It is the contemplation of such an enormous power placed in the hands of any body of men that gives a more correct appreciation of the conduct and motives of General Jackson in his determined contest with the United-States Bank.
Blaine reflects on General Jackson's opposition to the United States Bank due to concerns over concentrated power.
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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.
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.
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.
But this is a totally different thing from an offensive war to punish the people for the political misdeeds of their State Government, or to enforce an acknowledgment that the Government of the United States is supreme.
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