On the record
But General Butler's judgment is justified by the rules of modern warfare, and its application solved a question of policy which otherwise might have been fraught with serious difficulty.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “But General Butler's judgment is justified by the rules of modern warfare, and its application solved a question of…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine defends General Butler's actions as consistent with modern warfare principles.
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More from James Blaine
And if Congress shall break up the present Union by unconstitutionally putting strife and enmity and armed hostility between different sections of the country, instead of the domestic tranquility which the Constitution was meant to insure…
But this is a totally different thing from an offensive war to punish the people for the political misdeeds of their State Government, or to enforce an acknowledgment that the Government of the United States is supreme.
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.
You can use force only to repel an assault on the public property and aid the Courts in the performance of their duty.
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