On the record
The discussion was becoming very animated, when General Garfield, in an unimpassioned speech, recalled the Convention to the real question and warned delegates against committing an error.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine recounts a moment where General Garfield refocused the convention's attention on the main issue at hand.
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In my judgment our sole authority for the acts which we have done during the last four years was the authority communicated to Congress by the Constitution to suppress insurrection.
Of course the Rebellion will never be suppressed in Louisiana if the professed Union men there will neither help to do it nor permit the Government to do it without their help. . . .
Such an opportunity would have been a menace to the public credit, and would have proved a constant source of corruption.
Their convention did more to popularize the Fourteenth Amendment as a political issue than any other instrumentality of the year.
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