Robert Lewis Dabney

thumb|Robert Lewis Dabney Robert Lewis Dabney (March 5, 1820 – January 3, 1898) was a Southern Presbyterian pastor and theologian, Confederate army chaplain, and architect from Virginia. He was also chief of staff and biographer to Stonewall Jackson; his biography of Jackson remains in print today. Quotes Government is not the creator but the creature of human society. The Government has no mission from God to make the community, on the contrary the community is determined by Providence, where it is happily determined for us by far other causes than the meddling of governments—by historical causes in the distant past, by vital ideas, propagated by great individual minds—especially by the church and its doctrines. The only communities which have had their characters manufactured for them by governments have had a villainously bad character. Noble races make their governments. Ignoble ones are made by them. "Dr. Dabney's Battery" (Hampden Sidney, VA, May 4, 1876). First appeared in the Richmond Enquirer. Reprinted in C. R. Vaughan, ed., Discussions by Robert L. Dabney, vol. 4 (Mexico, MO: Crescent Book House, 1897), p. 223. Compare: Romans 1:25 · Thomas Tenison, Of Idolatry (1678), ch. 2, p. 13 External links Category:Biographers from the United States Category:Presbyterians from the United States Category:Theologians from Virginia Category:Architects from the United States Category:University of Virginia alumni Category:1820 births Category:1898 deaths