"The parties of this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders - they are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, jacobins on the one side, and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battleground - Christianity and atheism the combatants; and the progress of humanity is at stake."Does this sound familiar?
It's from a sermon delivered by Reverend J.H. Thornwell in 1850 - one year before he became president of the College of South Carolina - on the conflict between Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders.
The Reverend was on the side of the slaveholders, the latter being "the friends of order and regulated freedom".
The quotation is taken from a wonderful little book (out-of-print, but available):
Lost Men of American HistoryI was in fact surprised by how current this sounds! - The Reverend's oratory could have easily have been delivered last week as 160 years ago!... of course, updating the combatants from "abolitionsists and slaveholders" to Obama-ists and Real Americans.
by Stewart H. Holbrook; 1948, The Macmillan Company
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