After the election had been had, and where violence was apprehended by which the returns from the counties and precincts might be destroyed, troops were ordered to the State of Florida, and those already in Louisiana were ordered to the points in greatest danger of violence.

I have not employed troops on slight occasions, nor in any case where it has not been necessary to the enforcement of the laws of the United States.  In this I have been guided by the Constitution and the laws which have been enacted and the precedents which have been formed under it.

It has been necessary to employ troops occasionally to overcome resistance to the internal-revenue laws from the time of the resistance to the collection of the whisky tax in Pennsylvania, under Washington, to the present time.

In 1854, when it was apprehended that resistance would be made in Boston to the seizure and return to his master of a fugitive slave, the troops there stationed were employed to enforce the master’s right under the Constitution, and troops stationed at New York were ordered to be in readiness to go to Boston if it should prove to be necessary.

In 1859, when John Brown, with a small number of men, made his attack upon Harpers Ferry, the President ordered United States troops to assist in the apprehension and suppression of him and his party without a formal call of the legislature or governor of Virginia and without proclamation of the President.

Without citing further instances in which the Executive has exercised his power, as Commander of the Army and Navy, to prevent or suppress resistance to the laws of the United States, or where he has exercised like authority in obedience to a call from a State to suppress insurrection, I desire to assure both Congress and the country that it has been my purpose to administer the executive powers of the Government fairly, and in no instance to disregard or transcend the limits of the Constitution.

U.S.  GRANT.

[Footnote 119:  See pp. 396-397.]

WASHINGTON, January 23, 1877.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 16th instant, a report of the Secretary of State, with its accompanying papers.[120]

U.S.  GRANT.

[Footnote 120:  Correspondence with diplomatic officers of the United States in Turkey relative to atrocities and massacres by Turks in Bulgaria.]

WASHINGTON, January 25, 1877.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty between the United States and His Majesty the King of Spain, in relation to the extradition of criminals, signed on the 5th of January, 1877.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 29, 1877.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: