Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
The two had a son, lived together for a time in Florence, then sought economic
opportunities by sailing to America in 1850. Their ship wrecked and sank near Fire
Island, New York, drowning Fuller, Ossoli, and their child.
4.17.1 The Great Lawsuit: Man versus Men, Woman versus
Women
(1843)
This great suit has now been carried on through many ages, with various
results. The decisions have been numerous, but always followed by appeals to still
higher courts. How can it be otherwise, when the law itself is the subject of frequent
elucidation, constant revision? Man has, now and then, enjoyed a clear, triumphant
hour, when some irresistible conviction warmed and puried the atmosphere of
his planet. But, presently, he sought repose after his labors, when the crowd of
pigmy adversaries bound him in his sleep. Long years of inglorious imprisonment
followed, while his enemies revelled in his spoils, and no counsel could be found
to plead his cause, in the absence of that all-promising glance, which had, at times,
kindled the poetic soul to revelation of his claims, of his rights.
Yet a foundation for the largest claim is now established. It is known that
his inheritance consists in no partial sway, no exclusive possession, such as his
adversaries desire. For they, not content that the universe is rich, would, each one
for himself, appropriate treasure; but in vain! The many-colored garment, which
clothed with honor an elected son, when rent asunder for the many, is a worthless
spoil. A band of robbers cannot live princely in the prince’s castle; nor would he, like
them, be content with less than all, though he would not, like them, seek it as fuel
for riotous enjoyment, but as his principality, to administer and guard for the use
of all living things therein. He cannot be satised with any one gift of the earth, any
one department of knowledge, or telescopic peep at the heavens. He feels himself
called to understand and aid nature, that she may, through his intelligence, be
raised and interpreted; to be a student of, and servant to, the universe-spirit; and
only king of his planet, that, as an angelic minister, he may bring it into conscious
harmony with the law of that spirit.
Such is the inheritance of the orphan prince, and the illegitimate children of his
family will not always be able to keep it from him, for, from the elds which they
sow with dragon’s teeth, and water with blood, rise monsters, which he alone has
power to drive away.
But it is not the purpose now to sing the prophecy of his jubilee. We have
said that, in clear triumphant moments, this has many, many times been made
manifest, and those moments, though past in time, have been translated into
eternity by thought. The bright signs they left hang in the heavens, as single stars
or constellations, and, already, a thickly-sown radiance consoles the wanderer in
the darkest night. Heroes have lled the zodiac of benecent labors, and then given
up their mortal part to the re without a murmur. Sages and lawgivers have bent
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