On the record
We saw seeds then sown that blossomed and bore bitter fruit at Charleston in 1860.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “We saw seeds then sown that blossomed and bore bitter fruit at Charleston in 1860.”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine reflects on the long-term consequences of political actions taken during Buchanan's administration, linking them to future conflicts.
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More from James Blaine
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…
All these provisions are made to protect the States, not to authorize an attack by one part of the country upon another; to preserve the peace, and not to plunge them into civil war.
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.
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.
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