Whittier on John Brown

January 13, 1860

Here there is comment on two poems by Whittier, both on the final page of this edition.  “… we think there is not the same magnanimous recognition of the liberty-loving heroism of John Brown, which is found in many of the poet’s effusions relating to the war-like struggle of 1776, and ‘our revolutionary fathers’…….There is an apparent vidiousness or severity of imputation… which does not seem to be called for, though softened by some approving allusions in close juxtaposition….”  The comment wonders why Brown is the subject of “special moral criticism and rebuke by the poet?”