Oswald Garrison Villard and the Politics of Pacifism
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Oswald Garrison Villard and the politics of pacifism The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Thernstrom, Stephan A. 1960. Oswald Garrison Villard and the politics of pacifism. Harvard Library Bulletin XIV (1), Winter 1960: 126-152. Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363795 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Oswald Garriso11Villard and the Politics of Pacifism 1~-ron.v,if honest hi:;tory continues to be_,vritten, ,vill have one question to ask of our generation,' Archibald ~1-acLeish ,vrotc in the Nation in l\1a:yof r 940. \\ 7hy~ he ,,,ondcrcd~ had Amcricats intellectuals failed to rise to the chalJenge of Fascis111,Yith ~thearms of scholarship and ,vriting? It is a question the histor ians ,vi l1 ask ,vi th j n terest - th c gent1 e, detacl 1ed, not alt ogcrher lo, 7 jng jntercst ,, ..ith ,vhich historians have a.hvay·squestioned the im- potent spirits of the dead.' 1 Less th an a rn on th nfter 1'11 cLcish's ind ictm en t of 'l"'hc Ir ~csp onsi- b lcs' 1nct the eyes of A1nerican Jiberal jnteUectuals, the Nation quietly· announced the resignation of one of its ,veekly columnjsrs, an angry crusading old n1an ,vhose energy and influence n1udc hin1 a central .fig- ure in the n1oral<.:risjs that shook An1crican Iibcralisn1 at the end of the Great Depression. Editor of the "J\Tatio11in the nventies and early thir- ties, Os,l..-aldGarrjson \ 7illard ( 1872-r949) ,vas the prophet of a great revolt against militarism in An1erica. For a tin1c, his pacifist vie,vs seemed to coincide ,yjth those of a ,,,hole generation of articulate Americans, and \ 1iUard bcca1ne a 111ajo1·spokesn1an of--avride c1imatc of op~nion. Soon, ho,vcver, the Fascist cha11engeto ""\Vcstcrn civiliza- tion .sl1a.tt crcd th c 11.nti-v.rar coalition, 1caving \ 7 ii]a rd iso1a ted t a 1ien a tcd from his life-Jong friends 1 in1potcnt~ He ,vas part of the great Ari1cri~ can pacifist tradition, .strctchi11gfrom ,,,.illia.n1 Penn through ,:;a.lilliarn Lioy-dGarrison and Jane Addan1s, finding expressiontoday jn Norn1an Thon1as and A. J. J\1ustc. 1-Iis]ifc of agitation is a case history .. in the politics of pacifisni, and his failure offers tragic con1ment on the failure of a tradition. 2 1 1 11 Archibald l\·1acLdsn! TJ1~ Trrcsponsibles 1 A1atio11 1 CL ( 18 A-fay 1940 ), 618. 2 The fund .unc-ntsl .~ourcc of this Study Ji~s b c:cn th c rj ch collection of th~ papers of Oswald Garrj!;;OU ,!jllard presented by his f.a.tnily to the H~rvard Colkgc Library in H)jO, the year foUowing his death. AH quotations from \'ilbrd's unpublished cor- respondence arc dra\1itn from this coHcction. l ~m indebted to Professor Arthur i\1~Schksjngcr, Jr, -and Dr l\1arvin Rine-alafor their c:;1reful critidsn1s of an earlier draft. J 2 6 Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIV, Number 1 (Winter 1960), Oswald Villard aud tbe Politics of Pacifis111 127 I ..PORTRAIT OF A PACIFIST: THE EARJ~Y YEARS 1 Os\val d Gar rj son Vi 11ard,' I-Icy\\!o o d Ilrou n o nee obser v c d c) 7 Tiical- 1y, 'js the product of an interesting experiment .. His grandfather ,vas -an abolitionist and his father a railroad 1nagnate. As far -usthe re- searchc~ of science have gone~ the rule seenls to be that ,vhcn yon cross 8 abolition blood ,vith railroad stock )7 0U get a liheral.J \ 1illai::-d,vas a rnan of tnany causes. A founder of the National As- sociation for the Advanccn1cnt of Colored Pcople1 a tireless publicist for frec trad ct -a sorrleti n1cshr il Ii:]n t observer of th c Europe an seen c1 an earnest advocate of social ,vclfarc legislation at ho1ne, his credentials as a liberal rcforn1er ,vcre uniinpeachable." But, above all, Os,vald Garrison ,Tillard ,vas a pacifist. 'Each one of us has his pa.ran1ount issue/ he noted. (1\1ineis this question of ,-var and peace and the saving of civilization.' 5 To l1i1n,vio]cncc in any for1n ,vas incompatible ,vjtJ1 the vcr}Tidea of civilization .. '~'ar ,vas the su- pren1e and ultimate evi], to be avoided at all costs. Beneath all of Vil- lard's concrete arguments about the consequences of ,var and the stra- tegic position of the United States \Vasal,vays this ethical core. It ,vas a faith the terrib]c realities of the t,vcnricrh century never destroyed. Although he did n·ot call hirnse]f a pacifist until ~theSpanish-,i.