Setting aside the specific issue being addressed, the broader point is as true today as it was in 1871. Conservatives have not always been right, just as Progressives have not always been wrong (though that’s pretty damned rare). But this is a solid argument. Danby strikes me as a very serious thinker. And I say that noting that he, as a lifelong defender of slavery, was also fallible.
What peculiar institutions do we have today that might seem insane or barbaric in a hundred years?
Maybe giving out Billions of SSRIs without really knowing what they do and now with the theory that it’s dopamine that affects mood more than serotonin.
Handing out opoiods and benzos like candy.
Slaughtering millions of babies.
Yes we conservatives are against abortion but no one is calling for a war to stop it so we can’t take it that seriously.
Either millions of people are being systematically killed with the approval and protection of govt or not.
There is no in between.
It’s as bad or worse than slavery was.