1. What is America? Poli 110J 05 Bound by Mystic Chords

2. John C. Calhoun 1782-1850 "the Union, next to our liberty, the most dear." From South Carolina, endorsed SC’s position in nullification crisis. Federal gov’t becoming tyrannical, infringing on Const’l rights of the states Champion of the South, states’ rights in Senate, 1 st half 19 th C. Major figure in antebellum Democratic party – VP Under J.Q. Adams, Jackson; Sec. of War under Monroe “Slavery a Positive Good” – Feb. 6, 1837

3. John C. Calhoun Broke with Jackson beginning with Force Act (gave federal gov’t right to use force to enforce the tariff) – Jackson supported states’ rights, but thought Union threatened by nullification

4. John C. Calhoun Strong states’ rights – “The subject [slavery] is beyond the jurisdiction of Congress - they have no right to touch it in any shape or form, or to make it the subject of deliberation or discussion....” Exactly what powers were and were not ceded to the Federal government in the Constitution?

5. John C. Calhoun Right to secession People in non-slave states soon “will have been taught to hate the people and institutions of nearly one-half of this Union, with a hatred more deadly than one hostile nation ever entertained towards another. It is easy to see the end. By the necessary course of events, if left to themselves, we must become, finally, two people.”

6. John C. Calhoun Southern partisan: – “We of the South will not, cannot, surrender our institutions.” The South feels that the federal government is a tool of the Northern, anti-slave faction. They see it as hostile and oppressive.

7. John C. Calhoun Slavery: something for everyone For (elite) whites: freedom from labor leads to greater accomplishments: – “there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other.” (While other figures also believed in the supremacy of whites, it did not play as central a role in their vision of power & government)

8. John C. Calhoun White racial solidarity served to conceal the real class divisions between plantation- owning, slaveholding whites and small, non- slaveholding white farmers/citizens.

9. John C. Calhoun Benefits of slavery to slaves: “Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.”

10. John C. Calhoun Benefit of slavery to slaves: “in few countries so much is left to the share of the laborer, and so little exacted from him, or where there is more kind attention paid to him in sickness or infirmities of age.” – Better than being an industrial laborer, a more gentle, paternal form of power

11. John C. Calhoun Thus, slavery stabilizes society: “There is and always has been in an advanced stage of wealth and civilization, a conflict between labor and capital. The condition of society in the South exempts us from the disorders and dangers resulting from this conflict; and which explains why it is that the political condition of the slaveholding States has been so much more stable and quiet than that of the North....”

12. Frederick Douglass ~1818-1895 Born a slave – Escaped on 3 rd attempt, 1838 Abolitionist & supporter of women’s suffrage Supported Irish home rule, but still popular in Britain Active in Reconstruction politics

13. Frederick Douglass “Why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?”

14. “The character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.”

15. The Humanity of Slaves Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being?

16. “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham”

17. “The Constitution is a GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT. Read its preamble, consider its purposes. Is slavery among them? Is it at the gateway? or is it in the temple? It is neither.” – Slavery a betrayal of American beliefs

18. A note on terminology Black vs. African-American (power and words) – While the preferred term is today African- American, the point is that black people at the time we are discussing were deliberately excluded from the American political community. – When discussing the historical injustice of racial relations in the US, it seems inappropriate to pretend that people of African descent were not excluded from the political community

19. Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865 Main themes: – Equality the defining characteristic of American thought – National identity prioritized over state identity – US points beyond itself to something higher – The law and American political institutions make political freedom and equality possible

20. Lyceum Address, 1838 The Revolution is over Responsibility to the political community existing across time (forward and backward) Transcendental ideals of American gov’t Order, discipline, and self-restraint The existential threat of chaos to the Republic – Threat by powers above and below

21. Lyceum Address The Revolution is over – “We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of [the institutions of republican government]---they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors.”

22. Lyceum Address “This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.” – It is the task of the post-revolutionary generations to preserve and transmit the institutions of American gov’t to the future

23. Lyceum Address There was glory in the Revolution, but there is none in obedience to the laws. The anarchic threat of great men: – “Many great and good men sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever be found, whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle”

24. Lyceum Address The threat from those who deny their equality to their fellow citizens A belief in his own greatness leads the great man to think of himself as above the law – Seeking glory, “although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm; yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.”

25. Lyceum Address Threats also from the people: “if the laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be secure in their persons and property, are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the Government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or later, it must come.”

26. Lyceum Address The threat of anarchy presented by mob justice: – The bad will be emboldened by the failure of law – The good will be demoralized – The ideological bond between the people and their government will suffer

27. Lyceum Address The institutions of American government were once bolstered by revolutionary fervor – “But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the circumstances that produced it.”

28. Lyceum Address This is the work of time, the Revolutionaries are dying out: – “They were the pillars of the temple of liberty; and now, that they have crumbled away, that temple must fall, unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy.” Note pervasive imagery of religion

29. Lyceum Address How to defend American government? – “Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.”

30. Lyceum Address “Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must furnish all the materials for our future support and defence. Let those [materials] be moulded into general intelligence, [sound] morality and, in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws” – Restraint, responsibility are political values, they preserve the state Democracy is a moral issue: to preserve it the people must be morally democratic

31. Lyceum Address “As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and Laws, let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor” – As the Declaration was to the Revolution, the Constitution must be to the post-revolutionary era

32. Lyceum Address Even (especially?) bad laws: – “although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should be religiously observed.”

