E Pluribus Unum

E pluribus unum. 
(From many, one.) 

From the Potomac River, we're looking east along the Mall toward the Capitol of the United States of America. The nearest building is the Lincoln Memorial, the next lighted edifice is the Washington Monument, and then the Capitol.      

The Washington Monument was dedicated in 1885 to commemorate and honor George Washington, the first President of the United States of America and the first Commander-in-Chief of all America's military. 

But when Washington first became Commander-in-Chief, there was no United States. There were only thirteen British Colonies. Colonists were allowed to run their separate colonies under the direction of  Governors appointed by the English government. Each colony was very different from the others, by topography, by religion, by custom. The one thing they had in common was that they considered themselves Englishmen. Indeed, it was because these Englishmen felt their rights as Englishmen were being denied them, that they rebelled.

Keep in mind that the only Englishmen who had rights were English men. Women, non-Whites, non-English, and men without property need not bother themselves or anybody else about their civil rights. They hadn't any. And even in that rebellion, the Englishmen were divided among themselves into Patriots and Loyalists. (Too much to go into here. This being a blog post and not a book.)

George Washington was one of the delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies sent to the First Continental Congress which met in September and October of 1774. They agreed to meet again the following year if the English did not agree to their demands. Needless to say the English did not agree and in April, 1775, the English tried to seize Patriot military supplies in Lexington and Concord, Province of Massachusetts. The running battle that ensued is considered the beginning of the Revolutionary War. 

Three weeks later Washington was again in Philadelphia as a delegate from Virginia to the Second Continental Congress. In June of 1775, recognizing his experience as a leader in what our school history books called the French and Indian War, the Congress named George Washington Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army which they had created the day before. On July 6, a little more than a year later, in the midst of continuing armed conflict, the Continental Congress (now including delegates from all thirteen colonies) ratified the Declaration of Independence stating, "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America ... declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States."

The Continental Congress ratified the Articles of Confederation March 1, 1781. The first article established the nascent country as The United States of America, but stipulated that each state would retain "its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." 

Any act of that Congress required the votes of nine of the thirteen states to pass. The Congress had the power to make war and peace; conduct foreign affairs; request men and money from the states to fight wars; coin and borrow money; regulate Indian affairs; and settle disputes among the states. There was, understandably enough, no executive branch of government, no individual head of government. The only provision for a judiciary was to establish "prize courts" during times of war. "Prize" referred to captured enemy commercial vessels. Disputes between states would be resolved by the Congress.

Before returning to civilian life after the war ended in 1783, George Washington called for a strong union. He sent a circular letter to all the states calling the Articles of Confederation no more than "a rope of sand" linking the states. He stated the nation was on the verge of "anarchy and confusion" and vulnerable to foreign intervention. England and France, no doubt, would have been glad to step in and save the former colonies should they falter in this experiment in self-government. Washington called for a national constitution that would unify the states under a strong central government.

After Shays' Rebellion in 1787, when rebels marched on the federal Springfield Armory in an unsuccessful attempt to seize its weaponry and overthrow the government. The federal government was unable to finance troops to combat the rebellion, the rebellion was put down by the Massachusetts State Militia and a privately funded local militia. This stirred the call for a Constitutional Convention. Representing the State of Virginia, George Washington was a delegate. 

The Constitution they wrote was ratified by the thirteen states June 21, 1788, and became effective March 4, 1789 with Washington inaugurated as the first President on April 30th.

The Constitution of the United States of America begins:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a

more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic

Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote

     the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty  

to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish
 this Constitution for the United States of America."      

This Constitution provides a mechanism for making changes as changing times might require. It has not and does not provide allowances for insurrection, secession, or dissolution.

E pluribus unum.

The Lincoln Memorial was opened to the public in 1922.

 Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth President, came to the office at a time when our nation was coming undone. He was elected in November of 1860. In January, 1861, six southern states seceded from the Union. They named Jefferson Davis of Mississippi to be their President on February 9. Because of a rumored plot by Southern sympathizers to assassinate him, Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington, D.C., near dawn on February 23, 1861, for his March 3rd Inauguration. Fighting broke out April 12 when slave state insurrectionists opened fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. It was the beginning of the American Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln led this country through its most perilous period since its inception. A combined number of 506,272 Americans in the two contesting militaries died, counting those killed in action, dead from disease, and dying in prisoner of war camps. The historian James McPherson has estimated that an additional 50,000 civilians died during that war.

President Lincoln was one of the last casualties of the war. He was shot by a Southern sympathizer on April 14, 1865, and died early the next morning. A little more than two months later, on June 23, Cherokee leader Stand Watie was the last Confederate general to surrender his forces.

Lincoln's memorial bears two inscriptions including the Gettysburg address which calls us to resolve that "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 

And from his Second Inaugural Address delivered March 4, a month and ten days before he was shot, come these words, "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 to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Another attempt to achieve E pluribus unum.

That brings us to the third structure in the beginning photo, the Capitol of the United States of America. The third structure and yet another fall short of a United States of America. January 6, 2021, our Capitol was assaulted by insurrectionist followers of a failed President.

I do not believe that today's divisions in our country started with Donald John Trump. Being an opportunist, he just saw the train, worked his way to the engine, and drove it off the rails.

We are reaping the tainted harvest of a nation planted in the barren sands of slavery and grown to maturity under a cloud of prejudice and xenophobia.

Keeping in mind that the original purpose of this nation was to 

"...form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure
 the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."                               

The Statue of Freedom is 19 1⁄2 feet tall and weighs about 15,000 pounds. Facing east toward the sunrise, she stands atop our Capitol Dome. Freedom holds a sheathed sword in her right hand and a laurel wreath and the Shield of the United States in her left. Her helmet is topped by an eagle head and a crest of feathers. She wears a Native American style fringed blanket over her left shoulder. Freedom stands on a cast-iron globe inscribed with E pluribus unum.

A definition of Persistence is to begin again and again. And, if needs be, begin yet again. 

Let us persist.

E pluribus unum