Walt Whitman was a nurse within the Civil Conflict. His brother George was wounded on the Battle of Fredericksburg. The poet rushed from Brooklyn to a Washington, D.C., hospital and located a “new world” of horror and hope.
He wrote a really readable diary about it, “Memoranda In the course of the Conflict,” that features gut-turning descriptions of piles of amputated limbs and loving portraits of wounded troopers.
He’d give them chaws of tobacco and pocket cash, write their letters residence. And, being Walt, examine them out within the course of. “He appears so good-looking as he sleeps.”
That final element is likely to be creepy. But it surely’s additionally fascinating and price noting of the person who as soon as wrote, “What’s extra lovely than candor?”
In his travels round Washington, D.C., Whitman generally noticed Abraham Lincoln — they’d nod to one another in passing.
I admit to noticing Lincoln in my very own wanderings across the metropolis — not within the flesh, thank goodness, not but. However in locations related to him, notably at Wabash and Lake, the unique website of the Wigwam, the place Lincoln was nominated for president in 1860.
Although Lincoln wasn’t there; his handlers saved him safely in Springfield in order to not screw up their crude deal-making. One other messy element.
Lincoln is all the time right here, all the time related, as a result of we’re nonetheless preventing the Civil Conflict. There’s no different option to put it. 1000’s of books have been written concerning the sixteenth president, however my favourite is “Expensive Mr. Lincoln: Letters to the President,” edited by Harold Holzer.
Like on-line feedback right now, lots of the letters are sharp, telegraphic bursts.
“Equal rights & Justice to all white males in america eternally,” urges John McMahon of Hambrook, Pennsylvania on Aug. 5, 1864. “White males is at school primary & black males at school quantity two & should be ruled by white males eternally.”
That appears like one thing discovered on X right now. At the very least McMahon expresses his hateful ideas instantly, versus our present ardour for insinuation and cant, comparable to President Donald Trump’s current govt order to tamp down authorities portrayal of the wrestle for equal rights on this nation below the Orwellian title, “Restoring Reality and Sanity to American Historical past.”
Official web sites are scrubbed, museum shows censored, books banned.
All of it’s achieved below the flawed notion that together with the tough, disagreeable points of historical past is dispiriting and should be suppressed. I suppose a lot of the Civil Conflict may fall into that class, as does Lincoln being assassinated, April 14, 1865, 160 years in the past Monday, by a fanatical Southerner — and that is the kind of element lower out —incensed at the concept Black individuals would achieve the proper to vote. Now their vote is being suppressed extra cannily, although the motive is similar. “White males is at school primary.”
The previous must be prettied up as a result of the intention is to pull our nation again there. They faux to be making use of mental rigor or wholesome skepticism, when what they’re truly doing is whitewashing something that offers away the sport they’re taking part in. Holocaust deniers do the identical factor: pluck at inconsistencies within the monumental mass of German record-keeping and faux to boost professional doubts.
When in actuality they each cleave to hateful ideology and resent the last word vacation spot of the highway they’re on being demonstrated in a compelling trend. Sending American residents to inhuman prisons in El Salvador will finish with us sending Americans to inhuman prisons right here. Historical past teaches that.
Southerners despised Lincoln, maybe probably the most articulate president ever, calling him a low born obscene clown. They’d some extent — this sincere historical past factor requires you to acknowledge even info that cross towards your basic beliefs. Lincoln did joke rather a lot, introducing himself and his squat spouse as “the lengthy and the in need of it.”
Lincoln was additionally a pointy lawyer. He’d come to Chicago to characterize railroads. As soon as, in summation of a trial, Lincoln talked about the punch line of a well-liked joke: “They’ve their info proper, however are drawing the improper conclusion.”
The complete joke went like this:
A farm boy runs to his father and says, “Pa, pa, the employed hand and sis are within the hay loft! She’s a liftin’ up her costume up and he’s a pullin’ down his pants and affixin’ to pee all around the hay.”
The farmer places his hand on the agitated boy’s shoulder and replies, “Son, you’ve acquired the info proper however you’re drawing the improper conclusion.”
Those that suppress historical past collect restricted info to attract improper conclusions. Historical past is filled with what occurs throughout the tragic intervals the place such suppression takes maintain. We have to be taught these classes now greater than ever.
