On the record
Many who were borne along in the irresistible current of aggressive reform dreaded all the more the effect of the votes which the moral and political pressure of their constituents compelled them to give.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “Many who were borne along in the irresistible current of aggressive reform dreaded all the more the effect of the votes…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine describes the internal conflict faced by reform-minded individuals who felt pressured to act against their instincts due to public demand.
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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?
And if Congress shall break up the present Union by unconstitutionally putting strife and enmity and armed hostility between different sections of the country, instead of the domestic tranquility which the Constitution was meant to insure…
But this is a totally different thing from an offensive war to punish the people for the political misdeeds of their State Government, or to enforce an acknowledgment that the Government of the United States is supreme.
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