Such a disposition of the troops seemed to me
reasonable and justified bylaw and precedent, while its omission would
have been inconsistent with the constitutional duty of the President of
the United States "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
The statute expressly forbids the bringing of troops to the polls
"except where it is necessary to keep the peace," implying that to keep
the peace it may be done. But this even, so far as I am advised, has not
in any case been done. The stationing of a company or part of a company
in the vicinity, where they would be available to prevent riot, has been
the only use made of troops prior to and at the time of the elections.
Where so stationed, they could be called in an emergency requiring it by
a marshal or deputy marshal as a posse to aid in suppressing unlawful
violence. The evidence which has come to me has left me no ground to
doubt that if there had been more military force available it would have
been my duty to have disposed of it in several States with a view to the
prevention of the violence and intimidation which have undoubtedly
contributed to the defeat of the election law in Mississippi, Alabama,
and Georgia, as well as in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida.
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