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.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteMr. McDonald wasn't even close to being correct in his overall assessment, despite the accuracy in his details.
ReplyDeleteI, as a Northerner and a whole different breed of Yankee, can understand how his view came to be. However that doesn't change his errors into truth.
If the Puritanical influence had been anywhere near as great as presented here there wouldn't have been a successful Revolutionary War.
The live and let live attitude existed in New England back then and still does exist up here... but reduced in size. Mostly it's a city values versus rural values thing these days.
You cannot win a battle fighting with a non-existent enemy. The real enemy will defeat you every time by using your imaginary ghosts against you.
There are definitely US heritage haters in both the North and South. And the ones up here are indeed a bigger threat. But the darkness within those evil souls is decidedly foreign to Turtle Island aka North America.
The "guilt" part is truly there within it all. Anthony Hervey knew of that. Other correct detail pieces of the puzzle are included within Mr. McDonald's assessment. However his overall assembly of the puzzle pieces is a force fit.
Why do these Northern heritage haters hate you?
Because you True Confederates preserve the very essence of the original US Confederacy from 1776 within you and your Southern culture. You live it, you breath it, you defended it in the War Between the States... and WWII.
When Puritans secede into the wilderness to establish a New Jerusalem the Nazis follow in pursuit and kill them all.
LOL
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete37th Congess. ( Report
'Id Session. \ ) No. 148. REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON EMANCIPATION AND COLONIZATION,In the House of Resentatives, July 16, 1862.
Resolved, That ten thousand copies of the bill entitled "An act giving the aid of the United States to certain States upon the adoption by them of a system of emancipation, and to provide for the colonization of free negroes," together with the report of the select committee, be printed in pamphlet form for the use of the House.
"It is useless, now, to enter upon any philosophical inquiry whether nature has or has not made the negro inferior to the Caucasian. The belief is indelibly fixed upon the public mind that such inequality does exist. There are irreconcilable differences between the two races which separate them,
as with a wall of fire. The home for the African must not be
within the limits of the present territory of the Union. The Anglo- American looks upon every acre of our present domain as intended for him, and not for the negro. A home, therefore, must be sought for the African beyond our own limits and in those warmer regions to which his constitution is better adapted than to our own climate,and which doubtless the Almighty intended the colored races should inhabit and cultivate.Much of the objection to emancipation arises from the opposition of a large portion of our people to the intermixture of the races, and from the association of white and black labor. The committee would do nothing to favor such a policy; apart from the antipathy which nature has ordained, the presence of a race among us who cannot, and ought not to, be admitted to our social and political privileges, will be a perpetual source of injury and inquietude to both. This is a question of color, and is unaffected by the relation of master and slave.
The introduction of the negro, whether bond or free, into the same field of labor with the white man, is the opprobrium of the latter,and we cannot believe that the thousands of non-slave holding citizens in the rebellious States...are fighting to continue the negro within our limits even in a state of vassalage, but more probably from a vague apprehension that he is to become their competitor in his own right. We wish to disabuse our laboring countrymen, and the whole Caucasian race who may seek a home here, of this error. We are satisfied that the labor of. our cotton fields may be performed by the white man, and we would offer to these sons of labor the emoluments of both. There is no sounder maxim in political economy than that the cultivators of the soil should be the owners of the soil. The committee conclude that the highest interests of the white race, whether Anglo-Saxon, Celt, or Scandinavian, require that the whole country should be held and occupied by those races alone.
July 1 President Lincoln signs the Pacific Railway Act, incorporating the Union Pacific Railroad and subsidizing it with federal funds
July 12 Congress passes the Second Confiscation Act, or The Confiscation Act of 1862. This allows for confiscation of property from people who participate in the war
July 17 Abraham Lincoln writes a letter to the Congressmen from the border states, warning them of his upcoming Emancipation Proclaimation. In it he states, "I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once to emancipate gradually."
Nazis were impressed with Northern Victory and concepts of purity of race.