On the record
It creates bitterness; it leads to war; it may in its selfishness cause the destruction of a nation, but it does not necessarily imply a desire for that destruction.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “It creates bitterness; it leads to war; it may in its selfishness cause the destruction of a nation, but it does not…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine warns that a certain policy can lead to war and national destruction, though it may not intend such outcomes.
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More from James Blaine
You can use force only to repel an assault on the public property and aid the Courts in the performance of their duty.
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.
Without the exercise of those functions which belong exclusively to the civil service, the laws cannot be executed in any event, no matter what may be the physical strength which the Government has at its command.
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…
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