“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American Transcendentalist Man of Letters
Essay– The Oversoul
“We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds…A nation of men will for the first time exist, because each believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul which also inspires all men.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American Transcendentalist Man of Letters
1837 Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Address
When Ralph Waldo Emerson advocated this pantheistic ideology and so thought that all men were part of the Divine, he opened the way for human events to become Divine Events, and thus every man could become an avenging god destroying a sinful world with fire. This is precisely what happened as the US Government was captured by this ideology that taught that as all was a part of god therefore no part of god should be subservient to any other part of god. This Transcendental Jacobinism that animated the Radical Republicans (abolitionists) was set ablaze with the intent of making the world anew in the image of Emersonian Transcendentalism (i.e. — Jacobinism).
Another Transcendentalist of the time, Julia Ward Howe, gives us the proof of how Transcendental ideology, clothed in Christian language, captured the imagination of the Northern public and is found in the Yankee Battle Song that Howe inked.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
The Transcendental nature of this stanza is found in the fact that the coming of the Lord is seen in the eyes of Howe as the marching of the Union Armies. Her eyes have seen God’s judgment glory in the marching Union Armies. The Union Armies, as truth marching on, are the glory of the coming of the Lord. This coming that is being referred to here is a judgment coming as seen in the fact that the transcendentalist god is trampling his grapes of wrath and hath loosed its terrible swift sword.
In the second and third lines of the first stanza that coming of the Lord in the Union Armies is seen by the fact that those Armies are trampling out vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. Now, the place where the Union Armies were trampling was the South, and so the grapes of wrath that the transcendentalist god (Union Army) is trampling and out of which the vintage is coming are Southerners. Let us not miss the poetic imagery. The Union Army, as the Transcendentalist god, are trampling vintage out of gods wrath grapes, which is just another way of saying that the Union Army is trampling vintage blood out of those, for whom, god has stored up His wrath.
Union Armies = god // Trampling Southern blood = good
The third line finds the Transcendentalist god (Union Army) loosing the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, once again communicating that the Union Army, as the Transcendentalist god, is visiting god’s judgment on the South.
Finally, all of this is bound up with Truth marching on and “Hallelujah,” literally means “Praise God.” Praise god that he is killing and maiming, raping and ruining, pillaging and destroying Southerners.
Howe the Transcendentalist goes on and the North sang along with her,
I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His day is marching on.
The idea that god equals the union Armies is clearly given us in the first line, or alternately she sees god in the actions of the Union Armies, which is much the same thing.
The idea of building an alter is interesting since most commonly what happens on altars is some kind of blood sacrifice. Are the alters which they (Howe slips into a distinction here between god and those who are doing god’s bidding) “builded” a reference to the work of blood sacrifice that the North is offering of the South?
Since all of this is in the context of blood and judgment one wonders if “The righteous sentence” of which Howe speaks as to do with something like, “the soul that sinneth shall surely die?” If that is the case White Southerners are souls that must die and the Transcendentalist god army is that which executes God’s judgment. The fact that we are still in judgment mode here is seen in the line, “His day is marching on.” This “day,” is a reference to the “Day of the Lord.” A Biblical idea that is commonly associated with God’s judgment visitation upon those who are His enemies.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
“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,
Since God is marching on.”
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.
Note
1.) The fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel are the Yankee Bayonets and war machine.
2.) Second line — Gospel defined as grace extended to those who crush God’s contemners (scorners). The scorners of God are the Southerners. Yankee’s are earning God’s grace by crushing the South.
3.) Hero born of woman is Jesus as incarnated in the Union army and the serpent being crushed with the Yankee heel is the South. Another Biblical reference.
4.) God marching on = Yankee Armies marching on. As Sherman and his Bummers burned Atlanta and raped Columbia god was marching on. As Sheridan torched the Shenandoah valley so that a crow flying over would need to carry its own provisions god was marching on. When Grant starved out Vicksburg and used his men as canon fodder god was marching on. When Gen. “Beast” Butler was insulting Southern women god was marching on.
5.) Hallelujah = Praise god all this is happening.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.
Sounding forth Trumpet = Judgment language.
The second coming (characterized as a judgment coming) in the bible is a coming of judgment against God’s enemies and in the Bible this coming is introduced by the sounding of a Trumpet. The “Day of the Lord”, in which He judges mankind was prophesied by the Old Testament prophet Zephaniah to be “A day of trumpet and battle cry. The idea of the Union Army being equivalent to God’s judgment is laced all the way through this song.
Sifting out the hearts = In the bible, judgment includes sifting out wheat (good) mixed in with the chaff (bad). God, as incarnated in the Union Armies, is sifting out hearts before Him. Obviously the enemies of the Jacobins are chaff that needs to be sifted from the wheat.
Please understand that in all this the Devil is being painted as god and so though the language of “god” is used what all this is actually describing is the judgment of the devil against his enemies.
Oh, be swift, my soul… = The idea of calling people to rally to god’s side.
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.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.
Here the fact that the War Against the Constitution was a Holy War is clearly set forth. As Christ died to make men Holy, the members of the Union Army were called to die to make men free.
So the next time your Church heats up the organ to belt this song out just remember what it is that you are signing.
Ironic, isn’t it, that 19th-century Unitarians were more conversant and fluent in the use of Biblical imagery than 21st-century Hillsong and like “praise and worship” songmiths are.
Right RJR fan. You have to give them credit for their ability to use the imagery even if they didn’t believe a word of it.