"The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth-right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with."

Source : Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

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