Sonnet to Liberty.
They tell me, Liberty! that, in thy name,4
I may not plead for all the human race;
That some are born to bondage and disgrace,
Some to a heritage of woe and shame,
And some to power supreme, and glorious fame.
With my whole soul I spurn the doctrine base,
And, as an equal brotherhood, embrace
All people, and for all fair freedom claim!
Know this, O man! whate'er thy earthly fate—
God never made A Tyrant, nor A slave:
Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate
His glorious image!—for to all He gave
Eternal rights, which none may violate;
And, by a mighty hand, th' oppressed He yet shall save.
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Despite the hue-and-cry of ‘infidelity’ raised against1 the Liberator and its editor; despite the precarious condition of the American Society and its new organ; and notwithstanding the flat condition of the cause everywhere, in consequence of the overpowering political interest, the close of the year found Mr. Garrison in a cheerful if not exalted state of mind.2 We see it not only in the elasticity with which he met the fresh blows showered upon him, but in the renewed activity of his muse—this last being also a sign of good physical condition.
No fewer than five sonnets proceeded from him in December—partly contributed to the Liberator,3 and partly to the Liberty Bell, the annual publication of the Anti-Slavery Fair, under the auspices of Mrs. Chapman.
We can fancy him composing them on his lonely midnight walks across the long bridge to Cambridge, over the Charles River.
These two, the best of the five, if not at his high-water mark, have, perhaps, a claim to be quoted:
2 ‘The Liberator,’ writes E. Quincy (Ms. Dec. 31, 1840) to Collins, ‘has come out remarkably well under the new arrangement. The expenses have been all cleared off—mainly by the subscriptions. Andrew Robeson, with whom I spent night before last (being in New Bedford, lecturing before the Lyceum on the Quakers), gave me $150 for G., which paid off the arrears of his salary for last year, and quite set him on his legs again. I think next year it will nearly if not quite support itself.’
The Century Company. , 1885-1889.
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