Happy Birthday to poet and author Walt Whitman (b. May 31, 1819, in Huntington, NY), who through his writing articulated a vision of democracy and hope. He applied these views to real life events during the upheaval of the Civil War, greatly admiring President Lincoln as embodying his democratic vision. While Whitman thought the Civil War restored American dignity, he was unsure about the messy work of Reconstruction. Freedom through emancipation was easy to idealize but he struggled to interpret its aftermath. As historian David S. Reynolds emphasizes, “many issues he had to confront in the Reconstruction era perplexed him. He was slow to support suffrage for blacks, which caused him to split from his old friend O’Connor. He was appalled by the materialism and political corruption of post-war America, which he sharply criticized in his 1871 essay ‘Democratic Vices,’ and he looked forward to a vague future when ‘a class of bards’ would arise and instill in the nation a spiritual element.”
Citations: David S. Reynolds, Walt Whitman (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 11, 17-18, 20-21, https://archive.org/details/waltwhitman0000reyn_f7y8; Mathew B. Brady, “Walt Whitman,” photograph (location unknown, c. 1867), collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.), public domain, https://www.si.edu/object/walt-whitman:npg_NPG.76.96.
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