The decision was at war with the practice and traditions of the government from its foundation, and set aside the matured convictions of two generations of conservative statesmen from the South as well as from the North.
Blaine argues that the decision contradicted the foundational practices of the government and the beliefs of past statesmen.
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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.
Their convention did more to popularize the Fourteenth Amendment as a political issue than any other instrumentality of the year.
With whatever strength or prestige the President left Washington, he certainly returned to the Capital personally discredited and politically ruined.
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. . . .
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