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PUBLICATIONS OF THE 
 ESSEX BOOK AND PRINT CLUB 
 
 NO. II 
 WHITTIER CORRESPONDENCE 
 
WHITTIER 
 CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 tfrom t^e €>afi ftnoll Collections 
 1830-1892 
 
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 EDITED BY 
 
 JOHN ALBREE 
 
 SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 ESSEX BOOK AND PRINT CLUB 
 
 1911 
 

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 COPYRIGHT, 19I I, BY THE ESSEX BOOK AND PRINT CLUB 
 
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TO THE DAUGHTERS OF 
 
 COLONEL EDMUND JOHNSON OF OAK KNOLL 
 
 MISS CAROLINE CARTLAND JOHNSON 
 
 AND 
 
 MRS. ABBY JOHNSON WOODMAN 
 
 IN WHOSE HOME WHITTIER, 
 
 WHEN THREE-SCORE AND TEN, 
 
 SOUGHT AND FOUND 
 
 CARE, CONSIDERATION, COMFORT, 
 
 UNTIL 
 
 C THE GREAT SILENCE AT LAST FELL ON HIM.' 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction .... 
 
 Whittier Correspondence 
 To his Mother, 1830 . 
 To his sister Elizabeth, 1835 . 
 From Caleb Cushing, 1835 . 
 From Stephen C. Phillips, 1835 
 To his sister Elizabeth, 1837 
 To his sister Elizabeth, 1837 . 
 To his sister Mary Caldwell, 1837 
 From his sister Elizabeth, 1837 
 From his brother Franklin, 1838 . 
 To his sister Elizabeth, 1838 . 
 To his Family, 1839 . 
 To his Mother, 1839 
 To his sister Mary Caldwell, 1839 
 From Elizur Wright, Jr., 1 840 
 To his sister Elizabeth, 1840 
 From Joseph Sturge, 1841 
 From Caleb Cushing, 1841 . 
 From his brother Franklin, 1841 
 From Caleb Cushing, 1841 . 
 Liberty Party Petition, 1841 
 From Caleb Cushing, 1841 . 
 From his brother Franklin, 1842 
 From James Russell Lowell, 1842 
 
 33 
 
 36 
 38 
 
 4i 
 46 
 
 50 
 52 
 54 
 56 
 58 
 60 
 62 
 
 63 
 65 
 67 
 
 69 
 
 72 
 
 74 
 76 
 
 79 
 81 
 82 
 84 
 
[ viii ] 
 
 From Henry B. Stanton, 1844 . 
 
 From his brother Franklin, 1844 • 
 
 From Henry B. Stanton, 1844 • 
 
 From Charles A. Dana, 1845 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1848 
 
 To Charles Sumner, 1848 . 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1848 
 
 From Henry B. Stanton, 1848 
 
 From Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1848 
 
 From Lewis Tappan, 1848 . 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1848 
 
 To " The Bay State," Lynn, 1850 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1850 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1851 
 
 From Edwin P. Hill, 1853 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1853 
 
 From Cornelius Conway Felton, 1855 
 
 To his Amesbury Neighbors, 1856 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1856 
 
 From James Russell Lowell, 1857 
 
 From James Russell Lowell, 1858 . 
 
 From Lewis Tappan, 1859 • 
 
 From Salmon P. Chase, i860 . 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1861 
 
 From Thomas Starr King, 1862 
 
 From Lydia Maria Child, 1864 . 
 
 From Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1864 
 
 From Dorothea L. Dix, 1865 
 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1865 
 
 From Colonel Julian Allen, 1866 . 
 
 86 
 
[ix] 
 
 From Lucy Stone, 1867 
 
 From Celia Thaxter, 1867 
 
 From Jessie Benton Fremont, 1868 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1868 
 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1869 
 
 To (a Quaker), 1870 
 
 From Paul H. Hayne, 1870 
 
 From Paul H. Hayne, 1870 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1872 
 
 From Charles Sumner, 1872 
 
 From Celia Thaxter, 1873 • 
 
 From Paul H. Hayne, 1874 
 
 From Henry W. Longfellow, 1874 
 
 From Fellow Townsmen of Amesbury, 
 
 From Charles C. Burleigh, 1877 . 
 
 From Paul H. Hayne, 1878 
 
 From Paul H. Hayne, 1878 
 
 To (as to printing poems), 1878 
 
 From Lydia Maria Child, 1878 . 
 From Lydia Maria Child, 1879 
 To Horace H. Currier, 1879 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1879 
 From Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1879 
 To Thomas F. Bayard, 1880 . 
 From Paul H. Hayne, 1880 
 From Edwin P. Whipple, 1881 
 
 To , 1881 .... 
 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1882 
 
 To Charles P. Preston, 1883 
 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1883 . 
 
 1877 
 
 159 
 161 
 166 
 169 
 171 
 J 73 
 *75 
 178 
 180 
 181 
 
 183 
 187 
 190 
 191 
 194 
 199 
 202 
 206 
 207 
 209 
 212 
 214 
 216 
 218 
 219 
 224 
 226 
 228 
 230 
 232 
 
[*3 
 
 From William Claflin, 1884 
 From Thomas Chase, 1884 
 From Amelia B. Edwards, 1885 . 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1885 
 To "The Boston Transcript," 1885 
 From James Russell Lowell, 1886 
 From Charles C. Chase, 1887 
 From George F. Hoar, 1888 . 
 From Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1888 
 From Isaac R. Pennypacker, 1890 . 
 From Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1890 
 To Miss Phebe Woodman, 1892 
 To Miss Caroline C. Johnson, 1892 
 
 Appendices 
 
 A Whittier's "Editorial Creed," 1830 
 
 B The Grimke Sisters at Amesbury 
 
 C Some Anti-Slavery Workers 
 
 D H. C. Wright .... 
 
 E The Origin of Whittier's 111 Health 
 
 F Whittier to Elizur Wright, Jr., 1840 
 
 G John Neal 
 
 H Whittier to Sumner, 1848 
 
 I Whittier to Sumner, 1853 
 
 J Whittier to Sumner, 1856 
 
 K Whittier to Sumner, 1872 
 
 L Thomas Chase 
 
 M Harriet Livermore 
 
 N Whittier to , 1867 . 
 
 Index 291 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Whittier. From Daguerreotype, 1844-5 • Frontispiece ^ 
 Oak Knoll, Danvers . . . . . 4 w 
 
 Elizabeth H. Whittier ..... 46 / 
 
 Whittier's Mother . . . . . . bov 
 
 James Russell Lowell, 1842 . . . . 84 * 
 
 S. P. Chase 136 y 
 
 O. W. Holmes . 154 * 
 
 Charles Sumner . . . * . . . 170 y 
 Celia Th axter . . . . . 1 84 -'' 
 
 Lydia Maria Child 208 
 
 E. C. Stedman . . . . . . 216/ 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
THESE letters cover sixty-two years of the 
 life of a man to whom Essex County owes a 
 debt, for Whittier has thrown over this re- 
 gion a charm that has made it one of the world's ideal 
 spots. And he has sung of its beauty so effectively 
 that the pilgrim, who does not see what Whittier saw, 
 will rest content that the failure is due to his own lack 
 of perception. But yet, beautiful though the country 
 seems in the verse, the people of the poems rest under 
 a shadow, for there it appears that they persecute their 
 neighbors as Quakers, hang them as witches, and sail 
 away from them as they drown. 
 
 However, it is not because Whittier is so closely 
 associated with Essex County that the correspondence 
 here printed is of value. It is rather that through 
 these letters we can learn of Whittier himself, whose 
 memory is cherished as the poet of home and child- 
 hood, of sympathy for the burdened and the oppressed, 
 of encouragement for the down-hearted, of suggestion 
 for the enthusiast, of inspiration for men of affairs. 
 And though he practically retired from this work-a- 
 day world at the age of thirty-three, an invalid, here 
 are letters that show him to have been among his 
 cotemporaries a power as an editor, a politician, and an 
 anti-slavery worker. 
 
 And these letters were preserved by Whittier him- 
 self. Shortly after his removal to Danvers in 1876 
 because of changes in the Amesbury household, he 
 spent a day at his former home and returned to Oak 
 
[4] 
 
 Knoll with a mass of papers, saying, with a smile 
 at the bulk of the package, that one could not tell 
 about the future, and so he thought he would have 
 these near him. It is from this collection, which Whittier 
 himself made, that the letters here printed were selected 
 for preservation, through the kind permission and 
 cooperation of Mrs. Woodman and Miss Johnson. 
 Once, when asked where he lived, he replied : " I 
 retain my legal residence in Amesbury and I go there 
 to vote, but my home is at Oak Knoll." And it was 
 his home until his death in 1892, as pleasing refer- 
 ences to it in these letters show. Great is the contrast 
 between the modest house on the village street in 
 Amesbury that had been his home for forty years, 
 and the stately mansion at Oak Knoll, set back from 
 the travelled road among grand trees and spacious 
 surroundings. Here he could entertain his old friends, 
 and he could also receive in fitting manner the host 
 of " pilgrims," as he called them, who came from far 
 and wide, and it may be added, it is still a shrine, 
 though almost a score of years has passed since he 
 left it forever. 
 
 Among the earlier letters are a number exchanged 
 between Whittier and his family, the characters im- 
 mortalized in " Snow-Bound." Personal and familiar 
 in their tone, they contain allusions which must be 
 analyzed, for under that roof and around that hearth 
 were the influences that shaped Whittier, the man of 
 power. 
 
 The first letter, that from Hartford in 1830 to his 
 mother, was written when Whittier, a young man of 
 twenty-two, was away from home and among strangers. 
 He had already had some hard and discouraging ex- 
 
[5] 
 
 perience in newspaper work in Boston, but now in the 
 home of that renowned coterie, the Hartford Wits, 
 he was to succeed the brilliant George D. Prentice, 
 as editor of the " New England Review," a weekly- 
 paper, at a salary of five hundred dollars a year. 1 
 Whittier through his contributions to that paper, 
 had made a pleasing impression on Prentice, so that 
 when Prentice went to Kentucky to aid in the cam- 
 paign of Clay for the Presidency, the young Haverhill 
 Quaker was the one chosen to be the editor. With 
 such an introduction Whittier' s place in the social 
 circles of the "little city," as he later called it, was 
 established, and, for the first time, he was enjoying the 
 stimulus of urban life. He was finding Hartford to 
 be " a pleasant city and full of clever people." Fifty- 
 five years afterwards he looked back, and again wrote, 
 " I was there two years and had a pleasant time." 2 
 
 In 1832 he returned to Haverhill where, through 
 the death of his father, he had to take up the " daily 
 duties of a large farm." But his two years in the world 
 had broadened his outlook and stirred his ambition. 
 Already the cause of the slave had appealed to him, 
 and just before his return to farm life, he published 
 his poem to Garrison, now placed at the beginning of 
 his anti-slavery verse, every line of which rings with 
 the exultant enthusiasm of one who knows the perils, 
 and is thrilled at the sight of the leader. 
 
 It maybe that it was a letter 3 from this leader, 
 
 1 See Appendix A, p. 263. 
 
 2 Memorial History of Hartford County, Conn,, i, 614 (1886). 
 
 3 This letter, printed in full in Carpenter, Whittier, 1 1 7, was in the 
 package Whittier brought to Oak Knoll, where it is in the possession 
 of his cousins, Mrs. Woodman and Miss Johnson. 
 
[6] 
 
 Garrison, that decided Whittier to identify himself 
 with the " mighty purpose " of that 
 
 " Champion of those who groan beneath 
 Oppression's iron hand." l 
 
 Or it may be that Whittier had reached that point in 
 his own thought where such a letter would lead to a 
 decision. In this letter Garrison, after depicting the 
 curse of slavery, concluded : — "This, then, is a time 
 for the philanthropist, any friend of his country, to 
 put forth his energies, in order to let the oppressed 
 go free, and sustain the republic. The cause is worthy 
 of Gabriel, yea, the God of hosts places himself at its 
 head. Whittier, enlist. Your talents, zeal, influence, 
 all are needed/' 
 
 Three months later, June, 1833, Whittier at his 
 own expense printed his pamphlet, "Justice and Ex- 
 pediency ; or Slavery considered with a View to its 
 Rightful and Effectual Remedy, Abolition." 2 The im- 
 mediate interest this pamphlet has in connection with 
 these letters lies in the statement of the end to be 
 sought and the manner of attainment. In it he re- 
 cognizes the power of " the terrible and unrebukable 
 indignation of a free people, ,, which must be aroused 
 and concentrated against the forces of slavery. He 
 knows that public opinion, when fully awakened, can 
 overcome all the obstacles to abolition, however great. 
 And this mighty force is to be brought to act, " not 
 with the weapons of violence and blood, but with those 
 of reason and truth, prayer to God and entreaty to 
 man," and these letters show that Whittier's lifelong 
 course was but a working out of this policy. 
 
 1 «« To William Lloyd Garrison," Poems, 262, Cambridge Edition. 
 
 2 Prose Works , iii, 34. 
 
[7] 
 
 It may not seem fitting to style Whittier an agita- 
 tor, but such indeed he was, and in his comment on 
 W. E. Channing's "Slavery" (quoted note i, page 
 44) he expressed strong approval of agitation. There 
 is, however, a difference in agitators and a diversity 
 in their methods. With Garrison, the personality of 
 the man himself so entered the cause of the slave that 
 it became in the minds of the public his own cause, and 
 he, its especial advocate. But with Whittier, as is seen 
 in these letters, there was not the arousing of impulse 
 and feeling, but rather the appeal to " reason and 
 truth," as he declared in his "Justice and Expediency/' 
 and it required skilful and adroit handling of men, 
 first to enlist them in the tedious and difficult strug- 
 gles incident to a third party in politics, and then to 
 hold their allegiance year after year. 
 
 Whittier must have known what it was to support 
 an unpopular cause, though pure the motives and 
 high the aim. The caution after the allusion to " gin- 
 sling and brandy " in the first letter, is a reference to 
 the temperance principles of his friend and patron, A. 
 W. Thayer, the publisher of the "Haverhill Gazette," 
 which was " the first political paper and the second paper 
 of any kind" to advocate total abstinence from liquor. 1 
 So earnest and effective was Thayer's course that, in 
 a short time, he lost four hundred subscribers, a loss 
 almost calamitous to a paper of its limited circulation. 
 
 But in reading these letters there is one factor that 
 must not, indeed it cannot, be overlooked, the " plain 
 coat " of the Quaker. The extent of its influence and 
 power can best be determined after some conception 
 is formed of what it stood for in Essex County two 
 1 Chase, Haverhill (1861), 654. 
 
[8] 
 
 centuries ago, for to the traditions associated with this 
 plain coat its wearers succeeded. This appears in 
 Franklin Whittiers letter (page 89) where he and 
 Nathan wore their hats in a meeting, " as a testimony." 
 Though the style of this coat was that worn by quietly 
 dressed people of the seventeenth century, the fact 
 that the Quakers clung to it through changing fash- 
 ions, shows that it stood for something definite in 
 their minds, and the " world's people " naturally made 
 inquiry as to what it meant, if indeed they were not 
 already informed by some of the ranting Quakers. 
 
 The coat signified that its wearer was " bearing wit- 
 ness," which is a euphemism for making a protest, 
 a protest against show, ornament, and amusement, 
 against rites and ceremonies in the churches, against 
 class distinctions in social life, in brief, a broad pro- 
 test against what had become generally recognized as 
 the graces, the courtesies, and the conventionalities of 
 active life. Through the donning of this peculiar coat 
 its wearer was promptly identified as one who was, in 
 effect, silently charging those he met with insincerity 
 and moral weakness. Such a protest against those 
 things which are at the basis of social life, was a hin- 
 drance in the intercourse of man and man. It would 
 excite either respect, pity, ridicule, or resentment, and 
 which it might be, had to be determined before mu- 
 tual confidence, needful to the establishment of satis- 
 factory relations, could exist. Furthermore, such a coat 
 with its burden of reproof must dominate the wearer, 
 or else the man himself must have sufficient strength 
 of character to rise above its influence. 
 
 To understand how these traditions became estab- 
 lished and how deeply they were rooted, some atten- 
 
[9] 
 
 tion must be given to the current thought when the 
 Quakers came into the region associated with the events 
 of Whittier's poems. The civil government of the Bay 
 Colony was based on the Bible, especially the laws of 
 Moses and the Pauline Epistles, literally interpreted. 
 While it was in contemplation that there should be 
 no appeal from the "Thus saith the Lord," it was 
 recognized by the General Court that there might be 
 difficulty in applying the ancient law to modern in- 
 stances. But still their thought was that the Book was 
 the supreme standard and rule. 1 
 
 As a consequence the character of the prevailing 
 thought was fixed by the meeting house, the centre of 
 the life of the community. But here again existed a 
 rigidity difficult to comprehend in these days, for both 
 the pulpit and the pew tried to conform and to hold 
 others to 
 
 " the points of Calvin's thunder-rod," 
 
 as Whittier calls them [Poems, 74), which must be kept 
 in mind in a study of that time. These Five Points, 
 
 1 The Governor, Deputy Governor, Thomas Dudley, John 
 Haynes, Richard Bellingham, Esq., Mr. Cotton, Mr. Peters and Mr. 
 Shepheard are entreated to make a draught of laws agreeable to the 
 Word of God, which may be the fundamentals of this Commonwealth, 
 and to present the same to the next General Court. And it is ordered, 
 that in the mean time the magistrates and their associates shall proceed 
 in the courts to hear and determine all causes according to the laws 
 now established, and where there is no law, then as near the law of 
 God as they can ; and for all business out of Court for which there is no 
 certain rule yet set down, those of the standing counsel, or some two of 
 them, shall take order by their best discretion, that they may be ordered 
 and ended according to the rule of God's word, and to take care for 
 all military affairs till the next General Court. 
 
 Mass. Bay Colony Records, i, 174. 
 
[ IP] 
 
 which have so far passed from the thought of the pre- 
 sent day that it is a mark of rare erudition for one to 
 recite them, are particular election, limited atonement, 
 original sin, irresistible grace, final perseverance of the 
 saints. Fortunately there is no occasion to discuss in 
 this connection how, even then, these points were con- 
 troverted. 1 
 
 Into the community pervaded by this inelastic and 
 unyielding school of thought, there came the Quaker 
 with his new doctrine, that there was in each man the 
 " Light Within/' a manifestation of the Spirit of God 
 serving as a guide whose voice of direction or prompt- 
 ing must be obeyed. Furthermore, he taught that, 
 because the Spirit is in every man, all men are equal. 
 That is, they preached the brotherhood of man, a log- 
 ical deduction from their position as to the equality of 
 man. Clearly, therefore, the Quaker must oppose both 
 war and slavery. But because the first of these pro- 
 positions, that as to the Inward Guide, could not be 
 deduced from the phrases of the Five Points, its sup- 
 porters were unhesitatingly disapproved. The second, 
 the equality of man, likewise subjected them to dis- 
 favor, because, if put into practice, it would destroy 
 the social order and the civil government. But, with 
 the experience of two centuries and more behind 
 us, we now can see that, formulating the controversy 
 briefly in terms of to-day, the Puritan sought direc- 
 tion .through the Book, while the Quaker relied on 
 the "Light Within." Or, practically, the Puritan 
 taught that man should search for God, while the 
 Quaker proclaimed that God was searching for man. 
 
 1 Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, i, 508. "The Arminian Con- 
 troversy and the Synod of Dort." 
 
[» ] 
 
 The Quaker of that time could not express his 
 thought with Whittier's felicity, and even if he had been 
 able, the Puritan could not have understood it. In 
 " Lines in Remembrance of Joseph Sturge," the Eng- 
 lish Quaker whose important letter to Whittier is here 
 printed (page 69), there is an illustration of how charm- 
 ingly the poet could express a Quaker tenet, that of 
 the Spirit being in every man : — 
 
 " Thanks for the good man's beautiful example, 
 Who in the vilest saw 
 Some sacred crypt or altar of a temple 
 
 Still vocal with God's law ; 4 
 
 And heard with tender ear the spirit sighing 
 
 As from its prison cell, 
 Praying for pity, like the mournful crying 
 Of Jonah out of hell." 
 
 (Poems, 199.) 
 
 But because the Puritan and the Quaker did not and 
 could not understand each other, and because the mat- 
 ter in controversy was deemed by each to be so vital, 
 the long, painful, and distressing experiences followed, 
 some phases of which, modified by the exigencies 
 of rhyme and metre, are preserved for all time in 
 Whittier's verse. 
 
 When, after some years, both Puritan and Quaker 
 found that they could live side by side and do busi- 
 ness together, there was still left the spirit of protest, 
 strengthened by the thought or remembrance or tra- 
 dition of the experiences of the earlier years, until one 
 now queries at times whether the protest against what 
 had happened years before was not as much empha- 
 sized as the affirmations concerning things spiritual. 
 
 Whittier seemed to feel the need of a statement of 
 
[12] 
 
 what the Quaker stood for, when peace and quiet came, 
 and in "The Preacher," based on the story of White- 
 field and the work of " the priests of the New Evan- 
 gel " at the time of the Great Revival in the eighteenth 
 century, such is to be found. The community was then 
 stirred to its depths and its thought changed, while 
 the " self-concentred " Quaker, at least in the poem, 
 took an independent, if not indifferent attitude, for 
 then, 
 
 " With zeal wing-clipped and white-heat cool, 
 Moved by the spirit in grooves of rule, 
 No longer harried, and cropped, and fleeced, 
 Flogged by sheriff and cursed by priest, 
 But by wiser counsels left at ease 
 To settle quietly on his lees, 
 And, self-concentred, to count as done 
 The work which his fathers well begun, 
 In silent protest of letting alone, 
 The Quaker kept the way of his own, — 
 A non-conductor among the wires, 
 With coat of asbestos proof to fires. 
 And quite unable to mend his pace 
 To catch the falling manna of grace, 
 He hugged the closer his little store 
 Of faith, and silently prayed for more. 
 And vague of creed and barren of rite, 
 But holding, as in his Master's sight, 
 Act and thought to the inner light, 
 The round of his simple duties walked, 
 And strove to live what the others talked." 
 
 ("The Preacher," Poems, 72.) 
 
 Here Whittier contents himself with a recital of the 
 facts, and leaves to others to show the influence of 
 
[ i3] 
 
 the Quakers in this movement, as well as its effect 
 upon them, for it was searching and lasting. 
 
 But what is there left, when the protest and the oc- 
 casion for it no longer exist? How does the Quaker 
 in "the round of his simple duties" meet problems 
 that arise for solution within the society, organized as 
 are others in the community for the same great end, 
 the good of humanity ? Now the manner in which 
 an organization deals with difficulties determines its 
 policy and its character. Whittier in his communica- 
 tion to the " Friends Review," mentioned in the let- 
 ter (page 173), speaks of a difficulty and suggests to 
 his fellow Friends a remedy for "the low condition and 
 worldliness too apparent among us," that is, among 
 the Friends as such, not the "world's people." This, 
 he says, "does not lie in will worship, schools of theo- 
 logy, in much speaking and noise and vehemence, 
 nor in vain attempts to make the plain language of 
 Quakerism utter the Shibboleth of man-made creeds; 
 but in heeding more closely the Inward Guide and 
 Teacher, in faith in Christ not merely in His histor- 
 ical manifestation of the Divine Love to humanity, 
 but in His living presence in hearts open to receive 
 Him ; in love for Him manifested in denial of self, 
 in charity and love to our neighbor ; and in a deeper 
 realization of the truth of the apostle's declaration : 
 c Pure religion and undefiled before God and the 
 Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in 
 their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from 
 the world.' " 
 
 If it were claimed that this is a statement of doctrine 
 peculiar to Quakerism and characteristic of it, there 
 would be assertions on every hand that such a declara- 
 
C 14] 
 
 tion is broader than any sect and deeper than any 
 " ism," in brief, that it is a basal statement of Chris- 
 tianity as to-day recognized. Therefore, when the 
 protest is relaxed and withdrawn and the affirmation 
 alone remains, Quakerism, 
 
 " vague of creed and barren of rite," 
 
 has little to differentiate it from what its neighbors 
 generally profess and affirm, and then Quakerism as 
 a special form of religious organization ceases to be. 
 
 The protest has been withdrawn and the Quaker 
 coat has disappeared from Essex County. Further- 
 more, even among the descendants of its wearers, an 
 inquiry as to what were the distinctive teachings of 
 the Quakers will yield replies having to do with the 
 apparel or customs only. 
 
 In Whittier's " The Quaker Alumni " (Poems, 
 220), he records his prophecy: — 
 
 " There are those that take note that our numbers are 
 
 small, — 
 New Gibbons who write our decline and our fall ; 
 But the Lord of the seed-field takes care of His own, 
 And the world shall yet reap what our sowers have sown. 
 The last of his sect to his fathers may go, 
 Leaving only his coat for some Barnum to show ; 
 But the truth will outlive him, and broaden with years, 
 Till the false dies away, and the wrong disappears." 
 
 These broad, sweeping statements of the ultimate tri- 
 umph of the truth for which the coat stands, coupled 
 with admissions of decline and fall, prompt the inquiry 
 what Whittier saw in the conditions and prospects of 
 the Society of Friends to indicate the fading away of 
 its supporters. 
 
[i5l 
 
 Whittier appreciated this. The man whose verse 
 moves men ; who boldly and unflinchingly undertook 
 to free the slave ; whose counsel and judgment these 
 letters show was sought by leaders of men ; he knew 
 the rules which govern mankind. He knew from 
 experience that a protest can serve as a rallying cry 
 among men only so long as that against which it is 
 raised is stronger. When the protest itself gains the 
 mastery, it must stand for affirmative, constructive 
 work, or its adherents divide and scatter. 
 
 In him the appreciation of constructive work was 
 greater than the sense of protest. The man dominated 
 the coat. Lowell recognized this and wrote of him in 
 1848: — 
 
 " There is Whittier, whose swelling and vehement heart 
 Strains the strait-breasted drab of the Quaker apart, 
 And reveals the live Man, still supreme and erect, 
 Underneath the bemummying wrappers of sect." 
 
 (Lowell, "A Fable for Critics," Poems, 132.) 
 
 If a search is made in Whittier's verse for what will 
 define the tenets of the Quakers, so that they can be 
 distinguished from those of other societies that call for 
 activities and service, the result will be indefinite, 
 because, though Whittier may have thought he was 
 giving expression to teachings peculiar to his ancestral 
 sect, he actually was putting into verse truths to which 
 the response is world wide. His poems that deal 
 with the better and the higher nature of man, are the 
 expression of truth as it came through his personality 
 and they bear his lasting impress. Therefore the value 
 of these letters is manifest, for they reveal the Whittier 
 of real life among his friends and in the world of men. 
 
[i6] 
 
 But nevertheless the Quaker atmosphere of protest 
 and of brotherly love as well, in which Whittier was 
 born and grew to manhood, had its effect, which must 
 be remembered in a study of these letters, for in such 
 an environment his sympathies, naturally keen and 
 strong, were especially quickened on behalf of any who 
 were down-trodden and oppressed. This works out 
 curiously in his verse, as may be seen in two poems, 
 each having as its subject a similar incident, the sen- 
 sational entrance of a woman into a meeting-house at 
 an inopportune time, with consequent disturbance of 
 the service. 
 
 In one it is the Quaker for whom our sympathies 
 are sought: — 
 
 " She came and stood in the Old South Church, 
 A wonder and a sign, 
 With a look the old-time sibyls wore, 
 Half crazed and half divine. 
 
 " Save the mournful sack cloth about her wound, 
 Unclothed as the primal mother, 
 With limbs that trembled and eyes that blazed 
 With a fire she dare not smother." l 
 
 In the other poem it is the young slave mother of 
 whose sad and helpless plight we read : — 
 
 " Like a scared fawn before the hounds, 
 Right up the aisle she glided, 
 While close behind her, whip in hand, 
 A lank-haired hunter strided. . . . 
 
 " I saw her dragged along the aisle, 
 
 Her shackles harshly clanking; 
 
 1 In the " Old South/ ' Poems, 121. 
 
[i7] 
 
 I heard the parson, over all, 
 
 The Lord devoutly thanking." * 
 
 Here Whittier is righteously angered against the pre- 
 sent evil of human bondage, and against all who do 
 not take his uncompromising stand, while in the for- 
 mer, through the woman who came under the civil 
 authority because the people of that day were as keen 
 as we to resent a violation of the proprieties, he seeks 
 to arouse his readers to an active sympathy with the 
 participants of an old strife, the elements of which are 
 little comprehended. In the letters he does not take 
 such equivocal positions, for he patiently and deliber- 
 ately calculates each step in a plan, while in the poems 
 there is the storm of indignation and of invective and 
 the swift leap from premise to conclusion. 
 
 In the minds of Whittier' s readers the Quaker and 
 the witch seem in some way to be connected, and that 
 one was a cause or a result of the other, for they are 
 placed together so frequently in the verse. Whittier's 
 conception of the conditions that existed in Salem Vil- 
 lage, now Danvers, where the delusion began, is indi- 
 cated in the lines he wrote for the monument erected 
 in memory of Rebecca Nurse, one of the first victims, 
 at her grave and near the house in which she lived : — 
 
 " O, Christian martyr who for truth could die, 
 When all about thee owned the hideous lie ; 
 The world, redeemed from superstition's sway, 
 Is breathing freer for thy sake to-day." 
 
 Standing^ near this is another monument on which is 
 
 carved the statement with the names of the thirty-nine 
 
 signers, all friends and neighbors, who testify concern- 
 
 1 "A Sabbath Scene," Poems, 312. 
 
[l8] 
 
 ing this aged object of the delusion that "we never had 
 any grounds or cause to suspect her of any such thing 
 as she is now accused of." This clearly contradicts the 
 second line of the verse. 
 
 Upham, than whom none has made a closer study, 
 wrote: "An examination of [these thirty-nine] names 
 in connection with the history of the Village will show 
 conclusive proof, that, if the matter had been left to 
 the people there, it would never have reached the 
 point to which it was carried. It was the influence of 
 the magistracy and the government of the colony, and 
 the public sentiment elsewhere, overruling that of the 
 immediate locality, that drove on the storm. " x 
 
 The Quaker and the witch will ever be hanging in 
 Whittier's poems and none can remove them. While 
 through the labors of the student, each decade sees a 
 better understanding of the first century of Massachu- 
 setts, it will be many score of years before the popu- 
 lar mind can think along other lines and in different 
 phrase from that of Whittier's verse. 
 
 But will his portrayal of slavery stand the test of 
 time ? Does his verse reflect his experiences as a leader 
 in that magnificent achievement of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, the freeing of the slave ? In that contest it seems 
 that to the inborn spirit of protest against oppression 
 there was added the force of his own " terrible and 
 unrebukable indignation," and these letters show how 
 he wrought and what a place he attained in the esti- 
 mation of his associates, on whom with him rested the 
 great responsibility. They recognized not only his 
 zeal, but his discernment and his discretion, two quali- 
 ties especially needed at a time when fads and no- 
 1 Upham, Witchcraft in Salem Village ; ii, 273. 
 
tions abounded, and when methods of arousing and 
 concentrating public attention were unskilful and 
 crude. 
 
 Before the break came in 1 840 between the aboli- 
 tionists under Garrison, who would talk but would not 
 vote, and the anti-slavery men who planned to com- 
 bat slavery through the ballot-box, there was action 
 without definite plan. There were those who were in- 
 tent on abolition alone, and there were others who 
 would rally to the support of any notion whose adher- 
 ents would in turn support abolition. Not only were 
 there discussions and dissensions about the coloniza- 
 tion of the Negro in Africa, and whether emancipation 
 should be immediate or gradual, but there were divi- 
 sions on woman suffrage, Grahamism or vegetarianism, 
 family government, temperance, and a multitude of 
 other schemes and theories intended to ameliorate and 
 elevate man's condition, but which, by diverting the 
 attention, hindered the progress of the main issue, 
 the slave and his freedom. 
 
 The state of" betweenity" of Dr. Harris, so felicit- 
 ously described by Franklin Whittier (page 56), re- 
 veals the mental situation with which the anti-slavery 
 men had to contend in their efforts to secure single- 
 minded supporters. Joseph Sturge had heard of this in 
 England, and alludes to it in his letter asking Whittier 
 to be his companion on the journey of investigation 
 in this country (page 69). 
 
 But there was one issue on which all could unite 
 for action, and this the various correspondents con- 
 stantly discuss, the abolition of slavery in the District 
 of Columbia, for it was a grief and reproach indeed 
 that slavery should exist in the capital of the nation. 
 
[»] 
 
 On his journey with Whittier, Sturge visited Wash- 
 ington in 1841, and, returning to England, published 
 abroad this sad comment : — 
 
 "The District of Columbia is the chief seat of the 
 American slave trade; commercial enterprise there has 
 no other object. Washington is one of the best sup- 
 plied and most frequented slave marts in the world." * 
 Whittier's " At Washington " {Poems , 295), sug- 
 gested by a visit four years later, expresses the same 
 fact in verse : — 
 
 " Still the dance goes gaily onward ! 
 
 What is it to Wealth and Pride 
 
 That without the stars are looking 
 
 On a scene that earth should hide? 
 That the slave-ship lies in waiting, 
 Rocking on Potomac's tide." 
 
 To circulate petitions to Congress for the abolition 
 of slavery in the District was an effective means of 
 arousing interest, because appeals could be made, even 
 to the lukewarm and indifferent, on the ground that 
 slavery at Washington was a matter personal to each 
 citizen of the United States. Both Cushing (page 38), 
 and Phillips (page 41), deal with this subject in detail 
 as it was in December, 1835, and show the difficulties 
 attendant on the presentation of the petitions. 
 
 How keenly Whittier felt on this subject of what 
 was practically a denial of the right of petition, may 
 be seen in his lines on " The New Year " {Poems, 281), 
 addressed to the subscribers of the " Pennsylvania 
 Freeman," 1839. Atherton of New Hampshire had 
 introduced a rule which the House had passed, that 
 all petitions referring to slavery should be received 
 1 Sturge, Visit to the U. S. in 18 41, 74. 
 
[II] 
 
 but neither read nor referred. To this act Whittier 
 refers : — 
 
 " And he, the basest of the base, 
 
 The vilest of the vile, whose name 
 Embalmed in infinite disgrace, 
 Is deathless in its shame ! " 
 
 And yet, in spite of the vast amount of time and effort 
 directed to the abolition of slavery in the District, it 
 was not accomplished until 1862, and then as a result 
 of a series of measures passed to meet conditions due 
 to the war. As Whittier says in " Astraea at the Capi- 
 tol " (PoemSy 338) : — 
 
 " Not as we hoped, in calm of prayer, 
 The message of deliverance comes, 
 But heralded by roll of drums 
 On waves of battle-troubled air." 
 
 Except the obscure reference in Elizabeth Whittier's 
 letter, September, 1837 (page 54), and the letter of 
 Whittier (page 58), accompanying copies of his poems, 
 it is December, 1842, before there is a letter having 
 to do directly with his literary work, and then it is a 
 request from Lowell for a contribution to the " Pio- 
 neer," a monthly magazine, destined, however, to be 
 short-lived, as but three numbers appeared. 
 
 In 1847 Whittier became connected with the " Na- 
 tional Era" of Washington, a paper started under 
 anti-slavery auspices with Dr. Gamaliel Bailey as edi- 
 tor, which attained success at once. It was in this 
 paper that <f Uncle Tom's Cabin " appeared as a serial. 
 During its life from 1 847 until March, 1 860, the name 
 of John G. Whittier as corresponding editor was 
 printed in bold type below the title of the paper. To 
 
[t»JJ 
 
 this he contributed constantly, both in prose and verse, 
 so that through this means his name became widely 
 known. 
 
 The letter from E. P. Hill in 1853 (page 119) 
 about the lithograph of the old Whittier home at 
 East Haverhill, a dozen years before " Snow-Bound " 
 appeared, proves that there was then a demand by 
 the public for something about Whittier's personality. 
 Fortunately, in this connection, the letter of Whittier 
 to his old friend Currier, telling about a visit to the 
 house forty years after the family moved to Amesbury, 
 can be here preserved (page 212). 
 
 That Charles Sumner, who kept all letters he re- 
 ceived so that they fill one hundred and seventy vol- 
 umes, should have carefully placed those from Whit- 
 tier by themselves in a special volume, indicates his 
 regard for his friend. 1 And that Whittier should have 
 been the first to suggest to Sumner that he serve as 
 Senator from Massachusetts, shows how accurate was 
 Whittier's estimate of the man and of his capabilities 
 as a leader in the anti-slavery cause. 2 
 
 1 The Letter Books of Sumner contain the letters received by him 
 from 1830 until his death in 1874. These were used by E. L. 
 Pierce in the preparation of his Life of Sumner and after his death they 
 were given by his family to the Library of Harvard College. The 
 classification is for the greater part chronological, 1 2 1 volumes being 
 thus arranged. There are 25 volumes of" foreign " letters. The cor- 
 respondents whose letters are kept in one volume each are Giddings, 
 Longfellow, Parker, Prescott, Whittier and J. S. Fay. A number of 
 volumes contain letters from a few specially chosen correspondents, 
 with whom Sumner had much to do at times. 
 
 2 In a letter to Elias Nason, dated Amesbury, 8th month, 1874, 
 Whittier, in reference to Sumner's election, said, " I am inclined to 
 believe that I was the first to suggest to him, in the summer of 
 1850, the possibility of his election to the Senate. He thought it im- 
 
[*3 ] 
 
 Though the letters here included are but a few of 
 the many that remain, still they add to our knowledge 
 of both men. The correspondence begins at the period 
 when the anti-slavery men, who with Whittier believed 
 that the emancipation of the slave, if brought about, 
 must come through political action, were considering 
 what course to pursue in the Presidential election of 
 1848. For two campaigns they had gone to the polls 
 as the Liberty party, a third party, but the results, 
 while encouraging, did not seem to bring any nearer 
 the freedom of the slave. The party had not carried 
 even one State, though by their influence they turned 
 the scale in New York. 
 
 By 1848 the slave power had grown aggressive, 
 if not defiant. The Missouri Compromise, the An- 
 nexation of Texas and the Mexican War had become 
 facts and convinced these ardent workers that, in spite 
 of their efforts, they were not making progress. They 
 determined that the policy of compromise and of pro- 
 crastination must cease, and that something must be 
 accomplished. 
 
 The Whigs were being divided into two factions, 
 differentiated by the epithets of Conscience and of 
 Cotton. It needed but one decisive event to bring to- 
 gether the aroused masses, and that event proved to 
 be the nomination of a slave-holder, Zachary Taylor, 
 
 practicable, and stated with emphasis, that he desired no office, that his 
 plans of life did not contemplate anything of the kind, and that he 
 greatly doubted his natural fitness for political life. He made no 
 pledges nor explanations of any kind to insure his election when it took 
 place." 
 
 Elias Nason, Life of Charles Sumner (1874), J 4 2 » 
 In Whittier' s poem "To Charles Sumner" (Poems, 196), he al- 
 ludes to this " large future shaped " for Sumner. 
 
[»4] 
 
 for the Presidency in 1848, and this nomination the 
 Cotton Whigs endorsed. The indignant Conscience 
 Whigs were stirred to action. They called the conven- 
 tion at Worcester, which led Whittier to write the 
 letter of 23rd 6th mo, 1848 (page 97). Five thou- 
 sand attended, and the meetings had to be held in 
 the open air. This was the beginning of the organized 
 Free Soil party, which later became the Republican 
 party of Lincoln's time. There are a number of let- 
 ters that discuss the very complicated political situa- 
 tion of that campaign as well as the local conditions 
 later in Massachusetts, when the Free Soil party was 
 throwing its influence with the Democrats as against 
 the Whigs, one result being the election of Sumner 
 as Senator in April, 1851. 
 
 While the intense devotion of Whittier and of Sum- 
 ner to the cause of emancipation may have been, in 
 itself, a sufficient ground for their friendship, still it may 
 be asked whether the fact that in their domestic and 
 family relations there was a parallel may not also have 
 drawn them to each other, and furthermore whether 
 the isolated lives of these two who, by chance or choice, 
 did not have the experiences of other men who estab- 
 lished homes of their own, with the joys and duties, 
 may not have been an additional bond. Each had the 
 home ties of his childhood and youth still unbroken. 
 The mother of each was living, active and strong, and 
 at the head of her home. Each man was able to throw 
 himself with great zeal into the cause of human free- 
 dom, a zeal that might perhaps have been less effect- 
 ive under other home conditions. The bitter feeling 
 aroused against those who enlisted in the cause of 
 emancipation was well known to each. From the time 
 
[*5] 
 
 of the publication of "Justice and Expediency " in 
 1833 Whittier had many an occasion to realize that he 
 was not regarded with favor by a large part of the 
 world, while the social ostracism of Sumner by those 
 in Boston among whom he had lived his life, is a matter 
 of history. 
 
 The close and confidential relations of Whittier and 
 Sumner, as shown in these letters, covering a quarter 
 of a century of intense activity, warrant the inclusion 
 of letters closely connected with the manuscripts at 
 Oak Knoll. Some of them have been printed, but com- 
 parison shows that in most instances some striking and 
 pertinent phrases and sentences have been omitted. As 
 each man was a master of English and determined to 
 make his thought known to the other, it is but fair 
 and right that the letters appear in full. 
 
 The latest letters between Sumner and Whittier 
 were written in times of storm and stress. The work 
 of the cowardly Brooks in 1856 was telling on Sum- 
 ner in his advancing years. To the new issues and the 
 new men who were their advocates, Sumner could not 
 readily accommodate himself and adjust his thought. 
 It was to his old friend Whittier that he turned for the 
 sympathetic support denied him elsewhere. On May 
 31, 1872, Sumner delivered in the Senate a scathing, 
 stinging philippic on " Republicanism vs. Grantism," 
 which at that time, the campaign of Grant for a second 
 term, aroused deep resentment, for he had attacked 
 a popular idol. Whittier's loyal letter of sympathy 
 (page 282) must have been welcome indeed, for Sum- 
 ner was breaking ties with his political friends, and 
 his attitude was not calculated to draw new ones to 
 him. 
 
[26] 
 
 The speech against Grant was succeeded two months 
 later by a letter written by Sumner which still further 
 alienated those who had considered themselves bound 
 politically to him. This letter was a long one, urging 
 colored men to vote for Greeley, to which Garrison 
 replied, warmly defending Grant (page 181). The cor- 
 respondence here included, reveals how deep was the 
 friendship to which Sumner turned in his isolation 
 which was now not sentimental but actual, and we 
 therefore regret the more that Whittier could not com- 
 ply, in part at least, with Longfellow's request (page 
 190) that the poet write a life of the orator, though 
 we do have the strong, tender, discriminating poem, 
 "Sumner" (Poems, 208). 
 
 With the establishment of the "Atlantic Monthly" 
 in 1857 there came a turn in Whittier' s life which is 
 reflected in the letters during the years that followed. 
 He is no longer the adherent of an unpopular cause 
 that calls for his verse to arouse the sleeping moral 
 sense of the community, nor does he carry the respon- 
 sibility of arranging the policies of political parties. He 
 has become the man of letters, and he is included in 
 the brotherhood so delightfully described by Holmes 
 in his letter of September 7, 1879. Lowell, too, recog- 
 nizes Whittier as one of that group of rare men who 
 cooperated in the beginnings of the "Atlantic." 
 
 But the pleasure to be found in these letters is not 
 in the historical allusion to the political strife, or even 
 to the glorious uprising for human freedom. It is in 
 the revelation of Whittier's delightful intercourse with 
 his friends. Some who had years before borne with 
 Whittier the burden of the slave, recall the experiences 
 of their youth. Some write him from delight at writ- 
 
ing, for they loved the man, and they enjoy telling him 
 that they take pleasure in the friendship. Others in 
 addition show deep respect for his counsel and judg- 
 ment. It is to be noted how many requests there are 
 for Whittier's aid, and he seems ready to comply. 
 There are situations suggested at times that seem to 
 lead inevitably to action by Whittier, but none is taken. 
 Either his health does not permit, or his well-known 
 aversion to appearing in public prevents. Or it may 
 be that his Quaker principles stand in the way. Later 
 in life, however, it is his counsel that men seek; they 
 do not look for his personal presence. The result was 
 that Whittier occupied a peculiarly strong position, for 
 he suggested, while it was left to others to execute. 
 In the event of delay or defeat, he was not the one on 
 whom the responsibility was placed; it was rather on 
 the men of action. And such counsellors are needed, 
 for, as in Whittier's case, the sober, calm judgment of 
 one who can view a matter from the outside and broadly, 
 is of great value to those who are in the midst of the 
 strife and may be confused by the turmoil. 
 
 His anxiety about the Grimke sisters' course at a 
 time when multitudes were waiting on their words ; his 
 foresight that through a third party must success come, 
 though slow, uncertain and wearisome at times might 
 be its progress ; his judgment of men and of their re- 
 spective capabilities for special duties ; all show that 
 the confidence of his friends was well founded. And 
 all this demonstrates too that the poet, for it is as a 
 poet that Whittier will live, was not a dreamer, an 
 austere ascetic, a recluse, who by chance was able to 
 give expression to thoughts that the world of action 
 gladly welcomes, but that he was a man among men. 
 
[ fl 8] 
 
 And so the inquiry as to the poet's personality per- 
 sists, for that personality dominates the verse. 
 
 The three men whose names are now closely as- 
 sociated with Whittier's, Longfellow, Holmes, and 
 Lowell, were clearly conventional in their manners 
 and customs, and they mingled with their neighbors 
 and with the world on equal terms. The reader does 
 not feel that he must have a knowledge of the writer's 
 personality in order to interpret the poems or under- 
 stand the allusions. There is, of course, the interest 
 that attaches to any author who attracts us, but it is 
 not of the same kind or degree as that which leads us 
 to study Whittier himself. And, while searching for 
 facts about Whittier to see why he could and should 
 give voice to such thoughts of love and of power, we 
 find these words of warning : — 
 
 " Why should the stranger peer and pry 
 One's vacant house of life about, 
 And drag for curious ear and eye 
 His faults and follies out ? 
 
 u Why stuff, for fools to gaze upon, 
 With chaff of words, the garb he wore, 
 As corn husks when the ear is gone 
 Are rustled all the more ? 
 
 " Let kindly Silence close again, 
 The picture vanish from the eye, 
 And on the dim and misty main 
 Let the small ripple die." 
 
 ("My Namesake," Poems, 393.) 
 
 But because the experiences in his poems are his ; the 
 scenes are laid in his own county and his own valley ; 
 the people are his neighbors, his friends, his family ; 
 
, [»9] 
 
 and even in his religious verse, which has a fervor 
 rarely found, there is still the tinge due to his personal 
 interpretation of the faith of his ancestors, so there 
 will always be the inquiry as to who and what was 
 Whittier? And in these letters is the answer, for here 
 can be seen his growth from the time of his first ex- 
 tended absence from home, even before he enlisted in 
 the cause of the slave, to the end of his long life sixty- 
 two years later; first the young editor; then the anti- 
 slavery worker; then the politician still pressing for 
 emancipation in a practical way, by the ballot ; then 
 the trusted friend of Sumner; and always the Quaker 
 with his inherited traditions to be sustained and his 
 personal faith to be lived. Meanwhile he is at work on 
 his verse by which his fame is made secure. He makes 
 new friends, sees new life and forms new associations, 
 and these experiences appear in the letters. 
 
