. American lands and letters. enity in ahome which was brightened for many and many ayear by the feminine graces and the unconquer-able cheer and courage of his younger is all the while more or less of working con-nection with this or that local journal, whichrepresented his Henry Clay and his Indus-trial proclivities, and which could show hospital-ity to the strong anti-slavery note of much of hisbetter verses — by reason of their poetic even comes to the distinction of being mobbedin those turbulent times, when George Thompson,the English anti-slavery expositor, came o
. American lands and letters. enity in ahome which was brightened for many and many ayear by the feminine graces and the unconquer-able cheer and courage of his younger is all the while more or less of working con-nection with this or that local journal, whichrepresented his Henry Clay and his Indus-trial proclivities, and which could show hospital-ity to the strong anti-slavery note of much of hisbetter verses — by reason of their poetic even comes to the distinction of being mobbedin those turbulent times, when George Thompson,the English anti-slavery expositor, came over toinstruct New Englanders in their social and moralduties. But Whittier was never a man to shrinkfrom any hazards or any indignities to which hemight be exposed by firm and full utterances ofhis humane and kindly instincts, and of hissympathy with captives everywhere. From noto-riety of a vulgar sort he always shrunk ; but fromthat which was due to annoyance, howeverignoble, incurred for conscience sake, he WHITTIER. 317 In the memorable days belonging to theperiod of the fugitive slave-law decision, and thetrend of fiery Northerners over the borders ofKansas, he broke indeed into peals of Hebraicwrath, which sometimes outburned the rhetoricalblaze of his poetic measure of song. If he wereto write again, under the lights Avhich haveopened upon him Beyond, I think he Avouldmodify, in some degree, the excoriating mentionof Webster in his fiery poem of Ichabod — Then, pay the reverence of old daysTo his dead fame;Walk backward, with averted gaze,And hide the shame. Else, there would be a cold meeting for those two—twinned by traceable lines of Puritan blood, andtwinned by the deep-set darkling eyes — in thosecourts of Futurity, where the poet believed allwho had ever wrought well in any lines of lifewould surely meet. Critics — knowing in those small matters — saythat his verse has technical flaws of rhyme andmeasure; tis very likely, too, that his cl
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