On the record
It was simply a bribe, cunningly and unscrupulously contrived, to induce the people of Kansas to accept a pro-slavery constitution.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine criticizes the land grant as a manipulative tactic to sway Kansas voters towards a pro-slavery constitution.
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I refer myself not to the men of my time, but to the judgment of history.
The need of action and of energy so pressed upon him that he found no time to utter lamentation, none to indulge even in the most sacred personal grief.
He had placed himself in a position from which he could not with grace retreat, and to go forward in which was still further to blight his hopes of promotion in his party.
This ratio of influence went into the Electoral College, and gave to the white men of South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana double the power of that enjoyed by white men in New York, Illinois and California.
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