do the best that is possible for every 
 creature He has made. What that will be must 
 be left to his infinite wisdom and goodness. I 
 would refer thee to a poem of mine, ' The An- 
 swer,' as containing in few words my belief in 
 this matter." 
 
266 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 TO ANN E. WENDELL. 
 
 LYNN, llth mo., 1840. 
 
 I was in Boston this week, and looked in twice 
 upon the queer gathering of heterogeneous spirits 
 at the Chardon Street chapel assembled under a 
 call issued by Maria W. Chapman, Abby Kelley, 
 and others, to discuss the subjects of the Sabbath, 
 ministry, and church organizations, and some 
 twenty other collateral subjects. When I was 
 present the chapel was crowded, a motley-opin- 
 ioned company, from the Calvinist of the straitest 
 sect to the infidel and scoffer. Half of the fore- 
 noon of the first day was spent in debating 
 whether the convention should be organized by 
 the choice of president and secretary, or whether 
 these old-fashioned restraints should be set aside 
 as unworthy of advocates of " the largest liberty," 
 leaving each member to do and say what seemed 
 right in his own eyes ! It was finally decided to 
 have a president. Then came on a discussion 
 about the Sabbath, in which Garrison and two 
 transcendental Unitarians, and a woman by the 
 name of Folsom, argued that every day should be 
 held sacred ; that it was not a rest from labor but 
 from sin that was wanted ; that keeping First day 
 as holy was not required, etc. On the other hand, 
 Amos A. Phelps, Dr. Osgood, and some others 
 contended for the Calvinistic and generally re- 
 ceived views of the subject. Dr. Channing, John 
 Pierpont, and many other distinguished men were 
 present, but took no part in the discussions. No 
 Friends were members of the convention, although 
 there were several lookers-on. Judging from the 
 
LETTER TO MISS MINOT 267 
 
 little I saw and heard, I do not think the world 
 will be much the wiser for the debate. It may 
 have a tendency to unsettle some minds. 
 
 Mr. Whittier remained at home in Amesbury 
 during the winter of 1840-41. In March, 1841, 
 he wrote to Miss Minot, of Haverhill : 
 
 "Thy letter was heartily welcome, for I had 
 been for some days too stupid and dull to feel any 
 interest in things present, and naturally enough 
 my mind wandered back to the past, and scenes 
 which are now but memories and the old famil- 
 iar faces have been with me. I should have been 
 glad to make Haverhill a visit in the winter, but 
 the extremely delicate state of my health has com- 
 pelled me to forego the pleasure. I feel now 
 somewhat better, but I have little confidence in it. 
 Well, I am in God's hands, and striving to resign 
 myself to his will, not however, I fear, as I ought 
 to. With all my suffering, I have many blessings, 
 infinitely more than I deserve. ... I now think 
 some of going next week to New York and Phila- 
 delphia, partly to escape our east winds which I 
 dread. I think sickness has a wonderful effect in 
 fanning into life the half -extinguished conscience. 
 It is doubtless better for me and for my friends 
 that the hand of sickness is sometimes laid heavily 
 upon me. Who knows what either thou or I 
 should have been had we always enjoyed good 
 health?" 
 
 In April, 1841, Mr. Whittier was in New York, 
 and here he met for the first time the eminent 
 English philanthropist, Joseph Sturge. It was in 
 
268 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 company with Mr. Sturge that Mr. Whittier visited 
 the slave-dealing establishments of H. H. Slaughter, 
 in Baltimore, and attended the Baptist convention 
 in that city while it was discussing the question of 
 eliminating all abolitionists from its missionary 
 board. 
 
 TO HARRIET MINOT. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 5th mo., 26, 1841. 
 
 I have been in company with Joseph Sturge, of 
 England, at New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington, 
 and Baltimore, endeavoring to do something for 
 the cause of abolition, with what success time will 
 show. I shall go with Mr. Sturge to Washington 
 next week. I sent the other day a copy of J. J. 
 Gurney's " Letters on West India Emancipation " 
 to Henry Clay. I was in Baltimore during the sit- 
 ting of the great Triennial Baptist Convention, and 
 heard the discussion on slavery, or rather upon the 
 question of excluding Galusha and others, as aboli- 
 tionists, from the Foreign Mission Board. Dr. 
 Brisbane, of Cincinnati, late of South Carolina, 
 took a noble stand. 
 
 From Baltimore Mr. Whittier accompanied Mr. 
 Sturge to Wilmington, in Delaware, but from 
 increase of indisposition was unable to go farther 
 with him. In the following June, we find Mr. 
 Whittier and Mr. Sturge again together at Wil- 
 mington, Delaware, attending a meeting of anti- 
 slavery men in that slave State, who were consider- 
 ing a project for buying all the slaves in Delaware, 
 and setting them free. It was calculated that a 
 tax of a dollar an acre would be sufficient to pur- 
 
Joseph Sturge 
 

WITH JOSEPH STURGE 269 
 
 chase every slave. From Wilmington they went 
 to Washington, and were favored with seats be- 
 hind the speaker's chair during the famous debate 
 on the " gag " rule. They called together on John 
 Quincy Adams, and on President Tyler, who had 
 declined to receive a memorial from the British 
 Friends signed by Thomas Clarkson which Sturge 
 was commissioned to offer, upon the subject of 
 slavery. On a visit to the Senate, Henry Clay 
 had a conversation with them. He accused Whit- 
 tier of deserting him, after being his warm friend. 
 Whittier gave his reasons, and Clay complained 
 that the abolitionists improperly interfered with 
 the affairs of the South. He inquired if Whittier 
 was a Friend in regular standing, intimating a 
 doubt on that point on account of his being such a 
 decided abolitionist. They went from the Senate 
 chamber to a slave-pen within sight of the Capitol, 
 and to the loathsome city jail, where Dr. Crandall 
 had been confined until his health broke down, 
 and he was liberated to die. Upon their return 
 to Philadelphia, Mr. Whittier accompanied his 
 English friend in a visit to Abraham L. Pennock, 
 an aged and influential Friend and devoted phil- 
 anthropist, at Haverford. This visit they both 
 looked back upon in after years with most grateful 
 feelings. From Pennsylvania they proceeded to 
 Newport, R. I., and attended the Yearly Meeting 
 of Friends. But the burthen of their mission for 
 the slaves was as quietly as possible ignored by 
 the Meeting. They were not allowed the use of 
 the meeting-house for an anti-slavery gathering. 
 While in Newport they called upon Rev. Dr, 
 
270 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 William Ellery Charming, who made the sugges- 
 tion that petitions should be sent to Congress 
 praying that the Free States might be relieved 
 from all direct or indirect support of slavery. 
 They journeyed to Boston, by way of New Bed- 
 ford, where Mr. Sturge made note that for the 
 first time in the United States he attended a meet- 
 ing at which the colored part of the audience were 
 placed on a level with, and sat promiscuously 
 among, the whites. Mr. Whittier took his distin- 
 guished guest with him to his home in Amesbury, 
 where they rested for a few days, and then returned 
 to Boston. A long interview was had with Garri- 
 son, and an attempt made to come to an under- 
 standing that would unite the two wings of the 
 anti-slavery forces. But Garrison insisted upon 
 the right of women to take part equally with men 
 in the transactions of the Anti-Slavery Society, 
 a right the Quakers of course did not deny, while 
 they thought the question need not then be 
 pressed. On their way to New York, they stopped 
 at Worcester, and here Mr. Whittier became so ill 
 that he was obliged to return to Amesbury. On 
 the 24th of July, 1841, Mr. Sturge and Mr. Whit- 
 tier met again in New York, and returned to- 
 gether to Boston, afterward visiting Lynn and 
 Lowell. The English Quaker embarked for home 
 in August. The friendship between the two men 
 lasted until the death of Mr. Sturge, in 1859. He 
 omitted no opportunity to be helpful to Whittier 
 when illness or financial embarrassment gave him 
 an opportunity to offer his purse. Perceiving 
 Whittier's failing health, and his need of rest, 
 
KINDNESS OF JOSEPH STURGE 271 
 
 just as he was embarking for home, in August, 
 1841, he left with Lewis Tappan, of New York, 
 one thousand dollars, upon which he wished Mr. 
 Whittier to draw as he might need. This is his 
 memorandum of the transaction : 
 
 Joseph Sturge places at the disposal of his 
 friend, J. Gr. Whittier, one thousand dollars, dur- 
 ing the next twelve months, for his personal and 
 other current expenses of housekeeping, traveling, 
 etc., or a visit to a tropical climate for the sake of 
 his health ; and if he should not need the whole 
 for this purpose he will please apply the remainder 
 to any traveling or other expenses connected with 
 his labor with the "Reporter," or any other anti- 
 slavery object. 
 
 BOSTON, 7th month, 30th, 1841. 
 
 There is no means of ascertaining in what man- 
 ner Mr. Whittier availed himself of this generous 
 gift, or indeed whether he accepted it for his per- 
 sonal needs. He certainly took no trip for his 
 health. We find among his papers a letter from 
 Lewis Tappan, dated March 14, 1842, in which he 
 speaks of a thousand dollars left with him by 
 Joseph Sturge " for the furtherance of the anti- 
 slavery cause," of which he has expended all but 
 four hundred dollars, and he asks Mr. Whittier's 
 advice as to the disposal of this amount. This is 
 probably the fund that was originally intended for 
 Mr. Whittier, and which he declined to accept. 
 
 While traveling with Joseph Sturge, Mr. Whit- 
 tier wrote as follows to his cousin, Moses A. Cart- 
 land, from Philadelphia, May 12, 1841 : 
 
272 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 " I have been for the last three weeks peregri- 
 nating with Joseph Sturge, trying to fan into life 
 the all but expiring embers of abolition. We 
 have labored with Friends and Gentiles, Jew and 
 Greek, and have had much to encourage us on the 
 whole. Thee would like Joseph Sturge much, a 
 fine, free-hearted nobleman of nature ; no preten- 
 sion ; a clear-headed, stout-hearted, practical phi- 
 lanthropist ; the ' Howard of our day,' as he is 
 called in England. Rogers and Garrison have 
 been in Philadelphia, but I did not see them, being 
 most of the time in Baltimore and Wilmington." 
 
 Mr. Sturge found many Quakers who, like 
 Whittier, were ready to assist him in delivering his 
 anti-slavery message to the American Friends, but 
 the Society as a whole was rather cool and indif- 
 ferent, both at Philadelphia and at Newport. In 
 writing about it to a cousin in Philadelphia, some 
 months after Sturge's return to England, Mr. 
 Whittier says : 
 
 " When I was in your city last, I was so anxious 
 about J. Sturge's visit, and the course of Friends, 
 and the little difficulties which we met with, that 
 I was hardly myself. I recollect calling at the 
 
 L 's some two or three times, when my mind 
 
 was altogether away and dwelling upon other 
 things. What they thought of me I have often 
 marveled at since. It was not on my own account 
 that I felt uneasiness, I am used to such things, 
 but I felt keenly for my English friend." l 
 
 1 In a letter to Sturge, lie says : " This cause [anti-slavery] has 
 been to me what the vision on the house-top of Cornelius was 
 to Peter it has destroyed all narrow sectarian prejudices, and 
 made me willing 1 to be a man among men." 
 
LETTERS TO JOSEPH STURGE 273 
 
 His sister Elizabeth, writing to the same cousin, 
 refers to the same matter : 
 
 " How we did love Joseph Sturge ! His bland, 
 kind face will be a joy in my memory forever. 
 He must, he will do good among us. I am afraid 
 I shall not love my own Yearly Meeting as well as 
 I used to, now they have folded their idle hands, 
 when so kindly requested to labor in their own 
 way, thus wrapping the mantle of their own slum- 
 ber which is unto death about a Christian bro- 
 ther's labors of love. I am a very naughty, wicked 
 girl, I know, and I hardly dare make up my mind 
 about such important movements. May love, 
 charity, hope, and patience be given to all! " 
 
 Mr. Whittier, in a letter to Mr. Sturge, related 
 this instance, which occurred under the administra- 
 tion of John Tyler, to illustrate the all-pervading 
 espionage of the slave power, which dictated every 
 appointment to office from a letter-carrier to an 
 ambassador : " The newly appointed postmaster 
 of Philadelphia employed among his numerous 
 clerks and letter-carriers Joshua Coffin, who, 
 some three years ago, aided in restoring to liberty 
 a free colored citizen of New York, who had been 
 kidnapped and sold into slavery. The appoint- 
 ment of the postmaster not being confirmed, he 
 wrote to his friends in Congress to inquire the 
 reason, and was told that the delay was occasioned 
 by the fact that he had employed Coffin as one of 
 his letter-carriers ! Coffin was immediately dis- 
 missed, and in a few days the Senate confirmed 
 the appointment ! " 
 
 In another letter to his English correspondent 
 
274 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 Mr. Whittier says : " To every well-wisher of 
 America it must be a matter of interest and satis- 
 faction to know, that there is a growing determi- 
 nation in the Free States to meet the combination 
 of slaveholders in behalf of slavery, by one of 
 freemen in behalf of liberty ; and thus compel the 
 party politicians, on the ground of expediency, if 
 not of principle, to break from the thralldom of 
 the slave power, and array themselves on the side 
 of freedom." He has here outlined the policy to 
 which he adhered steadily and consistently in all 
 the political work of his life. 
 
 The following letter was written to Lucy Hoop- 
 er's sisters, immediately after hearing of her death : 
 
 AMESBUKY, 8th mo., 6, 1841. 
 
 I have just seen in the Boston papers a notice 
 of the death of Lucy. The news has come to me 
 unexpected sudden. I was not prepared for 
 such a termination of her illness. Sick myself, I 
 cannot write you a very long letter, nor perhaps 
 would you wish it ; for what can I say to comfort you 
 under your new bereavement what condolence 
 can I offer to those who have been able fully to 
 understand and appreciate the purity and beauty 
 of the spirit which has just passed from among 
 you? He, alone, who loveth those whom He chas- 
 teneth can comfort and sustain you under such a 
 trial as yours. To Him, who hath taken to the 
 arms of His Love our dear Lucy, I can alone com- 
 mend you. 
 
 When in New York only a few weeks ago, I 
 might have seen Lucy ; and I blame myself for 
 
DEATH OF LUCY HOOPER 275 
 
 yielding to my own feelings of sickness and lassi- 
 tude, and not calling again, before I left. I in- 
 tended to have spent the evening of Tuesday with 
 you, but was confined to my room all the afternoon 
 and evening by severe pain, and the next day I was 
 under the necessity of leaving. At Boston, I was 
 conversing with H. T. Tuckerman about Lucy 
 the very day before her death. I had never seen 
 him before, but his acquaintance with you made 
 him seem like an old friend. Do write me, and 
 let me know the many particulars of her last ill- 
 ness, and of the last mournful scene. I am no 
 stranger with a stranger's careless curiosity. I 
 have had few friends so dear to me so often in 
 my thoughts as Lucy. 
 
 What shadows we are ! It seems but yesterday 
 when I used to visit you in the long winter even- 
 ings at Brooklyn since Lucy and myself stood 
 by her own loved Merrimac together in the rich 
 light of a westering August sun. And can it be 
 that she is no longer with us ! But she is not 
 gone. Her pure affections, her fine intellect, her 
 faith and love, and simple trust in her Heavenly 
 Father, are not lost. She lives still, a glorified 
 dweller in the same universe with ourselves. With 
 the deepest sympathy with your afflicted mother 
 and with yourselves and brother, and with a warm 
 desire that this dispensation of Providence may be 
 blessed to us all, I am very sincerely, etc. 
 
 It has often been a matter of speculation 
 whether passages in " The Last Eve of Summer," 
 " A Sea Dream," " Memories," and other poems, 
 
276 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 were not the expression of a tender emotion which 
 had been sacrificed to adverse circumstances. If 
 there were ever any doubt that the sweet and ten- 
 der poem, " Memories," was inspired by a romance 
 of the poet's youth, that doubt was dispelled by 
 the position Whittier has given these charming 
 verses in his collected works. It was not without 
 thought and deliberation that in 1888 he directed 
 this poem should be placed at the head of his 
 " Subjective and Reminiscent " poems. He had 
 never before publicly acknowledged how much of 
 his heart was wrapped up in this delightful play of 
 poetic fancy. The poem was written in 1841, and 
 although the romance it embalms lies far back of 
 this date, possibly there is a heart still beating 
 which fully understands its meaning. The biogra- 
 pher can do no more than make this suggestion, 
 which has the sanction of the poet's explicit word. 
 To a friend who told him that " Memories " was 
 her favorite poem, he said, " I love it too ; but I 
 hardly knew whether to publish it, it was so per- 
 sonal, and near my heart." 
 
 To a correspondent who expressed compassion 
 because he never married, and asked how it hap- 
 pened, he replied : " Circumstances the care of 
 an aged mother, and the duty owed to a sister in 
 delicate health for many years must be my excuse 
 for living the lonely life which has called out thy 
 pity. It is some, if a poor, consolation to think 
 that, after all, it might have been a great deal 
 worse. My life has been on the whole quite as 
 happy as I deserved, or had a right to expect. I 
 know there has something very sweet and beauti- 
 
LETTER TO ANN E. WENDELL 277 
 
 f ul been missed, but I have no reason to complain. 
 I have learned, at least, to look into happiness 
 through the eyes of others, and to thank God for 
 the happy unions and holy firesides I have known." 
 
 TO ANN E. WENDELL. 
 WALNUT GBOVB, LEE, N. H., 7th mo., 1842. 1 
 
 I like thy remarks about the Liberty party and 
 its dangers, and I thank thee for thy friendly cau- 
 tion. I am not much affected by the whirl of poli- 
 tics. I act because I believe it to be my duty, de- 
 cidedly and vigorously, but my inward self is calm. 
 The ambitions and selfish hopes of other years do 
 not disturb me. Why it is so, I know not, but I 
 can mingle in the exciting scenes of an election 
 without feeling the excitement to any considerable 
 extent. My enthusiasm has been tamed down by 
 that hard and cross-grained schoolmistress, Expe- 
 rience. . . . Moses and Anna are disputing as 
 usual upon metaphysics, Joseph and Jonathan 
 are in full blast upon politics, and I am holding a 
 sort of collateral sideways conversation with all 
 parties ; and the truth is, my head is getting into 
 confusion, its ideas holding a sort of internecine 
 war with each other. I can't get " into the quiet." 
 Tubal Cain, Jr., master builder on the Babel cor- 
 poration, was never more bewildered by the con- 
 fusion of tongues than I am at this moment. 
 Then, in addition to all, the thermometer has boiled 
 over. The heat is really oppressive, and all day I 
 have been ready to say with another : 
 
 1 While visiting his cousins, the Cartlands. 
 
278 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 I wake from dreams of polar ice 
 
 On which I 'd been a slider, 
 Like fishes dreaming of the sea, 
 
 And waking in the spider. 
 
 P. S. I must defer my visit to Philadelphia 
 until thy sister M. invites Elizabeth and myself to 
 her wedding. Tell her that this fall will be a 
 suitable time, in our opinion. There is such a 
 thing as overdoing this courting business ; for my 
 part, were I in Elisha's place, I should get out of 
 all patience. To be obliged to travel a mile and a 
 half every night, year in and year out, is more than 
 I could submit to, even for so good a girl as cousin 
 M. And besides, looking at it absolutely, is n't 
 it rather ridiculous for two young folks ? Why 
 not marry at once and have done with it ? 
 
 TO HARRIET MINOT. 
 
 AMESBURY, 5th mo., 5, 1842. 
 
 H. C. Wright, as I learn from the " Liberator," 
 is going to England to discuss. In view of the 
 state of things in that country, would it not be 
 better to spend the money required for his outfit 
 and salary in purchasing barrels of beef and flour 
 for the starving families of Manchester and Leeds ? 
 Discussion is doubtless good, but sometimes bread 
 and meat are better. 
 
 TO ANN E. WENDELL. 
 
 8th mo., 19, 1842. 
 
 The serene, calm faith which breathes through 
 thy letters rebukes at times my own restless and 
 inquiring spirit. I learn to love through them the 
 
LETTER TO ANN E. WENDELL 279 
 
 wise philosophy which, estimating its poor and 
 finite powers by the weighty and awful Idea of 
 Infinite Intelligence and Omnipotence, ceases to 
 search into the mysteries of its own being and of 
 the Divine economy, and bows with veiled eye and 
 simple submission to the will of the Universal 
 Father. . . . How vividly thy letter has brought 
 you all before me, in beautiful La Grange, and 
 how happy I should be to be able to look in upon 
 you, and to repeat my stroll up the banks of the 
 river, to the old church, the graveyard and its 
 white stones, overhung with the green forest I 
 How strange it is that the momentary glimpse of 
 a landscape, a smile, the tone of a word spoken 
 carelessly, a tree, the shadow of a cloud on the 
 hillside, should burn themselves like enamel upon 
 the mind, and live there ever after a part of our 
 conscious being ! 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 8th mo., 1843. 
 
 I should be heartily glad to visit Philadelphia, 
 to sit with cousin Ann, and discuss upon the great 
 problems of human life and destiny, and not upon 
 those high abstractions alone, but upon the house- 
 hold things, the simple, the tender, and the beauti- 
 ful of daily life, which 
 
 " Lie scattered at the feet of man like flowers," 
 
 and talk with thy mother about Luther, Melanch- 
 thon, and Pope and Cardinal, and Fathers and 
 Councils. Speaking of these matters, does thee 
 read much of the Puseyism controversy which is 
 now going on ? The English Episcopal Church 
 
280 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 seems ready to go over to Popery in earnest. Has 
 thee noticed the general tendency towards the old 
 trust in man, in priests, sacrifices, and ghostly 
 mummery and machinery ? To me it seems to bid 
 fair to swallow up everything save Quakerism of 
 the old stamp, which has this advantage, that its 
 distinctive characteristic is the entire rejection of 
 all ceremonial, the total disbelief in the power of 
 pope, priest, or elder to give a ransom for the soul 
 of another. Well, let the world, sick of doubt and 
 infidelity, go back and try once more the old 
 superstitions which the Voltaires and Gibbons and 
 Humes of the last century exposed to scorn and 
 derision. Let the old tricks of monks and priests 
 again deceive and amuse self -blinded Christendom. 
 I have a strong faith it seems almost like pro- 
 phecy that the result will be, ere the lapse of two 
 centuries, a complete and permanent change in the 
 entire Christian world. Weary and disgusted 
 with shams and shadows, with the effort to believe 
 a few miserable worms of the dust the sole dis- 
 pensers of Heaven's salvation, men will awake to 
 the simple beauty of practical Christianity. Love 
 will take the place of fast, penance, long prayers, 
 and heathenish sacrifices; altar, church, priest, 
 and ritual will pass away ; but the human heart 
 will be the Holy of Holies, where worship will 
 still be performed, not in set forms, and on partic- 
 ular occasions, but daily and hourly a worship 
 meet and acceptable to Him who is not deceived 
 by the pomp of outward ceremonial, and who loves 
 mercy better than sacrifice. ... I had a visit 
 from Lewis Tappan and wife and daughter, the 
 
LOYALTY TO QUAKERISM 281 
 
 other day ; he is just from England. He says the 
 Friends there were very anxious to have the pro- 
 slavery Methodists, Baptists, etc., of America ex- 
 posed in the World's Convention, but evidently 
 feared to hear the truth of the course of Friends 
 in America disclosed. If I had nothing else to 
 be thankful for, I should still feel grateful that 
 I have not become a bigoted sectarian. To me, 
 Quaker and Catholic are alike, both children of 
 my Heavenly Father, and separated only by a 
 creed, to some, indeed, a barrier like a Chinese 
 wall, but to me frail .and slight as a spider's web. 
 ... I think some of attending the great anti- 
 slavery convention at Buffalo on the 30th and 31st 
 of this month. 
 
 With all his charity for other sects, Mr. Whittier 
 held firmly to the faith in which he was educated. 
 He did not like to see the Friends adopting the 
 evangelizing methods of other denominations. He 
 used to quote with approval a remark made to him 
 by Kev. Dr. Withington, of Newburyport, who 
 said : " I am a Calvinist ; you are a Quaker. We 
 are in essentials in unity. But you will remain a 
 Quaker to the end, and I a Calvinist. It is better 
 so. I don't believe in spiritual chowder." Mr. 
 Whittier did not object to the lively music and 
 spirited exhortation of the Methodists, but he 
 thought that the Quakers made a " spiritual chow- 
 der " of it when they, who as a class had no ear 
 for music and few of the graces of oratory, under- 
 took to imitate the methods of sects in which music 
 and elocution are carefully studied, and the meet- 
 
282 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 ings of which are considered a failure if all the 
 time is not "occupied." He loved best the old- 
 fashioned Quaker meetings in which the silence 
 was not broken unless some weighty word pressed 
 for utterance. On one occasion he was discussing 
 with a cultured Friend the inarticulate groanings 
 which punctuated the remarks of some of the 
 speakers of their faith. His friend said, " Let us 
 discourage this mannerism by calling it grunting." 
 "Thee better not do it," gravely replied Mr. 
 Whittier ; " if thee take away the grunt, there 's 
 nothing left." 
 
 When reference was made to the Quaker misuse 
 of English grammar, Mr. Whittier would say that 
 it had been the manner of speech of his people for 
 two centuries, and he clung to it with especial fond- 
 ness because it was his mother's language. Occa- 
 sionally, in talking with strangers, he would adopt 
 the usual form, but he rarely did so in his letters, 
 either in dates or in personal pronouns. He was 
 accustomed to say that the Quaker costume had its 
 use in keeping Friends from indulging in the fri- 
 volities of the world's people. He was never in a 
 theatre or a circus in his life. He bore his testi- 
 mony to the peculiarities of his sect on all occasions. 
 When a member of the legislature, he adhered to 
 the Quaker custom in the matter of the oath, and 
 in addressing the chair. When a fellow member 
 died he declined to wear crape on his arm, and the 
 practice was given up after that time. When he 
 became Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery 
 Society, he succeeded a secretary who kept dates 
 in the customary way. Lewis Tappan, looking at 
 
LOYALTY TO QUAKERISM 283 
 
 his neat records, was puzzled by the Quaker dates, 
 but he laughed as he read " 12th mo., 6th," or " 2d 
 day evening," and said he had no objection to this 
 kind of date, " but Friend Whittier must be here 
 to interpret." 
 
