CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



187 



mean by saying that I claimed there is a gen- 

 eral power without authority of law ? " 



Mr. Thurman : " What I understand the 

 Senator to claim, and he reads Cushing's 

 opinion for the purpose of maintaining it, is 

 that a marshal of the United States having 

 any process to execute, issued under any law 

 of the United States, or in execution of any 

 decree of any court of the United States, has 

 power to call upon the military arm of the 

 Government." 



Mr. Edmunds : " Yes, as part of the pone 

 comitatut.'" 



Mr. Thnrman : " As part of the potte comi- 

 tatut." 



Mr. Edmunds: "Not that he has the power 

 essentially because he is marshal, but because 

 the statutes of the United States confer upon 

 him the authority in many instances, as in this 

 very instance, to summon the poe comitatvt, 

 and in the general way the Senator has read 

 to have any power that the sheriffs have in 

 the States, and their power, I suppose, my 

 friend will hardly question includes that of 

 summoning the potte comitatiu." 



Mr. Thurman : " Where does he derive his 

 power? He has read nothing but the pro- 

 vision in the fugitive slave act which author- 

 ized the marshal to summon the paste comita- 

 tiu, but which says nothing whatever in regard 

 to any power to summon a soldier of the 

 United States as a part of the potte comitatut. 



"Now, I say to him that it will take some 

 higher authority than the opinion of an At- 

 torney-General of the United States to make 

 me subscribe to that doctrine. Why, what is 

 it? If the marshal in the southern district of 

 New York, for instance, has the right to sum- 

 mon the troops of the United States as a part 

 of his potte comitatut, and they are bound, in 

 the language of Mansfield, to obey that sum- 

 mons, he may take every soldier ont of every 

 fort there is in New York and use them as a 

 part of the potte comitatut at his election, and 

 they are bound to obey, and the same way in 

 any other State you may mention. Yon may 

 absolutely compel the vacation of Fort La- 

 fayette, of Fort Hamilton, of Fort Schuyler, 

 of every fort in the southern district of the 

 State of New York upon the mere command 

 of a United States marshal. No, sir, I do not 

 agree to that proposition at all. 



" As I said, the only general provision that 

 I know of is that which I have read, passed 

 in 1861. Before that there were special pro- 

 visions, like the special provision in the fugi- 

 tive slave law: but this is the first general 

 provision that I recollect giving such extended 

 power to the marshal. What power does this 

 give? No more power than a sheriff pos- 

 sesses ; and who pretends that a sheriff of a 

 State has a right to summon a part of the 

 Army of the United States as a potte to exe- 

 cute process? It cannot be done; and as a 

 sheriff has not that power, so the marshal has 

 not that power." 



Mr. Carpenter: "Will my friend allow me 

 to interrupt him a moment to ask a question ? " 



Mr. Thurman : " Certainly." 



Mr. Carpenter : " Now, what I want to ask 

 is this: does the Senator maintain that the 

 President must go in person to use the Army 

 and enforce these decrees? Not at all; that 

 cannot be necessary, because in the very 

 nature of things he never could do it. If he 

 says, for instance, in the State of Louisiana 

 that he apprehends the laws are not being 

 faithfully executed, that he apprehends that 

 the decree of a court will be resisted, and if 

 he says to the marshal of that district, ' There 

 is a company of infantry ; if you have occasion 

 for a. potte comitatvt use them,' may he not do 

 that apart from any provision of a statute ? A 

 statute is not necessary to clothe the President 

 with this power. A statute cannot take it 

 from him, because the Constitution gives it to 

 him. When the Constitution says the Presi- 

 dent is to take care that the laws be faithfully 

 executed and he is made commander of the 

 Army and the Navy, is it not intended by the 

 Constitution that in a case where a necessity 

 requires it he is to avail himself of the Army 

 and Navy to execute the laws? And here in 

 this case, where the law has passed through 

 the judicial crucible, received an authoritative 

 construction and come forth in the form of a 

 decree, may he not say to the marshal of the 

 district apart from any statute whatever, ' If 

 yon have occasion to use a potte, there is ft 

 company of infantry at your disposal ? ' " 



Mr. Thurrnnn : " I am perfectly willing to 

 answer him, although I prefer to go on with 

 these statutes, as I have them before me, to 

 show that not one of them justifies the inter- 

 pretation that is claimed. 



"Hut the Senator from Wisconsin says that 

 it does not need any statute, that the Constitu- 

 tion is sufficient, that the President, under the 

 authority and duty which rest upon him to 

 see that the laws are faithfully executed, may 

 put the Army in the way of some marshal of 

 the United States who has process to execute, 

 and that the marshal may thereupon summon 

 the Army, and that that is what is meant by 

 the Constitution in providing that the Presi- 

 dent shall see that the laws are faithfully exe- 

 cuted. That is to say, whenever a court of 

 the United States renders a decree, no matter 

 what it is, whether it is a decree for the re- 

 covery of land, whether it is a decree for the 

 specific execution of a contract for the sale of 

 stocks, or the like, no matter what it is, a mere 

 private controversy between individuals, or 

 whether it is a contest in relation to a State 

 office, the lowest that there may be in tfie 

 State, wherever there is a decree of a Federal 

 court the President may put the Army of the 

 United States into that locality for the express 

 purpose of being called upon and subjected to 

 the orders of the marshal of the district who 

 has the process to execute. I deny the propo- 

 sition out and out. I say it is not the law." 



