184 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Uke poMewion of 'the Mechanic*' Insti- 

 tatet ' I believe that is the name of the- l-uild- 

 ing which was temporarily the State-House of 

 Louisiana." 



Mr. Edmonds: " I will come to that" 



Mr. Thurman: "Did they not take poases- 

 lion of it and keep possession of it before 

 any recognition of any government was made 

 by the President of the United States! " 



Mr. Edmunds: "It may be; bat the Sen- 

 ator from Ohio, with his usual adroitness, 

 choos9 to confound two distinct and separate 

 thing*. One thing about which he was speak- 

 ing and about which I am speaking is, the 

 action of the President under the Constitution 

 to protect the States from domestic violence 

 on the call of the Governor or the Legislature, 

 and under the act of Congress which author- 

 izes him to carry that out That is one thing. 

 The doty of the President of the United States 

 to see that the laws of the United States are 

 faithfully executed and that the mandates of 

 the courts of the United States are carried out 

 is an entirely different thing. I do not doubt 

 that the Senator from Ohio understands the 

 difference. I have too much respect for his 

 intelligence and his learning to doubt it for a 

 single moment. It is better, therefore, not to 

 run the two things together, I would suggest 

 to him. 



' Let us speak but of one for a moment. 

 What has the President of the United States 

 done in the way of interference, forcible inter- 

 ference, armed interference, with the atfairs 

 of the State of Louisiana, under this first 

 branch of the subject ? Nothing at all, unless 

 it is a crime that he should have a portion of 

 the Array at a military post in the city of New 

 Orleans, and unless it is a crime that, in order 

 to be read; for emergencies, he should have 

 commanded bis officers, under the act of 1793 

 that I have referred to, that, if a dispute did 

 arise, to recognize one set of men as the true 

 State government 



" When yon turn over to the other thing of 

 which the Senator speaks, yon have the inun- 

 date of a court, you have the execution of a 

 law. Perhaps the court is wrong ; I express 

 no opinion about it; I am not hasty in ex- 

 pressing opinions at least I do not mean to 

 be about judicial proceedings until they in 

 some way oome under consideration ; because 

 I think we are sometimes a little too hasty in 

 going off about what a court has done before 

 we see the papers and hear both sides argue 

 the matter before us. That is thought to be 

 usually advisable in regard to judicial pro- 

 ceedings. The marshal of the United States 

 is commanded to execute a particular man- 

 date. The Senator fnun Ohio says he doos 

 not know where the marshal got* his authority 

 to call upon the people cnmpn-ing the Army 

 of the United States to assist in the execution 

 of that mandate. The Senator's memory is 

 pretty short and I am not sure but mine 

 would be if I had had the same political views 



and been brought np in the some faith as my 

 feted. 



" In thu fugitive slave law a pretty extreme 

 case, I admit, but it is extreme in the line of 

 my argument in favor of my proposition it 

 was provided by the act of Congress that the 

 warrant of the commissioner issued to the 

 marshal should be authority in a certain case 

 for him to seize the person of a colored man 

 alleged to be a fugitive from labor, and to 

 bring him before the commissioner, and, upon 

 the decision of the commissioner, to carry him 

 to the place where it was claimed his service 

 was duo. The President of the United States 

 I believe it was in the city of Boston was 

 called upon through the marshal for military 

 assistance to execute such a mandate. The 

 people of Massachusetts were a little notional 

 on the subject of seeing men expedited in 

 that way and for that cause, in which I con- 

 fess I sympathized with them; and thereupon 

 the opinion of aDemocratic Attorney-General, 

 in good old solid Democratic times when there 

 was a Democratic party, was taken by the 

 President of the United States upon that very 

 question. 1 It-re is his opinion : 



This authority 



" That is, the authority of the marshal to 

 summon the entire able-bodied force of his 

 precinct as a pone comitatut 



This authority comprehends not only by-slanders 

 and other citizens generally, but any and nil organ- 

 ized armed forces, whether militia of the State, or 

 officers, soldiers, sailors, and marines of the United 

 States ; and, if the object of resistance to the mar- 

 shal be to obstruct and defeat the execution of the 

 provisions of the Constitution or of acts of Congress, 

 the expenses of such pome comitatut are properly 

 chargeable to the United States. 



" That opinion will be found in the sixth vol- 

 ume of the opinions of the Attorneys-General. 

 I do not suppose that there was at that time, 

 even on the part of Republican or Whig law- 

 yers, whatever they may have been called, 

 any doubt as to the legal soundness of that 

 proposition, and that the Anny of the United 

 States could not fold up its arms and stand 

 silently by when the marshal was calling on 

 them to assist him in the execution of process 

 emanating from a court, and say : ' \Ve think 

 the court has made a mistake, and we will not 

 assist you; we must be the judges; ' because 

 that would give to the people who compose 

 the Army a higher ripht tbnn the citizen him- 

 self has. Then, as I say, I do not think any- 

 body questions the legal soundness of the 

 proposition that the Army might be employed 

 as a pone comitatut in the execution of such 

 process. Now, whether tins judicial process 

 was wise or unwise, whether it was erroneous 

 or whether it was correct, the Senator will not 

 claim is a question that the general must de- 

 cide. That would overturn all government. 

 That is all there is of it." 



Mr. Thnrman: "Mr. President, if the Sen- 

 ator from Vermont lays down the proposi- 

 tion as broadly as his language imports, that 



