On the record
If free choice between the two conditions had been offered, nine-tenths, perhaps even a larger proportion of the slaves, would have preferred to remain in their old homes.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “If free choice between the two conditions had been offered, nine-tenths, perhaps even a larger proportion of the slaves…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine asserts that most enslaved individuals would have preferred to stay in their homes if given a choice.
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More from James Blaine
You can use force only to repel an assault on the public property and aid the Courts in the performance of their duty.
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.
The States are colleagues of one another, and if some of them shall conquer the rest, and hold them as subjugated provinces, it would totally destroy the whole theory upon which they are now connected.
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.
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