It's incredible that a speech from over 160 years ago can have such an emotional impact on a 2018 American reader. If you feel uncomfortable reading this speech

It's incredible that a speech from over 160 years ago can have such an emotional impact on a 2018 American reader. If you feel uncomfortable reading this speech just as I did, you understand the importance to reflect on our national moral compass. > At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.