An American Jeremiah in Rome: A Study of Margaret Fuller's ... - aisna
An American Jeremiah in Rome: A Study of Margaret Fuller's ... - aisna
An American Jeremiah in Rome: A Study of Margaret Fuller's ... - aisna
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114 RSA Journal 11<br />
Indeed, the conviction that the Italians were not ready to face<br />
the responsibilities <strong>of</strong> democracy pervades the private history <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Roman republic throughout. In a letter to Costanza Arconati<br />
Visconti <strong>in</strong> which she defended republicanism aga<strong>in</strong>st her moderate<br />
friend's preference for constitutional monarchy, Fuller acknowledged<br />
that "Italy may not be ready for it yet." 35 Her statements to the<br />
leader <strong>of</strong> the democratic party Giuseppe Mazz<strong>in</strong>i, who had<br />
returned to Italy from his exile <strong>in</strong> London dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>Rome</strong>'s brief<br />
republican <strong>in</strong>terlude, also reveal her doubts about the Italians'<br />
fitness for participatory democracy. In reply to his melancholy<br />
assertion that he had come back to die <strong>in</strong> his country after not<br />
be<strong>in</strong>g able to live <strong>in</strong> it, she wrote reassur<strong>in</strong>gly, "You do not return<br />
to sleep under the sod <strong>of</strong> Italy, but to see your thought spr<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g<br />
up all over her soil." Still she admitted, extend<strong>in</strong>g the natural<br />
metaphor, that "the gardeners seem to me, <strong>in</strong> po<strong>in</strong>t <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>st<strong>in</strong>ctive<br />
wisdom or deep thought, mostly <strong>in</strong>competent to the care <strong>of</strong> the<br />
garden." 36 <strong>Fuller's</strong> negative evaluation <strong>of</strong> the Italians' political<br />
capacity, however, is <strong>in</strong>variably accompanied by the assurance that<br />
democracy would eventually prevail. In her letter to Visconti she<br />
also wrote, "I am no bigoted Republican, yet I th<strong>in</strong>k that form <strong>of</strong><br />
government will eventually pervade <strong>of</strong> the civilized world." Italy,<br />
she was certa<strong>in</strong>, "would not f<strong>in</strong>d peace earlier. " 37 She similarly<br />
counteracted her critique <strong>of</strong> the Italian patriots <strong>in</strong> her letter to<br />
Mazz<strong>in</strong>i, where she added that his republican ideal "will be able to<br />
use any implements, it is to be hoped will educate the men, by<br />
mak<strong>in</strong>g them work." 38 It is precisely this comb<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>of</strong> refutation<br />
(Italians are unfit for republicanism) and assertion (Italy will—one<br />
day—be republican) that reveals <strong>Fuller's</strong> adherence to nationalist<br />
ideology. Such comb<strong>in</strong>ation, <strong>in</strong> fact, resolves the <strong>in</strong>evitable tension<br />
between two powerful and equally important tenets <strong>of</strong> midn<strong>in</strong>eteenth-century<br />
<strong>American</strong> nationalism, the vision <strong>of</strong> the United<br />
States as "redeemer nation" dest<strong>in</strong>ed to democratize the world by<br />
example and thereby transform other countries <strong>in</strong> its image, and<br />
the equally appeal<strong>in</strong>g notion <strong>of</strong> the United States as "exceptional",<br />
forever different from and superior to other nations. 39 By portray<strong>in</strong>g<br />
Italians as unsuccessful revolutionists, Fuller was contribut<strong>in</strong>g to the<br />
fabrication <strong>of</strong> an exalted image <strong>of</strong> America as the only extant