Important, overlooked quote

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Fri Sep 2 16:40:53 UTC 2011


Now we know.

Bringing up a much less significant rhetorical point, does the
following make sense?

>Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this truth was not
>generally admitted, even within their day."

The "day" of those "who hear me" presumably is today, 1861.  A "truth
[that] was not generally admitted" would be referred to by someone
writing years later.  Has Stephens become confused about the audience
for his words, conflating his 1861 listeners with the notion that he
is speaking for posterity, to a later audience?

Joel

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