It seems to me that where a person has taken a solemn oath to support the Constitution of the United States, there is a fair implication that he cannot afterwards commit an act which in its effect would destroy the Constitution of the United States, without incurring at least the moral guilt of perjury.
Blaine argues that taking an oath to support the Constitution implies a moral obligation not to undermine it.
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The two schools in short marked the dividing line between the radical and the conservative.
I am in no boastful mood: I shall not do more than I can, but I shall do all I can to save the Government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination.
With whatever strength or prestige the President left Washington, he certainly returned to the Capital personally discredited and politically ruined.
In turn, the course of the National Administration would certainly be influenced, and its fate in large degree determined, by the conduct of the Southern men, in whom the President was placing unbounded trust.
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