Columbus Day ought to provoke reflection as much as celebration—and not just because the White House is emphatically committed to the latter. It was the right move, of course, for the administration to confidently reject acts of erasure like “Indigenous Peoples Day,” and the whole apparatus of academia, media, and elite-left cultural bludgeoning behind it. We should understand what exactly was meant to be erased.
Although Columbus Day in its historical roots is a de facto holiday for Italian Americans, that group was never really the target of those attacking Christopher Columbus or the holiday in his name. Rather, the opposition to Columbus and his day came due to enmity toward the values and roots of those Italian Americans—and every other American worth the name.
Columbus’s Journal of the First Voyage opens with “In nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi (In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ),” revealing that his journey was an act of faith. He navigated the dangerous waters of the Atlantic to bring about the evangelization of the world foretold in sacred Scripture.
Columbus brought that faith, Catholic and Christian, to the Americas, and so the enemies of the faith became enemies of his. A man of Italy, he sailed for Their Catholic Majesties of Spain, and so the enemies of the Spanish inheritance became enemies of his. Columbus brought a European civilization that came to dominate and define the life of the New World. Columbus brought the ideas of that civilization to the Western Hemisphere, and laid the groundwork for those that transcended them—natural rights, republican law, and every moral advance from Bartolomeo de las Casas to Frederick Douglass.
It is the same tale over and over again: scratch an opponent of Columbus and Columbus Day and you inevitably discover a deep hostility toward the very culture and principles that underpin liberty and decency everywhere. After all, once it is conceded that a seafaring adventurer braving the vast ocean in the name of Christian majesties discovered a land where a “new birth of freedom” eventually flourished—still the fulcrum of mankind’s earthly hopes more than half a millennium later—what is left? That concession means that faith is an intrinsic good—and that adventure in its name is a surpassing virtue.
Men and women who admire Christopher Columbus might dare to be free—and that’s what his enemies truly fear.
Of course there is reason to criticize the historical figure of Columbus, as there is reason to criticize any man who ever lived save one. Christopher Columbus was sometimes iniquitous and at times cruel. This is indisputable—and also irrelevant to the reasons for his celebration. The magnitude of his achievement and its world-historical consequences—dwarfing those of all but a handful of other men in human history—render his faults almost meaningless. The God whom Columbus imperfectly served makes use of imperfect instruments to accomplish His perfect will. We who live in the world Columbus found have only one proper and virtuous response to him: gratitude.
We live in a New World made fit for us and our posterity because Columbus saw a horizon and went beyond it. We live in a republic of laws because Columbus brought that inheritance with him, and by the grace of God, it stayed and flourished. If we are not grateful, we are undeserving.
We who are the apotheosis of the New World—the great republic, the last best hope on earth—have every reason to celebrate Christopher Columbus. Now with the imprimatur of the White House, we do.
If you are Italian American, reclaim this special commemoration of your inheritance. If you are Catholic, or indeed any sort of Christian, celebrate the man who brought your faith to the farthest reaches of the West. If you are Hispanic, rejoice at what was done in the name of your ancient monarchs.
If you are American, this holiday is for you.
The spirit of Columbus did not end with one man. It lives across the New World. It lives on in this holiday and every other day. It lives in you.