Master of Arts in Liberal Studies July 2014
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
AMERICA'S PATRIOTIC HYMNAL: SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY, FRUITED PLAINS, AND THE COMING OF THE LORD By Theresa A. Stevens A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate Studies Division of Ohio Dominican University Columbus, Ohio In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES JULY 2014 2 3 Acknowledgements To Kathleen L. Riley, PhD., for her practical advice as a historian, and her benevolent encouragement as we put this work together. To Stephen R. Thomas, PhD., for his insight, his expertise, and his joy concerning the project. To Ann C. Hall, PhD., for teaching me to become a better writer. To Ronald W. Carstens, PhD., for inspiring me as a student, a parent, and finally a colleague. To Michael Tilghman Stevens, for his support and unwavering commitment. 4 Introduction It is the dawn of the Fourth of July in a small town in Ohio. Although nearly everyone has the day off, people are up early--there is a parade coming. Outside the flag-bedecked homes and the manicured lawns, the driveways are lined with the cars of the many guests who have returned to town for this special day. In front of the houses, horses have arrived in their trailers from outside the city, snorting, impatiently waiting as their owners groom them and decorate their manes with ribbons of red, white, and blue. Cell phone ringtones and the whistles of stray bottle rockets mingle with equine whinnies in an unlikely cacophony, as the aroma of coffee coming through the front screen doors mixes with the smells from the barnyard. The sensual incongruity is lost on the people of the neighborhood, because the parade and everything about it have been just this way as long as anyone can remember. Soon the horses will be hitched to the carriages that will carry the "Citizen of the Year," the mayor, and the school board members, as the people celebrate an old-fashioned Fourth. The neighbors set out tables on their lawns, since the parade goes right by every front door. The breakfast spreads include doughnuts and juice, and lox and bagels. Jews and Christians mingle on the lawns, for this holiday transcends sect: this is a day to celebrate the American Way of Life. There is a uniform for all--everyone is dressed in some combination of the colors of the flag, and some even have Old Glory depicted on their shirts or ball caps; the little girls are especially cute in their patriotic sundresses which were ordered online just for today, with ribbons in their hair that rival those in the horses' manes. The day's activities are sacred; after the parade, the cookouts begin, and the high school reunions take place. There will be an ice cream social, complete with a military band playing Sousa marches, "God Bless America," and, of course, "The Star-Spangled Banner." As the perfect summer day draws to a close and the people return home after fireworks, they may be unaware 5 that they worshipped today. After all, they were in their most casual clothes, and they were outside most of the day--and they may have had a beer or two. Their sacred observance involved their civil religion. Americans celebrate their civic piety all through the year, but the high holy day is July Fourth, Independence Day. There are necessary symbols and rituals: parades, acknowledgement of military veterans, the presence of the flag everywhere, and in this small town, even an oration of the Declaration of Independence by a history buff, sweltering on the steps of the library, dressed as Benjamin Franklin. These rituals would not be complete without music, and as the band plays and the citizens sing from their lawn chairs, these Ohioans once again wish a happy birthday to America, asking God to bless "my home, sweet home." The nationalistic songs that we sing in these civic observances can be called "hymns," as America's oldest patriotic songs were based on European hymns from several centuries ago. This is an examination of the origins, ironies, and present day use of the songs in the American Patriotic Hymnal. - children with American flag, from a calendar cover 6 America's Patriotic Hymnal: Sweet Land of Liberty, Fruited Plains, and The Coming of the Lord America's patriotic hymns are like great-grandmother's antique gravy boat: fondly remembered and even cherished--and yet not often taken out and examined. We might miss the porcelain heirloom if it were gone, but its existence would not cross our minds other than the occasional holiday or family celebration, and then its presence becomes important. In the American citizenry, it is much the same concerning patriotic songs from our nation's earlier days--we would miss them if they no longer existed, but if we are being honest, their presence might only register as a flicker of a bygone time when we may have sung them in school, or we attempt to remember the lyrics at an Independence Day gathering, or we listen to a celebrity sing a medley of them in a patriotic special on public television. They are put away in the storage cabinet of our mind for reappearance at some civic event, a surge of nationalism at the triumph of an Olympic athlete, or at a presidential inauguration or funeral. If we pay attention, we may marvel at the apocalyptic images in the lyrics and the virtuous themes the words present of a land that is nothing less than the Kingdom of God come on earth. These words are indeed marvelous, and their presence in hymn format suggests the voices of the nation worshipping in collective unity of thought. But for all our hopeful sentiments of unity surrounding the songs of our American patriotism, the lyrics and even the melodies of these hymns carry inherent divisive contradictions: that for a country breaking away from the British monarchy, Rev. Samuel F. Smith chose the tune of "God Save the King" for "America"; and that the melody of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" comes from a song celebrating John Brown, the insurrectionist who was hanged for his raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry. Furthermore, the lyrics of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" represent not the entire republic at the time of the Civil War, but only the 7 northern Anglo-Saxon version of the American experience in the 1860s. These songs, written to inspire and unite, also provided opportunities for parody and the creation of alternative versions for those who were excluded from the sentiments expressed in the words. I will argue that examples of America's patriotic hymns contain ironic elements that can be fully appreciated by close readings of the lyrics in light of the time in which they were written and in subsequent history. I will also propose that although the singing of patriotic songs may be in decline, these hymns, threads in the fabric of American thought, will endure, because the republican ideals which they extol present a goal, if not yet achieved, eternally hoped for in the hearts and voices of Americans. Our country's civic piety, which is commonly referred to as America's civil religion, sprang from Puritan roots, casting America as a New Israel, and blending the ideals of the American Revolution and the Enlightenment, writes David W. Stowe, according to his book How Sweet the Sound. This love of country, transcending traditional religion, has its sacred places, including Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, Ground Zero, and the monuments in the District of Columbia. The nation's saints are Washington, Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and its primary sacramental symbol is the flag. The sacred documents include the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; the rituals are the Pledge of Allegiance, the habit of a politician saying "God Bless the United States of America," the currency stating "In God We Trust," and the citizens joining in communal song on civic occasions such as Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Memorial Day (249). On these hallowed days, Americans open the patriotic hymnal and sing "God Bless America," "My Country, "Tis of Thee," and "America the Beautiful" -- and sometimes hymns with denominational roots yet universal appeal, such as "Amazing Grace." 8 Americans' love of country and devotion to its national symbols led G.K. Chesterton in What I Saw in America to describe the United States as "a nation with the soul of a church." His travel to America exposed for him differences between the culture of the States and that of his native England, honing his view with the statement "America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed" (9). This creed, based on the Declaration of Independence, asserts that all people are equal, with clear recognition that the Creator gives the authority for the government's administration of justice. These ideas inspired theologian and historian Sidney Mead, in his essay 'The "Nation With the Soul of a Church"' to examine this civic piety, unique to a country that was intent upon having its central authority neutral and tolerant of all religious sects. Mead is careful to cast this neutrality not as "secularization," but as "de-sectarianism," an important difference. It means that America's civil religion is not anti-religious, but a "cosmopolitan, inclusive, universal theology" (59). And so it follows that rituals and songs which celebrate the nation in times of success and comfort it in times of sorrow invoke the divine in a way that Mead says plumbs for the universal general notions of religion.