On the record
The Thirteenth Amendment, about to be formally promulgated by the Executive Department of the Government, as incorporated in the Constitution, had made every negro a free man.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “The Thirteenth Amendment, about to be formally promulgated by the Executive Department of the Government, as…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine highlights the significance of the Thirteenth Amendment in granting freedom to African Americans after the Civil War.
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More from James Blaine
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.
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.
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…
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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