What Hath God Wrought

That's the title of a book that recently won Oxford historian Daniel Walker Howe the Pulitzer Prize. [ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7.]

It is derived from the Biblican verse Numbers 23:23.

The King James Version puts an emphatic exclamation mark after the phrase!

But, when Samuel Morse used it to make the first major telegraph transmission back in 1844, he put a question mark after it?

Howe intentionally put no punctuation after his title, because he wanted to leave it up to the reader whether it should be a statement or a question.

He's funny like that. I mean, he must be pretty peculiar to dedicate his opus to John Quincy Adams, of all people. But, that dedication proves merely a prelude for the pro-Whig, anti-Jackson theme of the entire book.

That bias was echoed by an introduction penned by Howe's editor, David M. Kennedy. They pooh-pooh the popular myth of Jackson as hero, saying he (and, by extension, his followers) "battled in ignorance" at New Orleans in 1815 and then throughout the era that ended with the Mexican War.

In their view, it is not the era's individualism and heroes that are noteworthy. Rather, they celebrate the growing collectivisms of big business, mass communication, abolition, etc. To them, "groupthink" trumps inspiration. And, it was the mindless pieces of artillery that won America's early battles, not the personal efforts of her leaders.

Poppycock and balderdash!

If, like Morse, one interprets the title of this book as a question, its author posits there are only two possible answers. What hath God wrought? Thomas Jefferson suggested an "empire of liberty." The Whig forebears of Howe and Kennedy, on the other hand, would have us stifle that aspiration for their vision of America as a "light of virtue unto the nations." Which answer is "right," liberty or virtue?

Yours truly will stand on the side of liberty. But, it takes all oars to propel a boat. So, if being a virtuous example to the world is your calling, go ahead. You may even earn a Pulitzer for your efforts . . .