Note 1, page 18. The reader may, perhaps, call to mind the beautiful
sonnet of William Wordsworth, addressed to Toussaint L'Ouverture, during
his confinement in France.
"Toussaint!--thou most unhappy man of men
Whether the whistling rustic tends his plough
Within thy hearing, or thou liest now
Buried in some deep dungeon's earless den;
O miserable chieftain!--where and when
Wilt thou find patience?--Yet, die not, do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow;
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies,--
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies.
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind."
Note 2, page 67. The Northern author of the Congressional rule against
receiving petitions of the people on the subject of Slavery.
Note 3, page 88. There was at the time when this poem was written an
Association in Liberty County, Georgia, for the religious instruction of
negroes. One of their annual reports contains an address by the Rev.
Josiah Spry Law, in which the following passage occurs: "There is a
growing interest in this community in the religious instruction of
negroes. There is a conviction that religious instruction promotes the
quiet and order of the people, and the pecuniary interest of the
owners."
Note 4, page 117. The book-establishment of the Free-Will Baptists in
Dover was refused the act of incorporation by the New Hampshire
Legislature, for the reason that the newspaper organ of that sect and
its leading preachers favored abolition.
Note 5, page 118. The senatorial editor of the Belknap Gazette all along
manifested a peculiar horror of "niggers" and "nigger parties."
Note 6, page 118. The justice before whom Elder Storrs was brought for
preaching abolition on a writ drawn by Hon. M. N., Jr., of Pittsfield.
The sheriff served the writ while the elder was praying.
Note 7, page 118. The academy at Canaan, N. H., received one or two
colored scholars, and was in consequence dragged off into a swamp by
Democratic teams.
Note 8, page 119. "Papers and memorials touching the subject of slavery
shall be laid on the table without reading, debate, or reference." So
read the gag-law, as it was called, introduced in the House by Mr.
Atherton.
Note 9, page 120. The Female Anti-Slavery Society, at its first meeting
in Concord, was assailed with stones and brickbats.
Note 10, page 168. The election of Charles Sumner to the United States
Senate "followed hard upon" the rendition of the fugitive Sims by the
United States officials and the armed police of Boston.
Note 11, page 290. For the idea of this line, I am indebted to Emerson,
in his inimitable sonnet to the Rhodora,--
"If eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being."