[Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) by James Gillespie Blaine]@TWC D-Link bookTwenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) CHAPTER II 15/40
Of course no man who signed the address believed its statements.
No one believed that the Government of the United States or the loyal people of the North were so inhuman and so unpatriotic as to advocate the deportation of this vast population, or so foolish as to think that such a task would be practicable even if it were desirable.
The address was read in the North immediately after it was issued, and created a mingled feeling of astonishment, amusement, and sorrow.
The severest comment made upon it was the remark of a Republican representative in Congress who had a most kindly feeling for the men of the South--that "the deportation for life of the men who signed and issued the libel would not only be a just punishment for the offense, but would be an undoubted advantage to both North and South." The close of the address was in harmony with its opening, and contained an argument which to some minds relieved the whole document from wickedness by making it ludicrous.
Its last words insisted that "failure makes us vassals of an arrogant people--secretly if not openly hated by the most enlightened and elevated portions of mankind. Success records us forever in letters of light upon one of the most glorious pages of history.
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