Those conditions--applying to all the States alike, to the loyal and the disloyal in the same measure--must be honorably agreed to by the States that had gone into Disunion before they should be permitted to resume and enjoy the blessings of Union.
Blaine states that all states must agree to certain conditions before being allowed back into the Union.
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All these provisions are made to protect the States, not to authorize an attack by one part of the country upon another; to preserve the peace, and not to plunge them into civil war.
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.
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.
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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