Sir I have received your favor of the 6th instant together with the proceedings of a Public meeting of the citizens of on the Subject of the late Kidnapping by the people of and others; of two citizens of this

You request to know if any portion of the Shall be called out. My answer is No. The Militia Cannot be called out except in the cases specified by me in my letter to dated in the month of August last; in which I took the ground that the Militia can only be called out to repel an invasion Suppress an insurrection or on some extreme emergency; and not to suppress prevent or punish individual Crimes[.] I still am of opinion that the ground assumed by me, on that occasion is the true One[.] The prevention and punishment of individual offences have been confided by the Constitution and laws of this , to the judicial power and not to the executive

If a citizen of the has been Kidnapped; or if property has been stolen from this <​& carried​> to the State of those who have done either are guilty of an indictable offence. But the constitution and the laws have provided no means whereby either the person or property taken away [p. [1]]