On the record
But the entire country suffered, and probably endured a serious and permanent loss, from the false step taken by men who claimed what they could not defend and did not mean to defend.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “But the entire country suffered, and probably endured a serious and permanent loss, from the false step taken by men who…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine comments on the broader impact of political decisions on the nation.
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Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
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.
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.
And if Congress shall break up the present Union by unconstitutionally putting strife and enmity and armed hostility between different sections of the country, instead of the domestic tranquility which the Constitution was meant to insure…
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