On the record
The close vote on the Civil Rights Bill admonished the Republicans of their danger.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “The close vote on the Civil Rights Bill admonished the Republicans of their danger.”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine warns Republicans about the precariousness of their position following a close vote on civil rights legislation.
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If this view of the subject be correct, as I think it is, then the Union must utterly perish at the moment when Congress shall arm one part of the people against another for any purpose beyond that of merely protecting the General…
But this is a totally different thing from an offensive war to punish the people for the political misdeeds of their State Government, or to enforce an acknowledgment that the Government of the United States is supreme.
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.
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