James Blaine: “But they were fighting for a principle, and would not surrender it or compromise it.”

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.

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.

Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?

But what if the feeling in any State against the United States should become so universal that the Federal officers themselves (including judges, district attorneys, and marshals) would be reached by the same influences, and resign their…