Aesthetic
Realism seminar:
How Do We Want to
Express Ourselves?
with a
discussion about Horace Greeley, part 3
By Michael Palmer
True Expression Needs to Be Complete
While Horace Greeley’s
expression took the form of justice to people widely in America, his
purpose, unfortunately, was not the same as husband and father. I
think he saw his marriage too much as a resting place for consolation,
and this made for great pain. When he met his wife Mary, she was
a school teacher. In Horace Greeley, Voice of the People, W.H. Hale writes:
- Like Greeley, [Mary] carried with her into that outside world a burning earnestness and moral rigor; education was her passion.
This, I’m sure,
was a large reason Greeley cared for her. But, from what I read
of his marriage, it seems he limited the effect his wife could have on
him. It seems he did not want to know her very deeply nor be a
kind critic of her. And, as time went on, like many men, he saw
her role as primarily taking care of the home and family while he was
away.
In Aesthetic Realism and Expression, Mr. Siegel writes:
- Expression
begins with our thoughts to ourselves. That is where we decide on
who we are….We have to express ourselves through thought—not
“meditation” or “revery,” but thought.
As a person who
preferred brooding about myself and saw others existing primarily to
serve me, I’m so fortunate to be continuing my education in
professional classes taught by Ellen Reiss, the Aesthetic Realism
Chairman of Education. I’m grateful to be learning from her to be
more truly thoughtful about the woman I love, my wife, Lynette
Abel. In one class, Ms. Reiss asked me:
- Do you think a person is a chance to know
yourself, {and} know the world?...Something in you feels you shouldn’t
think about people at all—they shouldn’t raise difficult
questions. Miss Abel raises difficult questions because she’s a
person. You should see her as a beginning point to being deeper
about people as such.
I’m so happy to be
in the midst of this beautiful study. And I’m glad for the lively
and deep conversations Lynette and I had about Horace Greeley as I was
writing this paper, which made for greater feeling about him, the
history he was part of, and about people as such.
For Justice in the Mind of Abraham Lincoln
In Aesthetic Realism and Expression,
Eli Siegel said, “When expression is good it is useful to yourself and
everybody else.” Horace Greeley’s greatest expression and
usefulness to people came at a time this nation was in its deepest
crisis—in the fight against slavery. The South, with its industry
based on making money from the work of slaves, was determined, in its
ferocity, to maintain it. As Eli Siegel stated in The Right
of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known #916, “The great cause of the Civil
War—despite Southern fakery on the subject—was slavery.” Greeley used
his editorial voice in The Tribune to fight slavery at every
turn. In an editorial in 1854 he wrote:
- The one thing the South is after is the
extension of slavery. We are not one people. We are two peoples.
We are a people for freedom and a people for slavery. Between the
two the conflict is inevitable. Freedom has been betrayed and
sacrificed! Who comes to the rescue?
Greeley found that man to be Abraham Lincoln who was to become President six years later.
When the Civil War came,
Greeley felt that the Union’s purpose should be clear—that this was a
war to end slavery. In his famous editorial of August,
1862, titled “The Prayer of 20 Millions,” Greeley encouraged Lincoln to
declare the freedom of the slaves and enlist them in the fight.
Several months later, on January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the
“Emancipation Proclamation,” declaring freedom for all slaves.
Greeley called it the bravest document ever written by a
President. In an editorial, he wrote:
- It is the
beginning of the end of the rebellion…it is the beginning of the new
life of the nation. God bless Abraham Lincoln!
Justice and Our True Expression are the Same
I think Horace Greeley would have loved Aesthetic Realism.
Through its principles, he would have felt understood to his depths and
I think he would have wanted people everywhere to know of it. I’m
glad persons are meeting Aesthetic Realism truly now in the most honest
journal ever published--the international periodical The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known[TRO]
edited by Ellen Reiss. Because of her passionate desire to
understand happenings in the world and her desire that justice come to
every person, TRO is educating America.
The knowledge of Aesthetic
Realism can enable people everywhere to be truly expressed, to
come into their heritage.
Click here to return to Part 1
© Michael
Palmer
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