11_to have about ten men shot by their comrades
VIDEO: Lincoln & Washington and the Dream of a Vast Republic by Jim Surkamp
youtu.be/J_KU9YxIKaQ TRT: 8:02.
POST: Washington & Lincoln's Dream: A Vast Republic by Jim Surkamp
civilwarscholars.com/?p=12721 1253 words
Made possible with the generous, community-minded support of American Public University system, offering a quality, affordable, online education. Interpretations in civilwarscholars.com videos and posts do not in any way reflect modern-day policies and positions of American Public University System. More at apus.edu
Follow the story with the numbered sequenced images inthe script below:
1_Fulfilling the Hopes
Fulfilling the Hopes of a Vast Republic
George and Abe Shared A Dream by Jim Surkamp
2_reading Ron Chernow
I was terrifically relieved in reading Ron Chernow’s matchless Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George Washington that he was, not a boring, goody-two-shoes, bland deity, but an edgy, strong, volcanic, self-sacrificing to an unearthly
3_to_an_unearthly_degree
degree, brave enough to withstand an unrelenting rain of frustrations, dug-in, canny, universally trusted and admired for very hard-won reasons, and totally – loaded-for bear/hammer-and-tong/tooth-and-nail and spread-eagle – dedicated to the cause – that of pouring the foundation for a new and vast Republic, the first of its kind ever and a gauntlet hurled at the shaking boots of every despot and monarch that had ruled and oppressed the world’s people for eons.
Chernow’s extraordinary Lazarus-like bringing-to-life of the Marble Man – thanks to his gifted marshalling of 137,000 documents about George Washington – eight times the number available for the previous single volume biography of
4_George_Washington_and_Abraham_Lincoln
Washington – also illuminates the direct path between the minds and souls of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the two American pillars. If only George had that one special gene Abe had alone – for humor.
5_made himself a willed consicous instrument
Above all each made himself a willed consicous instrument in the achievement and perpetuation a great Republic that would – pray it be so – spawn many, many more.
6_both Robert E. Lee and Abraham
Growing up, both Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln were, by their own enthusiastic admissions, slavish admirers of the Washington model of behavior and leadership. They lived and blossomed throughout their lives not in his shadow but in his light.
Both sides in the struggle of the Civil War drew from the image of Valley Forge but in ways unexpected. Lee and many other common soldiers writing home spoke of being the brave number leading the second Revolutionary War to throw off tyranny. Lincoln’s view of the war’s purpose was more akin to Washington’s in that he meant above all to preserve the great experiment of creating a vast empire-size Republic, driven by the conviction that it must not be splintered down
7_his Farewell Address
into nothing by secessions of those states in a disagreement. Washington, as he said in his Farewell Address, may have recognized the split in 1861 as one of his two greatest antagonists to the dream of a vast Republic – the uncompromising, geographically-related “faction” or party.
It’s much more complex and further defined by their different times, but Washington had his own lens for perceiving such a great Republic and Lincoln quite his own. The former talked about the Republic in the terms of “union” and “common purpose” greater than regional sub-interests – uniting all “from North and South . . . the Atlantic – to the West.” He
8_learned the bitter truth
learned the bitter truth when the army was held together truely only by the hope his very unwavering example provided to starving, freezing, unpaid soldiers that to wage war against an invader his men at Valley Forge needed money to at least put shirts on their backs in winter, bullets in their pouches and pay and pensions for their sacrifices. To have a viable army for the common defense and maybe offense, he found, he needed a source of funds that could only be provided by a strong centralized banking system. This was England’s real strength: large sums of money available on short notice that could repaid for the functioning of navies and armies.
9_mid-19th century railroad lawyer
Quite differently, Lincoln may have in some degree seen through the lens of a reasoned mid-19th century railroad lawyer, that he once was, envisioning a vast railroad system that was commercially unifying vast populations scattered across vast territories. Even better, be it a rail system primarily in the northern non-slave-holding region of the Republic, whereby such a railroad, in the form of the B&O Railroad in fact, could carry an immigrant or westward bound easterner population into western territories . . . such settlers who would, incidentally, vote against the establishment of enslavement in their soon-to-be new states in the Republic.
10_What would happen if Abe Lincoln and George Washington met?
What would happen if Abe Lincoln and George Washington met? I think that each would bond quickly if they knew each had been a president and done what each did, and both aimed for the world’s first large Republic. I think after that trust was forged, Abe would get George chuckling with his wry humor. I can only surmise that George Washington would have been deeply forever wounded by the fact that Lincoln saw it necessary to call out a much enlarged army to invade his beloved Virginia. Yet ultimately Washington never blinked at doing the hard thing to preserve the princple. He didn’t hesitate
11_to have about ten men shot by their comrades
to have about ten men shot by their comrades in firing squads for leading a mutiny – even though the men were starving and unpaid, and the mutiny was voluntarily rescinded. Geoge Washington also consciously withheld any use of his men to protect Mt. Vernon from burning by Gen. Cornwallis’ men who were closeby – to maintain the princple of higher interests only. And lastly I think Geroge Washington in observing the Civil War would have recognized the regional factionalism at work.
But there is a limit to what we can know. Lincoln, in fact, once gave a speech in which he said he “hated” slavery because we could no longer claim to be the world’s largest Republic without being hypocrites. This is reminiscent of George Washington leaving in his will the requirement that those persons he enslaved be freed. To have not done so would have forever left the stain of hypocrisy on his vision of the world’s vast Republic.
