The precipitate manner in which the Southern men of the ancient Whig faith yielded their position as friends of the Union was an instructive illustration of the power which a compact and desperate minority can wield in a popular struggle.
Blaine reflects on how quickly Southern Whigs abandoned their Unionist stance, illustrating the influence of a determined minority.
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If you are not ready to be the Moses of an oppressed people, do not become their Pharaoh.
An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government constructed in whole or in preponderating part from the very element against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected is simply absurd.
With whatever strength or prestige the President left Washington, he certainly returned to the Capital personally discredited and politically ruined.
I believe that if it should pass it will receive the sanction of nineteen-twentieths of the loyal people of the country.
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