tacked Gen. Andrew Jackson severely for his course in Florida, spoke earnestly against striking out the clause to prohibit slavery from the bill to admit Missouri to the Union, took an active part in discussions on the tariff, and in 1818 spoke in favor of a bankrupt law. He was the author of a pamphlet, "Genealogy of the Descendants of John Whitman" (printed privately, Portland, 1832).
WHITMAN, Marcus, pioneer, b. in Rushville,
Ontario co., N. Y., 4 Sept., 1802; d. in Waülatpu,
Ore., 29 Nov., 1847. He was educated under
private tutors, studied in Berkshire medical institution,
Pittsfield, Mass., and in 1834 was appointed
by the American board a missionary physician to
Oregon. Dr. Whitman, Rev. Henry N. Spaulding,
and their young wives, set out in 1836, and,
journeying slowly westward, crossed the Rocky
mountains by the South Pass through which John C.
Frémont's party penetrated six years later. Mrs.
Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding were the first white
women to cross the mountains. On 2 Sept. the
party arrived at Fort Walla Walla. Whitman had
insisted on bringing one wagon with him despite
assertions that the route was impassable for wheels,
and by thus opening a wagon-road he led the way
for emigration. The Hudson bay company's
officers at Fort Hall, whose interest it was that no
American settlers should be allowed to enter Oregon,
and who had turned away many trains of
intending emigrants, had vainly tried to dissuade
him from his attempt. After several years'
residence in the country, Dr. Whitman, seeing that
the purpose of the British was to discourage American
colonization of the territory by spreading
reports of its inaccessibility and at the same time to
fill it with English emigrants, resolved to visit
Washington and lay the matter before the U. S.
government. In October, 1842, the rejoicing at the
English fort at Walla Walla over the approach of
a large party of English colonists, and the
knowledge that the Webster-Ashburton treaty was then
under consideration, impelled him to lose no time,
and he set out within twenty-four hours for the
east on horseback after much opposition from his
associates. With him were one companion and a
guide, with three pack-mules. On 3 Jan., 1843,
they reached Bent's fort, on Arkansas river, after
undergoing many hardships, and soon afterward
Whitman arrived at St. Louis, where he learned
that the Ashburton treaty had been ratified already
and that it left the Oregon question unsettled. On
3 March he was in Washington, where the information
that he gave the government served to
show how valuable Oregon was notwithstanding
the efforts of interested persons to prove that it
was inaccessible. Had it not been for him the
United States might have given up Oregon to
England as comparatively worthless. He was also
earnest in his endeavors to show how easily it could
be reached, and on his return in 1843 he led back
a train of 200 wagons to the valley of the Columbia.
Others followed in great numbers, and this
“army of occupation” went far toward securing
Oregon to this country. Four years later, Dr.
Whitman, with his wife, two adopted children, and
ten others, was massacred by the Cayuse Indians.
See “Oregon: the Struggle for Possession,” by
William Barrows (Boston, 1884).
WHITMAN, Sarah Helen, poet, b. in Providence,
R. I., in 1803; d. there, 27 June, 1878. She
was the daughter of Nicholas Power, of Providence,
and in 1828 married John W. Whitman, a
Boston lawyer, after whose death in 1833 she
returned to her native city and devoted herself to
literature. Mrs. Whitman was well known for her
conversational powers. She was an admirer of
Edgar A. Poe, with whom, about 1848, she entered into
a conditional engagement of marriage. Though it
was broken off soon afterward, her friendly feeling
for Poe did not cease, and inspired several of her
poems, notably the elegy “Resurgamus.” Mrs.
Whitman contributed to magazines prize essays on
literary topics, including critical articles on European
writers, and many poems, which have been
admired for their tenderness, melody, and philosophic
spirit. She published in book-form a collection
of these, entitled “Hours of Life, and other
Poems” (Providence, 1853), and “Edgar A. Poe
and his Critics,” in which she defended her friend's
character from harsh aspersions (New York, 1860).
She was often called on for occasional poems, and
one of these she read at the unveiling of the statue
of Roger Williams in Providence in 1877. Parts
of her “Fairy Ballads,” “The Golden Ball,” “The
Sleeping Beauty,” and “Cinderella” (1867) were
written by her sister, Anna Marsh Power. After
Mrs. Whitman's death a full collection of her
“Poems” appeared (Boston, 1879).
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WHITMAN, Walt, or Walter, poet, b. in West Hills, Long Island, N. Y., 31 May, 1819. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn and New York city, and learned printing, working at that trade in summer and teaching in winter. Subsequently he also acquired skill as a carpenter. For brief periods he edited newspapers in New Orleans and in Huntington, L. I. In 1847-'8 he made long pedestrian tours through the United States, generally following the courses of the great western rivers, and also extended his journey through Canada. His chief work, “Leaves of Grass” (New York, 1855), is a series of poems dealing with moral, social, and political problems, and more especially with the interests involved in 19th century American life and progress. In it he made a new and abrupt departure as to form, casting his thoughts in a mould the style of which is something between rhythmical prose and verse, altogether discarding rhythm and regular metre, but uttering musical thoughts in an unconventional way which is entirely his own. Expecting the opposition and abuse with which his volume was assailed, he speaks of it as a sortie on common literary use and wont, on both spirit and form, adding that a century may elapse before its triumph or failure can be assured. For thirty years Whitman has been correcting and adding to this work, and he says that he looks upon “Leaves of Grass” “now finished to the end of its opportunities and powers, as my definitive carte visite to the coming generations of the New World, if I may assume to say so.” In the war Whitman's brother was wounded on the battle-field, which led to the poet's at once hastening to join him in the camp, where he afterward remained as a volunteer army nurse at Washington and in Virginia in 1862-'5. His experiences during this service are vividly recorded
