Sam Houston and the inevitability of history

Georges Santayana is credited with the aphorism "Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it." As Nicholas Clairmont at BigThink points out maybe those who are knowledgeable of history are also doomed to repetition.

I don't know about that, though. Knowing history - truly knowing it and not just having some dates and names at your fingertips - ought to be a knowing also of

1. character types and the choices that lead to such character
2. cause and effect
3. progression of dates and their relation to each other
4. geography and its influence on events
5. the ideas that have fueled the events of human culture

This sort of in-depth knowledge should inevitably breed respect for those who have come before us hacking their way through the undergrowth or burying their children along the way. We might, therefore, not be so ready to act hastily or to throw away the treasures which others have fought, bled and died to secure for us. And we might give a nod of thanks for the treasures we now enjoy.

Such knowledge should also foster a certain level of humility, that our own decisions have importance but that we are small creatures in a vast chain of events. Our fever over this obnoxious posturing by a politician or that pedantic action by a celebrity may not merit an immediate response nor prompt us to the level of furious action, angry tweets, and the severance of familial and filial ties. A knowledge of history ought to instill in us caution in our own action, knowing that the four demons of human life ride the horses of anger, hastiness, envy, and revenge.

Finally, such knowledge should engage us so thoroughly in the need to learn more that we have little time to waste following the paltry and ephemeral promises of the zeitgeist. History frees us from "the tyranny of the now" not least of which by the fact that there is so much to study in history that we no longer take interest in the fools and flame wars currently in fashion. We are too busy learning about the Nuremberg rallies to join the daily rallies on the Hill for this cause or that candidate.

History ought not to be, after all, a learning of facts but a formation of an individual. It is ἱστορία - an inquiry or examination leading to wisdom. History is a right ordering, not just of events as they fall sequentially, but of the mind of the learner as it comes to see order and its own role in that order.

Why did we until recently focus so strongly on teaching about the American Civil War? Not only because it displayed great characters for emulation but because so many of the instances in that conflict bore startling parallel to instances that could happen again in our history. Today, with our country again divided and in turmoil, many speak about Civil War as though it would be a solution to the problem. No better response to such a suggestion exists than Sam Houston's address to the Texas Senate on the eve of the great national bloodletting of the 1860s.

Houston pointed to the real problem at hand during his day which he called sectionalism. He encouraged his fellow Texans to reject such divisiveness and the men who espoused secession and called them to rise toward the higher vision of unity reminding them that to throw away the good of the Constitution would be a grave, in fact a suicidal error.

What is there that is free that we have not? Are our rights invaded and no Government ready to protect them? No! Are our institutions wrested from us and others foreign to our taste forced upon us? No! Is the right of free speech, a free press, or free suffrage taken from us? No! Has our property been taken from us and the Government failed to interpose when called upon? No, none of these! The rights of the States and the rights of individuals are still maintained. We have yet the Constitution, we have yet a judiciary, which has never been appealed to in vain—we have yet just laws and officers to administer them; and an army and navy, ready to maintain any and every constitutional right of the citizen. Whence then this clamor about disunion? Whence this cry of protection to property or disunion, when even the very loudest in the cry, declared under their Senatorial oaths, but a few months since, that no protection was necessary? Are we to sell reality for a phantom?

Houston suggested that adherence to the Constitution allows the only means of redressing the wrongs we think we suffer.

If Mr. Lincoln administers the Government in accordance with the Constitution, our rights must be respected. If he does not, the Constitution has provided a remedy.

Our fractured nature as a country cannot be improved by further disunion and civil war. In fact, such infighting is precisely what the despots, knaves and tyrants among us see as opportunity. As Houston noted such people encourage disunion as it allows them to consolidate power and solidify their own aristocratic hold upon the nation; to profit from the suffering and misery of others through economic and political rapine.

Among the unsatisfied and corrupt politicians of the day, there are many who long for title and power. There are wealthy knaves who are tired of our simple republican manners; and they have pliant tools to work upon in the forum and with the pen. So long as the Union lasts, the masses need not fear them—when it falls, aristocracy will rear its head.

We have to remind ourselves that we are frequently whipped up by social media into a frenzy over trifling matters - a prolonged state of mental agitation - and for what? So that we are more pliable to the will of others? So that we become less autonomous and more ready to put our fates in the hands of a demagogue? So that we try to escape the world of necessity and retreat further into the cyberscape of rampant consumerism? Such fractioning of human civility seems to put everyone at risk. Houston asks what might become of our unchecked infighting - our proclamation of secession - our unchecked bitterness and gall.

What do these men propose to give you in exchange for this Government? All are ready to admit their ability to pull down, but can they build up?

Unfortunately Houston's words went unheeded and on February 2, 1861 Texas seceded from the Union.

Students of history know how that turned out.

Yet Houston's fine words still ring true. He seems to encourage us all to take a different route to the fever and violence that would destroy us. Were he still alive, Houston might suggest to all of us a stepping away from electronics and social media. Take a fast, a hiatus, and see whether you can survive. Make a resolution that you will refuse to get so worked up by issues as to lose all sense of decency and civility. Concentrate on kindness and courtesy toward those around you - even those with whom you disagree. Study with intent something other than the delay grist emerging from the politico-media machine.

Good men and women everywhere no doubt would not wish to experience the tragic sense of inevitable doom which they would feel helpless to avert. None of us would want to be swept away by the same tide that led to Bull Run, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor. Hopefully in our time we will not see a similar fall into madness as a nation. But if we are to avoid such a fall it might necessitate some drastic measures on the part of each of us.