Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-04-25
PRESIDENT AND The MILITIA.

1Dy TO Call luIO S0IViCO DIS ill OASdhA
zation, the national guard, and it
quotes some excellent authorities on
the subject.
Every man between the ages of Is
and 45, and who is not included in the
exemption provided for by law, is a
national militiaman, subject to the
orders of the chief executive of the
nation whenever he thinks proper to
issue them. This paper says:
ssCol. James M. Rice of Illinois, who
has given much attention to this sub
iect, holds in a letter we have before
us that the national guard, is just the
kind of organization that was meant
in the constitution by the term militia
and that all members of the national
guard are militiamen. The exem D.
tions from service in time of place
provided for by the laws of the U. S.
include, as Col. Rice thinks, sall but
the national guard;' they having
waived exemption by entering the
service, are subject to the orders OF
the President when called for. Col.
Rice says; Neither he nor the state
can so amend the constitution and
laws of the United States that he can
be member of the state militia for
bis own private ends and the ends of
the state. but not a member for ma
tional purposes
''Many of these questions were
most carefully discussed by the ablest
of iuries in the case of Dunno against
The people, in vol. "a, Ill. Suprem me
Court reports, PIP. 12O to al. In that
case the court says, Our understand
ing is the organization of the active
militia (national guard) of the state
conforms exactly to the definition
usually given of militia Authorities
to sustain this decision are inn umer-
able, which is the only reason they
are not cited here. Whatever the re-
spective states have made their or
gained militia to be, that is the mil
tia that the President may call into
the service Of the United States, and
he can call no other. That in my state
is the national guard.
"Some of our correspondents advise
us that constitutional lawyers do not
agree with US. So much the worse
for the constitutional lawyers. We
remembered that these interpreters
of the constitution, north and south,
during our civil war, held that pretty
much everything that was done was
conStitutional-but it was done all
the same. The presidents from Eng
land Of two or three centuries ago,
which we have seen cited, have no
application. Aside from the fact that
they are out of date, they cannot ap-
ply to laws enacted by the American
Congress, and clearly interpreted by
the Supreme court Of the United
States.''
Another point in the discussion is
that of the authority of the President
to send the militia outside the limits
of the United States for service, and
it has baen asserted that the militia
could only be used after they had for.
mally volunteered for such services.
The Army and Navy Journal says
that there is no such provision in the
statutes, and that when the militia
passes into the service of the United
States it comes under the military
law, and that it is solely within the
discretion of the constitutional COM
manderin chief to determine what it
shall do and where it shall go. The
paper says:
cit is held that in a matter which
the law confdes to the pure discre-
ton of the executive, the decision of
the President or proper head of a de-
partment on any.question of fact in
volved is conclusive and is not sub
ject to review by any authority in the
United States. If the President calls
the militia and if he, or any officer act
ing in his name, decides that in order
to repel invasion it is necessary to
send militiamen out of the country,
who is to review that conclusion of
fact? We again repeat, therefore, that
once in the service, militiamen are
subject in all respects to the same con-
troll as the men of the regular army.
In the case of Fleming against Page,
9 Howard, 6O3, 615, it was decided that
the President,a as commander in chief,
is authorized to direct the movements
of the land and naval forces placed by
law under his command, and to en-
ploy them in the manner he may
deem most effectual to harass and
and subdue the enemy. He
may invade the hostile country and
subject it to the sovereignty and au-
thority of the United States.'