It will be recollected that when a call was
made on the militia of that State for service in the late war, under
an arrangement which was alike applicable to the militia of all the
States and in conformity with the acts of Congress, the executive of
Massachusetts refused to comply with the call, on the principle that
the power vested in Congress by the Constitution to provide for
calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress
insurrections, and repel invasions was not a complete power for
those purposes, but conditional, and dependent on the consent of the
executives of the several States, and, also, that when called into
service, such consent being given, they could not be commanded by a
regular officer of the United States, or other officer than of the
militia, except by the President in person. That this decision of
the executive of Massachusetts was repugnant to the Constitution of
the United States, and of dangerous tendency, especially when it is
considered that we were then engaged in a war with a powerful nation
for the defense of our common rights, was the decided opinion of this
Government; and when the period at which that decision was formed was
considered, it being as early as the 5th of August, 1812, immediately
after the war was declared, and that it was not relinquished during the
war, it was inferred by the Executive of the United States that the
decision of the executive of that State was alike applicable to all the
services that were rendered by the militia of the State during the war.
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