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With whatever strength or prestige the President left Washington, he certainly returned to the Capital personally discredited and politically ruined.
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gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine reflects on the political downfall of a president upon returning to Washington.
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Observing men in the loyal States regarded such a policy not only as weak and maudlin, but as utterly insufficient and assuredly dangerous to the future safety of the Government.
It was the insane folly of the South, in drawing the sword against the life of the Nation, that led irresistibly to the abolition of slavery.
The Northern people shrank from the responsibility of transferring the government of States to the control of men who had already shown themselves capable of desperate deeds.
The wonder excited by the raising of the vast army which saved the Union from destruction was even surpassed by the wonder excited by its prompt and peaceful dissolution.
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