 Though many of the writers have become subject to 
 the pitiless, relentless operation of the Act of Oblivion 
 which is gradually but surely extending over others, 
 yet in their correspondence is preserved the intercourse 
 of Whittier and his friends, through which we can see 
 him, as they saw him, and we can learn why he rightly 
 deserved and received the confidence, the respect, the 
 love of his associates. 
 
 JOHN ALBREE. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE 
 
To HIS MOTHER 
 
 Hartford, gtb of gtb month, 1830. 
 My Dear Mother: 
 
 I have concluded it best to write this morning, 
 because my paper of tomorrow contains an apology for 
 not having more editorial matter in it, on account of 
 my ill-health. The truth is I have had a tremendous 
 cold — a sort of influenza, which is very prevalent at 
 this time; and have been confined at home most of the 
 time for a week or ten days past ; I am getting over 
 it slowly. I have an excellent place here, at Esq. 
 Law's ; all the family are very, very kind. His wife is 
 one of the very best of women ; she is always ready to 
 do anything for me. There are three young ladies 
 boarding here — two of whom are now sick with this 
 same influenza, so that we can all be unhappy together. 
 Why, we have taken herb drink enough to carry a 
 saw-mill four and twenty hours, — and as for medi- 
 cine, I have had enough of that, and furthermore I 
 have broken over the Temperance rules ; and gin-sling 
 and brandy and laudanum are getting to be familiar 
 to me. Don't mention this to Thayer. 1 By the way 
 how does Thayer get along now ? A new paper has 
 been got up there I see — by a poor, miserable, good 
 natured fellow of a ******* j but it won't live. It 
 cannot possibly survive a twelvemonth. 
 
 I got a letter from Mercy 2 the other day, and was 
 1 A. W. Thayer ( 1 796-1 864), editor of the Haverhill Gazette, 
 aided Whittier in many ways during the early years. 
 a Mercy Evans Hussey, sister of Whittier' s mother. 
 " The sweetest woman ever Fate 
 Perverse denied a household mate." 
 
 Snow- Bound, 
 
[34] 
 
 very glad to hear from you. I owe a letter to Frank- 
 lin * and shall let him have it soon. He wrote me a 
 real good letter. How is Elizabeth? 3 Does she write 
 poetry now? That "Penitent" of hers was well done — 
 only if I had been at home I should have suggested 
 an alteration. Tell her I shall come home in Novem- 
 ber and will look over her pieces. Tell her to fill up 
 the chest-drawer up in my chamber with them. How 
 does Jacob and Mary 3 do ? I know well enough whose 
 work it was sending that poetry of E. to Thayer. I 
 have n't forgotten the piece that was carried to Rein- 
 hart. 4 Does Jacob get my paper regularly ? I am afraid 
 the papers of last week did n't reach Haverhill, as I 
 did n't see to it myself. 
 
 The folks here say that E. will make a better writer 
 than her brother. Only think of that. — Oh! one of 
 our female boarders is the girl that Prentice was dying 
 for — almost — and he has written poetry enough to 
 her to fill a meal-bag. The only gentleman boarder 
 
 1 Matthew Franklin Whittier ( 1 8 1 2- 1 8 8 3 ) . 
 
 « c Ah, brother, only I and thou 
 Are left of all that circle now, — 
 The dear home faces whereupon 
 That fitful fireplace paled and shone." 
 
 2 Elizabeth Hussey Whittier (181 5-1864). 
 
 " Our youngest and our dearest." 
 
 3 Mary (1 806-1 860), Whittier's elder sister, wife of Jacob Cald- 
 
 " A full, rich nature, free to trust, 
 Truthful and almost sternly just. . . . 
 Keeping with many a light disguise 
 The secret of self-sacrifice. " 
 
 4 E. W. Reinhart was for some months editor of the Haverhill 
 Gazette y preceding Thayer. Chase, Hist. Haverhill, 654. 
 
[35] 
 
 here is Dr. Crane — a clever young physician — who 
 has been very kind to me ever since I have been here. 
 
 The people here like me very well, I believe, and 
 I do them. But I want to get back to Haverhill once 
 more and spend a good time with you. Is Mary 
 Hepsy with you now ? My love to her, and to Uncle 
 Jones* folks. How does Lois Chase get along now? 
 Is she about getting married? If so, I am glad of it. 
 
 But I must stop writing. I have been, except this 
 cold, very well since I have been here. Tis a pleasant 
 place : and full of clever people. Tell Elizabeth I am 
 sorry she did not continue at the Academy. If she 
 sees the village girls soon, let her give my love — 
 almost — to them. 
 
 John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
 Somebody must write soon. 
 
To HIS SISTER ELIZABETH 
 
 Boston, iitb \th month », '35. 
 Dear Elizabeth : 
 
 I am getting better slowly and the Doctor 
 thinks I can be able to ride to Haverhill the latter 
 part of this week, if nothing happens. I may pos- 
 sibly come, Sixth day, if the weather is good. 1 At all 
 events Aunt Mercy will come up from Salem that day, 
 so somebody had better go to the village. And you 
 will be likely to' get one or the other of us, perhaps 
 both. I rode out to Roxbury yesterday and to-day, 
 although I don't like the east wind which is very 
 chilly here. 
 
 Tell Franklin that I shall bring home with me, or 
 shortly after, a young "nigger" a bright active boy 
 about 13, who is highly recommended as a well be- 
 haved and intelligent youngster. He has always lived 
 in the city, and I suppose it will take sometime to learn 
 him to work, etc. but his school-master says he is very 
 tractable. 
 
 Geo. Thompson 2 visited me yesterday. He lectured 
 in the afternoon to about 500 ladies and at the close 
 
 1 The session of the Massachusetts Legislature in which Whittier 
 served as a member from Haverhill, was nearing its close. 
 
 3 George Thompson ( 1 804-1 878), the English anti-slavery orator, 
 arrived in the United States December, 1834. "I was mobbed in 
 Concord, N. H. [Sept. 1835] in company with George Thompson, 
 afterwards member of the British Parliament, and narrowly escaped 
 from great danger. I kept Thompson, whose life was hunted for, con- 
 cealed in our lonely farmhouse for two weeks." From a privately 
 printed broadside sent by Whittier to inquirers for facts about himself. 
 
% [37] 
 
 of his Lecture 60 new members joined the Boston La- 
 dies A-S. Soc'y. I wish very much to get home, but 
 am somewhat fearful that the fatigue of the ride would 
 be rather too much for me. If it is fair weather, Fifth 
 day, and I am as well as usual, I may ride out as far as 
 Reading and stay all night and so come up in the morn- 
 ing to Hav'll. Love to Mother and all. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
From CALEB CUSHING 
 
 Washington, Dec. 24, 183 c. 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 You will have noticed, undoubtedly, the pro- 
 ceedings in Congress on the subject of slavery and the 
 slave-trade in the District of Columbia; but, without 
 some explanation, you may be puzzled to understand 
 the principle of the various votes ; for the debates them- 
 selves furnish a very imperfect means of judgment in 
 this case. 
 
 Of the Massachusetts Delegation, Messrs. [Abbott] 
 Lawrence, [Levi] Lincoln, [Stephen C] Phillips and 
 [John] Reed, with myself, each on one occasion, voted 
 for laying on the table, for reasons applicable to the 
 particular occasions themselves, and wholly independ- 
 ent of the merits of the question. \n general, the Whigs 
 and Antimasons from the Northern and Middle States 
 voted, in various shapes, for receiving and committing 
 the Petitions. This includes the Massachusetts Dele- 
 gation. In general the pledged Van Bur en men voted 
 for any and every proposition, which tended to evade 
 the question or to suppress debate. With them, also, 
 voted some individuals, who conscientiously thought, 
 aside from party-politics, that such was the most ju- 
 dicious course. 
 
 The more zealous of the Southerners, such as the 
 S. Carolinians, and some of the Georgians and Virgini- 
 ans, voted with the Northern Whigs and Antimasons. 
 Extremes meet. The Southerners voted against laying 
 
[ 39 1 
 
 on the table, insisting on a summary rejection of the 
 Petitions without inquiry ; and this caused them to 
 caucus in vote with the Massachusetts Delegation, 
 but for opposite reasons. We thought that good sense 
 and justice dictated a disposition of the matter, though 
 a Committee is the ordinary course of legislation. It 
 is perfectly certain that the House will do nothing on 
 the subject. About two thirds of the Members have 
 by their votes and declarations, pledged themselves to 
 dispose of all Petitions, so far as they may be able to 
 get the floor, by the undebateable motion to lay on the 
 table. 
 
 Members from Pennsylvania and the States east of 
 it, have sundry Petitions already in their possession 
 to present. I have heard that others are coming from 
 Massachusetts. If they are respectful 'and proper in lan- 
 guage, we shall of course present them, for the sake 
 of our constituents. At the same time, if you could see 
 for yourself its unpleasant effects in reference to our 
 views of general usefulness here, you would understand 
 why it is that we shall discharge this part of our duty 
 to our constituents with a heavy heart. 
 
 Some of the Southerners have agreed that the slave 
 trade in this District is protected unchangeably by the 
 Constitution ; they have proved the reverse to every 
 reflecting mind. At the same time, while the debates 
 and proceedings of the week have not shown the con- 
 stitutional difficulties for which some have contended, 
 they have shown the moral impossibility of accomplish- 
 ing any thing in the present House. 
 
 I knew that I could not write to you on any sub- 
 ject of more interest to yourself; and I thought you 
 might, perhaps, expect of me some information as to 
 
[4o] 
 
 the course things are taking on this subject. You are 
 aware how sensitive our people are in reference to this 
 whole matter; and I therefore speak to yourself only, 
 knowing that I may do so in confidence and without 
 reserve. 
 
 Very truly and respectfully, 
 
 C. Cushing 
 
 Mr. Whittier 
 
 P. S. I beg of you, if any Petitions are to be sent 
 to me, that they may be brief business papers^ free of 
 the bitter language good Mr. G[arrison] cultivates 
 in the Liberator. 
 
From STEPHEN C. PHILLIPS 1 (Confidential) 2 
 
 Washington^ 31 Deer. 1835. 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 I wish to submit to you a few remarks upon 
 the subject in which you feel so deep an interest, and 
 of the importance of which I am equally convinced, 
 the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 You have noticed of course the discussions which 
 have thus far taken place here. They exhibit great sen- 
 sitiveness, desperate rashness, and a spirit of dictation 
 on the part of the South, and far too much subser- 
 viency on the part of the North. They show however 
 
 1 Stephen Clarendon Phillips was born in Salem, 1801, was gradu- 
 ated at Harvard, 1 8 1 9, studied law but entered mercantile life in 
 Salem. From 1 824 to 1833 he served either as Senator or Representa- 
 tive in the Massachusetts Legislature. In 1 834 he was elected to Con- 
 gress as a Whig, succeeding Rufus Choate, and continued until 1838 
 when he resigned and, in December of the same year, he became 
 Mayor of Salem, remaining in office until March, 1 842. In 1 848 and 
 again in 1849 ne was tne candidate of the newly organized Free Soil 
 party for Governor of Massachusetts. He was engaged in extensive 
 lumbering interests in Canada where he lost his life in the burning of 
 a steamer on the St. Lawrence, June 26, 1857. 
 
 In the Salem Register, July 2, 1857, appeared the following : — 
 "A fellow-member of Congress, Hardin of Kentucky, once ex- 
 claimed on the floor of the House, ' If all the members of the House 
 were like the gentleman from Massachusetts, God would never have 
 repented that he made man.' " 
 
 2 The use of the word " confidential," which long since lost any 
 significance it might have had here, shows what were the relations 
 between the young Whittier and men holding high office. 
 
[42] 
 
 that the principal part which Northern men have been 
 prevailed on to play in the miserable game (of which the 
 Presidency is the prize) is to be ready to vote, as soon 
 as called upon, to lay the subject on the table. This 
 is an act of great weakness, but there is too much 
 Northern blood in them to superadd outright treach- 
 ery to the principles and institutions of the free States. 
 They can degrade themselves to practise submission 
 for a while; they can volunteer equivocal proof of their 
 degeneracy ; but still they have given some evidence 
 that if forced to decide whether they will openly sac- 
 rifice their principles and absolutely surrender their 
 rights, most of them will decide correctly, however re- 
 luctantly. 
 
 Could the question have been reached upon the 
 motion to reject petitions, the great mass of Northern 
 votes would have proved a formidable negative. Now 
 the difference between rejecting petitions and laying 
 them upon the table without debate in order to get 
 rid of them, although so long as it is misunderstood, 
 it may satisfy their political consciences, must so soon 
 come to be regarded by others, and finally to be ad- 
 mitted by themselves as no difference at all, that there 
 must before long be a time when either motion will 
 share the same fate, and when neither can be sustained. 
 From the necessary action of public opinion, con- 
 stantly aided by the violence of the attempt to 
 resist it, the course of Congress upon this subject 
 must be onward — slowly it may be, — but surely 
 onward. 
 
 Now what I wish to suggest to you is, that the 
 next step after the failure of the motion to lay petitions 
 upon the table without debate, (which will fail at first 
 
[43] 
 
 from the temporary co-operation of those who are will- 
 ing for debate from opposite motives) will be to attempt 
 to reject them by means of a debate, in which the mer- 
 its of the petitions will be closely scrutinized, and what- 
 ever there is in them of inconclusive reasoning, extrav- 
 agant statement and harsh allusion, will be denounced 
 as sophistry, fanaticism, and disrespect. 
 
 Thus far scarcely any of the petitions have been read, 
 and none of them printed, and but few have taken the 
 trouble to ascertain their contents, so that if they have 
 fallen short of what they should have been, it has not 
 been of much consequence ; but I confess I am very 
 desirous that, as soon as we can prevail upon the House 
 to hear, to print and to discuss them, we should have 
 such petitions as will do justice to the object in view, 
 breathing a spirit of pure benevolence, and exhibiting 
 the strongest facts and clearest arguments in a form of 
 language manifestly unexceptionable. 
 
 I wish there were just such petitions here now, and 
 that all which are to come during the present Session 
 might be of this character ; since they might be used 
 with great effect, even under all the disadvantages of 
 the position we occupy. Many of the petitions are not 
 prepared, as it seems to me, with due discretion, for 
 they are not adapted to the existing circumstances of 
 Congress. They contain no argument, and furnish no 
 evidence that the question has been well examined. 
 They show no acquaintance with facts in relation to 
 slavery in the District, and they are not sufficiently 
 limited to this object. Above all their style and lan- 
 guage are in several respects injudicious, and are too 
 much calculated to inflame the feelings before the judg- 
 ment is appealed to. 
 
[44] 
 
 I beg you to understand me. I want the whole case 
 to be fully stated, with the strictest accuracy in regard 
 to facts, and without resorting to a single argument 
 which is not unanswerable. It is perfectly in your 
 power to place these petitions upon the strongest 
 grounds of fact and reasoning, and I therefore would 
 advise you not to attempt to occupy any but the strong- 
 est grounds. In respect to the temper and style, it is 
 perfectly compatible with firmness and decision to be 
 scrupulously respectful, courteous, and withal concilia- 
 tory, and the marked predominance of these qualities 
 will contribute much to recommend the petitions to a 
 candid notice, and at least will deprive opponents of 
 the principal food for their malice. 
 
 I content myself with making these suggestions to 
 you, and trust that your influence will be such, in the 
 preparation of future petitions, that some at least shall 
 find their way here of the most desirable character. 
 
 I have read Dr. Channing's book with deep interest, 
 and the greater part of the reply to it with entire dis- 
 satisfaction. Your remarks upon Dr. C.'s book, which 
 I read in the Essex Register, 1 were extremely interest- 
 ing and gratifying to me. 
 
 Please consider this letter as designed for yourself 
 only, and believe me to be, with great regard, 
 Your friend, 
 
 S. C. Phillips 
 
 J. G. Whittier, Esqr. 
 
 1 " . . . Dr. Channing objects to the system of * agitation ' pur- 
 sued by the Abolitionists. He does not like the idea of holding socie- 
 ties together by passionate eloquence. . . . Why deprecate agitation, 
 lawful, peaceful, Christian agitation ? Under God has it not broken 
 the fatal 6leep and disturbed the callous indifference of our whole com- 
 
[45] 
 
 munity ? Does Dr. Channing need to be told that four years ago a 
 silence on this subject deep as death, rested over the whole land ? . . . 
 A friend of mine who visited Washington during the past summer told 
 me that he entered the counting room of one of the slave factories, and 
 that while he conversed with the clerks of the establishment, he heard 
 constantly from the jail-like receptacle of human property the clank 
 and rattle of chains.' ' 
 
 Communication to Salem Register, Dec. 17, 
 1835, signed, "J. G. W., Haverhill/' 
 
ro HIS SISTER ELIZABETH 
 
 Harrisburg, 3rd of the ind Mo. 1837. 
 My dear Sister: 
 
 I wrote thee a long (or short) letter some time 
 ago, in hopes of getting an immediate answer — but 
 as none has appeared I now write a line from the capi- 
 tol of Pennsylvania, one hundred and ten miles into 
 the heart of the Commonwealth. 
 
 I left Phila* on Seventh day in a double sleigh with 
 Dr. Dilwyn Parish, Chas. Evans and Edw? M. Davis, 
 son in law of Lucretia Mott. That day we got to Coates- 
 ville, 48 miles, and at about 8 o'clk in the evening put 
 up at our friend's, Lindley Coates. He lives in a beau- 
 tiful farming country, in a large rambling, odd look- 
 ing stone house with piazzas running round it; his 
 barns, out buildings, etc. are very numerous and, being 
 all built of stone, give his place the appearance of a 
 village or baronial castle. The old man received us 
 cordially. We found C. C. Burleigh there. 
 
 The next morning we started again, passed through 
 the large ill-looking town of Lancaster, the fine village 
 of Mount Joy, the beautiful Friends meeting house of 
 Colne and stopped all night at Middletown, about 12 
 miles from Harrisburg. In the morning, after a fine 
 ride of about 1 hours along the banks of the Susque- 
 hanna and by the beautiful quarries of marble of all 
 hues and descriptions, amidst a population of broad 
 faced Germans, we caught the first view of the fine 
 bridge spanning the noble river. Soon Harrisburg lay 
 

[47] 
 
 before — a huge collection of dingy houses of all sizes 
 and patterns, thrown confusedly together — with the 
 Capitol or State House looming in the grey mist of 
 the morning. We rode to Wilson's, who married the 
 nearest descendant now living of William Penn. 
 
 Notice was given that there would be a preliminary 
 meeting of the delegates in the afternoon. On going 
 out I encountered an army of delegates from Lan- 
 caster County, led on by Lindley Coates and Thos. 
 Whitson — all Quakers and as plain and ugly as so 
 many Isaiah Pages, but unlike him in principles, 
 talents and high respectability. The next day the Con- 
 vention to the number of 200 assembled. Dr. J. Julius 
 Le Moyne l — a tall, large man about 40 years of age 
 — with a face like Daniel Webster, a man of com- 
 manding influence and talents and a most powerful 
 and eloquent speaker, was appointed President of the 
 Convention. Orange Scott and A. A. Phelps 2 and 
 Lewis Tappan were present on this occasion. 
 
 The Convention adjourns to-day, after a session of 
 four days; a large number of the Senate and House of 
 Representatives attended the meetings. I spent an 
 evening with Gov! Ritner who is a warm hearted abo- 
 litionist. He is about 60 years of age, large and full 
 faced. He came to the door when we knocked, him- 
 
 1 This was not Dr. John Julius Le Moyne (1 760-1 849), but his 
 son, Dr. Francis Julius Le Moyne (1 798-1 879) of Washington, 
 Penn., where in 1 876 he built the first crematory in the United States, 
 not however with the entire approval of his neighbors. Crumrine, Hist. 
 of Washington Co. Penn., 544. 
 
 * Rev. A. A. Phelps ( 1 804- 1 847 ) . At this time he was pastor of the 
 church, corner of Washington and Pine Streets, Boston, and Secre- 
 tary of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. During 1 847 his name 
 appeared with Whittier's as an associate editor of the National Era, 
 
[48] 
 
 self, shook us heartily by the hand ; and in German 
 accents told us he "wast glad to see us." He is very 
 intelligent, is perfectly at home on most subjects — 
 especially as regards matters pertaining to abolition. 
 His son was a delegate to the Convention. 
 
 Philadelphia, $th "id mo, 37. 
 at A. W. "Thayer's. 
 
 We got back last night about 4 o'clk from Harris- 
 burg. We started in the Rail Road cars at 4 o'clk in 
 the morning. We stopped at Lancaster to take break- 
 fast. On sitting down at the table there was found to 
 be a colored man, Rev. Chas. Gardner, a Presbyterian 
 minister, in the company. Suddenly some one said, 
 " There 's a nigger at the table." The bar keeper laid 
 hold of the man and pulled his chair from under him. 
 Dr. Lemoyne rose and demanded that a vote should 
 be taken whether the colored man should sit at the 
 table. The bar keeper agreed to it. The question was 
 put and carried in the affirmative, as there were 50 
 abolitionists present. Upon this the landlord entered. 
 Ten young men from slave-holding States happened 
 to be present. One of them, dressed hideously in a buf- 
 falo skin, drew out his pistols and brandished his dirk. 
 The landlord dragged the colored man from the table. 
 Dr. Le Moyne rose from the table and we all followed, 
 paid the scoundrel for a breakfast which we had not 
 eaten, and bought our breakfast in the streets and gro- 
 ceries. To-night I believe Burleigh and Scott and Dr. 
 Lemoyne will lecture, but I shall not probably attend. 
 
 I shall spend a few days in Philad a . and then start 
 for home, as I cannot find the employment which I 
 wish for in Philad*, and have had an urgent request to 
 
[49] 
 
 go to Maine and take charge of an anti-slavery paper 
 in Portland. 
 
 All the folks here send their love. I am as ever 
 with love to Mother and Aunt Mercy and Uncle and 
 Aunt Jones and Ann and Jacob and Mary and all. 
 
 J. G. Whittier 
 
To HIS SISTER ELIZABETH 
 
 New York, \%th jtb mo, [1837] 
 Dear Sister: 
 
 Well, have our friends the Grimkes 1 been 
 
 ^frith you yet, and if so how did you like them ? I 
 
 am sure they are calculated to do a great deal of good. 
 
 There is nothing new in this city ; it is a general 
 time of health; there is little business stirring and the 
 people are moving into the country. 
 
 My health is now pretty good. I have been in- 
 vited to go up and spend a day or two in West Chester 
 Co. by Jos. Pierce, father of Abigail Pierce, formerly 
 teacher in Providence School, and also at Long Island. 
 I think I shall go in a few days to one or the other of 
 these places. 
 
 As I could not do anything immediately at Port- 
 land, perhaps it is best for me to be here. My board, 
 expenses etc., are heavy, being at the rate of #6.50 per 
 week, — my compensation is $80 per month. Will 
 thee write me soon? I am very anxious to hear from 
 you, not having heard a syllable from you since I left. 
 I cannot account for the reason. How is sister Mary ? 
 I want to write her, but have been so much engaged 
 that I have hardly found time. 
 
 There are some beautiful places in the outskirts of 
 New York. The city itself is a dirty place, but our 
 office is on the Park, — a beautiful green — sur- 
 rounded with fine shade trees and enjoying a cool 
 
 1 Appendix B, p. 265. 
 
[Si ] 
 
 breeze. In the warm evenings thousands of people are 
 walking in it. The weather thus far, has not been very 
 hot, and I am inclined to think that it is no warmer 
 here than in Amesbury, inasmuch as the sea-breeze 
 counteracts the effects of a more Southern latitude. 
 There are some parts of the city too dirty to visit. 
 Boston is a perfect Shaker village for neatness, com- 
 pared to New York. 
 
 I have written this letter almost entirely for the pur- 
 pose of getting an answer to my other letters, and shall 
 think very strange if one is not forth-coming. Love to 
 Mother, Aunt Mercy and all. 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 Mother says I must write in this letter and tell thee 
 to write to Greenleaf, but my pen is so bad that I 
 shall do no such thing. 
 
 M. F. Whittier 
 
 Amesbury, July 29V 1 
 
To HIS SISTER MARY CALDWELL 
 
 Office of Am. AS. Soc. 
 
 ^ n [New York, 8th Mo. 1837.] 
 
 Dear Sister : 
 
 I send thee a line just to let thee know that I 
 have not forgotten thee, and the rest of the folks. I 
 have written two or three times to Elizabeth, but not 
 a word in answer, has reached me. I expected, when I 
 left home, to have gone direct to Maine — but the 
 hard times coming on just as the paper was to have 
 started, compelled them to abandon the idea until 
 things looked more favorable. Under these circum- 
 stances and feeling it to be necessary to do something, 
 I concluded to go to New York, although I dislike the 
 place very much — especially in the summer season. 
 
 I am boarding in the family of a Spanish gentle- 
 man, F. De Loyo, a brother in law of Chas. Stuart. 1 
 The city is healthy as usual, at this season. Theodore 
 D. Weld and James A. Thorne are here with me. 
 We have a very comfortable time, considering all 
 things. I do not labor very hard, and take what ex- 
 ercise I can. The last week has been one of the hot- 
 test I ever knew ; it is almost as much as one's life is 
 worth to venture into the sunshine as it falls blazing 
 hot on the white pavements. 
 
 The cause of Abolition is going on well in all parts 
 of the country. By the time Congress meets there will 
 
 1 Charles Stuart (178 3- 1865), an officer in the English Army who 
 came to the United States to enter anti-slavery work. He planned to 
 establish here a manual training school for Negroes, for which he had 
 already collected $1000 in England. 
 
tS3l 
 
 be petitions enough to break all the tables in the Capi- 
 tol, ready for delivery. How do the Haverhill socie- 
 ties get along? I understand Ames has backed out. 
 
 I have visited some in Friends' families since I have 
 been here. The Orthodox Friends have only one 
 meeting, — the Hicksites three. They have little or no 
 intercourse with each other. 
 
 Have you heard anything from Franklin? I saw 
 him in Boston on his way to the West, but have not 
 heard one syllable from him since. He talked of go- 
 ing to Michigan — whether he did or not I cannot say. 
 I furnished him with letters to Isaac E. Crary, mem- 
 ber of Cong, from Mich, and to Thomas Chandler, 
 and others. 
 
 H. B. Stanton 1 is now in Mass. and will probably 
 visit Haverhill before he returns. He will tell thee 
 how we are getting along here. How does William do ? 
 I saw him a few moments in Boston. Tell Jacob 2 that 
 [Marcus] Morton will come in Governor this year, if 
 the abolitionists take the precaution to propose ques- 
 tions to him and [Edward] Everett touching the sub- 
 ject of Slavery. Have thee seen Miss Martineau's 
 book ? 'T is very interesting. I have received a long 
 letter from Henry Clay 3 on the subject of Slavery, 
 etc. He professes to be opposed to Slavery, but is not 
 an abolitionist. I am anxious to hear from some of 
 you. Mother's health when I left, was not good. Re- 
 member me kindly to Jacob and believe me thy af- 
 fectionate Brother T ^ xxr 
 
 John Cj. Whittier 
 
 1 Then a fellow worker in the New York office. 
 
 2 Jacob Caldwell was proprietor of the Essex Gazette of Haver- 
 hill in 1836 when Whittier was its editor. 
 
 3 Printed in Carpenter, Whittier, 156. 
 
From HIS SISTER ELIZABETH 
 
 5th day evening [Sept. 1837.] 
 My dear brother Greenleaf: 
 
 Franklin * has brought me his letter to finish. 
 What a reporter of our speech makers ! Franklin gets 
 along just as when thee was here ; is in good spirits 
 however. Aunt Mercy is at home, and we are com- 
 fortable. How do thee do? When shall we see thy 
 book ? I suppose thee are to appear as author "found 
 two niggers heads between" We here have been re- 
 monstrating with the Honorables again, and I [torn] 
 made another pilgrimage of our village with Bunyans 
 rolls — and we sent the remonstrance of Sally Chase 
 and 195 others ! All the names were obtained by my- 
 self. 
 
 23. I can fancy how Joshua 2 managed with the run- 
 aways — (how queer ! thee and Joshua, thy first school- 
 master, acting in concert in such great matters.) Are 
 you not venturing somewhat in publishing names, 
 places and so on ? I hope thee have a good boarding 
 place and are comfortable. I have not seen Mary since 
 thee left. I liked the report well. 
 
 Mrs. Chapman talks a little like one not in the 
 
 1 Matthew Franklin Whittier. Whittier himself was known in the 
 family as « Greenleaf/ ' and by the Quakers as "John G. Whittier"; 
 the first name only was seldom used in addressing him. 
 
 2 Joshua Coffin, "My Old Schoolmaster, " Poems t 190. His life 
 is in Memorial Biographies, New England Historic Genealogical So- 
 ciety, vi, 1 (1905). 
 
[55] 
 
 body. What did you make an agent of J. T. Wood- 
 bury for? A[bby] Kelly * says she " don't like you at 
 New York. You shall have none of her money and 
 none from Lynn." Robert Scott sends his love and 
 thanks to thee for thy trouble in finding the Morri- 
 sons. He will go in the Factory now. When will thee 
 write again and when will thee come home ? I have 
 put thy "Stanzas to Henry Clay ,, in my scrapbook. 
 I must think he is honest. Won't thee write to him. 
 How is Weld? 
 
 Aunt Mercy says they almost made a James Nay- 
 ler 2 of H. C. Wright in Lynn; they concluded his 
 views must be maintained in preference to Abolition- 
 ism, and will thee believe it, Uncle Isaiah was fore- 
 most in the belief. Only think of Uncle Isaiah get- 
 ting so excited as to go from house to house, to hear 
 H. C. W. talk ! So thee see the danger of fanaticism. 3 
 Shall we not hear from thee soon again ? With love 
 for thee from Mother and Aunt Mercy and much 
 from myself — farewell. E. 
 
 1 Appendix C, p. 268. 
 
 2 Nayler (161 6-1660) was a soldier in Cromwell's army, and 
 then an adherent of George Fox. Through his eloquence he attracted 
 great crowds, and he was regarded as a new incarnation of the divine. 
 Though his mind became impaired, he was imprisoned, scourged and 
 branded. At last his mind cleared and his old friends came to his aid. 
 His life is the subject of an essay by Whittier, Prose Works, ii, 69. 
 
 3 Appendix D, p. 270. 
 
From HIS BROTHER FRANKLIN 
 
 Amesbury, Feb, Zth } 1838. 
 Dear Brother : 
 
 At the request of Elisabeth, who says it gives 
 the "headache" to write, I write to inform thee that 
 we are all as well as when thee left. Aunt Mercy re- 
 turned from Lynn about three weeks since. Mother 
 has been as well as usual this winter. I was at Jacob's 
 about a week since, all well. Uncle Jones' family the 
 same. 
 
 Elisabeth has been on the " qui vive " for some 
 days past, expecting Harriet Minot 1 to whom she has 
 written, requesting her to come down and stay a week 
 or two. Doct. Harris is in a state of " betweenity." 
 His " peace " principles as laid down by Henry Wright, 
 and also the " anti-observe-the-Sabbath " views have 
 almost swallowed up his abolitionism, although he 
 made quite a " pretty " speech the other night. As near 
 as I can recollect, it was thus : — 
 
 " My friends, I have been thinking while we have 
 been here, that it 's an awful thing for the dealers in 
 human flesh to separate families, carrying the husband 
 one way, the wife another, a-a-an-d the children still 
 another. And I could but reflect on what my feelings 
 must be, should I go home to-night and find my little 
 ga-a-al " (here his feelings overpowered him and after 
 
 1 Harriet Minot, daughter of Stephen Minot of Haverhill ; a com- 
 panion of Elizabeth Whittier's in the anti-slavery riot at Haverhill, 
 August, 1835. Pickard, Wbittier, 148. 
 
[57] 
 
 taking time to recover and wiping his eyes very appro- 
 priately with his coat sleeve, he proceeded) " should 
 find my little ga-a-1 car-carried off — Oh! — O — O 
 how I sho-o-o-ould feel — ." So that thee will per- 
 ceive that though the "ginowine feenatical" feelings 
 may be in a measure lost, he still contains the "root 
 of the matter." 
 
 Dea. Carruthers is well and busy. Auld Rorbit Scott 
 was at Mother's the other evening; he says as he shall 
 shortly go to work in the factory it is of no consequence 
 about the yarn or Morrison. 
 
 The " Reservoir " was suspended a few weeks to 
 make room for the " Daily Monitor/' but was recom- 
 menced this morning. 
 
 Why don't thee send some papers ? Mark M. F. W. 
 on them and direct to the " News and Courier," and 
 they will come free of postage. 
 
 My writing school was rather a failure though I 
 keep it going. Just as I commenced, the factories com- 
 menced working in the evening until 8, whereby I lost 
 about one half of my scholars and I now [have] only 
 about 14. 
 
 I know of nothing else to write about and will leave 
 off. 
 
 In haste, thine truly 
 
 M. F. Whittier. 
 
To HIS SISTER ELIZABETH 
 
 Philadelphia, i^th nth Mo. 38. 
 Dear Sister Elizabeth : 
 
 I send thee with this, a copy of my poetry, 1 
 and one for sister Mary. I wish I had something better 
 to send. I forward also a vest and cap which may be 
 of some service to brother F. I am very anxious to 
 know how he succeeded in the Portland matter. 
 
 I reached here two weeks ago tonight, pretty well 
 tired out, and was quite unwell for some days, but am 
 better now. 
 
 Wendell's folks were greatly disappointed because 
 thee did not come on with me. Never mind, thee will 
 be here this next spring, if nothing happens. If thee see 
 Harriet, mind tell her I meant to keep my word and 
 call again, but was not able to. 
 
 Ann Wendell is not quite so well as usual. Isaac's 
 [Wendell] establishment was destroyed by fire while 
 I was at Amesbury. The loss is mostly covered by 
 insurance. Still it is bad for his business. 
 
 We live very comfortable here. Joseph and Rachel 
 Healey are very good folks and we get along well. I 
 have a fine room in the 3 d story, with a small cast iron 
 
 1 Poems by John G. Whittier, Philadelphia, 1838 ; 180 pp. During 
 the summer of 1838 Whittier had been collecting and preparing the 
 material for this volume which was published by Healey, with whom 
 he was living. This was the first collection to have Whittier' s super- 
 vision ; that printed by Knapp of Boston the previous year, it is said, 
 was issued without his knowledge. 
 
[ 59] 
 
 stove in it, in which I have a fire occasionally. I burn 
 wood instead of coal, as the latter affects my throat 
 unpleasantly. The weather has been very fine for this 
 past week, warm and comfortable, until today when 
 we have had a few flakes of snow. 
 
 In regards to the cause of abolition everything here 
 goes on as usual ; only I think more actively. Our 
 meetings are frequent and well attended and new con- 
 verts are multiplying. 
 
 I am desirous of getting a letter from " the Master," 
 just to learn how he manages the affairs of the village 
 in conjunction with Butler, Lunt and Deacon Moody 
 and others. 
 
 Remember me kindly to all the friends and write 
 soon. 
 
 J. G. W. 
 
To HIS FAMILY 
 
 Philadelphia, 10th, 6th Mo. 1839 
 Dear Mother and Sister and all: 
 
 I write a line for fear my letter by C. T. Torrey 1 
 did not reach you, which I forwarded from the New 
 York meeting. I have been quite ill since, but am a 
 good deal better now, whether permanently or not, I 
 cannot tell. 
 
 I have decided to leave the Freeman for a time. I 
 would go to Europe, if I could do so without taking 
 upon myself duties and responsibilities which would 
 prevent my deriving benefit on the score of health. As 
 it is, I shall, I think, visit Gerrit Smith, and spend 
 some time in travelling in Western New York, and I am 
 in hopes by so doing to recover my usual state of health. 
 
 On Sixth day next I expect to go to Bordentown 
 and Crosswicks in N. J. on a visit to my friend Sam! 
 Allinson 2 for whom I was one of the four grooms- 
 men on Fifth day last at Arch Street Meeting. I shall 
 be absent only a few days. My health is not so good, 
 
 1 Rev. Charles T. Torrey (18 13-1846), a minister in Salem in 
 1838, entered the anti-slavery work, and in 1844 was convicted at 
 Baltimore of aiding slaves to escape, for which he was sentenced to 
 six years' imprisonment. He died in prison in 1846. "The Funeral 
 of Torrey," Prose Works, ii, 271. 
 
 2 Samuel Allinson and his brother William, both Quakers, were 
 associates of Whittier in his anti-slavery work. Samuel lived on his 
 farm near Crosswicks, N. J., and continued his philanthropic work, 
 especially in his later years, when he was active in establishing the 
 Reform School for boys and girls near Hightstown, N. J. 
 
[6i ] 
 
 all things considered, as when I left home last. I have 
 not so much pain in the side, but more in the back and 
 chest, and I have scarcely any strength to boast of. 
 
 But all is right, and I feel no disposition to mur- 
 mur at the dispensations of Providence. I have already 
 many blessings to be thankful for. 
 
 I am glad to hear from Elizabeth, that she is going 
 to Weare. I should like to go there myself. 
 
 Margaret and Ann Wendell start on Sixth day for 
 Newport and so do Jos. and Rachel Healey. Ann 
 Wendell is apparently somewhat better. Thayer's folks 
 are well as usual. 
 
 Love to Aunt Mercy and to Sister Mary and Jacob, 
 Uncle Jones and family, and most especially to Master 
 Griffin. Tell him that I feel compunctions of con- 
 science, because I have not written him. 
 Affectionately as ever, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
fo HIS MOTHER 
 
 [Philadelphia, July, 1839.] 
 My Dear Mother: 
 
 I send thee with this a miniature of myself, 
 taken by an artist of this City. It is a rough painting, 
 but is called a good likeness. My health is about as 
 good as it has been, but by no means good. I shall 
 start to-morrow for the West. I shall probably go on 
 as far as Cincinnati (free of expense), and be back in 
 about 3 weeks. Moses A. Cartland 1 will take care of 
 the Freeman during my absence, and perhaps longer. 
 The summer here thus far has been comfortable com- 
 pared with last year. 
 
 Love to all. I shall write soon. 
 
 J. G. W. 
 
 1 Moses A. Cartland was Whittier's cousin, "afterwards widely 
 known as a successful teacher." Whittier, Poems, 202. 
 
To HIS SISTER MARY CALDWELL 
 
 Philadelphia, yth Mo. 17, 39. 
 Dear Sister: 
 
 I write thee a line to let thee know that I am 
 
 not entirely forgetful of thee, and Jacob and the rest 
 
 of the folks, but that I am very anxious to hear how 
 
 you all do. My health has been very miserable — 
 
 what the result will be I cannot tell — but I have been 
 
 compelled to give up, in some measure, my paper and 
 
 to try to recruit a little. 1 
 
 I have been up in the centre of the State — to Bed- 
 ford Mineral Springs — over the mountains — the 
 "great Alleghanies." It was very tedious travelling, 
 and fatigued me very much. We passed over one 
 ridge of the Alleghanies on Sixth day evening last, 
 between the hours of 10 and 12 o'clk at night. The 
 driver drove his horses upon the gallop down the 
 mountain, along the very edge of a precipice several 
 hundred feet deep, opening into the rocky valley 
 between two mountain summits. It was a frightful 
 way of travelling. I am now at home, and am at a loss 
 to know whether the trip has benefited me or not. 
 
 I shall next week probably go into the interior, and 
 shall be at the great Albany Convention, 2 if my health 
 permits. I wish Elizabeth would come on to New 
 
 1 Appendix E, p. 272. 
 
 2 At the Albany Convention Whittier was a member of the business 
 committee, on which Garrison had refused to serve. This committee 
 submitted a proposition, which, having been adopted, led ultimately to 
 the formation of a new political party. Vide Garrison, ii, 309. 
 
[6 4 ] 
 
 York in company with some one who will attend the 
 Convention and go up with me to Albany and Sara- 
 toga Springs. Could she not do it? Could she not 
 start so as to go with some body from Boston ? I will 
 write to Amos A. Phelps and ask him to let Elizabeth 
 know when he is going to start for the Convention. 
 This can do no harm, and she can then do as she 
 pleases about it. I will meet her in New York, or 
 get Theodore D. Weld to do so, and take her up to 
 his beautiful homestead on the Hudson, 10 miles from 
 the city. 
 
 Remember me kindly to Jacob. Tell him that he 
 cannot do better than to take a trip out into Pennsyl- 
 vania with thee, just to look at our Pennsylvania farms 
 and farmers. Moses A. Cartland is on here for the 
 present, and is terribly homesick already, but I hope he 
 will soon feel better about it. 
 
 I am now staying with Cousin Wendell's folks while 
 
 Joseph Healey's wife is at home, at her father's in New 
 
 England. I am anxious to hear from you but perhaps 
 
 it will not be best to direct a letter to me at Philad ', 
 
 for I am not certain that I shall be here for any length 
 
 of time. 
 
 Love to All. 
 
 Jno. Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
From ELIZUR WRIGHT, Jr. 
 
 Steamer Charter Oak 
 
 Monday Evening, April 6, 40. 
 Dear Friend : 
 
 Our Abolitionist of this week will tell you 
 more than I can now amidst this terrible drumming, 
 about the Albany Convention. Birney and Earle are 
 nominated ; the latter for V. P., after reading from 
 him a thoroughly democratic letter. Birney we know 
 will stand. We hoped Earle might, or might be made 
 to. He may be assured that all who go for the rights 
 of the colored man, will go as he does for the rights 
 of the uncolored. 
 
 Now that the nomination is made, it is very import- 
 ant there should be no backing out, and I would sug- 
 gest that if you so think, you should drop a letter to 
 Earle full of the right counsel on this point. You 
 probably stand higher in his regard than any other 
 man. Harrison you will have seen has endorsed his 
 Vincennes Speech, and is pronounced by the Charles- 
 ton Courier! as on a par with Van Buren as a sup- 
 porter of the patriarchs. This takes away the whole 
 argument for choosing the least of two evils. 
 
 I hope to see you very soon. Thanks for your kind 
 and wise letter 1 of the 25th ult. It indicated the true 
 policy, in case we could not have found a good man to 
 stand for the first office. But, on the whole, we could 
 not have had a better man than Birney. He is equal 
 1 In Appendix F, p. 274. 
 
[66] 
 
 to the other candidates, to say the least, in all qualifi- 
 cations — in heart, infinitely superior to either. Our 
 friends in New York all seem quite reconciled. We 
 shall have a small vote no doubt, but not a despicable 
 nor a despised one. Let them come on with their black- 
 ball — we are ready for it all — the mud will roll off 
 and leave its object the brighter. Abolitionists who 
 have not abjured their suffrage, will now feel the com- 
 fort of a candidate who truly, in his own flesh and 
 blood, and heart of hearts, represents their principles. 
 I shall be at home after Wednesday night, and hope 
 to see you before the week passes away. 
 Yours for the House, 
 
 E. Wright, Jr. 
 
To HIS SISTER ELIZABETH 
 
 Philadelphia, Ajh $th mo. 1840. 
 Dear Sister : 
 
 I am now writing at friend Wendell's. I ar- 
 rived at New York safely, stopped at Isaac Pierce's 
 until 3 rd day of the week, then came on to Philad*? * — 
 had a very fatiguing ride — and have been somewhat 
 unwell, but am now about as usual. 
 
 Cousin Isaac is quite unwell, has been very much 
 so, but is better. Mary J. is also unwell — but can 
 teaze as well as ever. Ann is still improving in health. 
 I have seen the Lloyds, Nicholsons, etc. They all 
 speak a great deal of thee. Henry Peterson called on 
 me the next day after my arrival — enquired about thee. 
 
 James Mott and L[ucretia], Sarah Pugh, Mary 
 Grew, 2 Elizabeth J. Neall, Abby Kimber, and perhaps 
 C. C. Burleigh go on the y^ 3 
 
 Only think of it. H. B. Stanton 4 it is rumored, 
 
 1 To attend the meeting of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. 
 2 " She did the work she found to do, — 
 A Christian hero, Mary Grew." 
 
 "How Mary Grew," Poems, 207. 
 
 3 Delegates from the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society to the 
 World's Anti-Slavery Convention at London, where all refrained from 
 taking part because on their arrival the women were denied recognition 
 as delegates. Joseph Sturge had intimated that such might be the result, 
 if women were appointed. Hallowel), Mott, 146, and Garrison, 
 
 I 353- 
 
 4 Stanton married Elizabeth Cady, May 1, 1840, and sailed May 
 1 2th for London as a delegate from the American Anti-Slavery Society 
 of New York. 
 
[68] 
 
 will get married and go out with his woman to 
 Europe ! 
 
 I have been sorely tempted to go to England — 
 but I have not dared to act against my better judg- 
 ment. My health I do not think will be equal to such 
 a task — and so I have notified the Committee to find 
 a substitute for me. C. C. B. will perhaps go. I shall 
 be out of the City in Bucks in a few days. Have seen 
 R. [or P.] Sanborn, Mary Needles, and all send their 
 best love to thee. 
 
 I saw D. Breed in N. Y. — is well and enquired par- 
 ticularly about thee. 
 
 Stanton wants the poetry thee promised him. I 
 dined yesterday with Ruth Barrett — W m ' 8 mother. 
 She is distressed at the idea of his leaving the Society 
 — it is a hard [blow] for her. 
 
 Ann, Margaret, and Mary and all here wish me to 
 give their best love. Marg! is sick, or would write. 
 
 Excuse this hasty scrawl ; I have penned it in great 
 haste. 
 
 Love to Mother and Aunt Mercy and to all. 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
From JOSEPH STURGE 1 
 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 Though we are personally unknown to each 
 other I am about to open my mind to thee as to a very 
 old and intimate friend. I am seriously intending to 
 pay a private visit to America for a few weeks or per- 
 haps months, principally with the following objects ; 
 to promote an entire unity of action and cooperation 
 between the British and Foreign Anti Slavery Society 
 and the American and Foreign Anti Slavery Society, 
 including ^//that will act upon our principles and not 
 mix up other truths with it ; to ascertain the feeling and 
 judgment of our sound American Friends as to the 
 propriety of holding any future Convention, and if 
 they are in favor of it, when and where it should be 
 held ; to see privately if there are any means of remov- 
 ing the objections which have hitherto prevented our 
 American Friends from taking part in the movements 
 of Anti Slavery Societies, provided they are both in the- 
 ory and practise kept entirely distinct from all other 
 matters, apart and distinct from the Anti Slavery object 
 I mean ; also to take the opportunity of ascertaining, 
 as I go along, what elements there are in America for 
 
 1 Joseph Sturge ( 1 793—1 859), a successful merchant of Birming- 
 ham, England, a Quaker and a philanthropist, founded the British and 
 Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. On his return to England from his jour- 
 ney he published A Visit to the United States in 1841, in which 
 Whittier's name frequently occurs, though through ill health he could 
 not be with Sturge the entire time. 
 
[7°] 
 
 holding at a future period a conference of nations for 
 the formation of permanent and universal peace. 
 
 My intention is to avoid altogether appearing and 
 especially speaking in public (for which latter I am 
 quite unqualified, if there was no other objection), but 
 to meet in private parties the persons who may most 
 be depended upon for properly working our cause. 
 The earliest time I look to leaving England is by 
 the British Queen on the 10 th of next month, and if 
 I go at all, which is yet very uncertain, I may not go 
 till near a month later. 
 
