On the record
They had expected to arouse fresh revolt, but they met a people tired of conflict and longing for repose under the flag of the Nation.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “They had expected to arouse fresh revolt, but they met a people tired of conflict and longing for repose under the flag…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine reflects on the unexpected weariness of the people in the Border States during the Civil War, contrary to Confederate expectations.
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More from James Blaine
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…
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…
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.
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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