Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
Sage and hero, side by side, Building for their sons the State Which they shall rule with pride
The poem was to the Union Volunteer soldiers in the Civil War.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, Poet & Essayist, Poem: Voluntaries, The Atlantic Monthly, October 1863
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In contrast to the American army, there was no conscription in Canada. Note the quaint Canadian euphemism, "invited."
After declaring the independence of Rhodesia from British imperial rule:
In the attack on Fort Wagner, the color bearer was killed as was the Commanding Officer, Colonel Shaw. Carney raised the flag and led the men up the sand wall into the Confederate midst. They were vastly outnumbered and then retreated. Carney was the first Black to win the Medal of Honor.
The Shakers were an American religion and pacifists Lincoln learned. He was so impressed with their sincerity and way of life that he exempted Shaker men from the draft—the first conscientious objectors formally recognized in America. However, Lincoln made the statement to the Shakers which greatly impressed them and caused much reflection. Quakers had been pacifists also, but until the Civil War Draft there was no mechanism to test.
The motto was worn on their uniforms which unlike the blue of the rest of the American army was white as can be seen in the famous paining by muralist David R. Wagner. Rhode Island offered freedom to all slaves who would enlist. It not only included Negroes but Indian slaves as well. See {613949} and {614120} for details. The motto itself is interesting in that there was little concept of a country then as most Americans identified themselves as Virginians, New Yorkers or Rhode Islanders. There was no Constitution—only a confederation of States. But the former slaves joining the regiment had never voluntarily associated themselves with Rhode Island, and the first free decision they made was to join the regiment and have a new country.
“Volk” loosely translated means “the people.” However it carries the connotation of a unity that “the people” does not.
Public opinion in the Union was quite different and more complex. Eggleston was an accomplished writer who had served in the Confederate army of the Civil War. 20 year after the war he wrote a series of articles for the prestigious Northern Atlantic Monthly trying to convey the war from the Southerner’s point of view.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
