Thursday, November 30, 2006
Abraham Lincoln
Katja
ENGL 48A
Journal # 20, Lincoln
30 November, 2006
"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war." (Abraham Lincoln 1617)
In his Second Inaugural Address in 1865, Abraham Lincoln pointed to slavery as the ultimate cause of the recent Civil War. He emphasized the fact that the physical division of the nation, in terms of where slavery was and was not an accepted practice, was a contributing factor to the aggression. His word choices paint slavery as holding magical powers of Southerners, even while all, even the Southerners, knew the subsequent grave effects of holding fellow humans in bondage.
The power that slavery held in the South, as suggested by Lincoln, brings to mind the morale offered in the Old Testament story of the Golden Calf. The similarities are many: the orientation of life around a doomed institution; a power too attractive for people to resist; the temptation of something so easily attainable it was impossible to deny, even with the gnawing subconscious knowledge that it was wrong. The power Lincoln speaks about was the promise of pure profit on plantation owners’ part, and its peculiarity lying in the fact that the perpetuators knew it was unsustainable and morally unacceptable.
I always tell my children not to let other people get them into trouble. Here, Lincoln points to the South as the troublemaker that got the whole nation punished. The old school yard scenario in which one person started it, but all the kids got sent to the principal’s office is a fitting comparison. Lincoln’s "Union" (1617) allowed the institution of slavery to become part of its culture and history by reacting too late to the moral dilemmas it presented.
ENGL 48A
Journal # 20, Lincoln
30 November, 2006
"One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war." (Abraham Lincoln 1617)
In his Second Inaugural Address in 1865, Abraham Lincoln pointed to slavery as the ultimate cause of the recent Civil War. He emphasized the fact that the physical division of the nation, in terms of where slavery was and was not an accepted practice, was a contributing factor to the aggression. His word choices paint slavery as holding magical powers of Southerners, even while all, even the Southerners, knew the subsequent grave effects of holding fellow humans in bondage.
The power that slavery held in the South, as suggested by Lincoln, brings to mind the morale offered in the Old Testament story of the Golden Calf. The similarities are many: the orientation of life around a doomed institution; a power too attractive for people to resist; the temptation of something so easily attainable it was impossible to deny, even with the gnawing subconscious knowledge that it was wrong. The power Lincoln speaks about was the promise of pure profit on plantation owners’ part, and its peculiarity lying in the fact that the perpetuators knew it was unsustainable and morally unacceptable.
I always tell my children not to let other people get them into trouble. Here, Lincoln points to the South as the troublemaker that got the whole nation punished. The old school yard scenario in which one person started it, but all the kids got sent to the principal’s office is a fitting comparison. Lincoln’s "Union" (1617) allowed the institution of slavery to become part of its culture and history by reacting too late to the moral dilemmas it presented.
# posted by Katja @ 8:30 AM 
