In her chapter entitled Killing, Drew Gilpin Faust quotes Frederick Douglass saying, "there is no more exemption for nations than for individuals from the just retribution due to flagrant and persistent transgression" (Faust, 52-53). While Douglass was referring to Confederate transgressions as seen by the Union-sympathetic American government, his statement represents a belief held by the American government today. I am interested to know if the Civil War the first hint that America would identify itself as a protector and punisher in the world?
Faust continues Douglass' quote: "But the Civil War's 'tears and blood'...may at last bring us to our senses" (Faust, 53). But has it? Has America realized this 'but' in the pursuit of the protector/punisher identity? Or has America ignored this due to the "physical distance between enemies [that] facilitates emotional distance from destructive acts" (Faust, 41)? Or perhaps by some other means of justification just as Harry Stout makes clear America has done for itself within and in retrospect of its moral history?
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