A reader's guide to: Upon the Hundred-and-Eightieth Commemoration of Old Hickory’s Second Inaugural
Upon the Hundred-and-Eightieth Commemoration of Old
Hickory’s Second Inaugural
(A reader’s guide)
(God bless you. 2
¡Salud!), 3
Repudiate rather, 4
The comic shuck and jive— 5
The marionetted minstrelsy— 6
In exchange for three 7
Hundred million in blue face, 8
Waiting still 9
To breathe, 10
Recalling the first slap, 11
To work or thrive, 12
To subsist free of concocted 13
Liberty: populist distraction. 14
Hopes collected— 16
Empty glass bottles held 17
For deposit refunds— 18
And placed on plastic counters 19
—To be refilled with juiceless 20
aides and drinks and soda: 21
now fizzless, headless— 22
now sugarless 23
ales and whiskies— 24
To be shot to chards 25
As target practice by 26
De-automated magazines, 27
Dueler’s pistols only: 28
By disarmed militia. 29
Nullification 30
Postponed. 31
Second coronation, 32
Constitutional assault reified, 33
Consolidated in spoils. 34
Second inaugural, 35
Crisis with plenary 36
Approval—unchecked King mob. 37
Second bank defunded, 38
Debt re-deposited beneath 39
Ceilings, over cliffs. 40
Second chance again, 41
To uphold the first impression, 42
To re-fight revolutions 43
Mythic for the second time: 44
Hero of New Orleans. 45
As migrant red faces— 46
Flush with defeat, 47
With tearful diffusion— 48
Turn to blue faces 49
Then turn to grey, 50
Then ashen, 51
Now dust. 52
1-52: This reader’s guide deals specifically with content and not style nor form (which are meant to magnify the content). It is written as an aid for understanding the historical and cultural frame that sits around the poem itself. As with all poetry, the cadences, stanzas, structure, and beat are carefully wrought and derive their strength in their audible utterance (read it out loud). While I do not specifically address these stylistic concerns, I might ask readers to consider (in this poem) the pomp of an inauguration and the zeal of a march with the democratic fervor of loosely constrained delimiters.
1-3: Eschew
means to dismiss, but when spoken out loud, it also sounds like a sneeze. In the U.S., you generally say, “God bless
you,” when somebody sneezes. Today,
there is also much discussion about our relationship with Mexico, much as there
was during Jackson’s Presidency as the seeds of the war with Mexico were being
laid. Spanish speakers generally say,
“Salud,” meaning “to your health,” when somebody sneezes. This acknowledges the omnipresence of this as
an issue in both Jackson’s time and ours.
This “call and response” also alludes to the style of slave spiritual
song which gave birth to the blues, which begat jazz which begat rock and roll.
4-5: Repudiate
is a loose synonym for eschew, in case you didn’t get it the first time. “Shuck and jive” is a term to describe the
activities of slaves in the old south, Jackson’s south. “Shuckin’ and jivin’” indicates that slaves
would say “yessir” to placate their masters, or act dumb when they really had
other motives: deceptive. This term
became central to the understanding of slave culture and eventually came to
carry negative connotations. In present
parlance, “shuck and jive” means something similar to “bob and weave” around
the truth. It still carries racist
overtones. Sarah Palin, a Conservative
American icon, former Republican governor of Alaska, and Republican Vice
Presidential candidate in 2008, made a comment including the phrase about
Barack Obama. She was asked by political
foes to “repudiate” her comments as racist.
There is ambiguity in this line of the poem. Are we asking history’s Jackson to repudiate
the slave culture which he strongly supported in 1834 or are we asking our
present selves to repudiate the racist overtones of using the phrase today?