 In his later life the Quaker was shown in his 
 dress only in his coat, all other clothing being in 
 the prevailing fashion. This coat of black broad- 
 cloth was cut in the orthodox Quaker style. The 
 Philadelphia tailor who supplied him during his 
 residence in that city in 1838-1840, sent him from 
 time to time all the coats he wore for the remainder 
 of his life, without the slightest change in style or 
 measurement. 
 
 Of innovations in the methods of Quakerism he 
 would say, " Our folks have got to talking too 
 much; they even want a glass of water on the 
 table, and some of them want singing in the meet- 
 ings. I tell them if they want singing, they must 
 get the world's folks to do it for them, for two 
 hundred years of silence have taken all the sing 
 out of our people." 
 
 The skill and sagacity Mr. Whittier had shown 
 in his editorial work upon political journals, in 
 managing conventions, and in influencing legisla- 
 tion, together with the earnestness of his advocacy 
 of the reforms then demanding attention, gave him 
 prominence among the men who decided upon the 
 necessity of a third party, since neither of the great 
 national parties dared grapple with the issues pre- 
 sented by the aroused conscience of the nation. 
 
 In 1834, James G. Birney, a Kentucky slave- 
 
284 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 holder, came out in favor of immediate emancipa- 
 tion, at the same time liberating his own slaves. 
 Finding it impossible to disseminate his views in 
 his own State, he moved to Cincinnati, and pub- 
 lished a paper called the " Philanthropist," which 
 became a powerful instrument in forming public 
 opinion. His experience as a slaveholder, his 
 philanthropic action as a liberator, and the readi- 
 ness with which he defended his opinions with his 
 pen and upon the platform, gave him importance 
 in the ranks of the abolitionists who favored polit- 
 ical action. He came to New England in 1835, 
 and received much attention from friends of the 
 cause. John Gr. Whittier, Moses A. Cartland, and 
 others of the Society of Friends, on the 28th of 
 May, 1835, wrote him a series of seven questions 
 covering the whole ground of the policy to be 
 adopted for the extinction of slavery, and his full 
 and explicit answer was widely circulated. He 
 thought that under the Constitution as it then 
 existed, operations against slavery could be under- 
 taken with success ; that there was no need of tear- 
 ing down the whole structure of our political 
 institutions to extirpate this evil. This led to the 
 formation of the Liberty party, in the organization 
 of which Mr. Whittier was active and efficient. 
 Birney was nominated for the Presidency in 1840 
 and 1844, arid was supported by Mr. Whittier in 
 both these campaigns. The Liberty party of the 
 North Essex district nominated Mr. Whittier for 
 Congress, and so long as he was in no danger of 
 being elected he did not object to being a candi- 
 date. But at length his party became strong 
 
POLITICAL WORK 285 
 
 enough in the district to cause alarm to the Whigs, 
 for a coalition with the Democrats was threatened, 
 and such a coalition would certainly have been 
 favored by Mr. Whittier if an anti-slavery candi- 
 date could have been found among the Democrats 
 of North Essex who possessed such qualifications 
 as caused the concentration of the Liberty vote of 
 South Essex upon Robert Rantoul, and elected 
 him. Mr. Whittier had a hand in managing this 
 last-named combination, and had reason to be 
 proud of the record of Rantoul in Congress, as is 
 shown in his fine poetic tributes to his memory. 
 In 1842, both Whigs and Democrats nominated 
 men for Congress from whom Whittier could 
 obtain no pledges in behalf of the cause he had at 
 heart. He therefore prevented an election by 
 remaining the third-party candidate during many 
 successive trials, through the year 1843, the dis- 
 trict in the mean time being unrepresented in Con- 
 gress. At each trial Mr. Whittier 's vote increased. 
 At last, in December, 1843, an article appeared in 
 the Boston " Courier," said to have been suggested 
 by Daniel Webster, advising the Whigs in North 
 Essex to drop their candidate and unite upon 
 Whittier, as he was and always had been a Whig 
 in principle, and was to be preferred to the Demo- 
 cratic candidate. Some of the friends of the Whig 
 candidate resented this interference from outside 
 the district, and brought up against Whittier a 
 charge that he had on several occasions worked for 
 the Democrats, notably in the case of Robert 
 Rantoul when named for the senatorship and 
 Marcus Morton for the governorship. The " Cou- 
 
286 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 rier " had spoken of Whittier as a mechanic, and 
 to this a Whig paper in the district responded : 
 " It is true that in youth he was obliged to learn a 
 mechanical trade, but the editor of the ' Courier ' 
 would recognize little of the mechanic in the sleek- 
 looking kid-gloved beau of the last seven years. 
 He has no more sympathy with mechanics than 
 with Whigs. The Whigs can never come into 
 support of John G. Whittier until they lose all 
 regard for principle and all self-respect." 
 
 Notwithstanding this blast from the party organ, 
 as the day of election approached, it seemed proba- 
 ble that the advice of Webster would be heeded. 
 Whittier became alarmed at the prospect of being 
 elected, and immediately wrote a letter declining 
 the candidacy. The Liberty candidate who took 
 his place had not his personal popularity, and the 
 Whigs at once elected their man. If Whittier's 
 health had permitted, he would have remained 
 in the field, and if elected would have made an 
 efficient member of Congress, with an influence 
 upon legislation superior to that of many men 
 with readier tongues. His ambition was distinctly 
 in that direction ; but he found it necessary to 
 heed the admonition of his medical adviser, and 
 keep on the outer circles of the maelstrom of poli- 
 tics. All his life he was in touch with the politi- 
 cal movements of the country, and was the trusted 
 adviser of statesmen. A kind Providence, how- 
 ever, by a seeming affliction, had set him apart 
 for a still higher usefulness. 
 
 Rev. John Pierpont, pastor of the Hollis Street 
 church, Boston, was in these days causing a great 
 
POLITICAL WORK 287 
 
 stir throughout New England by a bold and uncom- 
 promising determination to speak freely in his pul- 
 pit in favor of temperance and anti-slavery reforms, 
 notwithstanding the opposition of many of the most 
 influential people in his own society. The popu- 
 larity thus acquired Mr. Whittier thought might 
 be made available to the Liberty party, if Mr 
 Pierpont would consent to accept a nomination for 
 Congress. Accordingly he wrote to Samuel E. 
 Sewall, under date of February 12, 1842 : 
 
 " I wrote some days ago to John Pierpont about 
 the nomination, on my own responsibility, as an 
 individual, and have received a line from him. As 
 I understand it, he is willing to stand as our candi- 
 date ; but thinks it due to those of his society who 
 have so faithfully stood by him in his contest with 
 the powers of rum to consult a little their feelings 
 in the matter or at least the feelings of two or 
 three of the leading members. I understand he 
 has consulted F. Jackson about it ; Jackson, I think, 
 would offer no decided objection. Wilt thou imme- 
 diately see Alden or Dr. Mann, and if it is judged 
 best, call on two or three of the most prominent of 
 the society. It would be well to have" their concur- 
 rence and aid. It should be presented to them in 
 its most favorable aspect : that it is the strongest 
 testimony which we can render to the noble reformer 
 and the firm and faithful friends who have sus- 
 tained him in the Hollis Street pulpit ; that there 
 is even a reasonable probability that he may be 
 elected; that there is perfect enthusiasm for him 
 among all to whom the subject of his nomination 
 has been mentioned. Has anything been done 
 
288 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 about securing the State House for our evening 
 meetings ? If Pierpont is at home, ask him not to 
 leave Boston, if he can avoid it, until after the 
 convention. 1 I wish to see him, as if I am able I 
 shall be in Boston before the meeting." 
 
 In March, 1842, Mr. Whittier wrote to Mr. 
 Sewall : " I fear we shall get dragged into a war 
 after all, a war in defense of the vilest negro 
 traffic existing anywhere save on the African 
 coast ! It is unendurable ! And if Texas is to be 
 added to us, as there are no doubtful indications, 
 let us say, Disunion before Texas ! . . . By letters 
 from England I find that our minister at Paris, 
 General Cass, has entitled himself to the Presidency 
 by his vigorous efforts for the protection of that 
 Democratic branch of commerce, the foreign 
 slave trade ! " The letter containing these passages 
 is sealed with a wafer bearing this inscription : 
 " The minister who defends slavery defends sin, 
 and is false to his trust." 
 
 The " Pioneer " magazine, mentioned in the fol- 
 lowing letter from Mr. Lowell, was a literary and 
 critical monthly, published in Boston by Leland 
 & Whitney, and edited by James Eussell Lowell 
 
 1 Mr. Pierpont received the nomination for Congress from the 
 Liberty party convention, but declined it in a letter to Mr. Whit- 
 tier, in which he said that he must postpone his work for the 
 slave until a minister of the gospel became a free man ; " for he 
 can never be so," he adds, " so long as the pulpit is controlled by 
 the pews. This freedom is prior in the order of time to the free- 
 dom of the slave, and this freedom my friends and myself are 
 endeavoring to vindicate, where it has been openly and power- 
 fully assailed. Let us work out our problem, a labor quite se- 
 vere enough for the hands engaged in it, and yours, my friend, 
 will be worked out the sooner for it." 
 
THE "PIONEER" MAGAZINE 289 
 
 and Robert Carter. Only three numbers were is- 
 sued, for the months of January, February, and 
 March, 1843. It had a good sale at the start, and 
 the publishers, encouraged by this, launched into 
 other enterprises that proved disastrous failures, 
 and caused the suspension of the magazine. It 
 was Lowell's first venture in editorship. The 
 poem of Whittier's in the " Democratic Review " 
 to which he refers was in the October number, 
 1842, and was entitled " Lines on reading several 
 Pamphlets published by Clergymen against the 
 Abolition of the Gallows." Lowell's sonnets, called 
 out by reading Wordsworth's defense of capital 
 punishment, appeared in the May number of the 
 " Review," and they must have been almost unin- 
 telligible to the readers of the magazine, for the 
 reason he gives. They may be found in Lowell's 
 collected works. The poem Mr. Whittier contrib- 
 uted to the " Pioneer," in response to the re- 
 quest of the ambitious young editor, was " To a 
 Friend, on her Return from Europe." Mr. Low- 
 ell's letter is mutilated, his autograph signature 
 being cut from it in such a way as to remove the 
 date and a few of the first words. The postmark 
 shows it was written in October, 1842 : 
 
 ..." January next ... a magazine under my 
 editorial charge. It will be called the ' Pioneer,' 
 and it is to be a free magazine. I mean that it 
 shall take a high stand in Art, and also hold itself 
 free to advance or comment on all the great move- 
 ments of the age. It is to keep up with the age and 
 not behind it ; nay, if possible, it shall run before, 
 as its name would indicate. If the undertaking 
 
290 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 succeeds, I shall pay authors higher than any other 
 magazine in the land, regarding things and not 
 names, and paying for an article's worth in spirit 
 rather than its current value in specie. May I 
 hope that you will send me something for my first 
 number ? Any little poem that you may have by 
 you will be very acceptable to me. I cannot prom- 
 ise to pay you very much at first, for the expense 
 of getting up such a work makes large holes in 
 small capitals. But I trust that the hope of aid- 
 ing a good endeavor will be enough to you. I am 
 glad to see you down on the cassocked pleaders 
 for murder in the ' Democratic Review/ Some 
 sonnets of mine in the May number were written 
 on reading Wordsworth in favor of bloodshed, 
 though some parts of them were most unintelligi- 
 ble by the fact not being stated. I wish I were 
 in your district to vote for you as member of Con- 
 gress. But you must take my good hopes instead." 
 When the case of George Latimer, an alleged 
 fugitive slave from Virginia, was on trial in Mas- 
 sachusetts, in 184243, the excitement throughout 
 the State was intense. It was arranged by the 
 friends of liberty that conventions should be held 
 simultaneously in each county, and the 2d of 
 January, 1843, was the day appointed. The con- 
 vention for Essex County was held at Ipswich, and 
 the occasion was made memorable by the reading 
 of the intense, almost fierce, stanzas written for 
 the occasion by John G. Whittier. It was the 
 splendid poem, " Massachusetts to Virginia," 
 which was printed in the " Liberator " of January 
 27, 1843, without the name of the author. But 
 
THOMAS WENT WORTH HIGGINSON 291 
 
 as no other rnan could have written these powerful 
 lines, the public knew at once to whom to credit 
 them. Thomas Wentworth Higginson says that 
 he first met Whittier at about this time, and this 
 is his account of the meeting : 
 
 "It was in 1843, when the excitement of the 
 4 Latimer case ' still echoed through Massachusetts, 
 and the younger abolitionists were full of 'the joy 
 of eventful living.' I was then nineteen, and saw 
 the poet for the first time at an eating-house 
 known as Campbell's, then quite a resort for re- 
 formers of all sorts. I saw before me a man of 
 striking personal appearance; tall, slender, with 
 olive complexion, black hair, straight black eye- 
 brows, brilliant eyes, and an Oriental, Semitic 
 cast of countenance. This was Whittier at thirty- 
 five. I lingered till he rose from the table, and 
 then advancing, I said with boyish enthusiasm 
 and I doubt not with boyish awkwardness also, 
 ' I should like to shake hands with the author of 
 " Massachusetts to Virginia." : The poet, who was, 
 and is, one of the shyest of men, broke into a 
 kindly smile, and said briefly, ' Thy name, friend ? * 
 I gave it, we shook hands, and that was all ; but 
 to me it was like touching a hero's shield, and 
 though I have since learned to count the friend- 
 ship of Whittier as one of the great privileges of 
 my life, yet nothing has ever displaced the recol- 
 lection of that first boyish interview." 
 
 In a letter to his brother in Portland, dated 
 February 7, 1843, Mr. Whittier says : 
 
 " I wrote to and visited Governor Morton and 
 got him to recommend the abolition of capital 
 
292 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 punishment in his message [in 1840]. I. shall try 
 for it this winter, not, however, with much hope of 
 success. Our great Latimer petition was pre- 
 sented to the Legislature with 62,791 names. 
 The way we shall use up the Virginians is a cau- 
 tion to all kidnappers. The Legislature is ready 
 to do anything for us ; our vote for Sewall last fall 
 did the business. [The vote for the Liberty party 
 candidate, Samuel E. Sewall, had the effect to 
 secure the election of the Democratic candidate, 
 Governor Morton, for the second time. On each 
 occasion he was elected by a vote of one, first in 
 the popular vote, and the second time in the Legis- 
 lature.] Tell Nathan Winslow that his son-in-law 
 [Sewall] came within a hair's breadth of being 
 governor. But for half a dozen refractory mem- 
 bers the Whig party in the Legislature would 
 have voted for him. ... Our town meeting at 
 Amesbury comes off next week. As it happens 
 that at this time there are all over the region 
 hereaway what are called 4 revivals,' and as our 
 Liberty party active men are mostly deacons, etc., 
 they will be kept much at home, and the ' enemy ' 
 will be likely to prevail in one quarter while they 
 are routing him in another. In other words, if 
 the Devil can't get the Church, he will take the 
 State, rather than nothing." 
 
 Mr. Whittier's acquaintance with and friendship 
 for James T. Fields dated back to 1839, and per- 
 haps earlier. In that year, when Whittier was 
 collecting material for the " North Star," in Phila- 
 delphia, Fields contributed a poem for his colleo 
 tion. Upon Whittier's return to Massachusetts, 
 
LETTER TO JAMES T. FIELDS 293 
 
 he found young Fields connected with the publish- 
 ing house of AVm. D. Ticknor, with whom he 
 formed a partnership in 1845. The first volume 
 of Whittier's published by this house was " Lays 
 of My Home, and Other Poems," which was issued 
 iin May, 1843. Whittier's correspondence in re- 
 gard to the publication of this book was with 
 Fields. In April he wrote the following letter, 
 giving a list of the poems to be included in the 
 book. The " John Gilpin legend " to which he 
 refers was first published in the " North Star," 
 the winter of 1839-40. "Lays of My Home" 
 was the first book from the sale of which Mr. 
 Whittier realized any remuneration, all his previ- 
 ous collections having been of limited circulation, 
 or issued in aid of " the cause : " 
 
 " In regard to the matter of publication, I 
 know little or nothing about it. I shall leave it 
 altogether to you, thinking that if the work meets 
 with a ready sale, you will do me justice, as I 
 should, I am free to confess, like to realize some- 
 thing from it. Will these terms answer ? . . . I 
 send you the first articles, which will constitute 
 about one third or quarter of the book, and give it 
 its name, ' Lays of My Home, and Other Poems.' 
 There are two other poems which belong to this 
 part of the book, 4 The Funeral Tree of the Soko- 
 kis,' and ' St. John.' I have no copies of them; 
 but you will find them in the collection of friend 
 Griswold, or in the 'Knickerbocker' for 1841, 
 and I wish you to procure them and publish them 
 in the following order: 1. The Merrimac; 2. The 
 Norsemen ; 3. Ballads of Cassandra Southwick ; 
 
294 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 4. The Funeral Tree of the Sokokis; 5. St. John. 
 ... I shall have no preface, except a single page 
 of note or direction. I will send the residue of 
 the copy as soon as I can catch it, for it is scat- 
 tered, like the flying leaves of the Sibyl, in all 
 directions. ... I have two MS. poems which I 
 think are quite as good, if not better, than any 
 I have printed, which I shall send. I send with 
 this i The Exiles,' a kind of John Gilpin legend. 
 I am in doubt about it. Read it and decide for 
 thyself whether it is worth printing. If published 
 it should go in after ' St. John.' " 
 
 For some reason, " The Exiles " was not pub- 
 lished in " The Lays of My Home ; " probably Mr. 
 Fields advised against it. All the twenty-three 
 poems in this little volume of 122 pages are re- 
 tained in the latest editions of the complete works 
 of the poet. 
 
 Thomas Macey, the hero of the ballad of " The 
 Exiles," was a resident of Amesbury. The house 
 in which he lived previous to 1664 is still stand- 
 ing, and is known as " the Obadiah Colby place." 
 In that year he sold this house, and removed to 
 " Amesbury Mills," the village built about the 
 falls of the Powow. It was in 1659 that he har- 
 bored the Quakers, in defiance of the act of the 
 General Court, passed in 1657. It was down the 
 Powow into the Merrimac that the memorable 
 race with the sheriff and the priest began. 
 When Mr. Whittier wrote the ballad he evidently 
 supposed that Macey's residence was in Haver- 
 hill, the ancient Pentucket, as is shown in the 
 stanza : 
 
POEMS OF PLACES 295 
 
 " By green Pentucket's southern slope 
 
 The small boat glided fast ; 
 The watchers of the Block-house saw 
 The strangers as they passed." 
 
 in this poem occurs a stanza that has puzzled 
 some of its readers who are familiar with the 
 scenery of the lower Merrimac : 
 
 " Oh, beautiful ! that rainbow span 
 
 O'er dim Crane-neck was bended ; 
 One bright foot touched the eastern hills, 
 And one with ocean blended." 
 
 " Crane-neck " hill is on the Newbury side ot the 
 river, in such a position that the Maceys, in their 
 boat, would not have seen the rainbow arching 
 over it as described. Mr. Alfred Ordway, of 
 Haverhill, informs the writer that happening to 
 be on Job's Hill, close by the Whittier homestead, 
 one summer afternoon, a shower came up, and 
 after it he saw Crane-neck haloed by a rainbow 
 precisely answering the description in the poem. 
 He knew at once that the poet was remembering 
 just such a scene when he wrote this stanza. 
 From the hill of his boyhood the ocean is visible, 
 as it could not have been from a boat in the Mer- 
 rimac, and he had often seen the "bright foot" 
 of a rainbow blending with it, while the top of the 
 arch was over Crane-neck. 
 
 The ballad " The New Wife and the Old " is 
 founded on one of many marvelous legends con- 
 nected with the family of General Moulton, of 
 Hampton, N. H., of whom Mr. Whittier says that 
 he was regarded by his neighbors as a Yankee 
 Faust, in league with the adversary. The mansion 
 of General Moulton is still standing in Hampton, 
 
296 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 and is pointed out to travelers on the Boston and 
 Maine Railroad. In going westward, the hip- 
 roofed house is seen on the left side of the track, 
 soon after passing the Hampton station. A lady 
 in Maiden, Mass., who is the great-granddaughter 
 of " the new wife," wrote to Mr. Whittier in 1888, 
 asking him the source of his information, and 
 sending him a piece of the wedding silk of her 
 ancestress. He replied : " The story of the 
 ' New Wife and the Old ' was told me a good 
 many years ago by an elderly lady. Since then, 
 I have received a letter from a lady who at one 
 time was spending the summer at the old house in 
 Hampton. She said strange noises were heard in 
 the rooms, the steps and rustling dress of a woman 
 unseen on the stairs, etc., and that the servants 
 were so frightened that Rev. Mr. Milton of New- 
 buryport was sent for, who came and prayed, and 
 counseled the ghosts to depart. I hope I have 
 not, unintentionally, misrepresented General Moul- 
 ton in my poem." 
 
 Between the years 1837 and 1847, a large num- 
 ber of Mr. Whittier's best poerns, and several 
 prose sketches, were sent by him to the " Demo- 
 cratic Review," published in Washington. It was 
 to this magazine that for this decade he sent 
 nearly all his poems that did not directly touch 
 upon the question of slavery, and some prose 
 sketches. It was a partisan magazine, with a 
 large proportion of its circulation at the South, 
 but Whittier made himself a most welcome con- 
 tributor, though many a stanza expressed quite 
 plainly his abhorrence of slavery. 
 
THE POEM "TEXAS 91 297 
 
 The series of " Songs of Labor " was begun in 
 the " Eeview," and four of them were published 
 in 1845 and 1846. When Mr. Whittier became 
 connected with the " National Era," he finished 
 the series in that paper. The poem "Texas: 
 Voice of New England " was called for by James 
 Eussell Lowell, in a letter to Whittier, dated 
 March 21, 1844. In this letter he is urgently en- 
 treated " to cry aloud and spare not against the 
 cursed Texas plot." Two days before this call, 
 Lowell had published in the Boston " Courier " 
 his " Rallying Cry for New England against the 
 Annexation of Texas," beginning with the lines : 
 
 " Rise up, New England, buckle on your mail of proof sublime, 
 Your stern old hate of tyranny, your deep contempt of crime ; 
 A plot is hatching now, more full of woe and shame 
 Than ever from the iron heart of bloodiest despot came." 
 
 This poem of Lowell's appeared anonymously, 
 except that it had as a sub-head the lines, " By a 
 Yankee." It was at the time generally supposed 
 to have been written by Whittier, and Whittier 
 did not then know it was Lowell's. His first 
 guess was that Pierpont was its author. The in- 
 spiration of his own " Texas : Voice of New Eng- 
 land" came to him at length, and he sent the 
 poem to Lowell, as a response to his request. It 
 was published in the " Courier " for April 17, 
 1844, with the following preface written by 
 Lowell : 
 
 A few weeks since, some verses appeared in 
 the " Courier," which were generally ascribed to 
 Whittier. They were not his, however. In the 
 
298 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 present crisis of the fate of the Republic, New 
 England listens for a trumpet-call from her Tyr- 
 tasus. Nor will she be disappointed. Whittier 
 has always been found faithful to the Muses' holy 
 trust. He has not put his talent out at profitable 
 interest, by catering to the insolent and Phari- 
 saical self-esteem of the times ; nor has he hidden 
 it in the damask napkin of historical common- 
 places, or a philanthropy too universal to concern 
 itself with particular wrongs, the practical redress- 
 ing of which is all that renders philanthropy of 
 value. Most poets are content to follow the spirit 
 of their age, as pigeons follow a leaky grain cart, 
 picking a kernel here and there, out of the dry 
 dust of the past. Not so Whittier. From the 
 heart of the onset upon the serried mercenaries of 
 every tyranny, the chords of his iron-strung lyre 
 clang with a martial and triumphant cheer ; and 
 where Freedom's Spartan few maintain their invio- 
 late mountain pass against the assaults of slavery, 
 his voice may be heard, clear and fearless, as if 
 the victory were already won. It is with the 
 highest satisfaction I send you the inclosed poem, 
 every way worthy of our truly New England poet. 
 I trust that when this meets his eye, the few words 
 which I could not refrain from adding by way of 
 preface will not be deemed impertinent. L. 
 
 Editor Buckingham " could not refrain " from 
 adding, as a postscript to the poem, this note : 
 " If any of our Southern readers should think Mr. 
 TV hittier's poem a little fierce, they will please to 
 recollect Mr. Hayne's apology for South Carolina 
 
THE POEM " TEXAS " 299 
 
 nullification, ' Something must be pardoned to 
 the spirit of liberty ! ' ' 
 
 The poem as first published had only twenty 
 three-line stanzas, instead of twenty-nine as it now 
 appears, and some of the original stanzas have 
 been toned down. For instance, the eighteenth 
 stanza of the first version reads : 
 
 " And when vengeance lights your skies, 
 Hither shall ye turn your eyes, 
 As the damned on Paradise ! " 
 
 The corresponding stanza of the poem, as it now 
 stands, has " clouds " for " lights " in the first 
 line, and " lost " for " damned " in the last line. 
 The fourteenth stanza was originally somewhat 
 stronger than the reading adopted in all later 
 editions : 
 
 " Make our Union-band a chain, 
 We will snap its links in twain, 
 We will stand erect again ! " 
 
 This was changed in 1846 to the following : 
 
 " If with added weight ye strain 
 On th' already breaking chain, 
 Who shall bind its links again ? " 
 
 This stanza now reads : 
 
 " Make our Union-band a chain, 
 Weak as tow in Freedom's strain 
 Link by link shall snap in twain." 
 
