Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism by Joel Richar

Description: Indivisible by Joel Richard Paul The story of how Daniel Webster popularized the ideals of American nationalism that helped forge our nations identity and inspire Abraham Lincoln to preserve the Union.The story of how Daniel Webster popularized the ideals of American nationalism that helped forge our nations identity and inspire Abraham Lincoln to preserve the UnionWhen the United States was founded in 1776, its citizens didnt think of themselves as "Americans." They were New Yorkers or Virginians or Pennsylvanians. It was decades later that the seeds of American nationalism-identifying with ones own nation and supporting its broader interests-began to take root. But what kind of nationalism should Americans embrace? The state-focused and racist nationalism of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson? Or the belief that the U.S. Constitution made all Americans one nation, indivisible, which Daniel Webster and others espoused?In Indivisible, historian and law professor Joel Richard Paul tells the fascinating story of how Webster, a young New Hampshire attorney turned politician, rose to national prominence through his powerful oratory and unwavering belief in the United States and captured the national imagination. In his speeches, on the floors of the House and Senate, in court, and as Secretary of State, Webster argued that the Constitution was not a compact made by states but an expression of the will of all Americans. As the greatest orator of his age, Webster saw his speeches and writings published widely, and his stirring rhetoric convinced Americans to see themselves differently, as a nation bound together by a government of laws, not parochial interests. As these ideas took root, they influenced future leaders, among them Abraham Lincoln, who drew on them to hold the nation together during the Civil War.As he did in Without Precedent and Unlikely Allies, Joel Richard Paul has written in Indivisible both a compelling history and a fascinating account of one of the founders of our national perspective. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Joel Richard Paul is a professor of constitutional and international law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. He is the author of Without Precedent- Chief Justice Marshall and His Times and Unlikely Allies- How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution. He lives in Northern California. Review Praise for Indivisible:"The Webster who emerges from Mr. Pauls pages is a fascinating figure…Websters career also serves as the armature for Mr. Pauls analysis of the forces that shaped American nationalism during the first half of the 19th century." —The Wall Street Journal"A majestic history….[Paul] fashions an impressively multilayered narrative….. An ambitious work that wonderfully delineates the formative years of the nations character." —Kirkus (STARRED)"Paul examines…the role that 19th-century lawyer, congressman, and orator Daniel Webster played in promoting the idea of American nationalism based on the Constitution.…Full of fascinating digressions and astute analysis, this is a rewarding look at one of Americas most enduring fault lines." —Publishers Weekly"With a lucidity to match his subjects famed eloquence of the spoken word, Joel Richard Paul shows how Daniel Websters oratorical brilliance helped define the meaning of Union in the antebellum era." James M. McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize−winning Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era "Indivisible tells the remarkable story of Daniel Webster, a towering American whose hypnotic oratory in the nineteenth century helped define the character of the American nation. When Webster died, Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the world had lost the completest man. This, then, is the completest book on the completest man. A stirring and monumental achievement." Congressman Jamie Raskin, author of Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy "This is an impressively researched book that is also a fine example of narrative analysis and old-fashioned storytelling. Indivisible recounts how Webster made nationalism a civic religion in a country with deep political division over questions of racial equality. This is a must read as issues of race and national identity continue to vex the country." Anita Hill, Brandeis University professor of social policy, law, and womens studies and author of Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence "Joel Richard Pauls richly contextual biography of Daniel Webster vividly captures the flawed, brilliant leader who forged American institutions and identity. From incandescent oratory to morally muddled compromises, Webster did everything he could to battle extremism and division, a struggle all too resonant in our own polarized times." —T.J. Stiles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The First Tycoon and Custers Trials "In this compelling narrative, Joel Richard Paul portrays the tragedy of the man whose devotion to the Union could not overcome the strident demands of slaveholders and the populist racism of whites in the North and South. This insightful account gives Webster his due in a cautionary tale for a nation once again struggling to sustain constitutional liberty for all its people." Robert A. Gross, Bancroft Prize−winning author of The Minutemen and Their World and The Transcendentalists and Their World "Joel Richard Pauls wonderful book blends episodes from the life of Daniel Webster, the silver-tongued orator who defined American national identity with kaleidoscopic coverage of other leaders and the events that nearly tore the country apart during the first half of the nineteenth century." William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize−winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era and Gorbachev: His Life and Times "Joel Richard Paul has given us an elegant, highly readable biography of Daniel Webster." James Kirby Martin, Professor of History Emeritus, University of Houston, and author of Surviving Dresden Review Quote Praise for Indivisible : "With a lucidity to match his subjects famed eloquence of the spoken word, Joel Richard Paul shows how Daniel Websters oratorical brilliance helped define the meaning of Union in the antebellum era." James M. McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize−winning Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era " Indivisible tells the remarkable story of Daniel Webster, a towering American whose hypnotic oratory in the nineteenth century helped define the character of the American nation. When Webster died, Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the world had lost the completest man. This, then, is the completest book on the completest man. A stirring and monumental achievement." Congressman Jamie Raskin, author of Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy " This is an impressively researched book that is also a fine example of narrative analysis and old-fashioned storytelling. Indivisible recounts how Webster made nationalism a civic religion in a country with deep political division over questions of racial equality. This is a must read as issues of race and national identity continue to vex the country." Anita Hill, Brandeis University professor of social policy, law, and womens studies and author of Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence "Joel Richard Pauls richly contextual biography of Daniel Webster vividly captures the flawed, brilliant leader who forged American institutions and identity. From incandescent oratory to morally muddled compromises, Webster did everything he could to battle extremism and division, a struggle all too resonant in our own polarized times." --T.J. Stiles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The First Tycoon and Custers Trials "In this compelling narrative, Joel Richard Paul portrays the tragedy of the man whose devotion to the Union could not overcome the strident demands of slaveholders and the populist racism of whites in the North and South. This insightful account gives Webster his due in a cautionary tale for a nation once again struggling to sustain constitutional liberty for all its people." Robert A. Gross, Bancroft Prize−winning author of The Minutemen and Their World and The Transcendentalists and Their World "Joel Richard Pauls wonderful book blends episodes from the life of Daniel Webster, the silver-tongued orator who defined American national identity with kaleidoscopic coverage of other leaders and the events that nearly tore the country apart during the first half of the nineteenth century." William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize−winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era and Gorbachev: His Life and Times "Joel Richard Paul has given us an elegant, highly readable biography of Daniel Webster." James Kirby Martin, Professor of History Emeritus, University of Houston, and author of Surviving Dresden Excerpt from Book Chapter 1: Independence Day 1801 Draped in solitude, a model of polite reserve, Thomas Jefferson seemed far removed from the sweaty masses crowding round him. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of his most famous writing, he opened the still incomplete Presidents House for a public reception. Tables and chairs were pushed aside to accommodate the common and uncommon white citizens of the capital. Uniformed enslaved servants hustled through the crowd, replenishing cold drinks in the stifling heat. Never before had the public been invited to a social at the Presidents House. Though some Americans had privately celebrated the Fourth with illuminations, Jefferson was the first president to sponsor a public celebration of Independence. The president sat stiffly in the dining room flanked by five lanky Osage chiefs. They wore traditional face paint, and their heads were shaved except for a tuft of hair on top. The chiefs were wrapped in woven blankets and embroidered leggings fringed with colored beads. The men wore earrings and necklaces, while their wives dressed modestly in short gowns with no ornaments other than artificial flowers in their hair. The chiefs were too amazed by the presence of iced drinks on a summers day to notice the curious gaze of onlookers. Anyone close enough to the president strained to hear him exchange pleasantries above the martial blare of a Marine band performing in the front hall. President Jefferson was no longer the comely, cinnamon-haired Virginian who at thirty-three penned the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Shaggy gray hair loosely framed a freckled face cracked and burned by another quarter century of sun. His hazel eyes reflected a genteel indifference. Still tall, and inattentively dressed in tight-fitting green corduroy knee breeches, a red underwaistcoat, yarn stockings, and worn slippers, he looked more like a homespun farmer contemptuous of fashion than a head of state. Jeffersons casual appearance belied his cool formality. Thomas Jefferson was a cipher, an ambitious politician, a warm host among friends, and a brilliant writer with a curious mind. Yet, before strangers, he often froze. His soft, womanly voice was barely audible before an audience, so he avoided public speeches. Reticent to address Congress directly, he preferred to deliver his annual message in writing. Earlier that day in the park behind the Presidents House, concessionaires sold food, drink, and handicrafts to the crowds gathering for the celebration. There were horse races and cockfights. Then there was a military parade led by the Marine band. Even though he had invited the public, Jefferson hated events like these. He preferred the quiet of his study, the soft squeak of his writing nub, the rustle of shuffling pages. He dreamed of remaking the world in his minds image, but he had no wish to engage in it. Jeffersons introverted personality may explain his political philosophy, his preference for a country of yeoman farmers tending their own plots, spread across wide open spaces, solitary and independent. Such a society would avoid the corrupting influence of cities, industry, and finance, which he deplored. Agriculture was the countrys "distinguishing feature" and its pursuit was "more likely to make us a numerous and happy people than the mimicry of an Amsterdam, a Hamburg, or a city of London." He thought that "banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." Yet Jefferson preferred Paris to rustic Washington. Born to great wealth, he lived and died in debt and enjoyed little success as a planter. Indeed, the only return he ever earned on an investment was the small nail factory he set up on his estate at Monticello, staffed by enslaved boys. Despite all that, Jefferson somehow imagined that he remained untainted by the very