The
psyche of the Yankee—by which I do not mean all Northerners, but
only of seventeenth-century New England Puritans and their
descendants, both genetic and ideological—has roots that run deep,
and ultimately to the Yankee’s ever-changing concept of the nature
of God; thus it is that, in regard to the shaping of the New England
character, various errors, heresies, nay even blasphemies, figure
prominently. To get a handle on the Yankee, it is helpful to begin
with his original Calvinism, and especially with the doctrine of
predestination: The belief that most men are doomed and a few are
elected for salvation, not by faith or works or any other act of
human volition, but only in accordance with a preordained and
unknowable divine plan. It might seem that the premise precludes
speculation by the puny human intellect, that is logical disputation
and inspires unlimited arrogance.
For
instance, during the seventeenth century the prevailing orthodoxy was
that those who were chosen for salvation would lead visibly pious
lives, but it could be argued, as Anne Hutchinson did argue, that if
the grace of God were in a person it made no difference how he
behaved on earth. Such a doctrine was subversive both of
community-enforced morality and of community-enforced order, and
could not be tolerated. Hutchinson and her followers were banished,
as were others who deviated or dissented in any way; and yet
deviation and dissent were endemic.
That
is the first thing to understand about the Yankee: He is a doctrinal
puritan, characterized by what William G. McLaughlin has called
pietistic perfectionism. Unlike the Southerner, he is
constitutionally incapable of letting things be, of adopting a
live-and-let-live attitude. No departure from his version of Truth is
tolerable, and thus when he finds himself amidst sinners, as he
invariably does, he must either purge and purify the community or
join with his fellow saints and go into the wilderness to establish a
New Jerusalem. In other words, he must reform society or secede from
it; and though he has long since been thoroughly secularized, the
compulsion remains as strong in the twentieth century as it was in
the seventeenth.
And
that leads us to a final point. I believe that somewhere, deep in the
innermost recesses of their atrophied souls, Yankees know that they
truly have botched things, and truly are plagued with guilt. That, I
think, is the bottom line: the Yankee hates himself, and he hates his
heritage.
And
why does he hate us? Because we do not hate ourselves and we treasure
ours.
Forrest
McDonald (1927-2016) was Distinguished Research Professor of History
at the University of Alabama.
Psalms
37:34-40
Wait on the Lord,
and keep his way,
and he shall
exalt thee to inherit the land:
when the wicked
are cut off, thou shalt see it.
I have seen the
wicked in great power, and
spreading himself
like a green bay tree.
Yet he passed
away, and, lo, he was not: yea,
I sought him, but
he could not be found.
Mark the perfect
man, and behold the upright:
for the end of
man is peace.
But the
transgressors shall be destroyed together:
the end of the
wicked shall be cut off.
But the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord:
he is their
strength in the time of trouble.
And the Lord
shall help them, and deliver them:
he shall deliver
them from the wicked, and
save them,
because they trust in him.
