On the record
He was persuaded that the sectional contest would be fatally pursued as long as the chimerical idea of equality in the Senate should stimulate Southern ambition.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “He was persuaded that the sectional contest would be fatally pursued as long as the chimerical idea of equality in the…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine discusses Lincoln's belief that the idea of equality in the Senate would perpetuate sectional conflicts, reflecting on the political landscape of the time.
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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.
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…
The two schools in short marked the dividing line between the radical and the conservative.
This ratio of influence went into the Electoral College, and gave to the white men of South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana double the power of that enjoyed by white men in New York, Illinois and California.
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