Citation

Slap AL. Civil War History 2001; 47(2): 146-163.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Kent State University Press)

DOI

10.1353/cwh.2001.0033

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

"There must be some limit to the authority of the Army or there will be no security to civil rights," proclaimed a letter to the governor in November 1871. The state legislature agreed, passing a resolution "that we declare unlawful, and an infraction of the constitution of this State and of the United States, the late military occupation." The letter and resolution, surprisingly, did not refer to President Ulysses S. Grant's use of nine companies of United States troops in South Carolina to quell the Ku Klux Klan in October 1871. This outrage against "military usurpation" actually did not occur in the South at all, but in Illinois. During the great Chicago fire of October 1871, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan dispatched troops to help, eventually declaring martial law to maintain order in the city. Sheridan, though, did not consult the state authorities and according to Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution, the United States could protect a state against domestic violence only "on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive," of that state. The Republican governor of Illinois, John M. Palmer, petitioned the state legislature to condemn Sheridan, Maj. General William Tecumseh Sherman, and President Grant for establishing military rule. "Under the constitution," the governor insisted, "it is left to the State authorities to determine the necessity for Federal aid, and no officer of the army, under any circumstances, is at liberty without their consent, to interfere in their internal affairs." Palmer declared the Federal government's use of military force after the Chicago fire "subversive of the principles of free government."