[lit-ideas] Sherman paralleled to Gore/Obama

  • From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:30:57 -0700

From The Soul of Battle by Victor Davis Hanson, pages 141-2:

"On the arrival of 62,000 Union troops in plantation country, slaves would
desert and thus Southern paternalism would be revealed a lie.  Some of the
more hale blacks would aid the Union army as hired day laborers and paid
service hands, or in small groups head northward to enlist.  Others would
strike out on their own, flocking to cities and leaving the wealthy of the
South either to hire their own labor or do the work themselves.  Others
still would stay with their masters, but with their owners now unsure of the
legality or morality - or the ties of loyalty - of their doomed ownership.

"In turn, Northern soldiers in their own ranks would find moral support in
the damage they wrought through knowledge of the men they freed.  Sherman's
march would not, as in Virginia, pit thousands of nearly identical blue and
gray soldiers in a death lock against each other over a few thousand yards
of earth.  Rather, in the grand spirit of the Northern cause, Union troops
would now destroy the plantation class of central and northern Georgia, in
the flesh proclaiming to slaves that they now were no lover servile.  'The
Battle Hymn of the Republic' was a marching son, far better to be sung on
the lips of mobile columns in the South than on entrenched, dirty troops
stuck fast a few miles from Washington.  If Epaminandas's men built Messene
to the music of flutes, then it was no exaggeration to say that Sherman's
men destroyed the property of a slave state to the chorus of song.

"Moreover, as the men marched on, the esprit de corps would only increase -
no slaughters like Cold Harbor of the Seven Days on this campaign: 'We're
Bill Sherman's raiders - you'd better git,' some yelled as they advanced.
Sherman's troops, alone of the Northern armies would receive birds-eye view
of the plantation elite.  No longer would they merely kill the poor of the
South, but rather burn the estates of the ruling class - a far safer task
with more lasting consequences, which they were to enjoy immensely.
Moreover, Sherman himself not only realized that his own troops were
precious, but also was increasingly reluctant to kill Southern boys in
battle as well.  The attack on the property of the more affluent was far
preferable to the assault on the bodies of the poor.  Sherman's thinking was
now evolving beyond battle tactics, beyond even the strategy of destroying
Confederate assets, to larger more theoretical questions of what was the
South, and what would be the United States when the war closed."

Comment:

Perhaps some have read this far without seeing what Sherman has to do with
Gore and Obama, but they can see that Sherman in this section is described
as taxing/penalizing the Rich and not the poor, and that is what Gore,
Obama, etc propose as well.  Sherman realized that by penalizing the rich as
he did, he was destroying their way of life.  The Southern Plantation
civilization was brought to an end.  I don't know whether Gore and Obama,
etc realize that their approach is parallel to Sherman's  but (to borrow
from David) they should.  There is enough information available to them for
them to know the ramifications of their course.  

I know we have some here who would say, 'what is wrong with taxing the
rich," we'll leave them enough to live on?  Maybe the plantation owners had
enough to live on as well , but that isn't what is most important.  The
plantation owners were bereft of the means of keeping their civilization
going.  By the same token, if we tax the rich such that they haven't the
means of investing in ongoing businesses or starting new ones then we are
undermining the fabric of our Liberal Democratic economy.    Some wouldn't
mind seeing this civilization and economy come to an end, and perhaps turn
us into a kind of Soviet Socialist States of America, but not all.


Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto

Other related posts: