Militia

“ The militia of this country must be considered as the palladium of our security, and the first effectual resort in case of hostility. It is essential, therefore, that the same system should pervade the whole; that the formation and discipline of the militia of the continent should be absolutely uniform; and that the same species of arms, accoutrements, and military apparatus should be introduced in every part of the United States. ”

“ The organization of the militia is yet more indispensable to the liberties of the country. It is only by an effective militia that we can at once enjoy the repose of peace and bid defiance to foreign aggression; it is by the militia that we are constituted an armed nation, standing in perpetual panoply of defense in the presence of all the other nations of the earth. ”

“ And it provides a militia, as the physical mode for securing obedience to the moral means by which the will of the nation is disclosed. Like twins growing to each other, either of these guardians of national sovereignty perishes, if the other ceases to exist. Sedition laws destroy one, and standing armies the other. Either, therefore, terminate in despotism; a militia deprived of its intellectual associate, presently becomes a maniack, who must be disarmed and guarded by a mercenary army, which confines him to a bed of straw, and feeds him upon bread and water. ”

“ He rose, therefore, and moved the following manly resolutions:
“Resolved, That a well regulated militia, composed of gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength and only security of a free government; that such a militia in this colony, would for ever render it unnecessary for the mother country to keep among us for the purpose of our defence, any standing army of mercenary soldiers, always subversive of the quiet, and dangerous to the liberties of the people, and would obviate the pretext of taxing us for their support. ”

“ Now, if militia are not the citizens taken singly, but a body created by law; if they are not troops; if they are no part of the Army and Navy of the Confederacy, we are led directly to the definition, quoted by the Attorney-General, that militia are 'a body of soldiers in a State enrolled for discipline.' In other [pg 510] words, the term 'militia' is a collective term meaning a body of men organized, and can not be applied to the separate individuals who compose the organization. ”

“ We knew that when militia were of necessity called out, and nothing but necessity can justify the call, mercy as well as policy requires, that they be led immediately to attack their foe. This gives them a tolerable chance; and when superior in number, possessing, as they must, a correct knowledge of the country, it is not improbable that their efforts may be crowned with success. ”

“ A city or county militia regiment—and particularly the Royal Kuhschnappel Militia—is a distinguished and important body of men, whose raison d’être is to scorn and show contempt for the enemy, by always turning their backs upon him—showing him, in fact, nothing but backs, like a well-ordered library. If the enemy has anything in the nature of courage, then our said force sacrifices to Fear like the ancient Spartans ”

“ The main reliance of this country for defence is, and ever must be, the militia. Anything, therefore, which tends to prejudice the militia, or the mass of the people, against the army, should be cautiously avoided, as it is essential to have them act in concert and harmony. ”

“ There is a moral effect arising from the spectacle of each State possessed of a body of instructed militia, ready not only to maintain its government at home, but to unite with the militia of other States and to form an army upon which all can rely whenever a common danger calls for a common defence. ”

“ Therefore, we have in the United States to-day a regular Army of 48,000, and 60,000 militia ready for duty, or 108,000 men and officers altogether. In time of war not a man of our militia could well be spared for military service to repel an invader, for in such troublesome times they would all be needed for police duty to maintain order and obedience throughout the country. ”

“ The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. ”

“ Convinced that a militia of all ages promiscuously are entirely useless for distant service, and that we never shall be safe until we have a selected corps for a year's distant service at least, the classification of our militia is now the most essential thing the United States have to do. ”

“ The exercising and reviewing the militia form an innocent and agreeable spectacle to the women and children, contribute to the health and amusement of the troops themselves, and inspire the inhabitants in general with the pleasing ideas of security and of their own importance. ”

“ These organizations compose but a small part of the whole body of the militia, but they are ample for all the needs of government in ordinary times, and in extraordinary emergencies they serve as the nucleus of an army until the unorganized militia, or such portion thereof as may be called for, can be put into the field. ”

“ Without arms, without money of effect, without a regular soldier in the State, or a regular officer, except Steuben, a militia scattered over the country, and called at a moment's warning to leave their families and firesides, in the dead of winter, to meet an enemy ready marshalled, and prepared at all points to receive them. ”

“ Marching under the same leader, toward the same goal, do they not also belong to the active armed force? I will go further. I will say that in America, where the entire armed forces are made ​​up of volunteers during peacetime, the militia is the sole and true raised by conscription, and therefore the true regular army. ”

“ The signification attributed to the term Militia appears from the debates in the Convention, the history and legislation of Colonies and States, and the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense. "A body of citizens enrolled for military discipline." ”

“ But in June less than one-twelfth of the volunteers had been enrolled, and whether the states would heed the call upon them for militia, or whether the militia when raised would serve beyond the frontier, no one yet knew.
[543] On the state of the army at this time see McMaster, History of the People of the United States, III, chap, xxiii; Adams, op. cit., VI, chap, xiv; Babcock, op. cit., chap. v.
The main reliance of the Americans must obviously be the militia. ”

“ If any of the militia who may go out on scouts or parties with yours will not submit to the articles of war and your orders, don't suffer them to go with them, nor to appropriate any plunder; but order it to be given to the continental troops, and those who shall submit to those articles.
If any of the militia maraud, send them up to me, with a guard. They must not be suffered to violate civil and military law. The legislature is the proper authority to enable them to make reprisals. For whatever disorders they commit in front of your lines, will be placed by the enemy to your account. ”