 The fifteenth stanza was remodeled with better 
 success. In the edition of 1846 it reads : 
 
 " Chain of parchment ! sand- wrought rope ! 
 Shall they bind the planet up 
 Scattered o'er the heaven's blue cope ? " 
 
 These lines are greatly improved in the latest 
 revision : 
 
300 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 " Vainly shall your sand-wrought rope 
 Bind the starry cluster up, 
 Shattered over heaven's blue cope ! " 
 
 Both poems, Lowell's and Whittier's, were ablaze 
 with an indignation that was communicated to 
 receptive minds throughout the North, and although 
 the hour was not yet ripe for the full political 
 effect desired, they contributed greatly to the pro- 
 motion of a feeling antagonistic to the spread of 
 the institution of slavery over the new territory 
 then soon to be acquired by an unjust war. Whit- 
 tier had sent his poem to Lowell about the first of 
 April, but not hearing from him, on the morning 
 of the 17th of that month (the very day it was 
 published in the " Courier ") wrote as follows : 
 
 " Some week or ten days ago I sent thee a piece 
 on the Texas conspiracy, but, as I have heard no- 
 thing from it, presume thee have been absent, or that 
 my letter failed of reaching thee. If not published, 
 let me suggest, as the ' Courier ' has already pub- 
 lished an article on the subject, that it be sent to 
 the ' Daily Chronicle,' Leavitt's paper. In hastily 
 transcribing the piece, I omitted two verses, and 
 for the life of me, as I cannot recollect the remain- 
 der, I hardly know where they belong I believe, 
 however, after the stanza ending with ' Freedom's 
 oath.' * One of them thee will see is an asinine 
 Scriptural allusion to him who crouched beneath 
 burdens : 
 
 " ' What though Issachar be strong, 
 He hath stooped beneath your wrong 2 
 Over-much and over-long ! 
 
 1 The stanza now ends " the word befitting both." 
 
 2 The latest version is : 
 
 "Ye may load his back with wrong." 
 
THE POEM "TEXAS" 301 
 
 " ' Patience with her cup o'errun, 
 With her weary thread outspun, 
 Murmurs that her work is done. 
 
 " ' Make our Union-band a chain,' " etc. 
 
 "I am sorry to trouble thee with this matter. 
 If the letter containing the piece has not been le* 
 ceived, please write me immediately." 
 
 When the Boston mail arrived at Amesbury that 
 day, he found his poem in the " Courier," and at 
 once sent this note to Lowell, dated in the afternoon 
 of the 17th : 
 
 "I owe thee an apology for troubling thee so 
 often with my notes ; but I write now just to say 
 that I have seen in the * Courier ' of to-day the 
 lines I sent thee, with the too flattering comments 
 of 'L.' I thank thee, for I value a compliment, 
 even if it be but a compliment, from such as thy- 
 self, and if anything of mine has given thee half 
 the pleasure which thy 4 Burns/ ' Incident in 
 a Railroad Car,' and ' Glance behind the Cur- 
 tain ' have given me, I shall not doubt the sin- 
 cerity of thy kind words. I have read, since the 
 lines were written, the ' Rallying Cry ' over again, 
 and as Tristram Shandy's father would say, 4 I 
 like it hugely.' It has lines which have burned 
 into my memory. Whose is it? Pierpont's? I 
 have half suspected thee of the mischief. My prin- 
 cipal reason for writing now was to tell thee that 
 not hearing anything from the lines I sent thee, or 
 from thee, and coming to the conclusion that thee 
 was absent from home, and being somewhat fear- 
 ful that the iniquitous deed would be done before 
 I could utter my protest against it (not that I 
 
302 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 expected to silence, like another Orpheus, the Cer- 
 berus of Slavery with my rhymes, but, like Balma- 
 whapple, when he raised his horse-pistol against the 
 Rock of Stirling, I wished to manifest my will if 
 not my power), I therefore this very morning 
 sent a copy of the poem, as near as I could recol- 
 lect it, with some additional verses, to the ' Morn- 
 ing Chronicle ' (Leavitt's new daily). I mentioned 
 to him that I had sent a copy some time before to 
 thee. What I chiefly regret is that I did not see 
 the 4 Courier ' in season for recalling the letter to 
 Leavitt, and I fear, therefore, that he will publish 
 it, unless he has seen the same in the ' Courier.' 
 The alterations will look a little odd, but I do not 
 see how it can be helped now. But enough of 
 this. What art thou doing in a literary way? 
 As for myself, what with cares of all sorts on my 
 hands, the principal charge of our weekly paper 
 here (weakly would be the better word), and the 
 trouble and responsibility of an active politician of 
 the Liberty stamp, as well as the constant draw- 
 back of ill-health, especially since these eastern 
 winds have been blowing, I can do little or no- 
 thing in the way of rhyme or reason. Does thee 
 see our friend Wm. H. Burleigh's paper ? I have 
 met with it occasionally, and like it ; it is manly, 
 earnest, and gentlemanly. E. Burritt's 4 Christian 
 Citizen ' will also do good." 
 
 Having responded to Lowell's call for a Texas 
 poem, Whittier soon after returned the compli- 
 ment by asking his brother poet to write a song 
 for the celebration of West India emancipation 
 held at Salem, August 1, 1844. This is his letter, 
 making the request : 
 
EDITORIAL WORK 303 
 
 " We are to have a great anti-slavery meeting 
 at Salem, on the 1st of August, at which Gerrit 
 Smith, of New York, and Dr. Elder, the most elo- 
 quent speaker in western Pennsylvania, are ex- 
 pected to be present. I think thee once promised 
 me a Liberty song, and I now claim it for this 
 meeting. Give me one which shall be to our 
 cause what the song of Rouget de Lisle was to the 
 French Republicans, such an one as the maiden 
 may whisper in the 
 
 ' Asphodel flower-fleece 
 She walks ankle deep in,' 
 
 and the strong man may sing at his forge and 
 plough. Think of it, dear L., and oblige me, and 
 do a great work for holy Liberty, by complying 
 with my request. Let me have it soon, that I may 
 hand it to the committee of arrangements." l 
 
 Mr. Whittier resided several months in Lowell, 
 in 1844, editing the " Middlesex Standard," and 
 soon after he persuaded the proprietor of the 
 Amesbury " Village Transcript " to change its 
 name to the " Essex Transcript," and to make it 
 the county organ of the Liberty party. For about 
 two years he virtually edited the "Transcript," 
 writing most of the original matter it contained, 
 although his name does not appear in it, and 
 
 1 Whether Lowell responded to this call is not certain, but 
 there is reason to suppose that a poem of his containing- the fol- 
 lowing 1 spirited stanza, written in 1844, was the one sent for the 
 Salein celebration : 
 
 " We will speak out, we will be heard 
 Though all earth's systems crack ; 
 We will not bate a single word, 
 Nor take a letter back ! " 
 
304 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 his service was entirely gratuitous. Mr. Stephen 
 Larnson, who was a compositor upon the paper, 
 says : 
 
 " He did not pretend, or wish it understood, that 
 he was editor of the paper ; but he was its god 
 father, and undertook to see that it went the way 
 it should go. He did not sign his editorials. 
 Often sickness or absence would prevent his com- 
 ing into the office for some time, and Mr. Abner 
 L. Bayley and Rev. Mr. Strickland would take his 
 place. This continued about four years, when the 
 proprietor, Mr. J. M. Pettengill, sold out, and 
 the paper became the village organ again. . . . 
 Mr. Whittier was then a man of thirty-seven, tall, 
 straight, and spare, with sharp, good features, 
 handsome face, black eyes, with a long-shaped 
 head, and a towering intellectual forehead. He 
 wore a Quaker medium hat, as well as coat, and 
 used his ' thees ' and ' thous ' in conversation. 
 He was not a fluent talker, never put on superior 
 airs, but assumed the commonplace in his inter- 
 course with neighbors, friends, and the villagers 
 generally. I remember one or two stores, kept by 
 good friends of his, one a Baptist deacon, the 
 other a Friend, where he used to visit when 
 going to the post office ; and it was his wont to sit 
 on boxes and barrels, as we have seen them crowd 
 together in a small village grocery store, and do his 
 visiting, and learn the news of the day, or talk over 
 political matters, for in these two friends he 
 found congenial spirits. This was one of his ways 
 of taking recreation. In my three years' acquain- 
 tance with him, and observation of him in his 
 
REMINISCENCES 305 
 
 daily visits to our office to read the papers, I no- 
 ticed that if something of great importance at- 
 tracted his attention, he would nervously grasp a 
 pen, and thoughts that scintillated from his brain 
 would rush across the paper before him at a rapid 
 rate, in a clear, smooth, running hand, that would 
 surprise me. When the written pages went into 
 the copy drawer, it would be found in a beautiful 
 flowing hand, with seldom an emendation or any 
 interlining, he held his ideas in such perfect form 
 and control. I used to call it a 4 lightning hand,' 
 so rapidly did the pen fly over the paper. His 
 sister used to have a literary circle to improve 
 her young friends in various ways. My father's 
 adopted daughter was a member of it, and was de- 
 lighted to think she was worthy to belong to Miss 
 Whittier's circle. Mr. Whittier used to lend 
 sanction and help to these friends of his sister, and 
 became acquainted with each one. He used al- 
 ways, when I saw him, to have something to say 
 about this sister and about my father, and I was 
 grateful for it." 
 
 In the second number of the " Standard " began 
 the series of papers entitled "The Stranger in 
 Lowell," afterward printed in book form. They 
 picture the new city as seen by the stranger-poet 
 as he wandered in his hours of leisure about the 
 streets, and along the banks of the river which had 
 only recently been harnessed to do the work of 
 great manufactories. Mr. Whittier's editorial 
 connection with the " Standard " terminated in 
 March, 1845, but his actual residence in Lowell 
 did not extend over a period of more than six 
 
306 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 months. In October, 1844, he induced the Hon. 
 C. L. Knapp, of Vermont, to come to Lowell as 
 his assistant in conducting the paper, and grad- 
 ually left it in his charge, and returned to his 
 home in Amesbury, whence he sent occasional 
 articles. The " Standard " was consolidated with 
 a Worcester paper in the spring of 1845, and 
 published in both Worcester and Lowell. 
 
 TO JOHN P. HALE. 
 
 24th 1st mo., 1845. 
 
 Permit me, although a stranger to thee person- 
 ally, to express my gratitude for and heartfelt 
 admiration of thy letter to thy constituents on the 
 annexation of Texas. I would rather be the au- 
 thor of that letter than the President of the United 
 States. Under all circumstances, it is one of the 
 boldest and noblest words ever spoken for Liberty. 
 May God give thee wisdom and firmness to main- 
 tain the glorious and most honorable position 
 which thou hast taken. The clamor of party, the 
 selfishness of office-seekers, the temporary with- 
 drawal of popular favor, will not, I trust, move 
 thee. The Rubicon is passed. The hand which 
 has so bravely dashed its gauntlet at the feet of 
 Slavery must now do manly and vigorous battle. 
 There must be no retreat, no concession, now. 
 On, then, to the noblest combat ever waged with 
 Tyranny. The good and the true of all parties 
 will bid thee Godspeed. Democracy will yet 
 shake off the loathsome embraces of slavery. 
 Living as I do on the borders of New Hampshire,- 
 I find that, after all, the better portion of the 
 
ISAIAH RYNDERS 807 
 
 Democracy believe thee to be right. The office- 
 holders and expectants, however, make all the noise. 
 I sent thee yesterday a copy of the " Middlesex 
 Standard," a paper for which I write. Believe me 
 with high respect and esteem thy friend. 
 
 In 1845, we find Mr. Whittier seriously consid- 
 ering a plan of going to the West to reside, but it 
 was soon given up. 
 
 During his residence in New York, Mr. Whit- 
 tier attended several meetings that were broken up 
 by mobs, which were under the leadership of the 
 noted Isaiah Rynders. The plan adopted by Ryn- 
 ders did not involve any injury to the persons of 
 the anti-slavery orators, but he trained his follow- 
 ers to make boisterous disturbances, which would 
 drown the voice of any speaker. Some of the ab- 
 olition leaders were disposed to pose as martyrs, 
 but- as they were seldom in actual danger of bodily 
 injury, Mr. Whittier used to tell them that he 
 thought they were having a very jolly time of it 
 for a band of martyrs. It was indeed a goodly 
 company of able men, and if they failed to get a 
 hearing in the halls they leased, they had a free 
 press often mobbed, but always maintained 
 and brilliant writers, whose ability commanded the 
 attention of the whole country. Mr. Whittier 
 used to say, when his anti-slavery co-laborers were 
 complaining of the social and political ostracism 
 they were suffering : " They may send us to Cov- 
 entry, but we will set about making Coventry an 
 agreeable and even a jolly place." 
 
 Mr. Whittier's correspondence with Charles 
 
308 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 Sumner began before they had any personal ac- 
 quaintance with each other. They had casually 
 met, as we have seen, in 1829, in the office of the 
 American " Manufacturer." But it was Sumner's 
 brilliant Fourth of July oration upon " The True 
 Grandeur of Nations," in 1845, that called the at- 
 tention of the poet to the man who then deliber- 
 ately threw aside all the alluring prospects his cul- 
 ture and legal attainments had opened to him, to 
 enter upon the career of a reformer. It was a 
 time when war was imminent between the United 
 States and Mexico, and such a plea for Peace as 
 this was unpopular. When Mayor Quincy was 
 asked what he thought of the address to which he 
 had just listened, he replied, " Cut his throat ; he 
 will never be heard of again." This was the feel- 
 ing of the Boston society in which Sumner had 
 previously been lionized. But the heart of Whit- 
 tier warmed toward him, and he wrote : 
 
 " I thank thee from my heart for thy noble ad- 
 dress. The truths are none the less welcome for 
 the beautiful drapery in which they are clothed. 
 It will do great good. I would rather be the au- 
 thor of it than of all the war eloquence of Hea- 
 thendom and Christendom combined. ... It will, 
 I doubt not, be republished in Europe. I shall be 
 in Boston, at the Liberty Convention, on the 1st 
 of next month, and shall take some pains to pro- 
 cure an introduction to the author of the very 
 best plea for peace which has ever fallen under 
 my notice." 
 
 Mr. Whittier wrote from Amesbury to his sis- 
 ter in Boston, under date of 26, 10th mo., 1845, a 
 
LETTER TO ELIZABETH WHITTIER 309 
 
 letter which gives some idea of his anti-slavery 
 labors in those days. Elizabeth was visiting her 
 friend Harriet Minot Pitman : 
 
 " Mother is at Haverhill. On Sixth day I car- 
 ried her up, and then proceeded upon my mission 
 among the abolitionists. Got to Haverhill, called 
 on several of the ' Liberty men,' and finally held 
 a meeting a sort of impromptu affair at 
 which eloquent speeches were made by several 
 gentlemen, Mr. Algernon Sydney Nichols among 
 the rest. When it came to my turn I began with 
 as much vehemence as Mr. Pickwick, but broke 
 down about midway, and gradually subsided into a 
 sort of melancholy monotone, which under other cir- 
 cumstances would have been very affecting. As it 
 was, I am not very sanguine of its effect upon my 
 audience, but, like Paul's unknown tongues, it at 
 least edified myself. . . . From Haverhill I went 
 to Bradford, called on Father P., heard his tes- 
 timony against the come-outers ; called on the 
 come-outers and heard theirs against Father P., 
 listening with patient but non-committal civility to 
 both, urging all parties to forego their conten- 
 tions and emulate each other in the good cause of 
 Liberty. I then drove down to Griffin's; took 
 dinner, and then he and I started for Newbury and 
 Newburyport, where I trust we did good service. 
 I had a letter a day or two ago from Hale. He is 
 to have a great meeting at Dover on the 28th inst. 
 Do write me a line and let me know how Harriet 
 behaves as a housekeeper and wife, and whether 
 thee do not think her husband deserves a good deal 
 of sympathy ! Gerrit Smith is to be in Boston 
 
310 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 next week, and will speak, I believe, in Faneuil 
 Hall. I wish thee could see him, but of course 
 thee would not go to such a place. It is hard 
 enough for a well person." 
 
 TO GERRIT SMITH. 
 
 llth mo., 1845. 
 
 There is nothing to alarm us in the overwhelm- 
 ing numbers of the two old parties. These parties 
 are indeed evil and only evil, in consequence of 
 their alliance with Slavery ; but they are made up 
 of men, men with warm hearts in their bosoms, 
 men who have consciences and moral perceptions, 
 men who have with us a common interest in the 
 welfare and honor of the country, men, in short, 
 who now are just what we ourselves were a few 
 years ago, and who can be influenced by the same 
 truths which have had their effect on our own 
 minds. The good and true and humane among 
 them will soon be with us ; they are coming, with 
 the zeal of fresh converts, with the warm love of 
 repentant men. I confess at times when I think 
 of the atrocities of Slavery, and of our dear friend 
 Torrey wearing out his life in the slaveholder's 
 dungeon, I am almost ready to call for fire from 
 Heaven. But better is it for us that these things, 
 instead of calling forth idle railing on our part, 
 stimulate us to a more faithful discharge of our 
 duty. We are told in Scripture that when 
 Michael, the Archangel, contended with Satan 
 about the body of Moses, he brought against his 
 adversary no railing accusation. Let us say to 
 those who, like that prince of slaveholders, are 
 
SATIRICAL VERSES 311 
 
 striving with God and nature for the possession of 
 the bodies of two and a half millions of our coun- 
 trymen, " The Lord rebuke you I " 
 
 To the political campaigns of the early days of 
 the Free Soil party, Whittier's satirical pen lent a 
 spice that was highly relished by all except the 
 victims of his good-natured raillery. Some of the 
 poetical sallies of those times were published anon- 
 ymously, but the public soon learned that there 
 was only one man in New England capable of pro- 
 ducing them. While John P. Hale, at the head 
 of the Independent Democrats of New Hampshire, 
 aided by the Liberty party, was making the can- 
 vass that finally placed him in the United States 
 Senate, Mr. Whittier took a lively interest in the 
 contest, and paid off in stinging verse the insults 
 that had been heaped upon him and George Thomp- 
 son in their visit to the state capital eleven years 
 before. At the time when "A Letter " appeared 
 in the " Boston Chronotype," in 1846, the public was 
 so familiar with the names and doings of the poli- 
 ticians satirized that explanatory notes were not 
 needed. Whittier did not openly acknowledge the 
 " Letter " as his own until the publication of his 
 complete works in 1888, more than forty years 
 after it was written, and such notes were added as 
 were needed to explain the satire to the present 
 generation. 
 
 TO JOHN P. HALE. 
 
 16th 9th mo., 1846. 
 
 I see by the papers that thy lecture in Faneuil 
 Hall takes place on the 18th. There is one point 
 
812 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 which I wish to call thy attention to. We want 
 some common ground for all who love Liberty 
 and abhor Slavery to unite upon. May it not be 
 found in the following : 
 
 1. Abolition of slavery the leading and para- 
 mount political question. 
 
 2. No voting for slaveholders. 
 
 3. No voting for men who are in political fellow- 
 ship with slaveholders. 
 
 Why can we not have a great League of Free- 
 dom, with the above for its watchwords and ral- 
 lying cry? We have eighty thousand Liberty 
 voters to begin with, and a majority of both the 
 old parties are well-nigh ready to join in such a 
 movement. Think of it. I notice that the Eng- 
 lish Liberal papers, Birmingham " Pilot," London 
 " Non-Conformist," etc., have an eye on the New 
 Hampshire movement, and think of it as a most 
 encouraging fact in favor of the Eights of Man. 
 In the late meeting of the British Anti-Slavery 
 Society, Joseph Sturge, the President of the Free 
 Suffrage Union, alluded to thy course with great 
 satisfaction. The Editor of the " Democratic 
 Record " has spoken of Sturge as the noblest and 
 purest of the democracy of England. 
 
 The tribute to the memory of N. P. Rogers, 
 written by Mr. Whittier in 1847, which appears 
 in his prose works, shows the warmth of his attach- 
 ment to that most brilliant of the early anti-slavery 
 editors. One of the first letters of appreciation 
 and encouragement Whittier received after pub- 
 lishing the pamphlet "Justice and Expediency/' 
 
N. P. ROGERS 313 
 
 in 1833, was from Rogers, who invited him to his 
 mountain home in the valley of the Pemigewasset. 
 Their first personal acquaintance was two years 
 afterward, when Whittier, accompanied by George 
 Thompson (whom he had been hiding from the 
 mob in the seclusion of his East Haverhill home), 
 drove to Plymouth, N. H., and had a most cordial 
 and hospitable reception. Thompson considered 
 Rogers the most brilliant man he had met in 
 America. The friendship thus begun was for a 
 few years (from 1840 to 1846) clouded by the 
 contest to which reference has elsewhere been 
 made, growing out of the fact that Whittier could 
 not follow the policy of Garrison and Rogers, in 
 actively supporting several reforms not neces- 
 sarily connected with the anti-slavery movement, 
 and they could not follow him into the field of 
 politics. But in the early summer of 1846, Mr. 
 Whittier learned that Rogers was ill, had met with 
 losses of property and friends, and he wrote him 
 a letter full of hearty sympathy. To this letter 
 he received a prompt reply, dated Concord, June 8, 
 1846, and a short extract from it may be found 
 in Whittier's tribute to his memory referred to 
 above. 
 
 It will be seen that up to 1847 Mr. Whittier's 
 labors upon nearly all the newspapers he had edited 
 had been interfered with and suspended on ac- 
 count of the delicacy of his health. From none 
 of them had he received a salary exceeding five 
 hundred dollars a year ; and yet he had managed, 
 with the help of small sums paid for his services 
 as secretary of anti-slavery societies, to support 
 
314 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 himself and the family dependent upon him, with- 
 out incurring debt. Neither his books nor his 
 poems had been a source of income to him, al- 
 though his name had become well known through- 
 out the country as a poet, as well as a reformer 
 operating in the field of politics. His eye had 
 been single to the cause he had espoused, and all 
 his powers had been concentrated upon it. The 
 North was ringing with his passionate outbursts 
 against slavery, and the Liberty party he had 
 helped to organize had begun to trouble the old 
 parties, as it was at times holding the balance of 
 power between them. It had been decided by the 
 American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which 
 had not been successful with the newspaper organs 
 it had established in New York, to start a weekly 
 paper in Washington, that should commend itself to 
 the public by its literary as well as its political char- 
 acter. A fund was raised that would insure its pub- 
 lication one year, and the management of it was con- 
 fided to Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, who had been for 
 eleven years editing the Cincinnati " Philanthro- 
 pist," the first anti-slavery paper published in the 
 West, founded by James G. Birney, in 1836. 
 This paper, says Grace Greenwood, was issued 
 with regularity, during mob intervals. Three 
 times its office was sacked, press and types thrown 
 into the Ohio, and all concerned in its publication 
 threatened with outrage and death. In 1841 the 
 city was disgraced by wild pro-slavery riots, the 
 fury of the mob, when presses gave out, being 
 vented on colored people. The fourth press stood, 
 for Salmon P. Chase and Tom Corwin, then gov- 
 
DR. GAMALIEL BAILEY 315 
 
 ernor of the State, stood beside it and protected 
 it. Dr. Bailey began the publication of the " Era " 
 in January, 1847, and the next year he confronted 
 a terrible mob in Washington with the same spirit 
 he had displayed in Cincinnati. For three days 
 his office was besieged, but the city had an efficient 
 mayor, and he was protected. Leading citizens, 
 however, urged the doctor to restore peace to the 
 city and secure his own safety by pledging him- 
 self to discontinue the " Era," and surrender his 
 press to the mob. He refused to surrender any 
 right he possessed as an American citizen. On 
 the night of the third day, his house was besieged. 
 He sent his children and servants to a place of 
 safety, and with his wife confronted the angry 
 populace. When called upon to surrender, he 
 came out upon the front steps and stood there, 
 a fair mark for pistol shots. He said, " I am Dr. 
 Bailey. What is your wish ? " The surrender 
 of his property was demanded, the alternative be- 
 ing a coat of tar and feathers, the materials for 
 which were paraded before him. He asked to be 
 heard in his own defense, and made a speech that 
 completely changed the feeling of the mob. He 
 was not afterwards threatened with violence. 
 
 A position was now offered Mr. Whittier which 
 would permit him to do all his literary work at 
 his home in Amesbury, under conditions more fa- 
 vorable for his health than was possible away from 
 the ministrations of his devoted mother and sister. 
 With his editorial labors, home cares, and other 
 demands, he was very closely occupied, and it is 
 pleasant to find him in the autumn of 1847 taking 
 
316 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 a little rest with his Cartland cousins, at Lee, N. 
 H., whence Elizabeth writes to her cousin Gertrude 
 Whittier: "Just a week ago Greenleaf and I 
 came over here. It is quiet and lovely all about. 
 There was never a season of such glorious fall 
 fruitage, and from my windows the view is beauti- 
 ful the greenness of June crowning these Septem- 
 ber woods and fields. I wish thee could join us this 
 morning, there are so few of us, and I have strong 
 family ties. I should never object to the plan of 
 clanship, only I would like to exclude a few. 
 Greenleaf has a prospect of being at the Buffalo 
 convention, and, as it now seems, thy own great- 
 hearted townsman, John P. Hale, will be our can- 
 didate for the Presidency." 
 
 In September, 1846, at a Whig convention 
 in Faneuil Hall, Stephen C. Phillips offered an 
 anti-slavery resolve which was rejected, and this 
 resolve was defended in a speech by Charles Sum- 
 ner. Whittier wrote his poem " The Pine Tree " 
 immediately upon reading the proceedings of this 
 convention. It contains the lines : 
 
 *' Where 's the man for Massachusetts ! where 's the voice to speak 
 
 her free ? 
 Where 's the hand to light up bonfires from the mountain to the 
 
 sea? 
 
