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Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Personal Poems

Leggett’s Monument

  • William Leggett, who died in 1839 at the age of thirty-seven, was the intrepid editor of the New York Evening Post and afterward of The Plain Dealer. His vigorous assault upon the system of slavery brought down upon him the enmity of political defenders of the system.
  • “Ye build the tombs of the prophets.”—Holy Writ.


    • YES, pile the marble o’er him! It is well

    That ye who mocked him in his long stern strife,

    And planted in the pathway of his life

    The ploughshares of your hatred hot from hell,

    Who clamored down the bold reformer when

    He pleaded for his captive fellow-men,

    Who spurned him in the market-place, and sought

    Within thy walls, St. Tammany, to bind

    In party chains the free and honest thought,

    The angel utterance of an upright mind,

    Well is it now that o’er his grave ye raise

    The stony tribute of your tardy praise,

    For not alone that pile shall tell to Fame

    Of the brave heart beneath, but of the builders’ shame!

    1841.


    Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD