American Civilization by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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American civilization by
Ralph Waldo Emerson is an address, delivered at Smithsonian Institution in Washington on January 31, 1862. Emerson
delivered this lecture in a course in “Boston on Life and Literature” which he
called as “Civilization at a Pinch” that demanded abolition of slavery. This
event took place just after the outbreak of war. The voice that this lecture
carried was echoed in the “Emancipation Proclamation” which was issued by
Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, a year later, which declared, “all persons
held as slaves are henceforth shall be free”. The
Boston lecture was the need of the hour but there is no evidence that President
Lincoln heard it. But Emerson recorded in his journal that he had a little
serious conversation with the President, a day after this lecture. This lecture
was revised and published in the Atlantic Monthly for April 1862.
In the first half of the lecture, Emerson presents the definition of
“Civilization” and establishes its foundational values, which catalysts the
second half of the lecture where he made an impassioned plea to free all
slaves. He begins his lecture by stating that use, labour for all,
is health and virtue. Ich dien—I serve—is royal. The highest spirit is
humility, and the mark of nobleness is the lowest service. God is God because
he serves all. But this act of labour, the noblest of all, is taken into the conception
of slavery. They call slavery an
institution but it is a destitution. Slavery is the stealing of men and setting
them to work, stealing their labour, and the thief sitting idle himself. Based
on this sad experience, people have tried to change human nature by calling
labour disgraceful and calling happiness as eating the fruits of others'
labour.
Labour turns a person’s day,
his strength, his thought, his affection into some product that remains as the
visible sign of his power. To protect this act of labour and the product is the
object of all government. Constitutions and governments exist to protect and
insure the act of labour. Honest men work hard every day.
Political society
dominates America. From Canada to the Gulf, children ask their fathers,
"What is the war news today, and when will there be better times?" We
have tried to unite two civilizations: a higher state, where labour, land
tenure, and suffrage are democratic; and a lower state, where the old military
tenure of prisoners or slaves, and power and land fall in a few hands, The
society does not work well with the second state and this has poisoned
politics, public morals, and social discourse in the Republic for many years.
Emerson asks serious
question concerning civilization: why can't the best civilization be spread
across the country? why the disorder of the less-civilized portion threatens
the country's existence? Is this secular progress? the evolution of man to the
highest powers is to give him sensibility and not duties? Emerson declares that
a civilization must be heroic with action and determination. This is the
remarkable time of opportunity for America to create history.
Americans have announced this news of warning
and advice without hesitation. The journals too didn’t hide the disaster. There
was no lack of argument or experience. Sentinels on the watchtower had provided
full details of the enemy's designs, muster, and means, so the war did not
surprise the North. The theory and practise of slavery were not hidden. The
Edinburgh Review made its case forty years ago by pounding on that string. The
state is owned by many small owners. One man owns land and slaves, the other
only slaves. This woman has no other property. It is like free trade and the
eager interest of the few, overpowers the apathetic general conviction of the
many. We pretend banknotes are gold because they're so convenient.
In this national crisis,
we need that rare courage to commit to a principle, believing that Nature is
its ally and will create the instruments it needs. There has never been a
combination like ours in any history. We want original thinkers and doers who
can see beyond nationality and act for civilization. If the government had done
its duty, slavery would have been permanently blocked and our recent calamities
prevented. Every compromise by the government meant surrender and new demands.
Sense and virtue have another opportunity from heaven. We hold the fate of
mankind in our hands to be saved by our firmness or to lose it by our hesitation.
Therefore, Emerson
declares, Emancipation is the demand of civilization and everything else is a
mystery. This policy puts the whole people in a healthy, productive, amiable
position and puts every man in the South in just and natural relations with
every man in the North, labourer with labourer.
Emerson then explains the details
of the project of emancipation. This project cannot be won by war. A fight on
slavery without any government action or word is vain. It is one thing to win
the war of slavery without the government and the other thing to keep it down from
summer to winter. Season after season, we must start over and conquer again and
again. There is no point in fighting without the decree from the government.
The only weapon is to end
slavery is the weapon that Congress has by its military defence. Congress can
abolish slavery and pay for slaves as they ought to be paid. Then the slaves will
come out to the place of opportunity. The armies would protect their estates and
the enemies would disappear. Without this step, safety is impossible. This war
on slavery cannot be won by debate or by war but by the Congress passing
Emancipation Proclamation.
The power of
Emancipation is this, that it alters the atomic social constitution of the people
who are in slavery. Slavery creates and maintains disunion, but Emancipation
removes all opposition to union. Emancipation elevates the Southern poor-white
and aligns him with the Northern labourer.
This great right must be
done in the name of simplicity and generosity. America should be capable of a
second stroke for the well-being of the human race. This act puts all at its
rightful position. It is foolish to think that freedom and wages make the black
furious. But it is Justice that satisfies everybody —white man, red man, yellow
man, and black man. It is feeding that increases appetite.
This measure must be taken
quickly to be effective. According to the Indian Scriptures, "Time
drinketh up the essence of every great and noble action which ought to be
performed, and which is delayed in the execution." The solution given through
this policy is simple and beneficent, which is the mark of a moral action.
The laws that organise the
universe will always rule it. Politics is about making morality the basis of law.
The end is not free institutions, a republic, or a democracy, but they are the
means. Morality is government's goal. The world government is moral and destroys
what is not. The maxim of natural philosophers is that natural forces wear out in
time all the obstacles. The maxim of history is that victory always falls where
it should. Nature works through her appointed elements, and ideas must work
through good and brave men's brains and arms or they are just dreams.
Since the above pages were
written, President Lincoln has proposed to Congress that the government
cooperate with any state that gradually abolishes slavery. I n the recent
series of national successes, this message is the best. It marks the happiest
day in the political year. The American Executive ranges itself for the first
time on the side of freedom. If Congress has regressed, the President has
advanced. This state-paper is more intriguing because it appears to be the
President's personal act of duty.
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