On the record
They had been so long in command that they had become incapable of obedience.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine argues that the Southern leaders' long tenure in power made them unable to accept subordination.
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That is his work and it cannot properly be taken out of his hands.
Their success as civil magistrates, as legislators, as executives was not less marked and meritorious than their illustrious service in war.
He had placed himself in a position from which he could not with grace retreat, and to go forward in which was still further to blight his hopes of promotion in his party.
The Northern people shrank from the responsibility of transferring the government of States to the control of men who had already shown themselves capable of desperate deeds.
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