James Blaine: “Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him…”

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…

You can use force only to repel an assault on the public property and aid the Courts in the performance of their duty.

But what if the feeling in any State against the United States should become so universal that the Federal officers themselves (including judges, district attorneys, and marshals) would be reached by the same influences, and resign their…

The right of the General Government to preserve itself in its whole constitutional vigor by repelling a direct and positive aggression upon its property or its officers cannot be denied.