Read Online The Lost Gettysburg Address by David T. Dixon - Free Book Online

or its potential impact on the balance between slave and free
states. Rather, he questioned the rationale behind the doctrine,
dismantling the argument point by point. This false creed was so
universal in its adoption and so insidious in the way it pandered to the pride
of elite and poor whites alike that it created huge barriers to anyone
bold enough to challenge it. The first error that Anderson exposed
was the myth of an Anglo-Saxon race. Ancient historians like Tacitus
never mentioned the Saxons. Neither the Saxons nor the Angles ever
represented a majority of peoples inhabiting the British Isles. Like
the Americans, according to Anderson, the British throughout
history were composed of the most “mongrel and heterogeneous stock
of people on earth.” There could hardly be an Anglo-Saxon destiny
when that race itself did not exist.
    The mere idea of racial destiny was preposterous, in Charles
Anderson’s view. First, it was more than presumptuous for any
people to claim that they could divine God’s will. Throughout history,
one empire after another felt convinced that it was destined to rule.
Many justified violence and even genocide in the name of racial
superiority and destiny. All of these empires eventually fell. The great
achievements of ancient cultures and those of the British-American
people were due mostly to circumstance. Who was to say, for
example, that the achievements of Americans in constructing a free and
prosperous republic were any greater than the artistic triumphs of
the Italians or the technical advances of the ancient Chinese? Was
the successful American experiment the result of a providential racial
destiny, or the product of great leaders seizing a moment in time?
Americans who continued to believe in what Anderson described as
“a fallacy in philosophy, and untruth in history, and an impiety in
religion” would someday face a harsh reckoning.
    Anderson went on to challenge even the most sacred tenet of this
racial philosophy: the idea that blacks, or Mexicans, or any other
ethnic group were inherently inferior to white people. Here he used
his audience’s own religious beliefs to support his case. The Bible
taught the unity of the species, Anderson argued. At various times
throughout history, different races of men achieved dominance—not
by virtue of any inherent superiority but as a matter of favorable
circumstance. In other words, conditions in certain areas of the world
allowed their residents to develop more quickly than others living
in a less-than-ideal environment. This nurture-versus-nature view
clashed forcefully with the self-serving arguments of manifest
destiny adherents. Even America’s lowly nineteenth-century
Catholics—despised by many—saw themselves as the Jews of old did: “a royal
priesthood, a people set apart.” Anderson’s logic suggested that free
blacks who competed with whites for jobs, or even slaves (considered
vile and ignorant by some), could achieve as much as whites given the
proper circumstances was just too much for some to bear. Others,
likeLarz Anderson, simply laughed it off. Larz sent a copy of the
speech toOrlando Brown, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
at the time, thinking it would “amuse” him with its “monomania”
against Anglo-Saxons. 15
    Charles Anderson’s unusual speech drew the attention of the press
and public outside of Ohio. He reprised the address before the New
England Society of Cincinnati. After hearing it delivered on December
20, 1849, some political leaders insisted the speech be published and
widely circulated. As was the case throughout his long life, Charley’s
penchant for drawing a crowd and delivering compelling, often
entertaining orations, made him one of the most popular and controversial
speakers in the West. 16
     
    A talent for public speaking was a useful tool for an attorney. In
June 1850 partners Anderson andKing representedDr. William R.Winton in one of the most sensational criminal cases ever