THE STUPOR PASSES -- SOMETHING ELSE BEGINS [Specimen Days]

This entry is regarding one out of the two days Whitman remembers the most clearly during the Civil War. This day, following the First Battle of Bull Run, marked the status of the war in that it wasn't a quick fight to be won by the North, and that the entire country was in it for the long haul. One might assume that a resident of the north's recollection of this moment might recounter it in a negative manner, but it seems as though Whitman recalls the memory with much excitement:

"Then the great New York papers at once appear'd...with leaders that rang out over the land with the loudest, most reverberating ring of clearest bugles, full of encouragement, hope, inspiration, unfaltering defiance. Those magnificent editorials!"

I can't help but think back to the Wilmot Proviso and how Whitman was against it, not because he was pro-slavery, but because he was anti-abolitionist - or against the idea of change for the country. If the North had won this battle and the war would have pretty much been over before it started, the Northerners would presume their feelings of hierarchy over the South, creating a divide in the moral amongst the American people. Whitman, above all else, was for equality, so in what seems to be some sort of backwards ideology, he thought positively of the Southerners, the pro-slavery side, winning this battle and putting the Northerners in their humbling place.

For in the humiliation of Bull Run, the popular feeling north, from its extreme of superciliousness, recoil'd to the depth of gloom and apprehension.

I feel as if there must be some other motive behind his reasoning for this... Or maybe his state was a common one for an American of the times.. One that was confused and torn between sides, and the issues with slavery: in theory supporting the abolition of it, but patriotically supporting its continuance because of America's history and commonality of slavery. It is like one who is raised with a certain religion, but grows to question the science of it... do they follow what has been engrained in them by their community/family/authority? or do they follow their reason and individual morality? Whitman seems to have his individual morality, disagreement with slavery, but overall desires to keep the beliefs of his community/family/authority, common moralities of America, in tact.