
You will be puzzled at the strangeness of the name subscribed to this letter, but you know well that democracy includes all nationalities and therefore though foreign, no name will be alien to you.
Since I have been a political refugee in England, after going through America, I have
met with many young people of your race,
whom I admire & esteem, & who
have told me the same thing—that Walt Whitman is the man who has done for them what
no one else has done, has formed their character in accord with democratic ideals. And I
understood this better when I became better acquainted with your writings. I also understood
that the cause of justice & freedom in any country whatever could not be alien to you; and
therefore I have decided to write you this letter & to send you the paper, intended to
plead among English-speaking nations the cause of freedom in Russia.
I hope that you will find a moment to look through it & to kindly send in some lines from
your mighty pen to be inserted in it.
If you can aid this cause by introducing the subject among your friends & admirers & the general American public, you will do a good deed.
Yours fraternally Felix Volkhovsky

















