James Blaine: “The most sedate communities become mercurial and impressible in time of deep excitement.”

But what if the feeling in any State against the United States should become so universal that the Federal officers themselves (including judges, district attorneys, and marshals) would be reached by the same influences, and resign their…

You can use force only to repel an assault on the public property and aid the Courts in the performance of their duty.

Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?

If it be true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of general hostilities carried on by the Central Government against a State, then it seems to follow that an attempt to do so would be ipso facto an expulsion of such State from the…