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Without having the legal right to obstruct the return of a fugitive slave to his servitude, they felt not only that they had the right, but that it was their duty, to protect free citizens in their freedom.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “Without having the legal right to obstruct the return of a fugitive slave to his servitude, they felt not only that they…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine discusses the moral stance of those who felt compelled to protect free citizens against the return of fugitive slaves, highlighting the conflict between legal rights and moral duties.
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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.
But what if the feeling in any State against the United States should become so universal that the Federal officers themselves (including judges, district attorneys, and marshals) would be reached by the same influences, and resign their…
The right of the General Government to preserve itself in its whole constitutional vigor by repelling a direct and positive aggression upon its property or its officers cannot be denied.
The States are colleagues of one another, and if some of them shall conquer the rest, and hold them as subjugated provinces, it would totally destroy the whole theory upon which they are now connected.
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