lets read together ,you and i ,today youll learn something important he Constitutional Authority for Standing Armies? Posted on May 27, 2008 by Lance Giving the President the power to wage war is as anti-American Revolution as you can possibly get. One of the very reasons our Founders decided against a monarchy and opted for a Republic is because the people should decide if they wish to go to war, not the King. By giving our Presidents the power to go to war (starting with Harry Truman up to today with George Bush), we have essentially ceased to be a Republic and now have a monarchy. As much as the Congress will bicker about the war, the President always gets what he wants. Clinton got to stay in Bosnia and Kosovo his entire presidency and nearly invaded Iraq. Bush has gotten virtually everything he wanted in terms of foreign policy. We are an Empire, not a Republic any longer. So what has made it so easy for us to become an Empire with an elected King instead of a civilian President who cannot declare? The obvious answer is one our Founding Fathers abhorred: the idea of standing armies. Looking through the Constitution, I tried to find where the constitutional authority for a standing army was found. Here are the excerpts I found related to the standing army: From Article I, Section VIII, where the Congress’ explicit powers are named: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; From Article II, Section II, where the powers of the President are defined: The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; From the looks of it, the President is the commander in chief of the forces that are sent to war by the Congress. The forces that the president sends are temporary armies in service for no more than two years. So why the fear over standing armies? I believe some quotes by our Founders will be instrumental in showing why armies are to be feared and militias are to be praised: Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: “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.” (spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789.) Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: “What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty.” Rep. of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress at 750 (August 17, 1789). President James Madison: “…to support the Constitution, which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the States and to the people as equally incorporated with and essential to the success of the general system;… to keep within the requisite limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics – that without standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large ones safe;…” – President James Madison, First Inaugural address, Saturday, March 4, 1809. James Madison: “As the greatest danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent them by an effectual provision for a good militia.” (notes of debates in the 1787 Federal Convention) Thomas Jefferson: “I do not like [in the new Federal Constitution] the omission of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for… protection against standing armies.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. ME 6:387 Thomas Jefferson: “Nor is it conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of peace for [defense against invasion].” –Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:334 Thomas Jefferson: “The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.” –Thomas Jefferson to Chandler Price, 1807. ME 11:160 Thomas Jefferson: “The Greeks and Romans had no standing armies, yet they defended themselves. The Greeks by their laws, and the Romans by the spirit of their people, took care to put into the hands of their rulers no such engine of oppression as a standing army. Their system was to make every man a soldier and oblige him to repair to the standard of his country whenever that was reared. This made them invincible; and the same remedy will make us so.” –Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 1814. ME 14:184 Thomas Jefferson: “Bonaparte… transferred the destinies of the republic from the civil to the military arm. Some will use this as a lesson against the practicability of republican government. I read it as a lesson against the danger of standing armies.” –Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Adams, 1800. ME 10:154 What, then, can be learned from this? That standing armies are a threat to liberty. It is through standing armies that the people are enslaved. Right now it is not overt, but a covert enslavement. Our money is squandered and spent all over the globe protecting not ourselves, but the interests of various international bankers and large corporate elite who are opposed to the free market way of doing things. Luckily for us, this is all that has happened with our standing army. We have not yet had the right person come along to use our army to steal our freedom from us. But it will happen, it is inevitable. We only need a Bonaparte to come along
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:55:48 +0000
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