Wednesday, December 19, 2018

John Greenleaf Whittier to George L. Stearns, September 13, 1861

[September 13, 1861.]
Dr. Friend:

Owing to absence from home, I did not see thy letter until last evening.

It would have given me pleasure to have attended your meeting of the 10th inst.

I presume I should fully agree with you as to the duty and expediency of striking more directly at the real cause of the war. As heretofore I shall use all my endeavors to this end. If the present terrible struggle does not involve emancipation, partial or complete, it is, at once, a most wicked and the most ludicrous war ever waged.

Thanking thee and thy friends for the invitation, I shall be happy to cooperate with you to the extent of my power.

Thou wast deeply interested in John Brown, I think. Let me call thy attention to a poem, “Our First Martyr,” by Miss Phoebe Cary, of New York, in the last Independent.

Very truly thy fd.,
John G. Whittier.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 256-7

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