Hellfire Nation: the Politics of Sin in American History
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More praise for Hellfire Nation “In a beautifully written book, Morone has integrated the history of American political thought with a perceptive study of religion’s role in our public life. May Hellfire Nation encourage Americans to discover (or rediscover) the ‘moral dreams that built a nation.’”—E. J. Dionne, syndi- cated columnist and author of Why Americans Hate Politics and They Only Look Dead “This is a remarkably broad, sweeping account, written with verve and passion.”—James T. Patterson, author of Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy “Morone is an exciting writer. Rich in documentation and eloquent in purpose, Hellfire Nation couldn’t be more timely.”—Tom D’Evelyn, Providence Journal “Hellfire Nation offers convincing evidence that no political advance has ever taken place in the United States without a moral awakening flushed with notions about what the Lord would have us do. It’s enough to make a secular leftist gag—and then grudgingly acknowledge the power of prayer.”—Michael Kazin, Nation “This book’s provocative thesis, ambitious scope, and brisk prose ensure that it will appeal to a broad readership.”—Harvard Law Review “[Morone] has written a book for people with no special training in American cultural history. His aim seems to be to meditate on the long history of Christian-based political movements. He wants to encourage people to rethink the possibilities and limitations of the American ten- dency to conflate religion and politics. Morone has succeeded in meeting these worthwhile goals, and he has done so through a set of engrossing narratives. Hellfire Nation . is actually fun to read.”—David Harring- ton Watt, Christian Century HELLFIRE NATION [To view this image, refer to the print version of this title.] Abolitionists are gathered to condemn slavery and denounce the Constitution as a “covenant with death and an agreement with hell” when a police-led mob bursts into the hall. The in- truders stop black men from “promiscuously” preaching to white ladies. (“Expulsion of Ne- groes and Abolitionists from Tremont Temple, Boston, Massachusetts,” Harper’s Weekly, December 15, 1860) Hellfire Nation The Politics of Sin in American History JAMES A. MORONE Yale University Press New Haven & London Copyright © 2003 by James A. Morone. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Anything Goes, by Cole Porter © 1934 (Renewed) Warner Bros. Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL, 33014 Subterranean Homesick Blues Copyright © 1965 by Warner Bros. Inc. Copyright renewed 1993 by Special Rider Music. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by permission. Designed by James J. Johnson and set in Adobe Caslon type by The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc. Printed in the United States of America by R. R. Donnelley & Sons. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morone, James A., 1951– Hellfire nation : the politics of sin in American history / James A. Morone. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-300-09484-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 0-300-10517-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. United States—Politics and government. 2. Religion and politics—United States— History. 3. United States—Moral conditions. 4. United States—Social conditions. I. Title. E183 .M873 2002 973—dc21 2002007541 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. 1098765432 For my parents, Jim and Stasia Morone Contents Preface ix Introduction: A Nation with the Soul of a Church 1 part i The Puritan Foundations of Morality Politics (1630–1776) chapter 1. Us: The City on a Hill 34 chapter 2. Them: Heretic, Heathen, and Witch 55 chapter 3. The Puritans Become America 100 part ii The Abolitionist Crusade (1800–1865) chapter 4. The Wrath of God in Black and White 123 chapter 5. Abolition! 144 chapter 6. South: The Pro-Slavery Argument 169 chapter 7. North: The Ragged Chorus of the Union 183 part iii The Victorian Quest for Virtue (1870–1929) chapter 8. Purity and the Woman’s Sphere 222 chapter 9. White Slaves and the Modern Witch-Hunt 257 viii Contents chapter 10. Temperance: Crucible of Race and Class 281 chapter 11. Prohibition and the Rise of Big Government 318 part iv The Social Gospel at High Tide (1932–1973) chapter 12. The New Deal Call to Alms 350 chapter 13. Manifest Destiny and the Cold War 378 chapter 14. The Sixties 407 part v The Puritans Roar Again chapter 15. Modern Morals 450 Epilogue 493 Notes 499 Index 561 Preface The idea for this book came to me while I was in an upscale supermarket pick- ing out salad greens. Near