On the record
All these States apparently regarded the tie that bound them to the National Government as in no degree mutual, as imposing no duty upon them.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “All these States apparently regarded the tie that bound them to the National Government as in no degree mutual, as…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine observes that the states viewed their relationship with the federal government as one-sided.
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More from James Blaine
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.
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
If this view of the subject be correct, as I think it is, then the Union must utterly perish at the moment when Congress shall arm one part of the people against another for any purpose beyond that of merely protecting the General…
Without the exercise of those functions which belong exclusively to the civil service, the laws cannot be executed in any event, no matter what may be the physical strength which the Government has at its command.
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