6: Marionettes
are puppets. Minstrelsy is the
nineteenth and twentieth century practice of dressing white actors in “black
face” because they did not want to involve true African Americans in the stage,
although they needed them to be characters in some dramatic presentations. Today, the idea of “black face” is highly
offensive. In Jackson’s day, this was
considered acceptable. Regardless of how
black characters are “played” on the stage, it is impossible to imagine the
telling of America’s story without the inclusion of the black experience. Indeed, today’s American culture is strongly
influenced by the black experience which has largely come to define popular
culture (eg. blues, jazz, rock, rap).
Barack Obama, son to a black father and white mother, could be
considered a white man in black face—both genetically and metaphorically. While this is in many ways a “repudiation” of
our storied past relationship with race, it also stands as a moral social
victory over racism. On another level,
there are those who might believe that Barack Obama is nothing but a puppet of
the democrat party who uses his appearance as a black man to justify “shuckin’
and jivin’” around political action.
7-8: The
population of the United States in 2013 is approximately 300 million. This line is presented to reinforce the
temporal simultaneity of the issues the poem addresses. Ostensibly, the poem is about Andrew
Jackson’s second inauguration, but is also unapologetically about the issues we
face in 2013 which can, in many ways, be traced back to 1833. The term, “blue face” is a play on the idea
of “black face.” It can be interpreted
in many ways simultaneously. If one holds
their breath, they become “blue in the face.”
In twentieth century politics, Republicans are described as “red” while
Democrats are described as “blue.” These
descriptions developed from media reporting that would color states on a map of
the U.S. as either red or blue to help visualize election results. With the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012,
the popular statement is that the United States is becoming “more blue.” As democracy rules, we imagine that the faces
of all American are blue, like the majority of states in which they live. This red state/blue state=red face/blue face
dichotomy is revisited later in the poem.
9-10: Expands the
first explanation of “blue face” from above, people holding their breath in
anticipation of…something.
11: The “first
slap,” describes the first slap given to a newly-born child to make him
breathe. Until a child’s first breath,
its face is blue and unoxygenated. We
also slap (adult) people who are holding their breath to make them
breathe. In Jackson’s day, America was
still young. He was present at the birth
of the nation, so he could remember the “first slap” on a baby America. As this poem is about his second election, it
could also apply to the first election which, to all of those people who voted
against him, was the first slap in the face.
This could also apply to the re-election of Barack Obama.
12-14: “Waiting
still… to work or thrive.” One of the
great challenge of all Presidents is the charge of the economy to ensure that
Americans are able to work and survive.
This was as true in Jackson’s presidency as it is in Obama’s
America. Americans in 2013 are reminded
each day of poverty and unemployment. In
the throes of a weak economy, people lower their expectations: pleased to keep
their heads above water.
In the paradigm of lowered expectations, politicians
distract those struggling economically by diverting attention toward those
other things that government is able to provide such as new “rights.” If citizens are unable to achieve power economically,
a government may instead redistribute—if not dollars—power from those who
“have” toward those that “have not.” The
redistribution of economic and political resources from one “class” to another
is the tactic that has been employed in the name of “populism” since its
inception. “Populism” was being
developed within the democrat party as early as the Jackson years, found its
most powerful explicit enunciation in the late nineteenth century and is
currently implicit in the rhetoric of the democrats—led by Barack Obama—in
2013.
16: Barack
Obama’s campaign was built upon the twin rhetorical tools of “hope” and
“change.” The idea of hope was also
implicit in Jackson’s era as America looked westward toward the promise of
America’s geographical and cultural possibilities.
17-18: In certain
states, you pay a fee when you purchase glass bottles. You may later return those bottles for a 5 or
10 cent refund. This is a government
initiative designed to change behavior, to promote recycling. In 2013, the use of glass bottles is waning
as plastic and aluminum cans are increasingly popular. The first widespread use of mass manufactured
glass bottles, on the other hand, was just taking off in 1833: a fledgling innovation in packaging. Glass bottles, whether in 1833 or 2013, are
vessels whose intrinsic value is in their ability to hold things. One cannot bottle “hope,” as it is an
idea. A bottle filled with hope, then,
will always be empty.
