The lenity with which the triumphant Union had treated the crime of rebellion--sacrificing no man's life, stripping no man of his property, depriving no man of his personal liberty--gave the Government the right to expect order and the reign of law in the South.
Blaine discusses the leniency shown by the Union towards the South after the Civil War, expecting order in return.
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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.
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.
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.
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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