The “Orthodox“ Quaker leadership in Philadelphia began tightening organizational control and imposing formal evangelical creeds. In contrast, Elias Hicks and his followers feared that evangelical organizations were attempting to build a Christian political party. source
Eliza Seaman Leggett was born in New York City, daugher of the eminent Dr. Valentine Seaman, who died in 1817. A Quaker, she was a relative of Jemima Seaman Hicks, wife of Elias Hicks, and her home in Manhattan’s Quaker district was a stop on the Underground Railroad. At some point before 1852, she became a life-long friend to Walt Whitman. source
Jeremiah Thompson, Clerk of New York Yearly Meeting, revolutionized commerce by establishing scheduled packet shipping, fueling the economic rise of the New York Seaport. He later channeled a crumb of his wealth into supporting the Nashoba, Frances Wright’s interracial utopian commune. source
Walt Whitman was born in West Hills to a family with deep Long Island and Dutch-Quaker maritime roots. His upbringing was steeped in the influence of Elias Hicks, a close friend of his grandfather Jesse. source
In his Byberry sermon, Elias Hicks argued that sexual impulses are divine gifts rather than diabolical temptations. He emphasized that the soul’s consultation with the Inward Monitor could supersede the “Shall Nots” of Bible, Clergy, and Society. source
In his “12th Street“ sermon, Hicks, a “Perfectionist,“ asserted that ethics are individual rather than universal, claiming that God speaks directly to each distinct personality. He rejected the right of others to judge a seeker’s moral choices. source
Orthodox critics launched a smear campaign against Hicks, claiming his “Deism“ and “Inner Light“ theology threatened the government and social stability. In their apocalyptic nightmare, the worst passions would let loose, and wickedness, like a torrent, would flow through the land. source
Frances Wright published her radical “Nashoba“ manifesto, arguing that human passions are the source of life’s greatest joys. She advocated for the “judicious government“ of affections rather than their suppression. source
Wright linked tolerance to the Quaker “Inner Light,“ calling it a “God within the breast“ that leads to virtue. A young Whitman likely attended her lectures, absorbing these radical intersections of faith and reform. source
Elisha Bates attacked Hicksite theology, claiming it removed all moral restraint and opened the “flood-gates of immorality.“ Hicks’s most virulent detractors were Elisha Bates, Anna Braithwaite, and Ann Jones. source
Elias Hicks died shortly after a final sermon attended by a ten-year-old Walt Whitman. Following his burial, Whitman’s future employer, Samuel E Clement, and Aaron Leggett conspired to exhume the body to create a death mask. source
While working as a schoolmaster after the Panic of 1837, Whitman taught at the Whitestone school under Samuel Leggett. Letters from this period hint at a secret romantic relationship. source
Whitman returned to New York and published “The Child’s Champion,“ a short story that sanctified male-male love. An essay utterly ignored by modern critics, “Life and Love,“ contrasted Hicksite morality with suppressed affection, effectively planting the seeds for Leaves of Grass. source
Inspired by Hicksite minister Edward Stabler and the ex-Quaker Mary Rotch, Emerson burst out of the gate with the most important essay he ever published: “Self-Reliance:” Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind... A man is to carry himself in the presence of all opposition... The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose [the so-called] helps [of Bible and Church]. source
Whitman attended Emerson’s New York lecture on “The Nature and Powers of the Poet“ and published (perhaps even authored) a sophisticated essay comparing Transcendentalism to Quakerism and Perfectionism. This makes Whitman an expert on Transcendental thought much earlier than previously believed. source
In The Dial, Emerson conceded the striking correspondence between modern Transcendental philosophy and the original doctrines of the Quakers. He expressed joyful surprise at how these “essential doctrines“ were being revived and modified. source
Emerson published his second-most important essay, “The Poet,” a revision of his lecture. It was not only a stirring call for America’s great poet, but an astonishingly comprehensive blueprint for Leaves of Grass. Like countless readers, Whitman had already been simmering over “Self-Reliance,” but “The Poet” started a slow burn. It acted as the catalyst for Whitman’s ten-year journey toward his poetic breakthrough. source
Whitman was enthralled with the volunteer firemen of New York, epitomized by figures like Dave Broderick. The “midnight orgies of young men” in the engine houses had already been a scandal for years by the time “Mose the Fireb’hoy” appeared on stages all across America. Dave Broderick, shown here, was a muscular, belligerent, bachelor fire-company foreman with “womanly sensibilities.” Walt slyly mentioned him in the 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass. Whitman had already envisioned a “ponderous book“ that would capture the “peculiarities of men.“ He eventually fused these notorious fire-laddie tropes with Transcendental philosophy in his poetry. source
Exploiting the volunteer fireman/Bowery b’hoy system, David Colbreth Broderick campaigned to be Representative of New York’s 5th congressional district. When he lost, he vowed to become one of the first Senators of the new state of California. One account suggests that he travelled across Panama with fellow fire hero Fred Kohler, whom I believe to have been his lover. source
