Disunion, which had been so much threatened and so little executed, seemed now to the vision of the multitude an accomplished fact,--a fact which inspired a large majority of the Northern people with a sentiment of terror, and imparted to their political faith an appearance of weakness and irresolution.
This statement reflects Blaine's view on the widespread fear and uncertainty among Northern citizens regarding disunion during the Civil War era.
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Such an opportunity would have been a menace to the public credit, and would have proved a constant source of corruption.
In Congressional districts where the colored race constituted one-half of the total population (and in many instances the proportion was even larger), the vote of one white man offset the vote of two in a Northern district where suffrage…
But in the treatment of the colored man, now proposed, there was absolute heartlessness and rank injustice.
He had placed himself in a position from which he could not with grace retreat, and to go forward in which was still further to blight his hopes of promotion in his party.
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