33. Lyceum Address “Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, ``the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” – Same quote as O’Sullivan, but different emphasis Contingent, if  then America is second to the church

34. Peoria, 1854 Pronounced emphasis on equality as ultimate good of American politics Power must be used only as constrained by the values and beliefs appropriate to Americans Politics with the force of religion – Not just a matter of good and bad, but of ultimate good and evil

35. Peoria, 1854 Kansas-Nebraska act tempts Americans to “war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty—criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest” – Declaration the heart of American politics – American democracy does not have self-interest at its basis Such claims are “assaults upon all we have ever really held sacred.”

36. Peoria Founders put slavery on path to extinction – Did they? – Control of the image of the past, delegitimize one possible future while authorizing another Even slaveholders tacitly acknowledge the humanity of blacks – Why are freemen not rounded up like stray cattle? – Why is the slavetrader despised?

37. Peoria “If the negro is a man, why then my ancient faith teaches me that ‘all men are created equal.’” – Ancient? Only 78 years old – Ancient as in ‘at the beginning’ – “No man is good enough to govern another man, without that man’s consent.”

38. Peoria Caught between two conflicting goods: equality and Union – Return to Missouri compromise, restore national brotherhood – “I would consent to any great evil, to avoid a greater one.”

39. Peoria Self-interest/the marketplace vs. equality/the Republic Americans “have been giving up the old for the new faith… These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon, and whoever holds to one, must despise the other… Let no one be deceived. The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska are utter antagonisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter.”

40. Peoria Lincoln is looking to attack the moral legitimacy of slavery Mammon: demonic figure representing the love of wealth – Name means “money” – Matthew 6:24 – “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

41. Peoria Lincoln looks to ground loyalty to his vision of the state in the force of religion, tradition Commonality of biblical language Two visions of the American future, only one legitimate – Faithful to “Ancient Faith” – Corrupt, even heretical

42. Peoria Ancient Faith – Equality This is what makes America good, that it points beyond itself toward this ideal – Loyalty to nation – Continuity with the past Declaration, the community of belief At least as Lincoln describes it Revising the past to delegitimize one future and authorize another

43. Peoria Worship of Mammon – Self-interest Points to nothing beyond the self, posits the self as the final value – Radical break with past Abandons the beliefs in the Declaration in favor of new ones. Sen. John Petitt: Declaration’s claim of equality “a self- evident lie” – Then he does not hold these truths to be self-evident But is it really a break? – Loyal only to self

44. Peoria The soul of the nation is in danger of fatal corruption “Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not the blood, of the Revolution.”

45. Peoria The proper use of power in America has a spiritual and moral component – Kansas-Nebraska, and by implication slavery, is a sin – Cleansing by Christian mechanism of turning, repentance – But not Christian content: it is the spirit of the Revolution in the office of the redeemer. Purification by return not to religious, but political truths

46. Equality Equality the first-order political good of the Union: – In letter to Lincoln, friend quotes Proverbs 25:11: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

47. Equality Lincoln’s response: – “The expression of that principle [that all men are created equal] in our Declaration of Independence was the word ‘fitly spoken’ which has proved an ‘apple of gold’ to us. The Union and the Constitution are the picture of silver subsequently framed around it. The picture was made not to adorn or destroy the apple; but to adorn and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple, not the apple for the picture. So let us act, that neither picture nor apple shall ever be blurred, bruised or broken.”

48. Secession Nov. 6, 1860: Lincoln elected December 20, 1860: South Carolina secedes – By February 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas join it to form the Confederacy, later joined by Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee March 4, 1861: Lincoln inaugurated April 12, 1861: South attacks & takes Fort Sumter, war begins

49. First Inaugural Major themes: Secession is bad because it – Breaks contract – Violates the nation – Is anti-democratic

50. First Inaugural Contract & Covenant: – ““All profess to be content in the Union, if all constitutional rights be maintained” – No one can name “a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied.”

51. First Inaugural Contract & Covenant: – Even if the Constitution were only a contract (it’s not), one party cannot unilaterally exit a contract – The question is one of definitive interpretation: “May Congress prohibit slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories? The Constitution does not expressly say.” – Power over the meaning of the law

52. First Inaugural Likewise, the Constitution is silent on “the only substantial dispute” facing the country; that “One section of the country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes that it is wrong, and ought not be extended.” – How is this dispute to be resolved? – The black letter of the law can’t fix this, it is a matter of persuasion & argument (politics)

53. First Inaugural But the Union is not a contract, it is a single, national people “The Union is much older than the Constitution… finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution, was ‘to form a more perfect union.’ But if the destruction of the Union, by one, or by a part only, of the States, be lawfully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the vital element of perpetuity.”

54. First Inaugural Secession anti-democratic “Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy, or despotism in some form, is all that is left.” – The choices are between despotism, democracy, or anarchy

55. First Inaugural The Union is bound by a shared history and belief “I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, streching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”