 Now thou wilt see that on such an expedition I 
 shall want a companion, uniting with my views and 
 with a pretty general knowledge of the individual 
 character and standing, both of the abolitionists and 
 the members of the Society of Friends in your land, 
 and I write to ask thee to be kind enough to be that 
 companion, of course allowing me to pay every kind 
 of expense etc., to which such a journey might sub- 
 ject thee. 
 
 At all events allow me to press upon thee that in 
 the event of my writing thee by the next Boston Steam 
 Packet to say I am arriving by the British Queen, thou 
 wilt be kind enough to be in New York to meet me 
 to give me thy advice and council, and if our friends 
 there should unite in opinion that it will be [well] for 
 thee to accompany me, thou wilt feel it a duty from 
 which thou canst not feel excused. I am aware that 
 thy health may appear to thee to be a sufficient objec- 
 tion, and if it is, this is a point upon which I cannot 
 of course say a word to urge thee beyond thy strength, 
 but I am not without hopes that the journey might be 
 of service to thee in this respect. 
 
[7i ] 
 
 I am rather anxious my journey, and especially the 
 precious objects of it, should not be known at present. 
 But I find it is already known here, more than I could 
 wish, and there is a Friend of the name of Morris from 
 Philadelphia who goes by the President, who will 
 probably mention the fact of my intention to go to 
 America. But if I write any other letter by this Packet 
 it will be only a few lines in strict confidence to one 
 of our New York Friends and without telling him that 
 I have made any communication to thee. Thou wilt 
 please to clearly understand I mean to come without 
 any credentials or the representative of any body, 
 simply as a private individual; my reason for this I 
 can more fully explain if we meet. 
 
 Very sincerely and respectfully, 
 
 Joseph Sturge ' 
 
 Birmingham, 2/9, 1841. 1 
 
 1 " Tender as a woman, manliness and meekness 
 In him were so allied 
 That they who judged him by his strength or weakness 
 
 Saw but a single side. 
 Men failed, betrayed him, but his zeal seemed nourished 
 
 By failure and by fall ; 
 Still a large faith in human-kind he cherished, 
 And in God's love for all." 
 "In Remembrance of Joseph Sturge," Poems, 199. 
 
From CALEB CUSHING 
 
 _ „ Washington^ n March. 1841. 
 
 Dear Sir: 6 * * 
 
 I have yours of the and and 24th February. 
 You saw by the Atlas 1 that I declined being a candi- 
 date for the Senate. To this end, I was partly impelled 
 by the reasons which I have stated to you; and partly 
 by others. I did not wish to be the cause of any di- 
 vision among the Whigs in the Legislature. Above 
 all, I did not desire anything from them, unless it were 
 a spontaneous, united, free-will offering, for public con- 
 siderations and objects. And such an act there was 
 little cause to expect from a Legislature which had 
 already thrown away the power of the State, and totally 
 disregarded its interests and influence, out of personal 
 favor to Mr. Bates, 2 and personal favor founded on it 
 is hardly known what. Besides which, when Mr. Choate 
 came to be talked of, he being of the time of life and 
 possessing the qualifications to enable him (if he chooses 
 
 1 The editor of the Atlas y Feb. 16, 1841, after quoting from an 
 editorial in the Boston Advertiser to the effect that Cushing was needed 
 in the House, said: — "We are authorized to say that Mr. Cushing 
 does not wish to be considered as a candidate to supply the vacancy. 
 His great talents, extensive learning and valuable services are fully ap- 
 preciated by his political friends." 
 
 a Isaac Chapman Bates of Northampton had been elected U. S. 
 Senator Jan. 13, 1841, to succeed John Davis of Worcester, who 
 had resigned as Senator on being elected Governor of Massachusetts. 
 Webster's resignation took effect Feb. 22, and Rufus Choate was 
 elected to succeed him Feb. 24, 1841. 
 
[73] 
 
 to exert himself) to do credit and good service to the 
 State, I was the more content to leave the question 
 unembarrassed by any interests of my own. 
 
 I have also positively declined any employment 
 abroad, in order to work out faithfully my term of 
 service in the 27th Congress, in which there is much 
 to be done, and I think I may be of use to the coun- 
 try, without impairing in any degree my pretensions 
 to office, if I should then desire to obtain it. These 
 determinations place me in a position of independence 
 here, which has many advantages. 
 
 And now, for the other topics of your letters, a few 
 words : I do not believe there will be any general pro- 
 scription. I do not believe that removals will be made 
 without due consideration of the circumstances of each 
 case. In regard to the Post Offices, I shall have to act 
 in deference, for the most part, to the judgment of each 
 community. I have as yet heard nothing from Ames- 
 bury and shall not do anything of my own motion. 
 There is much conflict of interests at Haverhill, and I 
 cannot yet decide what to do; but if it is impracticable 
 to place Mr. T [hayer] there, I undertake to do my ut- 
 most to provide for him in some way. 
 
 I am, very faithfully, yours, 
 
 C. Cushing 
 
From HIS BROTHER FRANKLIN 
 
 Portland, June 30, 1841. 
 My Dear Brother: 
 
 . . . The great temperance convention com- 
 menced its session here to day and will probably con- 
 tinue several days. I see among the arrivals last night 
 and this morning Hawkins " the reformed drunkard," 
 Rev. Mr. Colver and several others from Boston and 
 New York. 
 
 I wrote to sister Mary some time since, respecting 
 the discussion on slavery which came off here a few 
 weeks ago. 
 
 Since then John Neal ■ has published a long state- 
 ment of the affair, occupying half the collums of the 
 Daily Advertiser for nearly a week. He was pleased 
 to term it a fair and impartial digest of the whole mat- 
 ter, but in all his long array of words, when there was 
 any fault at all \ notwithstanding one or two pretended 
 thrusts at the Georgian, his sympathies (i.e. if that is a 
 propper term in speaking of John Neal) were "like the 
 handle of a jug, all on one side." But his labors will 
 do no harm, inasmuch as not one in ten can come to 
 any conclusion in this, and most of his other produc- 
 tions, as to what he " would be driving at." 
 
 Nat Dearing ("Old Nat," as he is called here) once 
 
 said in reply to an article of Neat's, published in the 
 
 New World, entitled" Portland Writers" :— " Some of 
 
 our best writers in saying many good things do oc- 
 
 1 Appendix G, p. 276. 
 
[75] 
 
 casionally by accident say foolish things. But with Mr. 
 Neal this is reversed. He never talks or writes com- 
 mon sense save by accident." And in the same con- 
 nection, speaking of what John terms his "throwing 
 off" style, he says John Neal is " afflicted with a literary 
 diarrhoea" In the production alluded to, his wander- 
 ing, pointless style is very conspicuous. . . . 
 Again good bye. 
 
 M. F. Whittier. 
 
From CALEB CUSHING 
 
 Washington , 17 July> 1841. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 I duly received yours of the 26th June in be- 
 half of Mr. Sewall. 1 I have also had correspondence 
 with Mr. S. himself and with Mr. Fletcher 2 on the 
 subject. There is not a better man, or a better lawyer, 
 than Mr. S. in Massachusetts. But the appointment 
 has been long since destined to Mr. Peleg Sprague. 3 
 I do not know how far Mr. Sewall's anti-slavery 
 opinions would have stood in his way with the Presi- 
 dent. They could not have prevented my testifying to 
 
 1 Sewall, Wintrier* s friend, was a candidate for U. S. Judge for the 
 District of Massachusetts. 
 
 " Like that ancestral judge who bore his name, 
 Faithful to Freedom and to Truth, he gave, 
 When all the air was hot with wrath and blame, 
 His youth and manhood to the fettered slave.' * 
 
 "Samuel E. Sewall," Poems, 516. 
 a Richard Fletcher (1 788-1 869), Dartmouth, 1806; studied law 
 with Webster ; member of Congress from Massachusetts, 1 837—1839; 
 Justice of the Mass. Supreme Court, 1 848-1 853. He bequeathed 
 $100,000 to Dartmouth College. 
 
 3 Peleg Sprague served as Judge of the District of Massachusetts, 
 1 841 to 1865. He was the orator in Faneuil Hall to whom Whittier 
 referred in his open letter to Governor Everett in the Liberator , Feb- 
 ruary 20, 1836: " I know that he [Washington] was a slave holder, 
 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 of the Pilgrims pointed to his portrait, which adorned the wall, 
 with the thrice repeated exclamation, « That slave holder ' . . . Did 
 not the speaker know that the dying testimony of Washington was 
 against slavery ? ' ' 
 
[77] 
 
 his high character and attainments. But those opinions 
 would have stopped him in the Senate, in which the 
 singular fact now exists of Northern V. B. 1 men play- 
 ing into the hands of Southern Adm. men, by minis- 
 tering to their slavery tenor, as in regard to various 
 nominees before them. I know not what may be the 
 ultimate effect of the anti-slavery agitation on the in- 
 terests of the North ; its present effect is most disas- 
 trous to us in a multitude of ways. This much is too 
 plain to be mistaken. 
 
 I wrote to Gov. Lincoln at your request in behalf 
 of Mr. Worthen; but, I fear, without much prospect 
 of success. Mr. Choate and I are cooperating to obtain 
 for Mr. Thayer a $900 office, in which I think we shall 
 succeed. If (as I hope) we can be together in Essex after 
 the close of the Session, I shall rejoice to cooperate in 
 our Merrimac enterprise at that time. For the year past, 
 I have no time for other thoughts than my public duties; 
 but I anticipate a breathing space the coming autumn. 
 
 I regretted the necessity of acceding to the removal 
 of your friend Mr. Nayson. But the representations 
 on the subject were too strong to be resisted. Add to 
 which, I was not unwilling to have the opportunity of 
 providing for an old friend of my youth, to whom for- 
 tune had not been kind, Mr. Walsh's 2 father having 
 fitted me for college, and John himself having taken 
 care of me as a college friend, during my first year at 
 Cambridge. 
 
 I am very truly yours, 
 
 C. Cushing. 
 Mr. Whittier. 
 
 1 Van Buren. 
 
 2 John Walsh, Harvard College, 1814, died 1845. His father 
 Michael was a teacher in the Marblehead Academy. 
 
[78] 
 
 P. S. Party politics were never in a more uncertain 
 state, and no man here knows for a surety, what his 
 own position will be for three months ahead. In such 
 circumstances, one must do what is right, disregardful 
 of consequences. I do not see my way clearly to the 
 end, but I have made up my mind to two things, 
 whatever happens, and that is, in weakness to look to 
 the interests of my constituents, and in men to stick to 
 my private friends, in preference to precarious party 
 considerations. 
 
LIBERTY PARTY PETITION 1 
 
 Amesbury, \oth Aug. 1841. 
 
 To the Chairman of the Liberty Party 
 Committee 
 Dear Brother: 
 
 The undersigned, in common with many 
 others in this section of the State, are desirous that 
 a General Convention of the voting 2 abolitionists of 
 Massachusetts should be held at as early a day as may 
 be practicable, at Worcester or some other central 
 location, for the purpose of calling out a deeper and 
 stronger feeling than now seems to exist in favor of 
 Liberty at the Ballot-box. They would respectfully 
 suggest the expediency of calling such a Convention, 
 on the part of your Committee, with the understand- 
 ing that the nominations now made by that Committee, 
 be held subject to the decision and disposal of the 
 Convention. Let us rally as one man to that meeting, 
 from every section of the good old Commonwealth, 
 and let measures be taken to secure the attendance 
 of such men as W™ Goodell, Joshua Leavitt, Alvan 
 Stewart, Beriah Green and Henry B. Stanton, 3 and 
 
 1 Written by Whittier. 
 
 3 As distinguished from those who refrained, because by voting they 
 would recognize the Constitution. 
 
 3 «« For many years an influence in behalf of the slave radiated from 
 the central counties of New York, which was felt beyond the borders 
 of the State. It was largely due to four men, quite unlike in salient 
 characteristics, though each was remarkable in his sphere. They were 
 
[8o] 
 
 may we not hope that in our own State, those who have 
 not hitherto acted with us, — the Lorings,the Phillips, 
 and Jacksons — will be ready to join us in lifting up 
 the pure and democratic standard of Political Anti- 
 Slavery. 
 
 Y r friend. 
 
 acute reasoners, ready writers, and never quailed before work. Those 
 who witnessed the majestic eloquence of Gerrit Smith, the quaint hu- 
 mor and pathetic appeals of Alvan Stewart, the luminous logic and 
 merciless sarcasm of Beriah Green, and the instructive disquisitions 
 and pointed periods of William Goodell, will regard this as a just 
 tribute to their abilities and services." 
 
 Henry B. Stanton, Random Recollections, 65. 
 Joshua Leavitt was editor of the Boston Emancipator, He had been 
 with Stanton an associate of Whittie^s in the office of the American 
 Anti-Slavery Society in New York in 1837. 
 
From CALEB CUSHING 
 
 Washington, 4 Sept. 1841. 
 
 I have your two letters and will reply at length 
 tomorrow. I was unable to do anything for Mr. Thayer l 
 in the Haverhill P. O., there being a strong remon- 
 strance against him and the appointment having been 
 decided by the P. M. G. upon the documents, in which 
 I could but acquiesce. Meanwhile, I have a good hope 
 of securing provision for him in an office, the disposal 
 of which has been promised to me. But the infinite 
 variety of such questions cannot be decided in a day, 
 amidst the other all absorbing matters in agitation here. 
 Today I have received a no. of the Northampton 
 Courier, containing a threat from him. Can I procure 
 him an office under a threat, judge you? He has so 
 many times, in writing and in print professed to have 
 buried the hatchet, that I have in good faith exerted 
 myself in his behalf, and with every prospect of speedy 
 success. What is it just and proper for me to do under 
 the circumstances? As you have interested yourself 
 in his behalf, pray advise me. It is his interest, not 
 mine, which is at stake, for in the whirlwind which is 
 coming, newspaper obloquy, founded on old personal 
 grudges, will go for little among the other greater ele- 
 ments of confusion and discord. I suppose there must be 
 some letter of his which I have not answered, but it is 
 physically impossible for me to answer, until the close 
 of the session, one fourth part of the letters I receive. 
 
 I am, very faithfully, yours, 
 
 C. Cushing. 
 1 Thayer in 1832, when editor of the Haverhill Gazette, had 
 opposed Cushing. 
 
From HIS BROTHER FRANKLIN 
 
 Portland, June 17 th 1842. 
 Dear Brother: 
 
 . . . My good friend, Doer. Illsly of the 
 Portland Transcript, asked me some months ago, 
 when I wrote, to request thee to do him the very great 
 favor of sending him one or two articles for his paper. 
 He would (I may as well tell thee) want to publish 
 them in manner and form as follows — "Written for 
 the Transcript by J. G. Whittier." The poor fellow 
 is rather hard pushed just now, as a new rival paper 
 under the patronage of D. C. Colesworthy, S. B. 
 Beckett and John Neal, has been started for the ex- 
 press purpose of running the Transcript down. They 
 have got Cutter as a contributor and, I believe, In- 
 graham. I told him thy time was, I supposed, pretty 
 well taken up, — but if thee could spare the Doctor a 
 small lift it would be rather a deed of charity. Any- 
 thing would be gratefully received, prose or poetry. 
 . . . Nathan has had one or two Anti-everything 
 Meetings lately. At which the somewhat mystical 
 tends of that respectable Society were duly set forth, 
 illuminated by its Chief Priest, Henry C. Wright. 
 They could get no house but the Casco St. Chapel, 
 though they tried several others. Nathan was very 
 busy running about to the various church commit- 
 tees, and on being refused, not only shook off the 
 dust of his shoes as a testimony against them, but in 
 his usual bland manner remonstrated with the obsti- 
 
[83 ] 
 
 nate committees, and in a voice bearing a strong re- 
 semblance to the noise made by a heavy iron door turn- 
 ing very slowly on unoiled hinges, expressed as his firm 
 conviction that the ministers were" dumb dogs, Satan's 
 high priests &c. &c," finishing with an earnest en- 
 treaty that they, in company with the aforesaid com- 
 mittee, would with all possible dispatch "go straight- 
 way to the D 1 " ! . . . 
 
 Affectionately Good bye 
 
 M. F. Whittier. 
 
From JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 Boston, Beer. 16, 1842. 
 
 A/r _ „ No. ^, Court St. 
 
 My Dear Friend: 
 
 Some weeks ago I wrote to ask you for a poem 
 to print in my new magazine. 1 I have had no answer 
 from you, nor heard from you except through the 
 Democratic Review and Mr. Allen of Worcester. 
 
 I hope you will be able to give me something. At 
 any rate, send me word in some way that I may know 
 in time for my second number. I like your poem 
 " Raphael " 2 very much indeed, perhaps better in 
 some ways than any poem of yours. I do not mean 
 that it is better in its kind — but that its kind is 
 
 1 The Pioneer, a monthly magazine, edited by J. R. Lowell and 
 R. Carter. But three issues appeared, Jan., Feb., and March, 1843. 
 Among the contributors were Hawthorne, Elizabeth Barrett (Brown- 
 ing), Poe, Jones Very and W. W. Story. Whittier contributed to 
 the February number, "Lines Written in the Book of a Friend,' ' 
 Poems, 388 : — 
 
 " On page of thine I can not trace 
 The cold and heartless commonplace " — 
 
 not "Toa Friend on her Return from Europe/ ' as stated in Pickard, 
 Whittier, 289, where is given Lowell's letter of October, mentioned 
 above, in which he outlined his plans for this venture, which was so 
 short-lived. 
 
 * " Raphael," Poems, 389, had just appeared in the United States 
 Magazine and Democratic Review for December. " Pollen," Poems, 
 175, was in the March number and "The Gallows," Poems, 352, 
 in that for October. These three were the only poems by Whittier 
 published in 1842. 
 
[85] 
 
 pleasanter to me. But I like the others better after all, 
 for the noble causes they have always espoused. 
 Whatever you do, God be with you ! 
 
 Your friend in truth, 
 
 J. R. Lowell. 
 
 P. S. I don't care if the poem be anti-slavery, it 
 will be as welcome — though the main scope of my 
 magazine at present is literary. 
 
From HENRY B. STANTON 1 
 
 Boston Feby. 3, 1844. 
 Dear Whittier : 
 
 I am glad, upon the whole, that the contest in 
 No. 5 is Ended. Sorry to hear the Essex Transcript 
 (you ?) talk about giving from 1500 to 2000 votes in 
 No 5 next fall. Why, you can and must give 2500, 
 without fail. If we take hold of the work with the 
 energy of the New Yorkers, we can and shall do this. 
 But, about our State Convention ; we are relying 
 on you to draft the resolutions. No failure, John ! 
 Let them be candid but strong. We must be impar- 
 tial, too, as between the parties. To the masses, our 
 resolves and newspaper articles, look rather Anti- 
 Whiggish. 
 
 1 F. H. Underwood, who seems to have obtained from Whittier 
 himself many facts for his Sketch of Whittier, says that during the four 
 or five years after the removal to Amesbury, Stanton was Whittier' $ 
 most intimate friend and colaborer, and that they were " great lobby 
 workers" at the State House. He quotes a phrase from a letter of 
 Wendell Phillips that Whittier was " a great hand at it." 
 
 It was to Stanton that Whittier dedicated his poems, printed in 
 1838, " as a token of the author's personal friendship and of his re- 
 spect for the unswerved devotion of exalted talents to the cause of 
 humanity and freedom. " 
 
 Stanton left this pleasing account of Whittier : "In the dozen years 
 following 1835 I spent many months in his company, and travelled 
 with him hundreds of miles in eight or ten states. Only those who know 
 my shy friend well, are aware how talkative, genial, witty and humor- 
 ous, sarcastic and entertaining he is in bright hours with two or three 
 companions. ' ' Stanton, Random Recollections. 
 
[87] 
 
 Make a tremendous noise in the next Transcript 1 
 about the State Convention. Call more special atten- 
 tion to it. Why, I do not believe half the readers of 
 your paper could now tell the time when the conven- 
 tion is to meet, to save themselves. We are confi- 
 dently expecting that [Alvan] Stewart or [Gerrit] 
 Smith, or both, will be with us. Our day meetings 
 will be held in the Tremont Temple and our evening 
 meetings in Faneuil Hall, and the State House. We 
 shall have choice singing, and a splendid tea-party. 
 Then huzzah for the Convention ! We need a large 
 meeting.just now. We must strike out plans for mov- 
 ing the State to its very mud sills this year. We must 
 have employed by our State Committee, one excel- 
 lent, able agent, to plan, lecture, get up conventions, 
 and set the Commonwealth on fire. And, to arrange 
 all these matters, we must have a great Convention, 
 and talk these things into the gizzards of our leading 
 men. Then blow the trumpet long and loud in the 
 next Transcript. 
 
 Remember me most kindly to your mother and 
 sister and believe me 
 
 Yours ever and ever, 
 
 H. B. Stanton. 
 
 N. B. I have to lecture before the Beverly Lyceum 
 the evening before the Convention, and before the 
 Newburyport Lyceum the evening after. 
 
 1 "Whittier persuaded the proprietor of the Ames bury 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 vir- 
 tually edited the Transcript, writing most of the original matter it con- 
 tained, although his name does not appear in it, and his service was 
 entirely gratuitous." Pickard, Whit tier, 303. 
 
From HIS BROTHER FRANKLIN 
 
 Portland, Feb. 13/^, 1844. 
 My Dear Brother: 
 
 ... I send thee by same mail as this, the last 
 number of " Martin Chuzzlewit." It is, I think, the 
 best one which has yet appeared. " The Native Amer- 
 ican raw material" and the "American Eagle" are 
 very happily treated. I always liked Dickens' works, 
 but since he has had the boldness to attack our foolish 
 vanity, maugre the stuffing and feasting they gave him, 
 he has risen much in my estimation. When I have 
 heard the boastful language of our sixpenny newspa- 
 pers, and seen the absurd worship bestowed upon the 
 memory of Washington, I have always felt that sensi- 
 ble foreigners must be disgusted with us. We are per- 
 haps passable, and Washington may have done as well 
 as another placed in his situation would, but that is 
 the end of the matter. He was not a God and we are 
 not angels. 
 
 Week before last C. C. Burleigh ' lectured before 
 the Portland Anti-Slavery Society twice, in the after- 
 noon and evening. In the afternoon his audience was 
 limited, being made up of Oliver Dennett, Peter Mor- 
 rill, their wives, a slight sprinkling of Appletons, 
 
 1 ** Charles C. Burleigh was a vehement orator of rare logical gifts. 
 He traversed the county, delivering Anti-slavery lectures. He dressed 
 like a tramp. In the Anti-slavery office in New York we once tore a 
 shabby coat off his shoulders, vowing that he should not represent the 
 society in such a vile garb. John G. Whittier took a hand in this per- 
 formance.* ' Stanton, Random Recollections, 7-1. 
 
[89] 
 
 Nathan, myself and some 6 or 8 unsoaped boys. And 
 very dim and shadowy we looked scattered over the 
 vast hall in the Exchange. Bolt-upright near the centre 
 towered the huge form of Oliver ; at his left sat Peter, 
 his mottled face looking more mottled still in the 
 variegated light from the dome, and their two good 
 looking wives, in sad coloured hoods, pursing up their 
 mouths in a manner beautiful to behold, — Nathan 
 and I somewhat uneasy, but wearing our hats for a 
 testimony. The boys filled the back ground, while 
 through the half opened door "a nigger's" head 
 peered awfully, big and large. It was an impressive 
 tableaux. 
 
 And the speaker, I had never seen him before, and 
 my first impressions were not very favorable. His hair 
 was long and yellow and hung in festoons over his 
 shoulders, his whiskers were red and tied under his 
 chin, he wore no cravat, his throat was scragley, his coat 
 and cap were in a shocking state, his eyes were wild, 
 his shirt bosom and wristbands greasy, and altogether 
 he looked like a cross between an Arkansas desperado 
 and a decayed loafer of our Eastern cities. 1 But he 
 
 1 Mrs. Claflin, Reminiscences, 45, says that Whittier, who was a 
 friend of all the men named, used to take great delight in telling this 
 story : — 
 
 " In the stormy days when every Abolitionist was a marked man, 
 an important meeting was held in New York. Among the speakers 
 on the platform sat Garrison, with his shining bald head, and C. C. 
 Burleigh, whose ample locks fell down his shoulders in true poetic 
 fashion, while above them all towered the massive head of Fred 
 Douglas, the colored orator. As usual the proceedings were greatly 
 disturbed by the rioters ; but in a temporary lull which chanced to 
 occur, a high-pitched voice was heard crying, « Mr. Chairman, one 
 word, Mr. Chairman. I have a proposition to make that will restore 
 order.' 'What is your proposition,' quickly replied the chairman, 
 
[9°] 
 
 spoke well, and what he lacked in appearance was in 
 some sort made up in his language. In the evening 
 the attendance was larger. . . . 
 
 Affectionately thy Brother, 
 
 M. F. Whittier. 
 
 « Let us have it. ' c Let that nigger there shave Burleigh and make 
 a wig for Garrison and all differences will be settled.' 
 
 " Strange to say, when the audience recovered from bursts of laughter, 
 order was restored and the speakers proceeded without interruption." 
 
From HENRY B. STANTON 
 
 Boston, July 20/44. 
 Dear Whittier : 
 
 I have heard from Gerrit Smith. He deeply 
 
 regrets that his business arrangements and obligations 
 
 are such, that he cannot be with us, at Salem/ on the 
 
 1 Whittier was deeply interested in the success of the Salem con- 
 vention Aug. 1, 1844. It was for this occasion that he wrote Lowell, 
 14th 7th Mo. 1844, asking the fulfilment of the promise of a Liberty 
 song. " 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 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." Greenslet, Lowell, 64. 
 
 Of the meeting itself, all that the Salem Gazette of Aug. 2, 1 844, 
 said was : " The meeting in this city yesterday, purporting to be a 
 commemoration of British West India Emancipation, was in reality an 
 anti-Clay caucus. The unfavorable state of the weather in the morn- 
 ing occasioned the transfer of the repast from the open air and where 
 it was intended to be held, to the old town hall. ' ' 
 
 Whittier* s movements were a subject of comment in the other Salem 
 paper, the Register, July 25, 1844 : 
 
 •* Middlesex Standard. — A new Liberty party paper under this 
 title has just been started in Lowell. It is to be edited by John G. 
 Whittier, the gentleman who wrote that eloquent, truthful and beauti- 
 ful poetical eulogium of Henry Clay, concluding as follows : — 
 
 ' All Hail ! The hour is hastening on, 
 When vainly tried by Slander's flame, 
 Columbia shall behold her son 
 
[92] 
 
 First. S. P. Chase of Cincinnati, has just left here for 
 home. I tried to induce him to stay till the First, but 
 the sickness of a child, whom he left at C. called him 
 home immediately. I have just written a long letter to 
 Senator Morris, inviting him, in the name of the State 
 Committee to visit Massachusetts and spend some 
 time with us. So, also, to Birney, directed to care of 
 Chaplin. Tho I have no doubt both our leader-chiefs 
 will respond to our call, yet neither of them will be 
 with us on the First. So, you, Andrews, Burritt and 
 Elder, will have to do the chief speaking. Tou will 
 also be expected to sing a song with one of the Miss 
 Birds ! Let us have a rousing time. 
 
 Now, Whittier, for your best advice on a certain 
 topic. I am going to decide by next fall, whether I 
 leave Massachusetts. Nothing will force me out but 
 my health. I am decidedly better than I was last sum- 
 mer and winter, and my hopes of overcoming all dif- 
 ficulties by care, are strengthening. Yet, my rather 
 severe illness on the Fourth produced some slight 
 effect on my lungs — sufficiently to convince me that 
 I must be careful. If I remain in old Massachusetts, I 
 shall not live in Boston ; tho it will be my chief place 
 of business. Well, by living out of the city, I wish 
 to select such a place of residence as will combine as 
 
 Unharmed without a laurel gone, 
 
 As from the flames of Babylon. 
 
 The angel guarded trial came; 
 
 The slanderer shall be silent then, 
 
 His spell shall leave the minds of men, 
 
 And higher glory wait upon 
 
 The Western patriot's future fame.' 
 
 " The truthful breathings of his pure, youthful fancy will soon be- 
 come historical facts." 
 
[93] 
 
 many advantages as possible : such as, pleasure, good 
 society, health, and increase of business. I have my 
 eye on three places, Salem, Lowell and Dedham. If 
 I resided at either of those places, I should expect to 
 come in to Boston every morning and go out every 
 evening, as a general rule, Boston being my chief 
 business place. But, each of those places is a law- 
 center for its County ; and, if I should reside at either, 
 I should there have an office in connexion (probably 
 not in partnership) with some lawyer, and should pur- 
 pose, as a general rule, to be there every evening and 
 occasionally part of an afternoon to be consulted and 
 do business ; still making Boston my main business 
 stand. . . . 
 
 Well, Whittier, if I have not given you a long 
 rigmarole ! When I sat down, I intended to write 
 only about the speakers at our Salem Meeting. My 
 letter looked so short, I thought I would add a word 
 about my residence ; and here I have spun out a whole 
 sheet. Now, dear J. G. think the matter over and 
 write me your mind seriously about it. It will oblige 
 me much. 
 
 Yours ever and ever, 
 
 H. B. Stanton. 
 
From CHARLES A. DANA 
 
 Brook Farm, July 3, 1845. 
 Friend Whittier : 
 
 I received your letter to-day, but the book 
 has not reached me. If it is left at Redding & Co's., 
 8 State St., I shall get it. I am glad that you like the 
 Harbinger. 1 The testimony of a person like yourself 
 not pledged to its special doctrines, is an evidence that 
 we are not wrong in the manner of setting forth our 
 views. 
 
 Animated by ideas which, whatever may be thought 
 of their scientific correctness, are universal in their 
 character, we should plainly be inconsistent with our- 
 selves, did we allow ourselves to assume an attitude 
 of hostility to any party or interest. We believe that 
 we are the disciples of a philosophy which, while it 
 opens the means of satisfying the irrepressible aspira- 
 tions of the heart of Man, reconciles all partial truths 
 in its own universality, and puts an end, or rather 
 when once understood and applied, will put an end to 
 all scepticism, as well as to all sectarian controversies. 
 With this belief tolerance is almost a necessity, though 
 on the other hand criticism of what is positively wrong, 
 assumes a more decided though gentle tone. Will it be 
 too much to ask of you an occasional contribution to 
 our pages whether of prose or verse? You will see in 
 
 1 Dana joined Brook Farm in 1 842. The first number of the Har- 
 binger, which was the organ of that institution, was issued June 14, 
 1845. 
 
[95] 
 
 this week's paper a little piece ' of your's which, I fear 
 by the way, the paper from which we copied it, did 
 not print correctly. 
 
 Our poetical department is not an easy one to fill. 
 The New Spirit has hardly yet made its way among the 
 gentler muses, though when the Poet has once com- 
 prehended the Destiny of Man, such strains will burst 
 from his lips as the world has never yet echoed with. 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles A. Dana. 
 
 1 " When Freedom, on her natal day, 
 Within her war-rocked cradle lay, 
 An iron race around her stood, 
 Baptized her infant brow in blood; 
 And, through the storm which round her swept, 
 Their constant ward and watching kept." 
 
 "The Moral Warfare," Poems, ^75. 
 
 Dana's fears as to the correctness of the printing were groundless. 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Boston, Jan. $th 1847. ['48] 
 Dear Mr. Whittier : 
 
 I cannot let you off without thanks for your 
 most kind and flattering testimony for the little that. 
 I have been able to do. I value your word very much 
 and esteem your notice a sprig of true laurel. 
 
 I wish that I could see hope for the country, but 
 I cannot. The war and slavery will continue to tear 
 our vitals. Thank God ! at last we have a voice in the 
 Senate. Hale has * opened well. His short speeches 
 have been proper premonitions of what is to come. 
 Every word from him will resound through the coun- 
 try. I hope you will encourage him to make thorough 
 work in the Senate. I wish to see him discuss the 
 war in its relations to slavery. Then I hope he will 
 find occasion to open the whole subject of slavery 
 constitutionally, morally, politically, economically. I 
 wish to see Theodore Parker's Letter 2 spoken in the 
 Senate. That will diffuse it everywhere. 
 
 I hope to see you when you are in Boston. 
 Sincerely Yrs. 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
 1 John P. Hale of New Hampshire entered the U. S. Senate Dec. 
 6, 1847. 
 
 2 "Letter to the People of the United States Touching the Motto 
 of Slavery," by Theodore Parker, dated Dec. 22, 1847, but issued 
 early in 1848. Chadwick, Parker, Preacher and Reformer, 239. 
 
To CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Amesbury, i$d 6th Mo. 1848. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 It is not in my power to be with you to-mor- 
 row, although it is my wish to do so. In regard to thy 
 query touching the Liberty men taking a part in the 
 organization of the Convention/ I cannot speak with 
 authority, but will simply give my opinion. 
 
 The case as I understand it is just this. The Lib- 
 erty Party at first small and proscribed has fought a 
 hard battle for seven years, and has grown to be at 
 
 1 This convention at Worcester, June 28, was called for action 
 by the " Conscience " Whigs after Gen. Taylor, a slave holder, had 
 been nominated for the Presidency at Philadelphia, June 7. Sumner 
 was active in the preparations for the Worcester gathering, which was 
 so largely attended that no hall could hold the crowds. It was a time 
 of the breaking of old party lines, and others besides Whittier were 
 concerned what course to follow. 
 
 June 20, three days before the above was written, Whittier wrote 
 another to Sumner, discussing the prospects and urging that the " Con- 
 science ' ' Whigs act courageously and manfully. This letter ( Letter 
 Books of Charles Sumner, Harvard College Library) shows how 
 much Whittier was stirred by the prospect : — " 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? . . . Look 
 just now at Webster and Tom Corwin ! Flat on their faces, like East- 
 ern slaves, before Taylor and Slavery. In what noble contrast stand 
 Hale and Van Buren the younger. You must have a new and bold 
 man, one to whom old notions and practices on the question of slav- 
 ery are like threads of tow, breaking with the first movement of his 
 limbs. . . ." 
 
[98] 
 
 least 80,000 strong. Pressed upon all sides, it has a 
 compact form and organization and is strong in the 
 indomitable will of its members, who have been tried 
 as by fire. The men ask nothing but the privilege of 
 fighting the battle of freedom on the ground they 
 have heretofore maintained. They believe their posi- 
 tion the right one, and standing there they are ready 
 and anxious to cooperate with Conscience Whigs and 
 Independent Democrats, — nay more, they are willing 
 that the latter shall be leaders and standard-bearers, 
 while they fall into the ranks of the common soldiers 
 of freedom. (I see by the by that my figures are getting 
 somewhat military.) 
 
 To show our feeling in this district, our Conven- 
 tion last fall nominated J. P. Hale, an Independent 
 Democrat, as our candidate for the Presidency. For 
 this some of our other friends greatly censured us, and 
 have withdrawn from our organization. We nomi- 
 nated Hale, not only because he was eminently worthy 
 of it, but because we wished thereby to show to anti- 
 slavery Whigs and Democrats that we were willing 
 to meet them in a fraternal spirit and not as mere 
 partizans. Against his inclinations Hale consented to 
 be a candidate. Under these circumstances, the Lib- 
 erty men must be passive and let events shape them- 
 selves, in the hope that at the coming election they 
 may be able to cooperate fraternally with all who are 
 hostile to slavery. We cannot, as honest men, aban- 
 don Hale, who has stood up so nobly for our princi- 
 ples, so long as he remains in his present relation to 
 us. Should he decline, in view of a general movement 
 of all anti-slavery men, the case would be different. 
 
 But even then, for one I cannot consent after a life 
 
[99] 
 
 long struggle in this cause, to be instrumental in lower- 
 ing down the standard of the Liberty party. I don't 
 ask that the candidate shall be a member of that party, 
 but I do insist that he shall be a decided and resolute 
 anti-slavery man. In this matter the Liberty men have 
 but one voice. I do not believe it is in the power of 
 myself or Dr. Bailey or Stanton or Chase, Lewis, Tap- 
 pan, Fessenden, etc., even could we be induced our- 
 selves to undertake it, to carry the Liberty party in 
 favor of any other than a thorough, hearty abolitionist. 
 They would cast us off, and move onward. 
 
 As to Hale himself, he has no wish to stand as a 
 candidate, unless by so doing he can promote the 
 cause. He is no partizan — he has no other ties, than 
 that of sympathy in a common object, to bind him to 
 the Liberty men. Dr. Bailey has, I know, a good deal 
 of faith in Judge McLean. He is a worthy respect- 
 able man, but he has never been known as abolition- 
 ist. Some of his decisions too are bad on this very 
 subject. His range of vision is narrow. He is the slave 
 of yesterday, — the victim of precedents. He is not 
 even "available." There are ten hearts in the country 
 that leap faster at the name of Hale, or John Van 
 Buren, or J. R. Fielding, to one that does so at that 
 of McLean. The time for old, worn petitioners has 
 gone by. The party of the people must have a man 
 fresh and strong from the people themselves. 
 
 Not knowing therefore what is contemplated by 
 you, in respect to a nomination, it would hardly be 
 best for Liberty men to take responsible stations in the 
 organization of the Convention. At least, such is my 
 feeling. If I cannot wholly go with you, I wish to 
 encourage you onward in what you regard as duty, 
 
[ IO ° ] 
 
 unembarassed by my own scruples and difficulties. In 
 heart and soul I am with you in every honest word 
 and work for freedom. I rejoice to hear of Judge 
 Allen's reception. A prominent Democrat here tells 
 me he shall go with the party of freedom. The Whigs 
 will have the very flower of their party. God bless 
 you, and guide you. 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
 Excuse the haste of this letter. I have no time to see 
 what I have written. 
 
 W. 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Boston, July \ith> '48. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 It is hard for me to stay away, when you 
 bid me come; but positive engagements occupy all 
 my time. I must decline for the present the invitation 
 you send me. 1 
 
 I cannot hope to do service in the way you propose 
 till after the Buffalo Convention. My duties for the 
 present occupy every moment. I need not dwell upon 
 them ; but you may be assured that I should not de- 
 cline yr summons unless I felt constrained so to do. 
 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 Vice-President, Van B. and McL. ! That is a 
 strong Free Soil ticket. It will go like an elephant 
 among the cane-brakes. Truly success seems to be 
 within our reach. I never supposed that I should 
 belong to a successful party. 
 In haste, 
 
 Ever yrs. 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 1 In Appendix H, p. 278. 
 
From HENRY B. STANTON 
 
 Seneca Falls, July 31, 1848. 
 Dear Whittier : 
 
 If you go to Buffalo 1 (as I hope you will) I 
 fear this hasty note, in reply to yours, will not reach 
 you ere you start. I am just oif to attend a Free Soil 
 meeting at Penn Yan, to-morrow, and have not time 
 to go at length into the points suggested in your let- 
 ter. To come to a point, if not the point, I suppose 
 if you were satisfied your vote would elect Van Buren 
 over both Cass and Taylor, you would not, standing 
 as he now does, give it to him. Well, / would. 
 
 You say this is taking the very ground repudiated 
 by me in 1844 in the case of Clay. My answer is : 
 
 1 Whittier had planned to attend, but his health prevented. Stan- 
 ton (Re collections , 162) tells the character of the convention: — 
 
 " The nomination of General Cass for the Presidency by the 
 Democrats and General Taylor by the Whigs led to the Buffalo Con- 
 vention of 1848. The Barnburners had opposed Cass in vain at the 
 Baltimore Convention. They had made the Monumental City lurid 
 with their wrath, frightening the delegates from the back States almost 
 out of their wits. 
 
 "At Buffalo I was one of the committee that drafted its Free Soil 
 platform. It was a motley assembly. Pro-Slavery Democrats were 
 there to avenge the wrongs of Martin Van Buren. Free Soil Demo- 
 crats were there to punish the assassins of Silas Wright. Pro- Slavery 
 Whigs were there to strike down General Taylor because he had 
 dethroned their idol, Henry Clay, in the Philadelphia Convention. 
 Anti-Slavery Whigs were there breathing the spirit of the departed 
 John Quincy Adams. Abolitionists of all shades of opinion were pre- 
 sent, from the darkest type to those of a milder hue, who shared the 
 views of Salmon P. Chase.' ' 
 
[ 103 ] 
 
 i. Suppose it is. This does not prove it to be wrong. 
 2. But it is not. 'Then the question was territorial ex- 
 tension ; now it is slavery extension. Then the candi- 
 date was a slaveholder ; now he is not. Then we were 
 not sure he was right, but believed him to be wrong, 
 on the very question at issue ; now we know him to 
 be right. Then we were asked to unite with one of 
 the great pro-slavery parties of the country, in the 
 support of its candidates ; now we are asked to unite 
 with men of all parties, who have abandoned their 
 parties on the ground of their subserviency to slavery 
 and are rallying on independent ground to meet a 
 precise issue which the slave power tenders. 
 
 There are other differences, but these will suffice. 
 The simple question is, whether Liberty men will, at 
 this crisis, vote for a candidate for President, who is 
 not with them on all points. Twist it as we will, that 
 is it. For one, I say / will. Suppose we had power to 
 elect all the officers to govern the new territories ; 
 and one set / knew would keep slavery out ; and there 
 were two other sets that would let it in. Would I 
 refuse to vote for the former because they did not 
 think Congress ought to abolish slavery in the Dist. 
 of Columbia ? I certainly would not. You see the 
 analogy. 
 
 In a word, so imminent do I esteem the present 
 crisis, believing that we are at this election settling the 
 destiny of all Mexico, and indeed the question of 
 peaceful abolition, or bloody revolution, I shall go for 
 the nominee of the Buffalo Convention, I presume. 
 
 By so doing, I do not give up any principle I ever 
 held ; and do not feel in any danger of being lost 
 hereafter. Indeed, by supporting Hale, I go for a man 
 
[ 104 ] 
 
 who does not go so far as I do as to the power of Con- 
 gress. I differ with him. The truth is, we Liberty men 
 have got some isms that are too refined for use. They 
 are like the Whig Anti-Slavery resolutions; better 
 adapted for show than use. 
 
 Lewis Tappan puts forth an address, counselling us 
 to stand firm, etc. He and his co-signers live in a city 
 of half a million of people. They give half a hundred 
 votes. Such men are not practical, except on paper. 
 
 I don't like the Emancipator folks. They pass 
 resolutions against go[ing] to Buffalo as delegates, in 
 State Committee, and then all hands turn out, attend 
 Free Soil meetings called to appoint delegates, make 
 speeches, and get appointed delegates themselves. I 
 don't see the joke. 
 
 Don't infer from all this that V. Buren is my man. 
 I shall oppose him at B. But I shall go — Have writ- 
 ten this in 3 minutes. Hope to see you at B. Call 
 here. 
 
 Haste. Thine ever, 
 
 H. B. Stanton. 
 
 Hale proposes to make you, Tuck, Lewis, Leavitt 
 and me a Committee to decide upon his duty as to 
 withdrawing — to consult at Buffalo. From this, I take 
 it for granted you will be there. I start from home 
 Monday morning. Bon t fail to be there. 
 
From THOMAS WENTWORTH 
 HIGGINSON 1 
 
 Newburyport, Aug. 3, 1848. 
 Dear Friend : 
 
 I spoke somewhat hurriedly in answer to yr 
 invitation to me (at the Convention) to come to Ames- 
 bury: let me say therefore a word to explain. 
 
 My position is rather a difficult one just now, for 
 my good friends here, though ready to allow me any 
 
 1 Colonel Higginson in his Cheerful Tester days (100-13 1) writes 
 of the " Rearing of a Reformer' ' and describes his "rather diffi- 
 cult position.' ' At the date of this letter he had nearly completed 
 the first of his two years of service as minister of the First Religious 
 Society of Newburyport. He was soon to be nominated for Congress 
 by the new Free Soil party, a result, he says, of the work of Whittier, 
 who saw that he himself might have to accept the nomination, and so 
 drafted the ardent young preacher from Newburyport as a substitute. 
 Higginson accepted and " stumped" the district, but was defeated, as 
 was anticipated. 
 
 The nature and extent of the " prejudices among his good friends " 
 Colonel Higginson indicates in his description of the retired sea cap- 
 tains in his parish, most of whom had had experience in Southern ports 
 with slavery, and wanted that subject kept out of the pulpit. Among 
 these captains was Francis Todd, whose judgment against Garrison for 
 $50 and costs for libel, was the cause of Garrison's imprisonment in 
 the Baltimore jail for seven weeks in 1830. Garrison in the Genius of 
 Universal Emancipation had commented in characteristic manner on 
 Todd's vessel having transported a cargo of slaves from Baltimore to 
 New Orleans. (Garrison, i, 167.) 
 
 The Oration at the Proceedings of the 150th Anniversary of this 
 Church in 1875 deals with this period and its events. 
 
[ io6] 
 
 amount of liberty in the pulpit, have yet prejudices 
 which make it a hard trial to them to have their min- 
 ister take the stump at a Presidential election, par- 
 ticularly on what they think a very wrong side. Now 
 you will agree with me that just at this time, I need all 
 the influence I have here especially and am bound not 
 to tamper with it. At the same time I see it a clear 
 duty to go just as far as I wisely can in helping on the 
 several agitations. 
 
 Now I candidly think and so would you, if you 
 knew all the circumstances, that my Lowell movement 
 was going quite far enough just now. It will try my 
 friends here severely. I felt a clear call to do it and 
 shall in any case rejoice I did. I may feel an equally 
 clear call to address every town in the District and in 
 that case shall do it, but I don't expect to. At any rate 
 I must wait and see the effect of this blow here, before 
 I strike another. My next may be an address here, 
 for aught I know. I have thought of it, and if I do, 
 the effect of it would be decidedly better for my begin- 
 ning at home. In any case I feel that this is the most 
 important soil, and I am constantly considering the 
 influence to be excited here. 
 
 Another thing is the uncertain result of the Buffalo 
 Convention. Unless we can have union I shall not 
 want to come forward, and certainly do not wish to, 
 before we know how we are to stand. 
 
 In case the B. C. should nominate some one who 
 can unite us, this plan Jias occurred to me, to have 
 another District Convention, either at Haverhill or 
 actually here, and bring out all our strength. I will 
 pledge myself for that unhesitatingly, and I should an- 
 ticipate marked results from it even here. 
 
[ io 7 ] 
 
 You will see that I am a somewhat cautious person, 
 but I am not afraid of your distrusting me, or misun- 
 derstanding. __ 
 
 Yours heartily, 
 
 T. W. HlGGINSON. 
 
 This does n't demand any answer. 
 
From LEWIS TAPPAN 1 
 
 ^ TXT Dover. N. H. Aur. a a/48. 
 
 Dear Whittier : ' * . '* 
 
 On my return to Wells Beach, Me., Miss 
 Minot and Chamberlain accompanied me to this place. 
 I saw Leavitt in Boston, who is mesmerised into a 
 full blooded Van Buren man. He fully expects that 
 the magician will write a perfectly satisfactory letter. 
 I told him, I hoped so, but should wait to see it be- 
 fore forsaking Hale and throwing up my cap for 
 Van. 
 
