On the record
The Confederates had failed in war, but their leaders had not the moral courage to accept the only practicable peace.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “The Confederates had failed in war, but their leaders had not the moral courage to accept the only practicable peace.”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine reflects on the moral failures of Confederate leaders after their defeat in the Civil War.
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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 what if the feeling in any State against the United States should become so universal that the Federal officers themselves (including judges, district attorneys, and marshals) would be reached by the same influences, and resign their…
Without the exercise of those functions which belong exclusively to the civil service, the laws cannot be executed in any event, no matter what may be the physical strength which the Government has at its command.
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.
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