On the record
He had the sagacity to perceive that in order to gain any solid foothold in the country the Democratic party needed to cut loose from its discredited past and secure a new rallying-cry.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine recognizes the necessity for the Democratic party to distance itself from its past to gain support.
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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.
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.
The wisdom of maintaining that institution was abundantly vindicated by the results of the war.
The Northern people shrank from the responsibility of transferring the government of States to the control of men who had already shown themselves capable of desperate deeds.
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