1787 Federalist 29 · Founding Made Plain

11787 Federalist No. 29

2Concerning the Militia

3From the Daily Advertiser.

4Thursday, January 10, 1788.

5HAMILTON

6To the People of the State of New York:

7THE power of regulating the militia,

8 and of commanding its services

9 in times of insurrection and invasion

10 are natural incidents to the duties

11 of superintending the common defense,

12 and of watching over the internal peace

13 of the Confederacy.

14It requires no skill in the science of war

15 to discern that uniformity

16 in the organization and discipline of the militia

17 would be attended with the most beneficial effects,

18 whenever they were called into service

19 for the public defense.

20It would enable them to discharge the duties

21 of the camp and of the field

22 with mutual intelligence and concert

23 an advantage of peculiar moment

24 in the operations of an army;

25 and it would fit them much sooner

26 to acquire the degree of proficiency

27 in military functions

28 which would be essential to their usefulness.

29This desirable uniformity can only be accomplished

30 by confiding the regulation of the militia

31 to the direction of the national authority.

32It is, therefore, with the most evident propriety,

33 that the plan of the convention proposes

34 to empower the Union

35 "to provide for organizing, arming,

36 and disciplining the militia,

37 and for governing such part of them

38 as may be employed

39 in the service of the United States,

40 RESERVING TO THE STATES RESPECTIVELY

41 THE APPOINTMENT OF THE OFFICERS,

42 AND THE AUTHORITY OF TRAINING THE MILITIA

43 ACCORDING TO THE DISCIPLINE

44 PRESCRIBED BY CONGRESS."

45Of the different grounds which have been taken

46 in opposition to the plan of the convention,

47 there is none that was so little to have been expected,

48 or is so untenable in itself,

49 as the one from which this particular provision

50 has been attacked.

51If a well-regulated militia

52 be the most natural defense of a free country,

53 it ought certainly to be under the regulation

54 and at the disposal of that body

55 which is constituted the guardian

56 of the national security.

57If standing armies are dangerous to liberty,

58 an efficacious power over the militia,

59 in the body to whose care

60 the protection of the State is committed,

61 ought, as far as possible,

62 to take away the inducement and the pretext

63 to such unfriendly institutions.

64If the federal government can command the aid

65 of the militia

66 in those emergencies

67 which call for the military arm

68 in support of the civil magistrate,

69 it can the better dispense

70 with the employment of a different kind of force.

71If it cannot avail itself of the former,

72 it will be obliged to recur to the latter.

73To render an army unnecessary,

74 will be a more certain method

75 of preventing its existence

76 than a thousand prohibitions upon paper.

77In order to cast an odium

78 upon the power of calling forth the militia

79 to execute the laws of the Union,

80 it has been remarked

81 that there is nowhere any provision

82 in the proposed Constitution

83 for calling out the POSSE COMITATUS,

84 to assist the magistrate

85 in the execution of his duty,

86 whence it has been inferred,

87 that military force was intended

88 to be his only auxiliary.

89There is a striking incoherence

90 in the objections which have appeared,

91 and sometimes even from the same quarter,

92 not much calculated

93 to inspire a very favorable opinion

94 of the sincerity or fair dealing

95 of their authors.

96The same persons who tell us in one breath,

97 that the powers of the federal government

98 will be despotic and unlimited,

99 inform us in the next,

100 that it has not authority sufficient

101 even to call out the POSSE COMITATUS.

102The latter, fortunately,

103 is as much short of the truth

104 as the former exceeds it.

105It would be as absurd to doubt,

106 that a right to pass all laws

107 NECESSARY AND PROPER

108 to execute its declared powers,

109 would include that of requiring the assistance

110 of the citizens to the officers

111 who may be intrusted

112 with the execution of those laws,

113 as it would be to believe,

114 that a right to enact laws necessary and proper

115 for the imposition and collection of taxes

116 would involve that of varying the rules of descent

117 and of the alienation of landed property,

118 or of abolishing the trial by jury

119 in cases relating to it.

120It being therefore evident

121 that the supposition of a want of power

122 to require the aid of the POSSE COMITATUS

123 is entirely destitute of color,

124 it will follow,

125 that the conclusion which has been drawn from it,

126 in its application to the authority

127 of the federal government over the militia,

128 is as uncandid as it is illogical.

