Many were induced to join in the movement under the belief that it was important to test the true meaning of the Constitution in the premises, and that this could be most effectively done by directly restraining by law the power which had been so long conceded to the Executive Department.
Blaine discusses the motivations behind a movement aimed at clarifying the Constitution's meaning regarding executive power.
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If you are not ready to be the Moses of an oppressed people, do not become their Pharaoh.
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. . . .
Their convention did more to popularize the Fourteenth Amendment as a political issue than any other instrumentality of the year.
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.
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