Thursday, February 19, 2026

No Difference

If the President can, at his pleasure, send troops into any city, town, or hamlet ... whenever and wherever he pleases, under pretense of enforcing some law -- his judgment, which means his pleasure being the sole criterion -- then there can be no difference whatever in this respect between the powers of the President and those of ... the Czar of Russia.

-- Illinois Governor John Altgeld, in his State of the State address (9 January 1895), as quoted by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, in his State of the State address (18 February 2026) [h/t Heather Cox Richardson]

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