On the record
But for the urgency of the seven original Confederate States, in which Texas and Florida were numbered, Virginia Loyalists would have been able to hold their State firm in her National allegiance.
Source
gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “But for the urgency of the seven original Confederate States, in which Texas and Florida were numbered, Virginia…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine argues that without the pressure from Confederate states, Virginia could have remained loyal to the Union.
Share
More from James Blaine
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.
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.
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.
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.
Other voices in this conversation
