Assassination Vacation

“Until that moment, I hadn’t realized that I embarked on the project of touring historic sites and monuments having to do with the assassinations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley right around the time my country iffily went to war, which is to say right around the time my resentment of the current president cranked up into contempt.”

This passage is important for two reasons: It helps establish Vowell’s own personal and political perspective, and it also explains why Vowell is interested in presidential assassinations and what motivated the assassins. Further, it sets up Vowell’s own musings on The Impact of Political Violence in American History and why she opposes political violence, even in situations where she disapproves of the president.

“One thing the Spanish king’s Catholicism and my rickety patriotism have in common, besides the high body count, is that both faiths can get a little ethereal and abstract. Jesus and Lincoln, Moses and Jefferson can seem so long gone, so unbelievable, so dead. It’s reassuring to be able to go look at something real, something you can put your hands on (though you might want to wash them afterward).”

Vowell’s use of the phrase “rickety patriotism” is critical to understanding Vowell’s own views of The Tension Between Patriotism and History. She genuinely holds positive and patriotic views of the United States and its history, but she is also cognizant of the negative aspects of US history, such as enslavement and atrocities against Indigenous Americans.

“The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Civil War—when I really think about them they all seem about as likely as the parting of the Red Sea. But somehow, jumping up a foot to stare at my own face framed in Lincoln’s Springfield shaving mirror makes the whole far-fetched, grisly, inspiring story of the country seem more shocking and more true.”

This passage conveys Vowell’s own sense of patriotism. For Vowell, the story of the United States is one of the conflict between American ideals and crimes. The Civil War and the ending of enslavement is one such example that Vowell finds an inspiring validation of the United States and its potential.