Poems: With a Sketch of His Life (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Poems: With a Sketch of His Life
As the sou...)
Excerpt from Poems: With a Sketch of His Life
As the soul is greater than all its experiences, and a life is more than any of its incidents, we can never hope to find a. Whole character in any thing less than a whole life-experience. Even that does not quite tell the story; for back of the fail ures and the successes, the aspirations and achieve ments, the joys and the sorrows that befell the man, is the greater fact of the man himself.
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The Republican Pocket Pistol: A Collection of Facts, Opinions, and Arguments for Freedom (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from The Republican Pocket Pistol: A Collection o...)
Excerpt from The Republican Pocket Pistol: A Collection of Facts, Opinions, and Arguments for Freedom
The doctrine that the Constitution, by its own force, carries Slavery with it wherever it goes, is One of very recent discovery, and its annu'ncia tion could astonish no one more than the framers of that instrument. They evidently never even deemed that audacity itself could make such an preposterous claim. 'on the contrary, they re garded Slavery as a local interest, merely, ex ceptional in its having no ex; istence beyond the jurisdiction Of the local law. They made liberty our great National Interest, as it was distinctively our great National Idea while. Slavery was regarded as sectional,'anoma lous, restricted in its influence, and temporary in its duration.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
William Henry Burleigh was an American journalist and reformer. Burleigh was an active reformer and member of the Unitarian denomination.
Background
William Henry Burleigh was born on February 2, 1812 and was the fourth of the six sons of Rinaldo Burleigh. His father was a Yale graduate and a classical teacher until failing sight forced him to retire, and his wife Lydia Bradford, a descendant of Governor William Bradford.
He was born at Woodstock, Connecticut, but spent most of his boyhood on his father's farm at Plainfield, Connecticut, where he early became a sharer in the family responsibilities, which meant hard work and few recreations.
Education
His education was received at the district school and the Plainfield Academy, of which his father was in charge until William was eleven. Winter schooling and summer work alternated for a number of years.
Career
Burleigh was apprenticed to a dyer, then to a printer, in order that he might quickly become self-supporting. In 1830 he became a journeyman on the Stonington Phenix, where he was soon setting up articles of his own composition.
In 1832 he was printer and contributor to the Schenectady (New York) Cabinet and in 1833 assisted his brother, Charles Calistus Burleigh, in editing the Unionist, Brooklyn, Connecticut, a paper founded to support Prudence Crandall's colored school in which William Burleigh also taught for a time.
He became an editor of the Literary Journal, Schenectady, but left that in 1837 to become editor of the Christian Witness and afterward the Temperance Banner, in Pittsburgh.
In 1843 he went to Hartford at the invitation of the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, to take charge of its organ, the Christian Freeman, afterward the Charter Oak.
In 1849 he was employed by the New York State Temperance Society, with headquarters at Albany and Syracuse, as corresponding secretary, lecturer, and editor of the Prohibitionist. He remained in this position until 1855, when he was appointed harbor master of the port of New York and went to live in Brooklyn. Later he was made a port warden, but in 1870 was displaced for a Democrat.
Burleigh's fiery tilts against the evils of his day often made life hard for himself and his family.
He denounced the Mexican War, as waged in the interest of the slave power, and for this and on other occasions narrowly escaped mob violence. Yet he really disliked controversy and preferred purely literary work. Poetry was the form he chose for personal literary expression, apart from editorial and lecture composition.
A volume of Poems was published in 1841 and enlarged editions appeared in 1845 and 1850.
After his death his wife collected these poems in a new edition (1871). His poetry is not without beauty and vigor and shows his longing for the quiet, studious life which, because of his goading conscience, he was never able to enjoy. This conscience also dictated a certain amount of propaganda verse, such as The Rum Fiend and Other Poems (1871).
He died in Brooklyn, New York, as a result of what were called epileptic attacks, and his funeral was held at the Second Unitarian Church, where Samuel Longfellow had preached and where John White Chadwick was then pastor.
(Excerpt from Poems: With a Sketch of His Life
As the sou...)
Religion
He was brought up by his parents a strict Presbyterian but later became a Unitarian.
Views
He early felt interest in reform causes, especially anti-slavery, temperance, peace, and woman suffrage, and in 1836 began lecturing for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Membership
He was a member of the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society and of the New York State Temperance Society.
Personality
His picture, taken shortly before his death, shows a worn, kindly face, with high cheek bones, unusually alert dark eyes, heavy, drooping, white mustache, and white hair worn long and brushed straight back.
Connections
He was married to Harriet Adelia Frink of Stonington, Connecticut, by whom he had seven children. His first wife died in 1864 and in 1865 he married Mrs. Celia Burr of Troy, a teacher, prominent in woman suffrage work, and afterward a Unitarian minister.