te where such force is to
be used; and so much of all laws as is inconsistent herewith
is hereby repealed.

It will be observed that the bill exempts from the general prohibition
against the employment of military force at the polls two specified
cases. These exceptions recognize and concede the soundness of the
principle that military force may properly and constitutionally be
used at the place of elections when such use is necessary to enforce
the Constitution and the laws; but the excepted cases leave the
prohibition so extensive and far-reaching that its adoption will
seriously impair the efficiency of the executive department of the
Government.

The first act expressly authorizing the use of military power to
execute the laws was passed almost as early as the organization of
the Government under the Constitution, and was approved by President
Washington May 2, 1792. It is as follows:

SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That 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 powers vested in the marshals by this act, the same
being notified to the President of the United States by an
associate justice or the district judge, it shall be lawful
for the President of the United States to call forth the
militia of such State to suppress such combinations and to
cause the laws to be duly executed. And if the militia of a
State where such combination may happen shall refuse or be
insufficient to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the
President, if the Legislature of the United States be not in
session, to call forth and employ such numbers of the militia
of any other State or States most convenient thereto as may be
necessary; and the use of militia so to be called forth may be
continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days
after the commencement of the ensuing session.

In 1795 this provision was substantially reenacted in a law which
repealed the act of 1792. In 1807 the following act became the law by
the approval of President Jefferson:

That in all cases of insurrection or obstruction to the laws,
either of the United States or of any individual State or
Territory, where it is lawful for the President of the
United States to call forth the militia for the purpose of
suppressing s