I’m not a huge fan of Emerson, but this is the sixth of seven essays of his that I’ll be reading for weeks 1 and 2 of this quarter. He often leaves me lost and not sure of what I just read, but his essay “American Civilization” is fairly clear in its assertions, and I think, though his beliefs are occasionally racist or sexist and promotes an individualism with which I don’t agree, this essay is pretty rad.
But if there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests, — a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob-law and statue-law, — where speech is not free, — where the post-office is violated, mail-gabs opened, and letters tampered with, — where public debts ad private debts outside of the State are repudiated, — where liberty is attacked in the primary institution of their social life, — where the position of the white woman is injuriously affected by the outlawry of the black woman, — where the arts, such as they have, are all imported, having no indigenous life, — where the laborer is not secured in the earnings of his own hands, — where suffrage is not free or equal, — that country is, in all these respects, not civil, but barbarous, and no advantages of soil, climate, or coast can resist these suicidal mischiefs. (168)
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “American Civilization.” The Political Emerson: Essential Writings on Politics and Reform. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. David M. Robinson. Boston: Beacon Press. 158-176.
