So, to his credit, he goes back to the "all men are created equal" and Emerson to re-establish common ground, because he still has those ideals of unity and equality and appreciating difference. This was a very common position at the time. More so for Republicans, though.
Conversation
"Emerson and Whitman validate Kurzweil’s assumption that the human being is truly a pattern seeking animal...what is distinctive of both...is that [by] pinning down of the hierarchical structures they adhere to, one can deduce an aesthetic scheme...geared towards social change."
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"...the aestheticism of [Emerson's] philosophy of self-fashioning is not the choice or the continual adaptations to life’s situations... but the consent to allow nature and its beauty to have an impact on one’s outlook. That is all of the guidelines that Emerson gives..."
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"... to his audiences and readers and theoretically that would already be enough to have an influence on the social sphere, because the conflicts resulting from people subjective conception of beauty, morals and truth would then help progress history in Hegelian manner."
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"But since his order is not completely deterministic, Emerson knows that he can exercise power over the turnout of society and so he does through the language of his essays, but in compliance with his overarching principle. In constantly linking nature and beauty..."
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"...to society in his essays, Emerson gradually changes his readers’ mind-set. The pull of his work...temporary suspends everything around them; paradoxical and controversial actions by the government...commonly accepted norms...It re-establishes a relationship with nature..."
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"...that seemed to disappear, and if it does not changes society for the better, it at least exerts a counterforce to the socio-political circumstances and anything opposing self-reliance...Having been heavily influenced by Emerson, Whitman’s order [has similarities]..."
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"They both attempt to uncover fundaments of human nature that appear...obscured by processes of socialisation, but [while Emerson] tries to achieve this [with] a religiously-based transcendentalism from the start, it takes Whitman almost 2 decades to adopt a similar approach."
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"Regrettably, after the civil war and the disappointments it brought about, Whitman changes and instead of aiming for a universal comradeship, he makes it exclusively ‘national’ and primarily orients his suggestions for a better future to the elite of creative minds that need..."
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"...to steer the masses into the right direction by stimulating their imaginative energies... [his] aspirations & expectations have become more realistic...& his audience more specific....[He] still sympathised with the ideal of a harmonious togetherness..." 🤷♀️
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