Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/422

 WHITTIER

"WHITTIER

Pitcher." an.l fn>in 1S31 to 1835 he contributed both prose:iiul verse to the Hartford Pearl, the Columbian Star, the Connecticut Mirror, the Ladies' Ma[iazine, the Haverhill Iris and the Xetc England Magazine. lu 1S32, Whittier re- turned to Haverhill, and henceforth gave his most earnest attention to politics. In liis view the possession of artistic powers implied a divine commission to lift and invigorate mankind, and his heart and mind became absorbed in the agi- tation against slavery, although he fully realized tlKit the role of an al)oIitionist meant death to both his poetical and political aml)itions. A rad- ical change naturally followed in the character of his writings, his poetical talent now becoming valuable only as the means by which he could personally best advocate the cause of anti-slav- ery, for thirty years his lyrics on freedom ap- pealing to an ever-widening audience. Closely identified witii him from the first in his work as a reformer was his friend Garrison, to whose views Wiiittier became an ardent cqnvert. He published his first anti-slavery pamphlet, "Jus- tice and Expediency '" in the spring of 1833, which, as "Justice the highest expedienc}%" be- came the watchword of his political party. He was a delegate to the National Anti-Slaver}' con- vention at Philadelpiiia in December, 1833; and became an opponent of the Colonization society, to which he had previously been friendly. He was made corresponding secretary of the Haver- hill Anti-Slavery society in 1834; represented Haverhill in the general court, 1835; and en- countered the riot at Concord, N.H., Sept. 4, 1835. He was again editor of the Haverhill Ga- zette, May-December, 1836: the family removing in July to Amesbury, Mass., where his sister Elizabeth was soon after elected president of the local Women's Anti-Slavery society. He became assistant editor and subsequently editor of the yatiotud Enquirer of Philadelphia, an anti-slav- ery publication, subsequentlj' called the Pennsyl- vania Freeman, his office being destroyed by a mob. May 17, 1838, and in February, 1840, for- mally severed his connection with the paper on account of ill health. Meanwhile he attended county, state and national anti-slavery conven- tions; was officially connected with several or- ganizations, being a secretary of the American Anti-Slavery society, 1837; was actively influen- tial, in 1837, in securing in the Massachusetts legislature the passjtge of the resolutions favor- ing abolition in the District of Columbia; be- came a member of the " new organization," so- called, of alx)litionists favoring political action, and in 1839 was deputed by the American Anti- Slavery society to solicit seventy public speakers in Pennsylvania to promulgate the cause through- out the country. In 1837 appeared the first edi-

tion of Whittier's poems (published without his knowledge), entitled Poems icritten during the Progress of the Abolition Question in the United States betuH'cn the years ISSO and JSJS, and a second volume was published by the Anti-Slav- ery Society of Peimsylvania in 1838. He con- tributed to the first number of the Democratic Review, October, 1837, which magazine con- tinued to publish nearly all his anti-slavery writ- ings until 1847; was a founder of the Liberty party (being known as its " Laureate "); sup- ported James G. Birney for the Piesidencj- in 1840 and 1844, and declined the candidacy of liis party for election as representative in tiie 28th congress from the North Essex district in 1842. In 1843 his Lays of My Home and Other Poems was published, being the first book from which the poet received any remuneration. He was editor of the Middlesex Standard, 1844-45, changing its name to the Essex Transcript and making it an organ of the liiberty party; presented with Henry Wilson, a petition to congress, signed by 65,000 names, against the admission of Texas a State, and was a delegate to the Liberty conven- tion at Washington, December, 1845. He penned many satirical writings during the early political campaigns of the Free-Soil party; was corre- sponding editor of the National Era of Washing- ton, 1847-60; was active in effecting Ihe election of George S. Boutwell as governor of Massa- chusetts in 1850, and also in persuading Charles Sumner to accept the Free-Soil candidacy for U.S. senator, and took a prominent part in the Fremont campaign. His poem Ichabod, written in re- sponse to Webster's speech of March 7, 1850, cre- ated a popular furor in Washington, and in after years the poet himself felt its denunciation iin- justifiedly bitter. He contributed regularly to the Atlantic Monthly from its inception in 1857, notably the campaign songs of 1860, his " Barbara Frietchie," and many of his famous "In War Time" poems, which won him an invitation from Brigadier-General Rice to visit the Army of the Potomac in 1804. The final achievement of emancipation, to the accomplishment of which Whittier had devoted his life, from 1833, called from the poet his celebrated " Laus Deo," which was first published, Feb. 9. 18G5. He was a presidential elector on the Lincoln and John- son ticket in 1865, and vice-president of the meeting held at Faneuil Hall, Boston, in June, 1865, to consider plans for reconstruction. From 1865 to 1870. Whittier was engaged in writing his Snow-Bound, The Tent on the Beach, and Among the Hills; was active in securing the re- scinding of the resolution of censure passed upon Sumner by the Massachusetts legislature in 1873, and upon the death of Sumner was commissioned by the state to write an ode for his memorial