Editor, Gazette-Journal:

“The price of liberty is not only eternal vigilance, but eternal self-sacrifice … where shall we find such heroic self-denial; such upbearing under physical discomfort; such patience in poverty, in distress, in absolute want, as we find in the Southern Army? They fight better in a bad cause than you do in a good one; they fight better for a passion than you do for a sentiment. We believe them to be misguided, but we must do them the credit of saying they fight well.”

This March 28, 1864 quote is by the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Southern Army fought for the right to self-govern through states’ rights—given one and all by the Constitution. It was not about slavery then; but with each passing day and each Executive Order issued to side-step the Constitution, it may very well be about slavery now.

Kate Bunner

Mathews, Va. ...