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June 30 - July 6, 2005 Edition
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Print The nation's 'Glorious Cause' June 30, 2005
It must be the simplest title of recent years: “1776,” nothing more, four numerals, that’s all, no subtitle, nothing but 1776. And those four numbers were enough to rocket David McCullough’s most recent book to the top of the New York Times Best Seller non-fiction list in its first week of publication. Those numbers, as every school girl knows, label the year in which the Declaration of Independence was signed and when disorganized farmers tossed aside their hoes to take on the world’s superpower, England. It was the year in which the nation’s most patriotic, flag-waving holiday was born: the Fourth of July. McCullough, true to the facts of history, doesn’t even mention the Fourth (at least this reader didn’t spot it). He correctly marks the critical dates of the Declaration as July 2 (the day it was passed by the Continental Congress, the day John Adams thought would go down in history) and July 9 (when it was read to the soldiers in New York). John Trumbull’s classic painting of the signing, with all 54 signers waiting around a big table for their turn to sign after John Hancock, was artistic license. Those 54 men whose names are at the bottom of the document never were in the same room at the same time gathered to sign that parchment. Indeed, the last few signatures weren’t affixed until as late as October. But who cares? Trumbull’s painting, with its famous personages and well-dressed delegates, has burned into the public’s perception. And that is what matters. This week, in 2005, a weird coincidence puts a mystery novel with the unlikely title, “4th of July,” atop the New York Times Best Seller list for fiction, alongside the McCullough work in the non-fiction list. Thus “1776” and “4th of July” are joined, if not by McCullough, at least by retailers. What a wonderful “two-for” opportunity. Buy 1776 and get the 4th of July for half price. That coincidence tells us something about the national mood. Of course, there are some English letters on the cover — letters that would propel any book to number one. They spell David McCullough. David McCullough is one of us: a Vineyarder, our most famous and most honored year-round resident, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner (perhaps to be three-time). This, his latest work, is a microscopic view of the year in which this nation was conceived. It is filled with quotations from hundreds of letters, diaries, newspapers, and journals, all written as the events took place. With a contemporaneous intimacy, they provide a picture of the way those soon-to-be-Americans felt about what was happening. How many thousands of documents McCullough read and excerpted is known only to him, if indeed he can do any more than guess. But there must have been many. Those quotations tell of a population less certain of its goal than we were taught in elementary school. There were plenty of doubters around the country. Many preferred the certainty of the known to the uncertainty of the unknown: independence. That was especially true here on the Vineyard (an area not mentioned by McCullough for the simple reason that it didn’t play any important role in the Glorious Cause, as the struggle came to be called). Islanders were more eager for defense from a British invasion than to take up arms to fight for freedom. The central character in the book is the father of our country, George Washington, who is described as an indecisive, reluctant leader. With no experience in command before taking over, he spent most of the year in masterful retreats as he struggled against odds to keep his ragtag force intact. Only in the final days did his steadfastness and leadership bring a victory. It was his surprise crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night that changed the tide. At a time when the desecration of the Koran is so much in the news, it is ironic that we have no problem celebrating Washington’s choice of the birthday of the Prince of Peace for his most successful military operation. Among those ragtag troops there was little enthusiasm. Disorganized and poorly equipped, most of them counted off the days until their enlistment was over so they could head home, often taking their muskets with them. One of this reader’s favorite images from the book is that of the young soldier, going home, his enlistment over, “lugging a cannonball, to give to his mother, he explained, to use to pound mustard seed.” McCullough provides hundreds of similar peeks into life in the year 1776. This is a volume that any person with a historical bent will enjoy and learn from, a book that can be read and reread with pleasure, to be dipped into again and again as the mood strikes. It was conceived and born in a setting that no Hollywood designer could improve upon: a small, shingled shed that looks like a misplaced fisherman’s shack from Menemsha. It sits behind a trim Colonial white house rimmed by a picket fence and across the street from the jewel-like old West Tisbury Public Library, once a one-room school. And if that isn’t enough, the street carries the melodious name, Music Street. Anyone lucky enough to pass by early most any morning is likely to see the author as he takes his five-minute walk to pick up his newspaper, strolling down Music Street, past the one-time Dukes County Academy building, the Island’s first high school, then turning left to walk by the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury, moved there years ago from its original location in the cemetery, and then to step onto the porch of Alley’s General Store, “Dealers in almost everything,” a slogan that goes back to when Sanderson Mayhew ran the store in the 1800s. It is a setting that is, to use a cliché you will never find in a McCullough book, “as American as apple pie.” Arthur Railton first came to the Island in 1923 to spend the summer. He was determined to live here some day, and in 1977, he and his wife moved into their house on South Summer Street. Summers since 1959, Mr. Railton has set up headquarters in a rented camp on Quitsa Pond, built by Island historian, the late Gale Huntington. In 1978, at Gale Huntington’s urging, Mr. Railton became editor of The Dukes County Intelligencer, the quarterly journal of the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society. Mr. Railton’s history of the Island, entitled, “The Story of Martha’s Vineyard: How We Got to Where We Are,” will be published next year. |
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