Sentence:  The traditional strategy of the South has been to expose the vices of the North , to demonstrate that the North possessed no superior virtue , to `` show the world that '' ( as James 's Christopher Newman said to his adversaries ) `` however bad I may <WSD>be</WSD> , you 're not quite the people to say it '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)