GettysBlog

Our Civil War Seen Through Chilean Eyes

The Chilean intellectual, journalist and writer, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, visited the United States from 1865 to 1867. While staying there he worked as a war correspondent, reporting on the Civil War and other aspects of North American society.

War is a recurrent theme with Vicuña Mackenna. He not only wrote on the American Civil War but was also a close witness of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. His writings were regularly published by Chile’s most prestigious newspaper: El Mercurio.

Mackenna’s journey and experiences in the U.S. were collected in his book, Ten Month Mission in the United States of North America as Chile’s Confidential Agent, published a few months after his return to Chile. In this book he refers to the United States as “a great country with enormous potential for development.”

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This is the third and final post to this blog by Claudia Gilardoni, a librarian from Chile who visited Cornell last spring. She has provided us with an international perspective of the Gettysburg Address and the American Civil. I want to thank her and our Cornell student blogger, Ariela Rutkin-Becker, for their efforts and their insights.

And don't forget that author Garry Wills will be on campus next Wednesday night to speak about the Lincoln Douglas debates.

The power to "remake" the world?

The old adage that "the pen is mightier than the sword" may be difficult to accept as we observe all the armed conflicts around the globe at the moment.  But you don't need to believe in the superior power of the pen to consider the possibility, as Wills puts it, that words are sometimes necessary "to complete the work of the guns." Yet how is it that words get their power?  To answer this question, if Wills is right, we must delve into the origins of "linguistic might," and we should expect that the more powerful the words in question, the more complex their origins are likely to be.  Wills leads us on a dense and sometimes complicated exploration of the literary, religious, philosophical, and socio-political roots of the Gettysburg Address.  In addition, his own language occasionally requires us to pick up a dictionary.  But if we stick with him, we can come to a deeper understanding of how 272 words helped to bring to completion what the massive death and destruction of the battle of Gettysburg (and indeed the American Civil War as a whole) could not do alone.

Does the power of words have anything to do with the greatness of political leaders?  We may not think so, especially if we believe that the careers of great leaders are best defined by the decisions they make and by actions they take in light of those decisions.  But what if the full measure of some political greatness will escape us until we understand the role that language and rhetoric might play in decision and action?  Wills has been influential in making the case that this is a reasonable assumption to bring to reflection on Lincoln's career and legacy.  But over the course of his career, Wills has extended this approach to discussions of the broader importance of language and its uses in political contexts.  You may find it interesting to look at a May 2008 article entitled "Two Speeches on Race," in which Wills makes some provocative comparisons between presidential candidate Barack Obama's speech on race and one of Lincoln's speeches delivered in the months before he won the presidency.  Whatever you might make of these comparisons, it is important to ask whether Wills's views in Lincoln at Gettysburg might help us reflect on the sources, power, and value of contemporary political language in the broadest sense.

Finally, why should you be interested in Wills's discussion of the Gettysburg Address if you are either not a citizen (naturalized or native) of the United States, or if you are perhaps an American citizen who is impatient with those who fail to focus on questions of global importance?   Well, if Wills is right, the power of Lincoln's words was partly a function of his conviction that America's national purpose was rooted in ideals of equality and democracy that have value for all human beings.  Consider, too, that Lincoln's words influenced the labor movement in nineteenth century Germany and political movements in mid-twentieth century India, and they resonate in the language of twenty-first century defenders of human rights around the globe. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru kept a cast of Lincoln's hand on his desk, along with a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, to remind himself to combine Gandhi's compassion with Lincoln's capacity for strength and unity.  A 2007 conference on Lincoln focused on his relevance as "A Humanitarian as Broad as the World," and an international conference to celebrate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in 2009 will be entitled "Lincoln Without Borders."   Might this long-standing global interest in Lincoln suggest that his words have the power not only to remake America, but to help remake the world?

During New Student Orientation, on the day before the small group discussions, three distinguished Cornell faculty members will help us understand the power of Lincoln's words:  Professor Edward Baptist of the history department will deliver a talk entitled "A Nation Not Like Any Other Nations," Cornell President Emeritus and Professor of Classics Hunter Rawlings will talk to us about "Lincoln and the Athenian Tradition of State Funeral Orations," and Professor Tad Brennan of the philosophy department will deliver a talk entitled "Any Nation So Conceived."   

