LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections 2005

Monday 28 March: Monday: Abraham Lincoln, N 757-760. Harriet Beecher Stowe, selections from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, N 771-806. Thoreau, N 837-853 (“Resistance to Civil Government”).

selection reader / discussion leader: Robert Hoffman

Abraham Lincoln and American Romanticism

            The writings "Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863" and "Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865" have elements of Romanticism throughout them. These writings address the state of the nation and the civil war in the United States.

            Lincoln begins the Gettysburg Address by stating the founding fathers brought forth on the continent."…a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" (Norton 758). This first statement establishes the idealistic foundation of why people immigrated to the United States, and provides a philosophy that is the basis for the war between the north and the south. This demonstrates the Romantic ideal of being unhappy with the current situation and believing in a better life for the future as well as idealistic principle.  Lincoln states that the graves in Gettysburg are already "hallowed" and "consecrated" because these soldiers gave their life for a worthy cause. This gives a distorted view of the war and makes the Union believe there is something sacred about the cause for which they are fighting and dying. At the end of the speech, Lincoln advances his argument by stating these people "shall not have died in vain" and "this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom". After three years of fighting, the Union citizens began to question the motivation and morality of the war. Lincoln's conclusion is that the war is morally justified, and must continue until its victory so that all the people who gave their lives could give freedom to future generations. Lincoln is trying to make people envision the current situation as it should be or wished for instead of how it really is. The Romantic writers produce desire and aspiration for something far greater than the here and now. In addition, Lincoln glorifies the holiness of the graveyard and the deceased to justify the desire and loss that the war produces.

            In addition, the "Second Inaugural Address" Lincoln encourages the nation that the war is progressing satisfactory, and "with high hope of the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured" (Norton 759). In similar fashion of the Gettysburg address, Lincoln tries to rationalize the motives for the civil war by stating in God's view, slavery needed to come, but God now needs to remove it by the act of war. In Romantic fashion, this statement diverts the true reason for the conflict, and gives a false justification for the war. The slavery issue between the north and the south was strictly one of economic and cultural differences. With the abolishment of slavery, southern plantation owners would lose millions of dollars because they would no longer have free labor to plant and harvest their crops. Lincoln reassures the nation that "feverently do we pray-that the mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away" (Norton 769). As with the Gettysburg address, the motive is to escape the ugly reality of war here and now, and create belief that the future will be better. Also, Lincoln builds confidence in his listeners by his misrepresentation of reality statement "there is malice toward none with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in…" (Norton 769). 

            Both of these writings use Romantic idealistic ideas, desire and loss, and escape from the here and now reality. They do reflect the Romantic period by because the problems of the civil war are mainly because of the increasing capitalism and cultural differences between the north and the south. Rather than addressing these problems in a rational way, Lincoln attempts to distort them with an essay about an idealistic philosophy and justification for the war by God.

Questions for discussion.

1. Why does Lincoln idealize the civil war by referring to God and the philosophy of the founding fathers?

2. Are these two writings a purely Romantic in nature? Is there some rationality? How does Lincoln's essay combine both rational and Romantic techniques to form a new approach to justifying the war?

3. These two writings do not reflect the gothic or evil imagery that many Romantic writers used in the middle 1800s. Why did Lincoln avoid this in his writings?

4. How effective are these two writings as a Romantic genre? Is the same style used in modern writings or speeches by a President?