Thursday, June 21, 2012

War for an idea?


SDYC 2008

Another excellent tidbit from the Sam Davis Youth Camp.

The Charlottesville Review, leading anti-secession paper of Virginia, reached the heart of the issue when it said:

"There is a habit of speaking derisively of going to war for an idea — an abstraction — something which you cannot see. This is precisely the point on which we would go to war. An idea is exactly the thing that we would fight for. . . . The people who will not fight for ideas will never retain the spirit to fight for anything. Life loses its highest meaning, when opinions become matters of indifference. . . . Therefore, we say, for this idea of State honor — for this abstract principle of not bating her just claims upon threat of coercion — we would convulse this Union from centre to circumference."39

No comments:

Post a Comment