Votes by tens of thousands declared that they did not desire a Union which was held together by the forbearance or permission of any man or body of men, and they welcomed a test of any character that should determine the supremacy of the Constitution and the strength of the government.
Blaine reflects on the widespread sentiment against a Union maintained by coercion, emphasizing constitutional supremacy.
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The need of action and of energy so pressed upon him that he found no time to utter lamentation, none to indulge even in the most sacred personal grief.
But in the treatment of the colored man, now proposed, there was absolute heartlessness and rank injustice.
He was a lawyer in full practice, a man of the highest integrity, without fear and without reproach.
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.
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