Last week I was away on vacation, and I used the opportunity to catch up on reading that I've long been meaning to do. I'm a devotee of historical biography, in part because I believe that history informs wise decision-making today. One of the books that I digested last week involved a heated dispute between leading members of Congress and the sitting president of the United States, John Tyler, in the early 19th century. He’s the only president ever to have been kicked out of his own political party while serving in office. It's a reminder that we aren't the first generation of Americans to have seemingly dire political divisions in front of us, and that is worth noting.
Among the opponents of President Tyler back then was John C. Calhoun, Senator from South Carolina. It is he for whom the late Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis was named. I had not previously been much aware of Senator Calhoun's pedigree, nor did I expend much passion on the recent controversial renaming of the lake to Bde Maka Ska. Calhoun was pro-slavery back then, but so were a lot of other political leaders, so I wasn't much engaged by the discussion. But then I read more.I was reminded again that from the very inception of our country, slavery was regarded as a moral evil by most politicians, regardless of where they lived or to which party they belonged. The real question was whether it was a necessary evil, perhaps an unfortunate fate, and perhaps an institution which would just die off naturally as time elapsed. But until Calhoun came along, no statesman tried to make the case that slavery was a good and noble thing, ethically. He did because he knew that it would be bad politics to have to be constantly on the moral defensive on the subject.
Here's what he said in a speech to the U.S. Senate: "Let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding states is an evil. Far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both, and will continue to prove so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition. I appeal to facts. Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually... In the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin and distinguished by color and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good."
I don't much have an opinion about what the new name of the lake ought to be, but we are to be congratulated for eliminating the old one.
CLICK ON IMAGE BELOW FOR A VIDEO MESSAGE FROM FR. MIKE