Al Owski > Recent Status Updates

“All too often the task to which we are called is simply to show a kindness to the irritating person in the cubicle next to us, say, or to touch the face of a spouse from whom we ourselves have been long absent, letting grace wake love from our intense, self-enclosed sleep.”

“But faith is not a new life in this sense; it is the old life newly seen. And the test of that sight is that it leads to connections and continuities, not to renunciations and severances.”

“It is no blasphemy to say that every man creates the God creating him. We are facets of a work whose finished form we cannot imagine, though our imaginations, aided by grace, are the means—or at least one means—of its completion.”

“nothing palls the soul like a forced epiphany, and one can be elated and energized by a freshly articulate despair”

“Art, like religious devotion, either adds life or steals it. It is never neutral. Either it impels one back toward life or is merely one more means of keeping life at arm’s length.”

“They are more likely to break into your awareness, or into what you thought was awareness ("inbreaking" is the theological term for Christ’s appearance in the world and in our lives—there is no coaxing it, no way to earn it, no way to prepare except to hone your capacity to respond, which is, finally, your capacity to experience life, and death).”

“You cannot work on the structure of your life if the ground of your being is unsure.”

“It is a strange thing how sometimes merely to talk honestly of God, even if it is only to articulate our feelings of separation and confusion, can bring peace to our spirits.”

“Now that "a large number of Chinese have of late years migrated to the State of California to seek their fortunes," he asserted, "they have the right to go there; and I hold it to be in violation of every rule of law which should have [sway?] in a civilized country to discriminate against them." California's moves to persecute them "are wholly in conflict with the generous spirit of our free institutions..."”

“Stevens..."wish[ed] the Indians had newspapers of their own," because "if they had, you would have horrible pictures of the cold-blooded murders of inoffensive Indians. You would have more terrible pictures than we have now revealed to us [of white casualties], and, I have no doubt, we would have the real reasons for these Indian troubles."...because "these troubles are oftenest caused by bad white men..."”

“There can be no security for the future without amending the Constitution so as to forever prohibit slavery in this republic," Stevens cautioned that April. Without such an amendment, it would be "in vain to emancipate every slave now."”

“[Stevens] proved consistently able to convince most of his constituents that what he said and did was in their best interests over all. "In the course of my public life," he proudly declared at one point, "I have voted for unpopular measures and trusted to the good sense of the people whom I represented." And when I "explained to them" my reasoning, "they never rejected me on account of it."”

“Stevens had nearly despaired of such an [emancipation] order ever being issued, lamenting that no one in the administration seemed to have "a sufficient grasp of mind, and sufficient moral courage, to treat this as a radical revolution, and remodel our institutions" accordingly. But when Lincoln boldly made good, on New Year's Day, on the threat contained in his preliminary proclamation, Stevens cheered him on...”

“Now, in search of wartime allies, Lincoln was turning away from conservative advisors and critics and toward the freed people. On September 22, he delivered his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, giving secessionist states until January 1 to return to the Union or see all their slaves declared "then, thenceforward, and forever free."”

“Accommodating those people [slaveholders] in the past, Lincoln believed, had caused "the paralysis—the dead palsy—of the government in this whole struggle." It had, indeed, "paralyzed me more in this struggle than any other one thing." With these words, the president implicitly accepted Thaddeus Stevens's long-standing criticism of the way the White House had previously evaluated policy options.”

“slaveowners... had failed to rally to the Union in the way that Lincoln had hoped. By the middle of 1862, he was therefore abandoning that hope and regretting the policy hesitations.... Slaveowners in the border states, he complained in late July, "will do nothing for the government, nothing for themselves," other than resist attacks on slavery in the Confederacy for fear that such attacks would touch them as well.”

“Lincoln informed his secretaries of state and the navy on Sunday, July 13, 1862, that the unanticipated strength of the slaveholders' rebellion had by now made a sweeping emancipation decree "a military necessity essential for the salvation of the Union." It had come down to this choice, he explained: either "we must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued."”

“Stevens had predicted in August 1861 that to win the war the United States would need to broaden the scope of emancipation significantly beyond that of the First Confiscation Act.”

“Stevens's cause encountered far greater trouble on the battlefield in 1862 than it did in Congress.... The spring and summer brought an unbroken string of serious Union defeats.”

“Although Stevens credited Lincoln with being "as honest a man as there is in the world," he also considered the president "too easy and amiable" and too easily "misled by the malign influence of Kentucky counselors" who urged appeasing putatively loyal slaveholders.”

“Historians now recognize that this assertion of presidential prerogative reflected a softening of Lincoln's previous position on emancipation. He was now suggesting for the first time that the president of the United States did have the right to "declare the Slaves of any state or states, free." And behind closed doors, he had begun wondering whether he ought not, after all, make use of that power.”

“If the federal government were to free even three-fourths of the slaves while leaving the rest in bondage, slavery as a legal institution would survive, and slavery "would soon again overrun the whole South," laying the foundation for yet another rebellion. So "you would have expended countless treasures and untold lives in vain."”

“Since "all must admit that slavery is the cause" of the war, they should also recognize that "so long as it exists we cannot have a solid Union." The unavoidable fact is that "the principles of our Republic are wholly incompatible with slavery. They cannot live together."”

“there was a still more important reason for making emancipation universal. That was the only way to preserve the fruits of any military victory in this war, the only way to guarantee the future security of an eventually reunited republic. "Our object should be not only to end this terrible war now, but to prevent its recurrence." That required slavery's complete extirpation.”

“"Let the people know that this Government is fighting not only to enforce a sacred compact [that is, the Constitution], but to carry out to final perfection the principles of the Declaration of Independence... and the blood of every freeman would boil with enthusiasm, and his nerves be strengthened in this holy warfare."”

“Stevens wished aloud that "the ardor which inspired the French revolution" might find its like in the United States. The revolutionaries of France, like others elsewhere, he recalled with admiration, were "possessed and impelled by the glorious principles of freedom," an "idea which renders men unconquerable." The United States needed much more of just that kind of spirit.”

“sadly, "we feel nothing of that determined and invincible courage that was inspired in the Revolution by the grand idea of liberty, equality, and the rights of man."”

“He scorned those who "object to emancipation because it liberates the slaves of traitors! Tender-hearted Christians! Merciful statesmen! Benevolent philanthropists! If such men are statesmen, where are the idiots to be found?" Lamenting all such handwringing and legal quibbling, Stevens wished that he saw in the North the kind of fiery zeal which impels the South."”

“Stevens knew very well that many in the Union would nevertheless object vociferously to the emancipationist policy he advocated. ... But the government must persevere. Stevens ridiculed the "puerile inconsistency" of those who would "send forth your sons and brothers to shoot and saber and bayonet the insurgents" but who "hesitate to break the bonds of their slaves."”

“In northern Alabama, Major General O. M. Mitchell reported that "the negroes are our only friends, and in two instances I owe my own safety to their faithfulness."”