Our commerce was suffering greatly by a few armed vessels built upon and furnished from foreign shores, and we were threatened with such additions from the same quarter as would sweep our trade from the sea and raise the blockade.
Blaine highlights the impact of foreign-built vessels on American commerce during a time of conflict.
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If you are not ready to be the Moses of an oppressed people, do not become their Pharaoh.
An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected is simply absurd.
The haste with which the question was brought to a decision can hardly be justified, and is a striking illustration of the intense party-feeling which had been engendered by the war.
Such an opportunity would have been a menace to the public credit, and would have proved a constant source of corruption.
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