CONGRESS, UNITED STA i 



" It U true that this section refers to oppo- 

 sition to the laws of the United Mate*, and the 

 first section refers to an insurrection aja:!.-: 

 the State government. There is no doubt 

 about that. Hut when is it that the President 

 can call forth the militia? In the first case, 

 that is, the case of an insurrection against the 

 laws of the State, he is to call forth the militia 

 of some other State, not of the State in which 

 this insurrection exists, and that tor very wise 

 purposes indeed, in order that you may not 

 perpetuate the animosities of civil war in that 

 very State in which the insurrection takes 

 place. But when it comes to an obstruction 

 of the laws of the United States, then the 

 President may in the given case call forth tho 

 militia of the State in which the opposition to 

 the law exists, or he may call forth the militia 

 of some other State, but he can only do it 

 when the execution of the laws is obstructed 

 'by combinations too powerful to be suppressed 

 by the ordinary course of judicial proceeding, 

 or by the powers vested in the marshals by 

 this act.' If the marshals have the power to 

 summon the pout comitatut, as has been 

 claimed for them, and to execute these law-. 

 then has there been any such combination here 

 which was 'too powerful to be suppressed by 

 the ordinary course of judicial proceeding, or 

 by the powers vested in the marshal by this 

 act?' Those questions must both be answered 

 in the affirmative before the President is au- 

 thorized to call forth the militia, or to use tho 

 A rmr or the Navy." 



What next follows! Then comes section 

 three: 



Whenever it miy be necsry In the judgment 

 of the President to ue the military force* hereby 

 directed to be called forth 



"Mark it: 'hereby directed to be called 

 forth ; ' that is, directed by either tho first or 

 second section of this act. 1 ' 



Mr. Morton: "No. no." 



Mr. Thurman: "Yes, sir, that is tho third 

 section : ' Whenever it may be necessary ' " 



Mr. Morton: " It does not apply to the sec- 

 ond section at all." 



Mr. Thurman : " Tea, sir, it does apply to 

 the second section. The Senator is greatly 

 mistaken" 



Wheneer It may he neoeMary In the judgment 

 of the i'midtnt to UM the military force hereby di 

 Noted to be called forth, the President shall forth- 

 with, by proclamation, command such insurgent* to 

 dbfwne and retire peacably to their reipeotive 

 abodti within limited time. 



1 say that does apply to both tho preced- 

 ing sections. What has been the practice of 

 the Government? What is the interpretation 

 placed on that act t The first occasion for the 

 exercise of tho powers vested hero in tho 

 President aroe in your own State, sir (Mr. 

 Scott in the chair), arose in tho western part 

 nupylvania, on account of the resistance 

 to the excise laws what was called the 

 whiskey insurrection. What did the President 



do in that case ? That was an opposition not 

 t . the government of the State, but was dis- 

 tinctly an opposition to the execution of tho 

 laws of the United States, to an act of Congress 

 imposing excises upon stills for the man 

 uro of spirituous liquors. What did the I 

 dent do? He issued hU proclamation recit- 

 ing this very act, and in pursuance of the pro- 

 viMons and requirements of this very act re- 

 quired those insurgents to disperse within a 

 limited time before he ever ventured to call 

 one single militiaman to put down that insur- 

 rection." 



Mr. Morton : " Will the Senator allow me to 

 ask him a question on that point ? " 



Mr. Thurman: "Certainly." 



Mr. Morton : " I ask him if ' insurgents' are 

 not those engaged in insurrection, and if a man 

 who simply resists a marshal in the execution 

 of process is in legal language ever called an 

 ' insurgent? '" 



Mr. Thurman: "Ah, that will not do, to 

 talk about a single individual. What does 

 this second section say ? It says : 



Whenever the laws of the United States shall be 

 opposed or the execution thereof obstructed 

 " not by one individual 



in any State by combinations too powerful to be 

 suppressed by the ordinary course of judical proceed- 

 ing or by the poweS> vested in the manuals by this 

 act, etc. 



" By a combination that, tho ordinary course 

 of judicial proceedings and all the powers 

 vested in the marshals of the United > 

 cannot suppress. Is not such a coin binut ion 

 as that a combination of insurgents? Was it 

 not decided in regard to these very whiskey- 

 men that they were guilty of treason ? Was 

 not one of them convicted of treason by way 

 of making a test case, and, though ho was not 

 executed, did not that conviction take place in 

 order to vindicate the supremacy of tho na- 

 tional Government ? They were not only in- 

 surgents but traitors, according to the solemn 

 decision of the United States. Therefore it 

 will not do to speak of one single individual. 

 No, sir, it must be a combination of individuals, 

 and a combination so powerful that the ordi- 

 nary course of judicial proceedings and the 

 power vested in the civil officer, the marshal 

 of the United States, cannot suppress it. And 

 then in reference to those combinations, as 

 well as in reference to the case of an insurrec- 

 tion against the States, the net expressly de- 

 clares that the President of the United States 

 must first issne his proclamation before he 

 call- forth tho militia. Now, what does the 

 fourth section do? The fourth section docs 

 nothing more than to authorize him to use the 

 Army IM well as to call forth the militia, but 

 tho cases in which he may use the one or the 

 other arc identically the same. That is all 

 there is of that. 



" Now, Mr. President, I hove said all that I 

 desire to say, and a great deal more than I 

 expected to say, for I did not expect any such 



