Note 163 — XIII AMERICAN CIVILIZATION

Page 307, note 1. A short time before this address was delivered Mr. Moncure D. Conway (a young Virginian, who, for conscience’ sake, had left his charge as a Methodist preacher and had abandoned his inheritance in slaves, losing in so doing the good will of his parents, and become a Unitarian minister and an abolitionist) had read in Concord an admirable and eloquent lecture called “The Rejected Stone.” This stone, slighted by the founders, although they knew it to be a source of danger, had now “become the head of the corner,” and its continuance in the national structure threatened its stability. Mr. Emerson had been much struck with the excellence and cogency of Mr. Conway’s arguments, based on his knowledge of Southern economics and character, and in this lecture made free use of them.