-\~ncri- can '''ar~ VHlard had been exposed to anti-militarist vie,vs fro1n early childhood. Fanny Garrison , 1il1ard, his n1other, ,vas a pioneer of rhe peace n1ovcn1cnt in An1crica, and his father, Henry \TjUard, 1njght be descrihcd as a pacifist fcllo\v-travclcr. A still more in1port2nt influence ,vas grandfather 1~'i1liatn Lloyd Garrisont ,vho preached both aboli- tionisn1 and abstention from violcnce. 6 Vjllard~s correspondence re- !: l\'ation~CXLI\T ( 1 i A prjl 193, 7) 1 437. ' Vil brd 1s vi ta] con trj huLions. to the negro rights mo vc.nl c n t re traced in F]j nt KcUogg 1s '\ 7i!l~rd and the NAACP, 1 Nation, CLXXXVIII (14 Fcbrua'ry 1959), 13 7-r40 . .'..1'lation, CJ{LHI ( 1 o October 193 6) ! 420. 1' The t,vo d octrin c~ n1ay seetn d iffi cu] t to reconcil c~ and it c.1nnot be said that Ga rrhon c vcr succe edcd in doing so. His attitude tO\Vard the Ci \Til"\ Var he hd pc d to b ri r1g on j s still in dou htL While \ 7il lard ahva ys d enicd it, it see n1s evident that Garrison supported die ,v" r by def au] t, "f hat is1'he so1ncthncsignored it, sorncti1ncs de plorcd iti but thought the a Loli donist ca use v:o rt h figl lt ing for L ViHa rd h1rnsclf e\Tadc d the agon iz.ing I} u csti on the Civil \ \' ar posed £or t 110 pacifist def ender of neg ro rjghts, His Jol;n Brown: A Biography Fifty Years After (Ne'-'' York~ 191 o) treated Br<ri;,,•nsyrnpathcticolly as a grc~t n1oral prophet, but unrc!>CnTcdly condemned Rrov.·nts rc-col]rscto violenc.:o. The book contains no hint of VHlard's ans·wer to the Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XIV, Number 1 (Winter 1960), r28 fl arvard Lih rary Bulletin veals that he frequently thought of hirnsclf as a 1attcr-dny Garrison, heroically doing battle against the .l\.1ilitar}rPo,ver rather than the Sla vc Po, ver. J-Jjs est irnare of Garrison) s stature is vivid]y rev ca led in the reference he ·once n1adc to (the one road to spiritual ...sanity 1vhich js opc1~ the rond of peace and non~resistancc oudincd clcar]y by Jesus., Garrison, Tolstoi~ Gandhi, and ... others .., 7 The feverjsh years of the Spanish ,~ 1-ar,in \Vhich Vjllard first did sotne serious thinking about An1crjc~n foreign po1ic)r,.,vcrc decisive for hin1. He ,vas then ,vorking for the New York Eveui11gPost., o\vncd by his father., as ,v-asthe N{(tio11. E. L. Godkin edited both, and it ,vas Godkin~s free-trade, anti-,var libcralisn1that bccan1e the foundation of \ 1illard's po1itical philosophy. Young ViUard's idol., Carl Schurz, op- posed the Yvnr ,vith Spa.in;Godkin opposed the ,var; Vi]lard opposed the ,var passionately. I-le later forgot hin1se]f so n1uch as to express the distinct! )7 non-pacifistic judg1ncnt that 'President A·IcKiniey·ought to have been shot ,vith hjs entire Cabinet for putting us into an unneces- sary· ,var ,vith Spain4' Four decades Jarcr he \Vas to sec the sa111eold brutal expansionist spirit in the arguments of the pro-interventionists. \\ 1hat ,va.sthe real difference benvecn Senator Beveridge's 'n1arch of the Flag' and the '1nissionary· capitalis1n,of I-Ienry Lucc~s vjsion of 'the A1ncrica11Century'? But despite Spain and Panan1a, Santo Domingo and Nicaragua, the 7 1 ) Cars prior to \\'orld Y\ 2r I ,vcrc full of promise. 1"'hcyoung manag- jng editor of the Evening Post.,firn1 jn his faith in the essential good- ness of hnman nature., had a vision of a ,vorld free from poyerty and \var~ Peace \Vas in the air. Nearly· 1 i500 international conferences-on subjects relating to the prevention of ,v·ar \Vere held bcti.vccn r 889 and 1914/~ ob,Tious question- \YaS :5hvcry a greater cvjl th~n the ,\·ar thnt lholid1cd it? -rior- 1,vas\Tj 11ard e n~rto offer 8 Il f + 'T ,rilbrd to Dr Ralph V+ G1lhcrt, ii l\·1ay 1939. \:Vhilc \rilla.rd oft~n JC1voked Chrjsrian jmages, his religjous vic, 1.1s,vcre unorthodox. I-le nc\·cr joined a churchj never _mentioned organized n.iligion i11 his bull~y ~utobiogr::iphy, FigfJting r ertrs: A1c'Juoirs of a Liberal Editor (Nc\v Yorki 1939}. The tcrn1 ~christfa.n hl11uanisrn' sugge~rs the nature uf hjs rdjgjous convicdons a~ \~·cH ;1s any.