129What reason could there be to infer,

130 that force was intended to be

131 the sole instrument of authority,

132 merely because there is a power

133 to make use of it when necessary?

134What shall we think of the motives

135 which could induce men of sense

136 to reason in this manner?

137How shall we prevent a conflict

138 between charity and judgment?

139By a curious refinement

140 upon the spirit of republican jealousy,

141 we are even taught to apprehend danger

142 from the militia itself,

143 in the hands of the federal government.

144It is observed that select corps may be formed,

145 composed of the young and ardent,

146 who may be rendered subservient

147 to the views of arbitrary power.

148What plan for the regulation of the militia

149 may be pursued by the national government,

150 is impossible to be foreseen.

151But so far from viewing the matter

152 in the same light with those

153 who object to select corps as dangerous,

154 were the Constitution ratified,

155 and were I to deliver my sentiments

156 to a member of the federal legislature

157 from this State

158 on the subject of a militia establishment,

159 I should hold to him, in substance,

160 the following discourse:

161"The project of disciplining all the militia

162 of the United States

163 is as futile as it would be injurious,

164 if it were capable

165 of being carried into execution.

166A tolerable expertness in military movements

167 is a business that requires time and practice.

168It is not a day, or even a week,

169 that will suffice for the attainment of it.

170To oblige the great body of the yeomanry,

171 and of the other classes of the citizens,

172 to be under arms

173 for the purpose of going through

174 military exercises and evolutions,

175 as often as might be necessary

176 to acquire the degree of perfection

177 which would entitle them to the character

178 of a well-regulated militia,

179 would be a real grievance to the people,

180 and a serious public inconvenience and loss.

181It would form an annual deduction

182 from the productive labor of the country,

183 to an amount which,

184 calculating upon the present numbers

185 of the people,

186 would not fall far short

187 of the whole expense

188 of the civil establishments of all the States.

189To attempt a thing which would abridge

190 the mass of labor and industry

191 to so considerable an extent,

192 would be unwise:

193 and the experiment, if made, could not succeed,

194 because it would not long be endured.

195Little more can reasonably be aimed at,

196 with respect to the people at large,

197 than to have them properly armed and equipped;

198 and in order to see that this be not neglected,

199 it will be necessary to assemble them

200 once or twice in the course of a year.

201"But though the scheme of disciplining

202 the whole nation

203 must be abandoned

204 as mischievous or impracticable;

205 yet it is a matter of the utmost importance

206 that a well-digested plan should,

207 as soon as possible, be adopted

208 for the proper establishment of the militia.

209The attention of the government

210 ought particularly to be directed

211 to the formation of a select corps

212 of moderate extent,

213 upon such principles

214 as will really fit them for service

215 in case of need.

216By thus circumscribing the plan,

217 it will be possible to have an excellent body

218 of well-trained militia,

219 ready to take the field

220 whenever the defense of the State

221 shall require it.

222This will not only lessen the call

223 for military establishments,

224 but if circumstances should at any time

225 oblige the government

226 to form an army of any magnitude

227 that army can never be formidable

228 to the liberties of the people

229 while there is a large body of citizens,

230 little, if at all, inferior to them

231 in discipline and the use of arms,

232 who stand ready to defend their own rights

233 and those of their fellow-citizens.

234This appears to me the only substitute

235 that can be devised for a standing army,

236 and the best possible security against it,

237 if it should exist."

238Thus differently from the adversaries

239 of the proposed Constitution

240 should I reason on the same subject,

241 deducing arguments of safety

242 from the very sources

243 which they represent

244 as fraught with danger and perdition.

245But how the national legislature may reason

246 on the point,

247 is a thing which neither they nor I can foresee.

248There is something so far-fetched

249 and so extravagant

250 in the idea of danger to liberty from the militia,

251 that one is at a loss

252 whether to treat it with gravity

253 or with raillery;

254 whether to consider it as a mere trial of skill,

255 like the paradoxes of rhetoricians;

256 as a disingenuous artifice

257 to instil prejudices at any price;

258 or as the serious offspring

259 of political fanaticism.