 Beats her Pilgrim pulse no longer ? Sits she dumb in her despair ? 
 Has she none to break the silence ? Has she none to do and dare ? 
 O my God ! for one right worthy to lift up her rusted shield, 
 And to plant again the Pine Tree in her banner's tattered field ! " 
 
 This poem he inclosed in a note to Charles 
 Sumner, which reads as follows : 
 
 " I have just read the proceedings of your Whig 
 convention, and the lines inclosed are a feeble ex- 
 
"THE PINE TREE" 317 
 
 pression of iny feelings. I look upon the rejection 
 of S. C. P.'s resolutions as an evidence that the 
 end and aim of the managers of the convention 
 was to go just far enough to scare the party, and 
 no further. All thanks for the free voices of thy- 
 self, Phillips, Allen, and Adams. Notwithstand- 
 ing the result, you have not spoken in vain. If 
 thee thinks well enough of these verses hand them 
 to the 4 Whig ' or ' Chronotype.' " 
 
 To this letter Sumner replied : 
 
 " We do not despair. We are all alive to wage 
 the fight another day, and feel that more was done 
 than we had hoped to do. Our vote was strong ; 
 but it was at an hour when many had gone home 
 by the early trains, whose presence would have 
 made it stronger. Many who were present did 
 not vote, and they were undoubtedly with us. 
 The ball has been put in motion; it cannot be 
 stopped. Hard words are said of us in State 
 Street. I am grateful to you for your note of en- 
 couragement. The poem is beautiful, and must be 
 printed." 
 
 The following letters, written as he was entering 
 upon his connection with the paper, indicate also 
 his activity in political affairs. 
 
 TO JOHN P. HALE. 
 
 12th mo., 18, 1846. 
 
 We are about starting our " National Era " at 
 Washington, and should be glad of a note of en- 
 couragement from thee. Is it asking too much to 
 request thee to drop me a line, as one of the edi- 
 tors, to this effect ? We shall have similar letters 
 
318 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 from others for our first number. We mean to 
 make the paper worthy of the best of causes, 
 the cause of humanity, the Democracy of the New 
 Testament. So the pro-slavery Democrats have 
 troubles yet in their Israel. Who is Esquire 
 Marston ? Is he a man to stick to his point and 
 show fight? . . . Webster and his two hopeful 
 sons, I see, are going for the war. Your New 
 Hampshire Whigs were in too much of a hurry to 
 nominate him. 
 
 TO ANN E. WENDELL. 
 
 2d mo., 21, 1847. 
 
 What a sad state of things in Ireland! We 
 have been trying to do something in this region. 
 Our little meeting here has raised about fifty dol- 
 lars. The people of other denominations are also 
 moving. The cheerfulness with which almost 
 everybody contributes to this object looks well for 
 human nature. Oh, surely there is good in all; 
 the hardest heart is not wholly stone. The heart 
 that can sympathize with human suffering and 
 yearn to relieve it cannot be wholly depraved. 
 The longer I live, I see the evil in myself in a 
 clearer light, and more that is good in others ; 
 and if I do not grow better, I am constrained to 
 be more charitable. I shudder sometimes at my 
 fierce rebukes of erring-doers, when I consider 
 my own weakness and sins of omission as well 
 as commission. . . . Our paper at Washington 
 [the "National Era"] will doubtless succeed. I 
 should have gone on this winter but for the state 
 of my health, and the difficulty of leaving home 
 on my mother's account. I write but little for it, 
 
LETTERS TO JOHN P. HALE 319 
 
 and have not been able to revise or correct that 
 little. But, if in the Providence of God I am not 
 to do much more for the cause of freedom, I am 
 deeply grateful for the privilege I have enjoyed of 
 giving the strength of my youth and manhood to ito 
 The cause is destined to triumph ; and present ap- 
 pearances indicate that the triumph is near. . . . 
 The action of the Pennsylvania legislature in rela- 
 tion to fugitive slaves is most gratifying. The 
 exertions of the Committee of the Meeting for 
 Sufferings undoubtedly contributed much to this 
 result. Oh, that our Friends generally would feel 
 their great responsibility in this matter. They 
 have influence sufficient to change the whole legis- 
 lation of the country, if it was only fully exercised. 
 ... I have of late been able to write but little, 
 and that mostly for the papers, and I have scarcely 
 answered a letter for a month past. I dread to 
 touch a pen. Whenever I do it increases the dull 
 wearing pain in my head, which I am scarcely 
 ever free from. ... I was very sorry to hear of 
 thy mother's illness. Mother ! how much there is 
 in that word ! If there is one earthly blessing for 
 which more than another I feel thankful, it is that 
 she is still spared to me to whom I can apply that 
 endearing name. 
 
 TO JOHN P. HALE. 
 
 30th 7th mo., 1847. 
 
 Inclosed is a letter prepared and signed by a 
 committee chosen at our conference the other day 
 at East Boston. Farther reflection has convinced 
 me that so far from throwing obstacles in thy way 
 in the Senate the nomination would give a much 
 
320 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 stronger position, and besides it would have the 
 effect to set at rest the stories of the Radicals and 
 the fears of some of the Independent Democrats in 
 other States, that thou art playing into the hands 
 of the Whigs ; and thus thou wouldst be able to 
 act more effectively upon the people, irrespective 
 of party. As for the Whigs, depend upon it they 
 will have no cause of dissatisfaction, if they see 
 that thy new position enables thee more effectively 
 to act upon the pro-slavery Democracy. Show 
 them this, and they will not complain. I am 
 naturally anxious that thy answer should be such 
 a one as shall render the vote for thee in our con- 
 vention entirely unanimous. It will not be pub- 
 lished, but will be used at the convention, and sent 
 in manuscript to a few of our leading friends in 
 other States. 
 
 Pardon me for a suggestion or two. It is im- 
 portant that it should be understood that thou art 
 disconnected entirely from the two old parties ; at 
 the same time it would be right and proper for 
 thee to avow thy Democratic faith in the doctrines 
 of Jefferson, Leggett, and Sedgwick the true 
 and righteous democracy of Christianity. In re- 
 gard to thy anti-slavery views : Perhaps if thou 
 wast to copy the principal resolutions of the New- 
 market convention, held a year ago, as expressive 
 of thy sentiments, it would be well. Thee might 
 close by avowing these as thy principles, and 
 that if they coincide with those of the gentlemen 
 addressing thee, and their friends generally, they 
 are at liberty to use thy name at the convention. 
 I take it for granted that thy answer will be favor- 
 
LETTERS TO JOHN P. HALE 321 
 
 able. The whole West will be shaken by thy 
 nomination. Dr. Bailey is sure of great accessions 
 from the Democratic and Whig ranks. We will 
 try for twenty thousand votes in Massachusetts 
 alone, and unless all indications are fallacious shall 
 get them. If agreeable to thee, I will ride over to 
 Dover with friend Tuck, at such time as may 
 suit thy convenience only let it be soon as possi- 
 ble and we can see thy answer, and perhaps 
 make some suggestions previous to its being sent. 
 Or, I will meet thee at the Cartlands' at Lee ; or, 
 still better, wilt thou not ride over to Amesbury ? 
 . . . The Whigs of New Hampshire, if they are 
 looking for anything better than a slaveholder for 
 candidate, will be disappointed. Taylor will be 
 urged by the hurrah boys of both parties, at the 
 North and by the entire South. I have more hope 
 of the Democrats than of the Whigs in the coming 
 election. They are bolder, freer, and less influ- 
 enced by conservatism. Still the young Whigs of 
 Massachusetts and Ohio will unquestionably vote 
 the Liberty ticket, with thee as the candidate. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 2d 10th mo., 1847. 
 
 Ere this I suppose the result of the convention 
 at Buffalo has reached thee. If not already, thou 
 wilt soon be officially informed of it, when it will 
 be expected of thee that thy position will be de- 
 fined. In thy case, the boldest course is the safest. 
 The Whigs are training Corwin and McLean to 
 go as far as possible towards Liberty principles 
 without actually reaching them. They will strive 
 
322 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 to make it appear that they are more ultra than 
 the anti-slavery candidate himself. On the other 
 hand, the New York and western Democrats are 
 preparing to bring out either Benton or C. C. 
 Cambreling, or John A. Dix, as the opponent of 
 slavery extension. The two latter are prepared to 
 go great lengths in denunciation of slavery. The 
 Whigs of New Hampshire will as readily go for 
 an ultra-abolitionist, as a half one, while they 
 would be glad of the excuse for going for Cor win 
 or Judge McLean, that they were ready to go far- 
 ther than thyself in opposition to slavery. A bold, 
 thorough-going letter at this time from thy pen 
 would awaken too deep an interest and enthusiasm 
 among all classes of anti-slavery men to be set 
 aside by the stratagems of the two old parties. I 
 trust thee will not permit thyself to be troubled 
 with " constitutional " difficulties. The Constitution 
 has been a mere ruse of war in the hands of Slav- 
 ery for half a century. It has been made to say and 
 be just what the South wished. We must take it 
 out of the custody of slavery, and construe it in the 
 light of Liberty, " as we understand it." We 
 must bring it up out of the land of bondage, just 
 as David did the ark from the Philistines to Obed- 
 Edom. At all events, with the Constitution, or 
 without the Constitution, Slavery must die. If, 
 however, on full reflection, thou art not prepared 
 to take the difficult and trying position proffered 
 thee, I would not ask thee to accept the nomina- 
 tion. If it seems on the whole better and wiser 
 for thee to enter the Senate entirely independent 
 of all parties, I would not urge thee to take upon 
 
LETTERS TO JOHN P. HALE 323 
 
 thyself the responsibility we offer thee. I am 
 sorry the nomination was made this fall. At our 
 Essex County meeting, held the week before, I 
 procured the passage of a resolution suggesting 
 that deference should be had to the opinion of our 
 friends in New Hampshire and Ohio in respect to 
 deferring the nomination, and wrote the conven- 
 tion to that effect, being unable to attend. I have 
 volunteered this hasty letter from motives which 
 I trust thou wilt appreciate. Were I not confined 
 by ill health to my house, I should try to see thee. 
 As it is, I could do no less than drop thee a line 
 expressive of my feelings. Thy letter will be 
 looked for with great interest. If it is, as I trust 
 it will be, bold, pointed, and explicit, if it not 
 only sustains the Wilmot Proviso, but, looking be- 
 yond that temporary measure, aims at the life of 
 slavery itself, and points out the duty of the Free 
 States in this crisis, to make the anti-slavery ques- 
 tion first and paramount, it will rally a mighty 
 host of true hearts around thee as Liberty's stand- 
 ard-bearer. If it fall short of this, it will be 
 greatly to be regretted, and by no one more sin- 
 cerely, both as respects thyself and the cause, than 
 by thy sincere friend. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 llth 8th mo., 1847. 
 
 I wrote thee a hasty line the other day with 
 reference to the Buffalo nomination. I sincerely 
 hope thou wilt not feel thyself called upon to de- 
 cline that nomination. Since I wrote thee I have 
 had letters from New York and elsewhere, all 
 
324 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 highly animated, and encouraging as to the pros- 
 pect of a large vote in 1848. Everywhere the 
 nomination is received with enthusiasm by the 
 Liberty men ; and many influential Whigs and 
 Democrats are regarding it with favor. The 
 " Era" of last week contains an article originating 
 in a Democratic paper in New York, and which 
 has been copied into several other prints of the 
 same stamp, suggesting that it would be well for the 
 Democracy of the North to rally under thy nomi- 
 nation. Everything, in short, looks favorable, be- 
 yond our hopes. Our election took place to-day. 
 When I left the polls the governor vote was not 
 declared. That for representative in Amesbury 
 stood, Liberty 103, Whig 99, Democratic 87. 
 The Gushing vote will be small. 
 
 Mr. Whittier began his work as corresponding 
 editor of the " National Era " with the first 
 number issued, and continued in this position until 
 1860, a few months after the death of his associate 
 and friend, Dr. Bailey. During the first years of 
 his connection with the "Era "his contributions 
 were to be found in nearly every number, and re- 
 lated to a great variety of subjects. They included 
 poems that are still regarded as his best ; reviews 
 of work of his brother authors ; comments upon 
 public affairs, sometimes quite elaborate ; letters 
 from Amesbury and Boston about the progress of 
 the cause in New England ; and quaint and curi- 
 ous results of antiquarian research. He did not 
 occupy any particular department, but his articles 
 were scattered about the paper, in editorial or other 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE "ERA" 325 
 
 columns, as it might happen, usually signed with 
 his initials. The first number contained his noble 
 tribute to " Randolph of Roanoke," a sketch of 
 the life of Thomas Ellwood, and a letter from 
 Amesbury, dealing with New Hampshire politics 
 and rejoicing in the gallant and successful fight of 
 John P. Hale. He likened Hale to the brave- 
 hearted Indian, Hiarcormes, who trampled on the 
 sacred medicine bag, and thus broke the spell of 
 the medicine man who was frightening the con- 
 verts of Eliot back to idolatry. " Hale's experi- 
 ment was in its way equal to that of old Hiar- 
 cormes. Slavery has come to be regarded a very 
 sacred and democratic institution, to interfere with 
 which was to incur political death. Hale has 
 rudely touched it, and still lives." 
 
 There is occasionally a number of the " Era " 
 that contains eight or nine columns of Mr. Whit- 
 tier's writing. One after another he introduces 
 to the public, with eulogistic comment, young 
 writers who have since become popular favorites. 
 Now it is a good word for Lucy Larcom, then for 
 Alice and Phoebe Gary, Grace Greenwood, and 
 others. These became regular contributors to the 
 "Era." His life-long friendship for Bayard 
 Taylor had its origin in his copying " The Norse- 
 man's Ride " from the " Democratic Review " (in 
 which it had appeared anonymously), prefacing 
 it with hearty commendation. He did not then 
 know the name of the writer he was praising, nor 
 could he have guessed that his notice would be the 
 beginning of a long and happy friendship. 
 
 We find among the papers Mr. Whittier pre- 
 
326 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 served with care the first letter he received from 
 his young friend, whose work he had praised, 
 written from Phoenixville, Pa., September 16, 
 1847 : 
 
 I know you will understand the feeling which 
 prompts me, though a stranger, to address you, and. 
 pardon any liberties I may have taken in so doing. 
 I was surprised and delighted a few weeks ago to 
 see in the " National Era," in connection with a 
 notice of the old Northern mythology, a poem of 
 mine, "The Norseman's Ride," which was pub- 
 lished last winter in the " Democratic Review." 
 I am an enthusiastic admirer of the stirring Scan- 
 dinavian Sagas, some of which Tegner has immor- 
 talized in his Frithiof ; and it was under the full 
 influence of the spirit inspired by them that the 
 poem was written. I was possessed by the sub- 
 ject and fancied I had given it fitting expression, 
 but the friends to whom I showed it did not 
 admire it, and I reluctantly concluded that my 
 heated fancies had led my judgment astray, and 
 made up my mind to forget it. Judge, then, how 
 grateful and encouraging was your generous com- 
 mendation. I thank you sincerely and from my 
 heart for the confidence your words have given me. 
 One day, I hope, I shall be able to take your hand, 
 and tell you what happiness it is to be understood 
 by one whom the world calls by the sacred name 
 of poet. With every wish for your happiness and 
 prosperity, I am, with sincere respect and esteem, 
 
 Your friend, J. BAYARD TAYLOR. 
 
WEBSTER AND "ICHABOD" 327 
 
 In examining files of the " Era " we come fre- 
 quently upon poems that were adding steadily and 
 cumulatively to the reputation of their author, like 
 "Barclay of Ury," "Angels of Buena Vista," 
 "Maud Muller," "Angel of Patience," "The 
 Crisis," "The Hill-Top," "A Sabbath Scene," 
 "Burns," "Mary Garvin," " Tauler," "The Her- 
 mit's Chapel " (afterwards called " Chapel of the 
 Hermits"), and "The Prisoners of Naples." A 
 few weeks after Webster's 7th of March 
 speech, the terrible poem " Ichabod " is seen at 
 the head of a conspicuous column. That number 
 of the " Era " (May 2, 1850) must have caused 
 a sensation in Washington. Daniel Webster re- 
 sponded to it indirectly by a letter to certain citi- 
 zens of Newburyport, in reply to an address by 
 Horace Mann. In this letter he said that the 
 views expressed in his 7th of March speech were 
 approved by the great body of the Society of 
 Friends. Whittier's reply to the claim is in the 
 " Era " of June 20, and in it he makes peremp- 
 tory denial of the statement, and brings forward 
 conclusive proof that the Quakers as a body disap- 
 prove of Webster's position. In this article he 
 speaks for the Friends in New England, and in 
 the next paper he says : 
 
 " It has been suggested, that whatever might be 
 our opinion, or that of the Friends of New Eng- 
 land, we had no right to speak for those of Penn- 
 sylvania, to whom the author of the letter may be 
 supposed to refer more immediately. W r e have, 
 however, abundant proofs of the correctness of our 
 statement, as applied to Pennsylvania Friends. 
 
328 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 It is notorious that for tlie last half century the 
 latter have been the friends and advisers of the 
 colored people ; and whenever a slave case was 
 before the courts of law they have been found 
 standing between the oppressors and the op- 
 pressed; and when the decision was against the 
 latter, they have submitted only with the deepest 
 sympathy for the slave, and abhorrence of the law 
 which consigned him to hopeless bondage." 
 
 He quotes Webster's assertion that fugitives are 
 arrested and carried away into slavery from Penn- 
 sylvania without complaint or excitement, and 
 shows by extracts from Quaker periodicals and 
 minutes of the Yearly Meeting that the Friends in 
 that State were profoundly stirred by the attempt 
 to repeal the state law granting jury trial to fugi- 
 tive slaves. His two years' residence in Pennsyl- 
 vania had qualified him to speak for that State as 
 well as Massachusetts. 
 
 Mr. Whittier's second visit to Washington was 
 in December, 1845, when, in company with Henry 
 Wilson, he was delegated by a Liberty party con- 
 vention to carry to Congress a petition containing 
 60,000 names against the annexation of Texas. 
 It was after a visit to a slave prison in that city 
 that he wrote the poem " At Washington." 
 
 He again visited Washington in February, 
 1848, and a few days before the death of John 
 Quincy Adams had an interview with that states- 
 man, of which he gave some account in the " Era " 
 of April 13. Adams said he longed to see our 
 government take a step which would place a seal 
 of national disapprobation on the institution of 
 
LETTER TO CHARLES SUMNER 329 
 
 slavery. On the 23d of February, the very day of 
 the death of Adams, Whittier wrote to Charles 
 Sumner from Washington as follows : 
 
 " Ere this thou hast doubtless heard of the sud- 
 den illness of the venerable Adams. At a late 
 hour last night he was still living, but sinking fast. 
 I have not heard this morning. His death will be 
 the fitting end of such a glorious life. Falling at 
 his post, dying with his harness on, in the capitol 
 so often shaken by his noble battle for freedom ! 
 My eyes fill with tears, but the emotion is not 
 unmingled with a feeling of joy that such a man 
 should thus pass from us. A few days ago I had 
 a highly interesting conversation with him. All 
 his old vigor seemed to reanimate him when he 
 touched the subject of slavery. I shall never for- 
 get that interview. Even if now living, he cannot 
 survive through the day. . . . An election will of 
 course take place in his district. There is a feel- 
 ing among our friends here that his place should 
 be worthily filled. Who so proper, then, as his 
 son, Charles Francis Adams ? He is virtually a 
 resident of the district. Think of it, dear S., 
 think what a glorious thing it would be to see the 
 vacant seat of the elder Adams so well filled. . . . 
 Look at the article in the ' Era' this week on 
 Yucatan. I have had an opportunity to acquaint 
 myself with the object of the Yucatan commis- 
 sioner. Cannot the fact of the rejection of his 
 overtures for the admission of a free State be 
 used in favor of liberty, and against the dough- 
 faces of the North ?" 
 
 The article upon Yucatan to which reference is 
 
330 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 made affirms that the administration turned a 
 cold shoulder upon Yucatan, because the constitu- 
 tion of that State prohibits slavery. After his 
 return to Amesbury, in March, 1848, Mr. Whit- 
 tier wrote in commendation of a letter by Horace 
 Mann, then member of Congress from Massachu- 
 setts, saying he does not know Mann, and asking 
 if he is really all that his letter indicates. Sum- 
 ner's reply must have been satisfactory, for Whit- 
 tier writes : 
 
 " I am glad to hear thy report of Horace Mann. 
 I trust he will equal thy hopes. . . . What a glori- 
 ous change in the Old World. I feel almost like 
 going to France myself, and would if I could do 
 anything more than gratify my own feelings by so 
 doing. The position of Lamartine, Arago, and 
 their colleagues, is a sublime one, but its respon- 
 sibility is terrible. My friend Joseph Sturge, of 
 Birmingham, who has just returned from a visit to 
 Paris, places great confidence in them. He writes 
 me that they are determined to put an end to 
 slavery at once. He found them busily at work, 
 greatly worn and prostrated by their severe and 
 protracted labors. The sympathy of all friends of 
 liberty should be with them. I wish our legisla- 
 ture, in its congratulations of France, would spe- 
 cially allude to the abolition of slavery. I have 
 not seen whether the resolves have passed or not. 
 6 Hale's proviso ' ought to be attached to them." 1 
 
 1 When the United States Senate was considering the resolu- 
 tions congratulating" France upon securing a republican form of 
 government, in April, 1848, Senator Hale moved to insert a clause 
 commending the French government for ' ' manifesting the sincer- 
 ity of their purpose by instituting measures for the immediate 
 
LETTER TO CHARLES SUMNER 331 
 
 Here is an earnest letter of advice given in the 
 political crisis of 1848, when the Whig party was 
 divided over the nomination of Zachary Taylor. 
 The " Cotton " Whigs went for Taylor, and the 
 "Conscience " Whigs had called a convention to 
 decide upon the course they should adopt. Whit- 
 tier wrote tojSumner from Amesbury, June 20 : 
 
 " In the mean time, what will the New York 
 Barnburners do ? Is there no hope of uniting 
 with them, and erecting on the ruins of the old 
 parties the great party of Christian Democracy 
 and Progress ? Why try to hold on to these old 
 parties, even in name ? ... It strikes me that it 
 would be best not to make a nomination at 
 Worcester, but to appoint delegates to a general 
 convention of the friends of Freedom and Free 
 Soil, without distinction of party, the time and 
 place of which not to be fixed before consultation 
 with friends of the movement in other States. 
 Don't stultify yourselves by boasting of your 
 Whiggery. That died when Taylor was nomi- 
 nated. Judge Allen is right : the Whig party is 
 dissolved. Let your emancipated friends now 
 rise to the sublime altitude of men who labor for 
 the race, for humanity. Send out from your con- 
 vention, if you will, a long and careful statement 
 of the facts in the case, but with it also an appeal 
 to the people which shall reach and waken into 
 
 emancipation of the slaves in all the colonies of the republic." 
 The American Senate, at this time, was hardly in the mood to 
 consider this proposition seriously. Samuel S. Phelps, of Ver- 
 mont, was the only Senator who stood by Hale in voting- for it. 
 This was the " proviso " to which Whittier referred in his letter 
 to Sumner, as one that the state legislature ought to adopt. 
 
332 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 vigorous life all that remains of weakness in the 
 North. Kindle up the latent enthusiasm of the 
 Yankee character, call out the grim fanaticism of 
 the Puritan. Dare ! dare ! DARE ! as Danton told 
 the French ; that is the secret of successful revolt. 
 Oh, for a man ! There is the difficulty, after all. 
 Who is to head the movement ? Hale has many 
 of the martial qualities of a leader. As a stump 
 orator he is second only to John Van Buren, who, 
 by the bye, I would far rather see in nomination 
 for the Presidency than his father, or Judge Mc- 
 Lean. It would be folly and suicide to nominate a 
 shrinking conservative, whose heart is not with 
 you, and whom you must drag up to your level by 
 main force. . . . You must have a new and bold 
 man, one to whom old notions and practices on the 
 question of slavery are like threads of tow., break-, 
 ing with the first movement of his limbs. But 
 this advice, however well-meant on my part, is 
 doubtless not needed. You have strong and noble 
 men, Adams, Howe, Phillips, Wilson, Hoar, 
 Allen, and others. I only wish you had the power 
 of the French provisional government ; I could 
 answer for the wisdom of your decrees." 
 In his reply to this letter Sumner said : 
 " Things tend to Van Buren as our candidate ; 
 I am willing to take him. With him we can break 
 the slave power : that is our first aim. We can 
 have a direct issue on the subject of slavery. We 
 hope that McLean will be Yice-President. Truly, 
 success seems to be within our reach. I never 
 supposed that I should belong to a successful 
 party." 
 
LETTER TO DR. WM. F. CHANNING 333 
 
 On the 6th of December, 1848, Sumner wrote 
 to Whittier, whose poem "The Wish of To-Day " 
 had just appeared in the " Era : " 
 
 " Your poem in the last ' Era ' has touched my 
 heart. May God preserve you in strength and 
 courage for all good works ! . . . The literature 
 of the world is turning against slavery. We shall 
 have it soon in a state of moral blockade. I 
 admire Dr. Bailey as an editor very much. His 
 articles show infinite sagacity and tact. . . . But I 
 took my pen merely to inquire after your health. 
 There are few to whom I would allot a larger 
 measure of the world's blessings than to yourself, 
 had I any control, for there are few who deserve 
 them more/' 
 
 The attitude taken by Whittier in the strait 
 through which the political movement against slav- 
 ery passed in the formation of the Free Soil party, 
 at the time of the Buffalo convention of 1848, is 
 shown in the following letter to Dr. Win. F. 
 Channing, who was an alternate delegate from 
 Boston to the convention. It was dated July 1, 
 1848. Whittier's suggestion that Channing should 
 write to Van Buren was adopted, but the wily ex- 
 President made no reply : 
 
 " Providence permitting, I will be with you on 
 the 19th. In the mean time I can only add that I 
 cannot vote for Van Buren in his present attitude, 
 yet I greatly fear that the Buffalo convention will 
 affirm his nomination, and that Hale will decline, 
 as indeed he has a right to do when his party aban- 
 don him. What can be done ? Van Buren is too 
 old a sinner to hope for his conversion. Had the 
 
334 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 Barnburners nominated John Van Buren, I would 
 have gone for him, for he is not bound to vindi- 
 cate his consistency in evil, and he is a man of 
 progress. Even now, if the Conscience Whigs so 
 will it, he might be substituted for his father, and 
 thus all parties might unite. I see no other way. 
 As things now stand we are likely to lose our can- 
 didate, for self-respect alone and self-preservation 
 would induce him to withdraw his name from a di- 
 vided and dissolving party. 
 
