07/03/2021 07:00 AM EDTTed Widmer is Distinguished Lecturer at Macaulay Honors College of the City University of New York, and the author ofThe Fourth of July began with so much noise in 1861 that a Washington newspaper reported that it “aroused old fogyism from its sleep.” Even at daybreak, there were firecrackers, small arms fire, cannonades and home-made torpedoes, in addition to the tolling of bells from every church in the city.
The Civil War had begun at Fort Sumter three months earlier, when South Carolinians fired on the U.S. flag on behalf of a Southern Confederacy that had formed before Lincoln even arrived. The skirmishes had been small since then, but emotions were running high, as Americans argued over race, slavery, and the right of states to withdraw from the Union.
The way Washington celebrated that day went a long way to determine the republic we became. In a fraught moment, with two versions of America competing against each other, one version — of a country rooted in calm democratic protocols — prevailed over the other. Despite his lack of experience in elective office, and his meager education, Lincoln clearly won this often-overlooked skirmish. He had a better Fourth of July than Jefferson Davis.
Lincoln had never achieved the kind of glittering career in Washington that Jefferson Davis had. His only elective office was a single term in the House, not very successful, 12 years earlier. But he had a lifelong relationship with the Declaration of Independence, which he had carefully read and re-read since encountering it, as a youth, inside a book of Indiana statutes. He seemed to grow taller while talking about it, as he did throughout his debates with Stephen Douglas.
Lincoln, on the other hand, had a remarkably expansive understanding of the document. Its freedoms belonged to all Americans, including immigrants. In the fullness of time, he expected those freedoms to grow stronger, and reach other peoples, living in what he called “the vast future.” Us, in other words.
happy National Day！
The GQPTraitorsToDemocracy /GQPDomesticTerrorists are NOT invited to ANY celebrations!
With Chinese made fireworks... how symbolic. We buy them with dollars and they give us stuff we set on fire with nothing to show the next day.
Don’t you mean Independence Day?
The GQPTraitorsToDemocracy /GQPDomesticTerrorists are NOT invited to ANY celebrations!
So obnoxiously American. Tss
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: POPSUGARMoms - 🏆 117. / 63 Read more »
Source: POPSUGARMoms - 🏆 117. / 63 Read more »
Source: POPSUGARMoms - 🏆 117. / 63 Read more »
Source: StyleCaster - 🏆 104. / 63 Read more »
Source: Variety - 🏆 108. / 63 Read more »
Source: POPSUGAR Fitness - 🏆 401. / 53 Read more »