With the attendance of only two people, John Jay
Chapman, a graduate of Harvard, delivered a speech in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.
He spoke about a lynching that had took place there and about the indifference
the people felt towards it. Chapman claimed that, even if the bystanders took
no part in the lynching, everyone was to blame for it. He explained that the
true cause for the crime was due to the people as a whole and that America must
correct an evil within everyone and they wish to stop future crimes from taking
place.
Chapman argued that the cause of these crimes was
due to the lack of love in the hearts of the American people. He expresses this
through figurative language and Enumeration. “As I read the newspaper accounts
of the scene enacted here in Coatesville a year ago, I seemed to get a glimpse
into the unconscious soul of this country. I saw a seldom revealed picture of
the American heart and of the American nature. I seemed to be looking into the
heart of the criminal—a cold thing, an awful thing” (Chapman 71-72). Utilizing
satire to make his next point, Chapman blames the flaws in humanity in order to
bring in his real purpose: Reflecting and reshaping. After pointing out the
issue, the indifference, in humanity, he writes, “I say that our need is new
life, and that books and resolutions will not save us, but only such disposition
in our hearts and souls as will enable the new life, love, force, hope, virtue,
which surround us always, to enter us” (Chapman 73). By abandoning our hate,
Chapman believes will we be able to find the kindness to erase the evils in all
of us. Overall, the essay is nicely tied together and effectively turns the lynching
in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, into a much broader concern that may inspire
people to want to change the way they are towards others.
Bibliography
“John Jay Chapman”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encylcopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia
Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 28 Aug. 2016
To feel apathy towards evil is to wish death on all kindness
source: blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com
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