On the record
The omission by individual senators to present the grievances which justified secession is perhaps less notable then the same omission by the conventions which ordained secession in the several States.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “The omission by individual senators to present the grievances which justified secession is perhaps less notable then the…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine critiques the failure of senators and conventions to present grievances justifying secession.
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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…
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.
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.
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
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