If the Southern States should meet the overture of the Administration in the spirit in which it was made, the probability was decidedly in favor of their restoration to their old places without condition, without promise, without sacrifice.
Blaine expresses optimism about the Southern states' potential restoration to the Union.
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He had placed himself in a position from which he could not with grace retreat, and to go forward in which was still further to blight his hopes of promotion in his party.
That is his work and it cannot properly be taken out of his hands.
He was a lawyer in full practice, a man of the highest integrity, without fear and without reproach.
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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