 We had a long interview with Mr. Hale last even- 
 ing. It is evident that he feels keenly that he has not 
 been well [treated] and Stanton has, I greatly fear, be- 
 trayed him and the cause. After writing to me that 
 he sh d go to Buffalo to advocate the nomination of 
 Hale, he did all he could there, from the first, to en- 
 sure the nomination of Van Buren. While Leavitt 
 and Lewis and Jackson voted for Hale at the first 
 
 1 Of his friend Lewis Tappan Whittier {Prose Works, ii, 278) re- 
 cords : "At the very outset, in company with his brother Arthur, 
 he devoted his time, talents and wealth, and social position to the 
 righteous but unpopular cause of Emancipation, and became, in con- 
 sequence, a mark for the persecution which followed such devotion. 
 His business was crippled, his name cast out as evil, his dwelling 
 sacked and his furniture cast into the street and burned. Yet he never, 
 in the darkest hour, faltered or hesitated for a moment. He knew he 
 was right, and that the end would justify him ; one of the cheerfiillest 
 of men, he was strong where others were weak, hopeful where others 
 despaired." 
 
[ io 9 ] 
 
 balloting, Stanton voted for Van and electioneered for 
 him with all his might. 
 
 Mr. Hale did not withdraw ! He wrote a letter to 
 Giddings (which G. lost on the way) stating that in 
 the peculiar and responsible circumstances in which 
 he was placed, he needed advice, and desired that the 
 friends who attended the Convention, would inform 
 him of what was done and advise him as to the course 
 he had best pursue. Hale also wrote to Stanton giving 
 him the substance of his letter to Giddings. On the 
 envelope of the letter to G., Mr. Hale wrote 5 names 
 — as the friends whose advice he needed — Leavitt, 
 Fogg, Whittier, Stanton and Lewis. On the strength 
 of such a letter Mr. Hale's name was withdrawn and 
 the Liberty men urged to go for Van Buren ! 
 
 Leavitt wanted, yesterday, to have Hale's name 
 taken down on the " Emancipator," and Van Buren's 
 hoisted. He seemed to insist upon it, but it was re- 
 fused. Hale's name will continue to float at mast head, 
 until Mr. Van Buren's letter is received and approved 
 by Mr. Hale and his friends, his true friends. 
 
 If Van Buren adopts the Buffalo Platform, I sup- 
 pose we must all go for him. If he does not, should 
 we not let the Lib. party know all the facts, and rally 
 for Hale and Liberty ! 
 
 I expect to be at Wells Beach all this week. My 
 address is Wells Beach, N. Berwick, Me. After this 
 week my address for a few days will be care Geo. 
 W 1 ? Gordon, Boston, and after that at New York as 
 usual. 
 
 I was 28 minutes in going from your house to the 
 Depot (poor horse !) and arrived in Boston in good 
 time. It would have given me peculiar pleasure to 
 
[ no] 
 
 have remained longer with you, and to have talked 
 over private as well as public affairs. I want to do 
 something to promote your health and that of your 
 dear sister. But the train is coming. 
 
 Ever and truly yours, 
 
 L. Tappan. 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Boston, Dec. 6tb '48 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 Yr poem 1 in the last Era has touched my 
 
 heart. Are you well ? I fear that you are not. May 
 
 God preserve you in strength and courage, for all 
 
 good works. 
 
 I have yr new volume. 2 It is a precious collection ; 
 
 but where are the Poems of Labor? 3 I rejoice that 
 
 this volume is published. We will let our Poet uproot 
 
 the slave-trade. There they cannot withstand. How 
 
 much more powerful is a song than a bullet! The 
 
 literature of the world is turning against slavery. We 
 
 shall have it soon in a state of moral blockade. Then 
 
 it must fall. We will treat it like a besieged city — 
 
 cut off from all supplies. 
 
 1 «< I ask not now for gold to gild 
 
 With mocking shine a weary frame ; 
 The yearning of the mind is stilled, 
 I ask not now for fame." 
 
 " The Wish of To-day," Poems, 431. 
 
 2 Poems by John G. Whittier. Illustrated by H. Billings. Boston : 
 Benjamin B. Mussey & Company, 1849, pp. 384. This, the first 
 general collection of Whittier' s poems, was undertaken in part through 
 friendship and appreciation of Whittier* s anti-slavery work with which 
 Mussey sympathized. The volume was handsomely printed, and was 
 successful financially, three editions having been printed. 
 
 3 * * The Songs of Labor, ' ' which had appeared in the Democratic Re- 
 view 1 845-1 847, were not gathered in a volume until 1 850, when with 
 other poems they were published by Ticknor, Reed & Fields, pp. 127. 
 
[ "2] 
 
 I admire Bailey 1 as an editor very much. His arti- 
 cles show infinite sagacity and tact. That in the last 
 number on the old Democratic party is perfect. 
 
 Do you see the efforts to wriggle away from the 
 Wilmot Proviso ? I fear that the " artful dodgers " 
 will yet prevail. 
 
 But I took my pen, merely to ask after your health. 
 There are few to whom I would allot a larger measure 
 of this world's blessings, than to yourself — had I any 
 control ; for there are few who deserve them more. I 
 trust to hear that you are strong in body, happy in 
 heart. Adieu. Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
 1 Editor of the National Era, of which Whittier was correspond- 
 ing editor. 
 
To "THE BAY STATE," LYNN 
 
 A me s bury y \th 10th Month 1850 
 
 To the Editors of the Bay State. 
 
 I have just learned that my name has been 
 placed on the ticket for State Senators by the Demo- 
 cratic County Convention, held at Salem on the 2 d 
 Ins\ I am grateful for this mark of confidence on 
 the part of that Convention, but must nevertheless 
 decline the nomination. I doubtless sympathise to a 
 great extent with the Convention in respect to the 
 desirableness of State Reform^ but this consideration 
 alone is, to my mind as dust in the balance compared 
 to the Senatorial election by our next Legislature. To 
 effect the election of a decided and active Friend of 
 Human Freedom to the National Councils for the next 
 six years, I would make any exertion or sacrifice con- 
 sistent with the principles which I cherish and have 
 long publickly maintained. 
 
 While I have sufficient personal and private reasons 
 for declining any nomination for political office, there 
 is one of a different character, which I may be justified 
 in alluding to. Since the passage of the Fugitive Slave 
 Law by Congress^ I find myself in a position with re- 
 spect to it, which I fear my fellow citizens generally 
 are not prepared to justify. So far as that law is con- 
 cerned, I am a nullifier. By no act or countenance or 
 consent of mine shall that law be enforced in Massa- 
 
[ "4] 
 
 chusetts. My door is still open to the oppressed, 
 whether fleeing from Austria l or South Carolina. 
 Thy friend John G. Whittier 
 
 Endorsement by Whittier. Copy of letter to the 
 
 Ed. "Bay State," Lynn, Mass. 
 
 1 Kossuth was at this time in America. Poems, 189. 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Boston, Bee. 3d '50 
 My dear Whittier: 
 
 Some days ago I sent you, through Fields, my 
 two vols. 1 and I am now tempted to write, partly to 
 excuse myself for thus venturing. My ideal is so much 
 above any thing actual in my poor life, that I have 
 little satisfaction in any thing I am able to do. And 
 I value these things, which are now published, simply 
 as my earnest testimony to truths, which I have most 
 sincerely at heart. They have all been done, because 
 I could not help it — almost unconsciously, I may say. 
 One of the thoughts, which reconcile me to my auda- 
 city, is that possibly these volumes may tempt young 
 men, particularly at colleges, to our fields of action. 
 But I have little confidence even in this aspiration. 
 
 I have longed to see you of late ; for there are sev- 
 eral matters that I should be glad to confer with you 
 about. The late elections have given us great advan- 
 tages. I hope they will be exercised wisely, discreetly, 
 justly and without any petty proscription. But in order 
 to make our position tolerable, it seems to me that 
 Boutwell, 2 if he receives our vote, must in his message 
 put himself substantially upon our platform. I believe 
 
 1 Sumner's Orations and Speeches had just been printed in two 
 volumes by Ticknor & Fields. 
 
 2 Boutwell' s inaugural message, Jan. 1 85 1, was not definite and de- 
 cided against slavery and the recently enacted Fugitive Slave Law, and 
 in consequence the Free Soilers took offense. Pierce, Sumner, iii, 
 241. 
 
[ »6] 
 
 he voted for the resolutions of last winter. I should 
 be content, if he would repeat those in his message, 
 and say that he abides by them. Without some such 
 adherence by him to our principles our whole combi- 
 nation will be routed next autumn. 
 
 Of these and other things I should like to talk with 
 you. When shall you be in town? Mr. Hallam has 
 lost his only other son, by sudden death at Sienna. 
 The first died suddenly at Vienna. Who will write his 
 
 In Memoriam ? 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
 How long does Miss [illegible] remain in Ames- 
 bury. I must see you to-morrow, if I come up. 
 
 P. S. Yr. last article in the Era was most inter- 
 esting. 1 
 
 1 "Slavery in Massachusetts/' signed J. G. W., in the National 
 Era, Nov. 28, 1850. After an historical review the article continues: 
 "It will be seen by the facts we have adduced that slavery in Mas- 
 sachusetts never had a legal existence. The ermine of the judiciary of 
 the Puritan State has never been sullied by the admission of its detest- 
 able claims. It crept into the Commonwealth like other evils and vices, 
 but never succeeded in clothing itself with the sanction and authority 
 of law. It stood only upon its own execrable foundation of robbery 
 and wrong." 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Boston, Sept. nth '51. 
 Dear Whittier : 
 
 I distrust myself where I differ from you ; 
 but I do most sincerely believe that the good of our 
 cause is most intimately connected with the triumph 
 of the coalition 1 this autumn. And though I covet 
 the entire absorption of the Dem. party by our force, , 
 yet 1 am willing to use them, and also for other matters 
 to co-operate with them, on the best terms, we can 
 get. Websterized Whiggry must be defeated. But 
 this can be done only by a coalition, securing to 
 freedom once more the BALANCE of power in 
 the Legislature. For that balance of power I pray. 
 Help us. Do. 2 
 
 Ever and ever thine, 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
 1 By the coalition of Free Soilers and Democrats, the preceding 
 January, George S. Bout well, a Democrat, had been elected Gov- 
 ernor by the Legislature, the understanding being that the Democrats 
 were to vote for a Free Soiler for U. S. Senator. Under this arrange- 
 ment Sumner was elected in April, 1 8 5 1 , defeating Winthrop, a Whig, 
 after a long, hardfought contest. "The triumph of coalition" was 
 not obtained ; the Democrats in November having a majority without 
 any Free Soil votes. 
 
 * Whittier's reply, from the Letter Book of Charles Sumner, Har- 
 vard Library. 
 
 Amesbury, 14th gtb mo. 1851 
 My dear Sumner : 
 
 Thy note has been rec'd, and I will write thee in a day or two. 
 The proceedings of the Whig Convention have gone far to reconcile 
 me to the views expressed in thy letter, Still I am not prepared to 
 
[ »»] 
 
 P. S. Various reasons impose upon me silence dur- 
 ing this contest ; but I feel that my usefulness in the 
 place to which I have been sent, much against my 
 own desire, will much depend upon the success of the 
 coalition. Imagine yr. Senator at Washington with 
 Winthrop Govern [or] and a Websterized Whig Leg- 
 islature. " 
 
 act : my old Liberty party impracticability is difficult to overcome. I 
 want to be in Worcester, but I am not able to bear the fatigue and 
 excitement. 
 
 My friend Geo. Turner of this place is authorized to call on thee 
 and if possible to secure thee as a lecturer in our new Lyceum. Do 
 not refuse. I want to see thee before thou leaves for Washington. 
 
 Thine ever, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
 1 Sumner was criticised at the time for not entering more heartily 
 into the campaign, it being felt that as he had accepted office, he 
 should work for the party. 
 
From EDWIN P. HILL 1 
 
 Haver hill y Ms. May 3, 1853. 
 Friend Whittier : 
 
 Your favor of the 22 d ultimo was duly rec'd. 
 To the several points I now reply in their order. 
 
 I s * I much regret that your inclinations are some- 
 what adverse to the publication of a portrait, from the 
 fact that there are very many of your friends that de- 
 sire it. I do not however understand you to peremp- 
 torily decline the presentation of your " face " to the 
 public. Should you on further consideration of the 
 subject think it proper, I shall be most happy to have 
 the honor of its publication, and assure you it shall 
 be presented in the best style. If at any time you shall 
 be disposed to sit for a picture for that purpose, please 
 send it me with a statement of its cost and I will send 
 the money to you. 
 
 2 d . With reference to the homestead. It is almost 
 universally the case that pictures are made to appear 
 better than their originals ; such may in some slight 
 degree be the case with this, but I have never seen a 
 picture that was so generally regarded as truthful as 
 
 1 Edwin P. Hill (18 18-1900), a merchant of Haverhill, was ac- 
 tive in the same political circles with Whittier. He was appointed 
 postmaster by Lincoln and served eight years. All through his life he 
 maintained a connection, more or less close, with newspapers, either 
 as correspondent or editorial writer. In 1853 he published the litho- 
 graph, mentioned in the letter, which bears this inscription : 
 " Birthplace of John G. Whittier, the American Quaker Poet, Haver- 
 hill, Mass. To John G. Whittier, the Reform poet, this picture is 
 most respectfully dedicated by the publishers." The plate is drawn 
 from a rather indifferent painting by a local artist. 
 
[ I2 ° ] 
 
 this. Your friend Moses Emerson, who by the way- 
 is a close observer ', says "it looks just like the old 
 place," that he "should know it if he met the picture 
 in England." It was necessary to leave out a few trees 
 to get a good view. There is no well curb now, a few 
 stones mark the place of the well, and those are be- 
 hind a tree — the "old oaken bucket" is also gone. 
 
 3* With regard to the title &c, Horace Greeley calls 
 you in his notice of your poems the " American 
 Quaker poet" and he, you know, is an unpretending 
 man and would not use words unreasonably, if he 
 knew it; I ventured to take that part of the title 
 from him. We have a little pride in American talent, 
 which finds its way out occasionally. 
 
 The "repetition" you speak of, I could not well 
 avoid. — Besides the Americanism, we have a pride 
 in your position as a " Reform " poet; strictly speak- 
 ing you are the only one we have, and I wished to 
 unite this idea with the picture. I am sorry your 
 sister and yourself do not entirely agree with this 
 view, but trust it may be no decided objection in 
 your mind. I had ordered the printing of the pic- 
 tures, and that part was done before your letter was 
 rec'd. It is regarded as an appropriate title by all who 
 have spoken of it. 
 
 If agreeable to you, I should like a short certificate 
 bearing upon the correctness and general truthfulness 
 of the picture. 
 
 I send you 3 copies, and t also enclosed which please 
 pass to the editor of the Villager. There is no charge 
 for these — please accept them from the publisher 
 with sentiments of high "esteem. Truly thine, 
 
 E. P. Hill. 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Boston, Nov. 21st '53. 
 My dear Whittier: 
 
 The day after our election, I left for New York, 
 
 where, amongst other things I enjoyed the Xstal 
 
 Palace and Uncle Tom's Cabin at the low theatre, 
 
 now changed and elevated; and on my return Sunday 
 
 morning found yr. letter. 1 
 
 The loss of the Constitution 2 is a severe calamity 
 to the Liberal cause in this State. I deplore it from 
 my heart. It seems to me that it may be traced to 
 three causes. 
 
 i 8 ! in order of time ; the defection of Palfrey and 
 Adams which stimulated the Whigs and neutralized 
 many of our friends. 
 
 2 nd . 17 . Cushing's letter, 3 which paralyzed the activities 
 of the Democratic leaders ; and 
 
 3 d . ly the positive intervention of the Catholic Church. 
 With any one of these sinister influences out of the 
 way we should have established the new Constitution. 
 With it would have come many beneficent changes, 
 but beyond all else, it would have broken the back- 
 bone of the Boston oligarchy, the stumbling-block of 
 
 1 In Appendix I, page 279. 
 
 a Several amendments to the Constitution of Massachusetts had 
 been submitted to vote in November, 1853, and were rejected. 
 
 3 A letter of Caleb Cushing, then Attorney General of the United 
 States, discountenancing a further alliance of Democrats and Free Soil- 
 ers, had great effect on those seeking office from the Democratic ad- 
 ministration. 
 
[ I22 ] 
 
 all reform and especially of all Anti-slavery. I honor 
 Palfrey much for his life and for what at other times 
 he has done; but I hardly venture to hope that he can 
 by any future service repair the wrong he has done to 
 our cause. 
 
 I have not been a party to any counsels of our 
 friends since the election. My hope is that the Whigs 
 may yet be defeated in their efforts to secure the con- 
 trol of the House, so that our friends may press their 
 reforms with hope of success. 
 
 My desire is for the plurality rule, that we may 
 submit our cause directly to the people. Yea or Nay ! 
 — In a week I leave for Washington. The Convention 
 and the late contest have absorbed most of my time 
 since the last Congress. Let me hear from you and 
 be sure that I count upon your c[ounsel] and friend- 
 ship. 
 
 Ever thine, 
 
 Charles Sumner 
 
From CORNELIUS CONWAY FELTON ' 
 
 Cambridge, June 26, 1855. 
 My dear Sir : 
 
 After a day of excessive heat, passed in the 
 class and lecture room, I have just been refreshed by- 
 reading your charming poem — the Barefoot Boy. 2 I 
 do not know that it has not been published before : 
 but I never saw it until I took up this evening's Tran- 
 script and my eye falling on the subject, read it 
 through. The sensations and memories it called up 
 were delicious as a shower in a summer afternoon ; 
 and I forgot the intervening years, forgot Latin and 
 Greek — forgot boots and shoes and long-tailed and 
 broad-tailed coats — and revelled again in the days 
 and delights of jacket-hood, torn hat-hood and bare- 
 foot-hood. For all this, I cannot help thanking you, 
 and for so many other true touches of native poetry. 
 
 1 Professor of Greek at Harvard College from 1832, and President 
 from i860 until his death in 1862. 
 
 2 " Blessings on thee, little man, 
 Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan! 
 With thy up-turned pantaloons, 
 And thy merry whistled tunes ; 
 With thy red lips, redder still 
 Kissed by strawberries on the hill ; 
 With the sunshine on thy face, 
 Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace ; 
 From my heart I give thee joy, — 
 I was once a barefoot boy." 
 
 Poems, 396. 
 
[ I2 4 ] 
 
 This, however, comes home to me in a peculiar man- 
 ner. I feel the tingle of it, to the ends of my toes, and 
 sigh to think of the double-soled boots I shall have to 
 wear, until wearing anything will be bootless. 
 
 Perhaps the following passage, in a lecture (one of 
 a course delivered by me three years ago before the 
 Lowell Institute in Boston) on the Life and Literature 
 of the Greeks, will amuse you: — "To go barefoot 
 never offended the usages of society, except on festive 
 or state occasions ; and anyone who remembers with 
 what delight he felt the firm touch of the earth, in 
 Spring or early Summer, when the time came for 
 throwing off his shoes and stockings, will agree with 
 me in thinking that the Hellenic usage in this respect 
 was more natural and agreeable than our own. Of all 
 the enjoyments of childhood and youth in the country 
 in former times, this of the soft fresh feeling of the 
 genial earth pressed by the unshod sole of the foot, is 
 undoubtedly one of the most delicious : — a pleasure, 
 I fear, now fast vanishing away : — ( baud inexpertus 
 loquor? " 
 
 Your poem is a striking illustration how much 
 poetry there is in the commonest objects, provided 
 one has the skill to find it out. 
 
 In another way, the novel of Christie Johnstone 
 exhibits the same. That divine young fish woman is 
 one of the freshest, most natural, most poetical, and 
 most human creatures of modern times. Thank 
 heaven, the world is not yet exhausted. The earth is 
 as fresh as ever to him who will venture to touch it 
 with his bare sole : the sea is as blue as ever, and the 
 breezes are as delicious as ever, to all who will meet 
 them halfway. 
 
[ 1=5] 
 
 Excuse my prosing. I once had the pleasure of 
 meeting you personally ; I have often met you in the 
 pages of your books ; and I am always 
 
 With true regard yours, 
 
 C. C. Felton. 
 
To his AMESBURY NEIGHBORS " 
 
 Amesbury> 2d of 6th months 1856. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 Fearing that I may not be able to attend the 
 meeting this evening, I beg leave, through thee, to 
 say a word to my Fellow Citizens. I need not say how 
 fully I sympathize 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 de- 
 fence of Freedom ; nor of my mingled pity, horror and 
 indignation, in view of the atrocities in Kansas. It 
 seems to me to be no time for the indulgence of mere 
 emotions. Neither wailing nor threats befit the occa- 
 sion. It is our first duty to enquire why it is that the 
 bad men in power have been emboldened to commit 
 the outrages of which we complain. Why is it that 
 the South has dared to make such experiments upon 
 us? 
 
 To my mind the answer is plain. 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 dis- 
 sensions. It could do nothing against a united North. 
 
 1 This letter was read at a meeting of the citizens of Amesbury and 
 Salisbury to express their feelings on the outrage upon the Hon. Charles 
 Sumner in the Senate of the United States. 
 
[ 1*7 ] 
 
 The one indispensable thing for us is Union. Can 
 we not have it? Can we not set an example in this 
 very neighborhood, Whigs, Democrats, Free Soilers 
 and Americans, joining hands in defence of our com- 
 mon liberties? We must forget, forgive, and unite. 1 I 
 feel a solemn impression that the present 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 strik- 
 ing of our final and irrevocable choice. God grant that 
 it may be rightfully 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. 
 
 Thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
 1 " The sentiment expressed in the letter of our esteemed fellow 
 townsman, John G. Whittier, — forgive, forget and unite — seemed 
 to animate all minds.' ' Amesbury Villager, June 5, 1856. 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Boston, 10th Bee, '56. 
 My Dear Whittier : 
 
 Your letter 1 charmed and soothed me. Every- 
 day I thought of it, and chided myself for letting it 
 go unanswered. Then came your beautiful poem of 
 peace 2 depicting a true conquest, which made my 
 pulse beat quick and my eyes moisten with tears. 
 Truly do I thank you for that generous sympathy 
 which you give to me, and also to mankind. 
 
 At last we may see the beginning of the end of our 
 great struggle. The North seems to have assumed an 
 attitude which it cannot abandon. Meanwhile our 
 duty is clear, to scatter everywhere the seeds of truth. 
 Never was the poet needed more than now, and the 
 orator too; for the audiences are now larger and more 
 
 1 Whittier's letter to Sumner in Appendix J, page 280. 
 3 "Joseph Sturge, with a companion, Thomas Harvey, has been 
 visiting the shores of Finland, to ascertain the amount of mischief and 
 loss to poor and peaceable sufferers, occasioned by the gun-boats of 
 the allied squadrons in the late war, with a view to obtaining relief for 
 them." 
 
 " The sunken boats of fishers, 
 The foraged beeves and grain, 
 The spoil of flake and storehouse, 
 The good ship brings again. 
 And so to Finland's sorrow 
 The sweet amend is made, 
 As if the healing hand of Christ 
 Upon her wounds were laid.*' 
 "The Conquest of Finland" and note, Poems, 377. 
 
[ I2 9 ] 
 
 attentive than ever. No opportunity should be lost 
 for pressing upon the public mind the best and strong- 
 est statements of our cause and the most earnest ex- 
 hortations to support it. 
 
 My chief sorrow for seven months of seclusion has 
 been that I have been shut out from the field of ac- 
 tion. I am sad now that I am discouraged by my 
 physician from making any present effort. I am per- 
 mitted to take my seat and be quiet. My purpose is 
 to leave here for Washington very soon. What I 
 shall do there, must depend on my health. Oh ! I 
 long to speak and liberate my soul. If 1 am able to 
 speak, as I desire, I think that I shall be shot. Very 
 well; I am content. The cause will live. But I cannot 
 bear the thought that I may survive with impaired 
 powers, or with a perpetual disability. 
 
 If I live till March, I shall hurry to Europe ; there 
 in travel to recruit my system and to forget that I am 
 an invalid. Let me hear from you. 
 
 Believe me, always affect ly yours, 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
From JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 Cambridge , lotb Aug. 1857. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 I write to you in behalf of the editors of the 
 new Magazine to be published in Boston, to ask you 
 to contribute to it. They hope to have you for a 
 regular contributor, and will make the terms of pay- 
 ment agreeable to yourself. The Mag. I understand 
 will be a free one, and on the right side. Emerson, 
 Longfellow, Prescott, Motley, Holmes, Hawthorne, 
 Whipple and others are, / know, to be contributors. 
 I hope that no engagements will stand in the way of 
 your writing [for] it. 
 
 I take particular pleasure in executing this commis- 
 sion, because it gives me a chance to thank you for a 
 poem of yours (The last walk in Autumn), 1 which 
 gave me a special thrill of delight — so much so, in- 
 deed, that I thought of writing to you at the time. 
 Nor let me forget the Sycamore 2 in my thanks. 
 
 Should you send anything, address 
 
 F. H. Underwood, care of Phillips, Sampson & 
 Co., Boston. 
 
 Renewing old expressions of regard, 
 I remain, 
 
 faithfully yours, 
 
 J. R. Lowell. 
 
 1 Poems, 150. 2 Poems, 56. 
 
From JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 Cambridge y 23 J any. 1858. 
 My Dear Whittier : 
 
 Till Mr. Underwood told me last evening of 
 your note to him, I was under the impression that I 
 had written to you. I devoted a forenoon to bringing 
 up my correspondence, and you were on my list, and 
 how it came that I neglected you, I can only explain 
 by the constant distraction of the printing-office. I am 
 
 responsible for Maga ; all questions are brought 
 
 to me about corrections and the like. So you will easily 
 see that with my classes and recitations in College, I 
 am pretty thoroughly employed. So do, pray, keep 
 forgiving me, and I will keep promising to be a good 
 boy. What I tell you of my connection with Maga, 
 is confidential, for I should be overwhelmed by young 
 authors, if they knew anything about it. 
 
 When I received your last poem, I had already got 
 in type another poem on the same topic, so that yours 
 was out of the question, and therefore the more reason 
 that I should have written. I hold out my hand for 
 the ferule like a man. Do let your writing and saying 
 you will send another poem soon, be my punish- 
 ment. 
 
 I think you will like No. 4 almost as well as No 3. 
 — and on the whole, I can't help feeling that we have 
 made the promise of a good magazine. 
 
 Don't you ever write prose nowadays ? Suppose 
 you try your hand on something for us. You see 
 
[ l 3* ] 
 
 how I am corrupted already and begin to regard 
 filling up. 
 
 On reading your poem over again in print, I take 
 back what I said about its being long. I think it beauti- 
 ful and quite short enough. I don't pretend to under- 
 stand a thing fully in Ms ; 1 am so fagged. 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 J. R. Lowell. 
 
From LEWIS TAPPAN 
 
 South Woodstock, Conn. 
 
 ist August, 1859. 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 Mrs. Bailey, in a letter just rec d from her, says : 
 
 " If I can carry the paper (the ' Era ') through the 
 
 next year, I shall have no fears of its success. 1 I have 
 
 written to Mr. Whittier to urge him to resume his 
 
 connection with the paper. Of late, it has been merely 
 
 nominal. A very little labor on his part would be of 
 
 great service to me, and I shall be well able to pay 
 
 him a full remuneration, I have no doubt. If you 
 
 think well of this, will it be too great a favour to ask 
 
 you to write to Mr. Whittier and urge or ask him to 
 
 help me, etc." 
 
 I am sure you will do all you consistently can, to aid 
 
 Mrs. Bailey. How far your health and engagements 
 
 will permit you to render the assistance she desires, I 
 
 am unable to say. I promised to write to you, not 
 
 to "urge" you to assume any additional labor, but 
 
 to say how agreeable it would be to me and to the 
 
 numerous friends of Dr. Bailey and the Era, if you 
 
 could resume your former position in regard to the 
 
 paper. I need say no more. Mrs. Bailey is a talented 
 
 woman. The doctor 2 put great confidence in her, 
 
 and she has been an able assistant to him throughout 
 
 1 The Era suspended March 22, i860. 
 
 2 Dr. Gamaliel Bailey died June 5, 1859. ^ n & e ^ ra » J u ty 7» 
 1859, is Whittier's tribute: — 
 
 "The future historian of the Anti-Slavery movement will find few 
 
[ 134 ] 
 
 his editorial career. She has literary taste and quali- 
 fications, but whether her political knowledge will be 
 sufficient to superintend the paper, time must deter- 
 mine. 
 
 On the whole, I think it best to enclose her note 
 that you may see how stedfast she seems to be to her 
 husband's principles. I hope you will give her some 
 good advice. 
 
 Allow me to express my gratification on reading 
 your tribute ' to the memory of our departed friend, 
 Sturge, in the " Independent " of last week. I read in 
 the "Atlantic" of August, " My Psalm." 2 If you 
 wrote that exquisite poem, I shall treasure it as one of 
 your very best, and if some other person wrote it, I 
 
 nobler pictures for his canvas than that of the slight figure of the Anti- 
 Slavery editor, alone with his family, unarmed and unsupported in the 
 heart of a slave-holding city [Washington] calmly confronting an 
 armed and excited multitude, declaring his determination to live and 
 die a free man, and to speak and print his sentiments freely and fully, 
 subject only to the laws of his country; and closing with an appeal, at 
 once touching and manly, to the better natures of his opponents, until 
 threats changed to cheers, and the really generous but misguided popu- 
 lace pressed towards him, not to maltreat or intimidate, but to shake 
 the hand of a brave and honest man." 
 
 1 '* In Remembrance of Joseph Sturge/' Poems, 199. 
 
 2 "I mourn no more my vanished years: 
 Beneath a tender rain, 
 An April rain of smiles and tears, 
 My heart is young again. 
 
 «' The west- winds blow, and, singing low, 
 I hear the glad streams run; 
 The windows of my soul I throw 
 Wide open to the sun." 
 
 "My Psalm," Poems, 397. 
 
[ ml 
 
 shall consider it a happy imitation of your choicest 
 
 effusions. 1 . - 
 
 faithfully yours, 
 
 L. Tappan. 
 
 I expect to be in N. Y. soon. 
 
 1 "The practice of withholding names of contributors in the Atlantic 
 continued until 1862, when the index at the end of the volume dis- 
 closed the authorship of the articles in the body of the magazine, and 
 in 1870 the practice was begun of signing contributions. ,, Scudder, 
 Lowell, i, 422. 
 
From SALMON P. CHASE 1 
 
 Columbus , Nov. 23, i860. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 I missed no gloves, but presume those left at 
 
 friend Sparhawk's were mine. I am gratified that you 
 
 made them useful to the cause and to yourself. 
 
 We have indeed great reason to rejoice; for the 
 power of the Slave Interest is certainly broken. What 
 use will be made of the victory, does not so clearly 
 appear. Some indications lead me to apprehend that 
 the wisest and best use will not be made. Great ef- 
 forts will doubtless be put forth to degrade Republi- 
 canism to the Compromise level of 1850. 
 
 There are also some serious dangers on the disunion 
 side. I have always regarded the Slavery question as 
 the crucial test of our institutions ; and it has been my 
 hope and prayer that a peaceful settlement of this 
 question on the basis, first, of denationalization, and 
 then final enfranchisement through voluntary State 
 action, would establish beyond all dispute the superi- 
 ority of free institutions, and the capacity of a free 
 Christian people to deal with every evil and peril lying 
 in the path of its progress. 
 
 1 Of Chase Whittier wrote in 1873 {Prose Works, ii, 278): 
 " The grave has just closed over all that was mortal of Salmon P. 
 Chase, the kingliest of men, a statesman second to no other in our 
 history, too great and pure for the Presidency, yet leaving behind him 
 a record which any incumbent of that station might envy." 
 
 The letter is marked " Private and Confidential," but the occasion 
 for such ceased long ago. It illustrates the difficult situation that had 
 to be faced after the election of Lincoln. 
 
[ x 37 ] 
 
 To this end, all needless irritation should be care- 
 fully avoided, and much forbearance exercised. The 
 citizens of the Free States have now to suffer injuries, 
 when travelling or temporarily sojourning in Slave 
 States, which, under ordinary circumstances and upon 
 common principles, would, as between independent 
 sovereignties, justify extreme measures. If extreme 
 measures are not resorted to, it is because the people 
 of the Free States love the Union and prefer to for- 
 bear. And this is right. 
 
 On the other hand, however, the Slave States have, 
 regarding matters from their standpoint, some just 
 causes of complaint. The slaveholders undoubtedly 
 think that they have a right to take their slaves, as 
 property, into the territories and be protected in hold- 
 ing them by Federal power, and nearly all jurists and 
 statesmen, North and South, are agreed that the Fugi- 
 tive Servant Clause of the Constitution entitles them 
 to have their fugitive slaves delivered up on claim. 
 The Republicans insist, however, that the first de- 
 mand is not well founded in the Constitution, while 
 some propose what they call a reasonable Fugitive Act 
 in satisfaction of the second, and others, still, refuse to 
 have anything to do with the returning of fugitives, 
 Constitution or no Constitution. 
 
 Now two facts seem clear to me ; first, that the Con- 
 stitution was intended to create, and fairly construed, 
 does create an obligation, so far as human compacts 
 can, to surrender fugitives from service ; and secondly, 
 that in the progress of civilization and Christian hu- 
 manity it has become impossible that this obligation 
 shall be fulfilled. With my sentiments and convic- 
 tions, I could no more participate in the seizure and 
 
[ '38] 
 
 surrender to slavery of a human being, than I could 
 in cannibalism. Still there stands the compact : and 
 there in the Slave States are fellow citizens, who verily 
 believe otherwise than I do, and who insist on its ful- 
 filment and complain of bad faith in its nonfulfilment: 
 and in a matter of compact I am not at liberty to sub- 
 stitute my convictions for theirs. 
 
 What then to do ? Just here it seems to me that 
 the principle of compensation may be admitted. We 
 may say, true there is the compact — true, we of the 
 Free States cannot execute it — but we will prove to 
 you that we will act in good faith by redeeming our- 
 selves through compensation from an obligation which 
 our consciences do not permit us to fulfil. Mr. Rhett 
 of S. C. once very manfully denounced the Fugitive 
 Act as unconstitutional, but still insisted on the Con- 
 stitutional obligation which he summed up in these 
 words "Surrender or Pay." Now, if we say we can- 
 not surrender, but we will pay, shall we not command 
 the highest respect for our principles, and do a great 
 deal towards securing the final peaceful and glorious 
 result which we all so much desire ? 
 
 There would be some difficulties of detail, if the 
 principle were adopted ; but none insuperable. 
 
 There is still another plan of adjustment which 
 might be adopted, though I fear that, in the Slave 
 States, and perhaps in the Free States, it would meet 
 with greater objection. It would consist in amendments 
 of the Constitution by which the Slave States would 
 give up the Fugitive Slave Clause altogether, and the 
 Free States would agree to a representation in Con- 
 gress of the whole population, abrogating the three 
 fifths rule. One advantage of this would be that the 
 
[ l 39 ] 
 
 Constitution would be freed from all discriminations 
 between persons, and would contain nothing which 
 could, by any implication, be tortured into a recog- 
 nition of Slavery. Will you think over these matters 
 carefully and give me your ideas upon them ? 
 
 I have written in much haste, but I think you will 
 understand me. What I have written is too crudely 
 expressed for any but friendly eyes ; and I hope that 
 you will let nobody see this letter, except if you think 
 fit, our friend Sparhawk and your sister. 
 
 Affectionately and faithfully yours, 
 
 S. P. Chase. 
 John G. Whittier 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Senate Chamber. 
 
 $th Feb. '6 1. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 I deplored S's speech/ i 8t and 2 nd . The first 
 
 he read to me, and I supplicated him not to make it. 
 
 The true-hearted here have been filled with grief and 
 
 mortification. 
 
 People are anxious to save our forts, to save our 
 Nat. Capitol ; but I am more anxious far to save our 
 principle which leaders now propose to abandon, as 
 Mr. Buchanan proposes to abandon Fort Sumpter ! 
 The public pride averted the latter ; I hope that the 
 public conscience may avert the former. My old say- 
 ing is revived in my mind, Backbone. This especially 
 is needed here. If saved, it will be by events, and not 
 by men. The inordinate demand of the Slave States 
 will make it next to impossible to appease them. Even 
 compromises cannot go so far. If they asked less, we 
 should be lost. 
 
 Pray keep Massachusetts firm and strong. She 
 
 1 " On the 1 2th of January, 1861, Mr. Seward delivered in the 
 Senate Chamber a speech on The State of the Union, in which he 
 urged the paramount duty of preserving the Union, and went as far as 
 it was possible to go, without surrender of principles, in concessions to 
 the Southern party.' ' 
 
 «« Statesman, I thank thee and, if yet dissent 
 Mingles, reluctant, with my large content, 
 I cannot censure what was nobly meant.' ' 
 "To William H. Seward " and note, Poems, 332. 
 
[Hi ] 
 
 must not touch a word of her Personal Lib? l Laws. 
 The slightest act of surrender by her would be a signal 
 for the abasement of the Free States. God bless you ! 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
 1 Laws prescribing proceedings under the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 Governor Andrew in his inaugural, January, 1861, called attention to 
 the comment that some provisions of Massachusetts law might be in 
 conflict with the U. S. Constitution. Chapter 9 1 of the Acts of 1 861 , 
 concerning habeas corpus and personal liberty, was passed in March, 
 by which, though some modifications were made in response to the 
 demand for amendments, the whole was strengthened and the return 
 of fugitives made more difficult. Fortunately no occasion arose to test 
 its provisions. 
 
From THOMAS STARR KING 1 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Feb. 27, 1862. 
 My dear Mr. Whittier: 
 
 All good Quakers think it wrong to resist the 
 
 inward urgency and stress of the Spirit. I am so far a 
 
 Quaker as to share their belief that it is sin to offer 
 
 any private obstruction, either of laziness or timidity, 
 
 to the impulse or voice which says " Bear witness to 
 
 the truth ! " 
 
 Your Port Royal poem 3 and hymn is so noble 
 
 1 A photograph of King still hangs in the "Garden Room" at 
 Amesbury with those of Longfellow, Beecher, Emerson, and Garrison. 
 King ( 1 824-1 864) was minister at Hollis Street Church, Boston, 1 848 
 to i860, and afterwards, until his death, at San Francisco, where he 
 was a power for the Union. 
 
 " When we say that King kept California strong for the Union, we 
 do not mean that he simply was the eloquent voice through which the 
 general Union sentiment found expression, but that he guided Union 
 opinion; that he both anticipated and defended the measures which 
 eventually made the cause of the Union successful. He became a power 
 in California, because he had the sagacity to detect, and the intrepidity 
 to denounce, the treason which skulked under loyal phrases and catch- 
 words; and his influence was measured, not by his bursts of declama- 
 tory eloquence on the blessings of union, but by the skill with which 
 he took the people, as it were, out of the hands of disloyal politicians, 
 and induced them to give their vigorous support to the administration 
 of the National government." — Introduction by E. P. Whipple to 
 Substance and Shadow, by T. S. King. 
 
 a "At Port Royal," Whittier, Poems, 337, and "Mason and 
 Slidell, a Yankee Idyl," Lowell, Poems, 228, were both in the At- 
 lantic, February, 1862. 
 
[ H3 ] 
 
 and sweet that everybody, who has been as deeply 
 moved by it as I have, ought to thank you, even at 
 the risk of offending you by intrusive compliment. 
 But the edge of the Pacific is so far off that we can 
 take liberties, knowing that the blush does n't come 
 till four weeks after the offence. 
 
 I have seen, with joy here, the response to your 
 hymn, and in quarters which prove to us that we live 
 in a different moral stratum from our abode of two 
 years ago. I have read it to several friends who were 
 fitly moved, showing that the air of civilization ex- 
 tends as far West now as California. But what do you 
 say to the news that U. S. officials, not knowing the 
 author, have come to me to ask who could have writ- 
 ten it, and to say that they had copied it and committed 
 it to memory ? Such is the fact. Our Postmaster here 
 repeats a verse every time I go into his office. Our 
 Collector delights in it ; and yesterday the U. S. Land 
 Surveyor, Col. Beale, stopped me in the street, to 
 inquire who the author was, and to say that he had 
 written it off from memory at his official desk that 
 day. Does not the world move ? Ah, yes, and do not 
 poets help it ? 
 
 It strikes me as very singular that one number of 
 the " Atlantic " should contain such powerful testi- 
 mony to the poetic capacities of our Yankee and 
 Negro patois as the "Idyl" by Hosea Biglow, and 
 your poem (which I call " Habakkuk and honey ") 
 offer. Heaven preserve both our Burnses for long 
 service, until their spirit bursts from our whole con- 
 stitution and code ! 
 
 I must tell you one other fact. Two or three weeks 
 ago, there was an immense gathering in the largest hall 
 
[ 144 ] 
 
 of our city, on the anniversary of our Orphan Asylum 
 Association, which is supported entirely by private 
 bounty. I delivered the address. The community had 
 been scoured for money for the sufferers by the Sac- 
 ramento flood in the interior, for whom, in four 
 weeks, we had raised sixty thousand dollars. It was 
 decided to take up a collection after the address, in 
 the hope of getting three hundred dollars, the amount 
 taken last year. I spoke forty minutes, told the people 
 that we must give, even if our pockets were empty 
 and closed with a recitation of a certain poem about 
 Tritemius x of Herbipolis and the candlesticks. You 
 might have heard the applause in Amesbury, and 
 we took nearly seven hundred dollars in five minutes 
 after the last line was read. So you are credited in 
 heaven with a large subscription to our orphan fund. 
 
 Am I wrong in telling you these things ? I don't 
 believe it. Men ought to know when they do good. 
 It makes them humble and grateful. 
 
 What is to be the issue of our victories ? I tremble 
 lest the uncircumcised triumph still in the settlement. 
 It looks to me as though the little finger of the Bor- 
 der State is to be thicker than our loins. But God is 
 not to be cheated. And if our bayonets spare the 
 slave-code, his lightning is not to be so merciful. I 
 watch Congress now more intensely than Burnside 
 and Halleck. Nashville has fallen ; when will the Bas- 
 tile fall ? I have tried to do a little here for the good 
 
 1 "The Gift of Tritemius/ ' Poems, 54; the first of Whittier's 
 contributions to the Atlantic. King knew that Whittier would remem- 
 ber a previous occasion when King had read most effectively the long 
 poem, "The Panorama" {Poems, 323), at the opening of a lecture 
 course in Tremont Temple, Boston, in the exciting days of 1856. 
 
[ H5] 
 
 cause. But you poets are the statesmen now. God 
 bless all of you, and you as you deserve ! Your grate- 
 ful friend, 
 
 Th. Starr King. 
 
 I look out from my window upon hills brilliant 
 with Spring. The green is brighter than any ever seen 
 in New England. We take our verdure in winter. 
 
From LYDIA MARIA CHILD 1 
 
 Way land y June igtb, 1864. 
 Friend Whittier: 
 
 I am preparing a book for the Freedmen, 2 
 which I hope will sow seed that will ripen into har- 
 vests, years after I am gone. Our literature is not 
 adapted to their condition. I want to give them good 
 moral instruction in a simple, attractive form ; to en- 
 courage them by presenting honorable examples of 
 what has been done by people of color ; and to infuse 
 kindly feelings toward their former masters. 
 
 I am desirous to insert the Christmas Hymn 3 you 
 wrote for the freed children at Port Royal. I have 
 hunted the newspapers for it in vain. Have you a 
 newspaper containing it, which you could either give 
 me, or lend me? If you have, and will send it to me, 
 
 1 Mr. Whittier often remarked that Mrs. Child was ostracised in 
 the early days on account of her anti-slavery principles. " No woman 
 in this country,'* said he, "has sacrificed so much for principle as 
 Mrs. Child. She gave promise in early life of great literary ability, 
 but when she espoused the cause of the Abolitionists she found no 
 market for her books and essays, and her praises were suddenly si- 
 lenced." — Claflin, Whittier, 80. 
 
 3 Freedmen' s Book by Lydia Maria Child, 1865. 
 
 3 " Oh, none in all the world before 
 Were ever glad as we! 
 We're free on Carolina's shore, 
 We ' re all at home and free. ' ' 
 «' Hymn, sung at Christmas by the Scholars of St. Helena's Island, 
 S. C.," Poems, 340. 
 
[ H7] 
 
 I shall feel greatly obliged. If any word of advice 
 occurs to you concerning the book, I should be thank- 
 ful to receive it. My object is to do the poor crea- 
 tures the greatest good I can. I shall take no com- 
 pensation for the work I do. I shall put it to them at 
 a low price, and give them the money, to be placed 
 in the hands of trustees among themselves, of their 
 own choosing, to be expended for libraries. This mode 
 of proceeding will, I think, promote self-respect and 
 self-reliance among them. 
 
 How sorry I was that the proposed amendment 
 to the Constitution was defeated ! Oh, that wicked 
 Democratic Party ! How heartless and unprincipled 
 it is ! It is some comfort that the Fugitive Slave Law 
 is repealed. I am thankful to have lived to see that 
 iniquity overturned. 
 
 I am exceedingly sorry for the course Wendell 
 Phillips is pursuing. I think he is making a great mis- 
 take. Since Fremont has written a letter, so obviously 
 courting the Copperheads, I don't see how he can 
 stand by him. I should think the comparison between 
 his letter and the letters of honest Abe and Andy 
 Johnson, would put him to his thoughts. I chuckled 
 over Andy Johnson's letter. It will delight me to have 
 a rail-splitter for President, and a tailor for Vice Presi- 
 dent. I hope the time will come when we shall have 
 a shoe-black for Secretary of State, and more worthy 
 of the position than the present incumbent. I have a 
 living faith in Republican Institutions. 
 
 As for Fremont, I have never entirely trusted him. 
 In 1856, I wanted him to succeed, because the choice 
 was between him and that unmitigated scoundrel, 
 Buchanan. But Fremont's career in Mexico then 
 
C 148 ] 
 
 excited misgivings in my mind. He was a filibuster, 
 and one of a worse stamp than common. He went 
 professedly on a scientific exploring expedition. The 
 Mexicans treated him and his company with hospital- 
 ity, kindness, and confidence; but he got up a fight 
 with them without provocation, before war was de- 
 clared by the government; and I have no doubt he 
 did it in obedience to secret instructions from the Slave 
 Power, who contrived the so-called Exploring Expe- 
 dition as a mere farce. When he issued his Proclama- 
 tion of Freedom, 1 my enthusiasm, for the first time, 
 was kindled in his favor. But I have not liked his 
 conduct since he was removed from that command. 
 It has not been manly and noble. When Burnside 
 was removed, he said, " Give me any situation. Let 
 me serve my country in some subordinate capacity." 
 But Fremont has been talking about his dignity and 
 his personal piques ; he has been receiving the pay of 
 a General, and doing nothing for the country in her 
 
 1 On the 31st of August, 1861, General Fremont, then in charge 
 of the Western Department, issued a proclamation which contained 
 a clause, famous as the first announcement of emancipation : " The 
 property," it declared, "real and personal, of all persons in the State 
 of Missouri, who shall take up arms against the United States, or who 
 shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies 
 in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use ; and their 
 slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men." Mr. Lin- 
 coln regarded the proclamation as premature and countermanded it, 
 after vainly endeavoring to persuade Fremont of his own motion to 
 revoke it. 
 
 " Thy error, Fremont, simply was to act 
 
 A brave man's part, without the statesman's tact, 
 And, taking counsel but of common sense, 
 To strike at cause as well as consequence." 
 
 "To John C. Fremont" and note, Poems, 335. 
 
[ 149 ] 
 
 hour of extreme need. Assuredly, he is not a great 
 man. / dp not believe he is a reliable one. I do hope 
 Wendell Phillips will face about. 
 
