WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
521
enumeration of the powers of Congress, I find that authority is conferred- "To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasions." This excludes the idea of a standing army for such purposes. One cause of the great convulsion which separated us from the mother country was the billeting or stationing of troops on private families without their consent. That was one of the most odious features of that phase of things that menaced our liberties, and it grafted on the ideas of the freemen of this country. This pro- vision was made in the Constitution on the supposition that none but the militia would be necessary for these purposes; that in any emergency there was not to be a standing army to be called out; and that that odious feature of despotism would not be obtruded before the public eye. It was not intended to use a standing army composed of mercenaries, or men of other coun- tries, picked up at random, to operate upon the citizens of this country. No, sir; it was supposed that if the American people had to be subdued, it would be done by their peers, whose presence would rebuke them for insubordination or insurrection; and not by a regular force made up of mercenaries whose only resource was their employment in the Army, and who had none of the endearments of life to fall back upon when they had executed the orders of their officers. This is the spirit in which the Constitution was framed. These were the feelings that animated its authors, who declared their open detestation of anything like the employment of a Federal force to control citizens, and reduce them to subordination to the laws. Therefore, sir, I am opposed to the increase of the regular Army; and if it is intended for the Mormons, I tell you that we cannot wait two years to raise troops to subdue them. If they have to be subdued-and God forfend us from such a result-and the valley of Salt Lake is to be ensanguined with the blood of American citizens, I think it ,vill be one of the most fearful calamities that has befallen this country, from its inception to the present moment. I deprecate it as an intolerable evil. I am satisfied that the Executive has not had the information he ought to have had on this subject before making such a movement as he has directed to be made. I am convinced that facts have been concealed from him. I think his wisdom and patriotism should have dictated the propriety of ascertaining, in the first place, whether the people of Utah were willing to submit to the authority of the United States. Why not send to them men to whom they
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