Shellabarger had destroyed his argument, and had given a rallying-point for the Republicans, so incontestably strong as to hold the entire party in allegiance to principle rather than in allegiance to the Administration.
Blaine highlights the impact of Shellabarger's argument on Republican unity during a critical debate.
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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.
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.
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.
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