execute the laws of the Union, suppress
insurrections, and repel invasions was not a complete power for
those purposes, but conditional, and dependent on the consent of the
executives of the several States, and, also, that when called into
service, such consent being given, they could not be commanded by a
regular officer of the United States, or other officer than of the
militia, except by the President in person. That this decision of
the executive of Massachusetts was repugnant to the Constitution of
the United States, and of dangerous tendency, especially when it is
considered that we were then engaged in a war with a powerful nation
for the defense of our common rights, was the decided opinion of this
Government; and when the period at which that decision was formed was
considered, it being as early as the 5th of August, 1812, immediately
after the war was declared, and that it was not relinquished during the
war, it was inferred by the Executive of the United States that the
decision of the executive of that State was alike applicable to all the
services that were rendered by the militia of the State during the war.

In the correspondence with the governor of Massachusetts at that
important epoch, and on that very interesting subject, it was announced
to him by the Secretary of War that if the militia of the State were
called into service by the executive of the State, and not put under the
command of the Major-General of the United States, as the militia of
the other States were, the expense attending their service would be
chargeable to the State, and not to the United States. It was also
stated to him at the same time that any claim which the State might
have for the reimbursement of such expenses could not be allowed by the
Executive of the United States, since it would involve principles on
which that branch of the Government could not decide.

Under these circumstances a decision on the claim of the State of
Massachusetts has hitherto been suspended, and it need not be remarked
that the suspension has proceeded from a conviction that it would be
improper to give any sanction by its admission, or by the admission
of any part thereof, either to the construction of the Constitution
contended for by the then executive of that State or to its conduct
at that period toward the General Government and the Union.

In January, 1823, the Representatives in Congress from Massachusetts and
Maine suggested, by memorial,