Southerners needed to know from whence they came and where they were going. Hence, like other Americans, they turned to history as well as religion for moral guidance for nations and for individuals – for illumination of the rise and fall of empires and nations in consequence of incurring the wrath of God. Professor Francis Lieber, a German, who viewed his residence in South Carolina as an exile to nowhere, for once spoke for the Southerners among whom he lived so uncomfortably. In his inaugural address at South Carolina College, Lieber lauded the moral instruction of historical study, especially for “the sons of republicans, who at some future period, [may] have themselves to guide the state.”