1 In 1658 two young persons, son and daughter of Lawrence Southwick of Salem, who had himself been imprisoned and deprived of nearly all his property for having entertained Quakers at his house, were fined for non-attendance at church. They being unable to pay the fine, the General Court issued an order empowering The Treasurer of the County to sell the said persons to any of the English nation of Virginia or Barbadoes, to answer said fines.' An attempt was made to carry this order into execution, but no shipmaster was found willing to convey them to the West Indies. (WHITTIER

Dragging the slowly lengthening chain of bondage to the grave!

Think of thy woman's nature, subdued in hopeless thrall,

The easy prey of any, the scoff and scorn of all !'

Oh, ever as the Tempter spoke, and feeble Nature's fears

Wrung drop by drop the scalding flow of unavailing tears,

I wrestled down the evil thoughts, and strove in silent prayer,

To feel, O Helper of the weak! that Thou indeed wert there!

I thought of Paul and Silas, within Philippi's cell,

And how from Peter's sleeping limbs the prison shackles fell,

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Till I seemed to hear the trailing of an angel's robe of white,

And to feel a blessed presence invisible to sight.

Bless the Lord for all his mercies! - for the peace and love I felt,

Like dew of Hermon's holy hill, upon my spirit melt;

When Get behind me, Satan!' was the language of my heart,

And I felt the Evil Tempter with all his doubts depart.

Slow broke the gray cold morning; again the sunshine fell,

Flecked with the shade of bar and grate within my lonely cell;

The hoar-frost melted on the wall, and upward from the street

Came careless laugh and idle word, and tread of passing feet.

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At length the heavy bolts fell back, my door was open cast,

And slowly at the sheriff's side, up the long street I passed;

I heard the murmur round me, and felt, but dared not see,

How, from every door and window, the people gazed on me.

And doubt and fear fell on me, shame burned upon my cheek,

Swam earth and sky around me, my trembling limbs grew weak:

Let all dear hearts with me rejoice, as did the saints of old,

'Like the herdsmen of Tekoa, in Israel of old,

Peter told.

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And weep and howl, ye evil priests and mighty men of wrong,

The Lord shall smite the proud, and lay His hand upon the strong.

Woe to the wicked rulers in his avenging hour!

Woe to the wolves who seek the flocks to raven and devour!

But let the humble ones arise, the poor in heart be glad,

And let the mourning ones again with robes of praise be clad.

For And tamed the Chaldean lions, is mighty still to save!

He who cooled the furnace, and smoothed the stormy wave,

1843.

MASSACHUSETTS TO VIRGINIA1

THE blast from Freedom's Northern hills, upon its Southern way,

Bears greeting to Virginia from Massachusetts Bay:

No word of haughty challenging, nor battle bugle's peal,

Nor steady tread of marching files, nor clang of horsemen's steel,

No trains of deep-mouthed cannon along our highways go;

Around our silent arsenals untrodden lies the snow;

1 Written on reading an account of the proceedings of the citizens of Norfolk, Va., in reference to George Latimer, the alleged fugitive slave, who was seized in Boston without warrant at the request of James B. Grey, of Norfolk, claiming to be his master. The case caused great excitement North and South, and led to the presentation of a petition to Congress, signed by more than fifty thousand citizens of Massachusetts, calling for such laws and proposed amendments to the Constitution as should relieve the Commonwealth from all further participation in the crime of oppression. George Latimer himself was finally given free papers for the sum of four hundred dollars. (WHITTIER.)

When the excitement was at its height, conventions were held simultaneously in every county in Massachusetts, and this poem was read at the Essex County convention. The most intense enthusiasm was aroused by those stanzas in which all the counties of the State speak successively, each in its own character.