The Thanksgiving Sermon That Rallied the Secessionist Movement

The latter line, emphasized in italics in printed copies of the nearly 7,000-word sermon, became a rallying cry within the states that would soon form the Confederacy. Tens of thousands of copies of the speech were quickly printed and circulated throughout the South, while regional newspapers published Palmer’s words, often alongside enthusiastic commentary. Palmer elevated the defense of slavery to a godly duty: “We defend the cause of God and religion,” he declared, the emphasis added in the printed speech. “The Abolition spirit is undeniably atheistic.” Palmer argued for white supremacy on moral grounds, using racist stereotypes to insist that “no calamity can befall [the black race] greater than the loss of that protection they enjoy under this patriarchal system.”

Already a fixture in the South, Palmer gained national fame—he went viral, in an 1860 sense—just as Southern states were deciding how to respond to Lincoln’s election. Three weeks after the speech South Carolina became the first state to secede, its leaders declaring that “increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding states to the institution of slavery” compelled their action. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Georgia soon followed South Carolina in secession, and Louisiana joined on January 26, 1861.

In 1977 historian Timothy F. Reilly wrote that Palmer’s Thanksgiving speech “perhaps did more to unify the secessionist cause than any other single clerical sermon or political address.” During the Civil War, Palmer frequently preached to soldiers, before they departed for battle and sometimes in the field. He characterized theirs as “a war of civilization against a ruthless barbarism” while assuring that “the pen of history shall write the story of your martyrdom.” After their defeat, Palmer became a leader in the “Lost Cause” movement, shifting his focus to framing the rebellion as heroic. He delivered a glowing eulogy of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who became a Lost Cause icon.

Later in life, Palmer continued to lionize the Confederate cause and fixate on race—in 1884 he lectured a mostly black audience on the importance of racial purity—earning the reverence of white Southerners. He was struck and killed by a streetcar four years later, after which city officials named Palmer Park, in the Carrollton neighborhood, in his honor.