Southern men of all parties would unite against the admission of a Northern State until a Southern State was ready to offset its vote in the Senate, but they never sought to compel unity of opinion throughout all Southern States upon partisan candidates or upon public measures.
Blaine notes that Southern politicians would unite against Northern state admissions to maintain Senate balance, without enforcing uniformity on all issues.
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It is to the eminent credit of the Republican members of Congress that they stood in a crisis of this magnitude true to principle, firm against all the power and all the patronage of the Administration.
I have long since wished that capital punishment were abolished.
In my judgment our sole authority for the acts which we have done during the last four years was the authority communicated to Congress by the Constitution to suppress insurrection.
Such an opportunity would have been a menace to the public credit, and would have proved a constant source of corruption.
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