Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier: In the Roberts Collection at Haverford College

WHITTIER'S LETTERS33 DOCUMENTS LETTERS OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER In the Roberts Collection at Haverford College Transcribed and edited by Edward D. Snyder, Professor of English at Haverford College, and Anna B. Hewitt, Assistant Curator of the Roberts Collection. Letter No. 1 This letter takes us further into the tense details of the abolition movement than does any of the other Whittier letters in the Roberts Collection. It deals with an important abolition meeting which has not been stressed by Whittier's biographers, and its casual references re-create for us the days of bitterness and actual martyrdom for the cause of abolition. The Honorable James Gordon Carter (1795-1849) served in both houses of the Massachusetts state legislature, and was distinguished as a reformer in the field of public education. Charles Turner Torrey (1813-1846), a Congregational minister and intense abolitionist, eventually died in the Maryland penitentiary as a direct result of his antislavery work. The arrest to which Whittier refers was in January, 1842, in connection with Torrey's efforts to attend and report the proceedings of a slaveholders' convention held at Annapolis. See Slavery and Antislavery by William Goodell (New York, 1852), pp. 441-445. The "Creole case" refers to a slave ship, and the incident is thus described by McMaster : "Late in October, 1841, the brig Creole, laden with tobacco and conveying five passengers and one hundred and thirty-eight slaves, had sailed from Hampton Roads for New Orleans. When ten days out the negroes rose, killed the owner of many of them, wounded the captain and first mate, and forced the second mate and the crew to take the brig to Nassau. There nineteen of the negroes were held for murder and the rest set free." J. B. MacMaster, A History of the People of the United States (New York, 1910), vol. 7, p. 54. The "trial of J. Q. Adams" refers to an almost forgotten tempest in a teapot which boiled over in January, 1842. For some time the venerable John Quincy Adams had insisted on presenting to the House of Representatives scores of unimportant petitions, dealing largely with the abolition of slavery. On January 21, 1842, he baffled his opponents by presenting from certain citizens of Georgia a petition for his own removal from the chairmanship of an important committee, then by speaking in his own behalf (against the petition which he had just presented), and finally by presenting another petition signed by forty-ifive citizens of Haverhill, Massachusetts, which called for the peaceable dissolution of these United States ! It is significant that Haverhill was Whittier's birthplace. 34 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION "Burritt, the Learned Blacksmith," is Elihu Burritt (1810-1879), blacksmith , eccentric scholar, and founder of the pacifist weekly, the Christian Citizen. Amesbury 3rd 2nd Mo. 1842 [Addressed to Hon. James G. Carter, Lancaster, Mass.] Dear Friend I suppose thou hast seen by the Emancipator and Free American that we are to have a grand Liberty Meeting in Boston on the 16th inst. Permit me as one of the State Central Committee, to express the hope that thou wilt be with us on that occasion, with as many more from Lancaster as can possibly come. The Ladies too are especially invited—not to make speeches, I suppose ,—but to meet with us as they used to before the vexed question of Womens Rights disturbed us. It will be a great meeting. Old Essex will turn out strong. Let Worcester not be behind. Every thing favors us. Torry's arrest—the Creole case—the trial of J. Q. Adams—all are our auxilliaries. Very truly thy friend JOHN G. WHITTIER P. S. I have in my care a Book which my friend Joseph Sturge wished me to give thee, but have had no convenient opportunity of doing so. Dost thou know Burritt the "Learned Blacksmith"? I am told that he is favorable to our cause. If thou art acquainted with him give him an invitation to attend our meeting. Letter No. 2 The Honorable Henry Stephens Randall (1811-1876), agriculturist, author and leader in the field of public education, was elected in 1851 Secretary of State of New York, and by...