On the record
In a secret ballot, where every man could have voted according to his own convictions and desires, the Secession scheme would have been defeated in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
Source
gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “In a secret ballot, where every man could have voted according to his own convictions and desires, the Secession scheme…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine suggests that a secret ballot could have thwarted the Secession movement in several Southern states.
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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.
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
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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