John Brown Gordon, an ardent and tireless Breckinridge supporter and future Confederate general, gave a lecture before the literary societies of Oglethorpe College, then in Milledgeville, Georgia, during commencement. In it he called slavery "the hand-maid of civil liberty" and "the Mightiest Engine in the universe for the civilization, elevation, and refinement of mankind - the surest guarantee of the continuance of liberty among ourselves." (By John Osborne)