20: Plastic is
widely used in 2013, creating a temporal juxtaposition of the 19th
century technology, glass, against the ubiquitous 21st century
technology, plastic. Nonetheless, we
imagine bottles lined up and empty on a flat surface.
21-24: There are
many liquids that can rightly be preserved in glass bottles. The word “aides” is a pun used to describe
juiceless, sugary drinks (like KoolAid) that are prevalently provided to the
poor instead of truly nutritious juices.
There is also a popular phrase, “drink the KoolAid,” which is used to
describe group behaviors that are blindly followed. A twentieth-century American cult committed
mass-suicide by drinking poisoned KoolAid.
The word aide also refers to the people with whom a President surrounds
himself. They are meant to be extensions
of the leader himself and to carry out the policies the President
supports. These bureaucratic aides are,
themselves, empty vessels, filled with only the “juice” of the leader’s own
mind.
Sodas,
beers, and spirits like whiskey, all meant to deliver forms of mind-altering
drink without nutrition, lose their properties when exposed to air. A poorly-sealed glass bottle will render
these drinks “fizzless” or “head” less in short time. If the drinks are likened to “hopes” then to
render them fizzless or headless is to take away the freshness of the ideas
that underlie the hope. Thus, we are
left with empty bottles—hopeless—with only stale inebriation. A failed government will keep its people
drunk so as to distract from the fact that hope is hapless.
25-29: Having
creating the image of empty bottles lined up on flat surface, the common image
of people shooting those bottles comes into easy focus. Using bottles as target practice is a
commonly-used trope when discussing the wild west (for which Jackson stands as
a ready nineteenth century symbol when considering that Tennessee was the wild
frontier in his early days).
A
raging debate has re-surfaced around the time of Obama’s second inauguration
relative to the second amendment, especially in light of the mass shootings at
Sandy Hook Elementary school in December of 2012. In its wake, much of the debate centers
around what the “founding fathers” would have thought about such technologies
as gun automation and high capacity ammunition magazines. In Jackson’s day, such technologies did not
exist. Thus, there is a push commonly
aligned with Obama’s administration that would like to see the rights of gun
owners rolled back to more closely resemble those that existed during Jackson’s
time. Clearly, this is not a position
that Jackson would have taken, as he carried a gun and even took part in as
many as ten pistol duels. The pistols
used in duels, though, were technologically primitive in relation to what are
available today, but represent the caricatured ideal what 2013 gun opponents
would like to see available to citizens except the military (of which the
President is the “Commander in chief”). To further extend this juxtaposition, a
direct reference to the second amendment is offered as the Constitutional
justification of the “right to bear arms” is for the maintenance of
militia. Twentieth century gun rights
opponents consider this anachronistic as America has a well-armed military to
protect its borders. In Jackson’s day,
with the revolution still a smoldering memory, the need for a militia to
protect the people against the government itself was likely a more reasonable
interpretation of the passage’s definition of rights. This entire stanza places in direct
opposition the cultural and political realities that, although driven by similar
populist idealism, have led to dramatically different policy
prescriptions. Time, then, intervenes
between the gaps in ideology. Both are
men of their own times.
31-32: A major issue
that came to a head during Jackson’s tenure was known as the “nullification
crisis,” in which representatives of the southern states, in opposition to what
was called the “tariff of abominations,” threatened to “nullify” any federal
laws that they felt unjust. Jackson
worked to mollify these concerns by asserting the primacy of the Federal
government in what amounted to a convenient interpretation of the
Constitution. In fact, the solution to
the growing sectionalism was more a deferral of the underlying Constitutional
issues than solution. America would see
sectionalism increase and reassert itself with increasing passion in the
ensuing decades, leading ultimately to the Civil War. Sectionalism continues to be an issue in the
United States, though the boundaries are more clearly defined between
rural-versus-metro rather geographical.
