The author of this piece was Albert Taylor Bledsoe, one of the editors of the Southern Review. His controversy with Robert Lewis Dabney had begun earlier, but was not prolonged because Bledsoe died in December 1877 (see Thomas Cary Johnson [ed.,] The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney (Richmond VA, 1903) iii.388-90. A.T. Bledsoe (1809-77) was a fervent defender of slavery and the right of the Southern States to secede from the USA ; see the recent biography by Terry A. Barnhart, Albert Taylor Bledsoe: Defender of the Old South and Architect of the Lost Cause (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2011) Timothy Stunt
William Kelly refers to this article in his postcard of 7 May 1877.