On the record
The imperative question thenceforward was whether the loyal or the disloyal--the victorious Union or the defeated Confederacy --should prescribe the terms of Reconstruction.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “The imperative question thenceforward was whether the loyal or the disloyal--the victorious Union or the defeated…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine emphasizes the critical decision-making power between loyal and disloyal factions during the Reconstruction era.
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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.
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.
The States are colleagues of one another, and if some of them shall conquer the rest, and hold them as subjugated provinces, it would totally destroy the whole theory upon which they are now connected.
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