"But it required a disastrous, internecine war to bring this question of human freedom to a crisis, and the process of striking the shackles from the slave was accomplished in a single hour"
- Wendell Willkie
About this Quote
Wendell Willkie's quote talks to the harsh and tumultuous course towards human liberty, specifically in the context of ending slavery in the United States. In this declaration, he underscores the grave and extended struggles that societies frequently endure in the pursuit of justice and equality.
The phrase "dreadful, internecine war" refers directly to the American Civil War, a dispute fought from 1861 to 1865 between the Northern states (Union) and the Southern states (Confederacy) that withdrawed over issues including states' rights and, centrally, the extension of slavery. "Internecine" suggests a war that is devastating to both sides, highlighting the tragic and expensive nature of the conflict, which resulted in enormous loss of life and extensive suffering.
Willkie explains that this destructive war was necessary to bring the concern of human freedom "to a crisis." This suggests that the longstanding moral, political, and social disputes about slavery could not be resolved through tranquil methods alone, requiring a cataclysmic event to force a resolution. The "crisis" was the point of irreversible decision or conflict that required conclusive action, which, in this case, included the federal government taking concrete steps towards abolition.
The phrase "striking the shackles from the slave" evocatively explains the liberation of enslaved people, accomplished through legal and military procedures such as the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and the subsequent ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Willkie's choice of words, "accomplished in a single hour," suggests a momentous however quick modification-- though literal flexibility for numerous enslaved individuals included a complex and continuous process, the legal shift was indeed enacted quickly once the political and military conditions permitted it.
In essence, the quote poignantly assesses how the pricey and agonizing turmoil of war was paradoxically essential to achieve the moral and societal breakthrough of emancipation, transforming a long-debated problem into a truth of newly found liberty through decisive action.
This quote is written / told by Wendell Willkie between February 18, 1892 and October 8, 1944. He/she was a famous Lawyer from USA.
The author also have 27 other quotes.
"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of law, where there is no law, there is no freedom"
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question"
"We are all different. Yet we are all God's children. We are all united behind this country and the common cause of freedom, justice, fairness, and equality. That is what unites us"
