On the record
The few who were left in possession of coolness and sound judgment among the public men of South Carolina, desired to stay the rush of events by waiting for co-operation with the other slave-holding States.
Source
gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “The few who were left in possession of coolness and sound judgment among the public men of South Carolina, desired to…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine describes the desire of some South Carolinian leaders to slow down the rush towards secession in favor of collaboration with other slave-holding states.
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More from James Blaine
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.
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.
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.
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.
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