The Word Posse Comitatus Sounds Like The Name Of A Made Up...

The word Posse Comitatus sounds like the name of a made-up secret society you would only ever hear about by watching Dead Poets Society. Au contraire. The Latin to English translation of Posse Comitatus is â€Å"power of the county† and refers to â€Å"all males over the age of fifteen on whom a sheriff could call for assistance in preventing any type of civil disorder† (Legal Dictionary). It doesn’t quite meet the criteria for a secret society, but appears to be more along the lines of a rather well-known and powerful gang, if you will. And way back when (the 1800s to be exact) sheriffs and marshals in southern states needed all the help they could muster up. Law enforcement agencies were once a shadow of what they are now. Back in ye†¦show more content†¦The President and Congress have always and will always butt heads, it’s a simple fact of life, but after the 1876 Presidential election, Congress grew increasingly bitter. Troops had been placed in polling places all throughout the South with the intention of stopping any and all ex-Confederate officers from attempting to vote, it seemed reasonable enough at the time considering it was against the law for former Confederate officers to vote. Congress, having been made up of mostly Democrats, was becoming rather frustrated once they realized just who was going to win the Presidential election. What resulted from the supposed intimidation tactics used by the Army at the polling places was the election of Rutherford B. Hayes into Presidential office. Congress’s nightmare certainly came true. As per what usually occurs when you mix a Democratic Congress with a Republican President (or vice versa), butting heads occurred more often than not. Congress’s response to the seemingly highly influenced election of 1876 was the enactment of the Posse Comitatus Act, in order to outlaw the practice of posse comitatus. The suggested purpose behind the enact ment of the Posse Comitatus Act is that Congress wanted to stop the Army from being called to perform miniscule, civilian, law enforcement duties. However, since that initial suggestion, it has been found that