[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ffBXm7kJkk[/youtube]
A wonderful song at all times, and especially around Independence Day, especially this year.
“The Battle Cry of Freedom” was written during the Civil War, and sung by Union troops going into battle. This video pays tribute to Ulysses Grant, the General most responsible for winning the war for the Union. Elected President of the U.S. in 1868 and re-elected in 1872, U.S. Grant vigorously enforced federal civil rights laws to protect the freedmen. Not until Lyndon Johnson in 1963-69 would an American President work with such determination for civil rights. After leaving the White House, Grant served as the 8th President of the National Rifle Association.
The National Rifle Association’s brief in McDonald v. Chicago quoted President Grant:
Subsequently, President Grant issued a report on enforcement of the Civil Rights Act which noted that parts of the South were under the sway of the Klan, which sought “to deprive colored citizens of the right to bear arms,” and to reduce them “to a condition closely akin to that of slavery * * *.” Ex. Doc. No. 268, 42nd Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1872).
The brief likewise quoted a report from General Grant about the conditions in Mississippi which had helped convince Congress of the necessity of the Fourteenth Amendment, to make the Second Amendment applicable to all state and local governments:
“The statute prohibiting the colored people from bearing arms, without a special license, is unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional.” Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 2d Sess., 33 (1866).
McDonald v. Chicago brings the United States an important step closer to accomplishing a central purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment: making all of the Bill of Rights applicable to every state and local government in America. It was a national tragedy that the Supreme Court essentially nullified much of the Fourteenth Amendment for so long. It is a national blessing that America’s many civil rights organizations were able, over the long term, to revitalize the Fourteenth Amendment, and change the Supreme Court from a nullifier of the Amendment into an enforcer of the Amendment.
Philander says:
What absurdist history you have crafted. Note the statements were not alarmed that anyone was depriving blacks of keeping arms; the klan and the laws discriminated against blacks abilities to form the militia (bear arms).
July 6, 2010, 4:47 pmAllan Walstad says:
No, Philander, all you’ve demonstrated is the desperation to which anti-gun propagandists have descended in their futile efforts to deny the clear individual-rights meaning of 2A. It has long ben understood (even if you didn’t get the word) that “militia” does not refer exclusively to organized military units, but also refers to the people, the citizenry, the general population in their role of possessing and if necessary using arms to defend their security (“the security of a free state”).
July 6, 2010, 4:57 pmPhilander says:
. . . in organized military units.
The fact that you think militia doesn’t refer to militia is a sad commentary on your idiocy.
July 6, 2010, 5:05 pmruuffles says:
I hope you’ll submit an amicus brief in favor of requiring unanimous jury verdicts in criminal trials, but I’m not holding my breath.
July 6, 2010, 5:17 pmMatthew Carberry says:
People who are already individually armed and familiar with their personally owned and retained weapons (“bearing arms” in a non-military context) who then form into pre-determined organized units as need requires or, more generally, who come together in an ad hoc basis with their personally-owned equipment if the standing forces and “regular” militias are not sufficient to the need.
July 6, 2010, 5:26 pmkarrde says:
Congress had a different understanding when it established the National Guard, and wrote into law U.S. Code Title 10, Section 311
The historical use of the word “militia” in English and American practice was a blend of organized and disorganized units. Where necessary, the local militia had a clear organization structure, an armory, and a well-known list of officers. At other times, the militia consisted of all able-bodied men in town, each with their personal weapon.
July 6, 2010, 5:31 pmkarrde says:
Whatever details of Grant’s Presidency made it into my history book in school didn’t include his enforcement of Civil Rights acts.
(Those history books also didn’t include the history of NRA, and the number of retired Union Generals that led the NRA. At the time, NRA focused itself on training for marksmenship. Political efforts, which are still a subsidiary focus of the NRA, came much later.)
July 6, 2010, 5:38 pmValentino Rossi says:
For sure. Also, I have to wonder about those who rate the presidents and fail to take Grant’s enforcement of Civil Rights into account.
July 6, 2010, 6:01 pmSteven Lubet says:
All gun issues aside, I have always found it inspiring that so many of the Union Army songs had lyrics about ending slavery (contrary to the current revisionism of neo-Confederates). For example, from Battle Cry of Freedom:
We will welcome to our numbers
The loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And although they may be poor,
Not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
And Lincoln’s 1864 campaign song:
Our David’s good sling is unerring,
The Slavocrat’s giant he slew,
Then shout for the freedom preferring,
For Lincoln and Liberty, too.
