Ralph Waldo Emerson, in “Fortune of the Republic“ (1863), argues that “morality is the object of government“ (204) and that forms of government are not the end goal. He does this through a discussion of the Civil War effort, by discussing the need for a “superior source“ (188) — that of morality — to social and civil life; lamenting the indifference in the North toward the war and promoting the war’s ability to bring about justice; extolling the virtues of America’s birth; explaining the higher moral ground of the North in the war, that of ending slavery; and promoting revolution as a collective work situated in a time and place for the pursuit of justice.
I surprisingly enjoyed this essay — It’s the seventh one I’ve read this quarter by Emerson (five of them for American Avant Garde Literature with Robinson), and it was much more clear than some of his other work. I like that he links morality and politics: that the goal of government is not a certain type of government, but rather morality. Emerson sounds surprisingly like Socrates at times, such as when he discusses the superiority of virtue over comfort (189) — I’m not sure why this is surprising to me, perhaps it is partially because I see so much other American virtue discussion surrounding comfort. I also like that Emerson writes that slavery “was harming the white nation more than it was harming the black“ (199), which ties into how harm to others is actually harm to the self — that oppression harms the oppressor (harms his/her/hir humanity) more so than the oppressed.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “Fortune of the Republic.” The Political Emerson: Essential Writings on Politics and Reform. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. David M. Robinson. Boston: Beacon Press. 185-205.