 " Would it not be well for some one I think 
 thee are the very person to do it to address an 
 earnest letter to Martin Van Buren, stating the 
 strong desire felt to effect a union of all parties 
 opposed to the usurpations of slavery putting 
 the question plainly to him whether he is willing 
 and prepared to stand at the head of such a move- 
 ment, and give his sanction to all legal and con- 
 stitutional means for the limitation and overthrow 
 of slavery. Write to him in behalf of eighty 
 thousand Liberty voters. It is important that we 
 should know positively how he stands. The 
 Whigs generally, I think, will prefer Van Buren 
 to Hale, strange as it may seem. For one, I can- 
 not and will not go blindly and rashly into the sup- 
 port of such a candidate as Van Buren let Con- 
 science Whigs and Western Liberty men do as 
 they will." 
 
 TO MOSES A. CARTLAND. 
 
 27th 7th mo., 1848. 
 
 I would like to go to the Buffalo convention, but 
 my health forbids the idea. What will be done 
 there ? I would go for Van Buren if Hale de- 
 
LETTER TO GRACE GREENWOOD 335 
 
 cline if he would come out in favor of abolition 
 in the District of Columbia. But I will never vote 
 for him until I know that he has taken a new posi- 
 tion on that point. How we should look if Van 
 Buren were elected by our votes, and should veto 
 a bill to abolish the most infernal slave market 
 this side of Tophet ! No, no. . I will vote alone be- 
 fore I will so stultify myself and disgrace the 
 cause. I give Van Buren all due credit for his 
 stand against the extension of slavery ; but if we 
 may judge by his own letter, while all the world 
 has been making progress in liberal principles, 
 he remains just where he was in 1836. If the 
 Buffalo convention are wise they will nominate 
 John P. Hale ; or if not, compel Van Buren or his 
 friends for him to define his position. After hav- 
 ing been brayed in the mortar of slavery he must 
 be stupider than Solomon's fool if he is still dis- 
 posed to act the part of a " Northern man with 
 Southern principles." The Free Soil movement 
 the animus of it the spirit and life which it 
 infuses into the people is indeed glorious. I 
 hope much from it, and will do all I can to urge it 
 forward. How nobly Hale behaves ! His last 
 speech is spoken of as admirable in the New York 
 papers. I wish the Barnburners could be induced 
 to go for him. 
 
 TO GRACE GREENWOOD. 
 
 5th mo., 10, 1849. 
 
 We have had a dreary spring a gray haze in 
 the sky a dim, beam-shorn sun a wind from 
 the northeast, cold as if sifted through all the ices 
 of frozen Labrador, as terrible almost as that chill 
 
336 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 wind which the old Moslem fable says will blow 
 over the earth in the last days. The birds here- 
 about have a sorry time of it, as well as " humans." 
 There are now, however, indications of a change 
 for the better. The blossoms of the peach and 
 cherry are just opening, and the arbutus, anemones, 
 and yellow violets are making glad and beautiful 
 the banks of our river. I feel daily like thanking 
 God for the privilege of looking upon another spring. 
 I have written very little this spring, the " Le- 
 gend of St. Mark " is all in the line of verse that I 
 have attempted. I feel a growing disinclination to 
 pen and ink. Over- worked and tired by the long 
 weary years of the anti-slavery struggle, I want 
 mental rest. I have already lived a long life, if 
 thought and action constitute it. I have crowded 
 into a few years what should have been given to 
 many. 
 
 In 1849, Joseph Sturge, the eminent English 
 philanthropist, proposed to Mr. Whittier through 
 Lewis Tappan that he visit England, offering to 
 pay all the expenses of the journey. Mr. Whittier 
 replied to Mr. Tappan, under date of July 14, 
 1849: 
 
 " I have been spending some weeks in the north- 
 ern part of New Hampshire, and thy kind note 
 relative to our friend Sturge' s proposition, re- 
 ceives my earliest notice on my return. I wish it 
 were possible for me to avail myself of so gener- 
 ous an offer ; but in my present very weak state 
 of health, I could be of no real service to the cause, 
 without making exertions to which my strength is 
 
LETTER TO LEWIS TAPPAN 337 
 
 inadequate. If I could visit Europe as a mere 
 looker-on, careless and indifferent in respect to 
 the great questions which agitate it, I might possi- 
 bly be benefited by it. But this I cannot do, and 
 I can ill bear any additional excitement. But ? 
 believe me, I feel none the less grateful to our 
 dear and generous friend Sturge, and to thyself 
 for your kindness. 
 
 " I am glad to hear that thou art now a ' free 
 laborer ' in the cause of freedom, and peace, and 
 humanity. I have often marveled at the vast 
 amount of labor performed by thee in addition to 
 thy daily and engrossing business, in behalf of 
 these objects ; and for thy sake as well as for 
 theirs, I am glad thou art able to bear what 
 Charles Lamb calls ' the dull drudgery of the 
 desk's hard wood.' Thou wilt, I apprehend, find 
 no lack of occupation. The church is not yet 
 right on the question of slavery. The nominal 
 orthodoxy of the land has sorely suffered through 
 the conduct of its leaders in opposing the cause of 
 practical righteousness. No man can do more 
 than thyself to change this state of things. The 
 Free Mission movement has already done immense 
 good ; the old boards will all be compelled soon to 
 take the same ground and maintain it. 
 
 " Then in the matter of political action, strong 
 as is my confidence in the good intentions of the 
 great mass of Free Soilers, and well satisfied as I 
 am with the result of their labors thus far, I am 
 not without fear that they may be drawn into some 
 unworthy compromise. We need all thy vigilance 
 and wisdom to keep us straight in the line of prin- 
 
338 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 ciple. I do not fear for the integrity of the old 
 Liberty men, the mob-tried, church-censured con- 
 fessors of '35 and '36. They may get off the track 
 now and then, but their instincts will set them 
 right. But we are now all abolitionists ; it is as 
 difficult to find an open pro-slavery man now as 
 it was in '33 to find an anti-slavery one ; yet I 
 have scarcely charity enough to suppose that this 
 marvelous conversion is altogether genuine and 
 heartfelt. The responsibilities of the cause never 
 rested heavier on the genuine old-fashioned aboli- 
 tionists than at this time. I feel extremely anx- 
 ious about the result of the attempt to unite the 
 Barnburners with the old Hunkers in your State. 
 If they can come together on the basis of the Ver- 
 mont resolutions I shall hope for the best. 
 
 " The next Congress will settle the California 
 and New Mexico question. I look forward with 
 hope not wholly unmingled with fear. Can thee 
 not spend a few weeks at Washington this winter ? 
 Depend upon it, there will be ample opportunity 
 for the profitable exercise of all thy powers. Dr. 
 Bailey [of the ' National Era '] is confined to his 
 office ; there must be some one always there to 
 supply the members with necessary facts, for they 
 are all sadly ignorant in this matter. But alas, I 
 am laying out work for others, while I am myself 
 well-nigh powerless ! What Providence has in 
 store for me I know not, but my heart is full of 
 thankfulness that I have been permitted to do 
 something for the cause of humanity, and that 
 with all my sins and errors I have not been suf- 
 fered to live wholly for myself. 
 
"UNCLE TOM'S CABIN" 339 
 
 " I saw the Rogers family at Plymouth. They 
 spoke of thee with affectionate warmth. Kind, 
 gifted, amiable, they have all the pleasant traits of 
 their father ; but the conduct of some of the 
 church and clergy in respect to him has made 
 them skeptical, and prejudiced them against the 
 forms of religious observances." 
 
 In 1848, after the Buffalo convention that nom- 
 inated Van Buren, the Liberty party had high 
 hopes from the division of the Democratic party in 
 New York, and Whittier wrote his " Paean " with 
 the feeling that the North was at last thoroughly 
 aroused, and that the encroachments of slavery 
 would be stopped. But it was found that the 
 North was not quite ready for a full revolt. It 
 was necessary to fill the measure of its humiliation 
 by the passage of the fugitive slave law ; and even 
 that was not enough, as the event proved. 
 
 The " Era " had become self-supporting in the 
 first year of its existence. Some of its readers ob- 
 jected to the stories, sketches of travel, and poems 
 that had no reference to the cause in which they 
 were interested, but Dr. Bailey informed them 
 that it was this literary element that kept the en- 
 terprise afloat, and he should continue to draw 
 upon it. Of course, there was no complaint from 
 any anti-slavery reader, while " Uncle Tom's Cabin, 
 or Life among the Lowly," was appearing as a 
 serial, in 1851-52. Even readers principled 
 against novels could not resist the fascination of 
 that remarkable story, which was coining out in 
 weekly installments, while the operations of the 
 fugitive slave law were exciting a deep feeling of 
 
840 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 indignation throughout the North. Whittier's 
 charming sketch of character and manners in 
 the ancient times of New England, which, while it 
 was appearing in the "Era," had for its title, 
 " Stray Leaves from Margaret Smith's Diary, in 
 the Colony of Massachusetts," was published as a 
 serial in 1848, and was reprinted in book form in 
 1849, with the title " Margaret Smith's Journal." 
 While this volume was in press, Mr. Whittier 
 wrote the following letter to J. T. Fields, in re- 
 gard to a proposed portrait of Rebecca Eawson, 
 and the matter of following the ancient system of 
 capitalization, which had been adopted in the ori- 
 ginal publication of the work as a serial in the 
 " Era," but was discarded in the book. The let- 
 ter was dated December 12, 1848 : 
 
 " I send herewith the engraving of R. Rawson, 
 taken after her abandonment by her husband. 
 She was about twenty-one when married, and about 
 thirty-five when she died. The picture represents 
 her at the latter age. As an authentic picture of 
 the heroine of the 4 Journal ' it might be well to 
 have it in the book. I begin to have some fears 
 that the capitals will be a little too thick for a 
 handsome page. It was not an invariable rule to 
 use them at that time in fact there was no rule 
 about it. You can scarce find two books of the 
 middle of the seventeenth century alike in spelling 
 and lettering. Just get a proof of one or two 
 pages, and see how it looks. If it is likely to dis- 
 figure the page, strike out most of them, and let 
 us Lave the more important words capitalized." 
 
 As originally published in the " Era," the episode 
 
"MARGARET SMITH'S JOURNAL" 841 
 
 of the wandering Milesian schoolmaster, O'Shane, 
 with his ballad " Kathleen," does not appear in 
 this story. It was sent to Mr. Fields to be in- 
 serted when the book was in press, and three of the 
 best stanzas were an afterthought, as will be seen 
 by the following letter, dated January 3, 1849 : 
 " That rascally old ballad occurred to my mind 
 last evening, and it struck me that it wanted some- 
 thing, although already too long. The following 
 verses might do to follow (I quote from memory) 
 the verse 
 
 " ' He tore his beard so gray ; 
 But he was old and she was young, 
 And so she had her way ' 
 
 "Sure that same night the Banshee howled 
 
 To fright the evil dame, 
 And fairy folks who loved Kathleen 
 With funeral torches came. 
 
 " She watched them gleaming through the trees, 
 
 And glimmering down the hill ; 
 They crept before the dead-vault door, 
 And then they all stood still ! 
 
 " ' Get up, old man ! the wake-lights shine ! ' 
 
 ' Ye murthering witch,' quoth he, 
 * So I 'm rid of your tongue I little care 
 If they shine for you or me ! ' ' 
 
 I think there is a touch of nature old Adam's 
 in the last verse, but if it is too late let it pass. 
 . . . The weather this morning is cold enough for 
 an Esquimaux purgatory terrible." 
 
 Soon after the publication of " Margaret Smith's 
 Journal," in March, 1849, Eev. Theodore Parker 
 wrote the following letter to Mr. Whittier : 
 
342 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 " Your little book of ' Leaves from Margaret 
 Smith's Journal ' emboldens me to write and ask 
 you if you would not furnish for the ' Massachusetts 
 Quarterly Review ' a paper on the Servants, i. e., 
 the White Slaves, which our fathers brought to 
 New England, or otherwise acquired, and held in 
 most wicked bondage. I know how well you have 
 studied the subject of our early history, and sup- 
 pose that it would not be so laborious for you as for 
 me to do the work. The subject is new ; the matter 
 little known, little thought of, yet it is interesting 
 and highly important. If you will be good enough 
 to inform me whether you will do so or not, you 
 will much oblige me. I should not want the paper 
 before the middle of October." 
 
 Mr. Whittier was unable to furnish the article 
 called for. But twenty years later, in "Mar- 
 guerite," and in the preface he prepared for that 
 poem, he has referred to the subject, and also 
 in a letter he wrote in regard to " Evangeline." 
 Before Longfellow considered the matter of writ- 
 ing " Evangeline," Whittier had made a study 
 of the history of the banishment of the Acadians, 
 and had intended to write upon it, but he put it 
 off until he found that Hawthorne was thinking 
 about it, and had suggested it to Longfellow. 
 After the appearance of "Evangeline," Mr. Whit- 
 tier was glad of his delay, for he said : 
 
 " Longfellow was just the one to write it. If I 
 had attempted it I should have spoiled the artistic 
 effect of the poem by my indignation at the treat- 
 ment of the exiles by the Colonial Government, 
 who had a very hard lot after coming to this coun- 
 
LITERARY STRENGTH OF THE "ERA" 343 
 
 try. Families were separated and scattered about, 
 only a few of them being permitted to remain in 
 any given locality. The children were bound out 
 to the families in the localities in which they re- 
 sided, and I wrote a poem upon finding, in the 
 records of Haverhill, the indenture that bound an 
 Acadian girl as a servant in one of the families of 
 that neighborhood. Gathering the story of her 
 death I wrote fc Marguerite.' ' 
 
 The biographical sketches entitled " Old Por- 
 traits " were among Mr. Whittier's contributions 
 to the " National Era," and also some of the pa- 
 pers included in his " Literary Recreations." 
 During his connection with this paper he furnished 
 nearly ninety poems, which, as Mr. Underwood 
 remarks, exceed in number, power, variety, and 
 interest any series, except, perhaps, that con- 
 tributed to the " Atlantic Monthly." Nathaniel 
 Hawthorne submitted to Whittier his story of 
 " The Great Stone Face ; " it was accepted for the 
 u Era," and published January 24, 1850, Haw- 
 thorne receiving twenty-five dollars for it. Theo- 
 dore Parker issued his powerful address " To the 
 People of the United States," in 1848, through 
 the columns of this paper. 
 
 As a business venture, " Margaret Smith's Jour- 
 nal " had proved somewhat successful, although 
 the amount realized for it by Mr. Whittier was 
 not large, and Mr. Fields in the summer of 1849 
 was urging Whittier to get out another volume of 
 prose, to be made up of his contributions to the 
 " National Era." While this was being consid- 
 ered, Whittier wrote to Fields, under date of July 
 30, 1849 : 
 
344 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 " I can't yet make up my mind, but will let thee 
 know in the course of the next ten days, definitely. 
 As for a title, this will nearly express the con- 
 tents of the volume, ' Old Portraits and Modern 
 Sketches.' ... I shall send the documents for thy 
 inspection at any rate. I have a mass of material, 
 but it 's like Chaos, without form, and, what is 
 worse, oftentimes void.''' 
 
 At about this time, in response to a call from 
 Mr. Fields for a contribution to an annual, Mr. 
 Whittier wrote : 
 
 " In regard to your ' Boston Book ' I have no- 
 thing available on hand for it, either in prose or 
 rhyme. But some years ago I wrote a story for 
 the 4 N. E. Magazine,' called ' The Opium Eater.' 
 I have almost forgotten about it, and I dare say 
 everybody else has entirely ; which might be made 
 use of as good as new. It is wholly unlike any- 
 thing else of my writing, as near as I can recol- 
 lect." 
 
 Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth began her career 
 as a novelist with several stories written for the 
 " Era." Mr. Whittier met her while in Washing- 
 ton, in 1847, and read some of her first manu- 
 scripts. " Grace Greenwood " was a frequent 
 contributor of both prose and verse, and she be- 
 gan a friendly correspondence with Mr. Whittier 
 which lasted to the end of his life. While writing 
 for the " Era," her name appeared on the covers 
 of a popular Philadelphia magazine as one of its 
 editors. But as in her letters to the organ of the 
 Liberty party she was quite outspoken on the sub- 
 ject of slavery, the proprietor of the magazine 
 
GRACE GREENWOOD 345 
 
 began to hear complaints from the South that he 
 was employing an abolitionist, and his publication 
 could not be received as long as Grace Greenwood 
 was on the editorial staff, or even an occasional 
 contributor. Acting upon his first impulse he 
 dropped her name from the cover, with some 
 parade of subserviency, but he found this lost him 
 subscribers at the North, and, without consulting 
 her, he restored it. She refused to continue in his 
 employment. At about the same time he had the 
 misfortune to publish his own full-length portrait 
 as a frontispiece to the magazine. This was the 
 origin of the stinging poem of Whittier's, " Lines 
 on a Portrait of a Celebrated Publisher : " 
 
 " A greedy Northern bottle-fly 
 
 Preserved in Slavery's umber ! ' ' 
 
 The original title of the poem l was " Lines on the 
 portrait of a celebrated publisher who has lately 
 saved the Union, and lost a contributor." 
 
 Mr. Whittier was always quick to resent an in- 
 sult to a cause that was near his heart, or an 
 injury to a friend, but he was kind and apprecia- 
 tive in his editorial reviews of the works not only 
 of his literary friends but of strangers. Helpful 
 paragraphs about the young writers of his time are 
 scattered through the columns of all the papers he 
 edited or with which he corresponded. If he had 
 occasion to criticise, it was done in such a way as 
 
 1 In a letter to J. T. Fields, written October 26, 1850, Whit- 
 tier encloses this poem with the remark : " I send thee , done 
 
 after my fashion. It was written before I heard of Calhoun's 
 illness, or I should have substituted the name of Foote." Cal- 
 houn was not mentioned by name in the poem, but referred to as 
 * Carolina's sage." 
 
346 A DECADE OF WORK AT HOME 
 
 to leave no rankling wound. His friends, Holmes, 
 Longfellow, and Lowell, each published volumes of 
 poems in 1849, and of each he wrote elaborate 
 reviews. That of Holmes comes under the head of 
 " Mirth and Medicine." In his review of Lowell 
 he selects " The Present Crisis " as the noblest 
 poem in the collection. He speaks of Longfellow 
 as " one of the sweetest poets of our time," and 
 has especial praise for " The Fire of Driftwood " 
 and " Resignation." 
 
 The poem " Our State," published in the " Era " 
 in 1849, was originally entitled " Dedication of a 
 Schoolhouse," and was written for the dedicatory 
 services of the high school building in Newbury, 
 Mass. An address was delivered on that occasion 
 by Rev. Dr. Leonard Withington, and Whittier's 
 hymn was sung by the assembly. The first two 
 lines as originally published were : 
 
 " The South-land hath its fields of cane, 
 The prairie boasts its heavy grain." 
 
 This was afterwards changed to : 
 
 " The South-land boasts its teeming 1 cane, 
 The prairied West its heavy grain." 
 
CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 POETRY AND POLITICS. 
 
 1850-1856. 
 
 No comprehensive edition of Whittier's poems 
 had been published before 1849, when B. B. Mus- 
 sey & Co. of Boston gave them to the public in a 
 dignified octavo volume, which by its style was a 
 recognition of the position attained by the poet. 
 Mr. Mussey was in full sympathy with the poet 
 in his anti-slavery views, and was determined, 
 whether or not he made money out of his venture, 
 to give the poems a setting in accordance with 
 what he considered their intrinsic value. He sur- 
 prised Mr. Whittier by offering him five hundred 
 dollars for his copyrights, and also a percentage on 
 his sales. With the single exception of " Lays of 
 My Home," published by W. D. Ticknor in 1843, 
 no book of Whittier's had up to this time paid 
 him any royalty worth mentioning. Mussey's 
 stout octavo volume, beautifully printed in large 
 type on heavy paper, neatly bound, and exquisitely 
 illustrated with steel engravings, from designs by 
 Hammatt Billings, met with an unexpectedly 
 large sale, and Mr. Mussey earned the gratitude 
 of Mr. Whittier by paying him more than he had 
 agreed. A second and a third edition were called 
 
348 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 for. In the mean time Mr. Whittier had been 
 arranging with Mr. Fields for the publication of 
 " Songs of Labor," which appeared in the early 
 summer of 1850. While correspondence was 
 going on between the poet and his publisher, Mr. 
 Fields was married. Mr. Whittier wrote his con- 
 gratulations in a postscript to a letter : 
 
 " And now, business over, let me in all sincer- 
 ity, bachelor as I am, congratulate thee on thy 
 escape from single misery. It is the very wisest 
 thing thee ever did. Were I autocrat I would see 
 to it that every young man over twenty-five, and 
 every young woman over twenty, was married with- 
 out delay. Perhaps, on second thought, it might 
 be well to keep one old maid and one old bachelor 
 in each town, by way of warning, just as the 
 Spartans did their drunken Helots." 
 
 On the 6th of May he returned a proof-sheet of 
 " The Drovers," and some idea of Fields' criticism 
 may be gleaned from the characteristic remarks of 
 Whittier. As originally published in the " Era,'* 
 in 1847, the first lines of this stanza stood as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " From many a Northern lake and hill 
 
 To Ocean's far-off water 
 Shall Fancy play the Drover still, 
 And make the long night shorter." 
 
 Mr. Whittier wrote : " I send thee the proof 
 sadly disfigured, for which thank thyself. I have 
 altered some of the rhymes ; others I have left to 
 their fate. Heaven help them, I cannot. In the 
 verse commencing 
 
 " ' By many a Northern lake and hill,' 
 
SONGS OF LABOR " 349 
 
 I don't think I have mended the matter. 4 Pas- 
 ture,' ' faster,' l water,' ' shorter ' both are 
 good Yankee rhymes, but out of New England 
 they would be cashiered. Take thy choice, I see 
 no difference. I have tried other ' Songs of La- 
 bor,' but I cannot get the spirit of the early 
 ones, and I think it best to let them go by them- 
 selves. I have exhausted that vein, so far as I 
 am concerned. . . . Kearsarge is pronounced 
 always Ke'-ar-sarge. ... I send ' Memories ' out 
 of respect to thy opinion and that of our friend 
 Whipple. Is it best to print it? I humbly 
 thank thee for thy suggestions ; let me have more 
 of them." Mr. Fields evidently preferred " pas- 
 ture " and " faster " as rhymes to " water " and 
 " shorter," and the poem has ever since had this 
 reading : 
 
 " By many a Northern lake and hill, 
 From many a mountain pasture, 
 Shall Fancy play the Drover still, 
 And speed the long night faster." 
 
 Beside the six songs of labor, there were twenty- 
 one miscellaneous poems in this volume, including 
 The Lakeside," " The Hill-Top," " An Eagle's 
 Quill," "Memories," "Legend of St. Mark," 
 Ichabod,""ToA. K.,"etc. 
 
 In a note to Fields sent with some proof-sheets 
 of the " Songs of Labor," Whittier stands out 
 for some rhymes which had been criticised by his 
 publisher, but adds : " However, as they say in 
 the East, Who is my mother's son that I should 
 presume to dictate to thy superior wisdom ? Do 
 as seemeth best in thine own eyes, and I shall take 
 
350 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 it for granted it is best. I have had no leisure 
 when in tolerable health for any polishing of my 
 rhymes. I suppose under such circumstances I 
 ought not to have made any, but I could not help it." 
 
 In another note he follows a suggestion to 
 substitute " farmer girls " for " corn-fed girls " in 
 " The Huskers," although himself preferring the 
 latter phrase, and justifying it by referring to 
 Allan Ramsay's " kail-fed lassies." The stanza 
 in the Dedication of the " Songs of Labor " begin- 
 ning, " The doom which to the guilty pair," was 
 an afterthought, sent with the proof-sheet, accom- 
 panied by a note containing this sentence : " Pray 
 get out the book as soon as possible, for your own 
 sake ; I have a terrible propensity, always after it 
 is too late, to see something which I ought to 
 have seen before." 
 
 When Whittier was preparing the copy for the 
 volume " Old Portraits and Modern Sketches," 
 published in 1850, he placed the articles he pro- 
 posed to use in a portfolio, upon a fly-leaf of which 
 we find in pencil these lines, which were appar- 
 ently intended for a preface or inscription to the 
 work : 
 
 " For whatever here is wrong 1 1 crave 
 
 Forgiveness ; and if haply there be found 
 
 Sweet flower or healing herb where weeds abound. 
 
 How shall I dare to claim 
 As mine the gifts the Heavenly Father gave, 
 Or without guilty shame 
 From His own blessings frame 
 A pagan temple for the idol Fame ? " 
 
 One of the poems included in the volume has an 
 interest as a sort of confession of faith : for once, 
 
FREE-S01LERS AND DEMOCRATS 351 
 
 when asked by what poem he would wish to be 
 most remembered, he waited a moment, and then 
 thoughtfully and seriously answered, " I think 
 4 The Reformer ' embodies my sentiments." 
 
 In 1850, Mr. Whittier was active in bringing 
 about the coalition between the Free-Soilers and the 
 Democrats, which resulted in the election of George 
 S. Boutwell as governor of Massachusetts, with the 
 understanding that the Free-Soilers should name 
 the United States Senator and some of the state 
 officials. Mr. Whittier insisted that Sumner 
 should be named as the Free-Soil candidate for 
 Senator, to fill the place made vacant by the resig- 
 nation of Daniel Webster, who entered the cabinet 
 of President Fillmore. Whittier went to Phillips 
 Beach, Swampscott, to consult Sumner about the 
 matter, and to induce him to accept the nomination 
 for the senatorship, in case the coalition of Free- 
 Soilers and Democrats carried the State. Sumner 
 was unwilling, but listened to his arguments, and 
 at length consented. It was to this visit that the 
 poet referred in his poem " To Charles Sumner : " 
 
 " Thou knowest my heart, dear friend, and well canst guess 
 That, even though silent, I have not the less 
 Rejoiced to see thy actual life agree 
 With the large future which I shaped for thee, 
 When, years ago, beside the summer sea, 
 White in the moon, we saw the long waves fall 
 Baffled and broken from the rocky wall, 
 That, to the menace of the brawling flood, 
 Opposed alone its massive quietude, 
 Calm as a fate ; with not a leaf nor vine 
 Nor birch-spray trembling in the still moonshine, 
 Crowning it like God's peace." 
 
