necessarily form the nature of their organization

belonging as they did to an arm of national

defence wholly unfit for the peculiar service

required. They are unable to protect against

such an enemy moving uniformly on horseback

and with great celerity any more than the

space covered by their encampments or within

the range of their guns.

The Government of the United States was addressed

directly upon this subject as well as its mil-

itary officers in immediate command here.

They were slow however to recognize the

necessity of action on their part, and the

State was left no other recourse against

outrage and violence but an appeal to the

patriotism of her own citizens to protect her

territory against savage cruelty.

In this condition of things when the

cries of his fellow citizens for help were

reaching every day, when every new messenger

from that quarter was but the herald of

some new outrage of more startling

atrocity, the Executive never thought of appealing

to the Statute Book to ascertain the nature or

the extent of his official duty. This was

indicated to him with sufficient force

and clearness by the common instincts of

nature and humanity. We do not seek

in written codes authority or sanction for

defending our persons and our property against

aggression and wrong. It is an impulse of

our nature older than the law, superior to

all the guarantees of a constitution.

The same paramount right and duty attaches

to him who is entrusted with the govern-

ment of a state to employ its means to

repel violence and protect it from injury.