James Blaine: “The trial of President Johnson is the most memorable attempt made by any English-speaking people to depose a sovereign…”

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…

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.

You can use force only to repel an assault on the public property and aid the Courts in the performance of their duty.

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.