Unity

As a Coleridgian myself, it is hard for me to ever admit of a circumstance in which unity and coherence is not the highest goal. One must admit, however, that there might be a circumstance in which unity is not, in fact, the greatest good.

One thing that Lincoln is quite good at is focusing the people and keeping them on task: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in" or "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain." It is interesting to compare this with popular responses to more recent wars, in which it seems evident that people are not willing to claim a cause that is higher than life--a cause that they are willing to die for. It seems that here the unity toward which Lincoln encourages the people is entirely fitting--it is a unity of purpose, a singleness of mine to achieve the objective that they set out to achieve.

The murals above the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural in the Lincoln Memorial are also telling. For instance, one depicts justice and law, which is somewhat ironic, given Lincoln's apparent distaste for the law. Another mural depicts immortality. What is it that is immortal? Lincoln? I think not. The Union? Come now, is the nation partaking in the wine of the Eucharist? And how beautiful, the mural that shows the angel of Unity bringing together the North and the South in order that all manner of arts and philosophy will be allowed to blossom! Clearly, the agrarian South could not, by its backward lonesome, manage to produce art. Surely the industrialization of the North is necessary to allow for that.