Academic Review

THE ACADEMICBurke REVIEW FALL 2013 • VOLUME 1, ISSUE NO. 1 Permanent Things by Kyle Moodhe The Loyal Ones: Southern Unionists in Confederate Virginia by Peter Finocchio Taiwan Strait Crisis Behavior by Jackson Wolford NAFTA: All the Fuss by Alexander Mezick V S ER U IT IM ATE VALIB Letter from the Editors Dear Reader, It is with great pride that we present to you the first edition of the Burke Academic Review. This interdisciplinary journal showcases the talent of young conservative academics in their own fields. Too often conservative or right-leaning students produce scholarship that goes unnoticed by their fellow academics. Conservatism is frequently articulated solely as a political ideology. However, true conservatism influences not only one’s orientation in the political sphere but the topics they choose to investigate in their personal studies. This journal seeks to provide such individuals with readership and space to explore a range of academic areas and issues unique to their personal world view. The Burke Academic Review is published by the Burke Society, a conservative philosophical and debating society at the University of Virginia. It focuses on providing students of all ideological backgrounds an environment to learn about and discuss conservative thought. The Society takes its name from the 18th century Irish statesman, Edmund Burke, who is considered the father of modern conservatism. Throughout his life, Burke argued against abstractions and supported human dignity by countering theories that attempted to reduce society to simple concepts and easily understood ideas. We invite readers of all political persuasions, moral dispositions, and academic disci- plines to read and critique the works presented in this edition. The Review only accepts rigorous academic work and welcomes submissions semesterly. From the humanities to the natural sciences, the Burke Academic Review seeks papers by students interested in present- ing their opinions to an audience critical and aware of substantive intellectual contributions. If you would like more information about our publication or to submit a paper, please email [email protected]. Enjoy this edition and the work it contains. Thank you for taking the time to peruse the inaugural edition of the Burke Academic Review! John “JR” Roach Kasey Sease Editor In Chief Managing Editor THE ACADEMICBurke REVIEW FALL 2013 • VOLUME 1, ISSUE NO. 1 Contents 4 Permanent Things BY KYLE MOODHE 9 The Loyal Ones: Southern Unionists in Confederate Virginia BY PETER FINOCCHIO 23 Taiwan Strait Crisis Behavior BY JACKSON WOLFORD 38 NAFTA: All the Fuss BY ALEXANDER MEZICK Publication Staff editor in chief John “JR” Roach managing editor Kasey Sease editors Samara Brown David McKillop graphic design Michael Douglas cover photography Michael Douglas Contact Information We welcome comments and suggestions at [email protected]. The Burke Academic Review is published semesterly by students at the University of Virginia and distributed free to the university community. The opinions expressed in The Burke Academic Review are those of the authors alone. All content is ©The Burke Academic Review unless otherwise noted. Staff Bios John Roach is a third year in the History Distinguished Majors Program from Richmond, VA, researching twentieth century British political history. In addition to Burke Society, he is a member of the undergraduate Moot Court team and the quiz bowl team. Kasey Sease is a fourth year in the Politics Distinguished Majors Program, double majoring in History and Government. She studies early American history and 19th century Southern political thought. In addition to serving as the membership chair of the Burke Society, Kasey is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society, ADAPT, and serves as a seasonal intern for the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, VA. Samara Brown is a fourth year majoring in Government and History. Her activities include the Burke Society, the Virginia Advocate, and the Network of Enlightened Women. David McKillop is a third year from Long Island currently working towards a History and Government double major. He focuses his studies on early American history and Constitutional law. Besides being a member of the Burke Society, he plays club rugby and is a volunteer firefighter back home in Jamesport, NY. Michael Douglas is a fourth year majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics. Permanent Things By Kyle Moodhe Those familiar with Edmund Burke remember him for Reflections on the Revolution in France and not for poor reasons. Indeed it is his literary magnum opus. His prophetic words and incisive observations regarding the “Age of Reason” strike a chord with conservatives de- fending against the barbaric onslaught of Progressive Liberalism. Yet the breadth of Burke’s political vision can easily be lost if we only focus on the French Revolution or, for that matter, his writings