Vaguely and confusedly, indeed,
did the Senator from Tennessee [Mr. Johnson] bring forward the case of
the great man, Washington, as one in which he had used a means which, he
argued, was equivalent to the coercion of a State; for he said that
Washington used the military power against a portion of a people of the
State; and why might he not as well have used it against the whole
State? Let me tell that Senator that the case of General Washington has
no such application as he supposes. It was a case of insurrection in the
State of Pennsylvania; and the very message from which he read
communicated the fact that Governor Mifflin thought it was necessary to
call the militia of the adjoining States to aid him. President
Washington cooeperated with Governor Mifflin; he called the militia of
adjoining States to cooeperate with those of Pennsylvania. He used the
militia, not as a standing army. It was by the consent of the Governor;
it was by his advice. It was not the invasion of the State; it was not
the coercion of the State; but it was aiding the State to put down
insurrection, and in the very manner provided for in the Constitution
itself.
But, I ask again, what power has the President to use the army and navy
except to execute process? Are we to have drum-head courts substituted
for those which the Constitution and laws provide? Are we to have
sergeants sent over the land instead of civil magistrates? Not so
thought the elder Adams; and here, in passing, I will pay him a tribute
he deserves, as the one to whom, more than any other man among the early
founders of this Government, credit is due for the military principles
which prevail in its organization.
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