On the record
A soldier who will betray his command belongs by the code of all nations to the most infamous class--his death but feebly atoning for the injury he has inflicted upon his country.
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gutenberg.orgJames Blaine: “A soldier who will betray his command belongs by the code of all nations to the most infamous class--his death but…”
Editor's note · Context
Blaine emphasizes the severe consequences for a soldier who betrays their command, highlighting the moral code of military service.
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All these provisions are made to protect the States, not to authorize an attack by one part of the country upon another; to preserve the peace, and not to plunge them into civil war.
Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that?
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.
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.
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