More and more I am seeing letters to the editor expressing the opinion that, because we have a standing military, we no longer need the militia. Such opinions demonstrate the ignorance of our history that has become so rampant in this country.
As the writings of many of the Founders evidence, the militia was stood up and specifically protected by the Constitution as a direct response to the decision to implement a standing army. The Founders were split on the need for a standing army, with some siding with George Washington, who argued for a standing army, and others siding with Hamilton, who, based on his understanding of European history, indeed, WORLD history, understood that a standing army is ALWAYS, eventually used against the citizens it was intended to protect, opposed a standing army.
"[I]f circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist," Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28, January 10, 1788.
“To disarm the people...[i]s the most effectual way to enslave them," George Mason, referencing advice given to the British Parliament by Pennsylvania governor Sir William Keith, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adooption of the Federal Constitution, June 14, 1788.
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops," Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787.
"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of," James Madison, Federalist No. 46, January 29, 1788.
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country," James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789.
“A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves…and include, according to the past and general usuage of the states, all men capable of bearing arms… "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them," Richard Henry Lee, Federal Farmer No. 18, January 25, 1788.
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun," Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778.
"This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty.... The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction," St. George Tucker, Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803.
“The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms," Samuel Adams, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788.
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them," Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 1833.
"What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty .... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins," Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress 750, August 17, 1789.
“If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the national rulers, may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual state. In a single state, if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for defense. The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair," Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 28.
Finally, to address the lie that the president continues to tell, that the Second Amendment limits the weapons that may be owned by citizens,
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms," Tench Coxe, Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789.
“Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American.... [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people," Tench Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788, emphasis added.
The militia exists to act as a firewall against a standing military acting on the orders of a government run amok; a war on the citizens of the United States is the one war the United States Military hopes never to wage.
And lest you buy into the delusion enunciated by the president that, "If you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons," I provide the following list:
- Afghanistan (Soviet Union and United States)
- Vietnam (France and United States)
- England (colonial militia and Continental Army)
These are just a few of the more notable historical instances in which badly outgunned groups went up against vastly superior forces armed with the latest in weapons - and won.
The militia exists because the Founders deemed it to be necessary - and it remains necessary.
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