This faculty panel discussion will be held from 3:30 to 5:00 on Sunday August 24, 2008 in Barton Hall.  I look forward to seeing you there and then to learning more about your approach to Lincoln in the essays you will submit during the small group discussions on Monday August 25.

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education,  Michele Moody-Adams

Before Lincoln: Some Remarkable Aspects about the Relations between Chile and the United States by Claudia Gilardoni

Did you know that 51 years before the Civil War, the 4th of July was celebrated with great pomp in Chile?

In 1812, the American Independence Day was commemerated in Chile at the Tribunales Palace, with fancy dessses and all the glamour of 19th Century diplomacy. Mr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, the American consul in Chile, prepared the event, which was attended by all the best of Chilean society. The first Chilean newspaper, La Aurora de Chile, published the details of this social gathering and Fray Camilo Henriqez, the founder of the newspaper, wrote a special chronicle entitled "A Memorable Example." At that time, American citizens in Chile were mostly craftsmen and three of them held positions in the newspaper: Mr. Samuel B. Johnston, Mr. Simon Garrison and Mr. William Burdidge.

Chilean patriots, who were to play an important role in Chile?s first attempt at independence (the period known to us as Patria Vieja), had strong connections with the United States. Jose Miguel Carrera, a prominent figure popularly known as the "Roads Prince" because he was such a great horseman, had even been introduced to President James Madison.

In 1815, as a revolutionary fighting the for Chile's independence, Mr. Carrera travelled to the United States to seek military and financial assistance for his cause. David Porter, a North American army official helped him out and a year later Carrera obtained funds, four ships, all kinds of armaments and even soldiers. With this military treasure he returned to Chile and contributed enormously to our Independence, which was finally obtained in 1818.

David Porter was the father of two distinguished navy officers of the Secession War: David Dixon Porter and William D. Porter.

While doing some research for this note, I found a captivating book about Chile and the USA: The First North American Mission in Chile, by Guillermo Cruz Feliu.

Lincoln and Chile? by Claudia Gilardoni

The connection between Abraham Lincoln and Chile: a long and narrow country in the south of the America continent.

Abraham Lincoln was not important just in the history of United States of America. His figure and legacy have a  strong connection with Latin American countries, Chile among them.

Although he was not the first who brougt up the crucial topic of human equality, Lincoln was the first president of United States who did something about it, and changed American history.

I live in a narrow country at the tip of South American continent: Chile and its history is  also connected to the figure of Abraham Lincoln, the battle of Gettysburg and the issues of the American Civil War.

When the battle of Gettysburg was being fought, the President of Chile was José Joaquín Pérez Mascayano. At that time all Latin American countries had their eyes on the American Civil War issue, and Chile was no exception. We were a young and newly independent country: independence from Spain had been fought for and obtained less than 50 years before and the Chilean population was still thrilled with this new feeling of  freedom.

Slavery in Chile was not unusual before the Independence and went on for some time after our period as a Spanish  Colony (1535–1818) had ended. Although only some spaniards had had slaves in Chile,  Latin America  did had a slave  traffic  and African slaves  were imported to this part of the continent also. The Jesuit congregation in Chile had slaves for manual labor and household chores, but chronicles from that period stated that slaves received good treatment from this congregation. Although Chile had abolished slavery in 1811, it continued for some years afterwards as part of larger commercial deals.

In that context, the Gettysburg Battle was an example to Latin American countries, many of which felt it was relevant to their own issues.

Abraham Lincoln‘s message, and his Gettysburg address reflected the spirit of the whole new American continent: emancipation, liberty, and, most important of all, recognition of the civil rights of every human being, whatever his race. His words were an inspiration and he was recognized in Latin America and in Chile as a leader of freedom.

In general terms, the United States’s government participated, to some extent, in the emancipation of Latin American countries: they helped the Mexican leader Benito Juarez, liberate his country from Emperor Maximilian I.  Benito Juarez was later known as the Abraham Lincoln of Mexico  because during his presidency he abolished slavery and the mistreatment of the Native Americans of Mexico.

Some years later, in 1903, the United States of America also supported the Panamenian  secession from Colombia, and collaborated  in the construction  of Panama canal in order to develop a better route for commercial navigation.

This brief post gives us a new perspective about the impact of the role of Lincoln in the abolition of slavery and his influence in Latin America.  The Lincoln address and his thoughts about the human equality inspired much more than the United States spirits: his words contributed to make stronger the conscience about the human rights, which is an ideal that is present nowadays.