Happy New Year (#1 of 23)

 Well, would you look at that? This account for this blog is still active. Let's see if I have remembered how to write.

Happy New Year! According to the U.S. Flag Code it's appropriate to fly the U.S. Flag every day. But there are twenty-three days on which the display of the U.S. Flag is particularly appropriate. Today, New Year's Day, is the first of them. So, Happy New Year. 

New Year Day was always an unusual holiday in my household. There weren't any firm New Year traditions in our family. I have hazy memories of meeting at my dad's mother's house a few times. Before Covid the day was starting to become a reason for gathering with my parents, siblings, and their families. Sadly we're skipping that this year as my household is still quarantining from a series of Covid infections (all symptoms minor . . . way to go vaccines!). 

Though the holiday has always been muted in my household I know it's a bigger occasion in others. I guess it's in recognition of that the Flag Code sets today aside. 

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The date in history that comes most prominently to me today is this day in 1863. It was on this day that year that the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. This is one of my favorite historical documents to teach in class. It's filled with power and irony. The power comes from how this clearly reoriented the American Civil War into a war of ending slavery. It also clarified the right of black men to serve as combatants in the Armed Forces, no small measure with profound military and civil implications. It's also an ironic document in that technically no slaves were freed that day by that measure. President Lincoln's declaration only applied to slaves in regions of the country in an active state of rebellion. The measure, in fact, delineated states and portions of states (such as counties in Louisiana surrounding New Orleans, various counties in Virginia, and the entirety of Tennessee). Further, Lincoln explicitly told enslaved people to wait for the arrival of armies to enforce the measure rather than assert their freedom that day. 

I found this representation of the immediate applicability of the Emancipation Proclamation online. 

The Emancipation Proclamation also sat on fragile Constitutional grounds. Lincoln knew that an immediately pushed for Congress to move on a Constitutional Amendment that would end the practice. 

I cannot help but look at the Emancipation Proclamation as a brilliant, courageous, and pivotal act of political leadership. I'm humbled, though, knowing that something with such high ends (the ending of slavery) could be considered brought about on this day through fragile means (possible legal chicanery on the part of the Lincoln administration). And that contradiction invites comparisons to moments in our contemporary world I find odious, such as some States' efforts today to turn citizens into vigilantes over various culture war agendas (i.e. Abortion rights in Texas, educational policy in Florida). It also calls to mind a difficult moment of leadership on the eve of Pearl Harbor. Throughout 1941 President Roosevelt was positioning America for war against the Fascists in Europe. Certainly a just cause with noble means. But FDR was also setting precedents of presidential authority that wouldn't look so high in the 1960s. 

Perhaps it's helpful to think, then, about the moral weight behind Lincoln's policy decision rather than the legitimacy of the act itself. Slavery was an evil. It was the rationale for the Confederacy. It was the cause of the war. U.S. political and military leaders fumbled toward this logical outcome, such as the enlistment and hiring of "contraband" as early as May 1861. And, of course, there were those courageous souls who took the risk of running away to federal positions before January 1, 1863 seeking freedom. This document helped make up the point of the spear ending slavery. The true ending of the institution came through the acts of various Americans, among them the enslaved, who acted on this promise. Slavery's end came about through the victorious march of the U.S. Army and Navy in the remaining years of that War. That provided the weight that made ending slavery possible. 

Janauary 1, 1863 marks a prominent moment in which the institution of slavery suffered a mortal wound. A day like that I hope is on our mind on a day the Flag Codes ask us to pause and consider what this symbol of our nation means.