US Presidency
1851

I transmit to the Senate the copy of a proclamation issued by me on the 18th instant in relation to these unexpected and deplorable occurrences in Boston, together with copies of instructions from the Departments of War and Navy relative to the general subject. And I communicate also copies of telegraphic dispatches transmitted from the Department of State to the district attorney and marshal of the United States for the district of Massachusetts and their answers thereto. In regard to the last branch of the inquiry made by the resolution of the Senate, I have to observe that the Constitution declares that the President shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and that he shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States, and that Congress shall have power to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.