alone. We see that Burke was not just a man accustomed to merely criticizing politics from the safety of his armchair. He was a man who engaged in active as well as pas- sive political reform throughout his entire life. Only by examining his life more fully can we understand his view of human society to any intelligible degree. A theme begins to take shape from the seemingly disparate pursuits of his life. By examining his life as a whole, we can fully see the “permanent things”1 which Burke fought for with every step in his life. Before entering into any discussion of Edmund Burke’s illustrious career, it is wise to discuss the sort of education he received. Burke was born in Ireland in the year 1729. He had the privilege of receiving a college education at Trinity College in Dublin at the age of fifteen. According to Russell Kirk, some of his favorite writers were, “Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Waller, and Young… Virgil, Cicero, Sallust, Homer, Juvenal, Lucian, Xenophon, and Epictetus.”2 He was undoubtedly a well read young man. Not only had he read these great works, but their words resonated loudly within Burke’s imagination. Cicero’s speeches to the Roman Senate carried with them the same amount of truth and relevance to the issues of Burke’s time as they did in the past. As Kirk also states, “That devotion to classical and medieval literature which Burke felt all his life commenced here among the ruins [of Ireland]. Medieval romances began to haunt the boy like a passion.”3 To Burke, there was a link be- tween the ancients and the moderns, in more than just the ruins. History was a singular story of humanity through time, but not a Progressive narrative. The advancement of history was not the shedding off of ancient ignorance but the collection of wisdom over time. For Burke, mankind was bound by the passing of centuries rather than separated by them. The idea that humanity was linked by a similar nature, albeit imperfect, allowed him to complete his first major written work, Philosophical Enquiries into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. Written when Burke was only nineteen years old, this work was a hefty discourse on the subject of aesthetics. It received little attention during Burke’s time, but it revealed the depth to which he could probe a subject. His inquiry into the world of aesthetics is a dual gateway into art and the human soul. The reader is taken on a journey in which such questions as “What is beauty” and “How is obscurity related to fear?” Burke, with keen observation, gives us his view of how the senses perceive the world and how this affects our psyches. This aesthetic treatise reveals that Burke was a philosopher at heart, one 1 Russell Kirk, Edmund Burke, a Genius Reconsidered, (Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1997)4. 2 Ibid., 12. 3 Ibis., 11. 4 • The Burke Academic Review Fall 2013 who peered into the human soul through observation and analysis. Burke’s future criticism of the Revolution in France is foreshadowed in small pieces throughout the book. In the chapter titled “Of the Passions Which Belong to Society”, he writes, “When men have suffered their imaginations to be long affected with any idea, it so wholly engrosses them as to shut out by degrees almost every other, and to break down every partition of the mind which would con- fine it”4 Needless to say, this observation seems to explain Burke’s antipathy towards abstract rights doctrine. Such a theoretical and hyper-rational view of humanity ignores reality, revolts against Reason, and puts unwieldy Passion at its helm. Even at age nineteen, the echoes of an older and more sagacious Burke can be heard through the young author’s voice. Years would pass before Burke was to come back on either the political and intellectual scene, but his career in both fields was just beginning. Being from a middling family in Ire- land, Burke realized he would only advance by moving to London, and so he did in 1750. As Kirk explains, little is known about Burke’s life for these next seven years. However, in 1757 Burke was happily married to Jane Nugent.5 This came only a few months following the first book that Burke had published, A Vindication of Natural Society. This book was a satirical response to Lord Bolingbroke, a deist with an all too sanguine opinion of the elusive “state of nature.”6 Burke fought back against Bolingbroke’s criticism of “organized religion” by as- serting that Bolingbroke was essentially supporting disorganized religion and by extension disorganized society. His writings would not go unnoticed and by 1761 he caught the attention of William Gerard Hamilton, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland. With Mr. Hamilton went Mr. Burke to Dublin working as Hamilton’s personal secretary for two years.7 By 1765 his connections within the upper echelons of the Whig party had paid off.

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