A certain combination of incompetence and indifference can cause almost as much suffering as the most acute malevolence.

What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America. At Gettysburg in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said perhaps more than he knew. The war was about a new birth of freedom.

And there is the headlight, shining far down the track, glinting off the steel rails that, like all parallel lines, will meet in infinity, which is after all where this train is going.

The Confederate Constitution was almost identical to that of the United States.

In this respect early youth is exactly like old age; it is a time of waiting for a big trip to an unknown destination. The chief difference is that youth waits for the morning limited and age waits for the night train

Even the most painstaking history is a bridge across an eternal mystery.

Shiloh had as many casualties as Waterloo, and yet there were another 20 Waterloos to come.