While the argument in favor of contraction was prosecuted with great force, the possibility of going too fast, even in the right direction, was conceded by the wisest financiers.
Editor's note · Context
Blaine acknowledges the careful consideration needed in financial policy, even when pursuing contraction.
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Such an opportunity would have been a menace to the public credit, and would have proved a constant source of corruption.
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.
With whatever strength or prestige the President left Washington, he certainly returned to the Capital personally discredited and politically ruined.
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.





