Whittier's antislavery poems show that he disapproved of slavery in the abstract. They show that he had personal sympathy for the negro slaves. They show that he looked upon negro slavery as injurious to the slaveholder. He looked upon slavery as morally wrong. He opposed slavery in all ages and places. He regarded the negro as "brother-man, and fellowcountryman." He was sensible to the horrors of slavery to the slave. Such passages as the following are common in his antislavery poetry: "What, ho! our countrymen in chains! The whip on woman's shrinking flesh ! Caught from her scourging, warm and fresh! What! God's own image bought and sold! And bartered as the brute for gold." Stanzas. In The Peace of Europe Whittier denounces tyranny and slavery, however disguised. In To Pius IX he denounces tyranny in the church. In The New Exodus he rejoices over the report of the abolition of slavery in Egypt. In Freedom in Brazil he rejoices over the liberation of slaves. The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother, The Song of Slaves in the Desert, and other poems mentioning the suffering of the slave, show that sympathy and imagination, as well as reason, were responsible for Whittier's opposition to slavery. Plant, if ye will, your fathers' graves with rankest weeds of shame." Again, to the slaveholder he says: — "And the curse of unpaid toil, Downward through your generous soil Like a fire shall burn and spoil," etc. He saw that it brutalized the southern women. He saw that it made the churchmen traitors to their trust. Whittier's poems show that he approved the abolitionist leaders and their measures. They show him to have been identified with the movement. They show that he thought abolition should be gained at any price. Whittier shows his admiration for the friends of freedom in Garrison, To the Memory of Thomas Shipley, Ritner, The Branded Hand, Daniel Neall, The Lost Statesman, To John C. Frémont, etc., etc. Many of Whittier's occasional poems, together with the occasion that called them forth, have been already named. The publication of poems of this nature committed their author to the cause he advocated. Some of the poems show Whittier to have taken part in specific abolition measures. Many of the poems were intended to excite sympathy and rouse to action. Pennsylvania Hall was written for the dedication of the hall of that name to the cause of freedom. They show that, patriot though he was, he thought disunion not too great a price to pay for deliverance from a share in the responsibility of slaveholding. They show that, Quaker though he was, he thought war was not too great a price to pay for freedom. They show that he thought that existing evils could be stopped through abolition. In Texas: Voice of New England he wrote: "Take your slavery-blackened vales; Leave us but our own free gales, Boldly, or with treacherous art, In A Word for the Hour he wrote :— "They break the links of Union: Draw we not even now a freer breath, Why take we up the accursed thing again? In To Faneuil Hall he wrote: "Have they wronged us? Let us then Render back nor threats nor prayers; Up, your banner leads the van, Up, to Faneuil Hall!" While war was in progress, in 1862, he wrote: Above our broken dreams and plans The corner-stones of liberty. I cavil not with Him: the voice That freedom's blessed gospel tells Rejoicing! yea, I will rejoice!" In Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott he wrote: What sets the roaring rabble's heel On the old star-spangled pennon? What breaks the oath Of the men o' the South? What whets the knife For the Union's life ? Hark to the answer: Slavery! * In vain the bells of war shall ring Of triumphs and revenges, That severs and estranges." 7. Point out the virtues and the defects in the brief into which you have organized the proposition given above. THE KIND OF EVIDENCE Where it is important to impress the reader with the truth of a proposition, it is well not to depend on one line of argument, however strong that may seem. Give the proposition manifold proof. Let one argument reënforce another. Make assurance doubly sure. Not to weary the reader with repetition, have recourse to arguments of various kinds. We may offer as evidence facts gained from our own experience or observation, or from the observation of others; or we may offer opinions or inferences, our own opinions grounded on our own observations or on the observations or the opinions of others, or the opinions of others grounded on their own observations or on the observations or the opinions of others. We usually trust the evidence of our own senses, but even that is not absolutely reliable: the eye or the ear reports the appearance rather than the fact; if you whirl a burning stick, you see what appears to be an unbroken ring of fire; the white cow may look purple in a certain light; the skiff seems repeated in the clear water; the answering call is but an echo; appearances often deceive. And again we see not what really appears but what we expect to see - fevered fancy converts the white-trunked sycamore into a ghost for Ichabod Crane-yet on the whole we trust our senses. |