And of course, Battle Hymm of the Republic:
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
[DK: The middle song you quoted, "Lincoln and Liberty," was also an 1860 campaign. Here is an absolutely sublime version, by Ronnie Gilbert, which explains the song's history:
July 6, 2010, 6:05 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxWwDgOj0oE ]
wm13 says:
The universities were dominated by copperheads for most of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Most of what you learn in academically approved history books (as opposed to popular, American Heritage-style books) is a partisan lie. (Paul Simon was so right.)
July 6, 2010, 6:28 pmSteven Lubet says:
Note to DK (sorry, but I don’t have your email):
The Hutchinson Family Singers were wonderful and important. I grew up listening to Ronnie Gilbert, but I have to wonder about her history — or maybe her lyrics. It is very hard to believe that a Lincoln campaign song in 1860 would have included lines like “Come aid in the slaves’ liberation.” By 1864, of course, he had issued the Emancipation Proclamation, but the issue in 1860 was the extension of slavery, not “liberation.” (I could be wrong; do you have another source for the 1860 date?)
DK: Irwin Silber, Songs America Voted By (Stackpole, 1988), p. 80, citing “Hutchinson’s Republican Songster for the Campaign of 1860.” Notably, the printed lyrics don’t have the “slaves’ liberation” line you quoted. My guess is that the verse was added for the 1864 election; as you point out, it wouldn’t have fit in Lincoln’s 1860 campaign.]
July 6, 2010, 6:43 pmSteven Lubet says:
There is no better source than Irwin Silber.
July 6, 2010, 7:21 pmSeth Tillman says:
You wrote: “[Grant was] the General most responsible for winning the war for the Union”
I do not think that is so clear. I’d place W.T. Sherman ahead of Grant.
Grant had victories in the field; he also had several very costly defeats, often where he had the advantage in numbers and material. Even his victories came at great cost. Sherman by contrast took bolder risks in the field — e.g., the division of his forces while behind enemy lines — and gained more territory at less cost than Grant or Meade or any of the other successful Union generals. Sherman was a fighting general, but unlike Grant his losses were — as I see it — in line with his military objectives. Grant, on the other hand, expended blood like water. I do not suggest that Grant was not an accomplished general; he was. Finally one reason historians tend to highly rate Grant is that he faced off against Lee (who had defeated so many other Union generals) and because he (that is, Grant) was the general who negotiated for Lee’s surrender. Again, that is to give Grant too much credit. By the time Grant was in the field against Lee, Lee had already immolated his army at Gettysburg. After that, Lee was in no position to project his army deeply into Union territory.
And, FWIW, Sherman gave us some of the best writing during and after the war — his 1864 letter to the members of the Atlanta town council is, in my view, the best letter of the war.
July 6, 2010, 8:13 pmA.W. says:
thanks for posting this. i never knew the lyrics to that wonderful tune. Fyi, here’s it written out:
http://freepages.music.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~edgmon/cwbattlecry.htm
This part seems particularly interesting.
We will welcome to our numbers
The loyal, true and brave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;
And although they may be poor,
Not a man shall be a slave,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.
I think they might be alluding to the recruitment of black soldiers in the Civil War, there.
July 6, 2010, 8:38 pmreader says:
I am a Northerner who spent a few years living in the South. I remember vividly having a North Carolinian quote that verse to me, “As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free.” My eyes (and ears) popped open wide. She said that was how it had been taught to her in school (say in the late 50s or 60s); she had no idea the original was different.
I then hummed through my own favorite verse of the song and she was further astounded, never having heard it before (for obvious political reasons):
I have read the fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
July 6, 2010, 9:31 pm‘As ye deal with My contemners so with you My grace shall deal.’
Let the hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel
While God is marching on.
