Dennis Galvin, Westford resident
Prior to 1775, the history of humanity could be described as the story of masters and slaves. Starting in 1776 however, some historians believe a radical revolutionary period, championing human liberty, swept through both America and Europe for close to a century. This period ultimately changed human consciousness in Western civilization. The capstone of this period was the American Civil War. One of it fruits was the destruction of American chattel slavery, commemorated now by the “Juneteenth Holiday”.
The precipitating idea that gave rise to this century of revolutionary turmoil was the Declaration of Independence and the spirit that emanated from the words: “All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator… with the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This bold aspiration was not unopposed. In Europe, the quest for liberty was resisted and in 1848 largely defeated by the established order. In the United States, the growth of a violent proslavery cabal threatened to reduce the nation’s initial promise of freedom to a discredited fantasy.
Yet, a determined moral spirit persisted in the United States, bringing forth a second wind of change. Historian Charles Beard asserts that this “Second Revolution” was ignited in the US in 1861. It introduced a new cast of founding fathers and a renewed spirit, sufficient to muster the resolve to achieve what the founders could not. The eradication of slavery.
Who were these second founders? Certainly, former President and Congressman John Quincy Adams, a distinguished son of Massachusetts was one. He confronted powerful slave interests in the US Congress, braving continuous threats of violence and harassment, to defend the “right of petition”, which allowed the northern states to continuously demand the eradication of slavery. He helped craft the Missouri Compromise in 1820, which limited the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired territories of the Louisiana Purchase.
Another was Frederick Douglas, a self-educated former slave, who through the example of his own life, discredited the stereotypes that supported the slave interest. As a minister, he railed against the heretical claims of southern preachers, that slavery was sanctioned by Christian teaching. His condemnation and agitation against the Fugitive Slave Act (1850) and the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) awakened the moral consciousness of the North.
Perhaps the most powerful and articulate antebellum voice challenging the slave interests was Senator Charles Sumner, another son of Massachusetts. He brilliantly argued against claims that the US Constitution supported slavery. Sumner was brutally beaten by South Carolina slave master Congressman Preston Books because of his views. Yet in 1860, Sumner delivered arguably one of the most significant orations in US history, entitled, “The Barbarity of Slavery”. He delivered it on the Senate floor, denouncing not only slavery but the moral fabric of the Southern culture that supported it. Sumner graphically portrayed slave society as a legal, moral, and religious perversion of civilization and boldly proclaimed that freedom was the national policy of the United States.
The Southern response was secession. It was left to the courage, wisdom and foresight of President Abraham Lincoln, to preserve the union, and the military genius and determination of Ulysses S. Grant to end the conflict. It was the direct efforts of both men that ultimately led to the eradication of slavery in the United States, at a cost of one million lives, including Lincoln’s own. An entirely new nation emerged from this struggle, one that had now affirmed its original commitment to liberty in blood.
It is important to commemorate Juneteenth. It animates the foundational intent of our nation. Rooted in a faith in God and moral law and christened by fratricidal conflict. This revolutionary era in history testifies to the original hope and belief of the American people, that the true destiny of humanity, is to be free.
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