When America’s favorite poet, Martin Farquhar Tupper, gave into the public demand for an American tour, the adoration showered upon him vividly illustrated the enormous success of his innovative long, oracular, unrhymed lines. A key host during the visit was Walt’s old friend, Evening Post publisher William Cullen Bryant. Bryant was a neighbor of Eliza Seaman Leggett, who spent her summers in Rosyln, New York. source
Eliza Leggett moved to the Michigan frontier but remained a steadfast advocate for abolition, women’s rights, and reform. Her home in Pontiac continued to serve as a vital stop on the Underground Railroad. source
At some point during this era, Walt fell in love with a young omnibus driver, Fred Vaughan, who may have relocated from Boston. Since Fred had been a young sailor, he was familiar with same-sex relationships. Unlike Walt’s blue-collar lover, Peter Doyle, Fred was extremely proud of Leaves of Grass; however, he couldn’t obey Walt’s challenge to come “out of the dark confinement, out from behind the screen.” source
Walter Senior had been too ill to manage the family business since the late 1840s, and at some point, he suffered the kind of stroke which in later years afflicted his son, Walt. The evidence suggests that although Walter was a liberal, principalled, and intelligent man, he was also depressive, alcoholic, and abusive. The family maintained quite an omnious, utter silence about him. During the 1850s he seems to have been slowly dying, and lasted only a few days after Leaves of Grass appeared before the public. source
Walt Whitman’s ecstasy over Fred’s love, and his grief over his father’s imminent death, ripped his heart open — open to the very kelson of Creation. Every influence in his life fused in the heat, producing Leaves of Grass. source
Whitman copyrighted Leaves of Grass in May 1855, later mythologizing its publication date as the Fourth of July. This poetic “declaration of independence“ signaled a radical shift in American literature. source
Emerson famously greeted Whitman “at the beginning of a great career“ in a historic letter of praise. Emissaries like Moncure Conway were sent to Brooklyn to evaluate this strange new being. source
Rufus Griswold published a scathing review explicitly linking Whitman’s “Inner Light“ theology to “the horrible crime“ of sodomy. He viewed Whitman’s radical honesty as a festering sore on the body politic. source
Henry Clapp was no mere magazine publisher or publicist. His friendship connected Whitman to such Free Love leaders as Stephen Pearl Andrews and Albert Brisbane. Clapp and Brisbane went to jail during the 1855 police raid on the Free Love League. The Children of Adam poems that Whitman published later represented his outreach to this heterosexual movement. source
After leading Transcendentalists Bronson Alcott and Henry David Thoreau visited Whitman in October and November, Alcott recorded in his diary a second impression in Walt’s bed, which Walt explained away as belonging to his mentally disabled brother Eddie. He was not ready to introduce his visitors to Fred Vaughan, and perhaps never did. source
Whitman and Thoreau clashed over New York’s fire-b’hoy politics, with Whitman defending the corrupt system, aware that it gave political power to such gay politicians as Dave Broderick. source
On one of Emerson’s many visits, however, Whitman came to fetch Waldo at the swanky Astor Hotel and was forbidden to go alone to Emerson’s room by the desk clerk. Walt was dressed in the alarming scarlet of the dissolute volunteer firemen, and dragged the respectible Emerson to a “rowdy” meeting at Fireman’s Hall. The engine-house monkeyshines were generally regarded as an “evil of great magnitude.” source
After 1855, somehow the relationship between Walt and Fred Vaughan grew volatile, leading to the heartbreak captured in the Calamus cluster. Whitman confessed to being an unreliable, domineering lover who demanded a God’s exclusive devotion. I have called this “The Cussedness in Calamus.” All we know about their problems is that Walt compared it to his stormy drama with lover Peter Doyle. source
I discovered that the girl with whom Fred “contented himself” was young Frances Emma Colvin, daughter of a street construction contractor for Tammany Hall. We’ll never know just when they met, but I also discovered that she was only fifteen years old when they married. Though Fred continued to love Whitman, Walt kept him at arm’s length, eventually cutting off their correspondence. source
Fred begged Whitman to attend his sudden, secret wedding before Walt permanently left New York for Washington. This departure marked the beginning of Whitman’s Quaker ministry in the Civil War hospitals. source
After suffering a debilitating stroke, Whitman moved to Camden to be with his dying mother, Louisa. Her death was a profound shock that left him an uneasy invalid in his brother George’s home. source
Years after being forbidden further contact by Walt, Fred Vaughan’s weekly practice of writing Whitman letters, which he kept for months before burning, gave way to a heartful letter of sympathy and support following Walt’s devastating apoplexy. Walt secretly preserved it for all posterity. Fred confessed to a checkered life of success and failure, dominated by his rum addiction. The letter was more honest, eloquent, and heartfelt than anything written by Walt’s famous literary friends. source
In his final years, a frail Fred Vaughan moved to Philadelphia, where Peter Doyle had also moved. During one of Whitman’s Sunday dinners with ex-Quaker Thomas Biggs Harned, Walt compared himself to a dismasted ship in drydock, a useless hulk done with all voyaging. This was actually a larger metaphor for the end of the Age of Sail. source
Following the deaths of both Walt and Fred, Eliza Seaman Leggett recognized the enduring immortality of Whitman’s message. His revolutionary thoughts on death and the soul remained a final, powerful testament in Leaves of Grass. source
Herbert Harlakenden Glichrist, editor Anne Gilchrist: Her Life and Writings
(London: Unwin, 1887), 237.