Conn. Reports, 195, 209; 39 Atlantic Reporter, 155; 178
U. S. Reports, 186.] After the judgment comes the issue of
appropriate process to compel obedience to it, unless such
obedience (as is generally the case) is voluntarily rendered.
The whole power of government is at the command of the court for
this purpose. A sheriff with a judicial process to serve who
meets with resistance can summon to his aid the _posse
comitatus_. By this term is meant the whole power of his
county; that is, any or all of its able-bodied inhabitants on
whom he may choose to call. Not to respond to such a call is a
legal offense. The marshals have similar powers in serving
process from the Federal courts.

The fact that there is this force behind a writ is so well
understood by the community that occasions for resorting to its
use, or indeed to the use of any actual force, are extremely
rare. If the process was lawfully issued, it would be useless to
resist. If unlawfully, it is easier and safer to seek relief by
an injunction, or in case of an arrest, by a writ of _habeas
corpus_. But there have been occasions in the judicial
history of the United States when, under the influence of a
general popular ferment, the service of process from the courts,
and even the holding of courts, have been forcibly prevented.

Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts (in 1786) was the first of
these after the Revolution. Similar uprisings of less importance
took place at about the same time in New Hampshire and Vermont.
A few years later, the service of process from the New York
courts was interrupted in Columbia County. There was a strip of
territory adjoining the Hudson River, title to which was claimed