me, a man suddenly went into a deep, wrenching cough. All around, people stopped what they were doing and looked up with concern. He was a wiry black man, about sixty years old. His clothes and hair were flecked with white dust—he looked as though he had spent the day plas- tering. Suddenly, a smartly dressed woman, an expensive scarf draped over her shoulder, marched up to him, waved a finger two inches from his face, and said, “I hope you don’t smoke.” “Oh, no, ma’am,” he responded, still recovering from his coughing fit. “No, ma’am, I don’t smoke.” She apparently didn’t believe him and launched into a lecture about the hazards of tobacco. She was flat-out rude, I thought. But everyone else seemed to approve. An- other shopper murmured, “Good for you.” They would not normally have tol- erated such aggressive behavior—and toward the only black person in the place. I began to wonder about the righteous streak that ran through these po- lite, well-dressed liberals shopping for health food. This is just how the Prohi- bitionists must have sounded, I mused. When I got back home to New Hampshire, I told the story to my neighbor. Yorrick Hurd, age eighty, lives half a mile up the dirt road from here—Hurd Road, as it happens. His family has been in the same house since 1777. I was expecting Yorrick to blurt out a rock-solid bit of New Hampshire Live Free or Die—something like “Smoking and drinking are your own damn business.” I was wrong. Turns out that Grandmother Hurd had organized the local Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Once a month the women of Lemp- ster gathered at the Hurd farm and plotted the demise of demon rum. What’s more, Yorrick still supports Prohibition and laments the day it was repealed. “But Yorrick,” I reminded him, “you subscribe to good lefty magazines like the Nation and American Prospect.” “Sure,” he agreed cheerfully, but “liquor is dif- ferent.” x Preface Morality is different. I began tugging on a simple question: What happens when our pragmatic, commonsense, split-the-difference American politics turns righteous? And I started with a simple answer: What happens are Puri- tans, lynchings, witch-hunts, and a thousand angry thou-shalt-nots. But, as you’ll see, the moral story is a lot more complicated. Even the Puritans weren’t entirely puritanical. I did find plenty of witch-hunts, of course. But I also dis- covered what Lincoln (speaking of moralists) called the “better angels of our nature.” This book, about the two faces of sin, is very different from the jere- miad against Jeremiahs that I set out to write. I am righteous about one cause, however. I have tried to write a book that will appeal to general readers as well as to my colleagues.The style and tone are a kind of manifesto to my companions in the social sciences: it is time to re- claim our place in the public conversation (in academia, we call this honoring the narrative). Incidentally, I am a political scientist, which gives me a slightly different approach to history. Historians usually look for what is unique in every event; they dig into the details and keep a close eye on the story line. In contrast, we social scientists earn our merit badges for finding the common themes, which gets us searching for abstractions, generalizations, and theories.Today, innova- tive scholars in both disciplines are crossing the old boundaries, searching out both the unique and the universal in every era. That’s my goal: I look for the threads running through the past and try to see the patterns they make in our own time. A book like this is a community enterprise. And when the subject is sin, everyone’s an expert. My friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family all listened patiently to Hellfire stories with good cheer and great suggestions. First, my deep thanks to the friends who brainstormed, read, questioned, commented, and corrected. May the karma flow directly into your own work, Peter Andreas, Jason Barnosky,Tim Bartlett, David Bennett, Don Brand, Ross Cheit, Jonathan Cohn, Tony Dell’Aera, Andy Dunham, Thomas Faist, Dan Gitterman, Marie Gottschalk, Brian Glenn (who wrote a small tome on the manuscript), Richard John (who wrote a long one), Larry Jacobs, Ira Katznel- son, Rogan Kersh, Beth Kilbreth, Bob Kuttner, Ted Marmor (a defiant sinner who is ferocious in his scorn for neo-Puritans), Sid Milkis, Peter Morone, Michael Nebblo, Karen Orren, Jim Patterson, Mark Peterson, Jill Quadango, David Robertson, Nancy Rosenblum, Lynn Sanders, Mark Schlesinger, Steve Skowronek, Rogers Smith, Tom Sugrue, Steve Teles (who cheerfully stalked my project, popping up with commentaries when I least expected them), John Tomasi, Rick Valelly, and Gordon Wood.