Given the rhetoric over the past month, you might think that the nation has never been so deeply divided, or so threatened by terrorism, foreign autocrats or domestic tyrants.
Pick your danger, and you will find political operatives and TV personalities trying to convince you that we stand on the brink of cultural, political or economic doom.
History has a way of putting current events into perspective. Rather than swallow the histrionics displayed by the excitable personalities on TV and certain websites, let’s consider a few points in history when the nation faced more serious problems.
In December 1860, for example, the country was coming apart.
Abraham Lincoln had been elected president the month before, garnering about 40 percent of the popular vote.
His anti-slavery stand prompted South Carolina to secede from the United States on Dec. 20. Other Southern states threatened to leave as well unless the nation approved constitutional amendments guaranteeing that slavery would remain legal.
Kansas was a pawn in the hostile debate, as leaders tried to win political advantage without destroying the nation.
According to the National Republic newspaper published on Christmas Day in 1860, Kansas statehood was linked to the maneuvers being made by both sides at the time.
“In the Senate (yesterday) the bill for the admission of Kansas was postponed one week. Mr. Nicholson, of Tennessee, made a speech favoring secession,” the newspaper’s summary of congressional action read.
A few weeks later, Kansas did become a state, and in the spring of 1861 a bloody four-year civil war began.
But we need not go back so far to find political divisions that threatened the state and nation.
In Kansas in January 1893, there was an armed standoff in Topeka at the Capitol between Populists and Republicans.
Both parties claimed they had won enough seats to claim a majority, and according to the Kansas State Historical Society:
“… The conflict between the parties reached a crisis when the Populists locked themselves in the House Hall. The Republicans used a sledgehammer to break down the doors to the hall. The governor requested support from the state militia. …”
The governor, a Populist, brokered an agreement after three days.
More recent still was the holiday season of 1941, when the United States was reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was visiting Washington to discuss war strategy, gave a radio address that said in part:
“This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. … ”
In a piece written for RealClear Politics in 2014, Craig Shirley recounted the stunned and frightened mood of America following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. He noted that rather than further scare people, political leaders attempted to rally the public, but not with lofty promises and lies.
Take for example, this excerpt from Churchill’s address to Congress, delivered Dec. 26, 1941:
“Some people may be startled or momentarily depressed when, like your President, I speak of a long and a hard war. Our peoples would rather know the truth, somber though it be. … Sure I am that this day, now, we are the masters of our fate. That the task which has been set us is not above our strength. That its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. …”
As today’s pundits claim moral outrage over an artificial “war on Christmas,” or incite anger over Donald Trump’s latest cabinet pick, let’s keep the rhetoric in context.
While we shouldn’t undervalue the problems we face, we should recognize that earlier generations faced far greater foes and more serious challenges. They can provide useful lessons about the fortitude, persistence and knowledge we should require of ourselves and our leaders.
A Plains View 