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The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy QUOTES

The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy QUOTES

1 " Out of any conflict, the losers create more myths than the winners. It is hardly a surprise. After all, winners have little to explain to themselves. They won. For the loser, however, coping with defeat, dealing with it personally and explaining it to others, places enormous strains on the ego, self-respect, and sense of self-worth of the defeated. "

― , The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy

2 " For pure patriotism, however, the Gists of South Carolina stood above the rest. Their father had been an ardent patriot during the Revolution, in consequence of which he named his first son Independence Gist. Independence without some sort of restraint being close to anarchy, however, the father tempered his zeal by naming the second son Constitution Gist. But in 1831 when his third son arrived, it was already evident that Independence and Constitution were not enough. The liberties for which he fought still stood endangered by radicals in Washington. Consequently, as an admonition to all, he named this youngest boy States Rights Gist. "

― , The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy

3 " Reflecting from the vantage of more than a century, we can see today how trapped the leaders of the South felt in 1860. That the snare was only partially genuine, and partially in their imaginations and fears, made it no less real to them at the time. They had to act on the basis of what they knew and believed, and the fact that subsequent events and detached dispassionate study reveal that some of their belief was chimerical does not signify. "

― , The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy

4 " Consequently, as an admonition to all, he named this youngest boy States Rights Gist. "

― , The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy