Phineas Parkhurst Quimby

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A Prophecy Concerning the Nation

It is based on the principle that mind is matter; also that nations and individuals are governed by wisdom or error - and the effect shows which power governs. Upon this wisdom I make this statement, or what might be called a prophecy. I admit the United States is a child or man not fully grown; with passions like all other children. The President is the servant of the wisdom of the child or people; for the people are the body, and their wisdom is their strength. Now as foreigners come among us, their ideas affect our government (or mind). This creates imitation; for error is uneasy and is never still in man or nation, and it is always getting up something to destroy itself; for its life is its own destruction.

Slavery is admitted by the people, for the Constitution says nothing about it, and they have it in their power; the Constitution neither admitting nor denying it. The error is free to put such a construction upon it as they please; and as error is never right, it always works out its own destruction.

I will take Jeff Davis as the head of this error (or disease) - for such it is, and it must be treated accordingly. I give no medicine, but I explain the truth, which destroys the error and kills the disease. Jeff Davis is the patient, and Abraham Lincoln is the physician. His disease is of the head, brought on by over-excitement of the mind. His wisdom, not being equal to his ambition - the excitement affects his body (or the South). The South is the body, and Jeff is the brains. And in a fit of delirium tremens, he assumed the Government; and the people, thinking him sane, listened to his story. In a fit of rage, he undertook to destroy himself and the government (or father); his pretended father, who was not in reality his father, got frightened at his insanity and offered him the whole of his wealth. But the rest of his brethren protested against it, so they commenced to check his career.

Now an insane man is a coward - and Jefferson Davis is a mixture of man and mule. I will give his character, as he seems to me. He is a coward and a fool. I will show you how he is a fool. He cannot see the end of his schemes; his wisdom leads him to destruction, and he thinks, by his error, to control the North and West. Here he shows his courage in his ignorance. As soon as he sees his error, his courage fails; for it was based on ignorance and infused into the people. His error expanded to the surface of the border states.

But as in health or disease, man is like a stream running into the ocean. When the tide sets in, the stream rises; so as the Northwest current sets towards the South, the tide of the border states rises, and the lowlands of the states are in danger of being overflowed with their own steam. Now you can see Jeff Davis paddling from one point to another, to check the tide. He will try to throw up a dam around the border states to prevent the Northwest names from influencing the South. But when the Southeast winds come with their ships, and he sees nothing but death on one side and the alter on his own - then his courage will prove sham. And he will, if not destroyed, flee with all he can get - and leave the South to take care of itself.

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