Letter To Lord Russell
Because of his continuing role within the Chartist Movement, Home Secretary Russell dismissed Frost from his position as Justice of the Peace. In response, while at a Chartist Convention in Pontypool, Frost responded to Russell in a straighforward letter, containing the contemporary Chartist songs of Wales, which gave expression to the feelings and determination of the Welsh coal miners:
- Uphold those bold Comrades, who suffer for you,
- Who nobly stand foremost, demanding your due,
- Away with the timid-'tis treason to fear-
- To surrender or falter, when danger is near,
- For now that our leaders disdain to betray
- 'Tis base to desert them, or succour delay
- 'Tis time that the victims of labour and care
- Should for reap what is labour's fair share
- 'Tis time that these voice in the councils be heard
- The rather than pay for the law of the sword;
- All power is ours, with a will of our own
- We conquer, united-divided we groan.
- Come hail brothers, hail the shrill sound of the horn
- For ages deep wrongs have been hopelessly borne
- Despair shall no longer our spirits dismay
- Nor wither the arms when uprasised for the fray;
- The conflict for freedom is gathering nigh:
- We live to secure it, or gloriously die.
Nonetheless, while the desire amongst the Welsh to rebel was ever stronger, Frost himself still wished to postpone the date of an uprising. By the end of October, the Welsh Chartists were holding daily meetings in Monmouthshire in an attempt to force an armed rebellion. Records suggest that ultimately, finding himself unable to postpone the date of an organised uprising and longer and still doubting its success, Frost burst into tears. A thirty member conference ultimately fixed the date for 3 November.
Read more about this topic: John Frost (Chartist)
Famous quotes containing the words letter, lord and/or russell:
“Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
Which is most barbarous is the middle age
Of man! it isI really scarce know what;
But when we hover between fool and sage,
And dont know justly what we would be at
A period something like a printed page,
Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair
Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (17881824)
“Delight,top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven.”
—Herman Melville (18191891)
“Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come.”
—James Russell Lowell (18191891)