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
