The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-03
A POETS LOVE STORY
THE ROMANCE OF wEITTIER.s LIFE
TOLD By An OLD AND NEAR FRIEND.
The Letter Proposing Marriage Still
I'm Existence-Other interesting
Personal "Reminiscences.
Caroline Healy Dan, in Springfield Repub-

lican.
The general outline of Winters life has
long been familiar to the public. Born at
Havarhill in 1907, he remained there until
two years before his fathers death in 1886.
He was full Of political ambition, and per-
haps owed as much to Garr:son's moral
impulse as ever his friend Lucy nae owed
to him. There was scarce anything a man
could do that he had not tried. AS editor
of the Manufacturer from 1928 to 1890 he
had a taste of a life that he liked. When
he became free, then it was easy to see
that a position like that offered him by
George ID. Prentice at Hartford, as editor
of the New England Review with a salary
of $500. was not likely to be rejected. 1t
was accepted as the speediest way of wip-
ing out the mortgage on the Hayerhill farm
"a feat which it actually accomplished.
But the residence of eighteen months in
Hartford was to do more than this. 1t
introduced him to a vigorous anti-slavery
circle of higher culture and a more delicate
refinement than any he had known. and
within that circle incarnated in a most love-
ly woman he was to find his fate.
1t was not in "Sea Dreams" and THE
Last Eve of Summer tsrt Whittier COM
memoTated the immortal experience of his
last year at Hartford. Among the anti
slavery friends who sustained the editor
and the Review, the biographer has men,
toned Judge Russ, a man well known in
that day for brilliant parts and a handsome
person. Born in Essex county in 1867. he
had married in, 1864. OF his six children
four were living when Whittier went to
Hartford and found in him it may be a
warmer welcome because he came from
Hayerhill. len years after three or these
children had died, leaving an on.y surv1v-
ing son (who passed away IN lo6I, at the
age of forty-eight). The family was dlStin-
guished for beauty and brightness. OF these
members whom Whittier knew, Mary. the
Oldest, married Silas E.. Burrows, who viii
be remembered as the person who first pro-
posed the erecting of a monumnet to the
memory of Mary Washington. Mrs. Bur
rows died of consumption IN New YORK Tk In
survived only an unmarried daughter, Cor
nelia, and one SON, Charles James Russ,
lawyer in Hartford.
Cornelia, the youngest child, born in 1914,
parted from Whittier in 1881. He was TWEEN
ty-four. The strong anti-slavery zeal of the
family threw the two young people much
together, and the clear brain and tender
heart of the poet yielded to very uncommon
charms. One who saw her several times
a aurin Ia t the Vast Iast y year f Hf nsT lish d eornelis
was a most beautiful woman. She had
dark-blue eyes. like pansies, with long,
quisite color. If she was Ike the rest of
her family she was a very intelligent and
DTllll6II OIIld
Judge Russ. who was a member of Con-
gress in 1920, had died in 1882. OF this
Whittier probably heard through his friend
Mary Burrowes,sior cornelia.. there is no
evidence. When he was writing his letter
Cornelia was lying on her deathbed. She
had nursed her sister through her fatal i'll
ness. had imbibed the poison, and followed
her in the April of 1872.
The poem called Memories to which
Whittier attributed q special significance,
He thinks of her as still bright and living,
and when, in 1888. he desired the poem to
bfeerIpa placed ed at hes the m head st ii ms 1r,e "s so bec ngt
gave no token that he knew hers had
ceased to beat. a.
THE LETTER EXISTS.
After. Cornelia's death her papers passed
into the hands Of the only surviving menu
Der of her family. Charles James Russ,
who died in 1861. At that time her pri-
vate letters came into the hands of his
widow, who destroyed most of them, but
kept from pure love of the poet, the
precious pages in which Whittier had of
fered himself to her kinswoman. have
not myself read the letter. which is still in
existence, but one who has read it, the
present possessor, writes to me as follows:
THE letter was short, simple and manly,
as you would know. He evidently expect
ed to call the next day and learn his fate"
AnOLner VINO mas seen the letter writes.
1T was somewhat stsf--such a letter as
a shy Quaker lad would be likely to write.
for that he was, in spite of his genius. He
begged her, if she felt unable to return
his affection, to keep his secret, for he said
my respect and affection for you are so
great that I could not survive the mortif-
cation. If your refusal were known" Cor
nelia Russ was sought in marriage by sew
eral distinguished persons. but she died
unmarried, and she kept Whittier's secret.
His poem suggests that the stern creed of
Calvin held them apart-a thing very likely
to happen in Connecticut HAIR a century
ago; but if he had known that she had
changed her early connections for the more
liberal associations of the church of Eng
land, he would have seen yet more dis
of which the poem speaks.
Those who are familiar with Memories
brown hair which it and
fancy, perhaps; that there is some mistake.
1t ao,d Is n not elk LIKELY ~ that ataS Whittier hs, forgot the
ELUSIVE moment he had shown the poem
to James 7. Fields and Edwin P. Whipple.
years. they wished to publish It. and he
was very reluctant. He had not outgrown
undoubtedly changed a few descriptive
words to screen the truth-it may be from
think he died believing that she had.
Rumors of this story reached me long ago,
butt would not print a mere surmise, and by
long and devious ~wayS-leading through pro-
bate offices and town registers. through
church records and private papers, in q
L ti6t ndS occupied
two months, have l followed the story as 1
tell it.
We think it strange that we find so few
memorials of Shakespeare. a man who died
three hundred years ago, but l have not
found it possible to get so much as one au-
tograph of a man who was not merely a
member of Congress, but only sixty years
ago a prominent reformer In the highest cir
cles of Hartford.
have always felt sure that if Abraham
Lincoln had married Ann Rutledge and
merged every desire of his heart in her
lovely personality, he would never have be-
come a politician. He acknowledged to a
friend, on his first appearance in that
guise, that he wished to forget her in hard
work. Now l wonder what Whittier would
have been if Cornelia Russ had crowned
his love. No less of an anti-slavery man
certainly. burt possibly still more of one,
with her zeal to stay the fire of his own:
but I do think he would have been less of
a politician, and that the greater part of
the first volume of Mr.. Pickard's Memo
ries" had then no need to be written.
Few persons who have not read this book
have realized that Whittier was for years
a great political force, few have known his
share in the nomination of Sumner or the
great amount OF his anti-slavery work. In
such Memoirs the true history of the
thirty years that preceded the civil war is
to be found. To those of us who shared,
in ever SO humble a way, in the struggle,
the haif-hearted testimony of those who