 If you and your sister come to Boston again, please 
 let me know, that I may contrive to see you. With 
 affectionate remembrance to her, I am 
 
 Your friend of old time, 
 
 L. Maria Child. 
 
 To think of a mulatto girl writing such beautiful 
 articles for the Atlantic Monthly l l How the wheel 
 of fortune has turned round ! 
 
 Have you among your papers an anecdote of Tous- 
 saint L'Ouverture, who saved the life of a young Eng- 
 lishman, whom his followers were eager to have exe- 
 cuted ? He said, "Let us send him to his mother. 
 His death would break her heart." I can't find the 
 anecdote, and I want it for my book. 
 
 1 Mrs. Child was not aware that the Christmas Hymn, above 
 cited, had been written by Whittier at the request of Charlotte Forten, 
 later Mrs. Francis J. Grimke, whose two articles on " Life on the 
 Sea Islands " were then appearing in the Atlantic. 
 
From THOMAS WENTWORTH 
 HIGGINSON 
 
 Worcester y Mass. Oct. 10, 1864. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 I have often thought of writing to you, since 
 the great event, 1 and will do so, however little I can 
 say. I remember, as if it were yesterday, the happy 
 hours I have spent at your house with your mother 
 and sister and yourself. Your sister was the central 
 figure; I never can forget her cordial kindness, nor 
 her brilliancy in talk, nor the courage and truthfulness 
 that gleamed behind her wildest sallies. I have often 
 thought since, that I had scarcely met her equal in the 
 quick interchange of salient thought. She roused and 
 taxed my wits, I thought, more than any one I met ; 
 it needed full resources to keep up with her. I re- 
 member the peculiar dancing look in her full dark 
 eyes and a gay little threatening motion of the head, 
 when some bold words were coming. But it always 
 was on the side of truth and right, everything she 
 said, nothing that could wound. I used to wonder 
 how she gained in her Friend's training and invalid 
 life, that conversational esprit which seemed rather to 
 suggest a French salon. I recall now the glancing way 
 in which, with a word, she characterized certain per- 
 sons in our small circle, or in the world outside, and 
 that I have found no better formula for them since, 
 than her stray words gave. Her few verses show the 
 same directness and penetration. I speak of her as I 
 
 1 Elizabeth Whittier died September 3, 1864. 
 
[ 'Si ] 
 
 saw her, knowing how limited my view was, and what 
 other and higher attributes you knew in your long 
 and beautiful twinship. Surely these partings, as well 
 as these presences, enrich our life, and are as much a 
 part of our spiritual education as any joys ; and this 
 must add something to the thoughtful reverence with 
 which you have always looked upon the great Beyond. 
 
 It is long since I have seen you ; not since we met 
 here at Edward Earle's, 1 I think. I used to talk of 
 you with that other noble and gifted friend, not long 
 for this world I think, Charlotte Forten. There was 
 so much in our lives in South Carolina that would 
 have interested you ; and she did not tell in her nar- 
 rative how the distrust, with which the Negroes at 
 first regarded her, yielded to her winning ways. 
 
 My health is poor, though gaining. I was wounded, 
 a year ago, on an expedition up the South Edisto, 
 when we brought away 200 slaves from the rice fields. 
 I have never been well since and have now resigned, 
 though it is not yet accepted. We go, in about a fort- 
 night, to take up our abode in Newport, R. I., where 
 we expect to live ; my wife wintered there last year 
 with great benefit ; the winter climate is so very mild. 
 We live with the Dames, good Friends in every sense. 
 Newport is one of the Meccas of your Society ; how 
 pleasant it would be to us if you would come there 
 to live. My wife desires her regard and sympathies 
 and echoes the wish. 
 
 Ever cordially your friend, 
 
 T. W. HlGGINSON. 
 
 1 " Edward Earle of Worcester was the ablest and most justly 
 influential of the Friends' Society." Higginson, Whittier, 121. 
 
From DOROTHEA L. DIX 1 
 
 Office of Women Nurses , 
 U. S. Hospital Service, Washington D. C. 
 January iith 1865. 
 To J. G. Whittier, Esq' 
 
 Sir ; Lately being in Frederick City on Hos- 
 pital Inspection, I learned some facts concerning 
 " Barbara Frietchie," whose name is almost immortal- 
 ized in your patriotic poem, 
 
 " Up from the meadows rich with corn " ; 
 and I obtained from a member of her family the 
 carte 2 which I enclose, believing if you do not already 
 possess it, you will be gratified to receive what is said 
 by her friends to be a very excellent likeness. 
 
 Barbara Frietchie had not become disabled from 
 
 1 Miss Dix (1 805-1887 ) " refused point-blank " to acknowledge 
 publicly that she told S. M. Felton, President of the Philadelphia and 
 Baltimore R. R., about the plots at Baltimore against Lincoln. Act- 
 ing on this information, he made the elaborate preparations which en- 
 sured Lincoln's safety on the journey from Philadelphia to Washington 
 for his first inauguration. 
 
 During the war she served as Superintendent of Women Nurses, 
 in which capacity her long experience in hospital work was of great 
 use. Tiffany, Life of Dorothea L. Dix, 333; Nicolay and Hay, 
 Lincoln, iii, xx. 
 
 2 To one of many friends who asked him if Barbara was a myth, 
 Whittier answered in a letter, dated October 19, i860: "I had a 
 portrait of the good Lady Barbara from the saintly hand of Dorothea 
 Dix, whose life is spent in works of love and duty. . . . ' ' 
 
 Pickard, Whittier, 458. 
 In Barbara Fritchie, a Study, by Caroline H. Dall (1892), the 
 story of the '* good lady ' ' is given in detail. The form Fritchie accords 
 with the inscription on her headstone. 
 
[i53] 
 
 performing many duties and pleasant offices of life, 
 though of So advanced years. Till a few weeks before 
 her decease, she prepared delicacies for sick soldiers 
 in the Hospitals. Knitting was a favorite employ- 
 ment. Her house was a model of order, and neat 
 habits had always characterized her domestic life. She 
 was remarkably fond of her garden, and was singu- 
 larly successful in the cultivation of flowers, of which 
 she had the earliest and finest varieties. Indeed when- 
 ever, on festive occasions, choice flowers were in re- 
 quest, " Aunt Barbara's " liberal hand bestowed the 
 most beautiful and fragrant. 
 
 She was fond of children — but she expected they 
 should regard her orders. I fear [not any] who were 
 unruly, or who failed to regard her cleanly scoured 
 floors, could expect the nice cakes and apples she held 
 in store to dispense to all " good boys and girls." She 
 received her relatives and friends on her last birthday, 
 presenting in the old fashion nuts, cakes and wine. 
 
 To the last, she testified in inspiring terms her ab- 
 horrence of Treason and Traitors; she walked "rest- 
 ing upon a staff/ ' and carried an air of dignified ven- 
 erable age, always respected. She is remembered with 
 affection, and those who had known her intimately for 
 half a century and more, were her most devoted friends. 
 
 I have nothing to add more of this remarkable wo- 
 man, but in conclusion, I desire to express to you my 
 sentiments of respect, and to acknowledge myself 
 long your debtor in the instruction and enjoyment 
 derived from your poetical books. 
 D. L. Dix 
 
 Superintendent 
 
 U. S. Hospital Nurses. 
 
From OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 Boston, Aug. isi, 1865. 
 My dear Mr. Whittier : 
 
 Here is one of those everyday miracles, — 
 eight pages from an amie inconnue who has nothing 
 to say, except indeed in her last paragraphs, where 
 she praises you so heartily that you must see it. 
 When you have read it, you may return it, if you 
 please, to go into my private collection of letters from 
 unseen women. I suppose you are wise enough to 
 burn yours, else you must have a mountain of them. 
 I write also, as I have just done to Longfellow, to 
 ask whether you mean or not to write for something 
 our Boston Mercantile Library Association is getting 
 up for their fair. They tell me they have asked your- 
 self, Longfellow, Read, Baker, Saxe and myself. I 
 don't like such requests. I hate to dribble away what 
 little show of thought or sentiment there may be in 
 me. But if everybody writes, I suppose I must. I 
 wish I were better at saying No ! the hero's mono- 
 syllable. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
 Read my postscript. 
 I came within a hair's breadth of forgetting to say 
 with what delight I read your poem, " The Change- 
 ling," — was it not ? — the one where the mother 
 thought her child was bewitched. I think this and 
 " The Wreck of Rivermouth " have more atmosphere 
 
[i5S] 
 
 and a tenderer light in them than anything you have 
 written, 1 I am tempted to say, but I will not be rash. 
 I meant to have written just after reading the "Change- 
 ling," and I am glad of a chance to tell you how sweet 
 and tender it seems to me. 
 
 Yours again always, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
 1 "The Changeling,' ' Poems, 251, appeared in Atlantic y July, 
 1865. " The Wreck of Rivermouth," Poems, 245, was published 
 in 1864. 
 
From COLONEL JULIAN ALLEN 1 
 
 New Tork, Mar, 3166. 
 Jno. G. Whittier, Esq., 
 
 Amesbury. 
 My Dear Friend: 
 
 My feelings you may better imagine than I can 
 express them, on the receipt of a noble letter from 
 that kind and true soul, Hon. C. M. Clay, with the 
 welcome announcement of the gracious decision of 
 His Majesty the Emperor Alexander, liberating my 
 brother and allowing him to come to this country, 
 such as has never before been shown to any other; 
 and I shall be your debtor all the rest of my life. I 
 positively believe that your letter to our friend Mr. 
 Clay, did secure his full sympathy in my brother's 
 case. I sent to you a copy of the New York Times, 
 but the full letter of Mr. Clay was not published. As 
 
 1 Colonel Julian Allen was a Pole of noble birth who had escaped 
 arrest, while a student in Poland, by flight to this country, an account 
 of which he published in Autocrasy [sic] in Poland (New York, 
 1854). ^ e l ater man "i e d a relative of Whittier. In January, 1865, 
 he received a formal resolution of thanks from the citizens of Savan- 
 nah (War Record I. xlvii, Pt. II, 169) "for his kindness in offer- 
 ing to advance the funds, and to make purchases for the corporate 
 authorities of the city of Savannah until he could be reimbursed by 
 shipments of rice, and also for his philanthropic exertions in bringing 
 to the notice of citizens of New York and Boston the destitute condi- 
 tion of our people of which he became personally cognizant while 
 among us." He was an agent of the U. S. Treasury in Savannah. 
 In Boston alone thirty- three thousand dollars was subscribed and a 
 steamboat load of provisions sent. 
 
[ i57] 
 
 per enclosed copy, you will see that he kindly wishes 
 to be remembered to you and says that it gave him 
 pleasure to oblige you. My wife joins in sending love 
 to you. When shall we have the pleasure of seeing 
 you at our house ? 
 
 Your Friend and Servant, 
 
 Julian Allen. 
 
 Copy : 
 
 St. Petersburg, 
 February 1866. 
 
 To the Minister: 
 
 In reply to the letter which you addressed to 
 me of the 2/14 of February ; it becomes my duty to 
 inform you that the petition which it contained on the 
 subject of Sir Michel Meyendorff, having been sub- 
 mitted to His Majesty, the Emperor, my august mas- 
 ter has deigned to order as a mark of exceptional 
 favor, that the Sir Michel Meyendorffmay be author- 
 ized to join his family in America. 
 
 It is a pleasure to me, M. Minister, to bring to your 
 notice this gracious decision of His Majesty the Em- 
 peror, and I profit by this occasion to offer you the 
 assurance of my most distinguished consideration. 
 (Signed) 
 
 GORTCHACOV. 
 
 Copy : 
 
 St. Petersburg, Ra. 
 
 Feb. 24, 1866 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 Your letter of the 29th Jan. ult. with the other 
 
 documents in reference to your half-brother Michael 
 
C 158] 
 
 Meyendorff, were duly received, and I lost no time in 
 bringing all my influence in my humble way, to favor 
 your cause. 
 
 To-day Prince Gortachacov sent for me, and said 
 as a special favour, and as an cc exceptional " case, His 
 Imperial Majesty has granted my petition for the 
 sending of your brother to America, which will be at 
 once done in a quiet way. 
 
 I have advanced to the Russian Government 
 R.S500 as requested, but of my own funds, for the 
 use of your brother and drawn upon Secretary Seward, 
 in favour of Baring Brothers for the same. Please 
 pay over that amount to the State Department. 
 
 Trusting, my dear sir, that your brother may soon 
 be restored in health and safety to his family, who have 
 in your personal devotion to our noble cause in our 
 late war, so many claims upon my sympathies and 
 gratitude, I am, my dear Sir, 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 (Signed) C. M. Clay. 
 Col. Julian Allen, 
 
 New York, U. S. A. 
 
 N. B. Please remember me to J. G. Whittier, whom 
 with yourself it gave me great pleasure to obey in this 
 matter. 
 
 C. 
 
From LUCY STONE 1 
 
 New York City, Jan. 15, '67 
 Mr. Whittier, 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 You know Mr. Phillips takes the ground that 
 this is "the negroes' hour," and that the women, if 
 not criminal, are at least, not wise to urge their own 
 claim. 
 
 Now, so sure am I that he is mistaken and that 
 the only name given, by which this country can be 
 saved, is that of Woman, that I want to ask you (if 
 you agree with me) to use your influence to induce 
 him to reconsider the position he has taken. 
 
 He is the only man in the nation, to whom has 
 been given the charm which compels all men, willing 
 or unwilling, to listen when he speaks. That such a 
 man at such an hour, should consent to narrow the 
 application of a universal principle to a single class, 
 must be because the Fiend who desires the ruin of the 
 country has blinded his eyes, until he believes, or 
 thinks he does, that the nation's peril can be averted, 
 if it can be induced to accept the poor " half loaf" of 
 
 1 «« One of the early Anti-Slavery orators was Lucy Stone. She was 
 the editor of the Woman's Journal. She was an eloquent speaker and 
 charmed her audiences. One evening in Western New York, I took 
 a Democratic lawyer to hear her. As we were leaving the hall at the 
 close of the meeting, my friend turned toward the platform, where 
 Miss Stone was still standing, and said in a dazed sort of way : ' Little 
 lady, I do not believe in your doctrines, but God made you an orator.' " 
 
 Stanton, Recollections, 6. 
 
[ *So] 
 
 justice for the negro, which is poisoned by its lack 
 of justice for every woman in the land. Mr. Phillips 
 used to say " take your part with the perfect and ab- 
 stract right, and trust God to [see] that it shall prove 
 the expedient." Now he needs some one to help him 
 to that high point again. I know that he has great 
 personal love for you, and respect for your opinions, 
 and because he has, you may be the " Good Fairy," 
 who can help him to his proper self. Will you not 
 try ? Very respectfully, 
 
 Lucy Stone. 
 
From CELIA THAXTER 1 
 
 Appledore, March iitb, [1867]. 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 I wonder if you know the aspect of Appledore 
 at this unmitigated time of year ! The sky is like a 
 cover of tin, the sea is leaden, the rocks are iron, the 
 snow lies ghastly white in patches, and out of the 
 bitter east there blows a wind of despair. Now and 
 then a coaster creeps along the shore, with dark and 
 weather-beaten sails, or a little boat scuds past towards 
 Portsmouth with a " fare of fish " to dispose of, or a 
 lonely bird flies over, — nothing else living breaks the 
 monotony. Indoors, the flowers bloom, the birds sing, 
 the little golden fishes are graceful and bright in their 
 transparent globe, the fire burns clear. My Vikings 
 come and go, and I love the sight of their ruddy 
 cheeks, and yellow beards more than tongue can 
 tell. 
 
 1 Mrs. Thaxter was an especially welcome correspondent of Whit- 
 tier's. He wrote her, 8th mo, 8, 1867 : "It is to sheer kindness of 
 heart, my dear friend, that I owe thy pleasant letters so vividly repre- 
 senting life at the Shoals. They are wonderfully hospitable letters — 
 they give me the freedom of the island. I sit by thy parlor fire in the 
 stormy nights ; I see the tossing boats in the little harbor ; the islands 
 ringed round with foam ; I feel the spray as it tosses up through cleft 
 and gorge ; and I hear thee telling stories to the young folks, and half 
 fancy myself a boy among them, nestling close to thee, with * not 
 unpleasant horror* as the tragedy deepens. It's all very nice, but it 
 puzzles me to know why I am favored in this way. There must be 
 some mistake ; I am getting what don't really belong to me." 
 
 Pickard, Whittier, 524. 
 
C 162] 
 
 I sit by my mother's side and run the swift sewing- 
 machine, and cut and fit and finish work in piles. I 
 have been here nearly a fortnight and I think the sun 
 has faintly smiled once during that time ; verily " an 
 under-roof of doleful gray." Mr. Tennyson was not 
 referring to our spring when he said, " When through 
 wild March the throstle calls." I should like to see 
 the throstle that would dare " — the winter's linger- 
 ing chill — the mocking spring's perpetual cross." I 
 think so ! "perpetual "; but I never used to mind, and 
 found as much delight in the leaden sea as I do now 
 in the divinest summer blue. 
 
 Oh, when the south-west winds begin to blow, how 
 all this will change! What a melting haze will steal 
 down from Cape Ann and softly girdle the whole 
 round horizon with a band of tender color, and how 
 gracious and genial the world will look! And from 
 this scanty soil will spring such flowers as the main- 
 land never sees. "Violets, dim, but sweeter than the 
 lids of Juno's eyes," so large and deeply colored and 
 nearly all the "darlings of the spring," beside, only 
 lovelier far than the flowers of the mainland. And the 
 curlews will pipe and the sandpipers call clear from 
 cove to cove along the shore, the sea will be alive 
 with water fowl and the rocks with land birds. How 
 curious it is that so many land birds find their way 
 here and rest here for so long! That so many butter- 
 flies and caterpillars and snakes do abide here ! Cedric 
 has seen snakes floating on driftwood out on the mid- 
 sea. 
 
 Did I ever tell you about the ball of fire that pur- 
 sued a boat against the wind from Portsmouth ? I be- 
 lieve I did. It is a queer story and the landsmen who 
 
[ i6 3 ] 
 
 were being conveyed to Appledore in that boat were 
 reliable people. 
 
 Yesterday, several Star islanders, lean, brown, dry 
 and wiry as their own salt fish, came over and an- 
 nounced that a strange yawl-boat had been tossed 
 ashore among the tumbling breakers on their island, 
 and straightway the eastern " coast " of Appledore was 
 scoured for any trace of wreck, and anxious eyes 
 sought afar off on the dim and misty sea for any 
 sign of dismantled vessel, but there was none to be 
 seen. 
 
 Did I ever tell you of the musical accomplishments 
 of the Star islanders ? Their singing is something truly 
 astonishing, indeed, I might say, excruciating. They 
 go at it precisely as if they were sawing wood, and 
 grind out the sounds with such exertion that their 
 faces become crimson and the perspiration stands in 
 beads upon their foreheads. Fortunately there are not 
 many gifted with this divine capacity. And they do 
 so twist and turn the King's English that an interpre- 
 ter is absolutely necessary. 
 
 An individual, John Caswell by name, who is at 
 present at the head of the "singers " of Star, occasion- 
 ally comes over here, and of course he expects to be 
 asked to sing, and he does sing, screwing his eyelids 
 tight together and gesticulating in a way which is un- 
 canny, and perfectly ridiculous to behold. One of his 
 favorite songs begins in this style, so he renders it, 
 
 " Down by some spe-cious medder-land abroad as I did roam, 
 I sat me down, for pleasure, upon a moss-grown stone." 
 
 You would hardly recognize "spacious meadow-land " 
 — his accent on the spe is delicious. 
 
[ i6 4 ] 
 
 Another one begins 
 
 " In famous London City, luv, a damsel there did dwell, 
 With fairy form and features, luv, she was called the Giniwy 
 Quia." 
 
 Why she was called the Genoa Queen this deponent 
 saith not, and as she lived in famous London City, I 
 don't see why she should have rejoiced in that title. 
 If I only could give you the preposterous air of this 
 song ! The dragging of some words and the clipping 
 of others, — it has the most absurd effect. 
 
 One doleful ballad tells the tale of a broken-hearted 
 youth who fell in love with his mother's handmaid, 
 Betsy, and his mother, being angry thereat, sent Betsy 
 over seas, whereupon 
 
 " O, he fell sick and like to have died, 
 His mother round his sick-bed cried, 
 But all her crying, it was in vain, 
 For Betsy was aploughing the raging main." 
 
 By the way, the dear little song from Orr's island, I 
 set to one of the most melodious and melancholy of 
 the Star tunes and my brothers like it so much they 
 keep me singing it continually, [and call,] "Now, 
 sister, The morning star was shining still," — half a 
 dozen times in a day. I brought down your book with 
 me and we have all had such a good time together 
 over it ! It is funny. I left my boys singing about the 
 house, 
 
 " Fast as she prayed and faster still 
 Hammered the Troll in Ulshoi hill," 
 
 and Oscar and Cedy go humming about the house the 
 same lines — there is a kind of fascination in the grim 
 fate, I suppose. . . . 
 
[ i«S] 
 
 Thursday. 
 
 Dear friend, I have written this letter by fits, as I 
 got time. I 'm afraid it won't be easy to read, or worth 
 reading. The wind continues to howl, but now it 
 comes from the (equally) bitter north and "gusty 
 grows the sea " with streaks of cold green in the leaden 
 gray. If it relents sufficiently, I. shall send across to 
 Portsmouth next Monday, and betake myself to my 
 nest and the birds that wait my coming with longing. 
 I have got such a houseful of boys ! I wish I had three 
 or four daughters or sisters or something of the sort. 
 But then I dare say they (the boys) would not con- 
 sider me so precious a household commodity as now 
 they do, if the feminine element were more extensive. 
 
 I think I am half asleep ! Do please pardon this 
 untidy and incoherent epistle. Good night, and God 
 bless and keep you always, most dear and precious 
 friend. With loving reverence 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 C. T. 
 
From JESSIE BENTON FREMONT 
 
 Dear M' Whittier : 
 
 Something pleased us all very much yesterday, 
 and I know you will be gratified by hearing of it. 
 This was, as you know my home, for at least every win- 
 ter, all my life, until I was "put into Coventry" after 
 '56. But old servants always come about me when I 
 return here, and call me still " Miss Jessie," as they 
 did when I was a girl. My mother and father not 
 only gave freedom to all their own slaves, employing 
 such as wished to stay on wages, but they employed 
 free people, giving them a helping hand in their fam- 
 ily cares and building up good will toward us, that I 
 feel [sad] now, when of all our family, and of all our 
 large circle of family connections and friends I alone 
 am the one remaining here. It is very seldom I come 
 to Washington ; lately I Ve been with my oldest boy 
 who has just passed his examination at the Naval 
 School, but when I do come it is only from dusky 
 faces that I find the old greeting. 
 
 Yesterday being the Fourth, our landlord (who is 
 colored, as are all his employees, and it is confessedly 
 the best kept house in Washington) brought in a little 
 orator who is the pet of the colored schools. (In these 
 schools are some eleven thousand children). This 
 child of twelve recited " Sheridan's Ride " in so true 
 and beautiful a voice, and with such natural power 
 and beauty of expression, that we were charmed, and 
 not less so when Wormly told us he might be called 
 
[ i6 7 ] 
 
 one of our family, for he was the child of one of our 
 best servants — one of a family of twenty-three. The 
 mother is very alert and full of work, and comes daily 
 to see after my comfort, although it is so many years 
 now since any of us lived here. This child is named 
 for her favorite nursling, the Rev? Ml" Eliot of St. 
 Louis, and is a most promising child every way. 
 
 But my long introduction leads to this, that when 
 I told the child to recite something else that he liked 
 best, and something he had learned by himself, then 
 he smiled up at me and began your " Barbara Friet- 
 chie." He has as strong natural dramatic voice and 
 countenance as Dickens. He has seen troops march 
 past "all day long," and who of us can tell what that 
 flag has been to his color. It made my heart swell with 
 thankfulness to feel we had had a part in this work. Was 
 it not a truer keeping of the Fourth to hear this battle 
 hymn to our flag recited by the little colored boy who 
 under it had gained the right to use his talents, than 
 to keep it as New York kept it ? 
 
 You can never know the aid you were in this war. 
 I have had to thank you for strength given to my 
 Chief and to me, 1 and now I know it will please you 
 to see how you are dear and familiar to those who, 
 until so lately, had to stand dumb as sheep before the 
 shearer, but who now have an equal right to education 
 and all it brings. We will be travelling near you in a 
 few weeks, and if you are at home, we will come again 
 
 1 Whittier by his pen had actively supported Fremont for the pre- 
 sidency in 1856, as in "The Pass of the Sierras," Poems, 321, "A 
 Song inscribed to the Fremont Clubs/' Poems, 323, and others. 
 The approval in "To John C. Fremont" was especially welcome 
 (ante, p. 148, note). 
 
[468] 
 
 to see you, and meantime the General and my daugh- 
 ter join me in affectionate respects to you, dear M. r 
 Whittier. 
 
 Jessie B. Fremont. 
 
 Washington City, July 5 th [1868] 
 (at Wormly's) 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Coolidge House, 1 
 
 itfbNovbr [1868] 
 My dear Whittier: 
 
 Last evening I was told that you were in Bos- 
 ton and to be found at the Marlboro House. 2 I hur- 
 ried there at once, and was pained to learn that you 
 had left for home. This was hard for me, for I longed 
 to see you. 
 
 Why did you not let me know of your visit ? It 
 would have been pleasant to review our doings and 
 note the great progression of events; and I wished 
 also to look with you at the future and compare the 
 destinies as we each see them. 
 
 I confess my anguish when I think of the rebel 
 States and the brutalities to which good people are 
 exposed. Opportunity has been sacrificed during the 
 last four years. I hope we can recover it. Can we ? 
 Under proper influences those States could have been 
 
 1 In Bowdoin Square, Boston, nearly opposite the Revere House, 
 where Sumner lived after his home on Hancock Street was broken up, 
 his mother having died in 1 866, and his attempt at establishing a home 
 of his own having been of short duration. 
 
 a The Marlboro House, Washington Street, between Winter and 
 Bromfield Streets, was a favorite place with reformers for years. The 
 reason may be discerned in an advertisement of it in the Libera- 
 tor, July, 1837 : " Efforts will be made to furnish the table with the 
 products of free labor, and provision will also be made for those who 
 prefer vegetable diet. Religious worship will be regularly maintained 
 every day, and as far as possible to prevent, no company will be re- 
 ceived or bills settled on the Sabbath. No smoking allowed. . . ." 
 
[ *7<> ] 
 
 moulded into Republican Commonwealths where every 
 man should enjoy equal rights. But they have been 
 hardened and bedevilled. 
 
 Hope you are well, dear Whittier, and happy. Ex- 
 cept in my throat I am reasonably well ; but there is 
 very little happiness for me. This is my lot and I try 
 to bear it. 
 
 I am very sorry to have missed you. 
 Good bye. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 Charles Sumner. 
 
From OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 Boston Oct. ijtb 1869. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 I find the poem 1 very musical, tender, charm- 
 ing. I do not find anything forced or fantastic in the 
 parallel between the two incidents. I suppose by your 
 note that was what you feared, and I understand very 
 well how you might wish to know the way in which 
 it would strike another. I assure you, I never should 
 have made the criticism which you apprehend, nor do 
 I believe that others would have made it. I must find 
 something to criticise, of course, or you will think me 
 of no account whatever as an Aristarchus. 3 
 
 "Flowery rounds" 3 is not quite so musical as some 
 of your other endings, but it is hard to find two better 
 words, perhaps, on the whole. 
 
 " Danite athlete" 4 is open to the same slight objec- 
 
 1 "The Hive at Gettysburg," Poems, 348, was suggested by an 
 incident after the battle. Bees filled a ' ' shattered drum " with honey, 
 and a friend, finding it, sent a piece of the comb to Whittier. 
 
 2 "Whose looks were as a breeching to a boy." 
 
 Lowell, Poems, 167. 
 3 "Bleeding and torn from Freedom's mountain bounds, 
 A stained and shattered drum 
 Is now the hive where, on their flowery rounds, 
 The wild bees go and come." 
 4 As now printed : — 
 
 "From Treason's death we draw a purer life, 
 As, from the beast he slew, 
 A sweetness sweeter for his bitter strife 
 The old-time athlete drew ! " 
 
[ *7* ] 
 
 tion — that it repeats two very similar sounds. Each 
 is the right word, probably the best word that can be 
 found, yet the two together stuff the mouth with con- 
 sonants — ds and ts — a little fuller than suits the ear. 
 
 These are not my criticisms, but my hypercriti- 
 cisms. I have a dyspeptic ear which often insists on 
 liquids, where a better aural or acoustic digestion would 
 like more solid substance. So do not mind the two 
 trivial comments, which are not meant to detract any- 
 thing from my verdict on the poem as a very beauti- 
 ful and admirable one. 
 
 I enclose you some verses f of my own which will 
 appear in the next Atlantic, — until which time they 
 are of course private — which you will read I know, 
 and I hope like well enough in their way, but which 
 you must not trouble yourself to acknowledge. 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 
 6. W. Holmes. 
 
 1 "Bonaparte, Aug. 15, 1769 — Humboldt, Sept. 14, 1769," 
 dated at Boston, Sept. 14, 1869 ; in Atlantic, Nov., 1869. 
 
To (a Quaker) 
 
 Amesbury y 16 , id Mo> 1870. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 Thy kind letter of unity and sympathy with my 
 
 letter ' to the " Review " has been received. I wrote 
 
 as I felt, and perhaps with some degree of plainness, 
 
 but with no wish to censure or injure the feelings of 
 
 those who differ from me. If I know myself, I would 
 
 far rather endure wrong myself than inflict it on others. 
 
 I do not and dare not set myself up as a rebuker of 
 
 my brethren ; but I did feel as if it would be right 
 
 to express my deep conviction that the standard of 
 
 ancient Quakerism is the truth, and that nothing can 
 
 be gained by departing from it. If our friends out West 
 
 are doing good, I rejoice in it ; if men are brought to 
 
 repentance and faith in our Divine Lord in Methodist 
 
 or Calvinistic meetings, I am glad and thankful. But, 
 
 for myself, unworthy as I feel that I am, I feel that 
 
 my place is in the old paths ; I cannot walk freely in 
 
 the new and I only ask that charity and forbearance, 
 
 which I willingly accord to others who do not see as 
 
 I do, but who are zealous and earnest in their labors. 
 
 1 This, with another to the Friends Review, Whittier reprinted in 
 his Prose Works, iii, 305, with this comment : — 
 
 "The following letters were addressed to the Editor of the Friends 
 Review in Philadelphia, in reference to certain changes of principle and 
 practice in the Society then beginning to be observable, but which have 
 since more than justified the writer's fears and solicitude.' ' 
 
 Colonel Higginson, Wbittier, 121, says the best impression of 
 Whittier* s relation with the Society of Friends is to be found in these 
 two letters. 
 
[174] 
 
 I would not for the world put any stumbling block 
 in the way of others who feel that they are called in 
 another direction. We must learn to bear with one 
 another ; we have had too many separations already, 
 and I hope I may be preserved from any act or word 
 which can tend to division, or strife and hard feeling. I 
 feel a strong assurance that our Society has yet a great 
 work to do. I may not live to see it, but I rejoice in 
 the hope. The present time is one of unrest and dis- 
 quiet — but who knows but that the waters are troubled 
 for our healing ? 
 
 Some of us may have erred on the right hand, and 
 some on the left; and this shaking of the balance 
 may adjust it. 
 
 With love to thyself and wife, I am affectionately 
 thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier 
 
 I had a sweet letter from dear, old Josiah Foster the 
 other day. He is, I believe, 88 years old. 
 
 W. 
 
From PAUL H. HAYNE ' 
 
 " Copse Hill" Geo. R. Road, 
 
 1 6 miles from Augusta, 
 
 March iyd, 1870. 
 My Dear M? Whittier: 
 
 I cannot resist the warm impulse which 
 
 prompts me to thank, you for your letter — so quaintly 
 
 kind — which I have just rec? 
 
 I am proud and glad to think that the little versified 
 story of " Dophles " seems to have interested you, 
 but the genial words you have written concerning my 
 friend, my more than brother, Henry Timrod, have 
 impressed me yet more profoundly. 
 
 Indeed he was a man of exquisite and delicate 
 genius, who after a comparatively short life of constant 
 pain, privation, and suffering, was inexpressibly re- 
 joiced to obey the call of the Master, and to pass 
 where, 
 
 " Beyond these voices there is peace ! " 
 
 All his poems have been left in my hands, and 
 
 1 In replying to the charge of a Southern paper that he was an 
 enemy of the South, Whittier once wrote to a friend: "I was never 
 an enemy to the South or the holders of slaves. I inherited from my 
 Quaker ancestry hatred of slavery, but not of slaveholders. To every 
 call of suffering or distress in the South I have promptly responded to 
 the extent of my ability. I was one of the very first to recognize the 
 rare gift of the Carolinian poet, Timrod, and I was the intimate friend 
 of the lamented Paul H. Hayne, though both wrote fiery lyrics 
 against the North. I am sure no one rejoices more heartily than I do 
 at the prosperity of the Southern States." Pickard, Whittier, 502. 
 
[ i76] 
 
 already I have his memoir (a very brief and simple 
 one), prepared, together with his poems, as I am sure 
 he would have liked them arranged; — but alas! for 
 two years and upwards, my earnest efforts to procure 
 a publisher, North and South, have wretchedly failed. 
 
 I can only wait, and hope! l My disappointment is 
 the sorer on this topic, because Timrod left an im- 
 poverished family behind him, and I did trust it might 
 be in my power to bring them something from the 
 proceeds of his book. 
 
 You have characterized his later poems with dis- 
 criminating taste. Of course, you will comprehend that 
 in his war verses etc., there is no real malignity. A 
 kinder-hearted being never existed. 
 
 Perceiving the interest you manifest in his works, 
 I venture to enclose some memorial rhymes, which at 
 least came spontaneously from the heart. I may have 
 enclosed them previously, but I think not. A couple 
 of other trifles accompany them. 
 
 From the bottom of my soul I echo your wish that 
 henceforth all jealousies, all unworthy prejudices may 
 be annihilated, between North and South. 
 
 As for Literature, it has no sections. Like God's 
 beneficent sky, the fair world of Art is broad enough 
 to comprehend and cover us all ! 
 
 And thus, from these barren pine-woods, I, the 
 humblest among our singers, can stretch forth warm 
 hands of cordiality and love towards you — among 
 our most illustrious — feeling sure that I shall meet 
 with the electric touch of sympathy. 
 
 The spring is just beginning to show her archly 
 
 1 The Poems of Henry Timrod ; Edited, with a Sketch of the Poet's 
 Life, by Paul H. Hayne. New York, E. J. Hale & Son, 1873. 
 
[ i?7 ] 
 
 beautiful face in our forests and gardens. From the 
 latter I pluck a few violets, which please accept as 
 emblems of good will and friendship, from yours 
 faithfully, 
 
 Paul H. Hayne. 
 
From PAUL H. HAYNE 
 
 "Copse Hill" (near August a, Geo.) 
 
 April iind, 1870. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 You are very kind in inviting me again. I 
 thank you for it. And also, I must gratefully acknow- 
 ledge the reception of your little volume " Among 
 the Hills." There is a subdued beauty of thought 
 and fancy in this book, a tenderness of sentiment, 
 wedded to imagination which time and grief have evi- 
 dently chastened, the general effect whereof is to the 
 last degree, soothing and sweet. I have found it a con- 
 soling work. The special poem from which your vol- 
 ume takes its title, reminded me, from the metre 
 chosen, of Wordsworth's celebrated lines on " Yarrow 
 Revisited." I *ve compared the two pieces, and hon- 
 estly, I prefer, greatly prefer, "Among the Hills." In 
 the first place, the art of the latter is more complete, 
 and it possesses a sounder body of thought. Regarded 
 simply in a picturesque point of view, it is richer in 
 coloring, and more suggestive. And running thro the 
 simple narrative, like tangles of gold thro a silver 
 woof, are such lines as, 
 
 " For still in mutual sufferance lies 
 The secret of true living ; 
 Love scarce is love, that never knows 
 The sweetness of forgiving ! " * 
 
 A deep truth, exquisitely embodied ! 
 
 1 "Among the Hills," Poems,' 89. 
 
[ i79 ] 
 
 Ah, dear sir, when the final shadows gather about 
 us all, you ought gratefully and gladly to reflect that 
 your poetry has been the means of teaching thousands 
 of untutored hearts, of consoling the sufferer, and 
 bringing light to the doubter; of in fact, purifying 
 and elevating your fellow-creatures, as genuine poetry 
 always ought to purify and elevate. A commonplace 
 verity, perhaps, but are we not disposed now-a-days 
 to forget it ? 
 
 The Baudelaires, and Swinburnes, chanting the 
 praises of Annihilation and the " Conqueror Worm," 
 may be men of genius, and splendid imagination, but 
 with all my heart, and soul, and strength, do I detest 
 and abhor their abominable philosophy, and their 
 apotheosis as it were, of the principle of decay, rot- 
 tenness and corruption ! ! 
 
 " Only the sleep eternal 
 In an eternal night ! " 
 
 is the refrain which seems to me to run thro all of 
 Swinburne's verses, which magnificent as they are 
 (artistically), depress and weigh down my spirit, when- 
 ever I am tempted to read them. 
 
 But I Ve no intention of beguiling you into a cor- 
 respondence that might prove hurtful to your health ; 
 therefore, with repeated thanks for your kindness and 
 consideration, I remain, dear sir, 
 
 Always faithfully 
 
 Paul H. Hayne 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Washington^ \6th June *J2. 
 My dear Whittier: 
 
 With gladness I welcome your friendly hand. 1 
 
 I am at a loss to understand where my speech 2 is 
 too severe. Mr. W. I. Bowditch calls it " forbearing." 
 I intended it to be so. 
 
 The President's conduct can be adequately pre- 
 sented only in severe language. Since the Crime against 
 Kansas, we have heard nothing like it. Such injustice 
 to a people, and to individuals. Such heartlessness, 
 such insensibility to the requirements of his post, such 
 an evil example must be exposed. I should have been 
 faithless, had I failed to do it. 
 
 That people can hesitate to condemn such conduct 
 attests the general demoralization, and the insensi- 
 bility to virtue. But it is Party which does the mischief. 
 As head of the Party he dictates and the multitude 
 crouch. So it looks. 
 
 Amidst these heats I long for the salt air which you 
 breathe. Good bye ! 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Charles Sumner 
 
 1 Whittier' s letter to Sumner, Appendix K, p. 282. 
 
 2 The full title of the speech in the U. S. Senate, May 31, 1872, 
 as given in Sumner's Works, xv, 83-171, is: Republicanism vs. 
 Grantism ; the Presidency a Trust, not a Plaything ; Personal Govern- 
 ment and Presidential Pretensions ; Reform and Purity in Government. 
 
From CHARLES SUMNER 
 
 Washington, nth, Aug. '72. 
 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 I have not read Mr. Garrison's letter. 1 Some 
 one said it was unkind, and I made up my mind at 
 once not to read it, and of course never to answer it. 
 I never allowed myself to have controversy with him 
 in other days, when we differed on methods, because 
 I knew he was earnest against slavery. I shall join in 
 no controversy now. 
 
 Never have I acted more absolutely under the man- 
 date of duty, not to be disobeyed, than in my present 
 course. Profoundly convinced of Grant's unfitness, 
 and feeling that a man like Greeley President, would 
 make an epoch for humanity, I could not resist the 
 opportunity, especially when Democrats took him as 
 their candidate, and pledged themselves to all that is 
 contained in the Cincinnati Platform. From the begin- 
 ning, while insisting upon all possible securities and 
 safeguards, I have pleaded for " reconciliat." This is 
 
 1 Sumner had written a long letter urging the colored voters to sup- 
 port Greeley as against Grant. This brought from Garrison a strong 
 rejoinder on Grant's behalf. Whittier was then appealed to by a com- 
 mittee of colored voters, who were perplexed by such contradictory 
 advice from those whom they trusted. His reply, dated 9th mo. 3, 
 1872 {Prose Works, iii, 161), was not conclusive. He discussed the 
 public services and the political affiliations of each candidate, but as 
 to the choice between Grant and Greeley he said, "I am willing, for 
 one, to leave my colored fellow citizens to the unbiased exercise of 
 their own judgment and interests in deciding between them. ,, 
 
the word which recurs constantly in my speeches. The 
 South insisted that I was revengeful. Never. And now 
 the time has come for her to show the mood in which I 
 acted. This is a painful experience. But we are not 
 choosers in this world. Certainly I did not choose 
 this. 
 
 I wish we could meet all this hot summer I have 
 passed here, but expect to be in Boston Wednesday. 
 God bless you ! 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles Sumner 
 
From CELIA THAXTER 
 
 Pepper ell House, Kittery. 
 Thursday morning before breakfast [1873]. 
 
 Dear Friend : 
 
 We had a glorious day yesterday, and wished 
 you had been with us all the time, and yet we thought 
 it might have been too much for your strength, and 
 that after all, you were wisest, but you would so have 
 enjoyed it ! 
 
 In the first place, the Lord provided such a day ! 
 perfectly regardless of expense, with mountains of deli- 
 cate cloud piled in the blue of the north, and soft shift- 
 ing films to draw delicious shadow, now and then, 
 across the turquoise color of the quiet sea. And toward 
 sunset all things grew golden in stillness, all the 
 green of fields and woods so mellow, the glassy water 
 took on tender rose, and presently out of the grey- 
 purple of the east rolled up the full moon, like a great 
 copper shield. And then the northern lights began, 
 in banks of emerald light, that sent up changing 
 streamers and hung out weird banners. Our cups were 
 filled as full as they could hold; we were glad at last 
 to close our eyes on beauty and lose the power of 
 receiving another impression. 
 
 We started about ten o'clock, while yet the dew 
 sparkled, and drove though such woods and fields and 
 flowers ! Annie [Fields] and I grew quite beside 
 ourselves at last, and made Mr. Safford get out and 
 gather for us the exquisite sun-dew along the road- 
 
[ i8 4 ] 
 
 side, and the pink fragrant arethusa that flushed the 
 meadows and filled the air with its sweet breath. 
 
 I can't begin to tell you all we did, but about the 
 middle of the day we found ourselves at a wonderful 
 ancient house, almost at the edge of the sea ; such an 
 exquisite place ! just opposite the Shoals. The house 
 was two hundred and eighteen years old ; the old 
 people were nice, charming and kind. We took our 
 lunch there; we examined the cabinet of antique 
 papers and the famous signatures. The old lady gave 
 James T. [Fields] Sir W? Pepperell's signature, with 
 which he was delighted. I could n't tell you half the 
 things we saw ! 
 
 In the afternoon, we drove on to " Brave Boat 
 Harbor." We stopped at the little grave yard close 
 to the sea, where Sir Francis Champernoon sleeps 
 under his pile of stones, with the roses breathing over 
 him. Then I lay down in the sweet grass, the better 
 to decipher this epitaph, wrung out of a suffering 
 heart. 
 
 In this dark silent mansion of the dead 
 
 A lovely mother and sweet babe are laid. 
 
 Of every virtue of her sex possest, 
 
 She charmed the world and made her husband blest. 
 
 Of such a wife, O righteous heaven ! bereft, 
 
 What joy for me, what joy on earth is left ? 
 
 Still from my inmost soul the groans arise, 
 
 Still flow the sorrows ceaseless from mine eyes. 
 
 But why these sorrows so profusely shed ? 
 
 They may add to, but cannot raise the dead. 
 
 I soon shall follow that same dreary way 
 
 That leads and opens to the coasts of day, 
 
 Then clasp them both upon the happy shore, 
 
 And bliss shall join, nor death shall part us more. 
 
[ i8 5 ] 
 
 " Mary Chauncy wife of Chas. Chauncy and daughter 
 to the Hon. Richard Cutt, died April 23 d 1758 in the 
 24 th year of her age (how young, poor thing !) with 
 her infant son Charles Chauncy. " 
 
 Well, there was a deal of sorrow in that little grave- 
 yard a hundred and twenty years ago, or thereabouts. 
 I suppose good Mr. Charles Chauncy got him an- 
 other wife in the course of another year, 1 but his grief 
 was none the less real then, and touches us now pro- 
 foundly, speaking through a century's dust. 
 
 Driving back, we went to see the Lady Pepperell's 
 house, where Aunt Sally Cutts lives all alone, "a bent 
 and blear-eyed poor old sour' indeed. The faded 
 grandeur of the place was very impressive. I believe 
 if Aunt Sally had been away, James T. [Fields] 
 would have bought the place on the spot, and still 
 think he may do so. We strayed into another grave 
 yard close by, such a fascinating place ! The river 
 running softly just below and a tangle of wild greenery 
 above and all about. I took the epitaph from the 
 grave of a woman whose body was picked up on the 
 shore after ship-wreck: — 
 
 I lost my life on the raging seas, 
 A Sovreign God does as he please I 
 The Kittery friends they did appear, 
 And my remains they buried here. 
 
 Newcastle ^Friday morning. We came here yesterday, 
 and I parted from the Fields in the afternoon. What 
 
 1 Charles Chauncy (1 728-1 809) married, second, Joanna Ger- 
 rish, July I, 1760. They had twelve children and both died in the 
 same year 1 809, after a married life of forty-nine years. 
 
 Fowler, Memorials of the Cbaunceys (1858), 71. 
 
[ i86] 
 
 a good time we have had together ! And now I cannot 
 get away from these blessed people here, as I pro- 
 posed, to-day, back to the Shoals, but must wait till 
 to-morrow, lucky to get off then ! I long to be back 
 again, though it is enchanting here, 1 more delicious 
 than I can tell you, and these two united families 
 with the little children are so happy here. Always, of 
 course, they miss that beautiful creature who died 
 this spring, Mr. Albee's wife ; it gives a tender touch 
 of pathos to all the beauty of every day. Last night 
 my host drew me out of the vine-hung doorway to 
 see the slow moonrise, directly in front of the house 
 behind the Shoals. The glory grew and across the still 
 water lay a golden path nearly to our feet. We talked 
 softly of that dear vanished spirit. It does the poor 
 lonely fellow so much good to speak a little. 
 
 Will you not tell me how you got home ? I hope 
 my letter won't be tedious. Will you give it a wel- 
 come, I wonder? Good bye. Much love to the girls. 
 
 Ever truly, 
 
 C. T\ 
 
 1 Jaffrey Cottage, Newcastle, N. H., the home of John Albee, 
 author of History of Newcastle, Reminiscences of Emerson, and others, 
 where at this time was also the family of Rev. James De Normandie, 
 then of Portsmouth, now of Roxbury. 
 
