On the record
With unblemished credit at the opening of the war, the government could have used its military power with greater confidence, and consequently with greater effectiveness.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “With unblemished credit at the opening of the war, the government could have used its military power with greater…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine argues that maintaining strong credit at the start of the Civil War would have enhanced the government's military effectiveness.
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More from James Blaine
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.
If it be true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of general hostilities carried on by the Central Government against a State, then it seems to follow that an attempt to do so would be ipso facto an expulsion of such State from the…
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 States are colleagues of one another, and if some of them shall conquer the rest, and hold them as subjugated provinces, it would totally destroy the whole theory upon which they are now connected.
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