A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era (Andrew F. Lang - CH) grant The Brigade manned the water

The Brigade manned the water batteries at Warrenton

Lincoln thought that the principles of human equality and individual rights could provide common ground for a diverse people to live as one nation and that some old things

when the fate of a divided nation truly hangs in the balance

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slavery and sovereignty

A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era (Andrew F. Lang - CH) grant The Brigade manned the waterby Andrew F. Lang Most mid nineteenth century Americans regarded the United States as an exceptional democratic republic that stood apart from a world seemingly riddled with revolutionary turmoil and aristocratic consolidation. Viewing themselves as distinct from and even superior to other societies, Americans considered their nation an unprecedented experiment in political moderation and constitutional democracy. But as abolitionism in England,