The Theory and Meaning of America

A Series Coming to Substack

25 years ago, Winde and I traveled with her folks to Hawaii. Most of the time we spent on the Big Island. On the last day of our trip we traveled to Oahu where we would catch the flight back home. That was the day we first visited Pearl Harbor, the Arizona Memorial and all that Pearl had to offer for a visitor to better understand what occurred on December 7, 1941.

After the visit, we had time before the flight, so my father-in-law, a Korean War veteran, desired to visit the National Cemetery of the Pacific, otherwise known as ‘Punchbowl Cemetery.” Punchbowl is the final resting place for thousands who served and died during World War II in the Pacific, and since. The cemetery is situated within the caldera of an extinct volcano about five or six miles from Honolulu. So we rented a car and headed to Punchbowl. I credit that decision as a sort of hinge point in my life. Had it not been for the experience we had that day at Punchbowl, I am confident I would not be writing this article, or most anything I have written since.

If you have been to Punchbowl Cemetery, you will remember it as one of the most picturesque spots you will have seen. Imagine Punchbowl as a giant natural stadium. If one were to scan the available view from any particular location within the caldera,, one will soon notice that practically every location within that stadium is visible from every other location. From vantage points on the rim, Diamond Head is seen to the East, the iridescent waters of the Pacific, Honolulu and Waikiki Beach to the South, and a constant display of rainbows are usually seen across the Northern arc of the crater, formed as trade winds, cooled as they pass over the inland mountain range, form a mist watering the natural landscape within the cemetery boundaries.

And by virtue of that arrangement, each final resting place is seemingly situated such that their eternal inhabitants can be continuously reminded of the gratitude of the nation for which they gave their last full measure of devotion. That is because, located at the focal point of the array of gravestones is an altar. And on that altar is inscribed the following:

THE SOLEMN PRIDE THAT MUST BE YOURS TO HAVE LAID SO COSTLY A SACRIFICE ON THE ALTER OF FREEDOM

I recall the feeling coming over me when reading that inscription for the first time, the gravestones of thousands of the nation’s dead behind me, as I struggled to fully comprehend the meaning the day had brought.

The moments spent that day with family, in an extinct volcano, would never depart my memory. I knew nothing about the inscription I read, its author, or the circumstances under which it was written. But life goes on.

Two years later, Winde and I went to a local theater to watch, Saving Private Ryan. The foundation of the plot is revealed in a scene during which the character of General George Marshall retrieves a letter from his top desk drawer and reads it to a staff member in his office. The letter was written by President Abraham Lincoln to a Mrs. Lydia Bixby, the mother of five sons killed in battle during the Civil War. Here’s what Lincoln wrote:

Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov 21, 1864.

To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Mass.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five (5) sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A Lincoln.

I finally had my answer. President Lincoln had written the inscription I read at Punchbowl two years earlier. The Letter to Mrs. Bixby is exquisitely written, expressing the condolences and gratitude of the American people to a mother grieving for an irreconcilable loss, in my opinion impeccably expressed.

Taken with my discovery, I desired to read more of what Lincoln had written or said during his life. At a local bookstore I found a compendium, about two inches thick, entitled, The Speeches and Writings of Abraham Lincoln. Now, I don’t read very fast, never have, which I consider a good thing should one attempt to read and understand archaic sentence structure as was common in the days of the American founding and the 19th century, certainly works of Lincoln, a master of the English language.

I brought the book home and soon began reading, slowly, deeply contemplating as I read. Over time, a mosaic of meaning began to build in my head. But it was only pieces, disjointed from one another, and difficult to fully understand, as in there was a big picture I wasn’t seeing. In fact, I was trying to understand a meaning so deep that I finally had to start writing down all that was amassing in my mind. I knew that if I did not write down all I was grasping to understand, I would likely never fully comprehend what Lincoln was telling me. And just as important to me at the time, it seemed that if I didn’t write it down, the knowledge I might write might even be lost to the world.

For over two years I jotted, wrote and rewrote, simply to visualize all that Lincoln was guiding me to understand. My ramblings became a book, self-published in 2004, In A Larger Sense-Rediscovering Lincoln’s America and Restoring American Principles. I wrote the book not for anyone else, necessarily, but so that I personally might understand what Lincoln, together with our founders were saying through time. I never imagined I would be preaching from the pulpit of my computer as I do these days. I never imagined I would be venturing into the night to speak to groups on all that I had learned. At the time, I was simply trying to understand what Lincoln’s speeches and writings were guiding me to know.

As a result, the Theory and Meaning of America, deriving from Lincoln’s works and America’s founding documents, is a subject I have decided to write here on Substack. I’m going to write all of this all down for you, 25 years’ worth, in a series of short, concise articles, explained as only I can, so that you might see what I see, know what I know, and apply that knowledge that in your own way aids to preserve this wonderful gift of God, America, for the next generations.

I hope you will not only subscribe to my substack, but also share it with your patriot friends, asking them to do the same. We are a team. I cannot accomplish this purpose without your help. The success of this project is up to you. I will do my part.

And please understand, I do not make money writing the truth. The truth is not for me to profit. The truth is owned by Him Who is truth. All we are entitled to do is convey it to others, freely giving as we receive, as is His will.

Be looking for the series, The Theory and Meaning of America, to start soon.

Thank you.

Hank