260Where in the name of common-sense,

261 are our fears to end

262 if we may not trust our sons,

263 our brothers, our neighbors,

264 our fellow-citizens?

265What shadow of danger can there be

266 from men who are daily mingling

267 with the rest of their countrymen

268 and who participate with them

269 in the same feelings, sentiments,

270 habits and interests?

271What reasonable cause of apprehension

272 can be inferred from a power in the Union

273 to prescribe regulations for the militia,

274 and to command its services when necessary,

275 while the particular States are to have

276 the SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE APPOINTMENT

277 OF THE OFFICERS?

278If it were possible seriously to indulge a jealousy

279 of the militia

280 upon any conceivable establishment

281 under the federal government,

282 the circumstance of the officers being

283 in the appointment of the States

284 ought at once to extinguish it.

285There can be no doubt

286 that this circumstance will always secure to them

287 a preponderating influence over the militia.

288In reading many of the publications

289 against the Constitution,

290 a man is apt to imagine

291 that he is perusing some ill-written tale

292 or romance,

293 which instead of natural and agreeable images,

294 exhibits to the mind nothing

295 but frightful and distorted shapes

296 "Gorgons, hydras, and chimeras dire";

297 discoloring and disfiguring

298 whatever it represents,

299 and transforming everything it touches

300 into a monster.

301A sample of this is to be observed

302 in the exaggerated and improbable suggestions

303 which have taken place

304 respecting the power of calling

305 for the services of the militia.

306That of New Hampshire is to be marched to Georgia,

307 of Georgia to New Hampshire,

308 of New York to Kentucky,

309 and of Kentucky to Lake Champlain.

310Nay, the debts due to the French and Dutch

311 are to be paid in militiamen

312 instead of louis d'ors and ducats.

313At one moment there is to be a large army

314 to lay prostrate the liberties of the people;

315 at another moment the militia of Virginia

316 are to be dragged from their homes

317 five or six hundred miles,

318 to tame the republican contumacy

319 of Massachusetts;

320 and that of Massachusetts is to be transported

321 an equal distance

322 to subdue the refractory haughtiness

323 of the aristocratic Virginians.

324Do the persons who rave at this rate imagine

325 that their art or their eloquence

326 can impose any conceits or absurdities

327 upon the people of America

328 for infallible truths?

329If there should be an army

330 to be made use of as the engine of despotism,

331 what need of the militia?

332If there should be no army,

333 whither would the militia,

334 irritated by being called upon

335 to undertake a distant and hopeless expedition,

336 for the purpose of riveting the chains of slavery

337 upon a part of their countrymen,

338 direct their course,

339 but to the seat of the tyrants,

340 who had meditated so foolish

341 as well as so wicked a project,

342 to crush them

343 in their imagined intrenchments of power,

344 and to make them an example

345 of the just vengeance

346 of an abused and incensed people?

347Is this the way in which usurpers stride

348 to dominion over a numerous and enlightened nation?

349Do they begin by exciting the detestation

350 of the very instruments

351 of their intended usurpations?

352Do they usually commence their career

353 by wanton and disgustful acts of power,

354 calculated to answer no end,

355 but to draw upon themselves

356 universal hatred and execration?

357Are suppositions of this sort

358 the sober admonitions of discerning patriots

359 to a discerning people?

360Or are they the inflammatory ravings

361 of incendiaries or distempered enthusiasts?

362If we were even to suppose the national rulers

363 actuated by the most ungovernable ambition,

364 it is impossible to believe

365 that they would employ such preposterous means

366 to accomplish their designs.

367In times of insurrection, or invasion,

368 it would be natural and proper

369 that the militia of a neighboring State

370 should be marched into another,

371 to resist a common enemy,

372 or to guard the republic

373 against the violence of faction or sedition.

374This was frequently the case,

375 in respect to the first object,

376 in the course of the late war;

377 and this mutual succor is, indeed,

378 a principal end of our political association.

379If the power of affording it

380 be placed under the direction of the Union,

381 there will be no danger

382 of a supine and listless inattention

383 to the dangers of a neighbor,

384 till its near approach had superadded

385 the incitements of selfpreservation

386 to the too feeble impulses

387 of duty and sympathy.

388PUBLIUS.