In reading Theodore Roosevelts biography of Thomas Hart Benton, one thing that strikes me is the authors refusal to paint any people in history as heroes or villains. He speaks with the kind of hyperbole that Europeans tell me is a distinctly American trait, but if you read him closely you see how even-handed he is. On what was, at the time of his writing, still somewhat euphemistically called the Indian question, he made no bones about the injustices done by the expansion of the United States by primarily white people. He rightly criticized many horrible calamities perpetrated sometimes out of lust for land, and sometimes out of sheer spite or fear, by whites upon the Native people. He also criticizes certain Native peoples (he is most adamant in saying that each tribe was dealt with in a different way, each being treated more or less admirably) for their own cruelties, perpetrated sometimes on each other, and sometimes on innocent whites. He criticizes Andrew Jackson as having no statesmanlike qualities, having attained his position through trickery and grandeur. He laments John Quincy Adams as the last great president for some time thereafter. But on the subject of keeping the Union when the certain Southern states talked of succession (not because of slavery, but because of tariffs - the anti-union strain has deep roots in the South), he says Jackson takes action like any great man. Roosevelt in his book makes no apologies for anyone, not even his subject, Benton. But he doesnt write anyone off, either. He portrays their flaws and their virtues honestly, and although he often makes his own opinion of the matter quite clear, he clearly intends for the reader to come to their own judgment on a matter. Or rather, he intends for the reader not to make a judgement. Not to /reserve/ judgement, or to withhold it, until all the facts are in. He encourages the reader not to weigh the balance of ones good deeds against their ill, or their virtues against their vices; what Roosevelt clearly intends is for the reader to keep in mind the full picture of a person at all time. There is no sense in saying This person was good, this person was bad. There is only This person was this way; this person was that way.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 22:05:44 +0000
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