temptations he feared would corrupt his countrymen. Jefferson once declared "the only birthday I ever commemorate is that of our Independence, the Fourth of July." Indeed, he claimed it for himself. The public credited Jefferson as the author of the Declaration of Independence even though the Declaration was largely revised by a committee that included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, and Roger Sherman. It was Adams who suggested it would be politic to have a Virginian take the first crack at the document. Adams reasoned that his own aggressive advocacy for independence had already rubbed some delegates the wrong way, while Jefferson rarely spoke up. Moreover, Jefferson was undeniably a gifted writer. He had already authored A Summary View of the Rights of British America in 1774, and more recently, he had written the first draft of A Declaration Setting Forth the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms . Jefferson was not as famous a writer as John Dickinson, however, whose Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania was immensely popular. But Adams shrewdly judged that Jefferson could help persuade his fellow Virginians to join the struggle for independence. So Jefferson spent a few weeks working on a draft based on the committees instructions. Jefferson was not charged with inventing new ideas. His job was to weave together the arguments of multiple delegates. Much of Jeffersons eloquent preamble also borrowed from sources like John Lockes Treatises of Government , the English Declaration of Rights, and George Masons draft Virginia Declaration of Rights. The committee presented its draft to Congress on June 28, 1776. Over the next several days the delegates tore apart Jeffersons language, improving on the style and tempering the tone. As delegates dissected the text, Jefferson lost patience. Franklin consoled him. It is not clear who slipped in the one truly awkward phrase, "unalienable rights"--it might have been a printers error--but it surely annoyed Jefferson. Peculiarly absent from the Declaration was any claim of national sovereignty. Instead, the Continental Congress declared the universal rights of all people. The Declaration was steeped in the philosophy and language of the Enlightenment: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." And it concluded by asserting the colonies were "FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES." That is, plural "states," and not one sovereign nation. The United States did not declare independence; rather, the individual states declared their independence. The Declaration, in other words, was not a declaration of national unity. The states were allies in the struggle for independence, but they were not yet one nation. There was no central government, no national leader, no national law, and no national courts. It would take twelve years before the Constitution was adopted by all the states, and the first Congress would not meet until 1789. No one thought that the Declaration of Independence would persuade King George III or the British Parliament of the justice of their cause. The intended audience was the people in the various states, the vast majority of whom remained skeptical of independence, and King Louis XVI, on whom the Americans depended for help. Congress sent one copy of the Declaration to their representative in France, Silas Deane, on July 8, but it was lost at sea-possibly captured by a British ship. As a result, Deane did not receive confirmation that the Americans had declared independence until November, by which time all of Paris was buzzing with the news. By then Deane had already succeeded in secretly obtaining all the arms and uniforms needed for Washingtons army. When the war ended, Americans did not celebrate July Fourth as a national holiday. Yes, there were scattered displays of pyrotechnics on that date, but it was by no means uniform. Americans might have chosen to commemorate another date-the Battles of Lexington and Concord; the surrender at Yorktown; the signing of the Treaty of Paris; the adoption of the Articles of Confederation or, later, the ratification of the Constitution. Any of those occasions was at least as significant as the issuance of a Declaration of Independence. But as president, Jefferson found it politically convenient to remind Americans of his role as the author of the Declaration. And Jeffersons party, which regarded the federal Constitution with ambivalence, set the Declaration in the celestial firmament of American history, hoping it would eclipse the Constitution. The twelve years between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution passed in a constitutional no-mans land. It would take five years after independence for the states to ratify the Articles of Confederation, a loose and unworkable framework for voluntary cooperation under which the Confederation Congress was little more than a glorified debating society. The Confederation Congress had no power to tax or raise an army. Congress could try to cajole states to contribute to the treasury, but that was all. Foreign relations were complicated by the absence of an executive and by the requirement that treaties had to be ratified by each state separately. States had their own currencies, tariffs, and militias, and some states sent agents abroad to manage their own foreign relations. In the absence of any national courts, it was difficult to enforce contracts or collect debts across state borders. The Articles of Confederation left states to pursue beggar-thy-neighbor policies as they struggled to pay off their war debt. Some states pumped out worthless currency that led to hyperinflation. Other states imposed confiscatory taxes that plunged their economies into depression. The weakness of th Details ISBN0593189043 Author Joel Richard Paul Short Title Indivisible Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 0593189043 ISBN-13 9780593189047 Format Hardcover Publication Date 2022-10-25 Subtitle Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism Country of Publication United States US Release Date 2022-10-25 UK Release Date 2022-10-25 Place of Publication New York DEWEY 973.5092 Audience General NZ Release Date 2022-12-14 AU Release Date 2022-12-14 Pages 528 Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Imprint Riverhead Books,U.S. We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:142430472;

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