On the record
In the pithy phrase of John Van Buren, they had exposed him to the country as the candidate "powerful for mischief, powerless for good.
Source
gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “In the pithy phrase of John Van Buren, they had exposed him to the country as the candidate "powerful for mischief…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine references a critical assessment of Cass's political effectiveness during a contentious election.
Share
More from James Blaine
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.
If it be true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of general hostilities carried on by the Central Government against a State, then it seems to follow that an attempt to do so would be ipso facto an expulsion of such State from the…
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.
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.
Other voices in this conversation
