620. AUTHORITY, Civil and Military.—[further continued].
I do not see how they [the
framers of the French constitution] can prohibit
altogether the aid of the military in
cases of riot, and yet I doubt whether they
can descend from the sublimity of ancient
military pride, to let a Marechal of France
with his troops, be commanded by a magistrate.
They cannot conceive that General
Washington, at the head of his army, during
the late war, could have been commanded by
a common constable to go as his
posse comitatus
to suppress a mob, and that Count
Rochambeau, when he was arrested at the
head of his army by a sheriff, must have gone
to jail if he had not given bail to appear in
court. Though they have gone astonishing
lengths, they are not yet thus far. It is
probable, therefore, that not knowing how to
use the military as a civil weapon, they will
do too much or too little with it.—
To William Carmichael. Washington ed. iii, 90.
(P.
Aug. 1789)
