WRITTEN BY:

• John Philip Jenkins

Posse comitatus, (Latin: “force of the county”) ancient English institution consisting of the shire’s force of able-bodied private citizens summoned to assist in maintaining public order. Originally raised and commanded by the sheriff, the posse comitatus became a purely civil instrument as the office of sheriff later lost its military functions. From time to time, legislation gave authority to other peace officers and magistrates to call upon the power of the county.

In early times, attendance at the posse comitatus was enforced by the penalty of a culvert, or turn tail, which involved the forfeiture of property and perpetual servitude. Although the primary object of the posse comitatus was to maintain peace and pursue felons under the command of the sheriff, it also was required to obey a summons for the military defense of the country.

In the United States, the posse comitatus was perhaps most important on the Western frontier (there known as a “posse”), and it has been preserved as an institution in many states. Sheriffs and other peace officers have the authority to summon the power of the county, and in some counties, it is a crime to refuse assistance. In general, members of a posse comitatus are permitted to use force if necessary to achieve legitimate ends, but state laws differ as to the legal liability of one who in good faith aids an officer who is himself acting beyond his authority.

Another use of the posse comitatus in the United States was the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which was passed at the end of Reconstruction (1865–77) in order to prevent the use of the U.S. military for the enforcement of domestic law in the occupied South. The same act was invoked in the 1980s to prevent military forces from being deployed against certain domestic threats, such as drug trafficking and terrorism.

In the second half of the 20th century, the idea of the posse comitatus was influential in the United States among political extremists who argued that no legitimate authority exists above the level of the county. They maintained that federal and even state governments are unlawful and can, therefore, be lawfully resisted. Inspired by the posse comitatus, they created their own “common law” courts, which they sometimes used to harass political enemies.

Many of these activists were affiliated with armed militia groups and preached racist and anti-Semitic ideas.

Sublimis Deus (English: The sublime God; erroneously cited as Sublimus Dei) is a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Paul III on June 2, 1537, which forbids the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (called Indians of the West and the South) and all other people. It goes on to state that the Indians are fully rational human beings who have rights to freedom and private property, even if they are heathen.

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Thomas A. Edison filed for a patent on his cylinder phonograph 140 years ago this month. The inventor accumulated more than 1,000 U.S. patents, but always considered the phonograph to be his favorite invention.

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Voting Machines On June 1, 1869, Thomas Edison received his first patent for improvements to “electrographic vote-recording.” A demonstration of the device to Congress by one of Edison’s investors failed to win support for its use in U.S. elections. In 1892, Lockport, NY, was first to use an electronic voting machine in an American election.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

Stephen Douglas, the sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act as well as the most vocal supporter of popular sovereignty, was known as the “Little Giant” because of his small stature.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 may have been the single most significant event leading to the Civil War. By the early 1850s settlers and entrepreneurs wanted to move into the area now known as Nebraska. However, until the area was organized as a territory, settlers would not move there because they could not legally hold a claim on the land. The southern states’ representatives in Congress were in no hurry to permit a Nebraska territory because the land lay north of the 36°30′ parallel — where slavery had been outlawed by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Just when things between the north and south were in an uneasy balance, Kansas and Nebraska opened fresh wounds.

The person behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act was Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act began a chain of events in the Kansas Territory that foreshadowed the Civil War.

He said he wanted to see Nebraska made into a territory and, to win southern support, proposed a southern state inclined to support slavery. It was Kansas. Underlying it all was his desire to build a transcontinental railroad to go through Chicago. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed each territory to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. Kansas with slavery would violate the Missouri Compromise, which had kept the Union from falling apart for the last thirty-four years. The long-standing compromise would have to be repealed. Opposition was intense, but ultimately the bill passed in May of 1854. Territory north of the sacred 36°30′ line was now open to popular sovereignty. The North was outraged.

The Kansas-Nebraska act made it possible for the Kansas and Nebraska territories (shown in orange) to open to slavery. The Missouri Compromise had prevented this from happening since 1820.

The political effects of Douglas’ bill were enormous. Passage of the bill irrevocably split the Whig Party, one of the two major political parties in the country at the time. Every northern Whig had opposed the bill; almost every southern Whig voted for it. With the emotional issue of slavery involved, there was no way a common ground could be found. Most of the southern Whigs soon were swept into the Democratic Party. Northern Whigs reorganized themselves with other non-slavery interests to become the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln. This left the Democratic Party as the sole remaining institution that crossed sectional lines. Animosity between the North and South was again on the rise. The North felt that if the Compromise of 1820 was ignored, the Compromise of 1850 could be ignored as well. Violations of the hated Fugitive Slave Law increased.

Trouble was indeed back with a vengeance.

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