On the record
The point had been reached where it was necessary to go forward or go backward; where the Confederacy must assert itself, or the experiment of secession be abandoned.
Source
gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “The point had been reached where it was necessary to go forward or go backward; where the Confederacy must assert…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine emphasizes the critical moment for the Confederacy to assert itself during the Civil War.
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More from James Blaine
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
Under such circumstances, to send a military force into any State, with orders to act against the people, would be simply making war upon them.
All these provisions are made to protect the States, not to authorize an attack by one part of the country upon another; to preserve the peace, and not to plunge them into civil war.
Without the exercise of those functions which belong exclusively to the civil service, the laws cannot be executed in any event, no matter what may be the physical strength which the Government has at its command.
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