James Blaine: “But Virginia's embarrassment is of wide-spread concern, and injuriously affects the public credit of other States.”

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.

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.

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

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.