On the record
If the Southern men had intended, as their one special and desirable aim, to inflame the public opinion of the North against them, they would have proceeded precisely as they did.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “If the Southern men had intended, as their one special and desirable aim, to inflame the public opinion of the North…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine suggests that the actions of Southern leaders were counterproductive to their goals of reconciliation with the North.
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Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
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.
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.
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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