Our militia

Abstract

Introduction: Although the good men who framed the Constitution declared that a well-regulated militia was necessary to the security of a free state, and gave to Congress the power to organize, arm, and discipline the militia, the statement seems to be doubted or ignored by most people, and the power to contribute in this way to the safety of our government is treated by Congress as being one of minor importance or as one the exercise of which would involve that body in such dire complexities as would baffle all attempts at extrication. Congress did attempt to exercise this power away back in 1792, and the law then enacted remains unchanged today,--interesting chiefly for its antiquity, and conspicuous for the absurdity of requiring a body of 6000000 citizens to arm themselves and report annually for military drill. Of course the law is of no practical use. Gradually, without the aid or direction of Congress, the militia has divided itself, “by a process of natural selection,” into two classes, the unorganized and the organized. The latter is, doubtless, in some degree, an approach to the militia which the constitutional provision had in view, but in the majority of States it has not received proper assistance.