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.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine suggests that the actions of Southern leaders were counterproductive to their goals of reconciliation with the North.
Share
More from James Blaine
I have long since wished that capital punishment were abolished.
With whatever strength or prestige the President left Washington, he certainly returned to the Capital personally discredited and politically ruined.
I refer myself not to the men of my time, but to the judgment of history.
He had placed himself in a position from which he could not with grace retreat, and to go forward in which was still further to blight his hopes of promotion in his party.
Other voices in this conversation
