On the record
In the day of their strength the Whigs could not have been overborne in the South by the Secessionists, nor would the experiment have been tried.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “In the day of their strength the Whigs could not have been overborne in the South by the Secessionists, nor would the…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine posits that the Whigs would have resisted secession more effectively had they remained united in strength.
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More from James Blaine
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.
If this view of the subject be correct, as I think it is, then the Union must utterly perish at the moment when Congress shall arm one part of the people against another for any purpose beyond that of merely protecting the General…
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.
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.
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