Brooklyn, N. Y.,
July 16th 1865
My dear brother
We duly received your letter1—We of course all felt very indignant at the way you had been treated—but2 when I came to the statement that Harlan was a parson3 of course his conduct was to be expected From that class you can never get anything but lying and meanness—I hope you do not allow it to have any effect on you you must not—The poor mean-minded man—If Christ came to earth again and did'nt behave different from what he did when he was here he would have a mighty poor show with Harlan would'nt he—
The most outrageous thing was published in the Eagle4 If you have any curiosity abt it I will send it to you It was perfectly in keeping with the paper and I'v no doubt was considered a very good thing by little Van5—
I see by the papers that the 51st will probably be mustered out in a few days6 How does George feel about it7 I wonder—I still think if he wishes he could get in the regular army—
Mother had yesterday a letter from Heyde—10 pages—of the most disgusting trash8—the vilest and meanest things that he could get together He says he shall leave Han, and go out west9—I wish he was in Hell—Mother of course is considerably exercised about it—and thinks she will go on there and bring Han home—thinks she will go next week Of course it is foolish for Mother to attempt any thing of the kind and I dont mean to let her go—I am in hopes that George will get home next week and then he could go—I am sure that Mother would never live to get there and back let alone bringing Han—I read Heyds letter through and it is plain to me that they have had a quarrel abt some women that Heyde had in his room—they had a big row and Heyde has written to mother while the thing was fresh in his cussed head10—I suppose mother will get another letter soon rather taking the edge of[f] of this one—I've no doubt that Han has a most outrageous existance—and that she had better leave Heyde but I certainly dont think that Mother—old as she is can think of going there—she can hardly move in the morning till she gets some coffee with Mat—You must write her that she had better not go till George comes home and he can go with her—or something of that kind—dont fail to write mother—
Everything is going as usual with me—all keep about the same Mattie and the children are well the baby is a little down just now—but I guess she will be all right again in a few days—My friend Davis11 has got back from Peru—he spent 3 or 4 days with me last week—
Write to me
Jeff
Notes
- 1. Whitman's letter of
about July 15, 1865, is not extant. [back]
- 2. Whitman enclosed in
parentheses everything after "but" to the end of the paragraph. [back]
- 3. James Harlan
(1820–1899), secretary of the interior from 1865 to 1866, dismissed
Whitman from his second-class clerkship on June 30,
1865. Harlan apparently took offense at the copy of the 1860 Leaves of Grass which Whitman was revising and which he
kept at his desk. With the help of William Douglas O'Connor and Assistant
Attorney General J. Hubley Aston, Whitman secured a position in the attorney
general's office. The Harlan episode led directly to O'Connor's pamphlet "The
Good Gray Poet." Although Harlan was a Methodist, he was not a parson. Whitman
may have sarcastically applied this term to Harlan because on May 30, 1865,
Harlan had issued an official directive asking for the names of employees who
disregarded "in their conduct, habits, and associations the rules of decorum
& propriety prescribed by a Christian Civilization" (Jerome Loving, Walt Whitman's Champion [College Station: Texas A&M
University Press, 1978], 57). [back]
- 4. On July 12, 1865, the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle published "Morality in
Washington," which noted that "Walt Whitman has lost his position in the
Interior Department at Washington under the general order discharging immoral
persons, his 'Leaves of Grass' being produced as evidence of his immorality....
Walt is personally a good-hearted fellow, with some ability, but he was bitten
with the mania of transcendentalism, which broke out in New England some years
ago." Perhaps Jeff's outrage resulted from the charge that Whitman "wrote of
things no right minded person is supposed ever to think of, and used language
shocking to ears polite....He now occupies a desk in the Attorney General's
office, where we suppose they are not so particular about morals." [back]
- 5. Isaac Van Anden. See
Jeff Whitman's letter to Walt from April 6,
1863. [back]
- 6. On July 25, 1865, the
Fifty-first Regiment of New York Volunteers was discharged from military
service. [back]
- 7. In her letter to Walt
Whitman of August 8, 1865, Louisa Van Velsor Whitman wrote: "I gess they are all
sorry i dont know as they are sorry the war is over but i gess they would much
rather staid in camp...[George] is very restless" (Trent Collection of
Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Books, Manuscript, and Special Collections
Library). [back]
- 8. Jeff may be thinking of
this passage from Heyde's letter of June 1865: Hannah "will not dress herself
decently, but in place of this when I come home to dinner...she manages to
quarrell me out of it—so that I leave it half eaten—she begins by
questioning me about my women [Heyde's art students],...and goes so far as to
intimate that I have sexual intercourse with my pupils, at my room
This is damned mean—reckless characterless, common, and disgusting"
(Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Books, Manuscript, and
Special Collections Library). [back]
- 9. Heyde intended to
separate from Hannah and "go West." He planned no return: "I would rather go to
Patagonia" (Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Books,
Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). [back]
- 10. Jeff is inaccurate
here. Heyde's letter is clearly dated "June 1865," and while he may have written
in a fit of passion he had restraint enough not to send the letter immediately.
As Heyde himself explained: "This letter has been written for a long time. I
have concluded to send it to you. Realy my experience robs my heart of all
charity—Han has a plausible superficiality, but under that she is she
devil, to men" (Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University Rare Books,
Manuscript, and Special Collections Library). [back]
- 11. See Jeff's letter to
Walt from September 22, 1863. [back]