.. Here is a nation at war with itself. Can any
reasonable man be well disposed toward a government which makes war and
carnage the only means of supporting itself--a government that can exist
only by the sword?... But can we believe that one State will ever suffer
itself to be used as an instrument of coercion? The thing is a dream--it
is impossible."[100]
Unhappily, our generation has seen that, in the decay of the principles
and feelings which animated the hearts of all patriots in that day, this
thing, like many others then regarded as impossible dreams, has been
only too feasible, and that States have permitted themselves to be used
as instruments, not merely for the coercion, but for the destruction of
the freedom and independence of their sister States.
Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia, although the mover of the
original proposition to authorize the employment of the forces of the
Union against a delinquent member, which had been so signally defeated
in the Federal Convention, afterward, in the Virginia Convention, made
an eloquent protest against the idea of the employment of force against
a State. "What species of military coercion," said he, "could the
General Government adopt for the enforcement of obedience to its
demands? Either an army sent into the heart of a delinquent State, or
blocking up its ports. Have we lived to this, then, that, in order to
suppress and exclude tyranny, it is necessary to render the most
affectionate friends the most bitter enemies, set the father against the
son, and make the brother slay the brother? Is this the happy expedient
that is to preserve liberty? Will it not destroy it? If an army be once
introduced to force us, if once marched into Virginia, figure to
yourselves what the dreadful consequence will be: the most lamentable
civil war must ensue.
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