Backcountry Notes

How close are we to another American civil war? Sufficiently far away, I would like to think, but also much closer than is comfortable.

I recently re-read historian Edward Ayers’ excellent volume of essays titled “What Caused The Civil War?” Along the way, I marked two passages which seemed much more pertinent now than they had been in 2006.  The first concerns the American political system in the years immediately before the outbreak of the Civil War:

"The political system itself helped bring on the Civil War.  The mechanism assembled over the first half of the nineteenth century turned around binary choices between two parties and only two parties.  Party regulars demanded that true loyalists were all or nothing. To be undecided and open to persuasion was to be less than a man.  As the two-party system strained and broke in the 1850s, American voters took this habit of mind with them; they felt driven to dichotomous choices of Republican or Democrat, Union or Confederacy. Voices of caution and moderation were drowned out beneath charges of cowardice and betrayal.  With each decision the next round of choices became even narrower: yes or no, now or never, with us or against us."

Substitute “2000s” for “1850s,” and (say) “Secular Progressivism or Traditionalism" for "Union or Confederacy,” and ask yourself whether this description rings true in 2010.

It was not that long ago that Ronald Reagan was a clear voice of reason in American politics. He is attributed with the observation that “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20 percent traitor.” That was then.  How quickly, it seems, that the Reagan conservatives, Democrat and Republican alike, have forgotten Reagan.

I have been a student of history since I could read – certain school marks notwithstanding – and in my early years enjoyed visits to the household of Tony and Phyllis Stein, Tony being a fellow newspaper journalist of my father and the Steins having become family friends.  Tony Stein had a library chock-full of books on the American Civil War. I suspect he had tracked down one copy of everything published on the subject; there were that many books.  My brother Chris and I took the first opportunity to retreat to the Stein reading room and haul out a few volumes for study and perusal – and not once did we squabble over who got a book first -- there were that many volumes available.  We slipped into accounts of the Civil War so intently that Phyllis Stein had the seriously mistaken impression that we were quiet, well-mannered, and well-behaved young boys.

Much of the “history” of the American Civil War, it turned out, was distirted by fictions, from both North and South.  The underlying causes were of course related to slavery, but the threads of the national fabric unraveled in strange ways.  At some point it dawned on me that the Civil War simply happened – no one really expected it, the country was unprepared for it, and the headlong leap into violence resulted in a war of unanticipated carnage and destruction. At some point, up to no later than the eve of the first battle of Manassas, say, the Civil War could have been avoided. But it had happened anyway.

Thus I was struck by the second marked passage of Ayers’ evaluation of “What Caused The Civil War?”:

"Slavery was a profound economic, political, religious, and moral problem, the most profound the nation has ever faced.  But that problem did not lead to war in a rational, predictable way. The war came through misunderstanding, confusion, miscalculation.  Both sides underestimated the location of fundamental loyalty in the other.  Both received incorrect images of the other in the partisan press. Political belief distorted each side’s view of the economy and class relations.  Both sides believed the other was bluffing, both believed that the other’s internal differences and conflicts would lead it to buckle, and both believed they had latent but powerful allies . . . that would prevent war."

I ask again – does this not begin to sound familiar?

No, I don’t believe that a second civil war is imminent; but then, in January 1860, virtually no one foresaw what was to come in the next several years.  To be sure, there is no real danger that one side or the other of our current political mess will intentionally start a war. But only some wars are started intentionally.  Nazi Germany knew full well that attacking Poland in 1939 would bring about war with France and England; Hitler wanted that war and was prepared to fight it.  Imperial Germany in 1914 did not intentionally go to war but instead it mobilized in preparation for war, bound by a treaty with Austria-Hungary, then matters lurched forward with preparations on both sides, and the Great War happened.  A war for which neither side was truly prepared and which neither side knew how to win. A war prompted by a gunshot in a far-away place, Sarajevo, well outside of the realms of Germany, France, and England, which took the brunt of the carnage.  

Thus, studying history convinces me that some wars simply happen, with the proximate cause of hostilities being that someone began to prepare for war.  The proximate cause needn’t be close at hand, and in the Middle East, there is a rogue nation preparing for war.  Eventually, if Iran is not brought to heel – and under our present government, that appears unlikely to happen – there will be a serious war and it may spread to our homeland.

There are signs that Americans are choosing sides – perhaps subconsciously – in anticipation of a more violent future.  There are fewer who report themselves as being “independent” or “moderate” and more who report themselves as “conservative.” Rifles and ammunition have been selling briskly throughout the country for more than a year. The first year of the new Federal administration has been marked by incidents of violence in the homeland. Ayers’ description of America in 1860 becomes increasingly apt for America in 2010.

And often it seems that we can only watch the gathering storms.

* * *

Ronald Reagan, again: “History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.”

“If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.”

“One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government's primary concerns.”

“I'm convinced that today the majority of Americans want what those first Americans wanted: A better life for themselves and their children; a minimum of government authority. Very simply, they want to be left alone in peace and safety to take care of the family by earning an honest dollar and putting away some savings. This may not sound too exciting, but there is something magnificent about it. On the farm, on the street corner, in the factory and in the kitchen, millions of us ask nothing more, but certainly nothing less than to live our own lives according to our values — at peace with ourselves, our neighbors and the world.”