Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/517

Rh tacked Gen. Andrew Jackson severely for his course in Florida, spoke earnestly against striking out the clause to prohibit slavery from the bill to admit Missouri to the Union, took an active part in discussions on the tariff, and in 1818 spoke in favor of a bankrupt law. He was the author of a pamphlet, "Genealogy of the Descendants of John Whitman" (printed privately, Portland, 1832).

WHITMAN, Marcus, pioneer, b. in Rushville, Ontario co., N. Y., 4 Sept., 1802; d. in Waülatpu, Ore., 29 Nov., 1847. He was educated under private tutors, studied in Berkshire medical institution, Pittsfield, Mass., and in 1834 was appointed by the American board a missionary physician to Oregon. Dr. Whitman, Rev. Henry N. Spaulding, and their young wives, set out in 1836, and, journeying slowly westward, crossed the Rocky mountains by the South Pass through which John C. Frémont's party penetrated six years later. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding were the first white women to cross the mountains. On 2 Sept. the party arrived at Fort Walla Walla. Whitman had insisted on bringing one wagon with him despite assertions that the route was impassable for wheels, and by thus opening a wagon-road he led the way for emigration. The Hudson bay company's officers at Fort Hall, whose interest it was that no American settlers should be allowed to enter Oregon, and who had turned away many trains of intending emigrants, had vainly tried to dissuade him from his attempt. After several years' residence in the country, Dr. Whitman, seeing that the purpose of the British was to discourage American colonization of the territory by spreading reports of its inaccessibility and at the same time to fill it with English emigrants, resolved to visit Washington and lay the matter before the U. S. government. In October, 1842, the rejoicing at the English fort at Walla Walla over the approach of a large party of English colonists, and the knowledge that the Webster-Ashburton treaty was then under consideration, impelled him to lose no time, and he set out within twenty-four hours for the east on horseback after much opposition from his associates. With him were one companion and a guide, with three pack-mules. On 3 Jan., 1843, they reached Bent's fort, on Arkansas river, after undergoing many hardships, and soon afterward Whitman arrived at St. Louis, where he learned that the Ashburton treaty had been ratified already and that it left the Oregon question unsettled. On 3 March he was in Washington, where the information that he gave the government served to show how valuable Oregon was notwithstanding the efforts of interested persons to prove that it was inaccessible. Had it not been for him the United States might have given up Oregon to England as comparatively worthless. He was also earnest in his endeavors to show how easily it could be reached, and on his return in 1843 he led back a train of 200 wagons to the valley of the Columbia. Others followed in great numbers, and this &ldquo;army of occupation&rdquo; went far toward securing Oregon to this country. Four years later, Dr. Whitman, with his wife, two adopted children, and ten others, was massacred by the Cayuse Indians. See &ldquo;Oregon: the Struggle for Possession,&rdquo; by William Barrows (Boston, 1884).

WHITMAN, Sarah Helen, poet, b. in Providence, R. I., in 1803; d. there, 27 June, 1878. She was the daughter of Nicholas Power, of Providence, and in 1828 married John W. Whitman, a Boston lawyer, after whose death in 1833 she returned to her native city and devoted herself to literature. Mrs. Whitman was well known for her

conversational powers. She was an admirer of Edgar A. Poe, with whom, about 1848, she entered into a conditional engagement of marriage. Though it was broken off soon afterward, her friendly feeling for Poe did not cease, and inspired several of her poems, notably the elegy &ldquo;Resurgamus.&rdquo; Mrs. Whitman contributed to magazines prize essays on literary topics, including critical articles on European writers, and many poems, which have been admired for their tenderness, melody, and philosophic spirit. She published in book-form a collection of these, entitled &ldquo;Hours of Life, and other Poems&rdquo; (Providence, 1853), and &ldquo;Edgar A. Poe and his Critics,&rdquo; in which she defended her friend's character from harsh aspersions (New York, 1860). She was often called on for occasional poems, and one of these she read at the unveiling of the statue of Roger Williams in Providence in 1877. Parts of her &ldquo;Fairy Ballads,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Golden Ball,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Sleeping Beauty,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Cinderella&rdquo; (1867) were written by her sister,. After Mrs. Whitman's death a full collection of her &ldquo;Poems&rdquo; appeared (Boston, 1879).

WHITMAN, Walt, or Walter, poet, b. in West Hills, Long Island, N. Y., 31 May, 1819. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn and New York city, and learned printing, working at that trade in summer and teaching in winter. Subsequently he also acquired skill as a carpenter. For brief periods he edited newspapers in New Orleans and in Huntington, L. I. In 1847-'8 he made long pedestrian tours through the United States, generally following the courses of the great western rivers, and also extended his journey through Canada. His chief work, &ldquo;Leaves of Grass&rdquo; (New York, 1855), is a series of poems dealing with moral, social, and political problems, and more especially with the interests involved in 19th century American life and progress. In it he made a new and abrupt departure as to form, casting his thoughts in a mould the style of which is something between rhythmical prose and verse, altogether discarding rhythm and regular metre, but uttering musical thoughts in an unconventional way which is entirely his own. Expecting the opposition and abuse with which his volume was assailed, he speaks of it as a sortie on common literary use and wont, on both spirit and form, adding that a century may elapse before its triumph or failure can be assured. For thirty years Whitman has been correcting and adding to this work, and he says that he looks upon &ldquo;Leaves of Grass&rdquo; &ldquo;now finished to the end of its opportunities and powers, as my definitive carte visite to the coming generations of the New World, if I may assume to say so.&rdquo; In the war Whitman's brother was wounded on the battle-field, which led to the poet's at once hastening to join him in the camp, where he afterward remained as a volunteer army nurse at Washington and in Virginia in 1862-'5. His experiences during this service are vividly recorded