Robert says:
Great song! Your post caused me to do a search on the song. It supposedly sold over 700,000 copies and that 14-printing presses were dedicated to printing the material … not for propaganda, but for true demand. It became so popular, the Confederates lifted the tune and changed the lyrics. President Lincoln also used it as his campaign song in 1864. The Wiki site. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Cry_of_Freedom
July 6, 2010, 10:27 pmLiam says:
While Grant deserves credit for having his heart in the right place, his failure to effectively root out corruption in the state Reconstruction governments is what ultimately doomed Civil Rights in the South by providing supremacist Democrats with the electoral fodder needed to win over “moderates” (as loosely as the term needs to be used to work in the Reconstruction context). There were structural deficits that may have thwarted him even had he put in an honest effort against corruption, but really Grant’s Presidency was a pretty good case study in good intentions being fatally undermined by atrocious implementation.
July 6, 2010, 10:45 pmMark Field says:
The corruption issue seems to me vastly overstated. For one thing, Democrats in the South would have used any excuse as a pretext; there’s absolutely no reason to believe a word they said. Second, the Democrats of the time, North and South, were thoroughly corrupt also — Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed were hardly Republicans, after all. It was endemic to both parties. Most important, whatever monetary corruption there was in the South paled in comparison to the much more significant corruption of unchecked violence, intimidation, and murder by the Democrats.
July 6, 2010, 11:32 pmAllan Walstad says:
Actually, your comment is a rather striking display (sad or otherwise) of willful ignorance on your part.
July 6, 2010, 11:33 pmzuch says:
Ry Cooder does a wonderful version of this song on his “Boomer’s Story” album (titled there “Rally ‘Round The Flag”).
Cheers,
July 7, 2010, 2:12 amStephen Lathrop says:
Sherman was a general. Grant was a general and a strategist—the best strategist, I think, that the army ever had (even Grant vs. Lee is a mismatch won by Grant). Also, Sherman was Grant’s lieutenant, and Sherman’s victories are Grant’s victories too. The picture that emerges from Grant’s memoirs—of a strategic campaign that encompassed the entire geographic region of the Confederacy with essentially real-time coordination of its various parts—is simply astounding given the logistical and communications capabilities of the time. And it worked as planned. Grant brought Lee to bay at Appomattox with Sherman at his back.
Grant was a sanguinary general. It must have been terrifying to serve under him, and yet more terrifying to oppose him. What stands out, however, is the purposeful way he suffered casualties. He never hesitated to expend a few tens or hundreds of lives to gain particular information about enemy strength and deployments, or to set up a tactical advantage. Grant did that constantly. Those expenditures were then repaid in successful larger engagements. To Grant, that was war. In the end, he marched what he called the finest army ever assembled, “inured to hardship,” through the streets of Washington in a republican triumph. Hard to top that.
I am another who believes Grant’s reputation as President was probably harmed by the abiding bitterness of those he defeated. And of their descendants. It lasted a long time. The note from “reader” above, about the reworded version of the Battle Hymn of the Republic taught in the South in the 1950s says volumes. That was the version they taught me, in Maryland and Virginia both. That, plus Grant was a drunk who ran a failed presidency.
July 7, 2010, 3:22 amFreedom Lifestyle Income Program. | Local Weeklypaper says:
[...] The Volokh Conspiracy » The Battle Cry of Freedom [...]
July 7, 2010, 7:41 amJaimeInTexas says:
Gag on the Battle Hymn! Pure unitarian heresy.
When mentioning the KKK (the original) why not also mention the Union League violent activities in the South? After all, wasn’t the KKK orgnaized in reaction to the Union League actions?
July 7, 2010, 12:18 pmJaimeInTexas says:
THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
Music by George F. Root
(1820-1895)
Our flag is proudly floating
On the land and on the main,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Beneath it oft we’ve conquered,
And we’ll conquer oft again!
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
CHORUS:Our Dixie forever!
She’s never at a loss!
Down with the eagle
And up with the cross!
We’ll rally ’round the bonny flag,
We’ll rally once again,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Our gallant boys have marched
To the rolling of the drums,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
And the leaders in charge cry out,
“Come, boys, come!”
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!–CHORUS
They have laid down their lives
On the bloody battle field,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Their motto is resistance —
“To tyrants we’ll not yield!”
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!–CHORUS
While our boys have responded
July 7, 2010, 12:19 pmAnd to the fields have gone,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!
Our noble women also
Have aided them at home,
Shout, shout the battle cry of Freedom!–CHORUS