HIS TROPE GOES MARCHING ON

MARK TWAIN'S CHARACTER, JIM, A SLAVE IN THE NOVEL, "THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN," FREED HIMSELF JUST LIKE BLACK CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS "FREED" THEMSELVES. JIM'S PLUCK ALSO FREED HUCK, WHO WAS BESET BY HIS OWN FAMILIAL DEMON, HIS DRUNKEN DAD.

NOTWITHSTANDING ITS "NORTHERN" POLITICAL, AND INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EXPEDIENCY, THE EXECUTIVE ORDER ISSUED BY PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON JANUARY 1, 1863, "THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION," WHICH FREED "SOUTHERN" SLAVES OVER WHOM HE LACKED JURISDICTION, WHILE NOT FREEING "NORTHERN" SLAVES WITHIN HIS JURISDICTION,  THE "FREEDOM WAR" WOULD STILL HAVE BEEN LOST! 

THERE WOULD BE NO "UNION" TODAY KNOWN AS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BUT FOR THE INDISPENSABLE, SELF-LIBERATING CONTRIBUTIONS OF 200,000 BLACK SOLDIERS AND SAILORS, AND THOUSANDS MORE OF THEIR "CONTRABAND OF WAR" KINSMEN, THE UNITED STATES WOULD HAVE BEEN DEFEATED. "THIS SABLE ARM" AS HISTORIAN SAMUEL CORNISH HAS TERMED THEM, WHOSE ENLISTMENT, SERVICES, LIVES, AND PENT-UP POWER, LINCOLN'S ORDER ENABLED, FREED HIM!

FAR FROM FREEING THE SLAVES, THE SLAVES FREED LINCOLN AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FROM ITS "TAR-BABY" CHARADE OF NATIONAL HYPOCRISY, LEGAL SLAVERY: CUSTOMARY, CONSTITUTIONAL, STATUTORY AND COMMERCIAL. 

THE SAME IS TRUE OF JIM. HE FREED HIMSELF BY RUNNING AWAY FROM SLAVERY. THIS ACT ALSO FREED HUCK FINN WHO WAS FLEEING HIS FATHER'S TYRANNY. TOGETHER, THEY TRIUMPHED OVER THEIR TWIN TERRORS ON A RAFT FLOATING SOUTH DOWN THE INEXORABLE AND QUIXOTIC MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

MARK TWAIN'S DEEPLY CODED EPIC IS RIGHTFULLY AN AMERICAN LITERARY CLASSIC, A METAPHOR ARTFULLY ALLEGORIZING ITS GREATEST NATIONAL TRIAL.  HIS TROPE GOES MARCHING ON!