 After the governor and his council had been 
 
352 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 elected in conformity with the terms of the coali- 
 tion, some of the Democrats refused to vote for 
 Sumner, and the result was a prolonged contest. 
 The Whigs voted for Robert C. Winthrop, and 
 the Democrats whose consciences would not allow 
 them to vote for a Free-Soiler scattered their 
 votes. Caleb Gushing led the anti-Sumner Demo- 
 crats. Governor Boutwell's inaugural address 
 gave offense to his Free-Soil allies. When Mr. 
 Whittier saw that the Democrats were not disposed 
 to do as they had agreed, he wrote this letter to 
 Sumner in the first heat of his indignation : 
 
 " Illness, severe and protracted, confines me at 
 home, or I should have seen thee. I have read 
 the message of Governor B. ; it is, under the cir- 
 cumstances, insulting and monstrous. May God 
 forgive us for permitting his election. I have 
 watched the balloting with intense anxiety. I see 
 now no hope of our success. I think it is deter- 
 mined by both branches of the Democracy to de- 
 feat our purposes. Under these circumstances, 
 dear Sumner, I, who urged the nomination so 
 strongly and imperatively, must now confess I see 
 no other course for thee than to decline at once. 
 And Wilson, Knapp, Walker, and the three 
 councilors should at once resign their places. 
 Think of a Free-Soiler in Governor B.'s council ! 
 As the election of one of our own men is hopeless, 
 if I were in the legislature I would vote Governor 
 G. N. Briggs right into the United States Senate, 
 as an anti- Webster, anti-Fugitive Slave Law can- 
 didate. We have done him an injustice ; and he is 
 at heart right on the great questions in which we 
 
CHARLES SUMNER 353 
 
 feel an interest. I write, as thou wilt see, in haste, 
 and with the roused feeling incidental upon the 
 perusal of that detestable message, and the vote in 
 the House. I wish thee to consult at once with our 
 friends, Sewall, Adams, S. G. Howe, and others, 
 and with Earle and others in the legislature. 
 Thus far thy position has been manly and honor- 
 able. There is now, as it seems to me, a new state 
 of things, requiring a new course of action. Par- 
 don the abruptness of this note ; it is the result of 
 feeling rather than deliberate reflection," 
 
 Sumner's own wish was in accordance with 
 Whittier's suggestion, but in the councils of the 
 party it was decided he should continue his candi- 
 dacy. The popular feeling against the Fugitive 
 Slave Law was increasing in intensity, and began to 
 have its effect upon the legislature. Towards the 
 last of March, Sumner wished to consult with 
 Whittier, and urged him to come to Boston. If 
 he had been in good health he would have been at 
 work on the floor of the House during the whole 
 contest. But he was compelled to write the fol- 
 lowing letter : 
 
 " Thy letter, most welcome, was received yester- 
 day, and would have been answered in person had 
 I been able to leave here. I can only assure thee 
 that were I able to visit Boston just now I should 
 need no other inducement than thy request. I 
 have watched with deep interest the proceedings 
 in our legislature, and have, I think, fully compre- 
 hended thy feelings, and sympathized with thee in 
 the peculiar and difficult position in which thou 
 iiast been placed. As matters now stand, I can- 
 
354 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 not venture to offer advice. I fear there would 
 be no prospect of electing any true man if thou 
 shouldst withdraw, as it would somewhat remove 
 obligation from the Democrats to vote with us. 
 On the other hand, I should be sorry to have the 
 election thrown upon the next legislature, as the 
 Whigs will be sure of a majority in that body. 
 We could not again unite with the Democrats, 
 if this legislature adjourns without thy election. 
 We could not trust them ; it would be folly to 
 think of it. But I am talking at arm's length 
 and without data. Need I tell thee that I should 
 be right glad to see thee at Amesbury. Why not 
 come and spend First day with us ? Thou canst 
 go back by the seven o'clock train on Second day 
 (Monday) morning. I shall expect thee. Do not 
 disappoint me." 
 
 Sumner went to Amesbury and consulted with 
 his friend and adviser. At last, on the 24th da}^ 
 of April, upon the twenty-sixth ballot, Sumner by 
 a majority of one was elected United States Sen- 
 ator, a position he held continuously until his 
 death. Here is Whittier's letter of congratula- 
 tion : 
 
 " I take earliest moment of ability, after a sud- 
 den and severe attack of illness, to congratulate 
 thee, not so much on thy election, as upon the 
 proof which it offers of the turning of the tide 
 the recoil of the popular feeling the near 
 and certain doom of the wicked Slave Law. My 
 heart is full of gratitude to God. For when 1 
 consider the circumstances of this election, I am 
 constrained to regard it as His work. And I re- 
 
CHARLES SUMNER 355 
 
 joice that thy position is so distinct and emphatic i 
 that thy triumph is such a direct rebuke to politi- 
 cians, hoary with years of political chicanery and 
 fraud ; that unpledged, free, and without a single 
 concession or compromise, thou art enabled to 
 take thy place in the United States Senate. May 
 the good Providence which has overruled the pur- 
 poses of thy life, in this matter, give thee strength 
 and grace to do great things for humanity. I 
 never knew such a general feeling of real heart- 
 pleasure and satisfaction as is manifested by all 
 except inveterate Hunkers, in view of thy election. 
 The whole country is electrified by it. Sick abed, 
 I heard the guns Quaker as I am with real 
 satisfaction." 
 
 A letter written on the 18th of May, 1851, to 
 his friend Grace Greenwood, has so full an expres- 
 sion of his feeling in regard to the election of 
 Sumner, that it is here inserted : 
 
 " I am slowly recovering from the severest ill- 
 ness I have known for years, the issue of which, 
 at one time, was to me exceedingly doubtful. 
 Indeed, I scarcely know now how to report myself, 
 but I am better, and full of gratitude to God that 
 I am permitted once more to go abroad and enjoy 
 this beautiful springtime. The weather now is 
 delightfully warm and bright, and the soft green 
 of the meadows is climbing our hills. It is luxury 
 to live. One feels at such times terribly rooted to 
 this world : old Mother Earth seems sufficient for 
 us. ... After a long trial and much anxiety, our 
 grand object in Massachusetts has been attained. 
 We have sent Charles Sumner into the United 
 
356 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 States Senate, a man physically and spiritually 
 head and shoulders above the old hackneyed politi- 
 cians of that body. The plan for this was worked 
 out last summer at Phillips Beach, and I sounded 
 Sumner upon it the evening we left you at that 
 place. He really did not want the office, but we 
 forced it upon him. I am proud of old Massachu- 
 setts, and thankful that I have had an humble 
 share in securing her so true and worthy a repre- 
 sentative of her honor, her freedom, and intellect, 
 as Charles Sumner. He is a noble and gifted 
 man, earnest and truthful. I hope great things of 
 him, and I do not fear for his integrity and fidel- 
 ity, under any trial. That Sims case was partic- 
 ularly mean on the part of the Boston shopkeepers. 
 I never felt so indignant as when I saw the court- 
 house in chains." 
 
 The " soberer piece " referred to in the follow- 
 ing letter was " Moloch in State Street," which 
 was published in the " National Era " of May 22, 
 1851. The rendition of the fugitive slave, Thomas 
 Sims, by United States officials, aided by the 
 armed police of Boston, and abetted by State 
 Street merchants, at night, by stealth, while the 
 state officials who would have prevented it slept, 
 occurred a few days before the election of Sumner, 
 and caused an outburst of popular feeling which 
 probably hastened the election. The " bit of 
 doggerel," referred to below, has never appeared 
 in any edition of Whittier's works ; it served its 
 turn as a bit of poetical fireworks, for an evening's 
 amusement. Many such " occasional " poems were 
 written by him, with no expectation that they 
 would be printed. He wrote to Sumner : 
 
Charles Sumner 
 
POETICAL FIREWORKS 357 
 
 " The bit of doggerel l on the other page might 
 answer to raise a laugh at our friend Gilbert 
 Gore's party to-morrow evening, which I expect I 
 cannot enjoy in person. Give it, if there is no- 
 thing objectionable in it, to friend Burlingame, or 
 some one who will be at the party, as the anony- 
 mous contribution of a friend who could not be 
 present. My soberer piece was sent to the ' Era ' 
 a fortnight ago, but when it will appear, if at all, 
 is uncertain. I quite approve of thy decision in 
 respect to public speaking to any great extent. 
 Thy letter of acceptance gives great satisfaction 
 to all except the inveterate Hunkers. I feel 
 exceedingly anxious for Palfrey's success, and I 
 do not think it would be any way improper for 
 
 1 WHAT STATE STREET SAID TO SOUTH CARO- 
 LINA, AND WHAT SOUTH CAROLINA SAID TO 
 STATE STREET. 
 
 Muttering "fine upland staple," "prime Sea Island finer," 
 With cotton bales pictured on either retina, 
 
 " Your pardon ! " said State Street to South Carolina ; 
 
 " We feel and acknowledge your laws are diviner 
 Than any promulgated by the thunders of Sinai ! 
 Sorely pricked in the sensitive conscience of business 
 We own and repent of our sins of remissness : 
 Our honor we 've yielded, our words we have swallowed ; 
 And quenching the lights which our forefathers followed, 
 And turning from graves by their memories hallowed, 
 With teeth on ball-cartridge, and finger on trigger, 
 Reversed Boston Notions, and sent back a nigger ! " 
 
 " Get away ! " cried the Chivalry, busy a-drumming, 
 
 And fifing and drilling, and such Quattle-bumming ; 
 4 With your April-fool slave hunt ! Just wait till December 
 
 Shall see your new Senator stalk through the Chamber, 
 
 And Puritan heresy prove neither dumb nor 
 
 Blind in that pestilent Anakim, Sumner ! " 
 
358 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 thee to speak once or twice in his district. 1 Your 
 relation and personal friendship alone would 
 justify it say in Cambridge, or some other large 
 town. Think of it, and act. Kantoul will unques- 
 tionably be chosen." 
 
 It is seldom that the world has seen such an 
 example of the poetic and devotional temperament, 
 combined with preeminent political sagacity and 
 business judgment, as in the case of Whittier. 
 He was a safe counselor for every emergency. 
 The anti-slavery movement needed just such a 
 balance wheel as he proved to be. He could work 
 without quarreling with any one who was ear- 
 nestly seeking to benefit the race. When he came 
 to the parting of the roads, and could not walk 
 with one with whom he had been in general agree- 
 ment, he took his own way quietly, bidding his 
 companion God speed. In every church and in 
 every political party he found men he loved, and 
 he did not insist upon their agreement with his 
 opinions on any subject as a condition of friend- 
 ship. He looked for the best points in the charac- 
 ters of all with whom he came in contact, and 
 without being blind to their failings made the 
 most of their fairest side. Positive in his own 
 convictions, he had the widest charity for every 
 honest difference of opinion he encountered. But 
 he had no patience with insincerity and heartless- 
 ness in any form. With all the indignation of 
 the Hebrew prophets, as one has well said of him, 
 he never lost sight of that love of God and love of 
 man, which tempers even the hatred of evil. 
 
 1 Sumner did not speak for Palfrey, but he wrote a letter of 
 earnest support, in which he added a good word for Rantoul, 
 
THOREAU'S "WALDEN" 359 
 
 Many of Whittier's notes to Fields contain 
 reference to current events and to the new books 
 of other authors, as in the following, written 
 April 7, 1851 : " So your Union tinkers have 
 really caught a ' nigger ' at last ! A very pretty 
 and refreshing sight it must have been to Sab- 
 bath-going Christians, yesterday, that chained 
 court-house of yours. And Bunker Hill monu- 
 ment looking down upon all. But the matter 
 is too sad for irony. God forgive the miserable 
 politicians who gamble for office with dice loaded 
 with human hearts ! Thoreau's ' Walden ' is 
 capital reading, but very wicked and heathenish. 
 The practical moral of it seems to be that if a man 
 is willing to sink himself into a woodchuck he can 
 live as cheaply as that quadruped ; but after all, 
 for me, I prefer walking on two legs." 
 
 Whenever friends of Mr. Whittier were travel- 
 ing in this country or any other, he followed them 
 in their journeys with the keenest interest, and 
 greatly enjoyed such letters from them as de- 
 scribed the scenes through which they were pass- 
 ing. Every book of travel that came in his way 
 was thoroughly read, and his memory held accu- 
 rate pictures of scenery and people, a fact that 
 must impress every reader of his poetry. The 
 local coloring of those poems which relate to 
 countries he never saw is as faithful to the reality 
 as if he had not been compelled to rely upon the 
 eyes of others. We have elsewhere seen how his 
 friendship for Bayard Taylor began. It was not 
 alone the poet soul he recognized, but he enjoyed 
 the charming stories of his travels, and as he read 
 
360 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 " The Norseman's Ride " his imagination was led 
 into regions that had great attractions for him. 
 A half page of the " Era " is filled with a lively 
 review of Taylor's " Eldorado," dealing especially 
 with the chapters concerning the new State of 
 California, and concluding with this suggestion : 
 " In taking leave of his volumes, we cannot forbear 
 venturing a suggestion to the author, that he may 
 find a field of travel, less known and quite as inter- 
 esting at the present time, in the vast Territory of 
 New Mexico the valley of the Del Norte, with 
 its old Castilian and Aztec monuments and asso- 
 ciations ; the Great Salt Lake, and the unexplored 
 regions of the great valley of the Colorado, be- 
 tween the mountain ranges of the Sierra Madre 
 and the Sierra Nevada. We know of no one 
 better fitted for such an enterprise, or for whom, 
 judging from the spirit of his California narrative, 
 it would present more attractions." Mr. Taylor's 
 pleasure at this kind reception of his work is ex- 
 pressed in the following letter from New York, 
 bearing date July 9, 1850 : 
 
 " I owe you a world of thanks for your surpass- 
 ing notice of ' Eldorado ' in the ' National Era.' 
 
 O 
 
 I have read it with the most genuine pleasure, not 
 on account of the life it will give to my literary 
 reputation, but because you seem to have so thor- 
 oughly appreciated and enjoyed my work. I 
 care but little for the general praise or censure, 
 but I do value that of my friends, and if I satisfy 
 them, there is no higher reward. Would you had 
 been with me in California! I often recalled, 
 while there, those lines from ' The Crisis ' describ- 
 
RELATIONS WITH BAYARD TAYLOR 361 
 
 ing the scenery of our central wilderness. The 
 next trip you propose for me is the very one which 
 I have often wished to make, and if it was not 
 time that I should stop from roving, and build up 
 a home for myself, I would go there next year. I 
 am going to Boston next week, for a few days, and 
 hope to be able to pay another flying visit to 
 Amesbury. I have not forgotten the view I had 
 from the hill-top." 
 
 The visit suggested in this note was in a few 
 days made in company with James Kussell Lowell, 
 as we find in a letter Taylor wrote to a friend, 
 dated July 22, 1850 : 
 
 " Friday morning early, Lowell and I started for 
 Amesbury, which we reached in a terrible north- 
 easter. What a capital time we had with Whit- 
 tier, in his nook of a study, with the rain pouring 
 on the roof, arid the wind howling at the door ! " 
 
 These visits of Taylor to Amesbury are referred 
 to in a stanza of " The Last Walk in Autumn : " 
 
 " Here, too, of answering- love secure, 
 
 Ha\ e I not welcomed to my hearth 
 The gentle pilgrim troubadour, 
 
 Whose songs have girdled half the earth ; 
 Whose pages, like the magic mat 
 Whereon the Eastern lover sat, 
 Have borne me over Rhineland's purple vines, 
 And Nubia's tawny sands, and Phrygians mountain pines.'* 
 
 A meeting to express sympathy for Hungary 
 was held in Boston, August 20, 1851, and Sumner 
 made a speech. On that day, Whittier wrote to 
 him : 
 
 " I wish I felt able to take the cars to Boston 
 and hear thy speech this evening. I was glad to 
 
362 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 hear of thy meeting, although I greatly fear it is 
 too late to be of any service to poor Hungary. 
 She will be crushed under the avalanche of 
 Russian barbarism, and the sympathies and con- 
 gratulations of the friends of freedom abroad 
 will be to her ' like delicates poured upon a mouth 
 shut up, or as meats set upon a grave.' I wish, 
 either in resolutions or speeches, the disgraceful 
 conduct of the United States Consul at Paris l 
 could be noticed as it deserves. Through him our 
 government commits itself in favor of the kings 
 and priests of Europe in their barbarous measures 
 suppressing the growth of free principles. We 
 are made parties to the usurpations of Bonaparte 
 the Less, the bombardment of Rome, the bloody 
 rule of Naples, the atrocities of Austria and Russia 
 in Hungary. The miserable fellow would be no- 
 thing by himself, but as an official of our govern- 
 ment he can do a great deal to disgrace us. . . . 
 The New York conference ended as I expected, 
 after the late elections. The South always con- 
 trives to control the North, by throwing itself on 
 the Whig or Democratic side, just as these parties 
 are inclined towards abolition. For instance, in 
 1839 the Whigs talked anti-slavery at the North. 
 The slaveholders deserted their faithful allies, and 
 went over to the abolition Whig, and the Whigs, 
 as in duty bound, eschewed abolition. In 1843 
 44, they set aside Van Buren, and got a place- 
 holder nominated by the Democrats, who was for 
 Texas annexation with slavery, and voted him into 
 
 1 Robert Walsh, who was also correspondent of several Ameri- 
 can journals. 
 
KOSSUTH AND HUNGARY 363 
 
 power. He did his work, and the Whigs in their 
 exasperation again threatened to become abolition- 
 ists ; and the South silenced them by voting for 
 General Taylor. Now, the Democrats are form- 
 ing coalitions with the abolitionists, and the South 
 must change in their favor. This is the way that 
 the two parties at the North are managed. I have 
 been desirous to see thee and others of our Free- 
 Soil friends, but have been confined at home by 
 illness." 
 
 In the fall of 1851, Sumner desired a continu- 
 ance of the alliance with the Democrats, but many 
 men of the Free-Soil party were opposed to it. 
 He wrote to Whittier on the 7th of October : 
 " Will not Higginson see the matter in a practical 
 light ? I respect him so much, and honor his prin- 
 ciples so supremely, that I am pained to differ 
 from him ; but I do feel that we must not neglect 
 the opportunity afforded by alliance not fusion 
 with the Democrats to prevent the Whigs from 
 establishing themselves in the State. Palfrey is 
 now earnestly of this inclining ; so is Hopkins ; 
 also Buiiingame, and all these stood out before." 
 
 In December, 1851, Kossuth arrived in this 
 country, and 'from his anxiety to propitiate all 
 classes of our people in favor of his cause, in his 
 first speech, in New York, he took pains to say 
 that he did not propose to interfere with our do- 
 mestic institutions. Whittier wrote Sumner the 
 letter that follows, which is without date, but its 
 contents show that it was written early in Decem- 
 ber, 1851 : 
 
 " On thy way to Washington pray see W. C. 
 
364 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 Bryant, Seward, and some other leading men, 
 Greeley, for instance and caution them to see to 
 it that the 4 Union savers ' do not thrust their no- 
 tions upon Kossuth, and call out from him speeches 
 of the Castle Garden stamp. Naturally he would 
 deprecate a dissolution of this Union but he 
 ought to understand that it is not in the slightest 
 jeopardy that the solicitude of the ' Union 
 savers ' is all for political effect. I wish he could 
 have a half hour's talk with Benton. I do not 
 wish him to be mixed up in any way with our do- 
 mestic matters. He has his mission ; we ours. 
 I hope thou wilt see the. great Hungarian's recep- 
 tion in New York, and take part in it. I have just 
 finished reading his English speeches, and I am 
 deeply impressed by his wisdom and ability. God 
 bless thee, my friend, in thy new and difficult, 
 but glorious position." 
 
 Sumner was nine months in the Senate before 
 he found an opportunity to make a speech on 
 the great issue upon which he was elected. There 
 was a conspiracy among the Senators of both par- 
 ties to prevent any chance being offered him. 
 Whittier refers to this in the following letter : 
 
 " I am by no means surprised afr the refusal of 
 the Senate to hear thee. It is simply carrying out 
 the resolutions of the two Baltimore conventions. 
 Never mind. The right time will come for thee, 
 if not this session, the next certainly. I think our 
 proper place for speaking now is to the people 
 directly, rather than to Congress. I want thee to 
 put on thy harness this fall and do battle as in '48. 
 . . . The sad intelligence of the death of Robert 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH SUMNER 365 
 
 Rantoul 1 has just reached me. I have lost an old 
 and valued friend, and the State and country a 
 noble man. How little did I expect to outlive 
 him. I have just read thy tribute to him. It is 
 a relief to me to hear the right words spoken of 
 my friend." 
 
 Mr. Sumner's reply to this letter was written in 
 the Senate Chamber, August 13, 1852: 
 
 " I am grateful for your words of cheer and 
 confidence. I have never desired to come here, as 
 you well know. Since I have been here, our cause 
 has never been out of my mind. In the exercise 
 of my best discretion I have postponed speaking 
 until now. To this course I was advised by friends 
 also. Should I not succeed before the close of the 
 session, I shall feel sad ; but I cannot feel that I 
 have failed in a duty. But I shall speak on an 
 amendment of the Civil Appropriation Bill. Thus 
 far, whenever I have spoken I have been listened 
 to. On this occasion I may not have the atten- 
 tion ; but the speech shall be made. For a long 
 time I have been prepared to handle the Fugitive 
 Slave Bill at length. By the blessing of God it 
 shall be done. . . . With you I deplore Rantoul. 
 I pray you read my remarks as corrected in the 
 'National Era.' ... I cannot make any lyceum 
 engagements for the coming season, and I shrink 
 from the political labors to which you beckon me. 
 I have been in my seat every day this session. 
 I long for repose and an opportunity for quiet 
 labors, But more than all things I long to declare 
 
 1 Rooert Rantoul died at Washington, August 7, 1852, while 
 representing the Essex district in Congress. 
 
366 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 myself here against the Fugitive Slave Bill. Then 
 I shall be happy for a while. At this moment I 
 can say nothing. My ship is in a terrible calm, 
 like that of the Ancient Mariner. But it will 
 move yet. ... I notice the withdrawal of con- 
 fidence from me. Well-a-day ! I never courted it. 
 I will be content without it. But I shall claim 
 yours." 
 
 TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 
 
 AMESBUKY, 21st 10th mo., 1853. 
 
 What marvelous weather ! Amidst the autum- 
 nal opulence of the last two weeks, I have lived 
 more than royally. How poor and mean in com- 
 parison seem all the pomps and shows of kings and 
 priests ! And what folly to run abroad over the 
 Old World, when all that is beautiful may be seen 
 from our own door-stone ! Munich, the Louvre, 
 and the Vatican are doubtless well worth seeing, 
 but I fancy I see all and much more in my own 
 painted woodlands. At any rate, I am satisfied. 
 Oh, that I could put into words the hymn of grati- 
 tude and unspeakable love which at such a season 
 as this is sung in my heart. I wish thee could 
 have been with us the other day on the Merri- 
 mac. We wanted an interpreter of the mystery 
 of the glory about us. 
 
 When Taylor returned from Africa, Japan, and 
 China, in 1853, he received from his Amesbury 
 friend this greeting : 
 
 " Give me thy hand ! Welcome home again, and 
 a happy New Year to thee ! We are fellow trav- 
 elers. I have followed thee all the way over the 
 
THE AMESBURY LYCEUM 367 
 
 world, without any share of thy expenses, trouble, 
 or fatigue. I wish, though, we could have reached 
 the snowy African mountains. Thou wast there, 
 in spirit, however, beyond doubt, as thy splendid 
 poem testifies. But to the point : Canst thou not 
 steal away a day or two, see Whipple, Samuel 
 Longfellow, and Fields, run up and spend the 
 night with me, and talk an hour or so to our 
 lyceum on what thee saw in Africa and Japan? 
 Don't refuse there is no need of a formal lec- 
 ture our folks only want to see thee and hear 
 thee talk a little. Don't rank this with a thou- 
 sand and one other applications but drop me a 
 line and say yes. Say a good word for Phoebe 
 Gary's poem, and Mrs. Howe's memorable 4 Pas- 
 sion Flowers,' just out from Ticknor's." 
 
 The Amesbury Lyceum secured many a first- 
 rate lecturer it could not otherwise have obtained, 
 by such an application as this from Whittier. 
 As for himself, he never attended an evening lec- 
 ture, even when Beecher and Phillips went from 
 his tea-table to the platform. The great orators 
 would come to this little village to meet their 
 friend and enjoy his hospitality. 
 
 "For Righteousness' Sake," originally entitled 
 " Lines inscribed to Friends under Arrest for Trea- 
 son against the Slave Power," was written in the 
 winter of 1854-55, when Theodore Parker, with 
 others, was indicted in the United States Circuit 
 Court in Boston, for resisting the process for the 
 rendition of the fugitive slave, Anthony Burns, 
 the alleged act of resistance in Parker's case being 
 a speech he had delivered in Faneuil Hall. 
 
368 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 The poem now known as " The Rendition," orig- 
 inally published in the " Era " in 1854, was then 
 entitled " Ichabod," the same title given four years 
 earlier to the famous philippic upon Webster. 
 Many of the titles of Whittier's poems were thus 
 duplicated, and even triplicated, as in the case of 
 " Stanzas for the Times." The name Ichabod 
 seemed to have a fascination for him. Several of 
 his early poems, published while in the Academy, 
 had it for signature. 
 
