On the record
Douglas proposed to submit Southern rights under the Constitution to the decision of the first mob or rabble that might get possession of a Territorial legislature, and pass a police regulation hostile to slavery.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine critiques Douglas's proposal regarding Southern rights and its implications for slavery.
Share
More from James Blaine
Another theory and another practice were now to prevail; for it had been demonstrated to the thoughtful statesmen who then controlled the Government, that every thing which may be done by either Nation or State may be better and more…
Crises often arise in the conduct of National affairs when cherished opinions must be sacrificed and new departures taken.
It is to the eminent credit of the Republican members of Congress that they stood in a crisis of this magnitude true to principle, firm against all the power and all the patronage of the Administration.
Observing men in the loyal States regarded such a policy not only as weak and maudlin, but as utterly insufficient and assuredly dangerous to the future safety of the Government.
Other voices in this conversation
