But having thus ignominiously shirked the position demanded by our belligerency and our success, let us never again presume to take a place among the self-respecting and responsible nations of the earth that can ever lay us liable to another such task.
Reid expresses a strong sentiment that the U.S. must not shy away from its responsibilities as a respected nation.
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Above all, if there is a trace of politics in their work, or of seeking for political effect at home, they will fail, and deserve to fail.
Let those who invoke the Supreme Law of the land learn and bow to it.
Give them order and justice, and trust to these to win them in other regards to our ways.
Fully believing the debts of their Rebel Government legal and just, they were prepared to repudiate them at a hint from Washington.