“ In the first place, the corps of militia must hereafter be composed of a very inferior description of men to what they were of old; and flogging must, as a matter of course, be persevered in; but why in these times are the militia to be embodied and badly trained at a considerable and unnecessary expense to the country; for it is quite time enough to think of calling out this force when the country may be threatened by an enemy with invasion; for with the fine regular army I have in view, the tranquillity of the United Kingdom can be completely secured ”

“ A militia law, requiring all men, or with very few exceptions besides cases of conscience, to be provided with arms and ammunition, to be trained at certain seasons; and requiring counties, towns, or other small districts, to be provided with public stocks of ammunition and entrenching utensils, and with some settled plans for transporting provisions after the militia, when marched to defend their country against sudden invasions ”

“ Lexicographers and others define militia, and so the common understanding is, to be 'a body of armed citizens trained to military duty, who may be called out in certain cases, but may not be kept on service like standing armies, in time of peace.' That is the case as to the active militia of this State. The men comprising it come from the body of the militia, and when not engaged at stated periods in drilling and other exercises, they return to their usual avocations, as is usual with militia, and are subject to call when the public exigencies demand it. ”

“ For this purpose all men liable to do military duty are enrolled, and are required to meet on certain days every year for instruction in the art of war, in order to be ready for actual service whenever it shall be required. The body of soldiers thus enrolled are called the militia. There are other words which are sometimes applied to bodies of soldiers; as infantry, which means the soldiers or troops who serve on foot; cavalry, the troops on horses; artillery, those who manage the cannon and other heavy weapons of war. But all troops are comprehended in the general term, militia. ”

“ We were at peace; and, even in time of war, an enemy who should attempt to invade us would probably be intercepted by our fleet, and would assuredly, if he reached our shores, be repelled by our militia. Some people indeed talked as if a militia could achieve nothing great. ”

“ I hope we shall ever have virtue enough to guard against their introduction.—But may we not hazard the safety of our Republic should we ever constitute, under the name of a select militia, a small body to be disciplined in a camp with all the pomp & splendor of a regular army? ”

“ Not as part of the War System, but only as an agent for preserving domestic peace, and for sustaining the law, is the militia entitled to support. And here arises the important practical question,—interesting to opponents of the War System as to lovers of order,—whether the same good object may not be accomplished by an agent less expensive, less cumbersome, and less tardy, forming no part of the War System, and therefore in no respect liable to the doubts encountered by the militia. ”

“ Congress has declared the militia to be "all citizens and those who have declared their intention to become such, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five." These constitute what is called the unorganized militia. The military companies and regiments formed by authority of United States and state laws constitute the organized militia. ”

“ Finally, by a close vote in each House, the United States was given power through its Chief Executive to call forth the militia of the several States. The action made a connecting ligament between the national body politic and the arm of a widespread and always prepared force. The militia proved most effective in preserving the sovereignty of the National Government in domestic affairs until the regular troops were relieved from the duty of guarding the frontier. ”

“ The opposite table shows the forces of the militia to be three millions, while the regular army does not number 19,000. The institution is, therefore, a kind of public, a writing, speaking, voting body, which makes itself heard and felt, while the existence of the regulars is almost ignored. To hint aught against the militia in the United States is sure seriously to "rile up" your civil audience, and Elijah Pogram will perhaps let you know that you can not know what you are talking about. ”

“ All military discipline had for several years been totally neglected; thus untrained to arms, whenever there had been an occasional call in aid of British operations in America, the militia were considered as a rustic set of auxiliaries, and employed not only in the least honorable, but the most menial services. ”

“ The Americans, many of them unskillful militia, repelled charge after charge of the well-disciplined infantry, chasseurs, grenadiers, and guards of the enemy, until overwhelming numbers obliged them to yield. ”

“ Militias existed in name as organizations, for the production of more or less unwilling drafts for the line, but the fundamental militia obligation of defending the fatherland as distinct from defending the state, produced only local and occasional outbursts of guerrilla warfare. ”

“ The importance of the subject of the militia will not fail to claim your deliberate consideration. I have always considered this force peculiarly adapted and exclusively assigned for the service and protection of the respective States ”

“ It may be further urged, that both modes are executed by troops equally mercenary, equally disciplined, and equally ready to obey orders; and that if a regular army is an overmatch for an undisciplined militia, a government combined with troops of exclusive privileges, must also be an overmatch for the unorganized, unpaid, and unsuspicious militia of equal rights. ”

“ And a sound militia makes a government dependent on the nation; a bad one, a nation dependent on a government. An armed miiitia divides the power to raise mercenary armies; wherefore governments, which can raise armies, will seldom be inclined to arm the militia; and the general government has expended its praises en a militia, and the publick money on an array, to an amount, sufficient to create the strongest militia, and the weakest army in the world. ”

“ Our militia law is obsolete and worthless. The organization and armament of the National Guard of the several States, which are treated as militia in the appropriations by the Congress, should be made identical with those provided for the regular forces. ”

“ THE power of regulating the militia, and of commanding its services in times of insurrection and invasion, are natural incidents to the duties of superintending the common defence, and of watching over the internal peace of the Confederacy. ”