Memorandum to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 30 October 1806]
Memorandum to Thomas Jefferson
[ca. 30 October 1806]
Respecting Insurrections1
See Act 2 May 17922—Repealed
See do. 28 Feby. 1795—s. 1.3
Militia may be used to repel invasions
———— to suppress an insurrection against a State, on the application of the Legislature, or, if it cannot be convened, of the Executive of the State
s. 2. They may be employed to suppress insurrections against the U. S. (the Act of 2 May above mentioned made a certificate of a Judge of the U.S. necessary previously to the use of the militia, which this Act does not)
See Act of 2 March 1799 Volunteers of the provisional army might be used as above4 (they were chiefly used to suppress the tumult in Northampton:5 but the Act is now not in force)
Enterprises against Foreign countries
See Act of June 5th. 1794
s. 7. 3. vol. p. 93.6
The land & naval forces may be used
Thus It does not appear that regular Troops can be employed, under any legal provision agst insurrections—but only agst expeditions having foreign Countries for the object.
MS (DLC: Jefferson Papers). Undated; conjectural date assigned based on Jefferson’s docket: “Departmt. State. recd. Oct. 30. 06.” In Wagner’s hand, except for final paragraph penciled by JM.
1. Jefferson probably requested this report to use in formulating the administration’s response to Aaron Burr’s suspected disunionist schemes.
2. “An Act to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions” (, 1:264–65).
3. This act, with a nearly identical title, repealed and replaced the one above mentioned (ibid., 424–25).
4. The seventh section of “An Act giving eventual authority to the President of the United States to augment the Army” contained this provision (ibid., 725–26).
5. The reference is to Fries’s Rebellion (see Paul Douglas Newman, Fries’s Rebellion: The Enduring Struggle for the American Revolution [Philadelphia, 2004], 145–50).
6. The reference is to the third volume of printer Richard Folwell’s Laws of the United States of America (3 vols.; Philadelphia, 1796; 31356, 32973). The seventh section of “An Act in Addition to the Act for the Punishment of certain Crimes against the United States” authorized the President or his designee “to employ such part of the land or naval forces of the United States, or of the militia thereof as shall be judged necessary” to enforce the provisions of the act relating to fitting out and arming vessels against foreign countries (ibid., 88, 92).