(Article by Stephen B. Meister republished from TheEpochTimes.com)
Jefferson signed the measure into law to foil the plot of Revolutionary War hero Aaron Burr—following the destruction of his political career after he shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel—to raise an army toward establishing his own dynasty in what was then the Louisiana Territory.
The Insurrection Act empowers the president of the United States to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, and rebellion. Section 252 of the Act states:
“Whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, he may call into Federal service such of the militia of any State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion.”