‘Love it or leave it’

TO THE EDITOR:

Let me relate an example from local history of a leader who, in effect, said, “Love it or leave it.”

Washington, Ark. Mayor John Eakin, who was also editor of the Washington Telegraph newspaper, managed to keep a sane point of view at a time of confusing foment. Not a single Union soldier had been to his city during the War Between the States, but, at the end of the conflict, troops from Michigan came marching in, ostensibly to keep order. Emotions of the citizens ranged from fear to resentment to anger to frustration. So, the Yaleeducated mayor wrote a poignant editorial for his paper and made an impassioned speech.

In these, he asserted that all duties of patriotism concerning the Confederacy died when President Davis and his cabinet were captured and when the Southern congress dispersed. He held out no hope of the reassembling of the Confederate government. In Eakin’s words, “Nothing remains to which allegiance may attach.”

But there were those who could not accept this new configuration. To these, Eakin recommended moving to a new country, probably meaning Mexico, just across the Red River. Those who stayed, the great majority, were required to sign an oath of loyalty to the United States, which included swearing to abide by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Mayor Eakin had the gift of seeing the big picture. Provincial in his personal tastes, he was nonetheless cognizant of the world beyond his borders. He had read history and developed a deep understanding of the human heart in conflict with itself. He knew, as some had forgotten, that there was not just one single motive for the war, but many, some of them wildly contradictory. But, mainly, he knew the time had come for a powerful persuasive voice, which he provided eloquently.

Daniel G. Ford Washington, Ark.