32-34: America, a
constitutional republic, does not have a monarch. Political opponents of Jackson, just like
those of Obama, assert the rhetoric of anti-royalism to describe the
consolidation of presidential power. Of
course, this is bombast. Nonetheless,
each change in leadership in Washington leads the opposing side to invoke this
rhetoric and cloak it as an assault on the American “way of life” protected by
the Constitution: civil rights, gun
ownership, nullification, federal institutions and their growth.
The “spoils system” was heavily used by Jackson to reward
his political supporters with jobs. In
2013 America, the system continues with the knowledge that control and growth
of the federal bureaucracy both solidifies power as well as provides a
significant voting bloc.
35-37: In stark contrast to “coronation,” the United
States has an “inauguration” of the President in a peaceful and
constitutionally-prescribed transfer of power.
The Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mandates that the President be inagurated at noon on January 20th in the year after his election. During Jackson's time, the inauguration occurred in March. A second inauguration indicates a transfer to self, although second
elections are often treated as “mandates” that are provided by the people.
Jackson claimed justification for his sometimes awful positions (especially
toward Native Americans and African Americans) in the power of democracy. He was known by some detractors as “King
mob,” a nickname that blends the irony of the juxtaposition between the
“coronation” and “inauguration.”
38-40: One of the
major “constitutional crises” of Jackson’s tenure was the de-funding of the
Second National Bank of the United States which he believed was an abominable
institution geared toward enriching the wealthy at the cost of common men. Despite a law passed by Congress which had
extended its life, Jackson unilaterally destroyed the bank by withdrawing all
Federal funds from it thereby re-defining the American banking system. His populist attack on banking, based in a
general disregard for Economics in favor of politics, is not unlike the banking
crises that Obama inherited in his first term and perpetuated during fights
over the debt ceiling, sequestration, and the “fiscal cliff.”
41-45: Jackson was
the “hero of New Orleans” as the leader of a military battle during the War Of
1812. His victory in the battle actually
came days AFTER the war ended, but nonetheless secured Jackson’s place as a
military leader and national hero. One
of the great political blunders of all time, and one which candidate Obama was
able to capitalize upon during his first presidential campaign, was his
predecessor, George W. Bush’s handling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe in
New Orleans. Because Obama was not Bush,
he became the rhetorical hero by that fact.
In both cases, Obama and Jackson are heroes in perception—myth—much more
than in reality.
The War of 1812 was, in many ways, a continuation of the
Revolutionary war in which the young America was forced to re-assert its
independence against England. Jackson’s,
like Obama’s, first election was considered revolutionary in American history. Thus, their respective second elections (like
the War of 1812), were revolutionary again.
46-52: Here again,
we call on the imagery of “red state” versus “blue state.” Red Republicans were defeated, and thus
remain frustrated. The imagery of red
faces also calls upon Jackson’s most enduring legacy of what some might call
“evil” against Native Americans. Jackson
orchestrated the “trail of tears,” the harsh and uncivil forced removal of
Native Americans from the east to the west of the United States. Despite Jackson’s championship of the common
American, this did not include women, African Americans, or Native
Americans. “Blue” faces also recalls the
“hopeful” Americans mentioned earlier in the poem. In death, all of these faces are ashen. Re-joining the past with the present, there
is also an unspoken pun relating the Trail of Tears—Indian slaughter during
Jackson’s time—with the Trail of “Tea”-ers—2013 “Tea Party” Republicans who
were rather soundly repudiated during the last presidential election
cycle.
One generation after Jackson’s presidency, and sown in many
of his policies, American fought the Civil War.
This was known as the war between
the “blue and the grey.” Union soldiers
wore blue uniforms, Confederate soldiers wore grey. During the American Civil war, regardless of
the color of the uniforms, over 600,000 were killed, creating lifeless, ashen
faces. Obama has been a war President as
the commander and chief of operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, which many
consider other nation’s civil wars.
Recalling that this poem is ostensibly about Jackson, we are
reminded that all of the characters in it are dead, returned to the “dust” of
the Earth.
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