James Blaine: “There was no national disquietude on the vexed question of slavery when Franklin Pierce was installed as President.”

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.

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…