"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States of America, speech at the Athenaeum, Savannah, Georgia, 21 March 1861. Delivered six weeks before the outbreak of hostilities at Fort Sumter.