From PAUL H. HAYNE 
 
 Augusta, March igth , 1874. 
 My dear M r Whittier : 
 
 And so, your friend 1 is dead ; gone — who can 
 doubt it? — to "the land o' the leal! " Some of M r 
 Sumner's political acts have borne, we can't disguise 
 this truth, terrible fruits of anarchy, disorganization, 
 woe, and even bloodshed, here at the South ; but I 
 am not so narrow minded as to fail in due respect for 
 one, who whatever, in my humble view, might be his 
 errors as a statesman, must, from all accounts, have 
 been a sincere, generous-hearted, upright gentleman. 
 One act even of his political life, is regarded by every 
 impartial mind in this section as specially noble and 
 magnanimous ; I refer to his effort to have erased from 
 the regimental battle flags of the Northern soldiery, 
 all inscriptions alluding to the fratricidal strifes of the 
 past. 2 Yes ! that was a grand deed ; an action of Ro- 
 man-like dignity and virtue ; and perhaps, it will stand 
 clearly and brightly forth upon the records of the fu- 
 
 1 Sumner died March 11, 1874. 
 
 2 The resolution, introduced by Sumner in the U. S. Senate, Dec. 
 18, 1872, declared that " the names of battles with our fellow citi- 
 zens shall not be continued in the army register, or placed upon the 
 regimental colors of the United States." The General Court of Mas- 
 sachusetts on the last day of a special session, called in consequence 
 of the Boston Fire, passed a resolve declaring that *' such legislation 
 meets the unqualified condemnation of the people of this Common- 
 wealth." Whittier undertook, the records show, to have this action 
 reversed, and though he failed in 1873, ne was successful in 1874. 
 
[ 188 ] 
 
 ture, when his speeches are but matter of tradition, and 
 the very place of his sepulture may furnish a theme 
 for antiquarian speculation. 
 
 Meanwhile, if the news of his decease has provoked 
 some bitter, and most unseemly comments in South- 
 ern journals, there can be no question that upon the 
 whole, they have endeavored to be, at least, moderate, 
 and to respect the wise antique proverb, " de mortuis 
 nil nisi bonum" For the bitterness of a few, endeavor 
 to find some excuse. 
 
 Call upon the resources of your vivid imagination 
 and " put yourself in these men's places." The point 
 of view in such matters is everything. 
 
 How lonely, after all, does Sumner's death appear. 
 No loving wife near to wipe his clammy brow, and to 
 receive his latest glances of trust and affection ; no 
 children to reverently close his eyes ! Ah ! my friend ! 
 what is mortal fame, compared with the unforced as- 
 siduities of domestic attachment! We come into this 
 world out of mystery and darkness ; we succeed in cre- 
 ating a name, which oblivion (after a few years, more 
 or less), effectually wipes out, or, at best, reduces to 
 the echo of an echo ; " vox et preterea nihil"! And 
 in making that name, perchance, the flowers of house- 
 hold love refuse to bloom about our pathway, — and 
 instead we gain what? — the "most sweet voices" of 
 the "great unwashed" — the applause of creatures, 
 who misunderstand our motives, and commend us 
 where we hardly deserve commendation, abusing and 
 reviling us, when we are purest, noblest, most self- 
 sacrificing ! cc A sorry world, my Masters ! " 
 
 Among Mr. Sumner's pall bearers, I observe your 
 name, and that of Emerson. By the way, in regard 
 
[ i8 9 ] 
 
 to the latter, did you read the foul abuse of him, pub- 
 lished in the "N Y. World," or "Tribune," this 
 abuse being the substance of a communication from 
 Swinburne ? 
 
 Please tell Mr. Emerson, that but one feeling of 
 intense disgust, has greeted the appearance of that in- 
 famous letter, South, no less than North. 
 
 Was ever such mean arrogance, such maudlin im- 
 pudence, such colossal conceit obtruded before, upon 
 the public view ? The miserable scamp ! Why his 
 name ought to be spelt Swine-burn ! 
 
 Were I a young man, a relative of Emerson's and 
 near to this dog — I 'm afraid I should be tempted 
 to thrash him within an inch of his filthy life. But, of 
 course, the old philosopher will take no notice of such 
 an assault ! 
 
 I Ve just sent to " Old and New " a little poem de- 
 dicated to yourself. I trust Hale may accept it. In 
 that case, it will follow a similar poem to Longfellow. 1 
 Believe me always most 
 
 Faithfully y'r friend 
 
 Paul H. Hayne. 
 
 1 "H. W. Longfellow,' ' by Paul H. Hayne, is in The Old and 
 New, April, 1874; Edward Everett Hale was the editor. 
 
From HENRY W. LONGFELLOW 1 
 
 Nabant, Aug. 7, 1874. 
 My dear Whittier: 
 
 Will your love for Sumner and your regard for 
 his memory, and the desire that nothing unworthy 
 may be said of him, induce you to undertake his 
 biography ? 
 
 This is an abrupt question : but nothing of ur- 
 gency can be added to it, except perhaps the sincere 
 wishes of Ml Balch, Mf Pierce and myself that you 
 would consent. 
 
 Please take the matter into consideration, and see 
 whether your health and other things permit. 
 Always yours sincerely 
 
 Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 1 Sumner bequeathed to H. W. Longfellow, F. V. Balch, and 
 E. L. Pierce, as trustees, " all his papers, manuscripts and letter 
 books, to do with them what they think best ; with power to destroy 
 them, to deposit them in some public library, or to make extracts for 
 publication." 
 
 Longfellow appreciated Sumner's purpose, for in April, directly after 
 the probate of the will, he wrote, " Who shall write the life of Sum- 
 ner?" (Samuel Longfellow, Longfellow, 211.) The life in four 
 volumes was written by Edward L. Pierce, and the mass of letters, 
 170 volumes, was deposited by Mr. Pierce's family in the Library 
 of Harvard College. 
 
From FELLOW TOWNSMEN OF 
 AMESBURY 1 
 
 Friend Whittier: 
 
 In deference to your well-known aversion to 
 all public display, the annoyance of a reception at 
 home in honor of your seventieth birth-day, is spared 
 you. Yet we trust it will not be unpleasant for you to 
 receive from your personal friends and fellow towns- 
 men in this more quiet way an expression of our high 
 appreciation and warm affection. 
 
 While the sons and daughters of song bringing their 
 tribute of admiration to Genius, delight to lay their 
 crown upon the head of the Poet ; we, who believe that 
 none could wear it more royally, knowing your heart, 
 rejoice to pay our tribute to Goodness, to greet the 
 man we love, our Brother, whose lustrous character has 
 made you our first and most honored citizen. The 
 warm interest you have taken in every good work, the 
 wise counsel you have given, and kindly affection for 
 all, have made you dear to us ; and the genial humor 
 of your conversation has been to our hearts the oil of 
 gladness. The beauty of a life pure and true, a life 
 
 1 Whittier* s reply was printed in the Salisbury and Amesbury Mills 
 Villager y Dec. 27, 1877. "... Circumstances may make our inter- 
 course somewhat less constant and familiar than in former years, but your 
 interests and welfare are mine; there is not a face among you that I shall 
 not always be glad to see; not a rod of soil on the Merrimac or the 
 Powow that I shall not be happy to retrace; and about my hearth-fire 
 in the old house on Friend Street I shall still hope often to meet you, 
 as long as Providence, which has spared me hitherto, shall prolong my 
 days. . . ." 
 
C 19a ] 
 
 consecrated to high and holy aims, has been to us a 
 continual inspiration to better things, and we believe 
 its sweet influence will continue to be a benediction to 
 the race. 
 
 The example you have given us, of a courage not 
 less fiery than that of the ancient prophets, of a fidel- 
 ity to principle not less conspicuous than that of the 
 martyrs, of a loyalty to conscience unexcelled in any 
 generation, and withal of a sweetness of soul whose 
 overflow has been a continuous blessing, — the ex- 
 ample which you have given us, be assured we shall 
 account an inheritance to be treasured as precious 
 above estimation, and to be transmitted to our chil- 
 dren's children. For this we love and honor you. 
 
 It is a joy for us to think that of late your face and 
 form have been growing younger; that your troops 
 of friends may greet you as one whose undaunted 
 spirit is more than a match for time. Accept our warm 
 assurance that our homes will be the happier the 
 oftener you may find it possible to gladden them by 
 your presence. May the day be far in the future when 
 you shall wish to change your home among us for the 
 house not made with hands ! And may the Muses 
 that have so long attended upon your bidding, and 
 sung so cheerily by your fireside, continue to beguile 
 your lengthening days until your ear grows aweary and 
 hungers for diviner songs ! Believe us, truly and sin- 
 cerely yours, 
 
 George W. Morrill George Turner 
 
 J. R. Huntington John Hume 
 
 Horace H. Currier J. H. Osborne 
 
 James W. Briggs Aaron Sawyer 
 
 M. D. F. Steere O. S. Baley 
 
C J 93 ] 
 
 W. H. B. Currier 
 Isaac Barnard 
 J. A. Perkins 
 Pliny S. Boyd 
 Geo. W. Cate 
 Geo. F. Bagley 
 
 Jos. T. Clarkson 
 D. L. Bartlett 
 G. Cammett 
 C. Cammett 
 Samuel Hoyt, pre. 
 
 Ames bury, Dec. 17, 1877. 
 
 To John Greenleaf Whittier. 
 
From CHARLES C. BURLEIGH 1 
 
 Florence, 12, 16/77. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 I feel quite unwilling to let the accompanying 
 
 missive from our Sunday School go on its way to you, 
 
 1 Charles C. Burleigh ( 1 8 10-1 878 ) entered the anti-slavery work 
 at the request of Samuel J. May, abandoning the practice of the law 
 for which he had studied and passed a brilliant examination. After 
 a varied career he settled in Florence, Mass., where for the last ten 
 years of his life he was "the resident speaker of the Free Congrega- 
 tional Society of Florence." 
 
 *« As a logical thinker and an eloquent public speaker Charles C. 
 Burleigh probably surpassed any one that ever lived in Northampton. 
 Few men anywhere could so readily and ably extemporize in a pub- 
 lic speech as that brave champion of civil and religious liberty. Some 
 of his most brilliant and effective speeches were made on the spur of 
 the moment. In discussing any question he was noted for stating the 
 strongest points of his opponents, and effectually answering them, so 
 that nothing more could be said. The arguments on both sides would 
 be exhausted. His diction was clear and finished. . . . 
 
 " Once while speaking in an anti-slavery meeting, a bad egg, hurled 
 by an enemy, struck Burleigh on the forehead. Coolly wiping his brow, 
 he said, ' I always thought that pro-slavery arguments were un- 
 sound.' . . . 
 
 " He was tall and his frame bore the impress of great physical strength 
 and endurance. Of no one could it be more truthfully said that he had 
 the courage of his convictions. What he deemed proper to do, whether 
 in matters of dress, of personal appearance and habits, or in regard to 
 political, social, or religious concerns, he unhesitatingly carried out, 
 however strange his course might appear to those with whom he came 
 in contact. I remember his wearing a full beard, long before such a 
 practice was considered becoming or proper." 
 , Charles C. Burleigh, by Seth Hunt, in Sheffield, History of Flor- 
 ence, 211. 
 
[ i95] 
 
 without a word from myself individually, on this oc- 
 casion which has called out expressions from so many 
 of your literary and other acquaintances and friends. 
 The address of our school, unanimously adopted this 
 morning, speaks, of course, the thoughts and feelings 
 which I share with my fellow-members of the school, 
 but many thoughts and memories are called up in my 
 mind by the occasion, which they cannot share with 
 me. On reading the address you will perhaps suspect, 
 what is the fact, that the duty of preparing it was as- 
 signed by my associates to me. I tried to make it speak 
 what I believed to be their thoughts and feelings, so 
 far as their knowledge of you, through your writings 
 or otherwise supplied them ; and the evidently hearty 
 acceptance of my work, when submitted to them, con- 
 firms my belief. I need not tell you how heartily I 
 share in the rejoicing of your friends, both those who 
 have publicly voiced it, and I doubt not many more 
 than these, who have not done so, that you have been 
 permitted to reach the end of your seventieth year, 
 retaining still the intellectual vigor and vivacity of ear- 
 lier manhood, and, I hope, at least as good a condi- 
 tion of bodily health as when I saw you last, though 
 that, indeed, to my regret, is not altogether what we 
 could wish, who love you and desire your long con- 
 tinuance with us. 
 
 Called now as I am to think of you as what in our 
 early days we should have regarded as " an old man " 
 — though our estimate of age may have become some- 
 what modified by the passing years — my mind runs 
 back to the days of our first acquaintance, and to our 
 labors together in the good old " cause "; and thence 
 it ranges over the intermediate years, and gathers 
 
[ 196] 
 
 thronging reminiscences in its course. Philadelphia, 
 especially, and the old Anti-Slavery Office there, and 
 Joseph Healy's boarding-house rise vividly before 
 me, and with them come our fellowboarders there, 
 every one of whom has already gone before us to the 
 other side of the river, leaving many precious memo- 
 ries behind them. Then too come, crowding in, the 
 wonderful changes we have witnessed, so other than 
 anything we had expected within our earthly life-time ; 
 till it almost seems as if I were living another life, the 
 occupant of another world. But still that former life 
 and world are very well-defined objects of present con- 
 templation ; and your place in relation to them is very 
 distinctly imaged to my mind. The afternoon which, 
 at a later period, I passed with you in Amesbury, hav- 
 ing walked down from Haverhill for the purpose, is 
 also a bright page of my reminiscences. 
 
 I have the satisfaction, too, not only of keeping you 
 in fresh remembrance for myself, but of helping a good 
 many to know or remember something about you. 
 For, as in the early days of the Anti-Slavery struggle, 
 before your pieces, or any considerable number of 
 them, were gathered into volumes, I used to make a 
 sort of claim to be your publisher, because, as your 
 pieces came out in the papers, I was wont to commit 
 them to memory and recite them in my lectures, and 
 in social gatherings at which I was present, so now I 
 have in a measure gone back to the old custom, and 
 introduced you, by public recitation, to a circle of 
 younger hearers, who seem to listen with lively pleas- 
 ure; sometimes an old veteran calls for some poem 
 which had delighted him a quarter of a century ago or 
 
[ 197 ] 
 
 It is true that the occupations of the passing days 
 do not allow a very large proportion of the time for 
 this delightful living in the past, but I do think so 
 much of it as can be spent thus, is by no means lost 
 time, even if mere delight did not redeem it from loss. 
 It seems to me highly desirable, as a part of the train- 
 ing of the younger generation, that 
 
 " Here should the child of after years be taught," 
 (and these are the "after years " referred to, you know,) 
 
 " The works of Freedom which his fathers wrought ; 
 Told of the trials of the present hour, (now past,) 
 Our weary strife with prejudice and power; 
 How the high errand quickened woman's soul, 
 And touched her lips, as with a living coal ; 
 How Freedom's martyrs kept their lofty faith 
 True and unwavering, unto bonds and death." ■ 
 
 By the way, how freshly rises to my view, today, the 
 time when I first read those lines in public, to the gath- 
 ered multitude in the Pennsylvania Hall; so soon 
 thereafter a heap of ashes and blackened brands. Nor 
 do I forget our gathering at the ruins, to make a reg- 
 ular adjournment to another place, that the continuity 
 of our meeting might not be broken ; nor yet the task 
 
 1 From the close of "Pennsylvania Hall," Poems, 279. Whit- 
 tier's prefatory note says the poem was " read at the dedication of 
 Pennsylvania Hall, Philadelphia, May 15, 1838. The building was 
 erected by an association of gentlemen, irrespective of sect or party, 
 ' that the citizens of Philadelphia should possess a room wherein the 
 principles of Liberty, and Equality of Civil Rights, could be freely 
 discussed, and the evils of slavery fearlessly portrayed. ' On the even- 
 ing of the 17th it was burned by a mob, destroying the office of the 
 Pennsylvania Freeman, of which I was editor, and with it my books 
 and papers." 
 
[ i9«] 
 
 assigned to you, brother William and myself, to pre- 
 pare an address to the people of the State, in relation 
 to the burning of the Hall. But my pen will run away 
 with me, if I suffer it follow the track of these memo- 
 ries, in which you hold so large a place ;> and I will 
 constrain myself to stop. 
 
 I have yet room on the page 1 to say, at this close 
 of your seventy years, so rich in noble and beneficent 
 work, and, I cannot doubt, in high enjoyment also, 
 spite of sorrows deeper than stranger's eye can fathom, 
 not as is often said, and as it is the heart's first prompt- 
 ing to say, " God bless you "; but as our old friend, 
 N. P. Rogers, correcting his own first utterance, once 
 said to me, as we were parting, " God blesses you." 
 For truly He blesses you, with these ripe years, with 
 this continued ability to work, with the just apprecia- 
 tion your work has won, with the child's faith in his 
 love and care, which grasps his hand in every dark 
 passage you must traverse, and catches the fatherly 
 radiance of his face whenever you emerge into the 
 light. So let my vale be, God blesses you. Very truly, 
 your friend and comrade, 
 
 C. C. Burleigh. 
 
 1 This entire letter was written on but a half sheet of note paper, 
 and yet in a legible hand. 
 
From PAUL H. HAYNE 
 
 January loth, 1878. 
 My dear Friend: 
 
 I received your letter of the 29 th ult. in due 
 season, and I need not say how truly your kind words 
 gratified me. 
 
 It is indeed pleasant to learn that so very humble 
 a tribute as mine in the " Literary World " * should 
 have so deeply touched you. I am more than rewarded. 
 
 Apropos of the" World," I have just read your own 
 poem 2 in answer to your friends, and honestly, it seems 
 
 1 The December, 1877, number of the Boston Literary World was 
 dedicated to Whittier and contained many tributes, both prose and verse, 
 on his seventieth birthday. Hayne contributed the following : — 
 
 "TO THE POET WHITTIER. 
 " From this far realm of Pines I waft thee now 
 A Brother's greeting, Poet, tried and true ; 
 So thick the laurels on thy reverend brow 
 
 We scarce can see the white locks glimmering through. 
 " O, pure of thought! Earnest in heart as pen, 
 The tests of time have left thee undefiled ; 
 And o'er the snows of threescore years and ten 
 Shines the unsullied aureole of a child." 
 
 2 "Response," written in acknowledgment of the many messages 
 on Whittier' s seventieth birthday : — 
 
 "Beside that milestone where the level sun, 
 Nigh unto setting, sheds his last, low rays 
 On word and work irrevocably done, 
 Life's blending threads of good and ill out-spun, 
 
 I hear, O friends, your words of cheer and praise, 
 Half doubtful if myself or otherwise. . . ." 
 
 Poems, 409. 
 
[ 200 ] 
 
 to me perfect ! There are in it, a delicacy, grace, feel- 
 ing and true manliness, embodied in language equally 
 terse and vigorous, which altogether render it a quite 
 remarkable little poem. How much more can be con- 
 veyed in a half dozen poetic lines, managed as you 
 manage them, than in pages of ordinary prose ! 
 
 You " trust that the several sections are beginning 
 to understand each other better ! " Candidly, I believe 
 they are, and this the work of reconciliation would ad- 
 vance "toward the perfect day," were it not for one 
 ugly element of discord; I mean, the disgraceful efforts 
 of such men as Conkling, Blaine, Chandler, et id omne 
 genus , who seem determined to re-open old, fast-healing 
 wounds, and to " set the two sections by the ears again ! " 
 
 But I hope, nay I believe that they cannot succeed. 
 Pres. Hayes seems firm enough, and the Southern 
 people cannot but regard him kindly and with confi- 
 dence, since his conduct towards Louisiana, and my 
 recently forlorn and prostrate State, South Carolina. 
 It was his plain duty under the laws of the Constitu- 
 tion and the laws of humanity, to free those States from 
 the grasp of savages and aliens, but so seldom has duty 
 been performed of late years by those in " high places," 
 that when Pres. Hayes manfully performed his, our 
 people were actually bewildered; they could not credit 
 the evidence of their senses. Then came a great joy, 
 which has settled down into a sentiment of quiet grati- 
 tude towards him who refused to sanction any longer 
 a monstrous crime. 
 
 It distresses me to learn of your continued ill health. 
 Come South if you possibly can. Such a change might 
 prolong your invaluable life. Should you visit our 
 locale, of course, my home will be yours. A very hum- 
 
C 2QI ] 
 
 ble home; but I wouldn't feel embarrassed in wel- 
 coming you ; for I know how simple your habits are. 
 My wife most cordially joins in this invitation. 
 
 You say that you hope " I am well paid for my 
 poems." I rec d e.g. $50.°° for the poem just out in 
 " Scribner." ' This is by far the largest sum I have 
 ever got for any poem. For shorter pieces I receive 
 from 5 and 8 to 10 dollars. I labor under the disad- 
 vantage of being far removed from the centres of lit- 
 erary activity, can make no personal bargains, and 
 receive less than Northern writers. 
 
 You, M r Whittier, are the only Northern littera- 
 teur who has ever done me the honor of placing my 
 poems in a published collection of verse. 2 
 
 I have answered your questions very frankly as I 
 know you meant me to do. 
 
 When your health permits, please write to me. I 
 am a very lonely man, lost in these vast pine woods, 
 with not one sympathetic companion outside my im- 
 mediate family. 
 
 Ever most faithfully 
 
 Paul H. Hayne. 
 
 Did " Unveiled " in " Scribner " please you ? You '11 
 tell me frankly if it did not. 
 
 1 " Unveiled," dedicated to W. C. Bryant, Scribner" s Magazine, 
 Jan., 1878. 
 
 2 Whittier included in Songs of Three Centuries, which he edited 
 in 1876, two of Hayne' s poems, " Pre-Existence " and " From the 
 Woods." 
 
From PAUL H. HAYNE 
 
 " Copse Hill" Georgia Rail Road, 
 February %th> 1878. 
 
 My venerated Friend : 
 
 I deeply appreciate the kindness of yours of 
 the 2 n . d inst. 
 
 *T is encouraging to learn that the Simms " Monody " 
 struck you so favorably, and that " Unveiled " you 
 deem " excellent." Both the poems have won a marked 
 success. Bryant has earnestly commended them, and 
 Stedman, writing me from New York, alludes to these 
 " Odes " in a manner I cannot forget. You know how 
 very subtle and aesthetic a critic Stedman is ? 
 
 Your offer of helping me to a place under Govern- 
 ment in Carolina or Georgia is pre-eminently char- 
 acteristic, my friend, of your genial nature, and true 
 sympathies. I do not feel your kindness one whit the 
 less, because in this case I cannot avail myself of it. 
 The truth is that my health needs absolutely the air 
 and quiet of the country. Were I once to be " ca- 
 binned, cribbed, confined " in any town office, a very 
 few months would consign me to the grave ! But 
 thanks, a thousand times, for your suggestion ! 
 
 There is however, I have been thinking, another 
 mode in which either Mr. Bryant, or Mr. Longfellow 
 or yourself might do me an inestimable service. I say 
 "might do/' for of course I cannot tell how far your 
 powers or his may extend in the direction I am about 
 to specify. 
 
[ 2o 3 ] 
 
 The position of a Southern poet in this country, is 
 sadly anomalous. To you, I may say, just as if I 
 were addressing my own father, and without fear of 
 miscomprehension, that anything harder, more terri- 
 bly exacting, than the 20 years of labor by which I have 
 gained my present literary position (however humble) 
 it would be impossible to conceive ! Now, I have 
 reached my 47 th year ; and have on hand a mass of 
 poems, many of them the best I ever composed, and 
 all of a miscellaneous character, quite eno' to fill a 
 duodecimo vol. of 100, or 150 pages, and yet, I feel 
 sure that I could not obtain a publisher. I mean a 
 publisher who would adventure even a small edition at 
 his own risk. 1 Feeling (let me say this to you in sa- 
 cred confidence), that my life-term draws towards its 
 close, and naturally desirous to put myself once more 
 on record, I would give much to print the lyrics re- 
 ferred to ; but without some influence such as North- 
 ern author could give, it is out of the question ! As 
 previously intimated, no such influence may rest with 
 you, or Mr. Bryant, or Mr. Longfellow ; but if it 
 really should be in your power or their's, to help me to 
 a publisher, I think you will not fail me. I would beg 
 you to accept the dedication of the volume to be called 
 simply " Muscadines" from the 1st poem in it. 
 
 There is yet another topic, upon which at my aged 
 mother's special request, I desire to consult you. My 
 mother now in her 71 st year, is the widow of a U. S. 
 Naval officer. When as far back as September 1832, 
 my father Lieut. Paul H. Hayne, died of yellow 
 fever at Pensacola (Fla.) while in active service aboard 
 
 1 Hayne* s Poems were published, with a biographical sketch by 
 Margaret J. Preston, by D. Lothrop & Company, Boston, 1882. 
 
C 2 °4 3 
 
 the U. S. ship " Vincennes," my mother, being then 
 in easy circumstances as to fortune, never thought of 
 applying to Government for the " pension," which, of 
 course, was her due. Years passed ; the Confederate 
 war came, and stripped her, and us, of almost every- 
 thing. Even now we can just manage to live. Don't 
 you think (if the circumstances were known at Wash- 
 ington) the old lady might secure this "pension." 
 Several times under Grant's administration we made 
 an effort to bring the claim to the notice of those in 
 power, by employing an agent, but did not succeed. 
 The claim is now on file in the proper Department. 
 Would you advise me to push it? 
 
 Tho' you cannot travel now, surely it may be pos- 
 sible for you to "flit Southward" towards the Spring? 
 If so, our home, and hearts are open to you always. 
 My wife says, she will make " Copse Hill " as comfort- 
 able for you as possible, and that the " bonny brown 
 hand " shall be gladly employed in your service. We 
 are the simplest, the least conventional people on earth ; 
 and be assured that you will be made to feel as much 
 almost at ease as if in your own special domicile in 
 Amesbury or Danvers. 
 
 From M? Timrod I have heard nothing directly for 
 a long time. But some weeks since, the papers spoke 
 of her as out of employment, and seeking a clerkship 
 in Washington. I have written her frequently, but 
 elicited no answer. I am puzzled. 
 
 You ask how it is that I am an " exile " from my 
 beloved State, Carolina. Our house in Charleston was 
 destroyed by the bursting of a bomb-shell, (which 
 created a large fire, sweeping the entire square). There 
 and then the larger portion of my library, a very rare 
 
[ 2 °5 ] 
 
 one, perished. Again, Sherman passing thro Colum- 
 bia, or his troops, took from us silver and plate, much 
 of it old family plate, valued at $ 10,000. The banks, 
 as you know, all broke, so that we lost our whole pro- 
 perty, excepting a very few hundreds. My family were 
 refugees in Georgia, when the war closed, and I (not 
 being able to get any other work) took charge of the 
 local department of the "Augusta Constitutionalist." 
 In 8 months, the work (night work much of it ! ) broke 
 me down completely ! With a few hundreds, hardly 
 scraped together, I purchased my present humble home 
 in the woods, and took charge of Pollard's weekly, 
 "Southern Opinion," issued in Richmond, as literary 
 editor. He died, owing me nearly all my salary, of 
 which I have never since rec d a solitary cent ! Since, I 
 have "eked out" a subsistence by composing essays, 
 sketches, tales, poems, etc. etc. During the entire year 
 of 1876, I suffered from repeated hemorrhages (as 
 often as two or three times a week) and have never 
 perfectly or radically recovered. Now, you have my 
 history ! I don't apologize for my perfect candor, 
 nor the apparent egotism of all this. You compre- 
 hend me ! God be with you ! and believe that you have 
 no truer friend, than 
 
 Yours ever faithfully 
 
 Paul H. Hayne. 
 
 P. S. Won't you think very seriously of coming 
 South in the Spring ? You would never regret it. 
 
To 
 
 Danvers, \th Mo. 5, 1878. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 I am liable to be called to Amesbury and New- 
 
 buryport any day next week : and I could not fix a 
 
 day for the call. But I am afraid it is not a good thing 
 
 for thee to publish a book of poems now, even if a 
 
 publisher could be found, which is not probable in the 
 
 depressed state of business. Try to get in the verse in 
 
 some of the literary reviews or papers first. I did not 
 
 venture to offer my verse to a publisher until I was 
 
 forty years old, and even then, the profit in money or 
 
 reputation was small. 
 
 I think thee have natural gifts and the enthusiasm 
 which makes one capable of much ; but we must all 
 submit to our limitations, and we cannot always do as 
 we could wish. It is safest not to contend with what 
 is inevitable. God leads us by ways we do not choose, 
 often sadly against our wills, but, in the end, it will be 
 seen that he led wisely. 
 
 My health is such that I cannot write or study 
 without pain. This must excuse this brief letter. 
 Thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
From LYDIA MARIA CHILD 
 
 Wayland, Oct. <i$th, 1878. 
 Dear Friend Whittier : 
 
 I thank you heartily for your little volume of 
 poems, and the kindly written words which accom- 
 panied them. The poems, like all you write, are redo- 
 lent of Nature's fragrance, and full of balm for wounded 
 hearts. The thoughts that breathe through the music 
 of your rhymes have been full of healing and of 
 strength for many souls. 
 
 A few weeks ago, I went to see our friend, Ange- 
 lina Grimke Weld, after a separation of forty years. I 
 was sorry I went. She did not know me, and I should 
 not have recognized her without an introduction. 
 We had better have remained in each other's memory 
 as we were in the days of youthful strength and cour- 
 age. Ever since our sad meeting, I have been troubled 
 with the thought: — Will the dear ones from whom 
 we parted here, seem so strange when we meet again 
 in the unknown world? On that subject, I am dis- 
 turbed with continual unrest. I care nothing about a 
 continued existence, except as a renewal of the bonds 
 affection had woven here. And when they precede us 
 for many years, and live in a world whose laws are 
 totally unlike our own, how far away their spirits must 
 get from ours ! That it is not so, we have no proof; 
 unless the weird phenomena of " Spiritualism " be 
 taken as evidence. And those phenomena, though in- 
 explicable by any laws now understood, are as fantastic 
 
[ 208 ] 
 
 and unreliable as dreams ; which also are inexplicable 
 by any known laws. 
 
 Alas, the curtain falls so heavily, and is so impene- 
 trable ! Only a narrow gleam at the edges shows that 
 there is not darkness on the other side. 
 
 I was sorry not to see you at Melrose. Early in 
 November I expect to go to Boston for the winter, 
 and before the season is over I hope we may meet 
 some time at our dear, good friends, the Sewalls. 
 
 You have always been a blessing to my soul, and I 
 love you truly. 
 
 Your affectionate old friend 
 
 L. Maria Child. 
 
>®mW2 
 
From LYDIA MARIA CHILD 
 
 Way land, June \%th 1879 
 Dear Friend Whittier : 
 
 My spirit has been with yours a great deal, 
 during all the circumstances attendant upon the de- 
 cease of our honored friend, Garrison. To you and I, 
 who lived in the midst of the obloquy and persecu- 
 tion that were heaped upon him without measure, the 
 revolution in public sentiment, indicated by the uni- 
 versal laudation, seems wonderful indeed. And how 
 cheering it is ! How full of encouragement concerning 
 the future progress of the human race! If so much 
 could be accomplished, in one generation, by a few 
 brave souls, against such formidable odds, what mar- 
 vellous changes may be wrought in the course of many 
 generations, each one throwing increasing light on the 
 path-way of its successor ! 
 
 The newspaper tributes were interesting and cheer- 
 ing, as indications of a healthy change in public senti- 
 ment; but the heartfelt tributes to our friend's memory 
 were beautiful, in their simple truthfulness and genuine 
 feeling, to a degree that thrilled the souls of listeners 
 and readers; yours, and Phillips's, and Weld's. No 
 marble mausoleum inlaid with precious stones, and 
 embowered in blossoms, could have formed a monu- 
 ment so beautiful. I was glad to see that you recog- 
 nized his faith, and indicated your own, in implying 
 the continued and active agency of his spirit. How 
 could such a spirit die ? I wish he could tell us some- 
 thing about it, in a way we could trust. 
 
C 2I ° ] 
 
 But, assuredly, my friend there is no such thing as 
 death. The whole universe is a marvellous evolution 
 of ever changing forms. And if the naked gibbering 
 savage has gradually become an Emerson, a Whittier, 
 a Garrison, why should not they evolve into seraphs, 
 with immensely larger powers, acting under laws as 
 different from those that regulate our earth, as air is 
 from water ? Assuredly, there is no death. And, after 
 all, are we not all ghosts, who for a brief time appear 
 to traverse a small segment of space, and then vanish, 
 we know not whither ? It is only the commonness of 
 our apparition and our departure that prevents it from 
 seeming miraculous. 
 
 I wonder what lesson that Pocasset tragedy ■ teaches 
 to your mind. To my mind, it is the legitimate result 
 of long established theological doctrines ; and a strik- 
 ing proof of the absurdity and danger of taking the 
 history of a semi-barbarous people as an inspired 
 rule for life in the 19th century. Clergymen eulogize 
 Abraham for his readiness to sacrifice his son; and 
 they praise God for doing the same thing, because 
 blood was necessary for the atonement of sin ; and 
 then they blame Freeman for following such sublime 
 
 1 In May, 1879, one F reeman > a farmer at Pocasset, Mass., took 
 the life of his three-year-old daughter, being deranged and brooding 
 on the story of Abraham and Isaac. 
 
 Whittier wrote in reply to this letter : "... I trust with thee 
 that the wretched Pocasset horror will teach all honest expounders the 
 folly and danger of going back to the stone age for models of right liv- 
 ing. I am shocked by the barbarism and superstition of our popular 
 faith. There needs another George Fox, with broader vision, to call 
 men from the death of the letter to the life of the spirit, and to tread 
 under foot the ghastly and bloody materialism which survives among 
 us. . . ." — -Pickard, Whittier, 650. 
 
[aii] 
 
 examples. What glowing inconsistency ! All the ortho- 
 dox preachers ought to be indicted as accomplices 
 before the murder. 
 
 May our Heavenly Father bless you, dear friend ! 
 I love you very sincerely. Your old friend 
 
 L. Maria Child. 
 
 I enclose a translation, hoping the spirit will move 
 you to transpose it into the flowing melody of your 
 
To HORACE H. CURRIER 1 
 
 Danvers y yth *]tb mo, 1879. 
 Dear H. H. C. 
 
 I was glad to get thy two postals. The terrible 
 weather of the 4 th , and the abrupt change to cold has 
 been hard to me : and I am afraid still harder for 
 thee. We have had no warm weather; it is a lost art; 
 only hot and cold : tropic and arctic. 
 
 I have been to see the old homestead at Haverhill. 
 It has fallen into the hands of one of my old neighbors 
 — a Mr. Geo. Elliott, who is a retired shoe manufac- 
 turer. He has cleaned up round the house and clap- 
 boarded it and painted it on the outside, and mended 
 the barn, so it looks pretty well. The inside is not 
 yet altered very much. The clearing of the kitchen 
 will be a task like that of Hercules and the Augean 
 stables. 
 
 It made me feel strange to walk over the old place 
 and sit by the brook and look at the old house ; could 
 it be that I was the same person who sixty years be- 
 fore had been setting water wheels in the brook, and 
 hunting eggs in the barn ! Job's Hill that I thought 
 a mountain, had dwindled into a mere hill. And 
 where were Father and Mother, Uncle, Aunt and 
 sisters? What a dream is life? Here I am left a few 
 days more, waiting for the end of it, yet with the 
 feeling that what is called the end is but the open- 
 
 1 Horace H. Currier, a lawyer and an old and dear friend of Whit- 
 tier, died within a few weeks after this letter was written. 
 
C 2I 3 ] 
 
 ing of a new life beyond. God be merciful to us 
 all! 
 
 I presume by this time you have more boarders. 
 Shall I send a check for board ? Let me know if it 
 is not too hard for thee to write, how thee are and 
 if there is anything I can do for thee. 
 
 All send a great deal of love to thee. 
 Aft. 
 
 John G. Whittier 
 My regards to Celeste. 
 
From OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 Beverly Farms, Mass. Sept. ytb 1879. 
 My dear Whittier: 
 
 Among the many kind tokens of remembrance 
 which greeted my seventieth birthday, hardly any has 
 touched and gratified me so much as your letter. 
 Since the iron gate has closed behind me and I look 
 upon our little group l — the three who are abreast of 
 me, or only a step or two in advance, — with whom 
 I have been singing more or less melodiously for half 
 a century, naturally enough they seem nearer to me 
 than ever before. You know how Kings and Queens 
 in their exalted loneliness and social isolation always 
 address each other as Brother and Sister. So, having 
 gained this lonely summit of seventy years, which 
 looks down a swift declivity, — I would write to you, 
 to Emerson, to Longfellow, if I felt that I had the right 
 to use the term. We have all taken our degrees in the 
 
 1 Whittier wrote Holmes, 12 mo, 17, 1879 : "I nave often, 
 since I met thee in Boston, thought of thy remark that we four singers 
 seem to be isolated — set apart as it were — in lonely companionship, 
 garlanded as if for sacrifice, the world about us waiting to see who first 
 shall falter in his song, who first shall pass out of the sunshine into the 
 great shadow. There is something pathetic in it all. I feel like clasp- 
 ing closer the hands of my companions. I realize more and more that 
 fame and notoriety can avail little in our situation ; that love is the one 
 essential thing, always welcome, outliving time and change, and going 
 with us into the unguessed possibilities of death. There is nothing so 
 sweet in the old Bible as the declaration that * God is love.' " 
 
 Pickard, Whittier , 655. 
 
[2i5] 
 
 " finishing " school of life. I believe we all have the 
 kindliness and the hopefulness which wholesome age 
 ought to bring with it. I know for myself that I feel 
 an inexpressible tenderness to all of you three with 
 whom I am floating on the last of the planks of which 
 the raft of life is constructed. We all feel the cool 
 evening wind in our faces, but I am sure it does not 
 chill our hearts. 
 
 As for yourself, you must pardon me for saying 
 that I confess a reverence as well as admiration in 
 looking back over your noble career. And so you 
 may well believe that every kind word you have ever 
 spoken to me, went to my heart and made me hap- 
 pier — I hope better. 
 
 What can I do now more fitting than repeat your 
 own benediction. 
 
 May God bless you, my Brother, and may we meet 
 oftener in the world where seasons are not counted, 
 than we have met during these earthly lives of three 
 score years and ten. 
 
 Affectionately Yours, 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
From EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN 
 
 71, West $tfh St. 
 New Tork, Dec. list, 1879. 
 
 Dear Mr. Whittier : 
 
 One of the chief objects which I had in mind, 
 when I made an effort to be present at the breakfast 
 to Dr. Holmes, 1 was to avail myself of that chance to 
 meet you, whose birthday festival I was unable to 
 participate in. For it has been one of the regrets of 
 my life that I have not met the poet whom I have 
 loved and honored from boyhood, and whose verse, 
 years ago, gave me unfailing hope and purpose when 
 I dreamed of yet doing some good work in life, or 
 meditated upon the use and nobleness of the poet's 
 art in the movement of this workaday world. 
 
 Well : you were at the gathering, and I failed to see 
 you, and did not know that you were a guest, until 
 Mr. Houghton told us that you had left the room. 
 When I realized that my chance had passed, my regret 
 was so earnest that I could not greatly enjoy the re- 
 mainder of the festival. 
 
 But I hope, and mean, yet to see you in person, if 
 I have to make a day's pilgrimage to the town which 
 is your home. 
 
 Meanwhile, I hope that the purpose of this letter 
 
 1 " Given by the publishers of The Atlantic Monthly in honor of 
 the contributor who, more than any other one man, had caused its 
 prosperity, who had been to it the life blood racing through its veins." 
 
 Morse, Holmes, ii, 43. 
 
£4/^^^^ 
 
C 2I 7 ] 
 
 will not be a cause of embarrassment to you, and that 
 if I have committed a fault in any wise, your good 
 and kind heart will at once implore you to forgive me. 
 Last month a selection from my own poems was 
 brought out in England, a volume of which I send 
 you by mail, the first copy which I have received. In 
 asking myself to whom, of all others, I should prefer 
 to inscribe this — the most careful — edition of my 
 poems, published across the seas, my thoughts at once 
 went back to you, and I ventured to begin the vol- 
 ume with the blank verse which I wrote when you 
 completed your seventieth year. 1 
 
 In telling John Bright that I should do this, my 
 American and New England heart swelled with honest 
 pride when I heard him break out in a eulogy to your 
 honor, so full of true appreciation, of knowledge of 
 your writings and your personal career, that I could not 
 have doubted its sincerity, even if it had come from a 
 less loyal and truthful, or less noble and heroic source. 
 
 Forgive the length and awkwardness of this letter, 
 and believe me, dear Mr. Whittier, most earnest in 
 my wishes that your years may be long in the land 
 that claims you as the most deserving and the best- 
 beloved of her lyric poets. 
 
 With much respect, 
 
 Very truly your friend, 
 
 Edmund C. Stedman. 
 
 1 Whittier acknowledged the gift, 12th mo, 31, 1879. "I have 
 been looking over thy beautiful volume. . . . Indeed, if thee never 
 write another stanza, thy place is assured in American literature, as the 
 worthy successor of Bryant. There is one poem in thy volume which 
 has the stamp of immortality upon it. ' The Discoverer ' has always 
 seemed to me one of the most striking and powerfully suggestive poems 
 of our time.' ' — Pickard, Whittier, 656. 
 
To THOMAS F. BAYARD, U. S. SENATOR 
 
 Oak Knoll, Danvers, Mass. 
 
 2nd Mo. ii, 1880. 
 Hon. Tho s F. Bayard : 
 
 I have read with great satisfaction thy views on 
 the important question of the Currency. I always be- 
 lieved that the Greenback and Inflation folly was but 
 temporary, and that the nobler second thought of the 
 people would set the matter right. The faithfulness 
 with which thou hast maintained thy views against 
 what seemed at one time the prevailing drift of the 
 Democratic party, is, in the highest degree, honorable 
 and praiseworthy. 
 
 And here let me thank thee for the kind reference 
 to myself in thy speech on the Appropriation Bill. 
 A Quaker and an Abolitionist, I have been all my 
 life opposed to slavery. That is now a thing of the 
 past, and ever since the war I have ardently desired to 
 see the two sections of the Union united in peace and 
 harmony. I cordially endorsed the speech of my friend 
 Gen. Bartlett. At the same time, I could, and can, but 
 insist that the people of color, whose conduct during 
 the war should entitle them to the grateful consider- 
 ation of their former masters, should be protected in 
 their civil rights. A different and kindly treatment of 
 these people, at the South, would unquestionably have 
 secured their votes to a great extent for the candidates 
 representing their former masters, long before this. 
 With sentiments of respect I am 
 very truly thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
From PAUL H. HAYNE 
 
 Copse Hilly October i6th y 1880. 
 My dear and venerated Friend : 
 
 I thank you for your letter of the 11 th inst.; 
 one of the kindest and most friendly of the many kind 
 and friendly letters you have written me. As the circle 
 of my correspondence once very large, gradually de- 
 creases, I cling with added affection to those corre- 
 spondents still, (as a sailor would say) " to the fore," 
 and surely among them, you stand pre-eminent. De- 
 spite the score of years difference in our ages, I am 
 quite old eno' to appreciate all your feelings in regard 
 to the advance of time ; and to comprehend, ab imo 
 pectore, the half sadness, half resignation, wherewith the 
 old must regard their past, or I should rather say, their 
 future, stripped as necessarily it must be, of many a 
 comfort, spiritual no less than bodily, which had once 
 cheered and sustained them ! 
 
 Nevertheless, old age when virtuous and honorable 
 and crowned with the laurels of well-directed genius 
 (as in your case), possesses numerous alleviations, and 
 that you realize this great and merciful truth, seems 
 manifest from the tone of all you have said upon the 
 subject. Never until the senses utterly fail, and the 
 blood grows cold indeed, can you cease to derive hap- 
 piness and consolation from Nature, and in the absence 
 of ancient friends, of comrades who have gone, in the 
 pathetic Latin phrase "gone to join the majority" 
 (abiit ad plures !) you may find younger, perhaps as 
 
[ 220 ] 
 
 fervent companions; or — failing this — you at least, 
 comprehend how day by day, and hour by hour, you 
 are drawing nearer to the " land of all realities," and 
 to that re-union of heart bonds, which Death had sev- 
 ered, a re-union, immaculate and immortal! 
 
 You recall the great Roman philosopher's " Trea- 
 tise upon Old Age " ? What a clever case he makes 
 out in the grey beard Stoic ! But then he must be pre- 
 eminently a Stoic, (or a man of somewhat callous feel- 
 ings), and physically well preserved, with stout diges- 
 tion, and never a twinge of neuralgia, lumbago, or 
 rheumatic hints of any sort ! ! 
 
 For the Christian philosopher, an infinitely higher 
 species of consolation may be predicted, — so long as 
 heart and mind survive — and he is freed from abso- 
 lute, loathsome disease. Is it Addison, or Steele, who 
 conventionally, yet touchingly compares a human life 
 properly conducted, to a fair day, with its many natural 
 changes, and enjoyments suited to each? 
 
 Of its sunset hour he discourses eloquently, show- 
 ing how the very sorrows about it, may be glorified 
 by a serene soul, as clouds gather splendor and beauty 
 from the final rays of the departing luminary ! 
 
 How I wish that a period not very far off perhaps, 
 had arrived, when instead of these slow (!) processes 
 of steam, one could travel by balloons ! ! Assuredly, 
 you should see me at "Oak Knoll," dropping liter- 
 ally from the clouds, and ready to admire with you, 
 the magnificence of your autumnal foliage ! Of course, 
 here, in the Southern pine barrens, we have no such 
 splendors, but among the mountain ranges of our 
 country section, Autumn becomes an Empress so 
 apparelled, that only the " pleasances of Paradise," I 
 
C 221 ] 
 
 verily believe, could excel the glory of her investi- 
 ture ! 
 
 We congratulate your relatives, Miss Abby and 
 Miss Caroline, upon their safe return from the Cali- 
 fornia visit. It must have charmed them indeed ! By 
 the way, I have a number of near relatives now living 
 in that marvellous State ; sons of my uncle, Gen! 
 Robert Y. Hayne 1 ; and their large families of sons 
 and daughters. One, D' Arthur Hayne, resides in San 
 Francisco ; the other, Allston Hayne, in beautiful 
 Southern Cal. near Santa Barbara. 
 
 I 'm pleased to hear of my young friend Phoebe, 
 and of her efforts to keep the household 3 lively; only 
 
 1 Senator from South Carolina whose speech was the occasion of 
 Webster's Reply to Hayne, March, 1830. 
 
 2 The result of this visit of Hayne to Oak Knoll was the poem 
 which T. W. Higginson says " is one of the best pictures ever drawn 
 of Whittier in his home life." (Higginson, Whittier, 113.) 
 
 " So 'neath the Quaker poet's tranquil roof, 
 From all deep discords of the world aloof, 
 I sit once more and measured converse hold, 
 With him whose nobler thoughts are rhythmic gold ; 
 See his deep brows half-puckered in a knot, 
 O'er some hard problem of our mortal lot, 
 Or a dream soft as May winds of the south, 
 Waft a girl's sweetness 'round his firm, set mouth. 
 
 U Or, should he deem wrong threats the public weal, 
 Lo, the whole man seems girt with flashing steel ; 
 His glance a sword thrust and his words of ire, 
 Like thunder tones from some old prophet's lyre. 
 Or by the hearthstone when the day is done, 
 Mark swiftly lanced a sudden shaft of fun ; 
 The short, quick laugh, the smartly smitten knees, 
 Are all sure tokens of a mind at ease." 
 
[ 222 ] 
 
 't is no effort to her, I warrant ! A naturally more 
 exuberant child, one more healthful, and full of 
 vivacity, I have seldom seen. Salute the little maiden, 
 for me, and say, that Mr. Hayne often thinks of her, 
 and always affectionately. I want her to read 6V. Nicho- 
 las for Xmas, because I '11 have a poem therein, she 
 may like. Do give our best remembrances (my wife's 
 and mine) to all the ladies of your household, and say 
 how pleasantly we recollect their beautiful home, and 
 courteous attentions to us. 
 
