Receivership provided the critical element in the conflict; without it, the federal government had less authority to intervene. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, passed in the wake of 1877 strikes, had taken away, for the moment, the president’s ability to deploy the U.S. Army in cases of civil unrest except when such use was expressly allowed by the Constitution or an act of Congress. It thus created a greater reliance on state militias to supplement the police and private guards.
