The present crisis and its issues: an address delivered before the literary societies of Washington and Lee University

After an historic overview of power shifts and the demise of nations throughout history, the speaker points to the positioning of political parties in the U.S. during the post Civil War period of Reconstruction. According to Palmer, the Republic's exhibition of tremendous force and use of a central authority led to "corruption which spread like gangrene" through government and business, debasing public and private morals. The author made five suggestions for the Republic to follow in order to preserve the ideals of the founding fathers, among them, create an adequate measure to protect the rights of minorities. He admonished the Reconstruction politicians for attempting to create an empire and predicts that the hand that creates it will cause the fall of that empire, if created. He ends, if the Republic should cause its own demise, the nation should build a new one with the noble precepts of the founders of the U.S