(Early, Jubal A. “The Proceedings of the Southern Historical Convention: Address to the Southern Historical Convention.” The Southern Historical Society. August 14, 1873. 24)
Jubal A. Early was on the first and most vocal proponents of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. In his address to the Southern Historical Convention, he outlined many of the foundational principles to the myth of Southern Secession. Among those were the idea that: even though the south lost, they were not in the wrong; the Confederacy was in the right, not only in their decision to secede but also in their continued support of slavery; the South was the one who got attacked, the North wanted to infringe on their rights and it was the natural reaction for the Southern states to go to their defense. The values of States Rights which the Confederacy supported still hold true and they are essential in defense again tyranny, something which the wealth-obsessed and power-hungry North is infringing on; the reason the Confederacy lost the war was not a superior Northern military, but the one fatal mistake at Gettysburg (Early,The Proceedings of the Southern Historical Convention: Address to the Southern Historical Convention, 16-44). In this last point, Jubal makes a lengthy case in favor of the Confederate Army, but more importantly, extolls the need for the South not to let the North corrupt the account of what happened. In this, Jubal initiates a movement that sees Southern sympathizers completely change the narrative on the war. The campaign was so effective that school text books were being rewritten to incorporate the Lost Cause account of events (Gallagher and Nolan, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, 8-10).