# The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier/The Pastoral Letter

THE PASTORAL LETTER
The General Association of Congregational ministers in Massachusetts met at Brookfield, June 21, 1837, and issued a Pastoral Letter to the churches under its care. The immediate occasion of it was the profound sensation produced by the recent public lecture in Massachusetts by Angelina and Sarah Grimké, two noble women from South Carolina, who bore their testimony against slavery. The Letter demanded that “the perplexed and agitating subjects which are now common amongst us … should not be forced upon any church as matters for debate, at the hazard of alienation and division,” and called attention to the dangers now seeming “to threaten the female character with widespread and permanent injury.”
So, this is all,—the utmost reach Of priestly power the mind to fetter! When laymen think, when women preach, A war of words, a “Pastoral Letter!” Now, shame upon ye, parish Popes! Was it thus with those, your predecessors, Who sealed with racks, and fire, and ropes Their loving-kindness to transgressors?
A “Pastoral Letter,” grave and dull; Alas! in hoof and horns and features, How different is your Brookfield bull From him who bellows from St. Peter’s! Your pastoral rights and powers from harm, Think ye, can words alone preserve them? Your wiser fathers taught the arm And sword of temporal power to serve them.
Oh, glorious days, when Church and State Were wedded by your spiritual fathers! And on submissive shoulders sat Your Wilsons and your Cotton Mathers. No vile “itinerant” then could mar The beauty of your tranquil Zion, But at his peril of the scar Of hangman’s whip and branding-iron.
Then, wholesome laws relieved the Church Of heretic and mischief-maker, And priest and bailiff joined in search, By turns, of Papist, witch, and Quaker! The stocks were at each church’s door, The gallows stood on Boston Common, A Papist’s ears the pillory bore,— The gallows-rope, a Quaker woman!
Your fathers dealt not as ye deal With “non-professing” frantic teachers; They bored the tongue with red-hot steel, And flayed the backs of “female preachers.” Old Hampton, had her fields a tongue, And Salem’s streets could tell their story, Of fainting woman dragged along, Gashed by the whip accursed and gory!
And will ye ask me, why this taunt Of memories sacred from the scorner? And why with reckless band I plant A nettle on the graves ye honor? Not to reproach New England’s dead This record from the past I summon, Of manhood to the scaffold led, And suffering and heroic woman.
No, for yourselves alone, I turn The pages of intolerance over, That, in their spirit, dark and stern, Ye haply may your own discover! For, if ye claim the “pastoral right” To silence Freedom’s voice of warning, And from your precincts shut the light Of Freedom’s day around ye dawning;
If when an earthquake voice of power And signs in earth and heaven are showing That forth, in its appointed hour, The Spirit of the Lord is going! And, with that Spirit, Freedom’s light On kindred, tongue, and people breaking, Whose slumbering millions, at the sight, In glory and in strength are waking!
When for the sighing of the poor, And for the needy, God hath risen, And chains are breaking, and a door Is opening for the souls in prison! If then ye would, with puny hands, Arrest the very work of Heaven, And bind anew the evil bands Which God’s right arm of power hath riven;
What marvel that, in many a mind, Those darker deeds of bigot madness Are closely with your own combined, Yet “less in anger than in sadness”? What marvel, if the people learn To claim the right of free opinion? What marvel, if at times they spurn The ancient yoke of your dominion?
A glorious remnant linger yet, Whose lips are wet at Freedom’s fountains, The coming of whose welcome feet Is beautiful upon our mountains! Men, who the gospel tidings bring Of Liberty and Love forever, Whose joy is an abiding spring, Whose peace is as a gentle river!
But ye, who scorn the thrilling tale Of Carolina’s high-souled daughters, Which echoes here the mournful wail Of sorrow from Edisto’s waters, Close while ye may the public ear, With malice vex, with slander wound them, The pure and good shall throng to hear, And tried and manly hearts surround them.
Oh, ever may the power which led Their way to such a fiery trial, And strengthened womanhood to tread The wine-press of such self-denial,
Be round them in an evil land, With wisdom and with strength from Heaven, With Miriam’s voice, and Judith’s hand, And Deborah’s song, for triumph given!
And what are ye who strive with God Against the ark of His salvation, Moved by the breath of prayer abroad, With blessings for a dying nation? What, but the stubble and the hay To perish, even as flax consuming, With all that bars His glorious way, Before the brightness of His coming?
And thou, sad Angel, who so long Hast waited for the glorious token, That Earth from all her bonds of wrong To liberty and light has broken,— Angel of Freedom! soon to thee The sounding trumpet shall be given, And over Earth’s full jubilee Shall deeper joy be felt in Heaven!