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In this condition of things when the cries of his fellow citi- zens for help were reaching every day, when every new messen- ger from that quarter was but the herald of some new outrage of some more startling atrocity, the Executive never thought of appealing to the Statute Book to ascertain the nature or the ex- tent of his official duty. This was indicated to him with suffi- cient force and clearness by the common instincts of nature and humanity. We do not seek in written codes authority or a sanc- tion for defending our persons and our property against aggres- sion and wrong, it is an impulse of our nature older than the law, superior to all the guaranties of a Constitution. The same paramount right and duty attaches to him who is entrusted with the government of a State to employ its means to repel violence and protect it from injury. Aside from these con- siderations, it is believed by the Executive that in accepting the services of these companies he acted in strict conformity to the Constitution. The fourth section of the sixth article of that in- strument declares that "The Governor shall have power to call forth the Militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress in- surrection and to repel invasion" The emergency which he con- ceived to exist may not technically be held either an insurrection or an invasion, but to the State and its citizens the consequences were the same. Under this section if the power exercised in the instance under consideration be not vested in the Excutive he confesses himself unable to understand either the force or the application of language. If however it should be held that the constitution does not sustain him in the course he adopted, the Executive does not court but will not shrink from condemnation, preferring far to be condemned for employing irregular means to do a praise- worthy act than to be commended for folding his arms according to I.aw and looking with unconcern upon the sufferings of his fellow citizens. Should your Honorable body adopt the opinion that the Executive on this instance acted improvidently and without the sanction of law he indulges the hope that this cir- cumstance may not impair the claims of those whose services and means were placed at the disposal of the State to protect the lives and property of her people. Should the Legislature fail to do this, we can have no reason to expect that the General Gov- ernment will recognize the necessity of the call or make provision for their payment, and the consequence will be that on future occassions when the State may need the aid and services of her
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