As some of our readers have noticed, Locke is a big subject around here. We don’t share a single interpretation of his philosophy (you should listen to Ivan), or of his influence on the American regime. But we agree that the positions expressed above all in the 2nd Treatise of Government represent a turning point in the history of political thought. This judgment doesn’t rest, at least for me, on the novelty of Locke’s particular arguments. His accomplishment was to combine, with unprecedented power, the modern-scientific view of nature, moral skepticism, and political contractarianism.
We criticize this combination a lot, both for what it says and for what it fails to say about the human predicament. Today, however, I want to offer few words of praise. Without Locke, it would have been impossible for our fathers (in at least the spiritual sense) to bring forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Without Locke’s doctrine of natural rights, the United States might have ended up like Canada: a decent, peaceable place, to be sure, but without much claim on anyone’s loyalty or imagination. Independence Day is, I think, a time to reflect on the fruitful and perhaps providential ambiguity of the principles articulated by Locke and recapitulated in the most famous passage of the Declaration published 233 years ago today. They’ve given us a hell of a lot of trouble–but also more than the common measure of honor.
So, I encourage everyone to raise their glasses–whether of homebrewed beer, Kentucky bourbon, or imported wine bought in bulk at Costco–to Locke and the semi-hemi-demi-Lockeans who’ve served this nation. That means Jefferson, of course. It also means Lincoln (sorry, Bob), who understood, as Jefferson did, that slavery was an intolerable injustice–because rights to life and liberty exclude the right to property in human beings. But above all, it includes the countless ordinary citizens, who knew nothing of Locke or Burke or Thomas or Aristotle, who’ve struggled and worked and fought and died so that they might live under a government responsible to their will, and constrained to regard them as free men and women rather than as members of a class, church, guild, tribe, town, or race. We owe them much.
Tomorrow we can go back to arguing, in the very best tradition of querulous patriotism. For now: Happy Independence Day.
July 4th, 2009 | 2:06 pm
“Independence Day is, I think, a time to reflect on the fruitful and perhaps providential ambiguity of the principles articulated by Locke and recapitulated in the most famous passage of the Declaration published 233 years ago today. They’ve given us a hell of a lot of trouble–but also more than the common measure of honor.”
One does not argue with such beautifully rendered prose. Not on this day when I give tribute to my ancestor, William Dickerson, late of the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment-of-the-Line, veteran of Saratoga, Valley Forge, the Squaw Campaign, and the frontier wars with the Five Nations of Ohio. A gentleman, who in his petition for Revolutionary War pension, at the age of seventy-two, declared himself to be “in reduced circumstances,” and consequently recv’d said pension of $8.00 per month, a princely some, that sustained him until his death.
On Lincoln’s place in all of this, we shall bow to the author’s eloquence, while at the same time remembering the three days at Gettysburg just past, by hoistng the Confederate battleflag upon a twenty foot pole on the third highest knoll in the Ohio country and give the famed battlecry of the Confederate Light Infantry, “Yip, Yip, Yip!”
Excellent piece Sam!
July 4th, 2009 | 3:09 pm
So I went to the July 4th parade and celebration in Cave Springs, GA. Cave Springs is somewhat more agricultural than Rome, but basically prosperous or middle class and most people still don’t farm for a living. There are a lot of features of the parade I’ll share with you later. But it opened with a police car blaring the Lee Greenwood classic about being proud to be an American, where at least I’m living free. What followed was a dazzling array of vehicles decked up with American flags anywhere and everywhere–beginning with a very large power boat, lots of motorcycles, ever manner of all terrain vehicles, golf carts etc etc. There was one cyclist with his hair dyed red, white, and blue. There was one military vehicle from the local National Guard, which got the biggest applause of all. And there were a good number of signs about supporting our troops. So in a way echoing Sam about freedom and its defense, I’d like to see some posts about the noble connection between localism as it actually exists and patriotism American style. I”d like to see something about where our troops actually come from and the the indispensable duty of supporting them. That this or that war might have been a screw up is no excuse for lack of support. The Iraq War is working out a lot better and less pointlessly bloody than the Korean War, after all. (Let me add that I went the year before last to the 4th of July in Acworth–an exurb–GA, and the classy patriotism was even more in evidence.) During and since the Vietnam War, southern 4ths, as far as I can tell, have become more aggressively patriotic, but with a festive restraint in accord with honoring our idea of freedom. So I’m less honoring Mr. Jefferson than those who fought (in part) for his idea and those who fought for both Lincoln and Lee, both in good faith. (I’m not actually honoring Jefferson Davis and the aristocrats who dominated the Confederacy’s Congress.)
July 4th, 2009 | 10:34 pm
” So I’m less honoring Mr. Jefferson than those who fought (in part) for his idea and those who fought for both Lincoln and Lee, both in good faith. (I’m not actually honoring Jefferson Davis and the aristocrats who dominated the Confederacy’s Congress.)”
I’m having a tough time understanding the above. And, why I just don’t leave it along…I don’t know, call it a flaw!
Also, it’s not “Lincoln and Lee,” it’s Lincoln and Davis!
And, let’s give ole Jeff Davis credit, he survived an assassination attempt by Yankee authorities and continued to serve honorably as President of the Confederate States of America.
July 5th, 2009 | 10:11 am
Bob, I was trying to be a uniter, not a divider on the 4th by bringing trying to do full justice to the ordinary southern man fighting for freedom and place throughout our history. (All localists need to try to do this, in my opinion.) But like the much maligned former president, I failed to make my tent big enough. Here’s my thought, anyway: I sort of buy the claim that most southern soldiers didn’t have slaves and weren’t fighting for slavery. I had that thought in Cave Springs, a part of “frontier Georgia” where slavery hadn’t taken root much in 1860. (The Cherokees had been kicked out for only about 25 years–the South has never been a great place to look for justice.) There, from the beginning, most men and women worked for themselves, and they voted Bell/Unionist in 1860–but they still mostly fought and suffered horribly for Georgia and self-determination. On the other hand, 90% of the members of the Confederate Congress had slaves, and 40% were owners of big plantations. The leaders of the South had the interests and inclinations of aristocratic masters. And Jefferson Davis was, to put it gently, excessively honorable and vain and failed the ordinary guy as a commander-in-chief as a result. (I’ll say my amateurish analysis for later, but Andrew Lytle and various other agrarians are on my side here.) The great men of our Secession War were Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Lee, and Jackson.
And Lee was the South’s “charismatic figure” and doubtless (despite big mistakes even the greatest of mortals make) deserving of the memorials he has. I’m fair and balanced enough to think highly of each of those five leaders.
July 5th, 2009 | 1:41 pm
Peter, thanks for the erudite historical analysis which is, and always will be much appreciated…that yearning for the concrete will make a Voegelinian out of you yet.
If this “fair and balanced” and “uniter not a divider” thing continues expect some sort of offer from the administration (they are terribly lost). Also, there’s a couple of kumbaya guys at FPR who, I’m sure, are altering their opinions and preparing invites for you to the next front porch hootenanny.
Re: you list of “great men of the Secession War (well said!),” I can’t include those that made war on civilians, and, as you know, Bobby Lee would never countenance war on women and children.
As we celebrate and remember the establishment of the olde republic this weekend I thought that, as a admirer, I’d ask you to consider remarking on the republicanism of the founding, it’s loss, and it’s the potential recovery. I believe I would not only enjoy that, but learn a thing or two as well.
July 5th, 2009 | 3:46 pm
Bob, Spoken like a gentleman. “Secession War” actually comes from Walt Whitman. Your request is above my pay grade for a Sunday.
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