 " Maud Muller " was first published in the 
 "National Era" in 1854. Whittier sent this 
 note to the printer, with his manuscript : " The 
 term ' chimney lug ' which occurs in this poem 
 refers to the old custom in New England of hang- 
 ing a pole with hooks attached to it down the 
 chimney, to hang pots and kettles on. It is called 
 a ' lug-pole.' I mention this for fear the word 
 would not be understood, and taken by the printers 
 for something else." 
 
 To a correspondent who asked of him the pro- 
 nunciation of " Muller ;" about the word " but " in 
 the nineteenth couplet of the poem ; and the mean- 
 ing of one of the last couplets, Mr. Whittier re- 
 plied : " I don't think 4 Maud Muller ' worth seri- 
 ous analysis, but in answer to thy questions I 
 would say: 1. Pronounce the name with either 
 the Yankee or the German accent it matters not 
 which. [He always pronounced the u as in gull.] 
 2. ' But ' should have been 4 And.' 4 For all of us 
 a sweet hope lies ' is the prose version." 
 
 The following passage occurs in a letter written 
 to Fields in 1854 : " I met Holmes for the first 
 
"LITERARY RECREATIONS" 369 
 
 time at Haverhill the other night. There is rare 
 humor in him, and I like him. I inclose thee 
 a jingle of mine not published and therefore 
 only for thy private reading. It is one of those 
 pieces that make themselves, and come to you un- 
 called for. My ' Singletary Papers ' still drag 
 their slow length along." The " jingle " was 
 " Official Piety." 
 
 In 1854, Messrs. Ticknor & Fields published a 
 collection of Mr. Whittier's prose essays under the 
 title of " Literary Recreations," most of the arti- 
 cles in which were copied from his contributions to 
 the " National Era." 
 
 Mr. Sumner was at last heard in the Senate 
 upon themes that aroused him to his best oratori- 
 cal efforts. The speeches made in the summer of 
 1854, upon the Kansas and Nebraska questions, 
 are referred to by Mr. Whittier in the letter here 
 given : 
 
 " I will not trouble thee with a long letter : but 
 I cannot forbear to thank thee, in the name of 
 humanity, and our dear old Commonwealth, for 
 thy late noble efforts. I have never seen such an 
 effect produced by any speech in Congress before. 
 Everybody has read the newspaper reports of the 
 encounter, and everybody, save a few desperate 
 office-holders, commends thy course in terms of 
 warm admiration. Thy first speech on the Ne- 
 braska crime was everywhere commended. Indeed, 
 all things considered, I think it the best speech of 
 the session. It was the fitting word it entirely 
 satisfied me, and with a glow of heart I thank God 
 that its author was my friend. . . . What a pity 
 
370 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 could not see the path clear before him to 
 
 stand forward at this crisis, and bring his party up 
 to the desired point! It has occurred to me that 
 a letter from thee kind, generous, and earnest 
 might move him. However, I only throw out 
 the hint; there may be good reasons against it. 
 Just now, the people of Massachusetts will hear 
 and indeed approve of almost anything against 
 the Fugitive Slave Law. One more Burns case 
 would make Hunkerism an unsafe commodity in 
 any part of the State." 
 
 TO LUCY LARCOM. 
 
 1855. 
 
 Elizabeth has been reading Browning's poem 
 (" Men and Women"), and she tells me it is great. 
 I have only dipped into it, here and there, but it 
 is not exactly comfortable reading. It seemed to 
 me like a galvanic battery in full play its spas- 
 modic utterances and intense passion make me 
 feel as if I had been taking a bath among electric 
 eels. But I have not read enough to criticise. 
 
 The repeal of the Missouri Compromise added 
 to the irritation at the North caused by frequent 
 slave hunts in communities that had no patience 
 with them. The determination to colonize Kansas 
 with men who would make it a free State grew 
 out of this repeal, and it was Whittier again who 
 spoke for the North, with a voice heard farther at 
 the time than the speech of any orator, and which 
 will not be silent while our language endures, 
 In a brilliant magazine article, 1 Hon. James J. 
 1 In Harper's Monthly, April, 1893. 
 
COLONIZATION OF KANSAS 871 
 
 Ingalls has given a spirited account of the efforts 
 made to colonize Kansas with free labor, so as to 
 secure by popular vote the exclusion of slavery 
 hitherto effected by the Missouri Compromise. 
 After referring to the appeals of the Northern 
 press, he adds : 
 
 " The journalists were reinforced by the poets, 
 artists, novelists, and orators of an age distin- 
 guished for genius, learning, and inspiration. 
 Lincoln, Douglas, Seward, and Sumner delivered 
 their most memorable speeches upon the theme. 
 Phillips and Beecher, then at the meridian of 
 their powers, appealed to the passions and the con- 
 science of the nation by unrivaled eloquence and 
 invective. Prizes were offered for lyrics, that 
 were obtained, so profound was the impulse, by 
 obscure and unknown competitors. Lowell, Bry- 
 ant, Holmes, Longfellow, and Emerson lent the 
 magic of their verse. Whittier was the laureate 
 of the era. His ' Burial of Barbour ' and 
 4 Marais du Cygne ' seemed like a prophet's cry 
 for vengeance to the immigrants, who marched to 
 the inspiring strains of ' Suoni la Tromba,' or 
 chanted to the measure of ' Auld Lang Syne,' 
 
 " ' We crossed the prairies, as of old 
 Our fathers crossed the sea.' 
 
 The contagion spread to foreign lands, and alien 
 torches were lighted at the flame. Walter Savage 
 Landor wrote an ode to free Kansas. Lady Byron 
 collected money which she sent to the author of 
 4 Uncle Tom's Cabin ' for the relief of the suffer- 
 ers in Kansas. Volunteers from Italy, France, 
 and Germany, revolutionists and exiles, served in 
 
372 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 the desultory war, many of whom afterwards 
 fought with distinction in the armies of the Union. 
 It was the romance of history. The indescribable 
 agitation which always attends the introduction of 
 a great moral question into politics pervaded the 
 souls of men, transforming the commonplace into 
 ideal, and inaugurating a heroic epoch. The 
 raptures that swelled the hearts of the pioneers 
 yet thrill and vibrate in the blood of their pos- 
 terity, like the chords of a smitten harp when the 
 player has departed." 
 
 When bands of ruffians from Missouri crossed 
 the border and committed atrocious barbarities 
 upon these anti-slavery pioneers, a mighty wave of 
 indignation stirred the whole North, and Whittier 
 gave voice to it in his poem " Le Marais du 
 Cygne." Some of the details of the massacre of 
 Swan's Marsh will explain to younger readers who 
 have no memory of these stirring times the rea- 
 son of the deep feeling displayed in this poem. 
 " Chouteau's Trading Post," as it was called at 
 the time of the massacre, is on the old military 
 road, now disused, from Fort Leaven worth to Fort 
 Scott, on the south bank of the Marais du Cygne 
 River, three miles from the Missouri line. On the 
 morning of May 19, the settlers at the Post were 
 engaged in their usual pursuits, unarmed, and 
 without thought of danger. A band of twenty- 
 five or thirty Missourians, mounted, and under 
 command of Captain Charles A. Hamilton, crossed 
 the border, and captured twelve men, several of 
 them the heads of families. They were bound and 
 taken to a ravine, where they were placed in line, 
 
"LE MARAIS DU CYGNE" 373 
 
 and fired upon at close range. Five were killed, 
 and all the others wounded, except one. He fell 
 with the others, feigned death, and escaped injury. 
 All the wounded recovered, and some of them be- 
 came influential citizens in the free State they had 
 helped to found. Whittier's verses were written 
 while the soil was yet red with the blood of the 
 victims. The last stanza proved prophetical : , 
 
 " On the lintels of Kansas 
 
 That blood shall not dry ; 
 Henceforth the Bad Angel 
 
 Shall harmless go by ; 
 Henceforth to the sunset, 
 
 Unchecked on her way, 
 Shall Liberty follow 
 
 The march of the day." 
 
 The assassins were well-known Missourians, not 
 disguised. Only one was arrested that year, and 
 he escaped. But in 1863, while the civil war was 
 in progress, another of the murderers was captured 
 and hanged. One of the wounded men acted as 
 his executioner. 
 
 As Whittier watched the progress of the cause 
 of liberty, and recognized the surety of its triumph, 
 he became less impatient of the wrongs which were 
 so surely to be overruled for good, and returned 
 less frequently to the theme that in former days 
 aroused his righteous wrath, and nerved him to the 
 utterance of his passionate " Voices of Freedom." 
 
 In July, 1854, he was invited by Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson and others to join them at a meeting in 
 Boston, called to consider the political situation, 
 and to devise a way to bring together the men of 
 all parties who were opposed to the encroachments 
 
374 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 of slavery. His reply is dated Amesbury, 3d 7th 
 mo., and is addressed to Mr. Emerson : 
 
 " The circular signed by thyself and others, in- 
 viting me to meet you at Boston on the 7th inst., 
 has just reached me. If I am able to visit Boston 
 on that day I shall be glad to comply with the 
 invitation. Your movement I regard as every way 
 timely and expedient. I am quite sure good will 
 come of it, in some way. I have been for some 
 time past engaged in efforts tending to the same 
 object, the consolidation of the anti-slavery sen- 
 timent of the North. For myself, I am more than 
 willing to take the humblest place in a new organ- 
 ization made up from Whigs, anti-Nebraska Dem- 
 ocrats, and Free-Soilers. I care nothing for 
 names ; I have no prejudices against Whig or 
 Democrat ; show me a party cutting itself loose 
 from slavery, repudiating its treacherous professed 
 allies of the South, and making the protection of 
 Man the paramount object, and I am ready to go 
 with it, heart and soul. The great body of the 
 people of all parties here are ready to unite in the 
 formation of a new party. The Whigs especially 
 only wait for the movement of the men to whom 
 they have been accustomed to look for direction. 
 I may be mistaken, but I fully believe that Robert 
 C. Winthrop holds in his hands the destiny of 
 the North. By throwing himself on the side of 
 this movement he could carry with him the Whig 
 strength of New England. The Democrats here, 
 with the exception of two or three office-holders 
 and their dependents, defend the course of Banks, 
 and applaud the manly speeches of Sumner." 
 
"THE PANORAMA" 375 
 
 " The Panorama " was written by Mr. Whittier, 
 to be read at the opening of a course of lectures 
 on slavery, delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, 
 during the winter of 1855-56. The plan of this 
 course provided that both sides of the question 
 should be given, and leading Southern statesmen 
 were invited to alternate with eminent Northern 
 philanthropists in presenting their views. Among 
 the men not in sympathy with the anti-slavery 
 movement who were asked to speak from this 
 platform were Henry W. Milliard of Alabama, A. 
 P. Butler of South Carolina, Wm. A. Smith of 
 Virginia, Robert Toombs of Georgia, David R. 
 Atchison of Missouri, and Stephen A. Douglas of 
 Illinois. Dr. Samuel G. Howe was chairman of 
 the lecture committee. William Lloyd Garrison 
 was invited to give one of the lectures, but he de- 
 clined, not being in sympathy with the manage- 
 ment. The first lecture in the course was an- 
 nounced as to be given November 22, 1855, by 
 Horace Mann, to be followed by a poem by John 
 G. Whittier. Mr. Whittier asked Rev. Thomas 
 Starr King to read his poem, and gave him the 
 manuscript of " The Panorama." The following 
 letter by Mr. King, written November 30, 1855, 
 and found among Mr. Whittier's papers, gives 
 some idea of the enthusiastic spirit with which he 
 performed the task assigned him. The reading 
 occupied forty minutes. Charles Sumner was 
 upon the platform, and the reference to his name 
 and " fresh renown " in the poem was greeted with 
 much applause : 
 
 " I have hardly been in Boston since the even- 
 
876 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 ing when my voice was honored, as never before, 
 in being the medium of your genius. I beg you 
 therefore to accept this fact as an explanation of 
 the delay in sending you my thanks for the com- 
 pliment you paid me in asking my poor service as 
 your interpreter. The poem is admirably adapted 
 to lecture utterance. It is so broad in its plan, so 
 vivid, so stirring, so practical in its appeal, that it 
 needs two thousand ears, and the wide atmosphere 
 of the public heart, to allow the proportions of its 
 power to appear, and its eloquence to find sea room 
 to disport itself. I have heard the heartiest en- 
 comiums of it, even from men not specially inter- 
 ested in the anti-slavery cause, who were swept by 
 it. Inadequate as the reading was, I am suspi- 
 cious that the soul of the piece possessed my voice, 
 and lifted it above its natural poverty. If possible, 
 I shall read it in Worcester, some time during the 
 week. Would that Mrs. Webb might give it 
 wings ! Though I think it needs a man's throat 
 and passion. I have been invited to read it in 
 Manchester, but could not go. I shall mention 
 this fact to Dr. Stone when I see him. God bless 
 you, my dear friend, and preserve you for many 
 such TyrtaBan songs. I thank you, and remain 
 cordially yours." 
 
 The allusion to Mrs. M. E. Webb is due to the 
 fact that she was to read Mrs. Harriet Beecher 
 Stowe's drama the next evening in the course. 
 She was a colored dramatic reader. 
 
 " The Panorama " was written with a view to 
 political effect in the presidential campaign of 
 1856, and Mr. Whittier desired it to be published 
 
THE PANORAMA " 377 
 
 at once, as a book. Mr. Fields suggested that it 
 was so late that it could not appear until after 
 the holiday season, and had better be postponed 
 until the next fall. Whittier made reply in a 
 letter dated January 6, 1856. The poem to which 
 he referred as being in manuscript was either 
 " The Barefoot Boy," or " The Ranger," which was 
 originally named " Martha Mason, a Song of the 
 Old French War ; " or possibly it might have been 
 "Mary Garvin," which was published in the 
 " National Era " in the month of January, 1856. 
 These three poems were in manuscript at about 
 this time. 
 
 "The wisdom of thy suggestion is very manifest. 
 I have only one objection to it. ' The Panorama ' 
 is a poem for the present time ; it is like Pierce's 
 Message it won't keep. But if it could be put 
 at once through the press, with the other poems, it 
 would answer my purpose. Now, if you have no- 
 thing better to do, just inform me, and you shall 
 have the other pieces at once, as I have them, for a 
 wonder, at hand, including one in MS. which I like 
 better than c Maud Muller.' But I don't think 
 much of my own judgment in such matters, and it 
 may be a very poor affair in reality." 
 
 In compliance with this request the book was 
 put to press at once, and among the poems and 
 ballads with which it was enriched were "A 
 Memory," " Maud Muller," " Mary Garvin," " The 
 Ranger," " Summer by the Lakeside," " Burns," 
 " Tauler," "The Barefoot Boy," and " The Kansas 
 Emigrants." The proof sheets came to Amesbury 
 in the winter, and the poet was not in the mood to 
 make so many changes as usual. He wrote : 
 
378 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 " I should perhaps make some other changes in 
 the poem but brain and hand are numb with 
 frost. Whatever poetical fancies garnered up in 
 more genial weather may be left within me, they 
 are frozen up before reaching my finger-tips, like 
 the tunes in Munchausen's horn, and I cannot, 
 like the veracious hunter, get up a fire sufficient to 
 thaw them out." 
 
 The origin of the poem " A Memory " is given 
 in the following extract from a letter written by 
 Mrs. Mary Rogers Kimball, daughter of Whittier's 
 early and dear friend, N. P. Rogers : 
 
 " We all loved Mr. Whittier, and before we left 
 our home near Plymouth, N. H., for the West, in 
 1853, I think, he spent a week with us. With 
 what delight we wandered, talked, read, and 
 played with him ! We sang to him ; and of all 
 the songs, English, Scotch, or Irish, he loved the 
 negro melodies best. How well I remember his 
 creeping softly behind me and shaking into my 
 neck the dew from a branch of cinnamon rose he 
 had picked and carried a long distance that early 
 morning, ' for this express purpose,' as he said. I 
 cherished the precious twig for many years. . . . 
 The little poem entitled ' A Memory ' was of my 
 next older sister, Ellen, who was spending a few 
 days with friends at Wolf borough, N. H. She 
 was a singer, and one evening the poet wrapped a * 
 white shawl about her, and put a Quaker bonnet 
 on her head, and made her sing through the long 
 twilight the songs he loved. The little event is 
 immortalized; the Singer and the Poet have 
 4 passed on.' " 
 
LETTER TO OLIVIA BOWDITCH 379 
 
 When " Mary Garvin " was published in the 
 " Era" in 1856, Mr. Whittier received a pleasant 
 letter from his friend Dr. H. I. Bowditch, inclos- 
 ing one from his young daughter Olivia, then not 
 old enough to write, but who printed a letter in 
 childish fashion. She had taken much pleasure 
 in hearing the poem read by her father, and wished 
 to send her thanks. This is Mr. Whittier's reply 
 to the child's note, dated Amesbury, 28th 1st mo., 
 1856: 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND OLIVIA, I thank thee for 
 thy kind note ; and am sure some good angel bade 
 thee write it. I was very glad to know that my 
 " Mary Garvin " gave thee so much pleasure. I 
 know of no better way of being happy than in 
 making others so. And then too, as an author, I 
 was gratified by thy praise of my verses, because 
 I was sure it was the honest expression of thy feel- 
 ing. I remember that after Bernardin St. Pierre 
 had written his beautiful story of " Paul and Vir- 
 ginia" (which I hope thou hp^st not read yet, be- 
 cause in that case there is so much more pleasure 
 in store for thee), he was afraid it was not good 
 enough for publication, and was on the point of 
 laying it aside, when he chanced to read it to a 
 group of children, whose evident delight and tear- 
 ful sympathy encouraged him to print it, and thus 
 please and sadden the hearts of young and old 
 from that time to this. Following St. Pierre's ex- 
 ample, I think I shall print " Mary Garvin " in a 
 book with some other pieces. If my young critics 
 are pleased I can well afford to let the older ones 
 
380 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 find fault. I thank thee and thy dear father and 
 mother for the invitation, and hope I shall be able 
 to accept it when spring brings back the green 
 grass, the bright flowers, and these wintry drifts 
 are only a memory. 
 
 Mr. Whittier's interest in the movement for 
 woman suffrage is shown in this letter to a Wo- 
 man's Rights Convention, held in Worcester : 
 
 " Come what may, Nature is inexorable ; she will 
 reverse none of her laws at the bidding of male or 
 female conventions ; and men and women, with or 
 without the right of suffrage, will continue to be 
 men and women still. In the event of the repeal 
 of certain ungenerous, not to say unmanly, enact- 
 ments, limiting and abridging the rights and priv- 
 ileges of women, we may safely confide in the 
 adaptive powers of Nature. She will take care of 
 the new fact in her own way, and reconcile it to 
 the old, through the operation of her attractive or 
 repellent forces. Let us, then, not be afraid to 
 listen to the claims and demands of those who, in 
 some sort at least, represent the feelings and inter- 
 ests of those nearest and dearest to us. Let Oliver 
 ask for more. It is scarcely consistent with our 
 assumed superiority to imitate the horror and 
 wide-orbed consternation of Mr. Bumble and his 
 parochial associates, on a similar occasion." 
 
 On the 23d day of May, 1856, Sumner was 
 struck down in the Senate chamber, by Preston S. 
 Brooks, of South Carolina, for words uttered in 
 debate. This is the letter Whittier wrote to him 
 when he learned that his injuries were not likely 
 to deprive him of life : 
 
THE ASSAULT ON SUMNER 381 
 
 " I have been longing to write to thee, or rather 
 to see thee (if I had strength I should now be in 
 Washington) for the last fortnight. God knows 
 my heart has been with thee, through thy season 
 of trial and suffering ; and now it is full of grati- 
 tude and joy that thy life has been spared to us 
 and to Freedom. I have read and reread thy 
 speech, and I look upon it as thy best. A grand 
 and terrible philippic, worthy of the great occa- 
 sion, the severe and awful Truth which the sharp 
 agony of the national crisis demanded. It is 
 enough for immortality. So far as thy own repu- 
 tation is concerned, nothing more is needed. But 
 this is of small importance. We cannot see as yet 
 the entire results of that speech, but everything 
 now indicates that it has saved the country. If 
 at the coming election a Free State President is 
 secured it will be solely through the influence of 
 that speech, and the mad fury which its unanswer- 
 able logic and fearless exposure of official crimi- 
 nals provoked. Thank God, then, dear Sumner, 
 even in thy sufferings, that He has ' made the 
 wrath of man to praise Him, and that the re- 
 mainder of wrath He will restrain.' My heart is 
 full and I have much to say ; but I will not weary 
 thee with words. Permit me a word of caution. 
 Do not try to go back to thy senatorial duties this 
 session. Avoid, as far as possible, all excitement ; 
 get out of Washington as soon as thee is able to 
 travel. I almost dread to have thee come North, 
 the feelings of all classes of our people are so 
 wrought up ; they so long to manifest to thee their 
 love and admiration that I fear we should retard 
 
382 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 thy recovery by our demonstrations. Thy brother 
 George must take care of thee, and prevent thy 
 being ' killed by kindness ' ! My mother and 
 sister join me in love to thee. And now, dear 
 Sumner, I can only say, Heaven bless and preserve 
 thee." 
 
 The intensity of Mr. Whittier's feeling in re- 
 gard to the outrage upon Mr. Sumner is shown in 
 the following letter of his, read at a meeting of the 
 citizens of Amesbury and Salisbury, held on the 
 2d of June, 1856 : 
 
 " Fearing I may not be able to attend the meet- 
 ing this evening, I beg leave to say a word to my 
 fellow-citizens. I need not say how fully I sympa- 
 thize with the object of the meeting, nor speak of 
 my grief for the sufferings and danger of a beloved 
 friend, now nearer and dearer than ever, stricken 
 down at his post of duty, for his manly defense of 
 freedom ; nor of my mingled pity, horror, and in- 
 dignation in view of the atrocities in Kansas. It 
 seems to me to be no time for the indulgence of 
 mere emotions. Neither railing nor threats befit 
 the occasion. It is our first duty to inquire, why 
 it is that the bad men in power have been em- 
 boldened to commit the outrages of which we com- 
 plain. Why is it that the South has dared to 
 make such experiments upon us ? The North is 
 not united for freedom, as the South is for slavery. 
 We are split into factions, we get up paltry side 
 issues, and quarrel with and abuse each other, 
 and the Slave Power, as a matter of course, takes 
 advantage of our folly. That evil power is only 
 strong through our dissensions. It could do no- 
 
POLITICAL ADVICE 383 
 
 thing against a united North. The one indispen- 
 sable thing for us is Union. Can we not have it ? 
 Can we not set an example in this very neigh- 
 borhood, Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers, and 
 Americans, joining hands in defense of our com- 
 mon liberties ? We must forget, forgive, and 
 UNITE. I feel a solemn impression that the pres- 
 ent opportunity is the last that will be offered us 
 for the peaceful and constitutional remedy of the 
 evil which afflicts us. The crisis in our destiny 
 has come : the hour is striking of our final and ir- 
 revocable choice. God grant that it may be right- 
 fully made. Let us not be betrayed into threats. 
 Leave violence where it belongs, with the wrong- 
 doer. It is worse than folly to talk of fighting 
 Slavery, when we have not yet agreed to vote 
 against it. Our business is with poll-boxes, not 
 cartridge-boxes ; with ballots, not bullets. The 
 path of duty is plain : God's providence calls us to 
 walk in it. Let me close by repeating, Forget, 
 forgive, and UNITE." 
 
 In a letter to Emerson dated June 13, 1856, 
 Mr. Whittier urged him to attend the convention 
 that nominated Fremont. He wrote : "I see this 
 morning that Governor Boutwell is not able to 
 attend the Philadelphia convention. I believe thoti 
 art one of the substitutes, and I drop this line to 
 urge thee to go in his place. It is a great occa- 
 sion : the most important public duty which can 
 occur in a lifetime. By all means, go. A thou- 
 sand thanks for thy speech at the Concord meet- 
 
 ing!'; 
 
 Elizabeth Whittier was in full sympathy with 
 
384 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 her brother in his political and anti-slavery work. 
 In a letter to her friend Lucy Larcom, written 
 June 19, 1856, she says : 
 
 " Our poor land ! What can we do ? 1 know 
 what thee can do write a ringing song for free- 
 dom and Fremont. Fremont is my hero of years ; 
 his wild ranger life has had the greatest charm for 
 me. I used to envy Kit Carson, who was always 
 near him, helping bravely in the trials and dangers 
 of his young leader. I wish I was somebody I 
 would do great things now write songs, first of 
 all. Will not some one set the present heart-beat 
 of the people to music ? Those were dark days 
 for Greenleaf, when his noblest and dearest friend 
 was in great danger. I, too, passed under the 
 shadow. Sumner's position seems very grand and 
 solemn the charged prophet of freedom. His 
 great work is before him." 
 
 This call for a campaign song was responded to 
 by Miss Larcom. It is easy to believe that Eliza- 
 beth's enthusiasm was also the inspiration of her 
 brother's political work in the same year. In 
 addition to the deep interest Mr. Whittier took in 
 the contest for Free Soil involved in the Fremont 
 campaign of 1856, was a strong personal feeling 
 for the " Pathfinder," whose way across the conti- 
 nent he had followed with the enthusiasm and 
 sympathy he gave to all explorers. He hardly 
 needed the summons Charles A. Dana, then one of 
 the editors of the " New York Tribune," sent him 
 to write a campaign song for his favorite. Dana 
 wrote, under date of June 8, 1856 : " A powerful 
 means of exciting and maintaining the spirit of 
 freedom in the coming decisive contest must be 
 
CAMPAIGN SONGS 385 
 
 songs. If we are to conquer, as I trust in God we 
 are, a great deal must be done by that genial and 
 inspiring stimulus. They should be written to 
 popular and stirring tunes, such as the Star- 
 Spangled Banner, God Save the King, the Marseil- 
 laise, Tippecanoe and Tyler too, Old Dan Tucker, 
 and the like. In this case we of course appeal to 
 you for help." In response to this call from Mr. 
 Dana, Whittier wrote several lyrics, of which one 
 is here given, written to be sung to the music of 
 " Suoni la Tromba " in " I Puritani :" 
 
 " Sound now the trumpet warningly ! 
 The storm is rolling 1 nearer, 
 The hour is striking clearer, 
 In the dusky dome of sky. 
 If dark and wild the morning be, 
 A darker morn before us 
 Shall fling its shadows o'er us 
 
 If we let the hour go by. 
 Sound we then the trumpet chorus I 
 Sound the onset wild and high 1 
 Country and Liberty ! 
 Freedom and Victory ! 
 These words shall be our cry, 
 Fre'mont and Victory ! 
 
