On January 31, 1862, Mr. Emerson lectured at the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington on American Civilization. Just after the outbreak of war
in the April preceding, he had given a lecture, in a course in Boston on
Life and Literature, which he called “Civilization at a Pinch,” the title
suggesting how it had been modified by the crisis which had suddenly come
to pass. In the course of the year the flocking of slaves to the Union
camps, and the opening vista of a long and bitter struggle, with slavery
now acknowledged as its root, had brought the question of Emancipation
as a war-measure to the front. Of course Mr. Emerson saw hope in this
situation of affairs, and when he went to Washington with the chance
of being heard by men in power there, he prepared himself to urge the
measure, as well on grounds of policy as of right. So the Boston lecture
was much expanded to deal with the need of the hour. There is no evidence
that President Lincoln heard it; it is probable that he did not; nor is
it true that Mr. Emerson had a long and earnest conversation with him on
the subject next day, both of which assertions have been made in print.
Mr. Emerson made an unusual record in his journal of the incidents of
his stay in Washington, and though he tells of his introduction to Mr.
Lincoln and a short chat with him, evidently there was little opportunity
for serious conversation. The President’s secretaries had, in 1886, no
memory of his having attended the lecture, and the Washington papers do
not mention his presence there. The following notice of the lecture,
however, appeared in one of the local papers: “The audience received
it, as they have the other anti-slavery lectures of the course, with
unbounded enthusiasm. It was in many respects a wonderful lecture, and
those who have often heard Mr. Emerson said that he seemed inspired
through nearly the whole of it, especially the part referring to slavery
and the war.”
A gentleman in Washington, who took the trouble to look up the question
as to whether Mr. Lincoln and other high officials heard it, says that
Mr. Lincoln could hardly have attended lectures then:—
“He was very busy at the time, Stanton the new war secretary having just
come in, and storming like a fury at the business of his department.
The great operations of the war for the time overshadowed all the other
events.... It is worth remarking that Mr. Emerson in this lecture clearly
foreshadowed the policy of Emancipation some six or eight months in
advance of Mr. Lincoln. He saw the logic of events leading up to a crisis
in our affairs, to ‘emancipation as a platform with compensation to the
loyal owners’ (his words as reported in the _Star_). The notice states
that the lecture was very fully attended.”
Very possibly it may be with regard to this address that we have the
interesting account given of the effect of Mr. Emerson’s speaking on a
well-known English author. Dr. Garnett, in his _Life of Emerson_, says:—
“A shrewd judge, Anthony Trollope, was particularly struck with the note
of sincerity in Emerson when he heard him address a large meeting during
the Civil War. Not only was the speaker terse, perspicuous, and practical
to a degree amazing to Mr. Trollope’s preconceived notions, but he
commanded his hearers’ respect by the frankness of his dealing with them.
‘You make much of the American eagle,’ he said, ‘you do well. But beware
of the American peacock.’ When shortly afterwards Mr. Trollope heard the
consummate rhetorician, ⸺ ⸺ he discerned at once that oratory was an end
with him, instead of, as with Emerson, a means. He was neither bold nor
honest, as Emerson had been, and the people knew that while pretending to
lead them he was led by them.”
Mr. Emerson revised the lecture and printed it in the _Atlantic
Monthly_ for April, 1862. It was afterwards separated into the essay
“Civilization,” treating of the general and permanent aspects of the
subject (printed in _Society and Solitude_), and this urgent appeal for
the instant need.
The few lines inspired by the Flag are from one of the verse-books.
[161] _Page 298, note 1._ Mr. Emerson himself was by no means free from
pecuniary anxieties and cares in those days.
Journal, 1862. “Poverty, sickness, a lawsuit, even bad, dark weather,
spoil a great many days of the scholar’s year, hinder him of the frolic
freedom necessary to spontaneous flow of thought.”
[162] _Page 300, note 1._ This was during the days of apparent inaction
when, after the first reverses or minor successes of the raw Northern
armies, the magnitude of the task before them and the energy of their
opponents was realized, and recruiting, fortification, organization was
going on in earnest in preparation for the spring campaign. General Scott
had resigned; General McClellan was doing his admirable work of creating
a fit army, and Secretary Cameron had been succeeded by the energetic and
impatient Stanton. But the government was still very shy of meddling with
slavery for fear of disaffecting the War Democrats and especially the
Border States.
[163] _Page 307, note 1._ A short time before this address was delivered
Mr. Moncure D. Conway (a young Virginian, who, for conscience’ sake, had
left his charge as a Methodist preacher and had abandoned his inheritance
in slaves, losing in so doing the good will of his parents, and become a
Unitarian minister and an abolitionist) had read in Concord an admirable
and eloquent lecture called “The Rejected Stone.” This stone, slighted
by the founders, although they knew it to be a source of danger, had now
“become the head of the corner,” and its continuance in the national
structure threatened its stability. Mr. Emerson had been much struck
with the excellence and cogency of Mr. Conway’s arguments, based on his
knowledge of Southern economics and character, and in this lecture made
free use of them.
[164] _Page 308, note 1._ Mason and Slidell, the emissaries sent by the
Confederacy to excite sympathy in its cause in Europe, had been taken
off an English vessel at the Bermudas by Commodore Wilkes, and were
confined in Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. President Lincoln’s action in
surrendering them at England’s demand had been a surprise to the country,
but was well received.
[165] _Page 309, note 1._ From the Veeshnoo Sarma.
[166] _Page 309, note 2._ See in the address on Theodore Parker the
passage commending him for insisting “that the essence of Christianity is
its practical morals; it is there for use or nothing,” etc.
[167] _Page 311, note 1._ In the agitation concerning the abolition
of slavery in the British colonies, gradual emancipation was at first
planned, as more reasonable and politic, but, in the end, not only the
reformers but the planters came in most cases to see that immediate
emancipation was wiser.