Yesterday was the anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth in 1819. It is celebrated because to many, he was America’s foremost poet, whose Leaves of Grass had a farther-reaching impact than any other book of American poetry.
Despite his extensive career as a journalist, Whitman’s poetry attracts all the attention. That is unfortunate, given that his early efforts in journalism have been said to “foreshadow the later, enduring writings of the poet.”
For instance, the same commitment to individuality and freedom as he described in his poetry in A Backward Glance–”I have allowed the stress of my poems from beginning to end to bear upon American individuality and assist it”-already characterized his work as an editor at the New York Aurora, at age 22.
Since the extent of individual freedom permitted depends on the role government plays, Whitman addressed that role. And his thoughts on that matter are worth revisiting, because what Leadie Clark called “…his belief in laissez-faire and the complete freedom of the individual,” reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson, was not only being widely abandoned when he was writing, but has become almost unrecognizably distant from the views held by most Americans today.For instance, in the course of five Aurora editorials in March and April, 1842, Whitman made more sense about the role of government than what Americans read on any editorial page today.
from “The True Democratic Principle,” March 16, 1842
“‘The best government is that which governs least.’…the true democratic principle, the genuine principle of the American system-teaches that the ‘best’ governing power is that which puts its power in play ‘least’…[We] desire our experiment of man’s capacity for self government, carried to its extreme verge…
“Every time that congress or a state legislature meddles in matters of finance, they only plunge the interests of the people deeper and deeper into difficulty….our law makers go through their farce of officious intermeddling-and invariably with results of more evil to the country at large than pressed upon us at the commencement of their session.
“It need that the machinery of government be simplified and narrowed-that a small circle be drawn, and that no stretching out thereof be permitted…the only certain shield lies in letting each state manage its own affairs as unto it may seem best. And better still would it be to let the smaller divisions, the local districts, the individual people, retain the rights and prerogatives of free men, in their own respective hands.”
from “Reform It Altogether,” March 22, 1842
“Few evils are greater in these blessed United States, than the officiousness of the law-making powers. They meddle with everything, and derange every thing–from our intercourse with foreign empires, down to the oyster trade… the great mass are gulled in these matters-they have an idea that the learned fathers in legislation can concoct a panacea for all evils. In plain truth, senators and representatives, and assembly men, are no more and no better than other men.”
from “The Latest and Grandest Humbug,” April 8, 1842
“What right has one man to expect that the fostering care of government may be given to him more than to his neighbor?…People do that, indirectly, which, were it done directly, would be scouted from one end of the land to the other.”
from “Old Land Marks,” April 18, 1842
“What is a legislature? A body of men, just like those we see about us…They are as liable to error, commit as ridiculous blunders of judgment, are swayed by their tempers, or with their selfish passions, or their personal whims-just like the common mass of society. Looking back through the history of the past, what has there been done by way of legislation to make us place much confidence in law, as consistent with justice? Government is at best but a necessary evil; and the less we have of it, the better.
“Let no man think, because we see in this country no throne and no titled nobles, we can have no oppression… a desire to raise one’s self above his peers, even trough infringing on the rights of those peers, will actuate individuals and portions of communities.
“There has always existed in the United States a faction professing to think that the main body of the people are unfit to govern…but the chilliness and narrowness of their doctrine ought ever to have damned them-and more especially so now, when experience has proved the fallaciousness of their premises.”
from “Legislation And Morality,” April 20, 1842
“Were communities so constituted that to prune their errors, the only thing necessary should be the passage of laws, the task of reform would be no task at all. Unfortunately, however…enactments are unable to supercede nature.
“…that government was at best but a necessary evil…might afford the motto for a new school of political economy…the old and monstrous, and miserable creed, than in order to make men good and happy, you must govern them, is in a pretty fair way to be exploded. We are beginning to feel, not in theory merely, (that has long been the case) but in reality, that every being with a rational soul is an independent man, and that one is as much a man as another, and that all sovereign rights reside within himself, and that it is a dangerous thing to delegate them to legislatures.
“As things are, it will admit of considerable discussion, whether governments (we except none) do not generate nearly as many evils as benefits. As things should be-ninety nine hundredths of legislative prerogatives lopped entirely away-people might enjoy all the benefits without the evils.
“We are no friends to the fearful caprice of mobs. But the iron arm of the thousand fingered law is as tyrannical-interferes as unjustly and oppresses as cruelly…
“You cannot legislate men into morality.
The more lumbering and numerous become the tomes in a lawyer’s library, the longer and stronger grows the list of penalties for crime-the oftener the farce of the people ‘in legislative assembly convened’ is played-just so much more is popular crime fostered, and just so much more is the holy cause of human progress hampered.”
——
Walt Whitman is celebrated as the poet of the common man. But that is an incomplete view of someone who said that “[poets] are the voice and exposition of liberty” and “More precious than all worldly riches is Freedom.”
As Leadie Clark put it, “If the freedom of the individual was to be attained, Whitman felt that someone had to point the way.” Therefore, “Whitman can best be used…to reawaken and revitalize the spirit of liberty if it ever shows signs of being extinguished.”
Given how much that describes modern America, Whitman is indeed of importance today. However, his importance is not just due to his path-breaking poetry, but to the ideas of individualism and liberty-expressed far earlier–that undergirded it.
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Yes, Whitman saw America as a nation of free individuals. He was the poet of American democracy, asserting “the majesty and reality of the American people en masse”.
Though it appears he had forgotten about the native American Indian as most other “Americans” of the times had.
