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Informationen zum Autor Joel Richard Paul Klappentext "In Indivisible, historian and law professor Joel Richard Paul tells how Daniel Webster, a young New Hampshire attorney turned politician, rose to national prominence through his powerful oratory and popularized the ideals of American nationalism that helped forge our nation's identity. In his speeches, Webster argued that the Constitution was not a compact made by states but an expression of the will of all Americans. As these ideas took root, they influenced future leaders, among them Abraham Lincoln, who drew on them to hold the nation together during the Civil War"-- Leseprobe Chapter 1: Independence Day 1801 Draped in solitude, a model of polite reserve, Thomas Jefferson seemed far removed from the sweaty masses crowding round him. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of his most famous writing, he opened the still incomplete President's House for a public reception. Tables and chairs were pushed aside to accommodate the common and uncommon white citizens of the capital. Uniformed enslaved servants hustled through the crowd, replenishing cold drinks in the stifling heat. Never before had the public been invited to a social at the President's House. Though some Americans had privately celebrated the Fourth with illuminations, Jefferson was the first president to sponsor a public celebration of Independence. The president sat stiffly in the dining room flanked by five lanky Osage chiefs. They wore traditional face paint, and their heads were shaved except for a tuft of hair on top. The chiefs were wrapped in woven blankets and embroidered leggings fringed with colored beads. The men wore earrings and necklaces, while their wives dressed modestly in short gowns with no ornaments other than artificial flowers in their hair. The chiefs were too amazed by the presence of iced drinks on a summer's day to notice the curious gaze of onlookers. Anyone close enough to the president strained to hear him exchange pleasantries above the martial blare of a Marine band performing in the front hall. President Jefferson was no longer the comely, cinnamon-haired Virginian who at thirty-three penned the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. Shaggy gray hair loosely framed a freckled face cracked and burned by another quarter century of sun. His hazel eyes reflected a genteel indifference. Still tall, and inattentively dressed in tight-fitting green corduroy knee breeches, a red underwaistcoat, yarn stockings, and worn slippers, he looked more like a homespun farmer contemptuous of fashion than a head of state. Jefferson's casual appearance belied his cool formality. Thomas Jefferson was a cipher, an ambitious politician, a warm host among friends, and a brilliant writer with a curious mind. Yet, before strangers, he often froze. His soft, womanly voice was barely audible before an audience, so he avoided public speeches. Reticent to address Congress directly, he preferred to deliver his annual message in writing. Earlier that day in the park behind the President's House, concessionaires sold food, drink, and handicrafts to the crowds gathering for the celebration. There were horse races and cockfights. Then there was a military parade led by the Marine band. Even though he had invited the public, Jefferson hated events like these. He preferred the quiet of his study, the soft squeak of his writing nub, the rustle of shuffling pages. He dreamed of remaking the world in his mind's image, but he had no wish to engage in it. Jefferson's introverted personality may explain his political philosophy, his preference for a country of yeoman farmers tending their own plots, spread across wide open spaces, solitary and independent. Such a society would avoid the corrupting influence of cities, industry, and finance, which he deplored. Agriculture was the country's "distinguishing feature" and its...
