Alexander H. Stephens, in speaking about the future for this nation and the consequences of the Reconstruction policies, once said that the only hope for our country was that the people would one day realize what had happened to them as a result of this war and that a cry would go up akin to that which filled the land prior to the first War for Independence (the cry then was ‘The cause of Boston is the cause of us all’). Now, said Stephens, the only hope left for the preservation and maintenance [of Constitutional liberty] on this continent is, that another like cry shall hereafter be raised, and go forth from hill‑top to valley, from the Coast to the Lakes, from the Atlantic to the Pacific: ‘The Cause of the South is the Cause of us all!' I appeal to you to consider afresh the consequences of the War for Southern Independence . The defeat of the South spelled the defeat of constitutional liberty in our land.

            If you long for constitutional order, legislative integrity, limited government, and true freedom under law — then you, my friend, agree with me that the South was right.

            The time is passed due for us to think for ourselves and quit allowing the media and the educational establishment and the current orthodoxy to do our thinking for us. It is time to repent of our sins and beg for God's mercy. It is time, in short, to take up afresh the cause of the South.

Rev Steve Wilkins is the pastor of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in  Monroe, Louisiana, and serves on the national board of the League of the South. This article was excerpted from his closing argument in a debate in Atlanta with Peter Marshall, Jr.