 Enclosed I send a poem l re-published from the 
 October Scribner, which may have failed to meet your 
 eye. You spoke so kindly of " From the Woods," ad- 
 dressed to my " winsome woman " that perhaps you 
 may like these verses, since you have known her ! 
 My wife deeply appreciates the affectionate manner 
 in which you always refer to her. She invariably men- 
 tions our visit to " Oak Knoll " lovingly, and often 
 wishes that you were under our own roof tree. 
 
 1 "I would not lose a single silvery ray 
 
 Of those white locks which, like a milky way, 
 Streak the dark midnight of thy raven hair ; 
 
 " I would not lose, O Sweet, the misty shine 
 Of those half-saddened, thoughtful eyes of thine, 
 Where love looks forth, touched by the shadows of care. 
 
 "Love's spring was fair, love's summer brave and bland, 
 But through love's autumn mist I view the land — 
 The land of deathless summers yet to be ; 
 
 " There I behold thee young again, and bright, 
 In a great flood of rare, transfiguring light ; 
 But there, as here, thou smilest, Love, on me. ' ' 
 "Love's Autumn," Scribner's, xx, 854; Oct., 1880. 
 
C 223 ] 
 
 Another, and very different piece, I enclose for your 
 examination ; a piece provoked by what seemed to me 
 a most ungenerous " fling " at Dr. Ticknor's poems 
 in a recent "Atlantic" l To allow such a verdict from 
 a magazine of authority, to go forth to the world un- 
 contradicted, would have been nothing less than "I'eze 
 majestie" the majesty of death, and genius sanctified 
 by death, (on the part of Ticknor's honest admirers.) 
 
 Knowing that you are one who never has shrunk, 
 and never can shrink from any truth to which you 
 have once borne testimony, I unhesitatingly quoted 
 your commendatory note upon the writer in question, 
 and his poems. I know what an effort writing now is 
 to you, but, my friend, when you can send us a letter 
 however brief, it will be especially appreciated. And 
 now, with my wife's love and all good wishes, 
 Believe as ever 
 
 Faithfully and affectionately Yrs. 
 
 Paul H. Hayne. 
 
 P. S. M? Hayne says, that if at any time you find 
 it convenient, she would be delighted to receive one 
 of your Ms. poems to keep! 
 
 1 The Atlantic, Nov., 1 880, has a short review of Poems of Frank 
 O. Ticknor, M.D. (Philadelphia, 1879), *° r which Hayne wrote an 
 introduction. Dr. Ticknor (1 822-1 874) was a Georgian physician 
 whose poems of the Civil War were popular in the South. The re- 
 viewer termed this volume of verse "an unnecessary addition to the 
 unhealthily enormous list, "though approval is expressed of "the vig- 
 orous, pathetic, masterly poem, ' Little Giffen,' " printed in Stedman's 
 American Anthology, 254. 
 
From EDWIN P. WHIPPLE 1 
 
 Boston, March 5, 1881. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 Thank you cordially for your " King's Mis- 
 sive," 2 and also for the lines declaring that the vol- 
 ume came from an " old friend," and that friend 
 John G. Whittier. And come to think of it, I do not 
 remember that a shade has passed on our friendship 
 since we first met as critic and poet. Among the hun- 
 dred notices I have written of you, I cannot recall any 
 word which did not indicate my appreciation of your 
 genius and my love for your character. Our friend- 
 ship, literary and personal, has been one of unclouded 
 sunshine. But who could quarrel with you, or fleer at 
 you ? Everybody who has met you in life knows that 
 you are a "Friend" in an intenser sense than its 
 merely technical and theological one. 
 
 In reading your latest volume, I feel, more and 
 more, that the hold you have on the public mind, is 
 primarily moral. But then your ethics are always 
 
 1 Whittier often expressed his regard for Whipple (18 19-1886). 
 He dedicated The Bay of Seven Islands (1883) "To Edwin P. 
 Whipple, one of the first to welcome my earliest volume, I offer the 
 latest as a token of a friendship never interrupted and which years 
 have only strengthened." In his Prose Works , ii, 3 1 8, Whittier writes: 
 " Scarcely inferior to Macaulay in brilliance of diction and graphic 
 portraiture, Whipple was freer from prejudice and passion, and more 
 loyal to the truth of fact and history. He was a thoroughly honest 
 man. He wrote with conscience always at his elbow, and never sacri- 
 ficed his real convictions for the sake of epigram and antithesis." 
 
 2 The King's Missive and Other Poems, Boston, 1881. 
 
[ 22 5 3 
 
 " touched with or by emotion." The dread law as it 
 awakens your conscience arouses moral feeling. This 
 feeling is sometimes righteous moral wrath, sometimes 
 persuasive moral tenderness and compassion ; but in 
 all cases it tends to move the hearts to which it is 
 addressed. 
 
 And then the singular purity of your poetry! You 
 not only never touch the sensual, but hardly ever 
 touch even the sensuous elements which enter into so 
 much of what we still must call good poetry. The 
 moral atmosphere of everything you have written is 
 as free from taint as the breath of a new born babe. 
 Therefore, in addition to your beautiful gifts of senti- 
 ment and imagination, I have always considered you 
 one of the great moral and purifying forces of the 
 time. It must be a solace to you in your old age that 
 the stream of your verse has been like that of Words- 
 worth's river Duddon " To heal and cleanse, not 
 madden or pollute. ,, Indeed, in reading this last vol- 
 ume, I feel as if my soul had taken a bath in holy 
 water. 
 
 How I could run on, my dear Whittier, in this 
 strain ! But I will tire you no more. My wife joins 
 with me in most affectionate greetings. May we see 
 you soon ! 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 E. P. Whipple 
 
To 
 
 DanverSy Mass. 
 
 ii Mo. 27, 1881. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 I have been gratified from time to time by the 
 
 receipt of publications connected with the excellent 
 
 society of which thou art secretary, and in the objects 
 
 of which I heartily sympathise. It is doing a noble 
 
 work, and I wish we had one like it on this side of 
 
 the water. Exhausted by the long hard anti-slavery 
 
 struggle, I have been too much of an invalid for some 
 
 years past to do much myself, beyond giving my 
 
 name and countenance to humanitarian efforts. But I 
 
 am glad to notice thy new activity and devotion to 
 
 good works. 
 
 I think thee sent me a pamphlet on Geo. Fox and 
 a paper concerning what is called the "Salvation 
 Army." I glanced over the paper, and found an arti- 
 cle on Abraham's attempt at human sacrifice, which 
 seemed to me a dangerous one. We have now within 
 sight of where I [am] writing, a man confined for 
 sacrificing his daughter, from what he regarded a sense 
 of duty. He justifies himself by Abraham. 
 
 I read with interest thy article on the Irish Ques- 
 tion and think some of its suggestions wise. But I see 
 nothing for the Gov* to do but to lay a heavy hand 
 on the brutal and cowardly assassins who think it 
 right and proper to murder a neighbor who is honest 
 enough to pay his debts. It is impossible to reason 
 with unreason, like this. It seems to me that such 
 
[ 227 ] 
 
 men as Bright and Forster have gone to extremes in 
 their concessions to Ireland so far as rent is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Wishing thee abundant success in thy work so far 
 as it is in accordance with the Divine Will, and with 
 a pleasant remembrance of thy visit to me many years 
 ago, I am truly thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
From OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 Boston, April ist, 188a. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 I thank you for your most kind and touching 
 letter. It is too true that we stand in a certain sense 
 alone. When Bryant fell, the cold wind struck full 
 upon us. Now Longfellow is gone, 1 we seem to hear 
 our roots cracking. I could have wished you had been 
 in the library where lay all that was left of him whom 
 we knew so well in life. " Dead he lay among his 
 books." His brother read some sweet passages [from] 
 his poems, and some of those Scriptural words which 
 lie in our hearts beneath all that has been written 
 since, or ever can be written. He read with unfalter- 
 ing voice, and many times the tones were so like those 
 of his brother that it seemed as if the poet were softly 
 uttering his own requiem. All was tranquil, lovely, as 
 it should have been. A branch of palm (I thought it 
 was), a passion flower, nothing or next to nothing but 
 these lay on or by the coffin. At the tomb only a few 
 words were spoken, and the dark burden hiding what 
 was so lately radiant with clear and serene intelligence 
 descended into the silent darkness where more than 
 twenty years ago the beautiful wife, so fitting a com- 
 panion for such a poet, was laid in the midst of an- 
 guish that could find no words. 
 
 I do not know what I shall be able to say or write. 
 
 1 Longfellow died March 24, 1882. Holmes's tribute, with com- 
 ments on Longfellow's writings, is in Proceedings Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society, 1881-82, xxix, 269-275. 
 
[ <2<2 9 ] 
 
 I have promised the Historical Society to do some- 
 thing at their next meeting. In the meantime I have 
 to leave Boston early next week to join my wife and 
 two of my children at Lakewood in New Jersey, 
 where my youngest son 1 has been passing the winter 
 on account of asthma, which has found great relief in 
 that sandy spot. I myself feel tired, I confess it — 
 tired with a long winter's lecturing, with a correspond- 
 ence which has become cruel, and a cold which has 
 lasted longer than common — three or four weeks 
 — and leaves me feeling my work more of a burden 
 than I could wish. But your loving words are always 
 a cordial, and I thank you from my heart for all those 
 expressions of esteem and affection of which I feel you 
 to be so much worthier than myself, and send back to 
 you, adding my reverence to my love. 
 
 Always faithfully yours, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
 "The third child, Edward Jackson, inherited much of his 
 father's wit and humor ; but unfortunately also inherited the asthma. 
 This hampered him in the practice of the law, gave him, in fact, no 
 chance at all in life, and finally so undermined his constitution that he 
 died untimely in 1884." Morse, Holmes, i, 172. 
 
To CHARLES P. PRESTON 
 
 Oak Knolly Danvers, Mass. 
 %tb mo. 1883. 
 Hon. Charles P, Preston. 
 Dear Friend : 
 
 I very much regret that I am not able to be 
 with you at the gathering x this evening. I am, it is 
 true, better acquainted with the good and true man 
 whom you deservedly honor on this occasion, as a kind 
 friend and neighbor, a worthy citizen and wise legis- 
 lator, than as a minister, but the fact that he has ac- 
 ceptably held his pulpit for twenty years, is proof 
 that he has done good service in it. During this long 
 period I have never heard that his parish has been 
 troubled by the bodily presence of that evil and disre- 
 putable personage with whom his predecessor, Parson 
 Parris fought such a losing battle. As a consequence 
 of this, he has had no occasion to spend his time in 
 searching for witches among the elderly ladies of his 
 congregation ; and the sound orthodoxy of his people 
 under his ministrations, has rendered heresy hunting 
 so unnecessary that the solitary Quaker who has so- 
 journed within the parish limits, still remains un- 
 hanged. 
 
 1 The twentieth anniversary of the installation of Rev. Charles B. 
 Rice, over the First Church of Danvers. It was in this parish, then 
 Salem Village, that the witchcraft delusion first appeared in 1692 and 
 at the parsonage of Rev. Samuel Parris, its minister. 
 
[ *3* ] 
 
 Pleasantry apart, I beg leave to join my congratula- 
 tions with yours, with all good wishes for the Chris- 
 tian gentleman who is the recipient of them. 
 I am very truly thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
From OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 Boston, Nov. \th 1883 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 Many thanks for the dear little volume of 
 poems ' you sent me. I have just been reading over 
 those I remembered, and others I was not sure that I 
 had ever seen. 
 
 I left off with my eyes full of tears. There is so 
 much hope and sweetness and human sympathy run- 
 ning through these poems that they stir, — yes, as I 
 write there goes the tear which I thought would behave 
 itself running down my cheek. I am not ashamed of 
 my womanly tribute, for if an old man has not a few 
 drops of his mother's milk left in his veins, he has 
 lived too long. If I had to take my choice, I think I 
 should select " How the Women went from Dover/' 2 
 It gave me the old thrill as I read it — it is alive all 
 over. I do not know that you will approve my choice 
 and I am not sure that I ought not to have selected 
 " What the Traveller said at Sunset " 3 which I read 
 
 1 The Bay of Seven Islands and Other Poems, 1883. 
 
 2 "The tossing spray of Cocheco's fall 
 
 Hardened to ice on its rocky wall, 
 
 As through Dover town in the chill, gray dawn, 
 
 Three women passed, at the cart-tail drawn." 
 
 Poems, 130. 
 
 3 "The shadows grow and deepen round me, 
 
 I feel the dew-fall in the air ; 
 The muezzin of the darkening thicket, 
 I hear the night-thrush call to prayer." 
 
 Poems, 463. 
 
C *33 ] 
 
 with deep emotion. God bless you, dear Whittier, 
 and keep you singing until the angels are out of pa- 
 tience waiting for you ! 
 
 Affectionately Yours, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
From WILLIAM CLAFLIN 1 
 
 Boston, Feby, 4, 1884. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 It does my heart good to hear from you. We 
 
 did not know where you were, whether at Oak Knoll 
 
 or Amesbury. 
 
 The winter is wearing away and I fear you are weary 
 of cold and confinement. However, the sun is daily 
 going higher and soon the buds will begin to swell, 
 reminding us of the approach of spring and, I trust, 
 the hope of comfort to you. 
 
 My dear wife is a hermit at the Old Elms, 2 with 
 a servant and " no company " except her husband 
 occasionally and the children. The noise of the city 
 with the anxiety of home, brought sleepless nights and 
 "dreadful" days. She seems better and I hope she 
 will be well enough next week to follow the birds 
 south. 
 
 Now we think a change will do you much good, 
 and the house, 63 Mt. Vernon St., will have only Ar- 
 thur, his lovely wife, and Mrs. Freeland, whose guest 
 you will be, if you will take your old room and my 
 library in possession. 3 You may come and go, sleep, 
 
 1 Governor of Massachusetts, 1 869, 1 8 70, 1 87 1 . 
 
 2 The Claflin estate at Newtonville. 
 
 s In Mrs. Claflin' s Personal Reminiscences of Wbittier, 82, is 
 quoted a letter from Whittier : "I will tell thee now what I could 
 not say at thy house, that I enjoyed every moment of my long visit 
 with you. Of the special kindness with which I was received into 
 thy household circle, I can only say that I wish that I deserved it." 
 
[ ns ] 
 
 eat, write and have your friends to visit, as independ- 
 ently as Robinson Crusoe on his island. 
 
 I expect to be absent four weeks, and Mrs. C. may 
 remain longer. There is an additional attraction for 
 you which I almost forgot. Mr. and Mrs. [T. B.] 
 Aldrich are fairly settled in a lovely home r with lots 
 of bric-a-brac and beautiful books around them. They 
 will be delighted to see you at any and all times. 
 
 Now do not fail to come. 
 
 Mayor Martin 2 was perhaps a little hasty, but his 
 anger was righteous. The School Committee has been 
 run by a ring who have bought supplies in a regular 
 Tweed way and had almost absolute sway, the mem- 
 bers holding three or four chairmanships each. The 
 Mayor divided the chairmanships properly, which 
 produced the explosion. The public generally sustain 
 the Mayor. 
 
 Genl. Sherman is not a Catholic, probably has not 
 much religious interest, but is a true, honest, liberal, 
 large-hearted man. He has excellent administrative 
 abilities and would make an excellent President. His 
 wife is a recluse and would have no influence upon 
 his public acts. John Sherman would much. He has 
 great love for the General and would assist him to the 
 best of his ability. If we could be sure to nominate 
 and elect Sherman, I should sleep easy. I think Ed- 
 munds could carry New York and quite likely the 
 country if he could be nominated, but I fear he would 
 wreck his party in the same way John Adams did. 
 His strength lies in his criticism. He is a pessimist, 
 and wants to do nothing in government as long as 
 
 1 No. 59 Mount Vernon Street, Boston. 
 
 2 General A. P. Martin, Mayor of Boston. 
 
C 236 ] 
 
 there is a way to avoid it. His acquiescence is gener- 
 ally all you can obtain. Lincoln is a good man, and 
 will do well, if elected. His strength is "sentiment." 
 Blaine is dangerous if nominated, and dangerous if 
 not, but less as a follower than a leader. However, 
 we shall nominate a good man and be likely to elect 
 him, as we are less divided than the Democrats. 
 Goodby, faithfully yours 
 
 W. Claflin. 
 Remember me to the ladies. 
 
From THOMAS CHASE 1 
 
 Haverford College, 
 nth Mo. ^thy 1884. 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier : 
 
 I congratulate thee on the tokens of apprecia- 
 tion of thy genius and of the use thou hast made of 
 thy powers, which came from many quarters at the 
 recent celebration at Providence. For myself, I regret 
 that a pressure of other engagements prevented my 
 making as complete a study of my subject as I could 
 wish. 
 
 There is some talk of printing the proceedings in 
 a more permanent form than the newspaper report. 
 If I have misapprehended any facts or failed to notice 
 anything thou would like to have noticed, I shall feel 
 greatly obliged if thou will send me word. 
 
 Allow me to say that there would be no want of 
 delicacy and no forwardness on thy part, if thou were 
 to point out any department of thy writing, or any of 
 thy aims, which I have not spoken of, or to which I 
 have not done justice. 
 
 Least of all should thou feel any delicacy in speak- 
 ing of anything thou would wish referred to, of a per- 
 sonal character. Thus I intend to introduce in any 
 further publication an extract from thy lines to Wm. 
 Lloyd Garrison, speaking of him among thy friends. 
 I had marked an extract for quotation, but left it out 
 *- Appendix L, page 284. 
 
[ *3« ] 
 
 thinking I had already said enough about the anti- 
 slavery struggle, losing sight for the moment of the 
 fact that he ought to be commemorated among thy 
 friends. 
 
 What more ought I to say of thy mother and sister ? 
 Am I right in thinking the picture of the reader in the 
 " Demon of the Study " r to have been suggested by 
 thy sister? Do I rightly refer to "In School Days" 2 
 as autobiographical ? 
 
 The report of my address in the [Providence] 
 Journal has several misprints, most of which are per- 
 haps obvious. The word " not " is omitted in the 
 sentence which ought to read, " The great bards of 
 history have not sung merely to amuse." Line 26, 
 2d column, for <c noblest lives " read, " noblest loves." 
 In the remarks on " Snow-Bound," I call the people 
 of N. E. sturdy , and with glimpses of the lore of Greece 
 and Rome. Thy religious poetry I call "songs of the 
 spirit," not "spirits." The quotations from thy poems 
 have several misprints, as thou wilt observe. Yet the 
 report is on the whole creditable, especially as I did 
 not read the proof. » 
 
 It is with a view to historical accuracy, and a desire 
 to hand down perhaps to after days a juster view both 
 of thy aims and thy achievements, that I venture to 
 trouble thee with these requests. 
 
 With sincere gratitude and respect, and all good 
 wishes, I am 
 
 Very truly thy friend, 
 
 Thomas Chase. 
 
 r Poems, 6. 2 Poems, 407. 
 
From AMELIA B. EDWARDS 
 
 The Larches, 
 
 Westbury on Trym y Bristol, 
 
 February n, 1885. 
 
 Dear Poet, Subscriber and Friend : 
 
 I have to tell you of a curious and unfortu- 
 nate mistake which has befallen of late, and which has 
 diverted from its rightful owner a long letter, written 
 some six weeks ago by me to you. The letter was a 
 grateful and hearty one, I know, but I no longer very 
 clearly remember its contents. I thanked you for es- 
 pousing the cause of our explorations — a cause to 
 which I have devoted much time and work, and for 
 which I have made very heavy sacrifices, 1 and I know 
 I told you how very highly I value your beloved and 
 honored name in our list of American subscribers, 
 which already includes D!" O. W. Holmes and my 
 good friend, James Russell Lowell. And I said therein 
 how very dear some of your poetry was to me, and how, 
 years ago, I robbed you of " Barbara Fritchie " for a 
 volume of selected poetry that I compiled for Baron 
 Tauchnitz's Series. More than this I cannot remember. 
 The fate of the letter is somewhat droll. My friend 
 and invaluable coadjutor, the Rev d W. C. Winslow, 
 when he sent me a copy of your charming letter to 
 himself, asked to be allowed to see a copy of my reply 
 
 1 Miss Edwards's efforts to arouse interest in the Egyptian Explora- 
 tion Fund were indeed exhausting, and undoubtedly hastened her death 
 after her lecture tour in the United States in 1890. 
 
[ 240 ] 
 
 to you. Instead of sending him a copy, I sent him the 
 letter itself, addressed to you, and begged him, when he 
 had read it, to post it. He overlooked this request, 
 believed it to be a copy and his own, put it in a col- 
 lection of autographs, and finally, but very reluctantly, 
 yielded it to a lady who, on the strength of so worthless 
 a gift, subscribed $10 to the Exploration Fund ! Who 
 the lady is I know not; but she has your letter. 
 
 Mr. Winslow is overwhelmed with contrition, and 
 has begged me to write and explain. You, I am sure, 
 will enjoy the comedy of the incident and the catas- 
 trophe of the ten-dollar lady, and will condone our 
 friend's mistake. 
 
 Once more, I thank you for your much prized co- 
 operation, and remain, dear sir, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Amelia B. Edwards. 
 
From OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 
 
 Beverly Farms, Mass. 
 
 Sept. jtb 1885. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 Thanks for your plenary absolution for the sin 
 of publishing your private letter. 1 I am glad I did, for 
 I have a right to the pleasure you speak of, that of 
 seeing our names mentioned together. I had just sent 
 a note down stairs, for the Post Office, directed to 
 Rev. Charles Wingate, in reply to an invitation to be 
 at the meeting where you are to see your old school- 
 mates 2 assembled. I am sorry that I cannot be there, 
 but my letter will carry my best wishes. 
 
 As to Walt Whitman, some of his poems are among 
 the most cynical instances of indecent exposure I recol- 
 lect, outside of what is sold as obscene literature. But 
 I said to myself just what you did to yourself — he 
 served well in the cause of humanity and I do not 
 grudge him a ten dollar bill, — so I sent word to Mr. 
 Donaldson that I was ready with my subscription 
 at any moment. You ask me for my advice. I am 
 ashamed to advise a man like you, but we are told that 
 it is a good thing to clothe the naked, and I remem- 
 
 1 Whittier' s birthday congratulations to Holmes, 8th mo, 27, 
 1885, turned on the remark an " innocent " made to Whittier' s 
 father, "I am glad you and I are alive." Holmes allowed the Boston 
 Transcript to print the letter, Aug. 31, 1885, because it was "too 
 agreeable to be kept as private proper ty." 
 
 2 The Reunion of the surviving students of the Haverhill Academy, 
 1827-30, at Haverhill, Sept. 10, 1885. Poems, 239. 
 
[ 242 ] 
 
 ber that the good Samaritan set the lame traveller on 
 his own ass. 
 
 Now Walt Whitman stands as stark naked before 
 the public, in "Leaves of Grass" as nudity can dis- 
 array itself. We are not asked to set him on an ass, 
 but to put him in a go-cart of some kind or other, 
 which is nearly the same thing. I think it is a pleasant 
 thing enough to do it and, though I have not made 
 out a very logical case, I think you may honestly do 
 it on the ground you mention. 
 
 Many thanks for your kind invitation to call on 
 you at Oak Knoll. It is not impossible that I may 
 come some day before I leave for Boston, but I shall 
 let you know beforehand, and ask you if the time I 
 fix is convenient for you, if I give myself the great 
 pleasure of such a visit. 
 
 I hope you will enjoy the reunion with your old 
 schoolmates. 
 
 Always affectionately yours, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
to "THE BOSTON TRANSCRIPT" 1 
 
 A Word of Explanation 
 
 To the Editor of the Transcript : 
 
 I suppose it is a necessary consequence of 
 one's notoriety of any kind to have all his words and 
 acts regarded as public property and subjected to ex- 
 aggeration and misrepresentation. Ordinarily one does 
 not find it of much use to complain of this ; but there 
 are cases where it seems a matter of duty to make an 
 explanation. A friend recently informed me that Walt 
 Whitman of Newark, N. J. was in straitened circum- 
 stances, disabled and paralytic, and that an effort was 
 being made to procure for him the means of exercise 
 in the open air. I did not know him personally, and 
 had but very slight knowledge of his writings, which, 
 while indicating a certain virile vigor and originality, 
 seemed to me often indefensible from a moral point of 
 view. 
 
 But I had heard of his assiduous labors as a nurse 
 in Union hospitals, and had read his tender tribute to 
 the memory of President Lincoln, and with no idea 
 of its being made a matter of publicity, gave my mite 
 for the object to which my attention was called, stat- 
 ing at the same time my feeling in regard to some 
 portions of Whitman's writings, and my wish for his 
 own as well as the public's sake, for their expurgation. 
 I should be extremely sorry to have a simple act of 
 
 1 This letter seems to have been withheld by Whittier, as it has not 
 been found in the Transcript of that period. 
 
[ 244 ] 
 
 humanity on my part towards a suffering man regarded 
 as sanctioning or excusing anything in his writings of 
 an evil tendency. 
 
 With no wish to sit in judgment upon others, and 
 making all charitable allowance possible for differences 
 of temperament, education and association, I must 
 confess to a strong dislike to what is sometimes called 
 the sensual school of literature and art. My friend, 
 Dr. Holmes, who was also a contributor, wishes me 
 to say that his gift, like my own, was solely an act of 
 kindness to a disabled author, implying no approval 
 whatever of his writings. 
 
 John G. Whittier 
 
 Danvers, Mass. 
 
 [ — 1885] 
 
From JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 
 
 Deerfoot Farm, 
 
 Southborough, Mass. 
 
 wth Nov. 1886. 
 Dear Friend: 
 
 (I am almost tempted to call you "dear old 
 
 friend," since you insist on thinking yourself an aged 
 
 man when nobody else would dream of calling you 
 
 so.) Nothing could have pleased me more than a letter 
 
 from you, unless it were such a letter as you wrote. 
 
 I am very glad you liked my poor speech. I should 
 have done better, but that the Hawthorne episode 1 
 came to disturb me just as I had got under way. It 
 was a shabby thing to do, but I don't think he knew 
 how shabby it was. Had he reported me accurately, I 
 should n't have minded so much, though even if he 
 had, he could n't have given the context of tone, look 
 and emphasis which make so large a part of speech. 
 But it is done, and can't be mended. I am thankful to 
 you for your sympathy, all the same. 
 
 I, too, wish we might meet. Perhaps some day I 
 may run down to Amesbury (as I did with Bayard 
 Taylor, ever so many years ago) to talk over old times. 
 Meanwhile I am rejoiced to infer from your hand- 
 
 1 The New York World had published an interview with Lowell, 
 concerning which he wrote to the Boston Advertiser ■, Oct. 26, 1886, 
 in part : " It never entered my head that the son of my old and hon- 
 ored friend was ' interviewing ' me. If it had, he would have found 
 me dumb." 
 
[ 246] 
 
 writing (which is just what it was in early Atlantic 
 days) that you are well, and am always, 
 
 Most heartily yours 
 
 J. R. Lowell 
 
 P. S. I was thoroughly glad that Harvard honored 
 herself by putting you on her roll of honor. 1 
 J. G. Whittier, LL.D. 
 
 1 Harvard gave Whittier the degree of Doctor of Laws in 1886, 
 when the 250th anniversary of its founding was celebrated. 
 
From CHARLES C. CHASE 1 
 
 Lowell, Mass. Nov. 18, 1887 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 It may interest you to know that Miss Elisa- 
 beth B. Livermore, half-sister of Harriet Livermore, 2 
 lives near me. She is a very feeble old lady now ; her 
 age, if I remember right, being 84 yrs. I had oc- 
 casion to call upon her not many days since. I asked 
 her if she had seen the Life of Harriet Livermore by 
 Rev. Mr. Livermore, which was published three years 
 since. Her reply was : " No, I have seen enough of her." 
 This reply confirms what I had heard before, that 
 Harriet was far from being loved by her younger 
 sisters. Miss Elisabeth Livermore lives in a small half- 
 house in Bartlett St. next door to my brother Samuel's 
 house. Her life seems solitary, and she is all alone, and 
 almost never has company. I think she is not happy in 
 the families of her relatives. Her sister Caroline, Mrs. 
 Judge J. G. Abbott of Boston, died a few months 
 since. Her sister Sarah is the wife of John Lattemore, 
 Esq. of Southbridge, Mass. and her sister Mary Jane 
 is the wife of Hon. Daniel Saunders of Lawrence. 
 
 A Lowell lady recently told me that Harriet Liver- 
 more's father, Judge Livermore of Lowell, was a very 
 hard man. She referred to his harsh nature. Last even- 
 ing I heard a gentleman read in public from the manu- 
 script diary of the celebrated Kirk Boott, first agent 
 
 1 Charles C. Chase (18 18-1900) was for many years a teacher 
 in Lowell. 
 
 a Appendix M, page 286. 
 
[ *4» ] 
 
 of our Merrimack Manufacturing Co., in which (in 
 1824) he says that Judge Livermore was afflicted with 
 the gout, but still kept on " eating and drinking enough 
 for two men." From these two remarks I judge that 
 Harriet Livermore may not have had a kind and gentle 
 father. (She lost her mother very early.) Home seems 
 never to have had any attractions for her. 
 
 Before hearing the facts mentioned above, I had 
 prepared an article upon " Harriet Livermore," after 
 having seen Rev. Mr. Livermore's account of her, in 
 which article I had in the mildest form suggested that 
 you in " Snow-Bound " had not done full justice to 
 the better part of her character. This article, prepared 
 for our "Old Resident's Association," I did not read 
 till last evening, and an abstract of my article appears 
 in this morning's " Morning Mail." 
 
 This newspaper states, nearly in my own words, 
 what I did say, and I inclose a slip cut from the paper 
 in this letter, as also a few words cut from another 
 paper. Since I prepared this article, I have somewhat 
 modified my judgment of Harriet Livermore, from 
 conversations which I have had with several persons 
 who knew her, or knew of her. I am more inclined 
 to the belief that you were just and fair in what you 
 said of her in " Snow-Bound." Still I read my article 
 as written, for I had used only very mild words. 
 
 The Lowell Chases are all well. I heartily congratu- 
 late you upon having, by the kindness of Heaven, 
 completed eighty honorable and honored years of life. 
 I, too, am hastening on in the swift race, not far be- 
 hind you. In a few days I shall reach the allotted three- 
 score years and ten. Very truly yours, 
 
 C. C. Chase. 
 
From GEORGE F. HOAR 
 
 Washington, Jan. 20/88. 
 My dear Mr. Whittier: 
 
 I am told that the address of congratulation, 1 
 which was largely signed just before your birthday, 
 has been delayed that some persons who desired, might 
 have an opportunity to add their names, and will now 
 be presented to you. I wish it were possible to let 
 you know with what expressions of strong esteem and 
 affection these signatures were accompanied. This was 
 true, not only of Northern men and Republicans, but 
 of old Democrats and slave holders as well. 
 
 In some cases the voice trembled with feeling, and 
 the eye moistened. One Senator, a man whom I sup- 
 posed to be hard and dry and absolutely without poetic 
 emotion, told me that when he left his native State for 
 the West, the only book he owned for several years 
 was Whittier's poems. 
 
 But you are finding out in ten thousand ways how 
 much your countrymen love and honor you. I can 
 not begin to tell you how much inspiration and strength 
 and stimulant you have been to me from my early 
 boyhood. 
 
 I am faithfully yours, 
 
 Geo. F. Hoar. 
 
 1 At the suggestion of Gen. Cogswell, Representative from the 
 Essex County district, an address of congratulation on the completion 
 of Whittier' s eightieth year was prepared in Washington, and signed 
 by Senators, Representatives, Justices of the Supreme Court, and men 
 of note. The volume is now in the Whittier home at Amesbury. 
 
From OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 1 
 
 Boston, April $tb, 1888. 
 My dear Whittier : 
 
 I will not write to you on mourning paper, for 
 you know how little significance there is to such sym- 
 bols. I ought not to mourn that my dear wife was 
 taken gently from my side before her mental change 
 had reached that sad condition in which it too often 
 ends. She was comely, sweet mannered, sweet tem- 
 pered to the. last. My weaning from her much loved 
 companionship was very gradual, and I have been 
 with her night and day, except during my brief visit 
 to Europe, for all these years of her growing mental 
 infirmity. I enjoyed forty five years of as happy mar- 
 ried life as any mortals have a right to expect. As I 
 look back over that long period, not a look or a word 
 comes into my memory which left a sting or a wound 
 after it. 
 
 We were fortunate enough to find an excellent and 
 devoted companion for her, a widow lady to whom 
 she very soon became attached, and who was all to her 
 that a sister could have been. 
 
 You will be glad, I am sure, to know that my daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. Turner Sargent, is coming to live with me, 
 having let her own beautiful house on the slope of 
 Beacon Hill, overlooking the Common, and taking 
 my noble water view in exchange. 
 
 1 A similar letter addressed to Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, 
 is in Morse, Holmes, ii, 263. 
 
[»5i ] 
 
 I shall do my best to find an interest in life, and I 
 know that she will help me to pass the days which will 
 often seem lonely in remembrance but are crowded 
 with recollections which will come back to me more 
 and more as the present grows dim and dreamy. 
 
 I shall send you a little book in the course of a week 
 or two — but I do beg you to wait until we meet to 
 thank me for it, for I know what it means to have to 
 write a note about a friend's book. 
 
 I often think of you, and you may be sure that no 
 one can recall you in memory without a glow of love 
 and reverence, such as hardly another among all your 
 fellow countrymen's names would call forth. Believe 
 me, 
 
 Always faithfully and 
 
 lovingly yours, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 
From ISAAC R. PENNYPACKER 
 
 'The Philadelphia Inquirer 
 
 929 Chestnut St. 
 
 Philadelphia, Oct. 25, 1890. 
 My dear Sir: 
 
 I thought it might not be unpleasant to you 
 
 to receive the copy of the " Inquirer " of today, which 
 
 I have marked and send you, showing the use made 
 
 of your poem at a Republican mass meeting in the 
 
 Academy last night. 1 I suppose I am responsible in 
 
 1 Philip C. Garrett, in his speech supporting George W. Delama- 
 ter for Governor, said : "As for me, stronger reasons than any that 
 have been alleged will be required to draw me from my allegiance, 
 I do not despair of the Republic. I do not despair under the con 
 tinued leadership of the same beneficent party, of the ultimate con- 
 quest of every form of corruption and tyranny in our country. And 
 I can say with the venerable poet Whittier in lines written this very 
 summer : 
 
 * Our thought of thee is glad with hope, 
 
 Dear country of our love and prayers ; 
 
 Thy way is down no fatal slope, 
 
 But up to freer sun and airs. 
 
 « Thy lesson all the world shall learn, 
 The nations at thy feet shall sit, 
 Earth's farthest mountain tops shall burn, 
 With watch-fires from thine own uplit. 
 
 « Great, without seeking to be great 
 By fraud or conquest ; rich in gold, 
 But richer in the large estate 
 Of virtue which thy children hold. 
 
 « With peace that comes of purity, 
 And strength to simple justice due, 
 
[ *53 ] 
 
 a measure for Mr. Garrett's mistake in saying that 
 the poem was written this Summer. This error and 
 the poem itself, and certain comments upon it, sent 
 you at the time, were copied from the "Inquirer" 
 into almost every Pennsylvania newspaper, shortly 
 after the Mrs. Logan reception. 
 
 We are in the midst of a very warm political cam- 
 paign in this State. The free traders of New York 
 have taken a hand in Pennsylvania politics, as they 
 have never done before. They have not usually at- 
 tacked the tarifFopenly, but have confined their efforts 
 to the most outrageous personal abuse of our candi- 
 date for Governor, Mr. Delamater, and United States 
 Senator Quay. In the circulation of these scandals 
 they have been assisted by the Democrats here and 
 by a few persons who in former years were Republi- 
 cans, but who through personal association with the 
 Clevelands, or by reason of some personal grievance, 
 or because they are free traders^ are now helping the 
 Democrats. The New York motive, of course, is to 
 break down Senator Quay, a man of great ability who 
 so successfully managed the National Republican 
 campaign which ended in the election of President 
 Harrison. The men who know Senator Quay person- 
 ally and well, say that he is a man whose word is al- 
 ways fulfilled, a man of courage and wide culture with 
 high ideal of personal conduct in his dealings with his 
 fellow men. He is not a candidate at all, his term not 
 expiring until 1893. 
 
 So runs our loyal dream of thee, 
 God of our fathers! make it true.* " 
 
 Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 25, 1890. 
 These lines, revised, are in "Our Country," Poems, 383. 
 
[ 2 54 ] 
 
 I wish very much that in a general way, without 
 entering into personalities, you could find it possible 
 to write me something in advocacy of the tariff and 
 of upholding the principles of the Republican party 
 which I might print. Some of the Friends of Bucks 
 County, and perhaps in Chester County, without being 
 familiar with the details of the campaign, have, I fear, 
 had their faith shaken by the wide circulation in the 
 New York " World," which has been scattered broad 
 cast throughout Pennsylvania, of the slanders against 
 Senator Delamater, our candidate for Governor, and 
 Senator Quay. These slanders have been emphati- 
 cally denied, but there is danger, as was the case with 
 Mr. Blaine and General Garfield, that they may drive 
 away some Republican voters, and we need every Re- 
 publican vote. 
 
 Such a letter from you, as I suggest, would be worth 
 a great many stump speeches, particularly in Phila- 
 delphia, Bucks and Chester Counties and in the Muncy 
 Valley where the Friends are strong. In these coun- 
 ties, local contests threaten to reduce our majority. If 
 the people can be made to appreciate the importance 
 of the National issue involved in our Gubernatorial 
 election, they will give up their local differences and 
 unitedly support the ticket. 
 
 Yours very truly 
 
 Isaac R. Pennypacker. 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
 One of John Brown's sons took refuge in the home 
 of Senator Delamater's father after the Harpers Ferry 
 outbreak. The present candidate for Governor se- 
 cretly supplied the refugee with food for some weeks. 
 He was then a boy. 
 
From EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN 
 
 137 West j$tb Street y 
 New Tork, December i%tb 1890. 
 
 My dear, my beloved, Mr. Whittier: 
 
 On this afternoon of the day when my mother 
 would have been 80 years old, I came home fatigued 
 and sad, not knowing that you had provided for me 
 the keenest pleasure I now have experienced for many 
 a day, and certainly the highest honor that has come 
 to me at any time. When Laura, my wife, handed me 
 the copy of "Sundown" I saw tears in her eyes and 
 a smile on her face. I am not ashamed to confess that 
 before I had finished reading the exquisite inscription 
 to E. C. S., and, what with weakness and surprise and 
 gratitude and a rush of tender feelings, I was myself 
 crying like a child. 1 
 
 Indeed, I have grown old without having time to 
 realize it, or to outgrow the selfsame thoughts with 
 respect to you and your work that I had, when a 
 youth in New England. You have put your hands 
 upon my head and blessed me. No other hands, no 
 other blessing, can be so dear to me, though other 
 blessings come where one like yours has fallen. 
 
 No poet older than myself, except Bayard Taylor, 
 has ever understood me as you have — or said to me 
 
 1 "At Sundown" (Cambridge, 1890). One of an edition of fifty 
 copies privately printed. Later editions contain minor changes. The 
 dedication (Poems, 467) is to E. C. S[tedman], " Poet and friend of 
 poets. ..." 
 
[a 5 6] 
 
 such words as you have said from time to time. Per- 
 haps my own lack of such warmth from above has made 
 me a little the more thoughtful of those still younger 
 who care for a word even from me. I think your vol- 
 untary letter, some years ago, when I wrote the Con- 
 cord poem, was worth more to me than any words I 
 ever heard before. But as for this crowning grace — 
 I can only send you these broken expressions of an 
 over full heart. I am sensibly touched beyond words. 
 I made it rather a point, dear Mr. Whittier, not to 
 write you on your birthday. I feared you would feel 
 moved to answer me, and I knew you would know 
 that your 83 d anniversary was remembered in my 
 house. Little did I think how you had borne me in 
 your heart and mind. Stay with us yet, is the prayer 
 to-night of 
 
 Your grateful and attached friend, 
 
 Edmund C. Stedman. 
 
To MISS PHEBE WOODMAN, 
 OAK KNOLL 
 
 [Ames bury, June — , 1892.] 
 Second Day Morning. 
 Dear Phebe: 
 
 I meant to have gone to Oak Knoll today, 
 but I am suffering with a bad headache, and must de- 
 fer it until I feel better. I think I must have taken 
 cold in this hot weather in some way, though I tried 
 to be careful. I suppose thy mother and Aunt Caro- 
 line are at Goffstown or Manchester, or are about to 
 be there (on business I suppose.) I am sorry you 
 could not accept Mrs. Hollingsworth's invitation. 
 Lizzie Pickard writes that it is very hot at Yearly 
 Meeting. I am glad I did not try to go there though 
 I was anxious to meet Dr. Thos. Chase s there, to 
 have some talk with him about writing my biography 
 which he has consented to do in connexion with My 
 Pickard, who will aid him in obtaining material and 
 facts etc. I wish for my part that nothing of the kind 
 should be written. 2 
 
 I wish I was at Oak Knoll this hot day; it is as 
 hot there as here, but the sight of green fields and 
 trees seems to make heat less severe. I am sure the 
 garden is greatly improved, and the roses must be, 
 some of them at least, in bloom. The climbing roses 
 under my window are in full blossom and the flowers 
 look in upon me. The laburnum is also doing well, 
 
 1 See Appendix L, p. 284. * Appendix N, p. 289. 
 
[a 5 8 ] 
 
 and the cut-leaf birches at the end of the garden are 
 large and handsome. There is a small patch of straw- 
 berries, a rare kind from Gen. Cogswell's, which are 
 just ripening. The old white rose, a slip from Aunt 
 Jones' rose bush more than ioo years old, is budded. 
 As soon as I feel able to, I shall go to Oak Knoll. 
 The very hot weather keeps me in doors. To-day is 
 the hottest of all. Love [to] you all. 
 
 AfF. 
 
 J. G. W. 
 
To MISS CAROLINE C. JOHNSON, 
 OAK KNOLL 1 
 
 Hampton Falls, N. H. 
 
 Aug. 28, 1892. 
 Dear Caroline: 
 
 I feared there might be some doubt about the 
 title of the Alaska Mission, 3 and am glad the money 
 raised is safe in the Bank. But I hope now the legal 
 rights of the Mission land ownership will be fully in- 
 vestigated and definitely settled. I wrote to the cor- 
 respondent or clerk of the New Wilmington Yearly 
 Meeting, urging the needs and claims of the Mission. 
 The Friends there are poor but active and zealous, 
 and want to do something, and they will do all they 
 can. 
 
 The great change in the weather has been hard for 
 me, and I have not felt so well as before, but there 
 are indications of fair weather to-day. The pilgrims 
 and reporters have found me out, and I am still an- 
 noyed by them. I enclose some verses I wrote for Dr. 
 Holmes' Birthday. 3 Rather poor and weakish, but I 
 
 1 The last letter Whittier wrote to Oak Knoll. Three days later 
 he was taken ill, and died September 7, 1892, at Hampton Falls, 
 N.H. 
 
 2 Whittier' s cousins, with whom he made his home, became inter- 
 ested while travelling on the Pacific Coast, in a Friends' Mission to 
 the Indians at Juneau, Alaska. On their return Whittier with others 
 contributed to its support. Unfortunately the building was on land with 
 a defective title, and serious loss ultimately resulted. 
 
 3 Two days before writing this letter, he had sent Dr. Holmes a 
 
[ 26o ] 
 
 wanted to remember him on the occasion. Tell Phebe 
 I shall write her soon. AfF. 
 
 J. G. W. 
 
 copy of the verses, his birthday being August 29th, the last work Whit- 
 tier did. Pickard, Whit tier, 763. 
 
 " Climbing a path which leads back never more 
 We heard behind his footsteps and his cheer ; 
 Now face to face, we greet him standing here 
 Upon the lonely summit of Fourscore." 
 " O. W. Holmes on his Eightieth Birthday," Poems, 473. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
APPENDIX A (See page 5) 
 
 WHITTIER'S "EDITORIAL CREED," 1830 
 
 It seems probable that Whittier knew, when he was writ- 
 ing to his mother, that the publishers of the Review were con- 
 sidering appointing him permanent editor, and that his wish 
 that he might tell the good news may have imparted the eager 
 tone to his letter. The issue of the Review for the next week, 
 Sept. 20, 1830, announces the appointment, and contains 
 the new editor's "creed," which is here printed through the 
 courtesy of the Trustees of the Haverhill Public Library, in 
 whose possession there are four numbers of the paper. 
 
 " To the Patrons of the N. E. Review. 
 
 ... I consented to take charge of the Review during 
 the absence of its Editor to the West, for a short time only, 
 and without intention of taking upon myself the responsibility 
 of the paper, or of giving a character to it, essentially different 
 from that which it had acquired under the management of 
 my predecessor. . . . 
 
 Circumstances have since placed me in a different atti- 
 tude in regard to the Review and its patrons; — and, as our 
 intercourse may prove of longer duration than I had im- 
 agined, I shall briefly explain my editorial creed. 
 
 I am opposed to the present Administration. I disapprove 
 of most of its important acts j — it has more than realized 
 the darkest anticipations of those who opposed it ; it has 
 broken the faith of treaties ; — it has punished integrity, 
 and rewarded servility and treachery ; — it has assailed the 
 American System, indirectly indeed, but still with the mani- 
 fest intention of destroying it ; — it has scattered the seeds 
 
[a«4] 
 
 of political and moral corruption abroad among the people ; 
 — it has given the enemies of our free institutions an occa- 
 sion of rejoicing, and has filled the heart of the patriot with 
 fearful forebodings of the future. 
 
 I need not say that I am the advocate of the election of 
 Henry Clay to the next Presidency. I espoused his cause 
 with a firm belief that it was my duty to do so. I have seen 
 nothing as yet to induce a contrary opinion. I shall continue 
 to use my best endeavors to promote his election, believing, 
 in the sincerity of my heart, that in so doing, I shall best sub- 
 serve the interests of the public. 
 
 I shall endeavor to aid the cause of morality and rational 
 religion. A great moral revolution is going on around us, the 
 voice of public opinion is growing louder and louder, and 
 already the strongholds of Vice are shaking to its responses, 
 like the walls of Jericho to the sound of the trumpet. I shall 
 seek to promote this glorious revolution. I trust I shall never 
 so far prostitute the intellect which God has given me, as to 
 become the apologist of immorality and irreligion, whatever 
 shape they may assume, or under whatever name they may 
 appear. 
 
 John G. Whittier." 
 
 It is to be noted that, as Whittier became of age Dec. 1 7, 
 1828, he had yet to cast his first vote for President or a mem- 
 ber of Congress. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 THE GRIMKE SISTERS AT AMESBURY 
 
 (See page 50) 
 
 When Whittier made this inquiry he was disturbed, and 
 the circumstances reveal his sound judgment, for older heads 
 were losing sight of the main issue. The Grimke sisters, 
 Sarah and Angelina, at this time were in Amesbury. These 
 young women, born in S6uth Carolina of a slaveholding fam- 
 ily, had reasoned out for themselves that slavery was wrong, 
 but, finding no sympathy at home, had come North and were 
 now speaking in public against it. That women should speak 
 at all in public, had called from the ministers, assembled at 
 Brookfield, Mass., the formal declaration in which were two 
 propositions, first, that slavery should not be forced into the 
 churches as a subject for debate, and second, that public dis- 
 cussion by women was dangerous to the female character. 
 This declaration prompted Wintrier' s " Pastoral Letter " 
 (Poems, 276), in which he speaks of 
 
 "the thrilling tale 
 Of Carolina's high-souled daughters." 
 
 The sisters were arousing so much interest by their charm 
 of manner and their forceful thought, that they were literally 
 carrying all before them. " Such was the overpowering influ- 
 ence with which they swept the churches that men did not 
 remember the dogma of women keeping silence, until after 
 they were gone." Whittier, appreciating possible complica- 
 tions, wrote the sisters from New York, 14th of 8th Mo. 
 1837 (Birney, The Grimke Sisters, 203), urging them to con- 
 fine their arguments to immediate emancipation, because 
 u those who subscribe money to the Anti-Slavery Society, do 
 
[ 266 ] 
 
 it in the belief that it will be spent in the propagation, not of 
 Quakerism or Presbyterianism, but of the doctrines of c Im- 
 mediate Emancipation.' To employ an agent who devotes 
 half his time and talents to the propagation of l no human or 
 family government ' doctrines in connection — intimate con- 
 nection — with the doctrines of abolition, is a fraud upon the 
 patrons of the cause." Moreover he criticized Garrison, 
 saying that " if he fills his paper with Grahamism and no gov- 
 ernmentism,he defrauds his subscribers," though he "knows 
 that brother Garrison does not look at it in this light." 
 
 But they had already reached Amesbury, and were guests 
 in the Whittier home. They had lectured twice the preced- 
 ing week, and on one evening they had been interrupted by 
 two young men of Amesbury, John S. Page and Amos Mor- 
 rill, who had been in the South, one as a doctor, and the other 
 as a teacher. These men contended that the condition of the 
 slave was no worse than that of the Northern mill operative 
 or farm workman, and they challenged the sisters to a public 
 debate. This occurred the next week, and again two evenings 
 were devoted to the subject, July 17 and 19, 1837. The 
 topic assigned was " Are the slave laws of the United States 
 contrary to God's law ? " The men justified slavery by Bible 
 texts, while the women dwelt on the demoralization resulting 
 from slavery. At the close of the second day, Angelina Grimke 
 read a letter, written by a young woman named Churchill, 
 signed " A Free Woman of Amesbury," indignantly repel- 
 ling the suggestion of slavery in the North. 
 
 In the following letter x from Whittier to Theodore D. 
 Weld, written over forty years later, reference is made to one 
 of the disputants, Morrill, who had been appointed Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas by the Brigadier- 
 General commanding that State under the Reconstruction 
 Act of 1867, serving until 1870. The memorial mentioned 
 was a volume written by Weld in memory of the sisters, 
 one of whom, Angelina, he married. 
 
 1 In possession of John Albree. 
 
[267] 
 
 Amesbury, gtb Mo., 14, 1880. 
 Dear Theodore : 
 
 How glad I am to get a line from thee ! I had just 
 been writing answers to letters from Robt. Purvis and Enoch 
 Mack, (two surviving signers of the Anti-Slavery Declaration 
 of 1833) when I received thine. And I told them of thee and 
 our dear friend Sewall. 
 
 It is possible that the memorial of thy dear wife and her 
 sister was sent to Danvers in my absence, as I spend part of 
 my time there, and was laid aside by my cousins, and lost 
 sight of in the multitude of books and papers with which the 
 house is filled. I shall be at Danvers next week and will 
 make a thorough search, and notify thee of the result. 
 
 How well I remember dear Angelina's visit here, when 
 she first came to New England, the brave, beautiful, young 
 woman ! How we all admired and loved her. Judge Morrill 
 of the Supreme Court of Texas, is now in this place, and 
 we talk of her debate with him in this village more than 40 
 years ago. He says he felt then that she had the right of the 
 argument, and that he always remembered her with profound 
 respect. In the Rebellion Judge M. was true to the Union 
 and risked his life for it. 
 
 God bless and keep thee, dear Theodore ! We are near 
 the great mystery. We can only trust, and wait — trust, not 
 in our own goodness, but in that of Him, who is the source 
 of all goodness and love and compassion. 
 
 Always thy affectionate friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
APPENDIX C 
 SOME ANTI-SLAVERY WORKERS (See page 55) 
 
 The association of these three names shows how closely 
 Elizabeth was following her brother in his work. Of Mrs. 
 Chapman Whittier wrote, June, 1878: — 
 
 " Mrs. Chapman was an early and strenuous worker in 
 the anti-slavery cause, and I give her full credit for it. I un- 
 derstand well how she failed to comprehend and appreciate 
 the labors of [Wm. Ellery Channing], and of every other 
 man who, while perilling all in the service of freedom, could 
 bid Godspeed to those outside of party who were yet doing 
 something in their own way for the cause, and could make 
 allowance for those who failed to see their duty clearly and 
 who hesitated to pronounce our shibboleth. I am sorry, for 
 her sake, that she has kept her old prejudices and miscon- 
 ceptions alive to this day." (Pickard, Whittier , 643.) 
 
 In 1839 Mrs. Chapman published "Right and Wrong 
 in Massachusetts," in which she relates the disagreements 
 and conflicts among those who were working for the slave. 
 She is extravagant, both in praise and censure. She quotes 
 with approval a speech of J. T. Woodbury : — 
 
 " A Virginia Christian slave holder comes here, and ap- 
 peals to us about the Virginia State Bible Society to send the 
 Bible to the extreme ends of the earth. Why don't he give 
 the Bible to his own slaves then, and teach them to read it, 
 before he asks for our money to help him send Bibles to the 
 slaves in sin in distant lands ? Why, his very Bibles he sends 
 to the Hindoo, are bought with the blood and souls of his 
 slaves. It is dividing the gains of hell with God. If this is 
 Christianity, well might the heathen say, God defend us from 
 Christianity." 
 
[a6 9 3 
 
 What prompted Elizabeth Whittier's inquiry as to Wood- 
 bury's appointment, since this extract shows him to have 
 been an outspoken and zealous advocate of the slave, was 
 that at this moment Woodbury and Garrison were at vari- 
 ance. Woodbury's letter of criticism of Garrison and his 
 methods had been printed in the Liberator, and Garrison, by 
 way of refutation, had reprinted the speech of Woodbury's. 
 The points of difference were largely such as should have 
 been settled quietly and definitely by the managers, instead 
 of being allowed to be subjects for discussion and general 
 strife. For instance, how could it advance the freedom of 
 the slave, if the name of a Boston minister was printed for 
 several weeks as that of a possible slaveholder, because he 
 had not read from his pulpit a notice of an anti-slavery 
 meeting ? 
 
 Woodbury was later settled for many years over a Con- 
 gregational church at Milford, Mass. There he established 
 a lasting reputation as an aggressive, determined, earnest man 
 of high character and worth. (Ballou, Milford, 1134.) 
 
 Abby Kelly, later Mrs. Foster, was a teacher in Lynn, 
 and was already showing herself to be a woman of strong 
 individuality. In Garrison's account of the meeting in Penn- 
 sylvania Hall, Philadelphia, just before it was burned by the 
 mob, he wrote of her as " a noble young woman from Lynn." 
 Her speech so affected Theodore D. Weld that, at the close 
 of the meeting, he urged her to take the field as an anti-slav- 
 ery lecturer ; and " laying his hand on her shoulder, he said 
 in his vehement way, ' Abby, if you don't, God will smite 
 you.' She obeyed his voice, and her own internal promptings, 
 in the spring of 1839." (Garrison, ii, 216.) 
 
APPENDIX D 
 
 H. C. WRIGHT (See page 55) 
 
 In Henry Clarke Wright (1 797-1 870), who is mentioned 
 rather slightingly in several letters, is illustrated a type of the 
 people with whom Whittier had to do, when a secretary of 
 the American Anti-Slavery Society. At the date of this letter, 
 Wright was completing his labors in Essex County as an 
 agent of the Society, having been ordered to Pennsylvania. 
 During July he had been in charge of the movements of the 
 Grimke sisters, arranging for and participating in the meet- 
 ings, and then reporting them at length for the Liberator. 
 Holding a license from Andover Theological Seminary, he 
 had preached in West Newbury, 1826-33, and in 1835 he 
 had joined the anti-slavery movement. Instead of confining 
 himself to presenting the cause of abolitionism, he would 
 declaim on his peculiar notions of family government and the 
 promotion of universal peace. As he had a surplus of energy 
 and a deficiency of tact, he was frequently a centre of com- 
 motion. In October, 1837, the Society felt constrained to dis- 
 pense with his further services because he refused to confine 
 himself to the anti-slavery work, for which he was paid. At 
 times in later years, he was of great help to Garrison, whose 
 words of approval are recorded in his Life. 
 
 From 18 18 to 1870 Wright kept a combined note-book 
 and diary, seventy-one volumes of which are now, by gift of 
 Wendell Phillips, in the Boston Public Library. These books 
 vary in size and shape. In them he recorded at length and 
 in detail his thoughts and his deeds, and though the record 
 is necessarily personal, it reveals something of the life and 
 work of the agents of the Anti-Slavery Society, for whose 
 movements Whittier was in part responsible. These agents 
 were paid a salary of about $600 a year, but they were ex- 
 
[ 2 7i ] 
 
 pected to collect enough for their own expenses. This re- 
 sulted frequently in their being entertained without charge 
 by local friends of the cause, wherever they spoke. Wright 
 recorded each day at whose house he was cared for, and also 
 the names of the people he met. The record of one day 
 deserves extended mention, for a cause that could call for 
 such expenditure of time and strength, both by the agents 
 and the supporters, as the day's story shows, had great power 
 behind it, and the fact that the result was so long delayed, 
 reveals also the strength of that which it opposed. 
 
 The entry for July 19, 1837, b e g ms with three texts, one 
 each in Hebrew, Greek, and English. Then came the walk 
 to Amesbury, to see the Grimkes at the Whittier home, 
 where Wright planned out the argument for the evening's 
 discussion, the heads of which he gives in full. Leaving there, 
 he walked to Bradford, six miles, where he was entertained 
 at the house of Gardner B. Perry. He wrote a letter of 
 1 1 00 words to Prof. Crosby of Dartmouth College, which he 
 copied verbatim in the diary, for those were not the days of 
 copying ink or carbon paper. He lectured two hours in the 
 evening " to a goodly number " on the annexation of Texas, 
 and then ends the record thus: "Walked 15 miles today 
 and lectured two hours. Much exhausted, but the Lord has 
 sustained me." The next day he walked home, and wrote an 
 account of the Grimke sisters' labors for the Liberator, in 
 which it duly appeared. 
 
 As Wright made the arrangements as to places and dates 
 for the Grimkes' addresses, the record in his diary of the 
 Amesbury debate may have a personal coloring, but still it 
 can be cited : — 
 
 " On the part of the sisters the discussion was managed 
 most adroitly, especially the last evening. I have never met 
 with souls in the form of women like unto the souls of Sarah 
 and Angelina. They are truly intellectual and moral beings, 
 subject only to their God. They command one's respect and 
 admiration, not as women only, but as immortals." 
 
APPENDIX E 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF WHITTIER'S ILL HEALTH 
 
 (See page 63) 
 
 " The nature of the mysterious malady [eyestrain] which 
 afflicted Whittier was never suspected by himself, his friends, 
 or his physicians. It was the same in the cases of De Quin- 
 cey, Carlyle, Darwin, Huxley, Browning, Spencer, Park- 
 man, George Eliot, Lewes, Mrs. Carlyle, Margaret Fuller, 
 Nietzsche, and Wagner. As one gathers to a focus the ex- 
 tracts concerning the ill-health of each, the truth bursts on the 
 view except of those who do not wish to see it." (Biographic 
 Clinics , 261.) 
 
 "To one who had not heard from many patients the tale 
 of their sufferings exactly like that of Whittier, and who had 
 not observed in them the same results of self-scrutiny, exhaus- 
 tion, and sensitiveness, the fact of his daily concern and em- 
 phasis of pain, might itself seem morbid. But the sympathetic 
 oculist will make no such mistake. There is no disease more 
 terrible in its intensity of pain, more likely to crush out virility 
 and morale, than this agonizing affection. Had Whittier not 
 been essentially of the heroic type, a Friend who by ancestry, 
 faith, and nurture had not been predestined to quiet valor and 
 endurance, the pain he suffered would not have left him his 
 heart of healthy and sunny manliness. Pity for his sad lot by 
 those who know what he endured, is in reality height- 
 ened." (Ibid.) 265.) " All the newspapers that Whittier ed- 
 ited had to be abandoned because the editor could not carry 
 on his literary work. He had to renounce the great duty of 
 anti-slavery reform for which his heart and head had fitted 
 him, and his predestined role of statesman had also to be 
 abandoned, — all due to eyestrain. Retiring to the farm and 
 
[ 273 ] 
 
 the life of a valetudinarian, even his beautiful poetic endow- 
 ment was denied proper outlet because he could not write 
 and study as he should have done." (Ibid., 355.) 
 
 So writes Dr. George M. Gould, editor of American Medi- 
 cine, about Whittier in the second of the five volumes, Biogra- 
 phic Clinics; Influence of Visual Function on Health, the sub- 
 title of the volume being " The Origin of the 111 Health of 
 George Eliot, George Henry Lewes, Wagner, Parkman, 
 Jane Welch Carlyle, Spencer, Whittier, Margaret Fuller 
 Ossoli, and Nietzsche." (Philadelphia; Blakiston, 1904.) 
 
 The plan of the writer is to collect the references to the 
 ill health, made either by the subject or his friends, and on 
 these to base his diagnosis. With such statements about 
 Whittier he fills eight pages. 
 
APPENDIX F 
 
 WHITTIER TO ELIZUR WRIGHT, Jr. 
 
 (Wright's Reply, page 65) 
 
 The "kind and wise letter" of Whittier's, dated at Ames- 
 bury, 25th, 3d Mo., 1840, is printed in full in Pickard, 
 Whittier as a Politician (Goodspeed, 1900), 16. He advised 
 strongly against making any nominations at this convention, 
 and outlined the course for it to follow : — 
 
 " One word in regard to the convention at Albany. I am 
 glad it has been called ; it is proper that the great question 
 should be discussed, and that abolitionists should be exhorted 
 to maintain their integrity. But credit me, for I know, that 
 nine tenths of the voting abolitionists (and all the non-voting of 
 course) will be opposed to a nomination at this time. Besides, 
 you can find nobody to stand the abuse, misrepresentation 
 and Indian warfare which will be waged against them. . . . 
 It will be folly to put men in nomination, and then have them 
 come out in the papers and decline ; and any man who is 
 worthy of such a nomination will most assuredly do so. . . . 
 
 " Let your convention settle the question that it is right 
 and proper to use political action for the overthrow of slav- 
 ery ; that independent nominations are a legitimate means of 
 carrying our principles into the politics of the country ; that 
 Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison are un- 
 worthy of the support of abolitionists ; that it is better in this 
 case to forego the privilege of voting on the Presidential ques- 
 tion altogether than to sacrifice the interests of freedom by 
 aiding in the election of an enemy to the cause. . . . 
 
 " Take high ground as you please on the duty of exercis- 
 ing our rights and privileges as citizens, and commend to 
 the serious consideration of abolitionists the question whether 
 
[ 275 ] 
 
 the time has not arrived when duty to the slave requires of 
 us to take an unflinching, uncompromising stand, independent 
 of caucus and party. But do not gratify your enemies by mak- 
 ing any nomination. // will not be voted by one half of the men 
 who now profess to be in favor of it. Immediately after the 
 Presidential election let a convention be called ; you will 
 then have only the non-resistant non-voters to oppose you." 
 The ticket nominated at the convention, Birney and 
 Earle, received but 7369 votes. Lack of organization, the 
 difficulties attendant on a third party, and divisions among 
 the anti-slavery people contributed to the result. James G. 
 Birney, who was in Europe when nominated, was a man of 
 strong, clear, calm mind whose personality would appeal to 
 the members of the Liberty party, for through the death of 
 his father he had succeeded to a half interest in an estate 
 consisting of money and slaves. He took the slaves in his 
 portion, allowing his co-heir $20,000 for them, and then 
 freed them all. 
 
APPENDIX G (See page 74) 
 JOHN NEAL 
 
 John Neal, whose peculiar characteristics M. F. Whittier 
 has aptly portrayed, preserved a pathetic letter from John 
 G. Whittier, written before he was twenty-one, in Wander- 
 ing Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life (1869), 337* I n 
 writing of the beginning of The Yankee, a magazine published 
 by him at Portland, Neal says : — 
 
 " While burning its way into public favor I had for con- 
 tributors from all parts of the country such men as Chief 
 Justice Appleton, whose first published writings appeared in 
 4 The Yankee,' John G. Whittier who began his career 
 with me, I believe . . . Edgar A. Poe and half a hundred, 
 more or less, of writers who have since become distinguished. 
 Poe sent his first poems to c The Yankee.' . . . And as for 
 Whittier, I have just fished up a letter of his, which I had 
 entirely forgotten, dated ' 10th Mo. 1828,' and showing on 
 what terms we were forty years ago. A part of it ran thus : — 
 
 " c My dear Neal, I have just written something for your 
 consideration. You dislike, — I believe you do at least, — 
 the blank verse of our modern poets and poetesses. Never- 
 theless I send you a long string of it. If you dislike it, say 
 so privately and I will quit poetry, and everything else of a 
 literary nature, for I am sick at heart of the business. . . . 
 Insult has maddened me. The friendless boy has been 
 mocked at ; and, years ago, he vowed to triumph over the 
 scorners of his boyish endeavors. With the unescapable sense 
 of wrong burning like a volcano in the recesses of his spirit, 
 he has striven to accomplish this vow, until his heart has 
 grown weary in the struggle . . .' 
 
 "Of course I wrote a most encouraging letter in reply ; 
 
[ 277 3 
 
 for he persisted until he has become one of the glories of our 
 upper sky . . ." 
 
 Following this incident further ; there is in the Haverhill 
 Public Library a letter from Whittier in which he uses this 
 one of his boyhood as the theme of a delightful expression of 
 sympathy to some one who must remain unknown, as the 
 letter was acquired by the Library in the auction room. 
 By permission of the Trustees, it is here printed : — 
 
 Oak Knoll, yd Mo. 18, 1885. 
 Dear Friend, 
 
 Thy letter, sent to the Winthrop House [Boston], 
 has at last reached me, and I am sorry for the annoyances of 
 which it tells. When I saw thy little epistle to the Ed. of 
 
 , I feared it would be the source of some trouble to thee. 
 
 Mr. should not have published it. It gave an oppor- 
 tunity for mischief and misunderstanding. I do not see any 
 way to avoid this, but it will be forgotten in a short time. 
 
 I made, when I was beginning authorship, a somewhat 
 similar mistake. My verses were not saleable, and I was un- 
 justly, as I thought, criticized in the papers ; and in a rather 
 desperate mood, while writing to John Neal, Editor of the 
 Portland Yankee, I made complaints of non-recognition, etc. 
 It was a private letter, but it eventually got into print, much 
 to my mortification. It is best, when one feels as I did, to 
 keep still, or put one's head in the cupboard and speak there. 
 
 I do not see what I can do or say which would not have 
 the effect to keep the matter alive. Let it die out as it 
 already has well nigh done. 
 
 I have been under the doctor's hand for a long time, and 
 have hardly strength to write absolutely necessary letters. 
 " The Spring comes slowly up this way," and I cannot get 
 much comfort from these bitter March days. I hope thee 
 have recovered from thy cold. 
 
 Don't worry any more about that little matter. It will all 
 blow over, and thee will wonder that it ever troubled thee. 
 Always thy friend, John G. Whittier. 
 
APPENDIX H 
 
 WHITTIER TO SUMNER (Sumner's Reply, page 101) 
 
 From Letter Books of Charles Sumner, Harvard College Library. 
 
 Amesbury, 10th ytb mo. 1848. 
 Dear Friend : 
 
 The following paper has been signed in this place by 
 120 of our citizens, Whigs, Democrats and Liberty men: 
 " Free Soil and Free Labor, 
 The undersigned citizens of Amesbury and Salisbury being 
 in favor of the extension of the Anti-Slavery Ordinance of 
 1787 over the territory acquired from Mexico, and for union 
 of the people of the Free States of ail parties to effect that 
 object, hereby invite Chas. Sumner, Esq. of Boston to address 
 them on the subject as soon as his convenience will permit." 
 It is proper to state that nearly all to whom the paper was 
 shown, signed it without hesitation and there can be no ques- 
 tion but that two thirds of our legal voters in the two towns 
 would unite with it. 
 
 Will thee not drop me a line informing me when thou 
 canst come ! Fix, if possible, an early day. The cars run up 
 here from Boston just in season for an evening meeting, and 
 go out again in the morning early enough to take thee back 
 before business hours. 
 
 Very cordially thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
 Come directly to my place. I want to talk with thee about 
 the present posture of matters. J. G. W. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 WHITTIER TO SUMNER (Sumner's Reply, page 121) 
 
 From Letter Books of Charles Sumner, Harvard College Library. 
 
 Amesbury, 15th nth Mo. 1853. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 We are defeated, as I expected, after Cushing's Edict 
 appeared. I knew that we could not cope with the money 
 of Boston and the patronage of Washington combined. 
 
 This must be the end of coalition, except on anti-slavery 
 grounds. I wash my hands of it henceforth. It becomes us 
 now to take our stand on the old platform, with inexorable 
 firmness. Let us palter no more : let us lift up the standard of 
 principle and invite all who are sick of the rule of the slave 
 power, to join us, in open and manly opposition to it. So doing, 
 I verily believe our defeat will be our gain. I do hope our 
 friends of the State Committee will see the matter in this light 
 and take bold ground. It would be worse than folly, longer 
 to court an unwilling and wavering old time democr[acy]. 
 Let it go and reap the fruit of its doings. We have something 
 worth contending for : let us have faith in our principles and 
 be willing to follow them into a minority for the present. We 
 have lost nothing. We are to-d [ay] what we were yesterday. 
 Courage, faith, perseverance ! — with these all will be well. 
 
 I was glad to see thy bro. George. I liked him much. 
 His lecture was universally admired. 
 Write me soon and 
 
 believe cordially and ever thy friend, 
 
 J. G. Whittier. 
 
 Wilson gets a noble vote, — some 1500 or 2000 more than 
 Hale last year. Up to the time of Gushing' s letter, I had little 
 doubt of his being Governor. 
 
APPENDIX J 
 
 WHITTIER TO SUMNER (Sumner's Reply, page 128) 
 
 From Letter Books of Charles Sumner, Harvard College Library. 
 
 Amesbury, nth Mo. 12, 1856. 
 My dear Sumner, 
 
 If I have not written thee often during the last few 
 months, it has been owing to no lack of interest in thy wel- 
 fare, or of sympathy in thy sufferings for the Good Old 
 Cause. I have not felt at liberty to trouble thee with letters, 
 of which I feared thou hadst far too many for thy comfort. 
 I knew that all I could say, would be but a feeble and inade- 
 quate expression of the feeling which wells up in my heart, 
 whenever I think of thee. 
 
 I can understand, dear S., that mere bodily suffering has 
 been but a small part of thy trial. I can well understand 
 (for in some measure I have long felt it) the pain which an 
 earnest spirit feels when obliged to stand still, while the battle 
 for Human Freedom is in suspense. During the late mo- 
 mentous campaign I have been utterly unable to do anything 
 effective or commensurate with my interest in it. What I 
 could do, I have done. And for thyself, thy denunciation 
 of the Crime against Kansas has burdened all the winds — 
 thy very absence has spoken for thee : and the words of cheer 
 and counsel which have been sent from time to time from 
 thy retirement, have been potent instrumentalities in awak- 
 ening the North. 
 
 The result of the election has not disappointed me. It is 
 in fact, better than I dared to hope. Every way considered, 
 is it not better than we had a right to expect ? If we can 
 hold what we have gained, our victory is only delayed for 
 four years. For me, so far from repining, I bow in grateful 
 
[a8i ] 
 
 acknowledgment to the Divine Providence which has given 
 me in this canvas, as from the top of Pisgah, a glimpse of 
 the Canaan of Freedom. 
 
 My chief present anxiety is for Kansas. All looks dark 
 there, but God is over all, and He can turn and overturn, 
 until His right is established. It is barely possible however, 
 that policy may dictate to the managers of the President-elect, 
 a more decent course of action as respects Kansas, through 
 fear of losing what little hold they still retain on the free 
 States. Nothing will contribute more to this than a determi- 
 nation, manifested at once by the friends of freedom, to hold 
 their own, and press forward to new victories, by reorganis- 
 ing in every section of the free States on the principle of the 
 Phild 1 . Platform. We have found that the name of Fremont 
 is a spell of power, and we must use it. With it we can keep 
 our many-sided host together. Americans, Republicans and 
 adopted citizens are united in his favor. 
 
 But enough of such matters; I want to say a word to 
 thee as an old friend. Do not leave home for Washington, 
 until thy health is more fully established. Congress will do 
 nothing for the first month, and the remaining two will not 
 witness any important action, so far as the Senate is concerned. 
 Massachusetts, God bless her! loves her son too well to re- 
 quire him to hazard his health by a premature resumption of 
 his duty. Patience, patience; then dear S. remember that 
 " They also serve who wait." 
 
 Do not trouble thyself to answer this, but think of me as 
 Ever and affectionately, 
 thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier 
 
 My Mother and sister wish to add th [eir] kind remem- 
 brance. 
 
 I am delighted with thy eulog[y of] Wilson. How very 
 nobly he has borne himself! Burlingame's re-election rejoices 
 us all. 
 
APPENDIX K 
 
 WHITTIER TO SUMNER (Sumner's Reply, page 180) 
 
 From Letter Books of Charles Sumner, Harvard College Library. 
 
 Amesbury, 6tb mo. 12, 1872. 
 My dear Sumner, 
 
 Thanks for thy letter. I needed no assurance on thy 
 part that thy speech was an honest one and inspired by a 
 sense of duty. And yet I am sorry for some parts of it, as I 
 think the effect would have been better if it had been less 
 severe. I enclose a note to the " Transcript." I think already 
 a reaction has here commenced, and many who denounced 
 the speech strongly, now feel that after all, the charges it 
 makes have not been disproved. Indeed, I have not much 
 doubt that, if thy election as Senator were pending in Mass 1 ." 
 at this very time, there w. d be a majority in thy favor, for I 
 presume the great body of the Democrats would sustain thee, 
 and the old Liberty party men are not all gone over by any 
 means. 
 
 Always affectionately, 
 thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier 
 
 MR. SUMNER'S SPEECH 
 
 Letter from John G. Whittier 
 
 Ames bury 6, $th Mo, 1872 
 To the Editor of the Transcript : 
 
 In the " Evening Transcript," which has just come 
 to hand, I notice a paragraph professing to give my views of 
 
[28 3 ] 
 
 the late speech of Senator Sumner. My individual opinions 
 in the matter are of small consequence to the public, but if 
 presented at all, I prefer to give them in my own way. As 
 regards the senior Senator of Massachusetts I have no change 
 of opinion to record. I have not forgotten his long and bril- 
 liant services in the cause of freedom and the best interests 
 of his country and mankind. I know him well. I have stood 
 side by side with him for thirty years, and it requires some- 
 thing more than a mistake on his part to make me desert an 
 old friend. I confess that I have seen with some impatience 
 men, whose Republicanism seems mainly to consist in their 
 readiness to grasp the spoils of a victory won in a great mea- 
 sure by others, maligning, insulting and displacing a man 
 whose integrity, intellect and acquirements are a standing 
 reproach to themselves. I am no blind advocate of Senator 
 Sumner, or any other man. I expect to see faults and frailities, 
 and to grieve over the mistakes of those I love and respect. 
 I regret the late speech, as it exposes the author to the charge 
 of personal resentment, and because it seems to me unduly 
 severe in its tone and temper. The Republicans of Massa- 
 chusetts may, and probably will, dissent from its conclusions 
 through the press and at the ballot box, but they have no 
 occasion to question his sincerity, or to charge him with aban- 
 doning any of the great principles which he has so nobly as- 
 serted, and for which he has suffered more than martyrdom. 
 Very truly thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
APPENDIX L 
 
 THOMAS CHASE (See pages 237 and 257) 
 
 Thomas Chase, born in Worcester, Mass., 1 827, a graduate 
 of Harvard, 1848, became a professor in Haverford College, 
 1856, and its president in 1874. He resigned in 1886, and 
 died but a few weeks after Whittier in 1892,50 that what 
 Whittier planned ( Wintrier' s letter, page 257), that Chase 
 should write his biography, could not be accomplished. It is 
 not improbable that in the subject of this letter, Chase's ora- 
 tion, " Whittier as a Poet," the reason for Whittier' s wish 
 may be discerned. 
 
 A portrait of Whittier was given to the Friends School, 
 Providence, by Charles F. Coffin of Lynn, and Thomas 
 Chase was chosen to deliver the oration at the exercises of 
 presentation, 10th mo. 24th, 1884. After defining the poet 
 as one who sees, feels and gives voice to what is deepest, 
 best and truest in nature and in life, and furthermore as 
 one who pleads for and inspires to search for the good and 
 the true, Dr. Chase quoted freely in illustration from Whit- 
 tier's verse. 
 
 But the conclusion dealt with the man, Whittier, in words 
 that commended themselves especially to him who was the 
 centre of the thought that day : — 
 
 " It is an honorable title which will cling to Whittier in 
 distant generations — that of 'The Quaker Poet.' And if I 
 am not mistaken, some of the best characteristics of our bard 
 are derived from the gentle sect in which he was reared, and 
 which he so truly loves. The meditative mind, the calm in- 
 trospection, the love of nature and the love of man, the na- 
 tive refinement, which seems inborn in Quaker blood, and 
 the moral indignation launching words that are half battles 
 
[ *8 5 ] 
 
 against the wrong, and fighting in the fierce but bloodless 
 warfare of reform at the same time that it rings the Christian 
 bells of peace : all these, so characteristic of Whittier, are 
 characteristic of the Friend." (President Chase's Oration, 39.) 
 
 As to Dr. Chase himself, the record of those who knew 
 him best is : — 
 
 "A new era dawned upon Haverford with the advent of 
 Thomas Chase. It would be superfluous to speak of his high 
 scholarship and varied attainments; the experiences of the 
 many students who have received his instruction, the testi- 
 mony of many learned men, the evidence given by his edition 
 of the Classics, and his services upon the Committee on the 
 Revision of the New Testament, combine to establish these." * 
 
 Through such a man Whittier felt that his life's work 
 could find its best interpreter, for not only were Chase's in- 
 tellectual attainments high, but, especially and above all, was 
 he a Friend with whom Whittier could be " in unity." 
 
 1 History of Haverford College, 249 (with portrait, 576). 
 
APPENDIX M 
 HARRIET LIVERMORE (See page 247) 
 
 The researches of S. T. Livermore in his " Harriet Liver- 
 more, the Pilgrim Stranger," as well as of C. C. Chase in 
 his paper, reprinted in the Lowell Mail, Nov. 18, 1887, an d 
 of Sidney Perley in the Essex Antiquarian, v, 7 (1901), give 
 the main facts in the life of this brilliant, unfortunate woman, 
 who through Whittier's delineation has become a permanent 
 character in literature. 
 
 The granddaughter of a Chief Justice and U. S. Senator, 
 Samuel Livermore, and a daughter of Edward St. Loe Liver- 
 more who from 1807 to 181 1 was a member of Congress 
 from Massachusetts, she was born in Concord, N. H., in 
 1788. Early deprived by death of a mother's guiding and 
 restraining care, her peculiarities became emphasized, though 
 she had good educational advantages, and during her father's 
 service she entered into Washington social life, where she at- 
 tained a position possible to one naturally gifted. A love af- 
 fair, terminated through the interference of the young man's 
 family in 181 1, still further complicated an already turbulent 
 career. The young man entered the U. S. naval service as a 
 surgeon in the War of 18 12, and died in 1822 at Pensacola, 
 having never returned to his home in the Merrimac Valley. 
 
 Her energies were then turned to the exposition of the 
 Bible and its truths, as she in her zeal saw them. The ex- 
 horting at a schoolhouse prayer meeting and the dancing at a 
 Washington ball room, attributed to her in the introduction 
 to " Snow-Bound," were at different periods in her life. The 
 charge of flippancy, there suggested, is baseless, for she was 
 too positive a character to act from whims. Her failings were 
 rather due to the conflict of purposes. 
 
[ 28 7 ] 
 
 In 1827 and again in 1832, she preached in the House 
 of Representatives at Washington, President John Quincy 
 Adams having been present on the first occasion. She had by 
 this time acquired a reputation as a lecturer, and relied on the 
 income from that source for her support. On one of her 
 tours Whittier was put to some annoyance in Philadelphia in 
 securing for her a hall and an audience, the financial returns 
 however being meagre. 
 
 The evidence collected by Samuel Livermore shows that 
 she could not have " lived some time with Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope ... on the slope of Mt. Lebanon," so that the story 
 of the quarrel over the strangely marked horses is without 
 foundation, and there is grave doubt if they ever met at all. 
 Four or five times Harriet Livermore went to Jerusalem, 
 ever pursued with the thought of the Lord's immediate re- 
 turn at that place, and as her financial resources were always 
 scanty, she endured many privations. 
 
 To such a personality a peaceful and serene old age could 
 never come. The capacity for making and keeping friends 
 diminished, and her last years were moreover embittered by 
 poverty, due, she alleged, to the misdeeds of others. She died 
 in the County Hospital at Philadelphia in 1868, aged nearly 
 eighty. 
 
 She wrote and printed much, both prose and verse. In 
 1824 she published a small volume, a copy of which is in the 
 Haverhill Public Library, " Scriptural Evidence in favour of 
 Female Testimony in meetings for Christian Worship, in 
 Letters to a Friend ,, (Portsmouth, 1824). From the title it 
 is to be inferred that she had been reminded of the Pauline 
 injunction as to the silence of women. 
 
 In the Boston Public Library is another of her books which 
 contains the maiden name of Mrs. Wendell Phillips as the 
 owner: " A Testimony for the Times, by Harriet Liver- 
 more. New York; published for the authoress. Piercy & 
 Reed, 1843" (P.P» 2 49)* There is shown a remarkable famil- 
 iarity with the Bible on the part of the writer, but the reason- 
 
[ 288 ] 
 
 ing does not carry conviction, as the style is diffuse and the 
 points vague. One sentence will suffice (p. 191): — 
 
 " The gauntlet is thrown — it is into a stinking age — 
 catch it, infidel, and come to the fight. I am very jealous for 
 the Lord God of hosts ; and declare war on behalf of the 
 Commonwealth of Israel, for the right of the house of David, 
 and David's Lord." 
 
 On the flyleaf of this book is pinned a leaflet containing 
 a piece of her religious verse of four stanzas, which affords a 
 clue to her method of thought, the blind following of the ex- 
 act letter of the Bible : — 
 
 * * Give to the trump a certain sound, 
 ' What of the lowering night ? ' 
 
 The literal Scriptures be your bound 
 
 And preach with all your might." 
 
APPENDIX N (See page 257) 
 
 WHITTIER TO 
 
 This letter, now in possession of the editor, came on the 
 market recently. It has not been practicable to learn its his- 
 tory, or to identify the person addressed : — 
 
 Amesbury, 30, 7 Mo, 1867. 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 For pity's sake, don't victimize me by a detail of 
 small gossip about me. My public life is public property — 
 but I shrink with perfect -horror from personal and private 
 histories. I hope thy lecture will be free from such. Privately 
 I am nothing that concerns the public ; and I think any at- 
 tempt to enter into private and personal matters would infal- 
 libly disgust an audience. I know that a Mr. of 
 
 did something of the kind last year, and everybody who felt 
 any interest in me was indignant at his course and want of 
 discretion. 1 I am sure thy good sense will tell thee to avoid 
 such a mistake. 
 
 My brother, I know, will look at the matter in the same 
 light. 
 
 Do thee recollect what Dr. Johnson said to Boswell : u Sir, 
 I am told you are writing my life ; if I thought so, I would 
 anticipate you by taking your own ! " I shall not be so bad as 
 the Doctor ; but I don't want my life written by anybody. < 
 
 Hoping that the lecture may be successful and profitable, 
 I am very truly thy friend, 
 
 John G. Whittier. 
 
 I do not want to meddle with the matter any farther. I 
 shall trust to thy discretion and delicacy. 
 
 1 [On the margin] " '3 lecture was well meant and highly eulogistic j but 
 
 it's personalities spoilt it." 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alaska Mission, 259. 
 Allen, Col. Julian, 156. 
 Allinson, Samuel, 60. 
 Amesbury Friends and Neighbors, 191. 
 "Among the Hills," 178. 
 Andrew, Governor John A., 141. 
 Anti-Slavery petitions, 20, 38, 42, 54. 
 "Atlantic Monthly," 26, 130, 131, 135, 
 143, 223. 
 
 Bailey, Dr. Gamaliel, 99, 112, 133. 
 
 "Barefoot Boy," 123. 
 
 Birney, Jame3 G., 65, 275. 
 
 Boutwell, Governor George S. , 1 1 5, 1 1 7. 
 
 Brook Farm, 94. 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen, 202, 217. 
 
 Buffalo Convention, 102, 106. 
 
 Burleigh, C. C, 46, 67, 88, 89, 194. 
 
 "Changeling, The," 154. 
 
 Channing, William E., 7,44. 
 
 Chapman, Mrs. Maria L., 54, 268. 
 
 Chase, Charles C, 247. 
 
 Chase, Salmon P., 92, 102. 136. 
 
 Chase, Thomas, 237,257,284. 
 
 Chauncy, Charles, 185. 
 
 Chauncy, Epitaph of Mary, 184. 
 
 Child, Lydia Maria, 146, 207, 209. 
 
 Choate, Rufus, 72, 77. 
 
 Claflin, Governor William, 234. 
 
 Clay, Cassius M., 156. 
 
 Clay, Henry, 5, 55, 91, 264. 
 
 Coffin, Joshua, 54. 
 
 Compensation for slaves, 138. 
 
 Corwin, Tom, 97. 
 
 Cushing, Caleb, 38, 72, 76, 81, 121. 
 
 Dana, Charles A., 94. 
 
 De Loyo, F., 52. 
 
 "Demon of the Study, The," 238. 
 
 District of Columbia, Slavery in, 19, 38,41. 
 
 Dix, Dorothea L., 1 5 2. 
 
 Edwards, Amelia B., 239. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 130, 188, 189, 
 
 214. 
 Everett, Governor Edward, 53, 76. 
 
 " Fable for Critics, A," 15. 
 Felton, Cornelius Conway, 123. 
 Fields, James T., 185. 
 Five Points of Calvinism, 9. 
 Fletcher, Richard, 76. 
 Forten, Charlotte, 149, 151. 
 Fremont, J. G., 148, 167. 
 Frietchie, Barbara, 152 ; Poem, 167, 
 *39- 
 
 Garrett, Phibp C, 252. 
 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 5, 19, 26, 40, 
 
 105, 181, 237. 
 "Garrison, William Lloyd, To," 6. 
 Goodell, William, 79. 
 Gould, Dr. George M., 273. 
 " Grantism," 180. 
 Greeley, Horace, 1 20, 1 8 1. 
 Green, Beriah, 79. 
 Grimke, Angelina, 207, 266. 
 Grimke Sisters, 27, 50, 265, 271. 
 
 Hale, John P., 96, 98, 109. 
 
 Harris, Dr., Speech of, 19, 56. 
 
 Hartford, Conn., 4. 
 
 Haverhill Public Library, 263, 277. 
 
 Hayne, Paul H., Poems, 199, 221, 222. 
 
 Healey, Joseph, 58, 64, 196. 
 
 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 105, 
 
 150. 
 Hill, Edwin P., 1x9. 
 "Hive at Gettysburg, The," 171. 
 Hoar, Senator George F., 249. 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 154, 171, 214, 
 
 228, 232, 241, 250. 
 " How Mary Grew," 67. 
 " How the Women went from Dover," 
 
 232. 
 
 " In School Days," 238. 
 
 Johnson, Miss Caroline C, 4, 221, 257. 
 "Justice and Expediency," 25. 
 
 Kansas, Crime against, 180, 280. 
 Kelly, Abby, 55, 269. 
 King, Thomas Starr, 142. 
 
[ *94 ] 
 
 Leavitt, Joshua, 79. 
 Le Moyne, Dr. F. J., 47, 48. 
 Liberty party, 23, 79, 97, 99. 
 Livermore, Harriet, 247, 286. 
 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 130, 
 
 190, 202, 2145 funeral of, 228. 
 Lowell, James Russell, 15, 21, 26, 84, 
 
 130, 131, 245. 
 
 Marlboro House, Boston, 169. 
 Morrill, Amos, 266. 
 
 Nason, Elias, 22. 
 
 Nayler, James, 55. 
 
 Neal, John, 74, 82, 276. 
 
 " New England Review," 263. 
 
 New York, Description of, 50. 
 
 Nurse, Rebecca, Epitaph of, 17. 
 
 Oak Knoll, 3, 220, 242, 257. 
 " < Old South,* In the," 16. 
 "Our Country," 252. 
 
 Page, John S., 266. 
 
 Parker, Theodore, 96. 
 
 Parris, Rev. Samuel, 230. 
 
 " Pennsylvania Hall," 199. 
 
 Pennypacker, Isaac R., 252. 
 
 Phillips, Stephen C, 38, 41. 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, 149, 159, 209. 
 
 Pickard, Samuel T., 257. 
 
 Pierce, Edward L., 190. 
 
 Pocasset tragedy, 210, 226. 
 
 "Preacher, The," 12. 
 
 Prentice, George D., 5, 34. 
 
 Puritanism and Quakerism contrasted, 10. 
 
 " Quaker Alumni, The," 14. 
 
 Quaker Coat, 7, 8, 14. 
 
 Quakerism and Puritanism contrasted, 10. 
 
 Quakerism, Decline of, 14. 
 
 Quay, Senator M. S., 253. 
 
 Reinhart, E. W., 34. 
 
 "Response," 199. 
 
 Rice, Rev, Charles B., 230. 
 
 " Sabbath Scene, A," 17. 
 Salem Convention, 91. 
 Sewall, Samuel E., 76. 
 Seward, William H., 140. 
 " Sheridan's Ride," 166. 
 Smith, Gerrit, 87. 
 " Snow-Bound," 248. 
 
 Sprague, Peleg, 76. 
 
 Stanton, Henry B., 53, 67, 79, 86, 91, 
 102, 109. 
 
 Star Island singers, 163. 
 
 Stedman, Edmund C, 216, 255. 
 
 Stewart, Alvan, 79, 87. 
 
 Stone, Mrs. Lucy, 159. 
 
 Stuart, Charles, 52. 
 
 Sturge, Joseph, 19, 20, 69, 71, 128. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, Letter Books of, 22 ; 
 friendship with Whittier, 24 ; com- 
 ments on Whittier's poems, 1 1 1 j sends 
 works to Whittier, 1155 elected Sena- 
 tor, 1175 assault on, 1265 resolution 
 on flags, 187 ; will of, 190. 
 
 "Sundown," 255. 
 
 Swinburne, Algernon, 189. 
 
 Tappan, Lewis, 104, 108. 
 Thaxter, Celia, 161, 183. 
 Thayer, A. W., 7, 33, 73,77, 81. 
 Thompson, George, 36. 
 Ticknor, Frank O., 223. 
 Timrod, Henry, 175. 
 Torrey, Rev. Charles T., 60. 
 " Tritemius of Herbipolis," 144. 
 
 Washington, George, 76, 88. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 97. 
 
 " Websterized Whiggry," 117. 
 
 Weld, Theodore D., 64, 209, 266, 
 269. 
 
 " What the Traveller said at Sunset," 
 232. 
 
 Whipple, E. P., 130, 224. 
 
 Whitman, Walt, 241. 
 
 Whittier, Abigail Hussey, 33. 
 
 Whittier, Elizabeth H., 34, 56, 63, 139, 
 150, 268. 
 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf, receives letter 
 from Garrison, 5 ; prints "Justice and 
 Expediency," 6 ; becomes associate edi- 
 tor of the " National Era," 21 5 sug- 
 gests Sumner as Senator, 22 ; friend- 
 ship with Sumner, 24 ; recognized as 
 man of letters, 26 j Quaker principles, 
 27 ; aversion to publicity, 28, 289 j 
 criticism on Channing's "Slavery," 
 44 j visits Harrisburg and Lancaster, 
 Pa., 46 ; writes Henry Clay, 53 j first 
 edition of poems, 5 8 ; acts as grooms- 
 man, 60 j makes a journey into the 
 mountains, 64 5 considers trip to Eng- 
 land, 68 j writes Gov. Everett, 76 ; as 
 
[ 2 95 ] 
 
 a lobbyist, 86 ; his story about Bur- 
 leigh, 89 ; asks Lowell for a song, 91 ; 
 urges courage in political action, 97 j on 
 Lewis Tappan, 108 j first general col- 
 lection of poems, ill; declines nomina- 
 tion for State Senator, 1 13 ; " Slavery 
 in Massachusetts," 116 ; discusses co- 
 alition, 117, 279 ; as a Reform poet, 
 119; on the assault on Sumner, 126 ; 
 invited to contribute to " Atlantic," 
 13 x j on Dr. Bailey, 133 j on S. P. 
 Chase, 136 j on Mrs. L. M. Child, 
 146 j enjoys Mrs. Thaxter's letters, 
 161 j on the standard of Quakerism, 
 173 5 on Paul H. Hayne, 175 ; on 
 Grant and Greeley, 181 j is asked to 
 write Sumner's biography, 190 ; seven- 
 tieth birthday, 1 9 1, 194, 199 ; advice 
 to a young writer, 206 j tribute to 
 Garrison referred to, 209 ; on Pocasset 
 tragedy, 210; visits birthplace, 212; 
 on fame and notoriety, 214 ; on Sted- 
 man's poetry, 217 ; Hayne's poem on 
 his home life, 221 ; on E. P. "Whipple, 
 224; on the Claflins, 234 ; on Holmes's 
 birthday, 241 j on Walt Whitman, 
 
 243 ; congratulations on eightieth 
 birthday, 249 j prints " Sundown," 
 255 j plans biography, 257 j " Edito- 
 rial Creed," 263; letter to Theodore D. 
 Weld, 267 ; " Origin of 111 Health," 
 272 j an early letter, 276 ; on John 
 Neal, 277 j invites Sumner to Ames- 
 bury, 278 j on coalition, 279 j on con- 
 ditions in Kansas, 280 j on Sumner's 
 speech against Grant, 282; Prose 
 Works quoted, 6, 60, 108, 136, 
 173, 181. 
 
 Whittier, Matthew Franklin, 19, 34, 56, 
 74, 82, 88, 289. 
 
 " Whittier as a Politician," 274. 
 
 Winthrop, Robert C, 117. 
 
 " Witchcraft in Salem Village," 18. 
 
 Woodbury, J T., 55, 268. 
 
 Woodman, Mrs. Abby Johnson, 4, 221. 
 
 Woodman, Phoebe, 221, 257. 
 
 Worcester Convention, 24, 97. 
 
 World's Anti-Slavery Convention, Lon- 
 don, 67. 
 
 " Wreck of Ri vermouth, The," 154. 
 
 Wright, Elizur, Jr., 65, 274. 
 
 Wright, H. C, 55, 56, 82, 270. 
 
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