Mark Twain’s Little-Known ‘Sacrilegious’ Essay on the American Empire

It was so controversial, he declined to publish it until after he died.

Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens) died well over a century ago, but he remains an icon of American literature and culture. He was beloved in his time and remains so today for many iconic works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Toward the end of his life, Twain watched as the US government took its early steps toward becoming the modern American empire. The US had fought in the Spanish-American War and acquired the Philippines and other territories in the process. President Theodore Roosevelt’s “Roosevelt Corollary” was shaping national ideology around US interventionism (to be further implemented by Woodrow Wilson and continued by subsequent presidents). Twain spoke out against these developments more than once.

“Only dead men”

Despite his vocal opposition to the emerging empire, Twain chose to withhold some essays on the subject from publication until after he died. One of these was called “The War Prayer.” When he shared it with his daughter, she advised him that it was too controversial to publish. Fearing readers would consider the piece “sacrilege” or think him a “lunatic” or “fanatic,” Twain held off on releasing it. The 1905 essay was not published until 1916, six years after his death. In explaining his decision to wait until he died to share the essay with the public, he reportedly said (though it’s difficult to confirm) that “only dead men can tell the truth in this world.”

The essay captures the pro-war fervor sweeping the country at the time he wrote it:

“The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun.”

Twain illustrates the religious component of this then-emerging mentality, which fused God and country in the realm of war. The preacher in the essay prays “that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work.” The pastor goes on: “Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

This doesn’t sound too awful. Why shouldn’t God aid our country in promoting American ideals? This intention could easily apply to many nations’ populations when their governments go to war.

But Twain goes on to satirize and eviscerate the sentiment. During the church service portrayed in the essay, a stranger appears and claims to be a messenger of God. He says he will vocalize the silent prayer of the pastor and the churchgoers—one the pastor and his congregation did not express out loud but all the same harbored. It exposes what Twain apparently believed to be the foundational drives under the patriotic and godly rhetoric. It depicts the brutality of war:

“O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it.”

The ode to violence and brutality in the name of God continues for several more lines (the whole essay is well worth reading in full). It ends, appropriately, by juxtaposing the bloodlust with the purity and sanctity of God:

“We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”

A century later…

What is most telling about this little-known Twain essay is not the intensity of language or the zealotry portrayed, as skillful and powerful as the writing is. It is that it was considered too shocking and upsetting to publish over a century ago. Twain believed Americans couldn’t handle the unforgiving portrayal of the burgeoning pro-war mentality (and war itself) in this country. As he writes to conclude the essay, “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.”

He believed the mindset he satirized would have been horrifying for turn-of-the-century Americans to have mirrored back to them. Today, however, after generations of American empire, this revelry in the realities of war could be considered run-of-the-mill patriotism and righteousness. People openly call for slaughter and suffering and see no inconsistency with their moral or religious values. The religious component of Twain’s essay is particularly relevant, as much American support for Israel and its wars rests on evangelical religious beliefs about the country.

What was once unthinkable and crude is standard fare for those who subscribe to imperial propaganda. Of course, this tolerance for violence and bloodshed is not unique to America. Such sentiments are commonplace around the world and help drive brutality and destruction regardless of which government is committing it.

But the US remains a powerful and expansive empire, making Twain’s observations all the more important over a century later as the war drums beat ever louder.