 " Sound, sound the trumpet fearlessly 1 
 Each arm its vigor lending, 
 Bravely with wrong contending, 
 And shouting Freedom's cry! 
 The Kansas homes stand cheerlessly, 
 The sky with flame is ruddy, 
 The prairie turf is bloody, 
 
 Where the brave and gentle die. 
 Sound the trumpet stern and steady ! 
 Sound the trumpet strong and high 1 
 Country and Liberty I 
 Freedom and Victory ! 
 These words shall be our cry, 
 Fre'mont and Victory ! 
 
386 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 " Sound now the trumpet cheerily ! 
 Nor dream of Heaven's forsaking 
 The issue of its making, 
 
 That Right with Wrong must try. 
 The cloud that hung so drearily 
 The Northern winds are breaking ; 
 The Northern Lights are shaking 
 
 Their fire-flags in the sky. 
 Sound the signal of awaking ; 
 Sound the onset wild and high I 
 Country and Liberty ! 
 Freedom and Victory ! 
 These words shall be our cry, 
 Fremont and Victory ! " 
 
 At a Fremont meeting in Amesbury in July, 
 1856, Mr. Whittier was chairman of a committee 
 on resolutions, and introduced a series which ex- 
 press the belief that " the Divine Providence has 
 not mocked us with this great occasion, without 
 the means to meet it." And Fremont is spoken of 
 as " a man whose romantic achievements stir the 
 blood of the young, and whose modesty, prudence, 
 and sound principles commend him to the favor of 
 the conservative, as one whose middle years are 
 rich in varied experience, and to whom wisdom is 
 gray hairs, and an unspotted life old age." 
 
 In a moment of sanguine hope of the success 
 of the Free-Soil movement in 1856, Mr. Whittier 
 wrote to Moses A. Cartland : " Ah me ! I wish 
 I had strength to do what I see should be done ! 
 But all I can do shall be done. I am not apt to 
 be very sanguine, but I certainly have strong hopes 
 of Fremont's election. I think I see the finger 
 of Providence in his nomination. It appeals to all 
 that is good and generous in Young America. It 
 touches the popular heart." On the same sheet 
 
A PROPHECY OF WAR 387 
 
 his sister Elizabeth wrote, beginning with a refer- 
 ence to the assault upon Sumner : " What sad, 
 strange times are these ! We have felt that the 
 splendid life, so precious, has been in extreme dan- 
 ger. And then, poor Kansas! With the noble 
 men and women doing far more than the old times 
 ever called for, it would be very dark and sad, 
 only for the hope we have in our brave young 
 leader. The music of Freedom is in his very 
 name. We shall surely find our way again, with 
 Fremont at our head. I send thee this Quaker 
 song of Greenleaf 's it was sung at our Fremont 
 meeting." The song which was inclosed has not 
 been found or identified. This letter was written 
 in July, and " Sound the Trumpet " was not pub- 
 lished until September. 
 
 The poem " What of the Day ? " was written in 
 the height of the excitement of the presidential 
 contest, when the friends of Freedom were feeling 
 somewhat confident of winning the day. It shows 
 that Whittier did not share the bright hopes of 
 those who expected to crush the barbaric institu- 
 tion of slavery without resort to anything harsher 
 than the ballot. There is in it a prophetic inti- 
 mation of the deadly war which was to rage five 
 years later, and he expresses his gratitude that he 
 had lived to take part in the preparatory struggle, 
 while the gathering hosts were in " the Valley of 
 Decision : " 
 
 " I fain would thank Thee that my mortal life 
 
 Has reached the hour (albeit through care and pain) 
 When Good and Evil, as for final strife, 
 
 Close dim and vast on Armageddon's plain ; 
 
 And Michael and his angels once again (- 
 
388 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 Drive howling 1 back the Spirits of the Night. 
 
 Oh, for the faith to read the signs aright 
 
 And from the angle of Thy perfect sight 
 See Truth's white banner floating on before, 
 
 And the Good Cause, despite of venal friends 
 
 And base expedients, move to noble ends : 
 
 See Peace with Freedom make to Time amends, 
 And, through its cloud of dust, the threshing-floor, 
 
 Flailed by the thunder, heaped with chaffless grain ! " 
 
 The other poems which belong to this campaign 
 are " The Pass of the Sierra," " To Pennsylva- 
 nia," " A Song for the Time," and the song begin- 
 ning, " Beneath thy Skies, November." The fol- 
 lowing interesting reference to " The Pass of the 
 Sierra " is made in a letter written by Jessie Benton 
 Fremont to Mr. Whittier, from Pocaho, N. Y., 
 March 5, 1868: 
 
 " The General had a case before the Supreme 
 Court which has kept him some weeks in Washing- 
 ton, and yesterday, when he made time for a day 
 at home with us, among other things he had to tell 
 us was that a young lady has been introduced to 
 him who had been on quite a tour in the Califor- 
 nia mountains, to the Yo Semite, and into the 
 Sierra Nevada. The point of it to us was that 
 she told the General that on the first night they 
 camped out in the Yo Semite mountains she could 
 not sleep for the wildness and beauty made by 
 the ' camp-fire's wall of dark.' When we lived 
 two dreary years of enforced patience, waiting for 
 the law's delay, in that same mountain country, I 
 cut out and pasted to the wall, by the General's 
 dressing-glass, where he had to see it daily, those 
 lines of yours. Many and many a time when the 
 
PRO-SLAVERY POSTMASTERS 389 
 
 troubles of business depressed him, these words 
 with their grand ideas, and the memories of a 
 nobler life, put fresh heart into him. The young 
 lady's quotation [from " The Pass of the Sierra "] 
 reminded us of those times, and we talked them 
 over, sitting again by a country home fireside 
 the wood fire, the dogs lying on the hearth, the 
 pines loaded with snow, all as it used to be in the 
 mountains, but within health and peace and 
 rest." 
 
 The earnest abolitionists of these days made 
 public the confession of their faith in every pos- 
 sible way. One device was to print anti-slavery 
 pictures and mottoes upon the envelopes of their 
 letters, which gave offense to postmasters, who were 
 usually pro-slavery in their sentiments, and there 
 was complaint that many letters adorned with 
 these " incendiary " legends failed to reach their 
 destination. During the Kansas troubles the 
 phrase "Border Ruffian" came to be applied to 
 the party of the administration. This explains an 
 allusion in the following letter from Mr. Whittier 
 to Lydia Maria Child, written June 12, 1856 : 
 
 " Thy book, most welcome of itself, was re- 
 ceived a day or two ago, with the kind note accom- 
 panying it. I have never received the letter to 
 which thee alluded. The Border Ruffian official, 
 perhaps, withheld it on account of its ' image and 
 superstition. 9 I shall try and find it, however, for 
 I am not willing to lose a word of love and kind- 
 ness from one I have so long loved and honored. I 
 the more regret the destruction of the letter, as 
 I see by thy note that my silence gave thee pain. 
 
890 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 God forbid that I should forget or neglect an early 
 and much loved friend ! When we have reached 
 middle years, and begin to tread the sunset declen- 
 sion of life, it is not easy to make new friends or 
 give up old ones. Long before I knew thee I had 
 read thy writings, and honored thee for thy noble 
 efforts in the cause of freedom. Since then I have 
 had no occasion to qualify my respect and admira- 
 tion, or to regard thy friendship as anything less 
 than one of the blessings which the Divine Provi- 
 dence has bestowed upon me in more than com- 
 pensation for whatever trifling sacrifices I have 
 made for the welfare of my fellow-men." 
 
 The following letter to Mrs. Child was written 
 in reply to one suggesting that he offer consola- 
 tion to a mutual friend then in affliction : " I 
 thank thee for thy kind letter. I had before seeing 
 thee anticipated thy suggestion as respects Mrs. 
 
 L . I called on her just as she was leaving 
 
 Beverly, urged to do so by an impulse which I 
 could not resist. Her great sorrow and its holy 
 consolations deeply impressed me. I was truly 
 glad to meet thee, in Boston. It is the pleasantest 
 reminiscence of my visit. My sister joins with me 
 in hoping we may see thee under our roof." 
 
 The poem " The Mayflowers " was written in 
 1856, and the concluding stanzas of it show that 
 a thought of the impending presidential campaign 
 Was in the poet's mind as he wrote it : 
 
 " The Pilgrim's wild and wintry day 
 
 Its shadow round us draws ; 
 The Mayflower of his stormy bay, 
 Our Freedom's struggling cause. 
 
"THE MAYFLOWERS" 391 
 
 "But warmer suns erelong shall bring 
 
 To life the frozen sod ; 
 
 And through dead leaves of hope shall spring 
 Afresh the flowers of God ! " 
 
 This poem was suggested by a gift of may- 
 flowers sent Mr. Whittier by a friend residing 
 in Plymouth, Mass., on the 30th of April, 1856. 
 The note accompanying the flowers has this pas- 
 sage, from which the poem grew : " You know 
 the mayflower with us is the flower, and all our 
 people gather them at this season and send them 
 to their friends who have them not. There is 
 such meaning in the mayflower to all descendants 
 of the Pilgrims and to all lovers of freedom." 
 
 After the election, he wrote the " Song inscribed 
 to the Fremont Clubs," in which he took a cheer- 
 ful view of the situation, foretelling the success 
 that was to come in 1860 : 
 
 " For God be praised ! New England 
 
 Takes once more her ancient place ; 
 Again the Pilgrim banner 
 
 Leads the vanguard of the race. 
 
 " Then sound again the bugles, 
 Call the muster-roll anew ; 
 If months have well-nigh won the field, 
 What may not four years do ? " 
 
 After the death of Mr. Mussey the plates and 
 copyright of the illustrated edition of Whittier's 
 poems came into the hands of Sanborn, Carter, 
 Bazin & Co. In 185J, Mr. Whittier, who was 
 pleased with the blue and gold edition of Long- 
 fellow, wished to make a complete collection of his 
 own works, to be published in the same neat and 
 
392 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 popular form. He had written much since he had 
 sold his copyrights of all earlier poems to Mussey, 
 but it would be necessary for him to regain posses- 
 sion of these old copyrights before the new com- 
 plete edition could be published. He had not the 
 means at the time to make the purchase, but the 
 matter was negotiated for him by Mr. Fields, and 
 the blue and gold edition was published in 1857. 
 The first correspondence in regard to it which is 
 before us is a letter of Whittier's dated January 
 4, probably written upon receipt of Longfellow's 
 blue and gold volumes : " Longfellow's poems are 
 always welcome. I like your new edition exceed- 
 ingly, and wish some means can be devised to get 
 my verses into a similar shape. I wish I could 
 get hold of the Mussey volume. I would prefer 
 to have one publisher, of course. ... A great 
 many thanks, dear F., for thy kind response to 
 my verses [" The Last Walk in Autumn "]. The 
 poem was written for thee and such as thee, for 
 the friends the good God has given me. I did 
 not expect the public at large to see much in it. 
 The weather deals harshly with me, and I cannot 
 leave home without suffering a great deal. The 
 worst of it is that a large part of the time I can 
 neither write nor read." 
 
 Fields replied in regard to the Mussey book, on 
 the 12th of January : " I have been trying for a 
 long time to get that big volume of your poems 
 out of Mussey's hands, with reference to bringing 
 you out complete, as we have done Longfellow. 
 Your poems are now held by Sanborn, Carter, 
 Bazin & Co., the successors of Mussey, and 1 
 
NEW EDITION OF HIS POEMS 393 
 
 have failed as yet to bring them to terms. In 
 whatever I have attempted to do, I have had 
 your interest in mind. I am still negotiating, 
 and hope I may yet be successful. You had 
 better not write to them at present on the sub- 
 ject." 
 
 In a few weeks the matter was arranged, and 
 Mr. Whittier at once set about the revision of his 
 works. On the 5th of March he wrote : 
 
 " I have marked for omission some eight or ten 
 pieces, and have a great desire to wipe out others. 
 Indeed, if I could have my way I would strike out 
 the long Indian poem. In other words, I would 
 kill Mogg Megone over again. I think the poem 
 has some degree of merit, but it is not in good 
 taste, and the subject is by no means such as I 
 would now choose. I have objections to it not 
 merely from an artistic point of view, but a moral 
 one also. But I refer the matter to thee, whether 
 Mogg can be omitted. I send an ambrotype just 
 taken in this village, which my friends think an 
 excellent likeness, barring a slight grip of the 
 mouth, giving it a little twist by way of variety. 
 Never mind that ; twists are natural to men of 
 one idea." 
 
 The portrait in the first volume of the blue and 
 gold edition is from the ambrotype to which refer- 
 ence is made in the letter just quoted. On the 
 llth of March he wrote to Fields, who had objected 
 to the omissions he proposed : 
 
 " So, then, I must still carry the burden of my 
 poetical sins ! Is there no way to lay the ghosts 
 of unlucky rhymes ? As for Mogg Megone, he is 
 
394 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 very far from pleasant company, but I see by thy 
 letter that it is idle to think of shaking the tough 
 old rascal off. Let him ride then bad luck to 
 the ugly face of him ! I had no business to make 
 him, and it is doubtless poetical justice that he 
 should haunt me like another Frankenstein. But 
 I insist on dropping ' The Response,' ' Stanzas 
 for the Times, 1844,' ' Address at the Opening 
 of Pennsylvania Hall,' and * The Album.' Their 
 place is more than filled by the pieces added 
 and sent with the book. I have some eight or 
 ten pieces written within the past year which I 
 will send as soon as I can get them together. . . . 
 [He refers again to the ambrotype sent, from 
 which to engrave a portrait.] The ambrotype 
 process gives the hair and complexion a blanched 
 look, whereas my hair is black and but sprinkled 
 with gray sufficiently to give me the external sign 
 of wisdom." 
 
 The four poems named in this letter, which he 
 insists on dropping, are omitted from the blue and 
 gold volumes, but two of them may be found in 
 the edition of 1888. Of these two one is the 
 "Address at the Opening of Pennsylvania Hall," 
 and the other is " Stanzas for the Times, 1844," 
 which is now entitled " The Sentence of John L. 
 Brown." 
 
 Even when Whittier was in his most pressing 
 pecuniary straits, he was devising liberal things 
 for his friends who were more needy than he. Be- 
 side putting his hand in his own pocket, he called 
 upon his more prosperous friends for contribu- 
 tions, and among those upon whom he found he 
 
CHARACTERISTIC GENEROSITY 395 
 
 could always rely were Mr. Fields, his publisher, 
 and Mr. Haskell, editor of the Boston " Evening 
 Transcript." In later years, George W. Childs, of 
 Philadelphia, with characteristic generosity desired 
 Whittier to draw upon him for any charity in 
 which he was interested. Here is a letter to, 
 Fields of May 1, 1857, asking help for a friend 
 who had been dear to Whittier from childhood : 
 
 " As thee is not one who wearies in well-doing, 
 let me ask of thee to see friend Haskell of the 
 4 Transcript,' and ask him to help set on foot a 
 
 subscription for the benefit of , the historian, 
 
 who is now sick in mind and body, at W. A 
 kinder - hearted, quainter, and more genial man 
 never lived than he. He has done a great deal of 
 good in collecting material for the future historian 
 and novelist. Let the subscription take the shape 
 of a testimonial for his eminent services as a his- 
 torian and antiquarian. If Haskell will act as 
 treasurer, I will send my subscription to him." 
 
 Fields replied the same day : 
 
 " I will speak to Haskell to-morrow about poor 
 
 Mr. , whom I never saw but once or twice ; 
 
 but as he is your friend, he shall have five dollars 
 from a friend of yours, whose name is synonymous 
 with Meadows. I will stir Haskell up to write of 
 him in the ' Transcript,' 
 
 " ' And he shall say a good word for him, 
 
 Igo and ago ; 
 
 Else may Old Niek to shoe-strings chew him, 
 Irani, coram, dago.' 
 
 Let me whisper to you, if at any time you find your 
 pockets light, it will give me great pleasure per- 
 
896 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 sonally to shovel in a few ' rocks,' to be returned 
 at any time when most convenient to you or if 
 they should never come back it would be better 
 still. My hand is still lame, but I can sign a check 
 at any time, if a friend needs it." 
 
 To this Whittier replied : 
 
 " I am sorry for thy lame hand, but be thankful 
 that thee are not an old bachelor, and lame all 
 over with rheumatism, as I am. Emerson's ' May 
 Day ' is charming, full of wisdom and sweetness. 
 Thy parody of Captain Grose set me rhyming 
 when I sat down to write to thee : 
 
 " Dear F. will take a friendly pride in 
 The absent hand and heart confiding, 
 And if then any are deriding 
 
 That plea of Haskell's, 
 We '11 count the cautious robes they hide in 
 
 As sheer wrap rascals ! 
 
 " Oh, well-paid author, fat-fed scholar, 
 Whose pockets jingle with the dollar ! 
 No sheriff's hand upon your collar, 
 
 No duns to bother, 
 Think on 't ; a tithe of what you swallow 
 
 Would save your brother ! 
 
 " More blest is he among the living 
 Who gives than he who is receiving : 
 And that last robe which Time is weaving 
 
 To bear us off in 
 Shall be the lighter for our giving 
 
 A lift to - . 
 
 " And now Heaven help the old and poor 
 And keep the gaunt wolf from his door I 
 I send for lack of silver ore 
 
 These paper shadows : 
 Thou 'It add, I 'm sure, as many more, 
 
 My dear friend Meadows. 
 
James T. Fields 
 
"THE SYCAMORES" 397 
 
 " So shall the public crowd and mingle 
 Where'er thou hangest out thy shingle, 
 And all the joys the happy ingle 
 
 Of human love yields 
 Be thine, and blessings never single 
 Add Fields to Fields !" 
 
 A few days later Mr. Whittier wrote : " I am 
 rejoiced to hear of the success of the subscription. 
 
 Some ladies from have just called on me with 
 
 the agreeable intelligence that our worthy old 
 friend has so far recovered as to be able to return 
 to his home. If now we can raise $200 for him it 
 will enable him to hold the old house where his 
 ancestors for many generations have lived, and set 
 the old man on his legs again, and warm and 
 gladden his heart. His bodily and mental health 
 seems now very nearly restored, and he fully ap- 
 preciates every kindness." 
 
 The ballad of " The Sycamores," which tells the 
 legend of the row of trees planted by the merry 
 Irishman, Hugh Tallant, on the left bank of the 
 Merrimac, below Haverhill, was published in 
 1857. Very soon after its publication a descend- 
 ant of Tallant, Caroline L. Tallant of Nantucket, 
 Mass., wrote to Mr. Whittier making inquiries. 
 As first printed, the name was spelled " Talent," 
 and the writer of the letter was not quite sure that 
 her ancestor was the person referred to in the 
 poem. She wrote for information on this point, 
 and added : ii 
 
 " It is traditionary lore in our family, that three 
 Tallant brothers, of whom one was Hugh, came 
 over from Ireland and settled in New Hampshire, 
 and that from them descended all who bear the 
 
398 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 name of Tallant in America. My grandfather, 
 Andrew Tallant, was the son of Hugh. He died 
 last spring in Pelham, N. H., on the old homestead 
 which was left him by his father. I remember 
 having seen one other son of Hugh. When I was 
 quite young one of my uncles took me to ride from 
 Concord to Pelham, and on the way he stopped at 
 an old brown house, quite in the woods, that I 
 might see his uncle Hugh. That Hugh Tallant 
 was living, when last we knew anything of him, in 
 Pembroke, N. H., and must be now about eighty- 
 eight years old. Then my uncle has told me of 
 another uncle of his, George, whom he remembers 
 as having some skill in ' fiddle ' playing. That is 
 one of the links in my chain of evidence, because 
 he must have inherited the gift from his father. 
 Hugh and George are all my grandfather's bro- 
 thers of whom I know. On the back of a coat 
 of arms, I have found the date of Hugh Tallant' s 
 death as 1795, and his supposed age 108 or 110 
 years. My grandfather used to tell us story- 
 loving children that his father was a ' spry old 
 man ' ' over a hundred when he died,' and then 
 he would relate to our great pride and satisfaction, 
 how he had seen his father, when over seventy 
 years old, leap over, by putting his hand on the 
 neck of one of them, two horses placed side by 
 side. He used to tell us too that his father saw j 
 the ' Battle of the Boyne ' in old Ireland, and 
 Hugh Tallant was almost as much a hero for 
 admiration as Washington. But it was with young 
 eyes he saw the bloodshed of his countrymen, for 
 he was held a child in arms on the battle-field. 
 
HUGH TALLANT 399 
 
 The battle of the Boyne was July 1, 1690, which 
 would make Hugh Tallant only 105 in 1795 not 
 agreeing exactly with the statement on the coat of 
 arms. Your ballad says, 
 
 " ' One long century hath been numbered, 
 
 And another half way told, 
 Since the rustic Irish gleeman 
 
 Broke for them the virgin mould.' 
 
 " Hugh Tallant, a hundred and fifty years ago, 
 was an Irish youth of seventeen or twenty, with all 
 the poetry of his nature fresh and un crushed within 
 him and so it was just the age for him to dis- 
 close his musical and fun-loving disposition. Did 
 your Hugh wander round from town to town with 
 his fiddle and his pack ? I know scarcely anything 
 excepting what I have told of my great-grand- 
 father. He lived in Atkinson at one time, and 
 then he lived in Pelham. He owned at one time 
 thousands of acres of land in and about the latter 
 town, but he sold them carelessly away for almost 
 nothing." 
 
 To this Mr. Whittier replied : 
 
 "Thy letter took me almost as much by sur- 
 prise as the entrance of the veritable and venerable 
 Hugh himself would have done. When I wrote 
 the poem in question, I never expected that a fair 
 descendant of the Milesian tree-planter would be 
 called up. In fact, Hugh Talent was to me a pleas- 
 ant myth, a shadowy phantom of tradition only. 
 Since receiving thy letter I have ascertained for a 
 certainty that the Hugh of my ballad and thy 
 great-grandfather are one and the same. I am not 
 sure of the date of planting the trees, but it was 
 
400 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 certainly in the early part of the eighteenth century. 
 Hugh at that time was a resident of Haverhill, on 
 the Merrimac, now a town of some ten thousand 
 inhabitants. The trees, twenty of which are now 
 standing, he planted on the river bank, before the 
 mansion of Colonel Richard Saltonstall, brother of 
 Governor Saltonstall, of Connecticut. 
 
 " The tradition of him is pretty correctly given in 
 the ballad. After leaving Atkinson [N. H.] , then 
 a part of Haverhill, he moved to Pelham or Wind- 
 ham, became a considerable landholder, and was 
 noted for his love of fun and lawsuits. He took 
 the Tory side in the Revolution, was outlawed, 
 shot a.t, and driven off by his neighbors, but soon 
 managed to return. These latter facts I have just 
 learned. I wish they had been before me, as well 
 as those of thy own letter, when I was writing 
 ' The Sycamores.' The trees are about twelve 
 miles up the river from my residence [in Ames- 
 bury] . I should like to show them to a descendant 
 of the merry troubadour who planted them. I 
 give the name as it stands in the Haverhill records, 
 Talent. I presume it should be Tallant. Of 
 course, thou art at liberty to alter it in the poem. 
 The incident of Washington is true." 
 
 Miss Caroline Tallant made the following lively 
 response : 
 
 " Very few of old Hugh's many-acred farms 
 have descended to us, but I am more than content 
 with young Hugh's bequest to me. How thought- 
 ful in the youth to look down the long future 
 and know of the poet yet to come, whose song and 
 own handwriting and special message I should be 
 
HUGH TALLANT 401 
 
 most pleased with, and then with his Irish wit 
 to set about gaining them for me by planting trees 
 on the river-side. My matronly sister insists upon 
 dashing my enthusiasm by reminding me that pos- 
 sibly Hugh may have planted the trees with no 
 higher aim than that of earning his dinner by his 
 labor. I scorn that idea, however, and will not be 
 convinced that the young man would as content- 
 edly have dug post-holes all day. He planted the 
 trees because he loved trees and flowers, and birds, 
 and everything beautiful, natural, and free, and I 
 am going to have him sainted for it, and a day 
 awarded on the family calendar. Saint Hugh's 
 day shall be duly honored with Thanksgiving fes- 
 tivities. His ballad shall be read, and we will not 
 forget, with our toast to his memory, the memory 
 of the singer who has sung both of him and of the 
 ' sea-beat island, ' the only spot we call our 
 home." 
 
 In Mirick's " History of Haverhill," under date 
 of 1739, may be found this item, which evidently 
 gave the suggestion of the ballad to the poet, as we 
 find in Mr. Whittier's copy of the book the first 
 draft of a stanza of the poem written on the mar- 
 gin of the page that contains this passage : 
 
 " About this time, the sycamore-trees, now stand- 
 ing before Widow Samuel W. Duncan's mansion, 
 were set out. The work was dofne by one Hugh 
 Talent, a wanderer from the green fields of Erin, 
 and who was a famous fiddler. He lived with 
 Colonel Richard Saltonstall, in the capacity of 
 a servant, and tradition says that he frequently 
 made harmonious sounds with his cat-gut and rosin 
 
402 POETRY AND POLITICS 
 
 for the gratification of the village swains and 
 lasses." 
 
 In the edition of 1873, there is an error in the 
 twenty-eighth stanza of " The Sycamores : " 
 
 " But the trees the gleeman planted, 
 
 Through the changes, changeless stand, 
 As the marble calm of Tadmor 
 Marks the desert's shifting sand." 
 
 The word should be " mocks," and this is the read- 
 ing in the latest editions. 
 
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ 
 
 This book is due on the last DATE stamped below. 
 
 100m-8,'65(F6282s8)2373