Whitmans numerous works include eleven editions of Leaves of Grass, each added to and revised; Drum Taps, containing some of his best poems; Democratic Vistas, a volume of prose: Song of Myself; There was a Child went forth; I hear America Singing; Pioneers! O Pioneers! and many more.
Whitman was very much one of the originators of 20th century “free verse”.
Whitman once declared ” I am the poet of the Body, and I am the poet of the Soul”.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Native Moments
Native moments- when you come upon me – ah you are
here now,
Give me now libidinous joys only,
Give me the drench of my passions, give me life course and rank,
To-day I go consort with Nature’s darlngs, to-night too,
I am for those who believe in loose delights, I share the
Midnight orgies of young men,
I dance with the dances and drink with the drinkers,
The echoes ring with our indecent calls, I pick out some
Low person for my friend,
He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be one
condemned by others for deeds done,
I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?
O you shunn’d persons, I at least do not shun you,
I come forthwith in your midst, I will be your poet,
I will be more to you than to any of the rest.
by walt Whitman 1819-1892
I went to Walt Whitman Elementary School in Littleton, Colorado. Nice memories.
However “libertarian” his writings may have been in 1842, by 1865 he had turned into writing tribute to one of the greatest despots of his age. “Oh Captain! My Captain!” was written in tribute to “dishonest Abe,” a corrupt corporate lawyer turned dictator who slaughtered thousands, imprisoned journalists who disagreed with his policies, and reversed what had been 90 years of precedent by not only barring a peaceful people from secession, but by invading their nation, enslaving their people, and lying to the American public about it. All in the name of the industrial interests that got him elected, BTW.
Now maybe ol’ Walt was just mislead or misinformed about Abe. Or maybe he had a change of heart in 20 years.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/gilded/whitman_1
Okay, fine. But I still don’t forgive him for the time I had to read “Song of Myself.”
Bill R.
It appears a number of the writers and poets of that period were all singing the same tune.
Perhaps there was also during that period a government propaganda system in place which was
all powerfull for desenting voices seem to have been erased from history.
O Captain! My Captain!
O captain! my captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is
won.
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! Heart! Heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths-for you the shores
a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
The arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and
done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
by Walt Whitman 1819-1892
Whitman’s earlier writings on liberty and power are strongly libertarian. Spent quite some time on them many years ago. His hatred of politics and power were eloquently stated and should be read by everyone interested in the subject.
His anger toward slavery and Southern slaveholders may be the reason why he went to “the Dark Side” and supported Lincoln and his minions in the Civil War. Once he took that side, there are still libertarian strains in his prose and poetry, but far less so.
Like many intellectuals of his time, he was led far astray by those terrible events.
Just a thought.
Just Ken
kgregglv@cox.net
I’ve posted a piece on Whitman, “Kissed by LaFayette”, on my CLASSical Liberalism blog (http://classicalliberalism.blogspot.com/)and on the Liberty & Power Blog (http://hnn.us/blogs/4.html) which reprints his tribute to Paine and his “The Eighteenth Presidency!”
Cheers!
Just Ken
kgregglv@cox.net
Ken Gregg
I have viewed your links with all the information and bright peoples writing about their America, their hopes and fears and dreams. About their rights as women, their rights as anarchists etc. etc.
And 4000 years of Indian generations is neatly buried. Their childrens and childrens and childrens, hundreds of years after hundreds of years just did not deserve their rights and freedoms, cultures and traditions Because the White man is superior over the Red man of course but oh they had to set the Black man free.
It all reads as rather absurd.
Written by Britian’s imperial poet Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden,1899
was a response to the American take over of the Phillipines after The Spanish-American War.
The White Man’s Burden
Take up the White Man’s burden-
Send forth the best ye breed-
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild,
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half child.
Take up the White Man’s burden-
On patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another’s profit,
and work another’s gain.
Take up the white Man’s burden-
To savage wars of peace-
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for other’s sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man’s burden-
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper-
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man’s burden-
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard-
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-
“Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?”
Take up the White Man’s burden-
Ye dare not stoop to less-
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man’s burden-
Have done with childish days-
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
By Rudyard Kipling from Modern History Sourcebookfamilies and traditions.
Thank you, Rolf, for your comments. I quite agree that I haven’t posted anything on American Indians. I do plan to, though, and I hope that it would be of interest to you.
In a work that I have been preparing on libertarian history (from which a number of my posts are culled), there are many great indians, such as Sequoya (F.A. Harper has a great libertarian essay based on him) and Jo Labadie (who was half-indian), as well as events which are primarily from American Indian history which are of libertarian import.
My heritage is such that I’ve always taken an interest in American Indians, although I won’t bore you with the details, save to mention that when my Scotch-Irish forbears left the Ulster Plantation in 1740 for America, we traveled West to Indian lands, living on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, fighting and loving the tribal members that we met. The Scotch-Irish were not quite as biased as the English were over such matters. There are many tribes in the Western States where the surname of Gregg is not uncommon today.
Don’t worry. They are not forgotten.
Just a thought.
Just Ken
kgregglv@cox.net
Ken, scholars such as yourself and others, the untold tragic truth will perhaps raise a new generation of American youth prepared for the world with all its diverse cultures, peoples and colors and the “History Actors” claiming to be making world history (his-story) and writing such will instead find their rightfull place in The Dustbin of History as yet another murderous tragedy.
Yes Ken, you traveled west to Indian Lands. It is very fine that you know such and have been aware of such for so long.
I would very much enjoy reading your work on American Indians when it is finished and of course buy a or 2 copies for our library.
Rolf
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