James Blaine: “The whole of Florida was ceded by Spain, an acquisition which proved of great value to us in every point of view.”

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.

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.

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.

And if Congress shall break up the present Union by unconstitutionally putting strife and enmity and armed hostility between different sections of the country, instead of the domestic tranquility which the Constitution was meant to insure…