The sacred fire of liberty
July 2023
In George Washington’s first inaugural address to Congress in 1789, he talked about divine providence.
He didn’t mention “God” or “Christ” or anything specific like that. During his long stint as an American leader, Washington took pains to be ecumenical in showing due respect to the varieties of religious practices. The Enlightenment-era project of building a new nation was guided by rationality, not religious fervor.
Still, Washington thought it would be “peculiarly improper” in his first official act as president to omit supplications to “that Almighty Being who rules over the universe.”
He made sure to pay homage to “the Great Author of every public and private good.”
Washington couldn’t help but notice that every step of the revolutionary project that resulted in national independence seemed to have been distinguished by “some token of providential agency,” which was surely a good omen for the future.
Washington saw it as a minor miracle that such distinct communities, the states, through painful deliberation, would voluntarily join together under a united government. And this miracle called for “pious gratitude.”
He said,
These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my mind to be suppressed.
Further along in his inaugural address, Washington outlined a civic moral code for the nation.
He said there exists in the course of nature an indissoluble connection between virtue and happiness. Between duty and advantage. Between the “genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity.”
Washington said that national policy should be rooted in moral principles, and that the “preeminence of free government” should be exemplified “by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.”
There was good reason to dwell on these lofty ideals in the first inaugural address, said Washington,
… the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
The Founders were somewhat delusional in thinking that the institution of slavery wasn’t a fatal flaw for an aspiring free nation.
As recounted in Ron Chernow’s biography of Washington, the General liked to believe that slavery would fade away organically over time. Some early abolitionists lobbied Washington to use his influence to free the slaves, but Washington demurred. He was a southern planter and a slave owner. Washington was privately perturbed by the institution, but never challenged it publicly. In his will he freed his own slaves, maybe to clear his conscience before death, but during his life Washington presided over a nation torn with a glaring and horrifying hypocrisy.
It took the heroism of abolition movement leaders, combined with the courageous political leadership of Abraham Lincoln and the bloody sacrifice of civil war to put a permanent end to slavery in the United States.
Union victory over the Confederacy saved the world from the horrors of what was becoming an imperial southern slavocracy.
On the one hand, an example of the triumph of freedom over tyranny. Another blessing from the Great Author of public and private good. On the other hand, the disturbing reality that the American Revolution quite nearly gave birth to an imperial slavocracy.
The dueling impulses of humanity. Love vs. fear. Freedom vs. tyranny. Honesty vs. deception. Magnanimity vs. selfishness. These dueling impulses at work in the human mind … also playing out on the stage of human history.
I shudder to think of alternative outcomes to the Civil War, just as I shudder to think of alternative outcomes to World War Two.
The only response that seems adequate is to offer pious gratitude for the fortitude and competence of those who fought for freedom before it was too late.
The sacred fire of liberty burned brighter over time, but it was never guaranteed.
The women’s suffrage movement. The civil rights movement. Leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. utilized the rhetoric of the nation’s founding to help craft a more perfect union. These were organized and sustained efforts to enact tangible gains under the Constitutional order.
Our Declaration of Independence enshrines timeless principles — tools for the enactment of liberty, despite the glaring hypocrisy at the time of its authorship. We are created equal, each of us born with sacred rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The purpose of government is to protect these rights.
Our Constitutional order allows for amendment and growth. Our democratic political process allows us to fight peacefully over which direction to go.
But nothing about progress is guaranteed. The competing impulses of humanity are always at work, ready to tear down the infrastructure that balances order and liberty.
Our hope is that the forces of liberty and magnanimity are stronger than those of tyranny and selfishness. But fate is a fickle thing.
In 2023, it’s unclear if we abide by a civic moral code, or if we even care anymore.
Earnest sentiments of civic morality, shared today, are bound to be mocked by nihilistic keyboard warriors.
Partisan vitriol is nothing new. Even the father of our country couldn’t escape the partisan rancor familiar to Americans today.
Washington was a living symbol of the American project. He was the dignified General who won the Revolutionary War, but instead of leveraging his popularity for self-serving power, retired from his position and allowed the seeds of republican government to germinate.
By the end of his second term as president, Washington was just that — an American president. Like any other president, he was subjected to ugly attacks from partisan newspapers. Contrary to Washington’s fatherly advice, the American political system quickly splintered into organized factions.
In 2023, it feels like we’ve slipped from regular old partisanship into existential chaos.
Less than four years ago we witnessed a riot at the Capitol, a violent disruption of the transfer of power. The tragic result of a (still potent) political ethos diametrically opposed to Washington’s civic moral code, though cloaked in the language of patriotism.
Extreme factions seem determined to tear us apart. Right-wing demagogues selfishly attack the legitimacy of our elections, the very foundation of our Constitutional order. Left-wing radicals look at the American project and see nothing but a damning litany of sin.
Newspapers are in decline, and shitposting on the internet is thriving.
Religiosity is in decline, and it’s not being replaced by rationality.
Despite it all, the experiment of self-government continues. This country has seen bleak times before and emerged with optimism.
Maybe we will emerge from this era with optimism — with a little help from divine providence.
If one thing gives me hope, lately, it’s the thought that maybe love and freedom are at the authentic core of the human soul. If that’s the case, then no matter what events may occur, the sacred fire of liberty cannot be extinguished.
Nice post. However, as one comit that maybe love and freedom are at the authentic core of the human soul.ng of age in the fifties and living through everything since, including the Jan 6th insurrection (not RIOT) , I have lost the idealism of youth and become pretty cynical about our future. Your hope of "that maybe love and freedom are at the authentic core of the human soul" will prevail will be difficult to achieve in the face of t thi er vision he rising faction that is sure that their version of civic morality is guided by divine providence, ergo, it must be accepted by all.
I hope you are right and I am wrong.