The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1861-05-16
The Law Authorizing the President to
Call out the Militia. ffr


The authority under which the Pres
ident of the United States is now act
ing in calling out the militia of the sew
eral States, is given him by the act of
February %, l795.
The second, third. fourth, and fifth
sections of that act are as follows;
Sec. 2 Whenever the laws of the
United States shall be opposed, or the
execution thereof obstructed, in any
State, by combinations too powerful to
be suppressed by the ordinary course
of judicial proceedings or by the pow
ers vested in the Marsbals in this act,
it shall be lawful for the President of
the United States to call forth the mil.
itia of such State, or of any other
State or States, as may be necessary
to suppress such combinations and to
cause the laws TO be duly executed, and
the use of the militia so to be called
forth may be continued, if necessary,
until the expiration Of thirty days
after the commencement Of the neat
session of Congress. t ~
Sec. 8. Whenever it may be neo-
essary, in the judgment of the Presi-
dent, to use the military force hereby
directed to be called forth, the Presi-
dent shall forthwith, by proclamation,
command such insurgents to disperee
and retire peaceably to their respeo-
tive abodes within limited time.
Sec. 4. The militia employed in the
service of the United States shall be
subject to the same rules and articles
of war as the troops of the United
States. And no officer, non-eommis-
stoned officer or private of the militia,
shall be compelled to serye more than
three months after his drrivaI at the
place Of rendezvous, i'a any one gear !
nor more than in due rotation with every
other able bodied man of the same rank
in the battalion to which he belongs.
SEC. 5. Every officer, non-commis-
stoned officer or private of the militia,
who shall fail to obey the orders of the
President of the United States, in any
of the cases before recited, shall forfeit
sum not exceeding one years pay,
and not less than one months pay, to
be determined and adjudged by court
tldTIldl. ANU SuCu OHfecf Sudl IuOIS-
over be liable to be cashiered by sem
tence of court martial and be incap-
acitated from holding position in the
militia for term not exceeding twelve
months, at the discretion of said court,
And such non-commissioned officers
and privates shall be liable to be impris-
oned, by like sentence, on failure of
payment of the fines adjudged against
them, for one calendar month for every
FIVE dollars of such fine. T
By the act of March 8, 1907, section
L, it is further provided that a's
"In all cases of insurrection or OBJ
struction to the laws, either of the
United States or of any indivsdual
State or Territory, where it is lawful
for the President of the United States
to call forth the militia, &C., it shall be
lawful for him to employ, for the same
purposes, such part of the land or ma
val force of the United States as shall
be judged necessary, having first OBJ
served all the prerequisites of law in
that respect" e5
In the case of Martin u.s. Mott ia
Wheaton, 49, it was decided that
ssthe President is the exclusive and
final Judge whether the exigency con-
.templated in.the act of 1895 has arisen.n ~