Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15



Document 6

Brutus, no. 4

29 Nov. 1787Storing 2.9.50

If then this government should not derive support from the good will of the people, it must be executed by force, or not executed at all; either case would lead to the total destruction of liberty.--The convention seemed aware of this, and have therefore provided for calling out the militia to execute the laws of the union. If this system was so framed as to command that respect from the people, which every good free government will obtain, this provision was unnecessary--the people would support the civil magistrate. This power is a novel one, in free governments--these have depended for the execution of the laws on the Posse Comitatus, and never raised an idea, that the people would refuse to aid the civil magistrate in executing those laws they themselves had made.


The Founders' Constitution
Volume 3, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 15, Document 6
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_15s6.html
The University of Chicago Press

Storing, Herbert J., ed. The Complete Anti-Federalist. 7 vols. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Easy to print version.