On the record
But the force that will arrest the first slow revolution of a wheel cannot stand before it when, by unchecked velocity, it has acquired a destructive momentum.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “But the force that will arrest the first slow revolution of a wheel cannot stand before it when, by unchecked velocity…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine uses a metaphor to illustrate the dangers of allowing a situation to escalate unchecked.
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More from James Blaine
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
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…
All these provisions are made to protect the States, not to authorize an attack by one part of the country upon another; to preserve the peace, and not to plunge them into civil war.
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.
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