When President Benjamin Harrison issued his “Proclamation 335 -- 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America by Columbus,” on July 21, 1892, he emphasized how the great discoverer pioneered “progress and enlightenment,” reflected four centuries later in America’s system of universal education:
Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day's demonstration.
President Harrison also highlighted the patriotic motivations for the holiday, and the shared “devout faith” -- Christianity -- of Columbus and the American people, so abundantly blessed by “Divine Providence”:
Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship. In the churches and in the other places of assembly of the people let there be expressions of gratitude to Divine Providence for the devout faith of the discoverer and for the divine care and guidance which has directed our history and so abundantly blessed our people.
As we celebrate Columbus Day -- for those of us still inoculated enough against cultural relativist depravity to do so -- it is also worth recapturing concretely the specific late 15th century religious motivations for Columbus’ voyage. Simply put, Columbus sought “eastern (even far eastern) alliances” to end a millennium of Islam’s jihad-imposed tyranny against Christendom. Louis Bertrand’s scholarly 1934 tome, The History of Spain, elegantly -- and unapologetically -- characterized the now well-nigh forgotten, or ignored, historical context.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment