If they were to be outvoted and, as they thought, outraged by free-State majorities, then they would break up the government and form a confederacy of their own.
Editor's note · Context
Blaine describes the mindset of Southern leaders who threatened to break up the government if they felt outvoted.
Share
More from James Blaine
Such an opportunity would have been a menace to the public credit, and would have proved a constant source of corruption.
In Congressional districts where the colored race constituted one-half of the total population (and in many instances the proportion was even larger), the vote of one white man offset the vote of two in a Northern district where suffrage…
In all the revolted states, upon the testimony of your ablest generals, there is no safety to the property or lives of loyal men.
In my judgment our sole authority for the acts which we have done during the last four years was the authority communicated to Congress by the Constitution to suppress insurrection.