12_vision of the world’s vast Republic
11_to have about ten men shot by their comrades
VIDEO: Lincoln & Washington and the Dream of a Vast Republic by Jim Surkamp
youtu.be/J_KU9YxIKaQ TRT: 8:02.
POST: Washington & Lincoln's Dream: A Vast Republic by Jim Surkamp
civilwarscholars.com/?p=12721 1253 words
Made possible with the generous, community-minded support of American Public University system, offering a quality, affordable, online education. Interpretations in civilwarscholars.com videos and posts do not in any way reflect modern-day policies and positions of American Public University System. More at apus.edu
Follow the story with the numbered sequenced images inthe script below:
1_Fulfilling the Hopes
Fulfilling the Hopes of a Vast Republic
George and Abe Shared A Dream by Jim Surkamp
2_reading Ron Chernow
I was terrifically relieved in reading Ron Chernow’s matchless Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George Washington that he was, not a boring, goody-two-shoes, bland deity, but an edgy, strong, volcanic, self-sacrificing to an unearthly
3_to_an_unearthly_degree
degree, brave enough to withstand an unrelenting rain of frustrations, dug-in, canny, universally trusted and admired for very hard-won reasons, and totally – loaded-for bear/hammer-and-tong/tooth-and-nail and spread-eagle – dedicated to the cause – that of pouring the foundation for a new and vast Republic, the first of its kind ever and a gauntlet hurled at the shaking boots of every despot and monarch that had ruled and oppressed the world’s people for eons.
Chernow’s extraordinary Lazarus-like bringing-to-life of the Marble Man – thanks to his gifted marshalling of 137,000 documents about George Washington – eight times the number available for the previous single volume biography of
4_George_Washington_and_Abraham_Lincoln
Washington – also illuminates the direct path between the minds and souls of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the two American pillars. If only George had that one special gene Abe had alone – for humor.
5_made himself a willed consicous instrument
Above all each made himself a willed consicous instrument in the achievement and perpetuation a great Republic that would – pray it be so – spawn many, many more.
6_both Robert E. Lee and Abraham
Growing up, both Robert E. Lee and Abraham Lincoln were, by their own enthusiastic admissions, slavish admirers of the Washington model of behavior and leadership. They lived and blossomed throughout their lives not in his shadow but in his light.
Both sides in the struggle of the Civil War drew from the image of Valley Forge but in ways unexpected. Lee and many other common soldiers writing home spoke of being the brave number leading the second Revolutionary War to throw off tyranny. Lincoln’s view of the war’s purpose was more akin to Washington’s in that he meant above all to preserve the great experiment of creating a vast empire-size Republic, driven by the conviction that it must not be splintered down
7_his Farewell Address
into nothing by secessions of those states in a disagreement. Washington, as he said in his Farewell Address, may have recognized the split in 1861 as one of his two greatest antagonists to the dream of a vast Republic – the uncompromising, geographically-related “faction” or party.
It’s much more complex and further defined by their different times, but Washington had his own lens for perceiving such a great Republic and Lincoln quite his own. The former talked about the Republic in the terms of “union” and “common purpose” greater than regional sub-interests – uniting all “from North and South . . . the Atlantic – to the West.” He
8_learned the bitter truth
learned the bitter truth when the army was held together truely only by the hope his very unwavering example provided to starving, freezing, unpaid soldiers that to wage war against an invader his men at Valley Forge needed money to at least put shirts on their backs in winter, bullets in their pouches and pay and pensions for their sacrifices. To have a viable army for the common defense and maybe offense, he found, he needed a source of funds that could only be provided by a strong centralized banking system. This was England’s real strength: large sums of money available on short notice that could repaid for the functioning of navies and armies.
9_mid-19th century railroad lawyer
Quite differently, Lincoln may have in some degree seen through the lens of a reasoned mid-19th century railroad lawyer, that he once was, envisioning a vast railroad system that was commercially unifying vast populations scattered across vast territories. Even better, be it a rail system primarily in the northern non-slave-holding region of the Republic, whereby such a railroad, in the form of the B&O Railroad in fact, could carry an immigrant or westward bound easterner population into western territories . . . such settlers who would, incidentally, vote against the establishment of enslavement in their soon-to-be new states in the Republic.
10_What would happen if Abe Lincoln and George Washington met?
What would happen if Abe Lincoln and George Washington met? I think that each would bond quickly if they knew each had been a president and done what each did, and both aimed for the world’s first large Republic. I think after that trust was forged, Abe would get George chuckling with his wry humor. I can only surmise that George Washington would have been deeply forever wounded by the fact that Lincoln saw it necessary to call out a much enlarged army to invade his beloved Virginia. Yet ultimately Washington never blinked at doing the hard thing to preserve the princple. He didn’t hesitate
11_to have about ten men shot by their comrades
to have about ten men shot by their comrades in firing squads for leading a mutiny – even though the men were starving and unpaid, and the mutiny was voluntarily rescinded. Geoge Washington also consciously withheld any use of his men to protect Mt. Vernon from burning by Gen. Cornwallis’ men who were closeby – to maintain the princple of higher interests only. And lastly I think Geroge Washington in observing the Civil War would have recognized the regional factionalism at work.
But there is a limit to what we can know. Lincoln, in fact, once gave a speech in which he said he “hated” slavery because we could no longer claim to be the world’s largest Republic without being hypocrites. This is reminiscent of George Washington leaving in his will the requirement that those persons he enslaved be freed. To have not done so would have forever left the stain of hypocrisy on his vision of the world’s vast Republic.
12_vision of the world’s vast Republic