On the record
The performance of that pledge cannot be intrusted to another, least of all to the old slave-masters, embittered against their slaves.
Source
gutenberg.orgEditor's note · Context
Blaine argues that the responsibility to uphold freedom cannot be entrusted to former slave owners.
Share
More from James Blaine
In turn, the course of the National Administration would certainly be influenced, and its fate in large degree determined, by the conduct of the Southern men, in whom the President was placing unbounded trust.
Their success as civil magistrates, as legislators, as executives was not less marked and meritorious than their illustrious service in war.
Observing men in the loyal States regarded such a policy not only as weak and maudlin, but as utterly insufficient and assuredly dangerous to the future safety of the Government.
Such an opportunity would have been a menace to the public credit, and would have proved a constant source of corruption.
Other voices in this conversation
