Emerging Civil War
By Chris Mackowski, Ph.D. · Originally published March-April 2026 · pp. 50–51
By Chris Mackowski, Ph.D. “Patriotism and Intelligence” vs. “Superstition, Ambition, and Ignorance”
Apopular meme floating around Facebook for the past year or so features Ulysses S. Grant—President Grant, specifically, late in his second term. Perhaps you’ve seen it. He looks stern and a little beefy, and he warns, “If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other.” As with most memes, people pass Grant’s comment around as an admonition to pay heed to what the elders, in their great wisdom, once warned us about. “Look!” the meme suggests. “We’re living in the times Grant warned us about! We could be heading for another Civil War!” There is wisdom to Grant’s statement, no doubt, although the context behind it makes it a complicated comment to use as a cautionary tale for modern times. Grant made his prediction as part of a 1875 speech he gave at a reunion of the Army of the Tennessee in Des Moines, Iowa. At the time, immigration and education funding had become intertwined as political topics. According to the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, “Protestants had long feared that a growing number of Catholic immigrants would be more loyal to the Pope than to the U.S. government, and that efforts would soon be made to use public funds to subsidize Catholic schools around the country. Many Republicans, including Grant, embraced these fears and tried to make a political issue out of them.” Grant opposed spending public money on sectarian schools of any sort, although he otherwise encouraged the idea of “free school.” In this context, Grant made his warning against
A statue of John Adams stands in downtown Quincy, Massachusetts, at the north end of the Hancock-Adams Common. (Chris Mackowski)
“superstition, ambition, and ignorance.” Catholics the world over took offense at such references as a swipe at their religion, and charges of anti-Catholicism dogged Grant for years afterwards. As Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” In this short episode, we can see all sorts of resonances between Grant’s situation and today, but the comparisons are imperfect and muddy. One might try to cherrypick details to make a modern point about, say, immigration, but the comparison wouldn’t hold up. In fact, on a trip to Ireland a few years later as part of his acclaimed world tour, Grant assured the Irish— then facing British oppression—that America offered “a home for all who find themselves limited on this side of the water. We will make you all welcome when you come here to see us—and more than that, we will make you citizens.” Unfortunately, when people see the Grant meme, most of them don’t know where the quote actually comes from. They see it online, it accompanies a photo of Grant, and so it must be true, right? And it must be true, too, because the ideas of patriotism and intelligence are widely popular virtues, aren’t they? It’s little wonder that Grant’s comment might resonate so strongly with modern audiences. It sometimes seems like we’re living in an age where conspiracy theories trump facts, ignorance can appear willful, and people’s fears
overshadow their good sense and kindness. People tout “common sense” over expertise and intelligence, which sounds like a great idea except, as Voltaire once warned, “Common sense is not so common.” (I’m sure there’s a meme out there somewhere with Voltaire’s face on it with his quote scrawled out beside it.) The Grant meme came to mind because of another quote I saw online from another U.S. president, John Adams. In early December, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Adams Memorial–Great American Heroes Act (H.R. 2306), which finally advances long-stalled efforts to create a memorial for the Adams family in Washington, D.C. (Bipartisan legislation for the memorial first passed Congress in 2001.) “The legislation designates the memorial’s future location in President’s Park, just south of the White House,” the Adams Memorial Foundation reported, “a meaningful choice, as John Adams and his family were the very first to live in the White House. . . . The bill also extends the commission’s authorization through 2032, giving the necessary time to plan, design, and build a memorial worthy of the Adams legacy.” The Foundation has provided regular updates about the effort on its Facebook page. It also shares tidbits of info and trivia about various members of the Adams family, photos of primary documents, and, not surprisingly, Adams quotes. One such quote from this month happened to be one of my favorite Adams quotes of all, and it speaks directly to Grant’s fears about ignorance. Adams knew that a functioning democracy required an engaged citizenry well-informed enough to make its own decisions. “Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge,” Adams wrote in 1765. “Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.” And of course, reading, thinking, speaking, and writing are all active pursuits, not passive pastimes. One must engage. “Learning is not attained by chance,” John’s wife, Abigail Adams, once said; “it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.” The Foundation shared her quote a few days after it had shared John’s. Adams believed in the power of education so strongly that, when he drafted the Massachusetts constitution, he enshrined the right to a free public education in the document: Wisdom and Knowledge, as well as Virtue, diffused generally among the Body of the People, being necessary for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties; and as these depend on Spreading the Opportunities and Advantages of Education in the various parts of the Country and among the different orders of the People, it Shall be the duty of the Legislatures and Magistrates in all future periods of this Commonwealth, to cherrish the Interests of [Education]. . . . “[T]o my great Surprise,” Adams later admitted,” instead of Objections, it was received with Applause.” Lawmakers universally embraced the idea when they ratified the document. Since I’ve brought Adams and Grant into conversation through their two quotes, let me extend that conversation just a bit by bringing in a third: “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to
choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” That’s FDR’s “Message for Education Week” in September 1938. And so, if we are to avoid “another contest,” as Grant put it, we must actively cultivate our “patriotism and intelligence” by reading, thinking, speaking, and writing. We must engage, and we must do so with “ardor and diligence.” We must cherish the means of knowledge. We must safeguard education so that we may “choose wisely.” Ignore those memes that let us “prove” a point with smug self-satisfaction. Don’t mistake click-bait headlines for information. Remember that algorithms give us information that confirms rather than challenges our biases and tells us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. Be on guard against “superstition, ambition and ignorance.” Democracy is not a spectator sport but a responsibility. Emerging Civil War has announced our full slate of speakers for our 12th Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, August 7–9, 2026, in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Our theme will be “Partnerships and Rivalries” and will feature two keynote speakers: • •
Harold Holzer—Presidents in Print: The Dueling Images of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis Dr. Craig Symonds—Admirals in Blue and Gray: Farragut and Buchanan
The rest of our line-up includes eight other speakers: • • • • •
• • •
Kris White—“Heavens, How They Hate Him”: Braxton Bragg and the Army of Tennessee’s High Command Dr. Angela Zombeck—Partners in Escape: POW Escape Attempts and Plots, Successful and Stymied Joseph Ricci—“Not with a Pen but a Sword”: George H. Thomas and John M. Schofield Pat Kelly-Fischer—Duel in the Desert: Canby and Sibley’s Fight for the West Neil Chatelain—The Mississippi River vs. Everyone: How Grant, Foote, Pope, Farragut, Porter, Butler, Lovell, Johnston, Beauregard, and Hollins had to fight the “Father of Waters” before fighting each other Ryan Quint—“With Friends Like These…”: Ambrose Burnside and Joseph Hooker, Late 1862 Tim Smith (of the East)—Friction in Command: Personal and Professional Conflicts Between the Union Commanders During the Gettysburg Campaign Evan Portman—Frenemies: The Partnership and Rivalry of Joshua Chamberlain and Ellis Spear
We will also have a Friday night panel discussion focused on our theme, plus a Sunday morning tour titled “Stonewall Jackson’s Arresting Personality” conducted by Chris Mackowski. Tickets for the three-day event are $325. To order, or for more information, visit https://emergingcivilwar.com/ecw_ event/2026-symposium/.
Photographs from the Original Article
Captions and credits appear in the article text as originally printed.