Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/336

284 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS roads centring in Chicago. Travel was interrupted, the mails delayed, and interstate commerce ob structed. So wide-spread became the trouble, in volving constant acts of violence and lawlessness, and so grave was the crisis, that military force was necessary, especially in Chicago, to preserve the peace, enforce the laws, and protect property. The president, with commendable firmness and prompt ness, fully met the emergency. Acting under authority vested in him by law, he ordered a large force of U. S. troops to Chicago to remove ob structions to the mails and interstate commerce, and to enforce the laws of the United States and the process of the federal courts; and on July 8 and 9 issued proclamations commanding the dis persion of all unlawful assemblages within the dis turbed states. The governor of Illinois objected to the presence of the troops without his sanction or request. In answer to his protest the president telegraphed: "Federal troops were sent to Chi cago in strict accordance with the constitution and laws of the United States upon the demand of the post-office department that obstruction of the mails should be removed, and upon the representations of the judicial officers of the United States that process of the federal courts could not be executed through the ordinary means, and upon abundant proof that conspiracies existed against commerce between the states. To meet these conditions,