Democratic Vistas: The Original Edition in Facsimile

Democratic Vistas [Includes General Notes}

DEMOCRATIC VISTAS. Enured accordhlg to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by WALT WHITMAN, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at lrashington. Electrotyped by SMITH & McDOUGAL, 82 Beekman Street, New York. DEMOCRATIC VISTAS. AMERICA, filling the present with greatest deeds and problems, cheerfully accepting the past, including Feudalism, (as, indeed, the present is but the legitimate birth of the past, including feudalism,) counts, as I reckon, for her justification and success, (for who, as yet, dare claim success?) almost entirely on the future. Nor is that hope unwarranted. To-day, ahead, though dimly yet, we see, in vistas, a copious, sane, gigantic offspring. For our New World I consider far less important for what it has done, or what it is, than for results to come. Sole among nationalities, These States have assumed the task to put in forms of lasting power and practicality , on areas of amplitude rivaling the operations of the physical kosmos, the moral and political speculations of ages, long, long defened, the Democratic RepUblican principle, and the theory of development and. perfection by voluntary standards, and self-suppliance. Who else, indeed, except the United States, in history, so far, have accepted in unwitting faith, and, as we now see, stand, act upon, and go security for, these things? But let me strike at. once the key-note of my purpose in the following strain. First premising that, though passages of it have been written at widely different times, (it is, in fact, a collection of memoranda, perhaps for future designers, comprehenders,) and though it may be open to the charge of one part contradicting another-for there are opposite sides to the great question of Democracy, as to every great question-I feel 4 DElYroonATIC VISTAS. the parts harmoniously blended in my own realization and convictions, and present them to be read only in such oneness, each page modified and tempered by the others. Bear in mind, too, that they are not the result of studying up in political economy, but of the ordinary sense, observing, wandering among men, These States, these stirring years of war and peace. I will not gloss over the appalling dangers of universal suffrage in the United States. In fact, it is to admit and face these dangers I am writing. To him or her within whose thought rages the battle, advancing, retreating, between Democracy's convictions, aspirations, and the People's crudeness, vice, caprices, I mainly write this book. I shall use the words America and Democracy as convertible terms. Nat an ordinary one is the issue. The United States are destined either to SUl'mount the gorgeous history of Feudalism, or else prove the mosb tremendous fnilure of time. Not the least doubtful am I on any prospects of their material success. The triumphant future of their business, geographic, and productive departmeuts, on larger scales and in more varieties than ever, is certain. In those respects the Republic must soon (if she does not already) outstrip all examples hitherto afforded, and dominate the world.* * "From a territorial area of less than nine hundred thousand square miles, the Union has expanded into over four millions and a half-fifteen times larger than that of Great Britain and Frauce combined-with a shore-line, including Alaska, equal to the entire circumference of the earth, and with a domain within these lines far wider thari that of the Romans in their proudest days of conqueat and renown. -VVith a river, rake, and coastwise commerce estimated at over two thousand millions of dollars per year; with a railway trafiic of four to six thousand millions per year, and the annual domestic exchanges of the country running up to nearly ten thousand millions per year i with over two thousand millions of dollars invested in manufacturing , mechanical, and mining industry i with over five hundred millions of Rcres of land in actual occupancy, valued, with their appurtenances, at over seven thousand millions of dollars, and producing anllual1y crops valued at over three thousand millions of dollars; with a realm which, if the density of Belgium's DEMOCRATIC VISTAS. 5 Admitting all this, with the priceless value of our political institutions, general suffrage (and cheerfully acknowledging the latest, widest opening of the doors,) I say that, far deeper than these, what fiually and only is to make of OlU: Western World a Nationality superior to any hitherto known, and outtopping...