specified in the five preceding sections shall, in addition to
the punishments therein severally prescribed, be disqualified
from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under
the United States; but nothing in those sections shall be
construed to prevent any officer, soldier, sailor, or marine
from exercising the right of suffrage in any election district
to which he may belong, if otherwise qualified according to
the laws of the State in which he offers to vote.


The foregoing enactments would seem to be sufficient to prevent
military interference with the elections. But the last Congress, to
remove all apprehension of such interference, added to this body of
law section 15 of an act entitled "An act making appropriations for
the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879, and
for other purposes," approved June 18, 1878, which is as follows:

SEC. 15. From and after the passage of this act it shall not
be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States,
as a _posse comitatus_ or otherwise, for the purpose of
executing the laws, except in such cases and under such
circumstances as such employment of said force may be
expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of
Congress; and no money appropriated by this act shall be used
to pay any of the expenses incurred in the employment of any
troops in violation of this section; and any person willfully
violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be
punished by fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment not
exceeding two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment.