Southern Culture and History

A review of From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition

by Jack Kershaw

From Union to Empire: Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition (The Foundation for American Education, PO Box 11851, Columbia SC 29211, 2003)

Professor Clyde N. Wilson's latest book, From Union to Empire; Essays in the Jeffersonian Tradition (The Foundation for American Education, PO Box 11851, Columbia SC 29211, 2003), is remarkable in many ways. At one and the same time it is richly variegated and philosophically sound, while its style and form are consistently elegant.

Selected from over 300 articles written between 1969 and 2001, this collection of 74 essays is organized into eight chapters: Agrarian Conservatism, Jeffersonians, The Lost Constitution, Empire, Imperial Irritations, Cons and Neocons, History and Historians, and Restoring the Republic. Wilson's grand symphonic theme, America of the Founders, carries the attentive reader along the labyrinthine paths and broad freeways of today's social and political scene, without slipping into the brambled thicket.
Wilson informs us that just because Thomas Jefferson perceived the plight of the French with sympathy, he was no Jacobin. Jefferson described the Jacobins as ruthless doctrinaires who essayed to rule by means of unrelenting and brutal abstractions.
It is that Jefferson we need and who is our greatest asset against high-handed elites who oppress the people in the name of equality and popular rule. It is that Jefferson who said: "I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple." "Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread." "There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent." "I am not among those who fear the people. They, not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude." (Emphasis in original.)

This language is eminently applicable to today's problems, and Professor Wilson covers them all. He observes: "In my opinion there are, out there in the hinterlands, millions of us waiting for a reassertion of the 'Principles of 1798' and for another 'Revolution of 1800.' But alas, we wait in vain for another Jefferson to lead."

The variety of subjects in From Union to Empire will satisfy the most demanding. Biting analyses such as "Why They Hate Jefferson" abound, along with telling vignettes on George Wallace, William Faulkner, Edmund Burke, St. George Tucker, Lani Guinier, Russell Kirk, Pat Buchanan, to mention a few - and not to mention "Five Minutes with Governor Bush."

Professor Wilson includes numerous reviews of books and movies. He analyzes the breadth, length and depth of their impact on modern people who respirate and walk around and vote - all without ever reading a book -- though they do go to movies. Some of the movies Wilson reviews are Go tell the Spartans (1978), Saigon: Year of the Cat (1983), and Wake Island (1942), which he describes as:

…a propaganda film and a very good one. It shows Americans coming together to sacrifice their lives for their country… because it is, under the circumstances, the right thing to do. There is not a word about saving the world for democracy, nor a single glowing tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt's wonderful plans for postwar reconstruction; not even much about Mother, Apple Pie, and The Girl I left Behind. Instead there is something approaching the high mode of Western epic-courageously facing unavoidable fate.

A key essay in the "Lost Constitution" chapter begins by quoting Allen Tate:

I am convinced 'twas Calhoun who divined
How the great western star's last race would run.

Professor Wilson elaborates:

My subject is our lost and stolen heritage of states rights…. Federalism implies states' rights, and states' rights imply a right of secession. The cause of states' rights is the cause of liberty; they rise or fall together. If we had been able to maintain the real union of sovereign states founded by our forefathers, then they would not be, could not be, the imperial central state that we suffer under today…. A people's culture may be changed by imperial edict to reflect a trumped-up multiculturalism (a sure sign of an empire), or their religion persecuted… violating one of the essential rules of republicanism, that the laws be equal to all…. The republican right of self-government and the right of self-determination both necessarily incorporate the right of secession….

You would think long and hard about even marriage, for instance, if you could not secede; and you would hesitate to form any incorporation that could not be dissolved. Any time you can't get out, you are virtually imprisoned.

Professor Wilson continues:

Government is legitimate in just so far as it rests upon consent, that is, the people accede to the government. The opposite of accede is secede - the withdrawal of consent. The right to self-government rests on the right to withdraw consent from an oppressive government. That is the only really effective restriction on power, in the final analysis. (Emphasis supplied.)

There is only one requirement I would impose on you in perusing this volume. You must read "The Lincoln War Crimes Trial: A History Lesson" first. After completing it, if you should have correctly anticipated the outcome of this lesson, please let me know, and I will send you a Battle Flag. I predict I will have no takers.

The charm of this collection of magisterial essays is that it is a well-tended vineyard. In strolling about, should you pause and rest awhile, reclining on your back with your mouth open, I promise a fully ripened voluptuous fruit will fall into your grateful orifice, and you will be healthier, wealthier, and wiser than ever before.