4733. Theodore Tilton to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 123–125.
New York, Sept. 1. 1860.
“The Independent.”
Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
My dear friend,
I have received your last note, enclosing the new poems. [1] I thank you in behalf of The Independent for these new contributions to its columns; and, I thank you, more than I can express, for your kind words spoken personally to me.
You referred to my discourse in Theodore Parker’s Church. [2] If you were living in America, as I am, an eye-witness of the cruel despotism which here flourishes under the shadow of a free flag; if you had ever seen men, women, and little children (think of your own son!) sold at public auction in the slave-marts, with a hundred church-steeples standing near to lend the sanction of their shadows upon the scene; you would see the reason of my respect and sympathy for Theodore Parker—with whose mere theological opinions I had scarcely one point in common, but whose unceasing devotion to the cause of the oppressed stamped him as one of God’s good servants to God’s poor children. The news of his death brought me tears. Italy has not many such graves!
Now I have a question. Did I not, in my first letter, request also your husband to write? Yet he has sent me his good wishes, but no poems! If he knew how many times I have read The Pied Piper, would he be any more willing to write new verses for a stranger across the sea? I hope your next letter may enclose as much as the envelop[e] will hold of both your hand-writings.
—I have also another question. Why do you never write prose? Mrs. Stowe, by “Uncle Tom,” helped the American Slave more than any one human being ever did before. Why will you not do for the oppressed in Italy what she has done for the oppressed in the United States? I propose that you write a story, to be printed chapter by chapter in The Independent, giving to the American People an insight into Italian life, manners, traditions, sufferings, and struggles for Freedom? Such a work, written out of the heart, and constructed of scenes of which your own eyes have been the witnesses, would win the whole world’s thanks. Do you not owe it to Italy?
Such a story—with fact underlying fiction—might run through six or eight months of The Independent weekly issues, occupying about two columns each week. I will pay you One Hundred Dollars weekly for the two columns, the copy-right to be The Independent’s; or Fifty Dollars weekly, the copy-right to go to Mr. Francis’ hands, and the papers to be collected into book-form by him for your benefit. I would like the work to begin the first week in January next.
My object in proposing such a task is to excite in this country a more tender & sympathetic interest in the struggle of Italy for her political & moral elevation. I propose the plan equally to you & to Mr. Browning. An acceptance by either of you would be equally agreeable to me.
You hint that I am possibly “repenting a rash engagement” with you; you need not trouble your mind on this score. To prove my prudence & good-sense, I am anxious to get something from your pen oftener than now; and to this end, in addition to the proposition which I have just made, I make another, in case you decline the first. If you or Mr. Browning (either singly or together) will contribute something to each weekly issue of The Independent for a year, so that no week shall pass without some scrap from one or the other of you, whether in prose or verse, whether little or long, whether on current events or the mere fancies of the brain, I will pay you Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars for the year; or, rather, to make a round figure, Fifty Dollars for each weekly contribution, and so making Two Thousand Six Hundred a year.
If you are compelled to decline both these requests (as I hope you will not) the proposition in my original letter (one hundred dollars for an occasional contribution) will still stand.
The money will be sent to you, in such amounts, and by such modes of remittance, and at such times, as you may designate. I send you no money in this letter, nor by this mail, for I neglected in my last to ask how you preferred to receive it; and my brother-in-law, Mr. Richards [3] (Publisher of The Independent) suggests that there is some risk in sending drafts, as before, through Mr. Francis; risk, I mean, of miscarriage of mail. This office, therefore, has placed to your credit Two Hundred Dollars—which you may draw at such time, and in such way, as you prefer.
—I may mention that the object for which The Independent was started ten years ago, was to aid in the overthrow of American Slavery. To this end, it wishes to build up, if possible, the highest literary reputation, and the greatest moral influence, among the periodical pen of the United States. Its Special Contributors at present are Henry Ward Beecher, Mrs. H. B. Stowe, John G. Whittier, Horace Greeley, James Russell Lowell, Dr. Cheever, [4] William Allen Butler, [5] Rev. Dr. Tyng, Bayard Taylor, John Bigelow [6] (of The N.Y. Evening Post) and many other American writers, less known on the other side of the sea than on this. I believe that in welcoming you to its columns, I am welcoming you to a circle of goodly men & women.
So, hoping to hear from you soon, and with my best wishes toward yourself & husband, and with not a few anxious thoughts for Italy,
I remain, even though a stranger,
Yours very cordially & sincerely,
Theodore Tilton
P.S. On looking back on my pages, I half-exclaim, with St. Paul,—“Behold how long a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.” [7]
Address: Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, / Casa Guidi, / Florence– / Italy. Redirected: Siena.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
3. Joseph Handley Richards (1836–1900), whose sister Elizabeth Monroe Richards (1834–97), women’s rights advocate, married Tilton at New York in 1855. Richards later became the first publisher of The Nation (New York). His name appears in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4), under Tilton’s entry.
4. George Barrell Cheever (1807–90), outspoken American abolitionist, was pastor of The Church of the Puritans in New York, 1846–67.
5. William Allen Butler (1825–1902), American lawyer and writer, especially known for his satirical poems.
6. John Bigelow (1817–1911), American writer and diplomat, who at this time was co-editor and co-owner of The Evening Post (New York) with William Cullen Bryant. Bigelow later served as U.S. minister to France (1865–66).
7. Cf. Galatians 6:11.
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