[Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2) by James Gillespie Blaine]@TWC D-Link book
Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. 1 (of 2)

CHAPTER XI
19/33

Mr.
Benjamin drew the conclusion which was not only diametrically wrong in morals, but diametrically erroneous in logic.

Instead of inferring that a State, situated as Louisiana was, should necessarily become greater than the power which purchased it, simply because other States in the Union which she joined had assumed such power, a discriminating mind of Mr.Benjamin's acuteness should have seen that the very position proved the reverse of what he stated, and demonstrated, in the absurdity of Louisiana's secession, the equal absurdity of the secession of South Carolina and Georgia.
THE ARGUMENT OF MR.

BENJAMIN.
It seemed impossible for Mr.Benjamin or for any other leader of Southern opinion to argue the question of State rights fairly or dispassionately.

They had been so persistently trained in the heresy that they could give no weight to the conclusive reasoning of the other side.

The original thirteen, they averred, were "free, sovereign, and independent States," acknowledged to be such by the King of Great Britain in the Treaty of peace in 1783.


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