So mad and hopeless an enterprise could hardly be credited. But it is true — no less strange than true. These men must have been not only the wildest and silliest of fanatics, but wholly unacquainted with our State and our people.
Original passage & context
"So mad and hopeless an enterprise could hardly be credited. But it is true, and no less strange than true. [...] They must have been not only the wildest and silliest of fanatics, but wholly unacquainted with our State and our people."
Democratic Valley paper's first-issue reaction: dismissal as delusion, days before the same press turned to dread. Fragments from the same article joined with [...].
Read it in the original — Staunton Vindicator, Oct 21, 1859 (Valley of the Shadow) ↗