A treacherous, Circuitous River
If anything, American history reminds us that patriotism (and even loyalty) is no simple, clear-cut proclamation, and a republic is, with so many voices, a treacherous, circuitous river.
As a child raised years ago in Virginia, I was overwhelmed by the mountainous shadow of heroic country founders. I wished I had lived in their time because it was so easy to see what one should do—rebel against a corrupt monarchy, of course. I couldn't imagine any colonist as less than completely committed to the cause and perfectly virtuous, selfless.
Ah, life was simple then. Only later did I find out much to my personal discomfort that not everyone in the colonies would have agreed with my assessment. Unimaginable to me before that discovery were the multitudes of colonists who supported British King and law, or worse, multitudes of colonists who just didn't really care either way. Unimaginable to me before was the possibility that some words or acts of rebelling colonists were not simply righteous reaction to tyranny (think Samuel Adams and the Boston massacre).
It wasn't nearly as clear cut as I had imagined, because outcome is not visible from the beginning to us mere mortals–even though we think we see the future clearly. And, maybe that's part of the problem. Each of millions of voices chime in for what they see in the future–but they are different imagined futures. It all comes together to make a republic a perilous place to reside.
Several Civil War-era quotes illustrate for me the slow, circuitous river and highlight how only with Providence actively involved did abolition of slavery and Union thread together to create a far better world . . . created from a confusing and confused patriotism and a treacherous, circuitous river.
In retrospect, it should have been easy: free the slaves, save the Union. Why even at the time the premier leader of each side (both claiming patriotism and loyalty) could have landed on that solution:
Robert E. Lee said to Episcopal Bishop Richard Hooker Wilmer, "The future is in the hands of Providence. If the slaves of the South were mine, I would surrender them all without a struggle to avert the war."(1)
Abraham Lincoln said in a letter to Horace Greeley: "I would save the Union . . . My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that." Those words were written to soften up the country for eventual emancipation.(2)
But it was a republic, and millions of voices were heard, clamoring for different visions of what they saw in the future. And war came, and the Union was troubled and emancipation began to peak tentatively from its hiding place, all under the guiding hand of Providence.
Speaking of manumission, Lincoln later said, "It is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it!" He later said that he "made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us the victory in the approaching battle (Antietam), he would consider it an indication of Divine will, and that it was his duty to move forward in the cause of emancipation."(3)
Republics are treacherous, circuitous rivers, and it took us four years, more than 600,000 dead, many more wounded, lives ruined to save the Union and free the slaves–all so we could have what to us now in the future is obvious. We got there. But it was slow and circuitous, and, in the end, only the hand of Providence got us there, and he did it in a way that the nation will never forget.
It all makes you wonder about our ability to "nation build" around the world, but much more importantly it makes you pray that we still have the hand of Providence guiding us.
1) p. 42. Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War by Ernest B. Furgurson
2) p 471 Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The letter ends with Lincoln's person opinion: "I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free."
3) p. 374. Lincoln by David Herbert Donald
