Militia Acts of 1792

The Militia Acts of 1792 were a pair of statutes enacted by the second United States Congress in 1792. The acts provided for the organization of the state militias and provided for the President of the United States to take command of the state militias in times of imminent invasion or insurrection. This authority was used to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.

The Militia Acts were passed in response to the overwhelming U.S. losses at St. Clair's Defeat in 1791. The Constitution permitted Congress to provide for calling forth the militia, but it was understood at the time that the president could not do so on his own authority absent that statutory provision. There was a widespread fear that the Western Confederacy of American Indians would exploit their victory during the recess of Congress. St. Clair's defeat was blamed in part on the poor organization and equipment of his army. Congress took action to remedy these problems in 1792.

The first Act, passed May 2, 1792, provided for the authority of the president to call out the militias of the several states, "whenever the United States shall be invaded, or be in imminent danger of invasion from any foreign nation or Indian tribe". The law also authorized the President to call the militias into Federal service "whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed or the execution thereof obstructed, in any state, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by this act". This provision likely referred to uprisings such as Shays' Rebellion. The president's authority in both cases was to expire after two years.

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